As expansive and iconic as its title suggests, Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West certainly seemed to be written in John Ford’s blood, from the vast wide-angle visions of Monument Valley that Leone and cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli luxuriated in, to the railroad-based, future-of-America economic landscape that serves as a backdrop to a number of bandit-versus-bandit power plays. Henry Fonda, with that methodical, stately stroll of his and those killer blue eyes barely visible from under the rim of his hat, can be seen and heard throughout, sending a shiver of great nostalgia up one’s spine. Ripened and tanned by years of desert sunlight, Ford’s Wyatt Earp is back in the saddle again.
But that particular pace and posture that Fonda had become known for in such films as My Darling Clementine, matched with the devious glint in those baby blues, now took...
But that particular pace and posture that Fonda had become known for in such films as My Darling Clementine, matched with the devious glint in those baby blues, now took...
- 5/21/2024
- by Chris Cabin
- Slant Magazine
In Our Day.In the cinema, as elsewhere, the notion of “late style” has become a critical commonplace—shorthand for dealing with an artist’s “mature” work, particularly when said artists are dismissed or misunderstood after a period of acclaim. The problem with shorthand, of course, is that not everyone can read it, the result being that appeals to “late style” can come across as abdications of critical responsibility, promissory notes that have yet to be fulfilled. Such debts are in many cases eventually paid, obscure references to “late style” giving way to fuller, more perspicuous accounts of an artist’s achievement. Few would now dispute the considered analyses of how Howard Hawks, pivoting on the success of Rio Bravo (1959), made a deliberate move into the late-career languor of Hatari! (1962), Man’s Favorite Sport? (1964), and Red Line 7000 (1965). In the case of Hong Sang-soo, however, this critical due has yet to...
- 5/20/2024
- MUBI
For the last two years in a row, one of the major premieres at the Cannes Film Festival has been a mainstream film that works with the trappings and tropes of the Western genre. But there’s not much connection between Martin Scorsese’s Oklahoma-set 1920s period piece “Killers of the Flower Moon,” one of the hits of last year’s festival, and Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga,” which had its premiere at the Grand Theatre Lumiere on Sunday evening.
For Scorsese, approaching that location and time period meant thinking hard about what he could bring to a genre that he felt had peaked with directors like John Ford and Howard Hawks in the 1940s and ’50s, and essentially been ended by Sam Peckinpah’s revisionist Western “The Wild Bunch” in the late 1968s.
Costner, though, has little interest in revisionist thinking about the genre; “Horizon” is proudly,...
For Scorsese, approaching that location and time period meant thinking hard about what he could bring to a genre that he felt had peaked with directors like John Ford and Howard Hawks in the 1940s and ’50s, and essentially been ended by Sam Peckinpah’s revisionist Western “The Wild Bunch” in the late 1968s.
Costner, though, has little interest in revisionist thinking about the genre; “Horizon” is proudly,...
- 5/19/2024
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
There can be no doubt if there is one person bound and determined to keep Hollywood’s long history of Westerns alive it has been Kevin Costner. Okay, well Clint Eastwood too. And that has been true right from the beginning of his career when he played the freewheeling scene stealer Jake in Lawrence Kasdan’s Silverado in 1985, and he also made an impression as title star of 1994’s Wyatt Earp. But his real mark on the genre has been not just as an actor but also as director and producer behind the scenes, first with his Oscar-winning 1990 Best Picture Dances With Wolves and 2003’s terrific Open Range with co-star Robert Duvall. For the past few seasons he has prominently been involved in a more contemporary take in his hit TV series, Yellowstone. But without question his most ambitious and sprawling swing yet, Horizon: An American Saga, which kicked off...
- 5/19/2024
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Whether you like Quentin Tarantino's wild and idiosyncratic approach to filmmaking or not, it's hard to deny that his work has made an immeasurable contribution to the development of pop culture as we know it today. But none of this would be the case if Tarantino weren't arguably one of the biggest movie buffs in the modern film industry. So if you haven't seen these 20 movies personally recommended by Quentin Tarantino, we suggest you do so as soon as possible!
20 Great Movies Tarantino Recommends Watching
20. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
19. Apocalypse Now
18. The Bad News Bears
17. Black Sabbath
16. Dazed and Confused
15. Deep Red
14. Easy Rider
13. Enter the Void
12. Frances Ha
11. The Great Escape
10. Mad Max: Fury Road
9. Rio Bravo
8. The Skin I Live In
7. The Social Network
6. Sorcerer
5. There Will Be Blood
4. Top Gun: Maverick
3. Toy Story 3
2. Unfaithfully Yours
1. West Side Story
The filmmaker's oeuvre is characterized by...
20 Great Movies Tarantino Recommends Watching
20. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
19. Apocalypse Now
18. The Bad News Bears
17. Black Sabbath
16. Dazed and Confused
15. Deep Red
14. Easy Rider
13. Enter the Void
12. Frances Ha
11. The Great Escape
10. Mad Max: Fury Road
9. Rio Bravo
8. The Skin I Live In
7. The Social Network
6. Sorcerer
5. There Will Be Blood
4. Top Gun: Maverick
3. Toy Story 3
2. Unfaithfully Yours
1. West Side Story
The filmmaker's oeuvre is characterized by...
- 5/16/2024
- by louise.everitt@startefacts.com (Louise Everitt)
- STartefacts.com
Gary Cooper was a two-time Oscar winner who starred in dozens of movies before his death in 1961, but how many of those titles remain classics? Let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Born in 1901, Cooper got his start in silent movies, most notably the aerial drama “Wings” (1927), which won the very first Academy Award as Best Picture. He would collect his own statuette as Best Actor for another WWI film: the biographical drama “Sergeant York” (1941). Directed by Howard Hawks, it helped create Cooper’s screen persona of an ordinary man capable of extraordinary courage in the face of adversity.
He won a second Best Actor trophy for playing a similar character in Fred Zinnemann‘s western “High Noon” (1952), which cast him as a retired marshal who must stand up to a gang of killers arriving on the noon train. Cooper earned additional nominations for similarly idealistic,...
Born in 1901, Cooper got his start in silent movies, most notably the aerial drama “Wings” (1927), which won the very first Academy Award as Best Picture. He would collect his own statuette as Best Actor for another WWI film: the biographical drama “Sergeant York” (1941). Directed by Howard Hawks, it helped create Cooper’s screen persona of an ordinary man capable of extraordinary courage in the face of adversity.
He won a second Best Actor trophy for playing a similar character in Fred Zinnemann‘s western “High Noon” (1952), which cast him as a retired marshal who must stand up to a gang of killers arriving on the noon train. Cooper earned additional nominations for similarly idealistic,...
- 5/4/2024
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Obviously it wasn’t by design, but the early-1950s renewal of the western genre, aided in large part by the success of Winchester ’73, which heralded a career second act for both its director, Anthony Mann, and its star, James Stewart, was answered in other quarters of the industry by multiple endeavors to take the once disreputable genre, previously dismissed as Roy Rogers/Saturday-matinee bunkum, all the way into the hallowed halls of state-sanctioned, capital-a art. And, as it happened, the two westerns that made a big runner-up showing at the 1952 and 1953 Oscars, High Noon and Shane, respectively, also served, by virtue of holding what wide swaths of the future cinephile demographic would come to view as Vichy letters of transit, as high-value targets for skeptics of the official cultural narrative.
These auteurist critics and film buffs, whose philosophy acquired definite contours some 10-odd years later, observed a different watershed moment: Rio Bravo.
These auteurist critics and film buffs, whose philosophy acquired definite contours some 10-odd years later, observed a different watershed moment: Rio Bravo.
- 5/3/2024
- by Jaime N. Christley
- Slant Magazine
The The Thing (1982) episode of Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie? was Written by Cody Hamman, Edited by Joseph Wilson, Narrated by Jason Hewlett, Produced by Lance Vlcek and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
John Carpenter’s The Thing (watch or buy it Here) didn’t go over well at all when it was released in 1982. Ignored by movie-goers, it was a box office failure. Reviled by critics, it even saw Carpenter being labelled a pornographer of violence by some reviewers. It was such a disappointment for the studio, they took another project away from Carpenter as punishment. But it gradually found its audience, building up a cult following. And soon, a legion of fans and critics alike began calling it one of the greatest horror movies ever made. It didn’t take long for The Thing to go from being known as reprehensible trash to being considered an all-time classic.
John Carpenter’s The Thing (watch or buy it Here) didn’t go over well at all when it was released in 1982. Ignored by movie-goers, it was a box office failure. Reviled by critics, it even saw Carpenter being labelled a pornographer of violence by some reviewers. It was such a disappointment for the studio, they took another project away from Carpenter as punishment. But it gradually found its audience, building up a cult following. And soon, a legion of fans and critics alike began calling it one of the greatest horror movies ever made. It didn’t take long for The Thing to go from being known as reprehensible trash to being considered an all-time classic.
- 4/30/2024
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
Clint Eastwood was already 30 years old when he landed his breakout role in the CBS Western "Rawhide." The actor had spent much of the 1950s getting by on bit parts in B movies (most notably the Jack Arnold monster duo of "Revenge of the Creature" and "Tarantula"), and guest roles on TV series like "Maverick" and "Death Valley Days," so you'd think he would've been thrilled. But Eastwood was displeased with his character Rowdy Yates, who, early on in the series' run, was a wet-behind-the-ears ramrod. At his age, he was eager to play a grown, capable man with enough years behind him to allow for a bit of mystery.
Eastwood's restlessness coincided with a shift in filmmakers' approach to the Western genre. Though maestros like John Ford, Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann, and Budd Boetticher had allowed for moral ambiguity in their movies, the vast majority of Westerns were white...
Eastwood's restlessness coincided with a shift in filmmakers' approach to the Western genre. Though maestros like John Ford, Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann, and Budd Boetticher had allowed for moral ambiguity in their movies, the vast majority of Westerns were white...
- 4/28/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
There wasn't a more capable director of massive, widescreen Westerns working in Hollywood during the 1950s and '60s than John Sturges. Whether classical ("Gunfight at the O.K. Corral") or somewhat unconventional ("Bad Day at Black Rock"), Sturges could frame a mountainous expanse or stage a gunfight with the best of them. He thrived when working with big casts and specialized in discovering stirring nuances in characters that would've been walking cliches in more typical genre flicks.
Sturges was also efficient, which came in handy when managing expensive studio productions populated with big egos. His biggest challenge in this department might've been "The Magnificent Seven," the 1960 remake of Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece "Seven Samurai." Yul Brynner, then a hugely popular movie star (largely on the strength of his Academy Award-winning performance in "The King and I" and his portrayal of Ramses in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments"), controlled...
Sturges was also efficient, which came in handy when managing expensive studio productions populated with big egos. His biggest challenge in this department might've been "The Magnificent Seven," the 1960 remake of Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece "Seven Samurai." Yul Brynner, then a hugely popular movie star (largely on the strength of his Academy Award-winning performance in "The King and I" and his portrayal of Ramses in Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments"), controlled...
- 4/28/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Remakes are always a tricky proposition. Some of the greats both in the horror genre and elsewhere are actually remakes, whether it’s a loose one or not. Be it The Magnificent Seven coming from Seven Samurai or The Thing being birthed into imitation dog from the Christian Nyby and Howard Hawks original. I talk about The Thing A Lot but obviously it’s for a reason. You could also throw The Fly in that same category too while we are here. Those are some of the examples of the good but unfortunately, things can go downhill and fast. You have harmless ones like the Friday the 13th remake or Texas Chainsaw, the annoyingly unnecessary like Halloween and Amityville Horror, or the egregiously awful like The Fog and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Like them or loathe them, or in our case both, they are here to stay, and each...
- 4/23/2024
- by Andrew Hatfield
- JoBlo.com
Private Investigator John Sugar (Colin Farrell) wears a black suit for all occasions and never drives anything but his classic Corvette. He’s unflappably calm, prefers to listen rather than talk, and absolutely doesn’t know how to let a case go once he’s started working on it—especially if it involves a missing woman. Watching Sugar, it’s as if one of Humphrey Bogart or Glenn Ford’s hardboiled gumshoes stepped straight out of their smoky, monochrome realm and into our full-color world of smartphones and social media.
Though Sugar is set in modern-day L.A., the series finds him tasked with a case suited to his anachronistic sensibilities. In fact, it’s one cribbed straight from The Big Sleep: A rich, reclusive movie producer, Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell), hires Sugar to track down his wild-child granddaughter, Olivia (Sydney Chandler). And more similarities to the Raymond Chandler...
Though Sugar is set in modern-day L.A., the series finds him tasked with a case suited to his anachronistic sensibilities. In fact, it’s one cribbed straight from The Big Sleep: A rich, reclusive movie producer, Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell), hires Sugar to track down his wild-child granddaughter, Olivia (Sydney Chandler). And more similarities to the Raymond Chandler...
- 3/31/2024
- by Ross McIndoe
- Slant Magazine
Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival will celebrate the centennial of Columbia Pictures with an expansive retrospective titled The Lady with the Torch, mounted in collaboration with the studio’s parent company, Sony.
Organized in partnership with the Cinémathèque suisse, The Lady with the Torch will be curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht, co-director of Il Cinema Ritrovato, an annual festival in Bologna dedicated to film history and film restoration. The official unveiling will take place at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Locarno has said the retrospective will present the studio in “all its glory,” shining a light on lesser-known genre filmmakers like Max Nosseck, Seymour Friedman, and William A. Seiter, as well as celebrating auteurs like Howard Hawks, Frank Borzage, Fritz Lang, Frank Capra, George Stevens, and John Ford. After launching at the 77th Locarno Film Festival, running August 7-17, the retrospective will tour the world. The Retrospective will...
Organized in partnership with the Cinémathèque suisse, The Lady with the Torch will be curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht, co-director of Il Cinema Ritrovato, an annual festival in Bologna dedicated to film history and film restoration. The official unveiling will take place at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Locarno has said the retrospective will present the studio in “all its glory,” shining a light on lesser-known genre filmmakers like Max Nosseck, Seymour Friedman, and William A. Seiter, as well as celebrating auteurs like Howard Hawks, Frank Borzage, Fritz Lang, Frank Capra, George Stevens, and John Ford. After launching at the 77th Locarno Film Festival, running August 7-17, the retrospective will tour the world. The Retrospective will...
- 3/28/2024
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
The glut of movie podcasts makes it hard to prioritize any single show. But there’s been unique pleasure in One Handshake Away, which allows directors to reflect on titans of yesteryear who host Peter Bogdanovich once interviewed––supplemented by audio of those decades-old conversations and creating a wild bridge in film history. Drawing direct paths from Alfred Hitchcock to Guillermo del Toro, Orson Welles to Rian Johnson, Don Siegel to Quentin Tarantino, it emphasizes just how quickly cinema history could be collapsed by a figure of Bogdanovich’s experience and just how much was lost with his passing.
The latest episode picks up from Bogdanovich’s passing. Guillermo del Toro’s now on hosting duties and his guest is Greta Gerwig, who discusses the films of Howard Hawks and their influence on her work––particularly the John Barrymore and Barbara Stanwyck performances that informed Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie in Barbie.
The latest episode picks up from Bogdanovich’s passing. Guillermo del Toro’s now on hosting duties and his guest is Greta Gerwig, who discusses the films of Howard Hawks and their influence on her work––particularly the John Barrymore and Barbara Stanwyck performances that informed Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie in Barbie.
- 2/29/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The Mother and the Whore.Jean Eustache orbited the world of criticism without ever fully falling into it. His intellectual biographer, Alain Philippon, describes him as a marginal figure at Cahiers du Cinéma in the 1960s and yet actively involved in the debates unfolding in its offices.1 Though Eustache was close with future Cahiers editor-in-chief Jean-Louis Comolli and the magazine championed his films from the start, his critical output was minuscule. He started contributing to Cahiers only after completing his first short, Bad Company (1963). Even then, he wrote little, publishing a few brief pieces on some early films by Paul Vecchiali, Jean-Daniel Pollet, and Costa-Gavras. Luc Moullet would later admit that prior to Bad Company, he thought him the only person at Cahiers “that had absolutely nothing to do with the movies.”2 Indeed, Eustache was often at the offices to pick up his wife, who was employed as a secretary at the magazine.
- 2/26/2024
- MUBI
Remakes have always been and will always be a tricky proposition. You could have something as pure and wonderful as 1982’s The Thing, which is objectively better than the revered Howard Hawks and Christian Nyby version, but be trapped in purgatory for way too long before it is decided that its proper and loved. There’s a bunch that are better in different ways or at least thoroughly enjoyable in their own right like John Carpenter’s masterpiece, Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and of course David Cronenberg’s The Fly. While you can argue the horror vs sci fi merits of any of these movies, their quality can’t be disputed. When it comes down to what you can or can’t remake, I think the gloves are off at this point. There’s very few sacred cows left and sometimes a remake can help. Something...
- 2/13/2024
- by Andrew Hatfield
- JoBlo.com
Exclusive: Following a competitive bidding situation, Shout! Studios has acquired North American rights to The Dead Don’t Hurt, the Western written, directed, produced by and starring Viggo Mortensen (Thirteen Lives) which world premiered at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, where star Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) was honored with the TIFF Tribute Performer Award.
Acquired from Talipot Studio, Recorded Picture Company, Perceval Pictures, and HanWay Films, the film marks Mortensen’s second effort on both sides of the camera on the heels of 2020 father-son drama Falling. Pic will be released across all major entertainment platforms, beginning with a wide theatrical launch this summer.
A story of star-crossed lovers on the western U.S. frontier in the 1860s, The Dead Don’t Hurt centers on Vivienne Le Coudy (Krieps), a fiercely independent woman who embarks on a relationship with Danish immigrant Holgen Olsen (Mortensen). After meeting Olsen in San Francisco, she agrees...
Acquired from Talipot Studio, Recorded Picture Company, Perceval Pictures, and HanWay Films, the film marks Mortensen’s second effort on both sides of the camera on the heels of 2020 father-son drama Falling. Pic will be released across all major entertainment platforms, beginning with a wide theatrical launch this summer.
A story of star-crossed lovers on the western U.S. frontier in the 1860s, The Dead Don’t Hurt centers on Vivienne Le Coudy (Krieps), a fiercely independent woman who embarks on a relationship with Danish immigrant Holgen Olsen (Mortensen). After meeting Olsen in San Francisco, she agrees...
- 2/13/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
This was a well-kept secret. Two years since his passing we’ve learned of Peter Bogdanoivch’s podcasting project One Handshake Away, which saw the late-in-life filmmaker sit down with modern luminaries. The first two episodes, out today, feature Guillermo del Toro and Quentin Tarantino discussing personal favorites, the former Alfred Hitchcock and the latter Don Siegel––a normal concept made novel by integrating unheard audio from Bogdanovich’s prodigious start interviewing the deceased filmmakers decades ago.
Later episodes will feature conversations with Rian Johnson and Ken Burns; after Bogdanovich’s passing, del Toro continued the series by speaking to Greta Gerwig, Julie Delpy, and Allison Anders. Integrated into these are audio of John Ford, Howard Hawks, and (believe it or not!) Orson Welles. It’s immediately evident that the company of a fellow auteur puts del Toro and Tarantino at ease, the subjects elevating them to enthusiasm––well and...
Later episodes will feature conversations with Rian Johnson and Ken Burns; after Bogdanovich’s passing, del Toro continued the series by speaking to Greta Gerwig, Julie Delpy, and Allison Anders. Integrated into these are audio of John Ford, Howard Hawks, and (believe it or not!) Orson Welles. It’s immediately evident that the company of a fellow auteur puts del Toro and Tarantino at ease, the subjects elevating them to enthusiasm––well and...
- 2/7/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Late auteur Peter Bogdanovich is still just a handshake away per his posthumous podcast, “One Handshake Away.”
Prior to Bogdanovich’s January 2022 death, the filmmaker recorded a series of interviews with fellow directors such as Guillermo del Toro, Quentin Tarantino, Ken Burns, and Rian Johnson to discuss their biggest cinematic influences.
Per Deadline, Bogdanovich named the podcast “One Handshake Away” to honor the relationship between contemporary directors and pioneering filmmakers, with each filmmaker being “one handshake away” from one another in film history.
After Bogdanovich’s passing, del Toro took over the podcast and recorded the final three episodes, interviewing Greta Gerwig, Julie Delpy, and Allison Anders, which included discussing the works of Howard Hawks, Fritz Lang, and Raoul Walsh.
Filmmakers Alfred Hitchcock, Don Siegel, Orson Welles, and John Ford were reexamined in episodes Bogdanovich recorded; the podcast additionally features exclusive archival interviews with Hitchcock, Welles, and Ford that have...
Prior to Bogdanovich’s January 2022 death, the filmmaker recorded a series of interviews with fellow directors such as Guillermo del Toro, Quentin Tarantino, Ken Burns, and Rian Johnson to discuss their biggest cinematic influences.
Per Deadline, Bogdanovich named the podcast “One Handshake Away” to honor the relationship between contemporary directors and pioneering filmmakers, with each filmmaker being “one handshake away” from one another in film history.
After Bogdanovich’s passing, del Toro took over the podcast and recorded the final three episodes, interviewing Greta Gerwig, Julie Delpy, and Allison Anders, which included discussing the works of Howard Hawks, Fritz Lang, and Raoul Walsh.
Filmmakers Alfred Hitchcock, Don Siegel, Orson Welles, and John Ford were reexamined in episodes Bogdanovich recorded; the podcast additionally features exclusive archival interviews with Hitchcock, Welles, and Ford that have...
- 2/5/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Peter Bogdanovich, the director of Hollywood classics such as The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon, may have died two years ago but he left behind a “love letter to film.”
The critic-turned-filmmaker was working on One Handshake Away, a podcast series that saw him in conversation with some of the greatest living filmmakers, including Guillermo del Toro, Quentin Tarantino, Rian Johnson and Ken Burns framed through a series of never-before-heard archival interviews with legends including Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and John Ford.
After Bogdanovich’s death, del Toro took over for the final three interviews with Greta Gerwig, Julie Delpy and Allison Anders.
Each episode pays homage to a master and offers insight and perspective on the influence and impact the legends who came before them had on their career and filmmaking.
Bogdanovich discussed Hitchcock with del Toro, Don Siegel with Tarantino, Welles with Johnson and Ford with Burns.
The critic-turned-filmmaker was working on One Handshake Away, a podcast series that saw him in conversation with some of the greatest living filmmakers, including Guillermo del Toro, Quentin Tarantino, Rian Johnson and Ken Burns framed through a series of never-before-heard archival interviews with legends including Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles and John Ford.
After Bogdanovich’s death, del Toro took over for the final three interviews with Greta Gerwig, Julie Delpy and Allison Anders.
Each episode pays homage to a master and offers insight and perspective on the influence and impact the legends who came before them had on their career and filmmaking.
Bogdanovich discussed Hitchcock with del Toro, Don Siegel with Tarantino, Welles with Johnson and Ford with Burns.
- 2/5/2024
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Those who fought in World War II are considered the Greatest Generation. And executive producers Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman paid homage to these young men who risked life and limb during the global conflict in their award-winning 2001 HBO series “Band of Brothers” and 2010’s “The Pacific.” And now they’ve taken to the not-so-friendly skies in their latest World War II series, Apple TV +’s “Masters of the Air.”
Created by John Shiban and John Orloff, “Masters of the Air” is based on the 2007 book: “Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the War Against Nazi Germany,” the series starring Austin Butler focuses on the 8th Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group stationed in England. It was known as the “Bloody Hundredth” because of the high causalty rate.
Watching the series, one can’t help but remember the numerous bombardier films produced by Hollywood...
Created by John Shiban and John Orloff, “Masters of the Air” is based on the 2007 book: “Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the War Against Nazi Germany,” the series starring Austin Butler focuses on the 8th Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group stationed in England. It was known as the “Bloody Hundredth” because of the high causalty rate.
Watching the series, one can’t help but remember the numerous bombardier films produced by Hollywood...
- 2/5/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
To “The Swans,” a coterie of New York high society women, Truman Capote was an amusing circus act. Known for penning Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood, these aristocratic ladies invited him to lavish dinner parties and fanciful getaways to indulge in his animated, gossip-filled stories. Author Laurence Leamer found himself captivated by Capote’s mélange of wit, joie de vivre, and callousness, and chronicled his falling-out with his one-percenter gal pals in the 2021 book Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era,...
- 2/3/2024
- by Kalia Richardson
- Rollingstone.com
Plot: Acclaimed writer Truman Capote surrounded himself with a coterie of society’s most elite women – rich, glamorous socialites who defined a bygone era of high society New York – whom he nicknamed “the swans.” Enchanted and captivated by these doyennes, Capote ingratiated himself into their lives, befriending them and becoming their confidante, only to ultimately betray them by writing a thinly veiled fictionalization of their lives, exposing their most intimate secrets. When an excerpt from the book, Answered Prayers, Capote’s planned magnum opus, was published in Esquire, it effectively destroyed his relationship with his swans, banished him from the high society he so loved and sent him into a spiral of self-destruction from which he would ultimately never recover.
Review: It has been six years since Ryan Murphy’s debut season of Feud chronicled the difficult relationship between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. That stellar series was a brilliant...
Review: It has been six years since Ryan Murphy’s debut season of Feud chronicled the difficult relationship between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. That stellar series was a brilliant...
- 1/31/2024
- by Alex Maidy
- JoBlo.com
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Film at Lincoln Center
“Never Look Away: Serge Daney’s Radical 1970s” brings films by Kurosawa, Bresson, Tati, Godard and more.
IFC Center
As Francis Ford Coppola’s latest recut, One from the Heart: Reprise, continues, Bertrand Bonello’s masterpiece Coma gets a New York premiere; Ken Russell’s Whore, Saw III, and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome also have late showings.
Roxy Cinema
A Ryan O’Neal retrospective brings The Driver on 35mm and Partners, while Cronenberg’s Crash shows on a print; City Dudes returns on Saturday and Sunday brings a puppet program and the Iranian feature Downpour plays on Sunday.
Film Forum
A 4K restoration of The Pianist begins a run while I Heard It Through the Grapevine and The Third Man continue; The Sunshine Boys plays on Sunday.
Museum of the Moving Image
A retrospective of snubbed performances brings films by Howard Hawks,...
Film at Lincoln Center
“Never Look Away: Serge Daney’s Radical 1970s” brings films by Kurosawa, Bresson, Tati, Godard and more.
IFC Center
As Francis Ford Coppola’s latest recut, One from the Heart: Reprise, continues, Bertrand Bonello’s masterpiece Coma gets a New York premiere; Ken Russell’s Whore, Saw III, and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome also have late showings.
Roxy Cinema
A Ryan O’Neal retrospective brings The Driver on 35mm and Partners, while Cronenberg’s Crash shows on a print; City Dudes returns on Saturday and Sunday brings a puppet program and the Iranian feature Downpour plays on Sunday.
Film Forum
A 4K restoration of The Pianist begins a run while I Heard It Through the Grapevine and The Third Man continue; The Sunshine Boys plays on Sunday.
Museum of the Moving Image
A retrospective of snubbed performances brings films by Howard Hawks,...
- 1/26/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Update: While discussing Presence with Filmmaker Magazine, Soderbergh already implies Black Bag will mark a break from his just-debuted feature:
“[The] solution now is to split in the opposite direction and make something that is equally well-served by forgetting this idea and shooting in a way that would hopefully appear seamless for the audience. It’s a pure pleasure space. Something entertaining like Howard Hawks is the best way to go. […] I would get to annihilate what I just did.”
Read the original story below.
The same day their latest collaboration debuts at Sundance, Steven Soderbergh and David Koepp are moving onto the next. Per THR, shooting’s soon to begin on Black Bag, a spy thriller that’s attached Michael Fassbender (previously of Haywire) and Cate Blanchett, is written by Koepp, and… that’s about it. Other than a May start date and notice it’s set in the U.
“[The] solution now is to split in the opposite direction and make something that is equally well-served by forgetting this idea and shooting in a way that would hopefully appear seamless for the audience. It’s a pure pleasure space. Something entertaining like Howard Hawks is the best way to go. […] I would get to annihilate what I just did.”
Read the original story below.
The same day their latest collaboration debuts at Sundance, Steven Soderbergh and David Koepp are moving onto the next. Per THR, shooting’s soon to begin on Black Bag, a spy thriller that’s attached Michael Fassbender (previously of Haywire) and Cate Blanchett, is written by Koepp, and… that’s about it. Other than a May start date and notice it’s set in the U.
- 1/20/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Not much is funny about those terrifying early days of Covid, when the world was cloaked in an apocalyptic doom and the president was telling us to inject bleach. But in “Stress Positions,” Theda Hammel miraculously finds the funny side of lockdown, mining the masks, Purell and social distancing that defined that unhappy era for physical comedy.
“Those gestures are like balloons, and they’re filled with the sense of danger and a sense of peril,” Hammel says of the Sundance-bound film that she directed and co-wrote. “And as soon as the urgency drains away, these behaviors seem ridiculous.”
“Stress Positions,” which follows a 30-something gay man named Terry (John Early) who is trying — and largely failing — to look after his injured Moroccan nephew Bahlul (Qaher Harhash) when the pandemic hits, also wants to use the all-too-recent past to skewer millennial mores. In Early, her friend and frequent collaborator, Hammel found the perfect muse.
“Those gestures are like balloons, and they’re filled with the sense of danger and a sense of peril,” Hammel says of the Sundance-bound film that she directed and co-wrote. “And as soon as the urgency drains away, these behaviors seem ridiculous.”
“Stress Positions,” which follows a 30-something gay man named Terry (John Early) who is trying — and largely failing — to look after his injured Moroccan nephew Bahlul (Qaher Harhash) when the pandemic hits, also wants to use the all-too-recent past to skewer millennial mores. In Early, her friend and frequent collaborator, Hammel found the perfect muse.
- 1/18/2024
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Issa López's "True Detective: Night Country," the fourth season of the pulp crime series created by Nic Pizzolatto, kicks off with one heck of a hook. Scientists holed up at the Tsalal Research Station on the outskirts of Ennis, Alaska (which is itself on the outskirts of civilization in the sparsely populated state) are winding down after a long day of doing ... well, whatever it is they do up there (the first episode does not make this clear). They're doing laundry, making dinner, settling in for a movie ("Ferris Bueller's Day Off") with a bowl of microwave popcorn, and evidently content to be where they are.
And then, in an instant, they're not there anymore.
A delivery man who shows up with supplies, expecting help in unloading his truck, wanders through the station seemingly seconds after the sequence we've just observed (Matthew Broderick is still rocking out to The...
And then, in an instant, they're not there anymore.
A delivery man who shows up with supplies, expecting help in unloading his truck, wanders through the station seemingly seconds after the sequence we've just observed (Matthew Broderick is still rocking out to The...
- 1/15/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Armitage Trail's original novel "Scarface" was first published in 1930, and traces the rise and fall of the vicious gangster Tony "Scarface" Guarino, who took over the Chicago bootlegging underground during Prohibition. Clearly, Tony Guarino is an analog to Al Capone, and many true crime fans find it tantalizingly suspicious that Armitage Trail (real name: Maurice R. Coons) died of a heart attack at age 28, only six months after the publication of "Scarface." Coons, after all, had to hobnob with real gangsters in order to get ideas for his novel, and he would have been known in certain corners of the underground.
In 1932, director Howard Hawks made the first film version of "Scarface," starring Paul Muni as Antonio "Tony" Camonte. Hawks' film was well-received, with some critics citing its naturalness and lack of melodrama. Indeed, it was so natural and treated crime with such frankness that some markets refused to show it.
In 1932, director Howard Hawks made the first film version of "Scarface," starring Paul Muni as Antonio "Tony" Camonte. Hawks' film was well-received, with some critics citing its naturalness and lack of melodrama. Indeed, it was so natural and treated crime with such frankness that some markets refused to show it.
- 1/11/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
On Jan. 11, 1940, Columbia bowed director-producer Howard Hawks’ newspaper comedy His Girl Friday, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:
With the original Hildy Johnson of the Hecht-MacArthur newspaper yarn, Front Page, metamorphized into Hildegarde Johnson and played by Rosalind Russell, Columbia has made a fast-moving, always interesting picture out of the story. There may, and probably will be those who will say it is not up to the former version, but it nevertheless furnishes good entertainment.
In the present version, Hildegarde is the former wife of the editor, played by Cary Grant, and instead of wishing to retire, as did Hildy, she wants to marry an insurance salesman (Ralph Bellamy). It is to prevent this marriage that the complications, instigated by Grant, ensue. Also, the twist of making the star reporter a woman gives opportunity for some new situations,...
With the original Hildy Johnson of the Hecht-MacArthur newspaper yarn, Front Page, metamorphized into Hildegarde Johnson and played by Rosalind Russell, Columbia has made a fast-moving, always interesting picture out of the story. There may, and probably will be those who will say it is not up to the former version, but it nevertheless furnishes good entertainment.
In the present version, Hildegarde is the former wife of the editor, played by Cary Grant, and instead of wishing to retire, as did Hildy, she wants to marry an insurance salesman (Ralph Bellamy). It is to prevent this marriage that the complications, instigated by Grant, ensue. Also, the twist of making the star reporter a woman gives opportunity for some new situations,...
- 1/10/2024
- by THR Staff
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
In all honesty, the films of 2023 should take a backseat to the images we are seeing every day in Gaza, where journalists and average citizens have been recording and documenting a daily assault on their homes and livelihoods by the Idf. Whatever fakery we watched and enjoyed in the cinema this year should always be kept in perspective in importance with images that are real and actually happening right now. The Palestinians who have documented these important images have been targeted and killed with intent and purpose to silence what their photos and videos are showing and saying.
List of journalists who have been killed.
The below is of lesser note:
Best First Watches:
Angel’s Egg La belle noiseuse Centipede Horror Charley Varrick Coffy Crimson Gold...
In all honesty, the films of 2023 should take a backseat to the images we are seeing every day in Gaza, where journalists and average citizens have been recording and documenting a daily assault on their homes and livelihoods by the Idf. Whatever fakery we watched and enjoyed in the cinema this year should always be kept in perspective in importance with images that are real and actually happening right now. The Palestinians who have documented these important images have been targeted and killed with intent and purpose to silence what their photos and videos are showing and saying.
List of journalists who have been killed.
The below is of lesser note:
Best First Watches:
Angel’s Egg La belle noiseuse Centipede Horror Charley Varrick Coffy Crimson Gold...
- 1/3/2024
- by Soham Gadre
- The Film Stage
Ever since Martin Scorsese‘s “Killers of the Flower Moon” premiered at Cannes, critics have celebrated it as Scorsese’s first real Western after decades in which the genre’s influence could be felt at the edges of movies like “Casino” and “Gangs of New York.” The director himself sees it a little differently. As the guest on IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast’s 250th episode, he said, “How can I make a Western? I come from the Lower East Side. The guys who made Westerns, when they came out [to Los Angeles], they were riding horses. The old cliché of the director wearing jodhpurs? Well, that’s what they did — you got around on a horse, you had to wear boots, you had to have a riding crop.”
Scorsese feels that the Western as he knew it in childhood ended with Sam Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch” in 1969, and that it’s...
Scorsese feels that the Western as he knew it in childhood ended with Sam Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch” in 1969, and that it’s...
- 12/20/2023
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
Nancy Meyers has written a love letter to Cary Grant by recommending his screwball comedies and classics like North by Northwest and The Philadelphia Story as part of the December 2023 Turner Classic Movies lineup in her own TCM Picks video.
“He’s a brilliant prototype for a leading man in a romantic comedy certainly. And I would be lying if I said I didn’t think of him sometimes as I’m writing. You can picture him doing it and it makes you better,” Meyers, whose rom-com canon includes box office performers like Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday and What Women Want, tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Her TCM movie picks follow Meyers insisting she has viewed most Cary Grant movies dozens of times, not least to study the iconic star’s slapstick humor and verbal sparring with leading ladies to see beneath his debonair looks and onscreen charisma, to the...
“He’s a brilliant prototype for a leading man in a romantic comedy certainly. And I would be lying if I said I didn’t think of him sometimes as I’m writing. You can picture him doing it and it makes you better,” Meyers, whose rom-com canon includes box office performers like Something’s Gotta Give, The Holiday and What Women Want, tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Her TCM movie picks follow Meyers insisting she has viewed most Cary Grant movies dozens of times, not least to study the iconic star’s slapstick humor and verbal sparring with leading ladies to see beneath his debonair looks and onscreen charisma, to the...
- 12/1/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Culver City, Calif. – Continuing the fan-favorite and award-winning series—and as part of the upcoming 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures—Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is proud to debut six more beloved films from its library on 4K Ultra HD disc for the first time ever, exclusively within the Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 4, available February 13. This must-own set includes films with which audiences around the world have fallen in love: His Girl Friday, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, Kramer Vs. Kramer, Starman, Sleepless In Seattle and Punch-drunk Love. Each film is presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range, and five of the films have all-new Dolby Atmos mixes.
The six films in the Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 4 are only available on 4K Ultra HD disc within this special limited edition collector’s set. The collection includes a gorgeous hardbound 80-page book, featuring...
The six films in the Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Volume 4 are only available on 4K Ultra HD disc within this special limited edition collector’s set. The collection includes a gorgeous hardbound 80-page book, featuring...
- 11/19/2023
- by ComicMix Staff
- Comicmix.com
“Sleepless in Seattle,” “Punch-Drunk Love” and four more films from Columbia Pictures will make their 4K Ultra HD debut Feb. 13, 2024, via Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Vol. 4, the latest installment in Sphe’s series of limited edition sets culling critical and commercial hits from the studio’s storied library, will feature Nora Ephron and Paul Thomas Anderson’s romantic comedies — along with Howard Hawks’ “His Girl Friday,” Stanley Kramer’s “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” Robert Benton’s “Kramer vs. Kramer” and John Carpenter’s “Starman.” In addition to more than 30 hours of legacy bonus content for each film, the set includes a bonus disc featuring the entirety of the 1986 “Starman” television series, as well as an 80-page hardbound book exploring the impact and legacy of the six films.
Matching its predecessors, the packaging for the set showcases the included titles, and opens to display...
Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collection Vol. 4, the latest installment in Sphe’s series of limited edition sets culling critical and commercial hits from the studio’s storied library, will feature Nora Ephron and Paul Thomas Anderson’s romantic comedies — along with Howard Hawks’ “His Girl Friday,” Stanley Kramer’s “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” Robert Benton’s “Kramer vs. Kramer” and John Carpenter’s “Starman.” In addition to more than 30 hours of legacy bonus content for each film, the set includes a bonus disc featuring the entirety of the 1986 “Starman” television series, as well as an 80-page hardbound book exploring the impact and legacy of the six films.
Matching its predecessors, the packaging for the set showcases the included titles, and opens to display...
- 11/17/2023
- by Todd Gilchrist
- Variety Film + TV
EXmas is a delightful holiday rom-com featuring some classic but relatable tropes. While we may not find our ex at our holiday table, most of us have longed for a holiday like the Stroops share.
It features charismatic stars, including Robbie Amell as Grham and Leighton Meester as Ali. Michael Hitchcock and Kathryn Greenwood were hilarious and Graham’s holiday-obsessed parents.
Jonah Feingold loves directing com-coms, and he’s had great success with his two prior films, Dating in New York and At Midnight. We were excited to speak with him about how he directed Amazon Freevee’s EXmas.
Feingold spoke with us during a recent virtual press day about which holiday films inspired him, how he selected the cast, and how essential the family dynamics were to this film.
Check it out below.
Hi Jonah. I’ve heard you love rom-coms. How did you get involved in EXmas? Did...
It features charismatic stars, including Robbie Amell as Grham and Leighton Meester as Ali. Michael Hitchcock and Kathryn Greenwood were hilarious and Graham’s holiday-obsessed parents.
Jonah Feingold loves directing com-coms, and he’s had great success with his two prior films, Dating in New York and At Midnight. We were excited to speak with him about how he directed Amazon Freevee’s EXmas.
Feingold spoke with us during a recent virtual press day about which holiday films inspired him, how he selected the cast, and how essential the family dynamics were to this film.
Check it out below.
Hi Jonah. I’ve heard you love rom-coms. How did you get involved in EXmas? Did...
- 11/16/2023
- by Laura Nowak
- TVfanatic
Adapted from Larry McMurtry’s bittersweet 1966 novel of the same name by McMurtry and director Peter Bogdanovich, The Last Picture Show delineates the quiet, desperate lives of the citizens of Anarene, Texas, from November 1951 to October 1952. The film is a pure Janus-headed product of the New Hollywood. Bogdanovich pours the new wine of sexual frankness available to filmmakers after the inauguration of the MPAA ratings system into old bottles borrowed from the cellars of classic Hollywood cinema, namely those older films’ expressive visual grammar and obliquely suggestive dialogue.
As an erstwhile film critic and historian, Bogdanovich drew formal and technical inspiration from his years spent programming films from Hollywood’s Golden Age at MoMA. He also solicited advice from houseguest Orson Welles when it came to shooting the film in black and white, and employing long, unbroken takes rather than break up important scenes. As Welles reportedly put it:...
As an erstwhile film critic and historian, Bogdanovich drew formal and technical inspiration from his years spent programming films from Hollywood’s Golden Age at MoMA. He also solicited advice from houseguest Orson Welles when it came to shooting the film in black and white, and employing long, unbroken takes rather than break up important scenes. As Welles reportedly put it:...
- 11/15/2023
- by Budd Wilkins
- Slant Magazine
Say goodbye to Luca Guadagnino’s “Scarface” movie.
The “Challengers” and “Call Me by Your Name” director confirmed to The Hindu that he is no longer attached to helm a reinterpretation of the iconic mobster movie. Guadagnino was first attached to “Scarface” in 2020, with Ethan and Joel Coen writing the script.
“I’m not working on ‘Scarface’ anymore,” Guadagnino told the outlet in November 2023.
He later added of adaptations in general, “For me, when approaching any book adaptation or remake, it’s about understanding what the story carries within itself that goes beyond the form of the original work. So that you can tell that story from a completely different perspective. Whether it’s fresh or not, I cannot tell. But it’s different.”
Howard Hawks’ 1932 original “Scarface,” based on Armitage Trail’s novel, was later iconically remade in 1983 by director Brian De Palma using a script by Oliver Stone...
The “Challengers” and “Call Me by Your Name” director confirmed to The Hindu that he is no longer attached to helm a reinterpretation of the iconic mobster movie. Guadagnino was first attached to “Scarface” in 2020, with Ethan and Joel Coen writing the script.
“I’m not working on ‘Scarface’ anymore,” Guadagnino told the outlet in November 2023.
He later added of adaptations in general, “For me, when approaching any book adaptation or remake, it’s about understanding what the story carries within itself that goes beyond the form of the original work. So that you can tell that story from a completely different perspective. Whether it’s fresh or not, I cannot tell. But it’s different.”
Howard Hawks’ 1932 original “Scarface,” based on Armitage Trail’s novel, was later iconically remade in 1983 by director Brian De Palma using a script by Oliver Stone...
- 11/6/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Film Forum
“50 from the ’50s” continues with films by Howard Hawks, Elia Kazan, Stanley Donen, and many more.
Bam
“Let the Record Show” offers films built from archival material.
Museum of the Moving Image
Reverse Shot celebrates its 20th anniversary with a months-long programming run, continuing this weekend with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on 35mm and two by Maren Ade.
Anthology Film Archives
Work by John Carpenter, Stuart Gordon, and more play in a series of films inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, while two from Buñuel show in “Essential Cinema.”
IFC Center
An extensive William Friedkin series continues, while The Holy Mountain and Army of Darkness play late; Oldboy screens in a new restoration.
Museum of Modern Art
A series on pre-revolution Iranian cinema is underway, as well as a collection of female-made silent cinema.
Roxy Cinema
The Shining...
Film Forum
“50 from the ’50s” continues with films by Howard Hawks, Elia Kazan, Stanley Donen, and many more.
Bam
“Let the Record Show” offers films built from archival material.
Museum of the Moving Image
Reverse Shot celebrates its 20th anniversary with a months-long programming run, continuing this weekend with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on 35mm and two by Maren Ade.
Anthology Film Archives
Work by John Carpenter, Stuart Gordon, and more play in a series of films inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, while two from Buñuel show in “Essential Cinema.”
IFC Center
An extensive William Friedkin series continues, while The Holy Mountain and Army of Darkness play late; Oldboy screens in a new restoration.
Museum of Modern Art
A series on pre-revolution Iranian cinema is underway, as well as a collection of female-made silent cinema.
Roxy Cinema
The Shining...
- 11/3/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
James Sanders in Celluloid Skyline: New York And The Movies quotes Deborah Kerr with Cary Grant in Leo McCarey’s An Affair To Remember: “It’s the nearest thing to heaven we have in New York.”
In the first instalment with architect, author, and filmmaker James Sanders, we discuss his timeless and profound book, Celluloid Skyline: New York And The Movies, in which he explores how deeply one informs the other. From Joan Didion’s wisdom to Cedric Gibbons’s dream sets in the sky, we touch on George Stevens’s Swing Time (starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) and Robert Z Leonard’s Susan Lenox (with Greta Garbo and Clark Gable); East River running with Jill Clayburgh and Michael Murphy in Paul Mazursky’s An Unmarried Woman.
James Sanders with Anne-Katrin Titze: “One of the aspects of a mythic city is that it can go anywhere ”
The mansion...
In the first instalment with architect, author, and filmmaker James Sanders, we discuss his timeless and profound book, Celluloid Skyline: New York And The Movies, in which he explores how deeply one informs the other. From Joan Didion’s wisdom to Cedric Gibbons’s dream sets in the sky, we touch on George Stevens’s Swing Time (starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) and Robert Z Leonard’s Susan Lenox (with Greta Garbo and Clark Gable); East River running with Jill Clayburgh and Michael Murphy in Paul Mazursky’s An Unmarried Woman.
James Sanders with Anne-Katrin Titze: “One of the aspects of a mythic city is that it can go anywhere ”
The mansion...
- 11/2/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
He may be the greatest horror director of all time (just ask Jordan Peele), but John Carpenter’s film taste skews farther away from the genre than you might expect.
Born in 1948 in Carthage, New York, Carpenter grew up with a love of cinema, watching Howard Hawks westerns an early age, and started making short films with an 8mm camera before he started high school. He studied at Western Kentucky University and University of Southern California, before dropping out of the latter after a short he made, “The Resurrection of Broncho Billy,” won an Oscar.
Now with a sudden amount of prestige, Carpenter made two little seen projects “Dark Star” and “Assault on Precinct 13,” both now critically acclaimed, before really breaking out with 1978’s “Halloween.” Starring a young Jamie Lee Curtis, the independent film became a massive hit, grossing $70 million, turning main villain Michael Myers into a horror icon,...
Born in 1948 in Carthage, New York, Carpenter grew up with a love of cinema, watching Howard Hawks westerns an early age, and started making short films with an 8mm camera before he started high school. He studied at Western Kentucky University and University of Southern California, before dropping out of the latter after a short he made, “The Resurrection of Broncho Billy,” won an Oscar.
Now with a sudden amount of prestige, Carpenter made two little seen projects “Dark Star” and “Assault on Precinct 13,” both now critically acclaimed, before really breaking out with 1978’s “Halloween.” Starring a young Jamie Lee Curtis, the independent film became a massive hit, grossing $70 million, turning main villain Michael Myers into a horror icon,...
- 10/31/2023
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
On Thursday, John Carpenter was the guest On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to discuss his latest project “John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams”, a six-episode horror anthology series available to stream on Peacock.
https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/john-carpenters-suburban-screams/8006432878975950112/seasons/1
The host, a huge film nerd, revealed to the audience that his go to comfort movie food is 1982’s The Thing. Reviled by critics and cinema goers at the time for being too gory and violent, while expecting a remake of Christian Nyby’s and Howard Hawks’s black & white version of 1951’s The Thing From Another World, the movie was almost forgotten… until sci-fi and horror fans decided differently. In the decades since, the film saw new life with VHS, Laserdisc and Blu-ray/DVD. The film has a killer score composed by Ennio Morricone, organic, non-cgi effects from Rob Bottin and one of the best posters ever from Drew Struzan.
https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/tv/john-carpenters-suburban-screams/8006432878975950112/seasons/1
The host, a huge film nerd, revealed to the audience that his go to comfort movie food is 1982’s The Thing. Reviled by critics and cinema goers at the time for being too gory and violent, while expecting a remake of Christian Nyby’s and Howard Hawks’s black & white version of 1951’s The Thing From Another World, the movie was almost forgotten… until sci-fi and horror fans decided differently. In the decades since, the film saw new life with VHS, Laserdisc and Blu-ray/DVD. The film has a killer score composed by Ennio Morricone, organic, non-cgi effects from Rob Bottin and one of the best posters ever from Drew Struzan.
- 10/27/2023
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
After a dearth of new releases worth discussing in the few months since Barbenheimer, it’s been refreshing to see the response to Martin Scorsese’s epic Killers of the Flower Moon as it enters a wide release. While we’ll have our own extensive discussion coming soon on The Film Stage Show, the director himself has now provided some welcome homework as he’s highlighted six key films to watch that influenced the making of his David Grann adaptation.
Courtesy of TCM and Letterboxd, the director has joined the latter platform and provided nearly 60 companion films that he studied in preparation for making all of his features. While that entire list is well worth checking out, particularly the accompanying notes the director has provided, we’re keying in on the influences for Killers of the Flower Moon. Find the list below, including where to watch each film, as well as Scorsese’s full commentary.
Courtesy of TCM and Letterboxd, the director has joined the latter platform and provided nearly 60 companion films that he studied in preparation for making all of his features. While that entire list is well worth checking out, particularly the accompanying notes the director has provided, we’re keying in on the influences for Killers of the Flower Moon. Find the list below, including where to watch each film, as well as Scorsese’s full commentary.
- 10/27/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Making a Western remains something of a rite of passage for New Hollywood directors. John Carpenter spent much of his career espousing the classic oaters directed by titans like John Ford and Howard Hawks -- a passion that would manifest itself in the central siege in "Assault on Precinct 13." Steven Spielberg has similarly talked on and off over the years about putting on a pair of spurs, although he has yet to commit on that front.
Martin Scorsese, on the other hand, has finally gone and made his own cowboy picture with "Killers of the Flower Moon," a big-screen adaptation of David Grann's 2017 non-fiction book about the "Reign of Terror" that resulted in the murders of numerous members of the Osage Nation after oil was found on their reservation. At the same time, "Flower Moon" isn't your typical Western, at least not in the Hollywood tradition. Co-star Lily Gladstone...
Martin Scorsese, on the other hand, has finally gone and made his own cowboy picture with "Killers of the Flower Moon," a big-screen adaptation of David Grann's 2017 non-fiction book about the "Reign of Terror" that resulted in the murders of numerous members of the Osage Nation after oil was found on their reservation. At the same time, "Flower Moon" isn't your typical Western, at least not in the Hollywood tradition. Co-star Lily Gladstone...
- 10/18/2023
- by Sandy Schaefer
- Slash Film
Updated with latest: The Toronto Film Festival began September 7 in Ontario with opening-night movie The Boy and the Heron, from Oscar-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. It kicked off a lineup for the fest’s 48th edition that included world premieres of GameStop pic Dumb Money, Netflix’s Pain Hustlers, Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins, Kristin Scott Thomas’ Scarlett Johansson pic North Star, Chris Pine’s Poolman, Michael Keaton-directed Knox Goes Away, Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour, Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils, Michael Winterbottom’s Shoshana, Grant Singer’s Reptile, Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt, Lee Tamahori’s The Convert and Alex Gibney’s doc In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon.
It ended Sunday when Cord Jefferson’s satire American Fiction won TIFF’s People’s Choice Award for best film, usually a steppingstone to a strong awards season to come.
The fest also...
It ended Sunday when Cord Jefferson’s satire American Fiction won TIFF’s People’s Choice Award for best film, usually a steppingstone to a strong awards season to come.
The fest also...
- 9/18/2023
- by Stephanie Bunbury, Valerie Complex, Pete Hammond, Todd McCarthy and Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
The western genre has been so pervasive throughout the entire history of the movies, and it is hard to imagine doing anything in it that hasn’t already been done. Viggo Mortensen, in writing, directing, producing and co-starring in only his second film behind the camera (after 2020’s Falling) finds a moving, if tragic, love story to play against the stunning landscape of the circa-1860s West, and somehow it all feels new. John Ford and Howard Hawks would love this movie.
The Dead Don’t Hurt is a title that promises something else, but without giving away spoilers, it ultimately feels right for this story of Holder Olsen (Mortensen), a Danish immigrant who falls hard for Vivienne Le Coudy (a luminous Vicky Krieps), who he meets in San Francisco. Wanting some quiet peace in his life, they move together to Elk Flats, Nevada, and start what appears to be an idyllic life together.
The Dead Don’t Hurt is a title that promises something else, but without giving away spoilers, it ultimately feels right for this story of Holder Olsen (Mortensen), a Danish immigrant who falls hard for Vivienne Le Coudy (a luminous Vicky Krieps), who he meets in San Francisco. Wanting some quiet peace in his life, they move together to Elk Flats, Nevada, and start what appears to be an idyllic life together.
- 9/9/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
William Friedkin was, simply put, a legend.
His technical prowess, mastery of tone and commitment to storytelling were unparalleled. And so was his willingness to push the boundaries of what was acceptable. It wasn’t that he was merely challenging good taste; it was that he wanted to go beyond what had come before. And sometimes that made people very uncomfortable. Friedkin’s career is largely defined by this kind of artful provocation, and it makes his passing — especially in the current age of pre-packaged, vacuum-sealed mass entertainment — all the more devastating. We didn’t just lose one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation; we lost an outspoken advocate for the kind of movies they just don’t make anymore.
Thankfully, Friedkin left behind a bounty of modern classics – movies that become richer, more rewarding, and, yes, more provocative, the more times you watch them. Here are seven of his most essential,...
His technical prowess, mastery of tone and commitment to storytelling were unparalleled. And so was his willingness to push the boundaries of what was acceptable. It wasn’t that he was merely challenging good taste; it was that he wanted to go beyond what had come before. And sometimes that made people very uncomfortable. Friedkin’s career is largely defined by this kind of artful provocation, and it makes his passing — especially in the current age of pre-packaged, vacuum-sealed mass entertainment — all the more devastating. We didn’t just lose one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation; we lost an outspoken advocate for the kind of movies they just don’t make anymore.
Thankfully, Friedkin left behind a bounty of modern classics – movies that become richer, more rewarding, and, yes, more provocative, the more times you watch them. Here are seven of his most essential,...
- 8/7/2023
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
The first time I saw Kill List, I was fascinated with the filmmaker behind it. As his work continued to grow, my appreciation for Ben Wheatley was only confirmed. With terrific features like Kill List, High-Rise, Free Fire, and the recent In The Earth, I was impressed with Wheatley’s choices. And then, he surprises once again, by taking on a gigantic Megalodon, and something that can be even more deadly, the extremely charismatic Jason Statham. Meg 2: The Trench is a new direction for the director, one that is far more of a spectacle than what we’ve seen from him before.
Recently, I sat down with the filmmaker, and as always he was incredibly kind and a joy to speak with. Ben opened up about taking on a film with an emphasis on visual effects and action. He discussed the creature design, and how he found himself involved with the sequel.
Recently, I sat down with the filmmaker, and as always he was incredibly kind and a joy to speak with. Ben opened up about taking on a film with an emphasis on visual effects and action. He discussed the creature design, and how he found himself involved with the sequel.
- 8/6/2023
- by JimmyO
- JoBlo.com
Build your collection of cinematic classics. Now available for the first time in stunning 4K Ultra HD™—See James Dean in Elia Kazan’s award-winning adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, and watch Howard Hawks’s timeless western, Rio Bravo, starring film legend John Wayne.
The 4K Ultra HD™ releases will include each feature film in 4K with Hdr.
Enter for your chance to win both digital movies. Five (5) winners will be selected at random.
Here’s how to enter:s
Step 1: Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Step 2: Tweet this message:
I want to win a #WB100 4K Classics Prizepack (@WBHomeEnt) from @Slant_Magazine. https://www.slantmagazine.com/giveaways/warner-bros-4k-classics-giveaway/ #SlantGiveaway
Note: One entry per person/email address/Twitter handle.
Step 3: The giveaway ends 11:59 p.m. E.S.T. on August 20, 2023. Winners will receive a Direct Message with further information.
Must Redeem...
The 4K Ultra HD™ releases will include each feature film in 4K with Hdr.
Enter for your chance to win both digital movies. Five (5) winners will be selected at random.
Here’s how to enter:s
Step 1: Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Step 2: Tweet this message:
I want to win a #WB100 4K Classics Prizepack (@WBHomeEnt) from @Slant_Magazine. https://www.slantmagazine.com/giveaways/warner-bros-4k-classics-giveaway/ #SlantGiveaway
Note: One entry per person/email address/Twitter handle.
Step 3: The giveaway ends 11:59 p.m. E.S.T. on August 20, 2023. Winners will receive a Direct Message with further information.
Must Redeem...
- 7/31/2023
- by Slant Staff
- Slant Magazine
As we get ready to present a 35mm print of Rio Bravo at New York’s Roxy Cinema next weekend I’ve been thinking a lot about the anecdote, once oft-told by the man himself, that any girl Quentin Tarantino just started dating would be shown Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo as acid test: love it or leave me. As a kid Rio Bravo was as much about Tarantino (whose work I knew) as Howard Hawks (take a guess), and some two decades hence––with enough experience under my belt that I might prefer El Dorado––it’s fun hearing him actually praise the film at length, passionately, with the personal lens that defines his criticism in Cinema Speculation.
This video comes from a special screening Tarantino hosted at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, in only four-and-a-half minutes the filmmaker cramming enthusiasms. More than his own, it’s what he hopes and...
This video comes from a special screening Tarantino hosted at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, in only four-and-a-half minutes the filmmaker cramming enthusiasms. More than his own, it’s what he hopes and...
- 7/20/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
As part of the year-long centennial celebration for the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros. Studio, two iconic classics from the Warner Bros. library – East of Eden and Rio Bravo – will be available for purchase on 4K Ultra HD Disc and Digital August 1. East of Eden, directed by Academy Award winner Elia Kazan and starring James Dean, and Rio Bravo, directed by Honorary Academy Award winner Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne, will be available to purchase on Ultra HD Blu-ray™Disc from online and in-store at major retailers and available for purchase Digitally from Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Vudu and more. Working in ... Read more...
- 7/12/2023
- by Thomas Miller
- Seat42F
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.