In 2014, Gayle Rankin made her Broadway debut in Sam Mendes’ revival of Cabaret, playing the supporting role of Fraulein Kost. Now, exactly a decade later, Rankin is playing the lead role of Sally Bowles opposite Eddie Redmayne in a new Broadway production that opened April 21.
“I feel like a completely different person,” says Rankin, as she sits in her dressing room in a red dressing gown, with her blond hair clipped back. “It’s so rare that you get to see your life marked by something so actual, by a piece of work. And what a piece of work to be able to gauge where you are as a human being.”
In recent years, the Scottish actress — who grew up south of Glasgow — rose to prominence with a series of film and TV roles, including The Greatest Showman and HBO’s Perry Mason, and most notably as Sheila the She-Wolf...
“I feel like a completely different person,” says Rankin, as she sits in her dressing room in a red dressing gown, with her blond hair clipped back. “It’s so rare that you get to see your life marked by something so actual, by a piece of work. And what a piece of work to be able to gauge where you are as a human being.”
In recent years, the Scottish actress — who grew up south of Glasgow — rose to prominence with a series of film and TV roles, including The Greatest Showman and HBO’s Perry Mason, and most notably as Sheila the She-Wolf...
- 4/24/2024
- by Caitlin Huston
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Even though Rachel Zegler has only been working in Hollywood since 2021, she’s already racked up quite the resume. From her first screen role as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s take on West Side Story to her recent turn as folk singer Lucy Gray Baird in the Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Zegler has more than proven her capabilities as an actor and singer. But even with her iteration of Snow White still yet to be released, the captivating performer already has her sights on another classic musical character.
While promoting her new A24 disaster comedy, Y2K, at SXSW, Zegler revealed to Den of Geek, “I want to be Sally Bowles in Cabaret so bad.” Zegler also praises Liza Minnelli and Natasha while talking about how much she loves both the stage and screen versions of the musical.
Y2K and West Side Story star...
While promoting her new A24 disaster comedy, Y2K, at SXSW, Zegler revealed to Den of Geek, “I want to be Sally Bowles in Cabaret so bad.” Zegler also praises Liza Minnelli and Natasha while talking about how much she loves both the stage and screen versions of the musical.
Y2K and West Side Story star...
- 3/11/2024
- by Brynnaarens
- Den of Geek
Alice Walker published her acclaimed novel “The Color Purple” in 1982. It sold five million copies; Walker became the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and she also received the National Book Club Award. Three years later, Steven Spielberg directed the lauded film version which made stars out of Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. It earned 11 Oscar nominations. The story revolves around a young woman who suffers abuse from her father and husband for four decades until she finds her own identity. Not exactly the stuff of a Broadway musical.
But the 2005 tuner version received strong reviews, ran 910 performances and earned ten Tony nominations, winning best actress for Lachanze. The 2015 production picked up two Tonys for best revival and actress for Cynthia Erivo. The movie musical version opened strong Christmas Day with $18 million and is a strong contender in several Oscar categories especially for Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks.
But the 2005 tuner version received strong reviews, ran 910 performances and earned ten Tony nominations, winning best actress for Lachanze. The 2015 production picked up two Tonys for best revival and actress for Cynthia Erivo. The movie musical version opened strong Christmas Day with $18 million and is a strong contender in several Oscar categories especially for Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks.
- 1/2/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Plex is bringing a host of heavy hitters to its January lineup! This coming month, the streamer will start 2024 on a high note with dozens of new titles, including Bo Burnham’s acclaimed and affirming directorial debut “Eighth Grade,” Nordic box office toppers, Robert De Niro-led crime epics, and more.
Check out the full list of everything coming to Plex in January and add The Streamable’s top picks to the top of your to-watch list!
Watch Now Free plex.tv What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Plex in January 2024? “A Single Man” | Monday, Jan. 1
Fashion designer Tom Ford makes his directorial debut to turn Christopher Isherwood’s novel of the same name into the lush and fashionable feature. Colin Firth stars as George Falconer, a depressed English college professor in 1960s Los Angeles grieving the death of his longtime partner, Jim. Julianne Moore co-stars as...
Check out the full list of everything coming to Plex in January and add The Streamable’s top picks to the top of your to-watch list!
Watch Now Free plex.tv What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Plex in January 2024? “A Single Man” | Monday, Jan. 1
Fashion designer Tom Ford makes his directorial debut to turn Christopher Isherwood’s novel of the same name into the lush and fashionable feature. Colin Firth stars as George Falconer, a depressed English college professor in 1960s Los Angeles grieving the death of his longtime partner, Jim. Julianne Moore co-stars as...
- 12/22/2023
- by Ashley Steves
- The Streamable
Tom Ford is ready to return to the director’s chair, and this time, he’s focusing on original screenplays.
The “Nocturnal Animals” helmer told GQ that he in part stepped away from his iconic fashion career as a designer to instead focus on filmmaking.
“There are several reasons I sold my company,” Ford said. “I felt, after 35 years, I had said everything I could say with fashion. It’s important to know when to get off the stage. I loved making the two films that I made. That was the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
Ford directed “A Single Man” in 2009 and “Nocturnal Animals” in 2016, with both films being adaptations.
“I’m 62. Hopefully, I’ll remain somewhat together until 82. So I want to spend the next 20 years of my life making films,” Ford said. “And the clock is ticking. And so it was time to say goodbye to fashion.
The “Nocturnal Animals” helmer told GQ that he in part stepped away from his iconic fashion career as a designer to instead focus on filmmaking.
“There are several reasons I sold my company,” Ford said. “I felt, after 35 years, I had said everything I could say with fashion. It’s important to know when to get off the stage. I loved making the two films that I made. That was the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life.”
Ford directed “A Single Man” in 2009 and “Nocturnal Animals” in 2016, with both films being adaptations.
“I’m 62. Hopefully, I’ll remain somewhat together until 82. So I want to spend the next 20 years of my life making films,” Ford said. “And the clock is ticking. And so it was time to say goodbye to fashion.
- 11/9/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Tony Award nominee Ato Blankson-Wood (Slave Play) has been cast as “Cliff” in the buzzy, upcoming Broadway production of Cabaret starring Eddie Redmayne as “The Emcee” and Gayle Rankin as “Sally Bowles.”
Directed by Rebecca Frecknall and designed by Tom Scutt, the revival – officially titled Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club – begins previews at the August Wilson Theatre on Monday, April 1, 2024, with an official press opening on Sunday, April 21.
Additional casting will be announced in the coming weeks.
Blankson-Wood most recently played the title role in Hamlet at Shakespeare in the Park, where he has also appeared in productions of Twelfth Night, As You Like It, and Hair. He originated the role of “Gary” in Slave Play Off Broadway in 2018, earning a Tony nomination when the play transferred to Broadway.
“I am beyond excited to return to Broadway in...
Directed by Rebecca Frecknall and designed by Tom Scutt, the revival – officially titled Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club – begins previews at the August Wilson Theatre on Monday, April 1, 2024, with an official press opening on Sunday, April 21.
Additional casting will be announced in the coming weeks.
Blankson-Wood most recently played the title role in Hamlet at Shakespeare in the Park, where he has also appeared in productions of Twelfth Night, As You Like It, and Hair. He originated the role of “Gary” in Slave Play Off Broadway in 2018, earning a Tony nomination when the play transferred to Broadway.
“I am beyond excited to return to Broadway in...
- 10/30/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The Olivier Award-winning West End revival of Cabaret is coming to Broadway: Producers announced that the acclaimed musical will begin previews at the August Wilson Theater in spring 2024.
Not confirmed: Whether the West End production’s original 2021 stars Eddie Redmayne (as the Emcee) or Jessie Buckley (as Sally Bowles) will make the move. Redmayne’s participation, in particular, has been widely speculated, prompted in part by his participation in this year’s Tony Awards tribute to Cabaret composer John Kander and actor Joel Grey, who played the Emcee in the original Broadway production as well as the 1972 movie version.
The West End revival – officially titled Cabaret At The Kit Kat Club – swept the 2022 Olivier Awards with seven wins including Best Musical Revival, Best Actor and Actress in a Musical (Redmayne and Buckley), and Best Director (Rebecca Frecknall). Supporting Actor and Actress in a Musical awards went to Elliot Levey and Liza Sadovy.
Not confirmed: Whether the West End production’s original 2021 stars Eddie Redmayne (as the Emcee) or Jessie Buckley (as Sally Bowles) will make the move. Redmayne’s participation, in particular, has been widely speculated, prompted in part by his participation in this year’s Tony Awards tribute to Cabaret composer John Kander and actor Joel Grey, who played the Emcee in the original Broadway production as well as the 1972 movie version.
The West End revival – officially titled Cabaret At The Kit Kat Club – swept the 2022 Olivier Awards with seven wins including Best Musical Revival, Best Actor and Actress in a Musical (Redmayne and Buckley), and Best Director (Rebecca Frecknall). Supporting Actor and Actress in a Musical awards went to Elliot Levey and Liza Sadovy.
- 7/11/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
The Great Italian Films of the 1970sThere was a certain type of great art film which was being made from 1968 through the 1970s which can never be approximated. Active and engaged filmmakers were consciously wakening out of the post-war amnesia and taking a perversely erotically charged political stand against the hypocrisy of the previous generation.
Italy was the hotbed of this examination of fascism coming out of World War II. Luchino Visconti’s The Damned (1969), Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s infamous Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975). Even the American musical, via Bob Fosse’s adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories, Cabaret (1972) hinted at what the Italians went after with their full force of creative muscle.
Take Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974), set in Vienna in 1957, the film centers on the sadomasochistic relationship between a former Nazi concentration camp officer (Dirk Bogarde) and one of his inmates (Charlotte Rampling). Their sadomasochistic love is their only happiness and it paralyzes the former Nazis who have been reintegrated into polite society.
Universally reviled by U.S.’s top critics, Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times called it “as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering”. Vincent Canby, prominent critic for The New York Times, called it “romantic pornography” and “a piece of junk”. Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker, “Many of us can’t take more than a few hard-core porno movies, because the absence of any human esteem makes them depressing rather than sexy; The Night Porteroffers the same dehumanized view and is brazen enough to use the Second World War as an excuse.”
Susan Sontag’s essay Fascinating Facism for New York Review of Books (February 6, 1975) stated, “If the message of fascism has been neutralized by an aesthetic view of life, its trappings have been sexualized. This eroticization of fascism can be remarked in such enthralling and devout manifestations as Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask and Sun and Steel, and in films like Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising and, more recently and far less interestingly, in Visconti’s The Damned and Cavani’s The Night Porter.”
However, its value was recognized by the executive producer Joseph E. Levine who quoted them on the posters of the U.S. theatrical release through his company Avco Embassy.
In a brilliant essay of the film by Kat Ellinger I quote:
Filmmakers were suddenly touching the untouchable, and it made certain people incredibly uncomfortable.”
Unlike Naziploitation, The Night Porter does nothing to cartoonise the Nazi officers that dominate the narrative. It isn’t a case of good versus evil, or that sadism is presented as a form of lasivious softcore pornography. Neither is the film a deliberate political treatise like the art films of Bertolucci, Visconti, or Pasolini. Its biggest transgression is that it humanises one of its main characters, Max (Dirk Bogarde), a former Nazi officer with a penchant for sadism, when he finds his ‘little girl’ again in the postwar period; a former concentration camp inmate Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) with whom he undertook a sadistic affair while she was incarcerated. On reuniting it is clear that their loved never died, so they continue, even though they know it will eventually contribute to their downfall and consequent death. Love in this realm is desperately profane, disgusting, something that should never be. And because of this it remains infinitely fascinating and uniquely humanistic.
Related in spirit was Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris (1972), using sex to express the death of love and male causality, its own furor when it hit American cinemas still continues to court controversy; and Luchino Visconti’s The Innocent (1976), based upon the novel by the decadent writer Gabriele D’Annunzio, expressing the same but in a totally antithetical environment of the aristocracy. Bertolluci’s The Conformist(1970) twisted the repressed homosexual of its title into a sadomasochistic fascist.
One could say, as did Gabriel Jenkinson, “the dynamics of conformity present in the modern consumerist capitalist system result in repression, which in turn manifests as violent sadomasochism — and …if one does not actively rebel against this system, one is complicit in its proliferation.”
Parenthetically on the other side of the earth, in Japan, In the Realm of the Senses (1976) by Nagisa Ôshima about a woman whose affair with her master leads to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship also came out of Oshima’s early involvement with the student protest movement in Kyoto in ‘68 and out of his concern with the contradictions and tensions of postwar Japanese society in which he exposed contemporary Japanese materialism, while also examining what it means to be Japanese in the face of rapid industrialization and Westernization.
In 2020 Vincent Canby might have revisited The Night Porter and seen it in a different light. His 2020 review of Visconti’s last film, L’innocente (The Innocent), completed in 1976 shortly before his death was “among the most beautiful and severely disciplined films he has ever made.” It was also brazenly sadistic and sexy to a point that today would be labeled pornographic, and today could not be conceived of, much less made, diving, as it does, into sex, abortion, male domination and violence.
According to The World, public radio’s longest-running daily global news program, a co-production of Prx and Wgbh, in 2012:
British scientists have finally confirmed what women worldwide have been suspecting for centuries. It’s not religious principles that start wars. It’s not even civilization’s thirst for oil. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the penis.
According to a study published this week in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society publication, the male sex drive is the cause of most conflicts in the world, from soccer hooliganism to religious wars, not to mention family disputes over the toilet seat being left up.
According to this story in The Telegraph, the scientists call it the “male warrior instinct” and claim men are programmed to be aggressive toward outsiders. It apparently used to be a handy instinct, back when you had to kill other suitors in order to gain more access to mates, but nowadays, this only works in some countries and a few US cities. For the rest of us, this unreformed sex drive only means ever-increasing defense budgets.
The magnitude of this discovery is so great, it’s difficult to estimate the potential ramifications.
At only eight inches on average (or that’s what we have been told), it’s smaller in size than most other controversial discoveries, yet — just like the atom — it has catastrophic consequences if in the hands of the wrong people.
And so these filmmakers show us the pathological drive of the unleashed male libido.
But times are different in the 21st century. These films could never be approximated by our Tik Tok generation where porn has created a quick witty and essentially violent vibrato of sexuality. These films of the late ‘60s and ‘70s took the libido at its rawest and showed its drive as an expression of political evil in very different types of stories.
And it might be worth noting that of all these films, the most reviled was written and directed by a woman and in most of the films, it is, in fact, a woman who proves the stronger of the two sexes and disarms the man. What remains viscerally true to this day is that that missile shaped 8 inch organ needs to be beaten into a plowshare.
SexFascismMoviesItalyInternational Film...
Italy was the hotbed of this examination of fascism coming out of World War II. Luchino Visconti’s The Damned (1969), Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s infamous Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975). Even the American musical, via Bob Fosse’s adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories, Cabaret (1972) hinted at what the Italians went after with their full force of creative muscle.
Take Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974), set in Vienna in 1957, the film centers on the sadomasochistic relationship between a former Nazi concentration camp officer (Dirk Bogarde) and one of his inmates (Charlotte Rampling). Their sadomasochistic love is their only happiness and it paralyzes the former Nazis who have been reintegrated into polite society.
Universally reviled by U.S.’s top critics, Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times called it “as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering”. Vincent Canby, prominent critic for The New York Times, called it “romantic pornography” and “a piece of junk”. Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker, “Many of us can’t take more than a few hard-core porno movies, because the absence of any human esteem makes them depressing rather than sexy; The Night Porteroffers the same dehumanized view and is brazen enough to use the Second World War as an excuse.”
Susan Sontag’s essay Fascinating Facism for New York Review of Books (February 6, 1975) stated, “If the message of fascism has been neutralized by an aesthetic view of life, its trappings have been sexualized. This eroticization of fascism can be remarked in such enthralling and devout manifestations as Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask and Sun and Steel, and in films like Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising and, more recently and far less interestingly, in Visconti’s The Damned and Cavani’s The Night Porter.”
However, its value was recognized by the executive producer Joseph E. Levine who quoted them on the posters of the U.S. theatrical release through his company Avco Embassy.
In a brilliant essay of the film by Kat Ellinger I quote:
Filmmakers were suddenly touching the untouchable, and it made certain people incredibly uncomfortable.”
Unlike Naziploitation, The Night Porter does nothing to cartoonise the Nazi officers that dominate the narrative. It isn’t a case of good versus evil, or that sadism is presented as a form of lasivious softcore pornography. Neither is the film a deliberate political treatise like the art films of Bertolucci, Visconti, or Pasolini. Its biggest transgression is that it humanises one of its main characters, Max (Dirk Bogarde), a former Nazi officer with a penchant for sadism, when he finds his ‘little girl’ again in the postwar period; a former concentration camp inmate Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) with whom he undertook a sadistic affair while she was incarcerated. On reuniting it is clear that their loved never died, so they continue, even though they know it will eventually contribute to their downfall and consequent death. Love in this realm is desperately profane, disgusting, something that should never be. And because of this it remains infinitely fascinating and uniquely humanistic.
Related in spirit was Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris (1972), using sex to express the death of love and male causality, its own furor when it hit American cinemas still continues to court controversy; and Luchino Visconti’s The Innocent (1976), based upon the novel by the decadent writer Gabriele D’Annunzio, expressing the same but in a totally antithetical environment of the aristocracy. Bertolluci’s The Conformist(1970) twisted the repressed homosexual of its title into a sadomasochistic fascist.
One could say, as did Gabriel Jenkinson, “the dynamics of conformity present in the modern consumerist capitalist system result in repression, which in turn manifests as violent sadomasochism — and …if one does not actively rebel against this system, one is complicit in its proliferation.”
Parenthetically on the other side of the earth, in Japan, In the Realm of the Senses (1976) by Nagisa Ôshima about a woman whose affair with her master leads to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship also came out of Oshima’s early involvement with the student protest movement in Kyoto in ‘68 and out of his concern with the contradictions and tensions of postwar Japanese society in which he exposed contemporary Japanese materialism, while also examining what it means to be Japanese in the face of rapid industrialization and Westernization.
In 2020 Vincent Canby might have revisited The Night Porter and seen it in a different light. His 2020 review of Visconti’s last film, L’innocente (The Innocent), completed in 1976 shortly before his death was “among the most beautiful and severely disciplined films he has ever made.” It was also brazenly sadistic and sexy to a point that today would be labeled pornographic, and today could not be conceived of, much less made, diving, as it does, into sex, abortion, male domination and violence.
According to The World, public radio’s longest-running daily global news program, a co-production of Prx and Wgbh, in 2012:
British scientists have finally confirmed what women worldwide have been suspecting for centuries. It’s not religious principles that start wars. It’s not even civilization’s thirst for oil. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the penis.
According to a study published this week in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society publication, the male sex drive is the cause of most conflicts in the world, from soccer hooliganism to religious wars, not to mention family disputes over the toilet seat being left up.
According to this story in The Telegraph, the scientists call it the “male warrior instinct” and claim men are programmed to be aggressive toward outsiders. It apparently used to be a handy instinct, back when you had to kill other suitors in order to gain more access to mates, but nowadays, this only works in some countries and a few US cities. For the rest of us, this unreformed sex drive only means ever-increasing defense budgets.
The magnitude of this discovery is so great, it’s difficult to estimate the potential ramifications.
At only eight inches on average (or that’s what we have been told), it’s smaller in size than most other controversial discoveries, yet — just like the atom — it has catastrophic consequences if in the hands of the wrong people.
And so these filmmakers show us the pathological drive of the unleashed male libido.
But times are different in the 21st century. These films could never be approximated by our Tik Tok generation where porn has created a quick witty and essentially violent vibrato of sexuality. These films of the late ‘60s and ‘70s took the libido at its rawest and showed its drive as an expression of political evil in very different types of stories.
And it might be worth noting that of all these films, the most reviled was written and directed by a woman and in most of the films, it is, in fact, a woman who proves the stronger of the two sexes and disarms the man. What remains viscerally true to this day is that that missile shaped 8 inch organ needs to be beaten into a plowshare.
SexFascismMoviesItalyInternational Film...
- 2/11/2023
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
In the HBO series "House of the Dragon, actor Matt Smith plays Prince Daemon Targaryen, a character who will -- should "Dragon" last long enough -- no doubt commit multiple acts of murder, perhaps a few acts of torture, certainly several acts of incest, and, just for good measure, two separate acts of enthused cannibalism. Probably also tax evasion. This postulation is based merely on how lascivious and gnarly the show's predecessor, "Game of Thrones," was throughout its 2011 through 2019 run.
Smith's screen acting career began in 2006 with his appearance on a TV adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel "Ruby in the Smoke" and its sequel "Shadow in the North." He was a regular character on the BBC Two series "Party Animals" before landing the plum gig of The Doctor in "Doctor Who" in 2010. The Doctor, for neophytes, is a near-immortal space alien who can, upon his death, choose to regenerate into a new body.
Smith's screen acting career began in 2006 with his appearance on a TV adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel "Ruby in the Smoke" and its sequel "Shadow in the North." He was a regular character on the BBC Two series "Party Animals" before landing the plum gig of The Doctor in "Doctor Who" in 2010. The Doctor, for neophytes, is a near-immortal space alien who can, upon his death, choose to regenerate into a new body.
- 9/13/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
It’s a funny world we live in when a single bit of possible casting news can turn Film Twitter on its head. Overnight, the fans of 2019’s Joker and those more skeptical toward Todd Phillips making a sequel titled Joker: Folie à Deux switched places when it was confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter that Lady Gaga is in talks to play Dr. Harleen Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn… and that the movie is going to be a musical.
Suddenly those of us who were ambivalent toward the prospect of more Scorsese allusions in murderous clown makeup sat up and took notice while those eager for more of the same were left befuddled. A musical?! Sure! Why not?! Recall that in the climax of the first Joker, Joaquin Phoenix’s titular character is literally dancing to music, if only in his own head, while winding himself up to shoot Robert De Niro on live television.
Suddenly those of us who were ambivalent toward the prospect of more Scorsese allusions in murderous clown makeup sat up and took notice while those eager for more of the same were left befuddled. A musical?! Sure! Why not?! Recall that in the climax of the first Joker, Joaquin Phoenix’s titular character is literally dancing to music, if only in his own head, while winding himself up to shoot Robert De Niro on live television.
- 6/15/2022
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
Rupert Everett is speaking out about a role he feels should’ve been his — specifically, George Falconer in “A Single Man,” who was played by Colin Firth.
Speaking on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” (via The Independent), Everett touched on the topic of straight actors playing gay roles, and while he doesn’t think all gay roles should be played by gay actors, he seemed annoyed that the straight-identifying Firth played a gay role in Tom Ford’s 2009 film.
“It’s quite frustrating. I was frustrated, I remember going to see Colin Firth in the film by Tom Ford [‘A Single Man’]. I thought, ‘Well, thanks, Colin. That’s the end of my career. Because you know, that role really should have been mine,” he said. “So you know, there’s a frustration about that, of course.”
In the film — which is directed by a gay man from a novel by the beloved gay writer...
Speaking on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” (via The Independent), Everett touched on the topic of straight actors playing gay roles, and while he doesn’t think all gay roles should be played by gay actors, he seemed annoyed that the straight-identifying Firth played a gay role in Tom Ford’s 2009 film.
“It’s quite frustrating. I was frustrated, I remember going to see Colin Firth in the film by Tom Ford [‘A Single Man’]. I thought, ‘Well, thanks, Colin. That’s the end of my career. Because you know, that role really should have been mine,” he said. “So you know, there’s a frustration about that, of course.”
In the film — which is directed by a gay man from a novel by the beloved gay writer...
- 5/19/2022
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Minnelli brings the razzle dazzle to a Berlin determined to ignore the gathering storm in this cinematic masterpiece
‘Still think you can control them?” Dizzied by their divinely decadent menage à trois in Weimar Berlin, cabaret singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), shy scholar Brian Roberts (Michael York) and suave aristocrat Baron von Heune (Helmut Griem) linger in a beer garden to watch a creepy blond boy singing Tomorrow Belongs to Me with the entire crowd ecstatically joining in – a satanically catchy and authentic-sounding Nazi marching song, brilliantly pastiched by Cabaret’s writer and composer, John Kander and Fred Ebb. It is a sensational moment in this addictive movie, based on the stage show Cabaret and Christopher Isherwood’s original stories about prewar Berlin, uniquely choreographed and directed by Bob Fosse and rereleased now for its 50th anniversary.
Maybe its views on gender fluidity and consent are confrontationally tactless in 2022 compared...
‘Still think you can control them?” Dizzied by their divinely decadent menage à trois in Weimar Berlin, cabaret singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli), shy scholar Brian Roberts (Michael York) and suave aristocrat Baron von Heune (Helmut Griem) linger in a beer garden to watch a creepy blond boy singing Tomorrow Belongs to Me with the entire crowd ecstatically joining in – a satanically catchy and authentic-sounding Nazi marching song, brilliantly pastiched by Cabaret’s writer and composer, John Kander and Fred Ebb. It is a sensational moment in this addictive movie, based on the stage show Cabaret and Christopher Isherwood’s original stories about prewar Berlin, uniquely choreographed and directed by Bob Fosse and rereleased now for its 50th anniversary.
Maybe its views on gender fluidity and consent are confrontationally tactless in 2022 compared...
- 5/5/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Robert Morse, the impish actor and singer who found early fame and success as the Tony Award-winning star of Broadway’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and enjoyed a late-career second act as an eccentric elder statesman of advertising in AMC’s Mad Men, died yesterday. He was 90.
His death was confirmed by son Charlie to Los Angeles’ ABC affiliate Wednesday night, and was announced on Twitter this morning by Larry Karaszewski, a writer, producer and VP on the board of governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“My good pal Bobby Morse has passed away at age 90,” Karaszewski wrote. “A huge talent and a beautiful spirit. Sending love to his son Charlie & daughter Allyn. Had so much fun hanging with Bobby over the years – filming People v Oj & hosting so many screenings.”
Additional information on...
His death was confirmed by son Charlie to Los Angeles’ ABC affiliate Wednesday night, and was announced on Twitter this morning by Larry Karaszewski, a writer, producer and VP on the board of governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“My good pal Bobby Morse has passed away at age 90,” Karaszewski wrote. “A huge talent and a beautiful spirit. Sending love to his son Charlie & daughter Allyn. Had so much fun hanging with Bobby over the years – filming People v Oj & hosting so many screenings.”
Additional information on...
- 4/21/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
A version of this story about Judi Dench first appeared in the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
Dame Judi Dench and and Sir Kenneth Branagh’s twelfth collaboration since they met in 1987 was a auspicious one: Playing her longtime friend’s grandmother in his autobiographical coming-of-age drama “Belfast” earned Dench her eighth Oscar nomination.
“It is good, always, to know somebody so well that you have a kind of shorthand with them, which I have with Ken because we’ve worked together for such a long time,” Dench told TheWrap. “But this was a very personal story to him and we all, I think, felt a tremendous responsibility to him to get it right. And I hope that’s what we did.”
Dench’s career, of course, was thriving for decades before she and Branagh crossed paths. She spent years in the London theater beginning in the 1950s,...
Dame Judi Dench and and Sir Kenneth Branagh’s twelfth collaboration since they met in 1987 was a auspicious one: Playing her longtime friend’s grandmother in his autobiographical coming-of-age drama “Belfast” earned Dench her eighth Oscar nomination.
“It is good, always, to know somebody so well that you have a kind of shorthand with them, which I have with Ken because we’ve worked together for such a long time,” Dench told TheWrap. “But this was a very personal story to him and we all, I think, felt a tremendous responsibility to him to get it right. And I hope that’s what we did.”
Dench’s career, of course, was thriving for decades before she and Branagh crossed paths. She spent years in the London theater beginning in the 1950s,...
- 3/15/2022
- by Missy Schwartz
- The Wrap
The Dog Days Aren’t Over: Graf Puts a New Coat of Paint on the Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic, aka the German Republic, which lasted from 1918 to 1933, is one of the most romanticized periods of a cultural renaissance in literature or cinema. Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel (1930) heralded the rise of Marlene Dietrich, while Christopher Isherwood’s experiences resulted in his Berlin Stories (1945), which gave us the penultimate Cabaret (1972). But this period of chaotic excesses, Germany’s “Golden Twenties,” which mirrored the hedonistic onslaught across the Atlantic with America’s own Roaring Twenties, of course came crashing down into one of the darkest chapters of world history as the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler forever changed our conception of modern man’s capability for hatred and penchant for cruelty.…...
The Weimar Republic, aka the German Republic, which lasted from 1918 to 1933, is one of the most romanticized periods of a cultural renaissance in literature or cinema. Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel (1930) heralded the rise of Marlene Dietrich, while Christopher Isherwood’s experiences resulted in his Berlin Stories (1945), which gave us the penultimate Cabaret (1972). But this period of chaotic excesses, Germany’s “Golden Twenties,” which mirrored the hedonistic onslaught across the Atlantic with America’s own Roaring Twenties, of course came crashing down into one of the darkest chapters of world history as the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler forever changed our conception of modern man’s capability for hatred and penchant for cruelty.…...
- 2/7/2022
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The legendary actor reflects on her riches-to-rags childhood, confronting depression and alcoholism – and dancing with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire
Leslie Caron and her companion, Jack, greet me at the front of their apartment. They make a well-matched couple – slight, chic, immaculately coiffured. Caron, the legendary dancer and actor, is 90 in two weeks’ time. Jack, her beloved shih tzu, is about nine.
Caron heads off to make the tea, with Sidney Bechet’s summery jazz playing in the background. I am left alone with Jack to explore the living room. It feels as if I am tunnelling through the history of 20th-century culture. Here is a photo of a pensive François Truffaut; below is a smirking Warren Beatty. The centrepiece on the wall is a huge watercolour of Caron’s great friend Christopher Isherwood, painted by his partner, Don Bachardy. To the left is Louis Armstrong, to the right Rudolf Nureyev,...
Leslie Caron and her companion, Jack, greet me at the front of their apartment. They make a well-matched couple – slight, chic, immaculately coiffured. Caron, the legendary dancer and actor, is 90 in two weeks’ time. Jack, her beloved shih tzu, is about nine.
Caron heads off to make the tea, with Sidney Bechet’s summery jazz playing in the background. I am left alone with Jack to explore the living room. It feels as if I am tunnelling through the history of 20th-century culture. Here is a photo of a pensive François Truffaut; below is a smirking Warren Beatty. The centrepiece on the wall is a huge watercolour of Caron’s great friend Christopher Isherwood, painted by his partner, Don Bachardy. To the left is Louis Armstrong, to the right Rudolf Nureyev,...
- 6/21/2021
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
Writer, producer, director Lee Daniels discusses some of his favorite films with Josh & Joe.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Infested (2002)
Shadowboxer (2005)
The United States Vs. Billie Holiday (2021)
A Star Is Born (1937)
Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013)
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
Lady Sings The Blues (1972)
Island In The Sun (1957)
Carmen Jones (1954)
Claudine (1974)
Mandingo (1975)
Drum (1976)
Caligula (1979)
Gloria (1980)
The Exorcist (1973)
Abby (1974)
Blacula (1972)
Scream Blacula Scream (1973)
Cabaret (1972)
Lenny (1974)
Sounder (1972)
All That Jazz (1979)
I Am A Camera (1955)
Travels With My Aunt (1972)
The Emigrants (1971)
Star 80 (1983)
Harold And Maude (1971)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Pickup On South Street (1953)
In The Mood For Love (2000)
Leave Her To Heaven (1945)
Laura (1944)
Dragonwyck (1946)
The Baron of Arizona (1950)
His Kind of Woman (1951)
Explorers (1985)
Innerspace (1987)
Jack Reacher (2012)
Them (1954)
Revenge of the Creature (1955)
Tarantula! (1955)
Coogan’s Bluff (1968)
Going In Style (1979)
Going In Style (2017)
Judas And The Black Messiah (2021)
Stroszek (1977)
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
Cave Of Forgotten Dreams...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Infested (2002)
Shadowboxer (2005)
The United States Vs. Billie Holiday (2021)
A Star Is Born (1937)
Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013)
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
Lady Sings The Blues (1972)
Island In The Sun (1957)
Carmen Jones (1954)
Claudine (1974)
Mandingo (1975)
Drum (1976)
Caligula (1979)
Gloria (1980)
The Exorcist (1973)
Abby (1974)
Blacula (1972)
Scream Blacula Scream (1973)
Cabaret (1972)
Lenny (1974)
Sounder (1972)
All That Jazz (1979)
I Am A Camera (1955)
Travels With My Aunt (1972)
The Emigrants (1971)
Star 80 (1983)
Harold And Maude (1971)
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Pickup On South Street (1953)
In The Mood For Love (2000)
Leave Her To Heaven (1945)
Laura (1944)
Dragonwyck (1946)
The Baron of Arizona (1950)
His Kind of Woman (1951)
Explorers (1985)
Innerspace (1987)
Jack Reacher (2012)
Them (1954)
Revenge of the Creature (1955)
Tarantula! (1955)
Coogan’s Bluff (1968)
Going In Style (1979)
Going In Style (2017)
Judas And The Black Messiah (2021)
Stroszek (1977)
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)
Cave Of Forgotten Dreams...
- 3/2/2021
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
One of the more unexpected shifts in media habits during the pandemic, at least for me, has been a new interest in those little bird-box book libraries that inhabit front lawns in the quieter neighborhoods here. I regularly pass a dozen of them on a circuit of five or six miles around Santa Monica and Brentwood. Always, I stop to see what they’re offering. Sometimes, bag and sanitizer in hand, I’ll actually swap a book.
It’s a fascinating exercise, in that the books—from a crumbling Pocket Book edition of George Plimpton’s Out of My League, printed in 1967, to the hefty contemporary cookbooks at a stand-up shed in Santa Monica Canyon—turn out to be far more intellectually, culturally, and politically diverse than the current run of lawn signs, cable news or festival films.
Publicly, people in this neighborhood, which much of the entertainment community calls home,...
It’s a fascinating exercise, in that the books—from a crumbling Pocket Book edition of George Plimpton’s Out of My League, printed in 1967, to the hefty contemporary cookbooks at a stand-up shed in Santa Monica Canyon—turn out to be far more intellectually, culturally, and politically diverse than the current run of lawn signs, cable news or festival films.
Publicly, people in this neighborhood, which much of the entertainment community calls home,...
- 1/25/2021
- by Michael Cieply
- Deadline Film + TV
We have a relatively quiet week of home media releases ahead of us this week, but the titles that are coming out are a rad bunch of films nonetheless. Scream Factory is doing the Dark Lord’s work with both the Collector’s Edition of April Fool’s Day and the HD release of Frankenstein: The True Story. If you missed it in theaters back in January, Nicolas Pesce’s The Grudge (2020) is headed to various platforms this Tuesday, and Arrow Video has put together a stellar Special Edition release of Philip Ridley’s The Passion of Darkly Noon as well.
Other Blu-ray and DVD releases for March 24th include Endless Night, Cabal, Hunter’s Moon, The Zombinator, and The Wizard: Collector’s Edition.
April Fool’s Day: Collector’s Edition
Good friends...with some time to kill. When Muffy St. John invited her college friends up to her parents' secluded...
Other Blu-ray and DVD releases for March 24th include Endless Night, Cabal, Hunter’s Moon, The Zombinator, and The Wizard: Collector’s Edition.
April Fool’s Day: Collector’s Edition
Good friends...with some time to kill. When Muffy St. John invited her college friends up to her parents' secluded...
- 3/23/2020
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Based on Mary Shelley’s timeless novel Frankenstein, Jack Smight's Frankenstein: The True Story is coming to Blu-ray on March 24th from Scream Factory, and ahead of its release, we've been provided with the full list of bonus features and a look at the cover art:
Press Release: Get ready to experience the horror and suspense of the timeless Frankenstein story. On March 24, 2020, Scream Factory™ will unleash the epic horror classic Frankenstein: The True Story on Blu-ray. Directed by Jack Smight and teleplay by Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, this gruesome, heart-pounding thriller features an incredible cast, including James Mason, Leonard Whiting (Romeo & Juliet), David McCallum, Jane Seymour, Nicola Pagett (An Awfully Big Adventure), Michael Sarrazin, and Agnes Moorehead. Frankenstein: The True Story retells Mary Shelley’s unforgettable story. Victor Frankenstein’s medical experiments result in the shocking discovery that he can revive the dead. But when the...
Press Release: Get ready to experience the horror and suspense of the timeless Frankenstein story. On March 24, 2020, Scream Factory™ will unleash the epic horror classic Frankenstein: The True Story on Blu-ray. Directed by Jack Smight and teleplay by Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, this gruesome, heart-pounding thriller features an incredible cast, including James Mason, Leonard Whiting (Romeo & Juliet), David McCallum, Jane Seymour, Nicola Pagett (An Awfully Big Adventure), Michael Sarrazin, and Agnes Moorehead. Frankenstein: The True Story retells Mary Shelley’s unforgettable story. Victor Frankenstein’s medical experiments result in the shocking discovery that he can revive the dead. But when the...
- 2/13/2020
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
A biographer of Christopher Isherwood once remarked that the legendary writer’s friends seemed to grow younger and younger the older he became. There was a detectable whiff of contempt in this observation, and it irked the hell out of me, since I had been one of those younger friends, one of the lucky souls who, in the late 1970s, found ourselves around Isherwood’s dinner table in his little house above Santa Monica Canyon. Sure, some of us were young, but every age of queer was represented.
What I found around that table was more than rich, mirthful conversation — about books, about movies, about sex — but a satisfying sense of intergenerational connection.
Just by sharing our stories we could discern where we were heading and where we had been. There was time travel involved, too, since Isherwood had known Somerset Maugham and E.M. Forster and had once even hidden...
What I found around that table was more than rich, mirthful conversation — about books, about movies, about sex — but a satisfying sense of intergenerational connection.
Just by sharing our stories we could discern where we were heading and where we had been. There was time travel involved, too, since Isherwood had known Somerset Maugham and E.M. Forster and had once even hidden...
- 6/21/2019
- by Armistead Maupin
- Variety Film + TV
Some months in advance of Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” a film about the Manson murders, comes Mary Harron’s “Charlie Says,” a very strained attempt to understand the motivations of the women who killed for Charles Manson.
“Charlie Says” is based on a book by Karlene Faith, a teacher who started working with three of Manson’s “girls” three years after they were put in prison for murder. The title comes from the constant refrain of these brainwashed young women, who still believe outlandish things that Manson told them about becoming winged elves after a race war.
The sound design is atmospheric and subjective in the first scenes, where we see Leslie Van Houten showering after the stabbing of Leno and Rosemary Labianca, but this subjectivity is abandoned once the film takes us to the Spahn Ranch where Manson holds sway.
Also Read: 'The Haunting...
“Charlie Says” is based on a book by Karlene Faith, a teacher who started working with three of Manson’s “girls” three years after they were put in prison for murder. The title comes from the constant refrain of these brainwashed young women, who still believe outlandish things that Manson told them about becoming winged elves after a race war.
The sound design is atmospheric and subjective in the first scenes, where we see Leslie Van Houten showering after the stabbing of Leno and Rosemary Labianca, but this subjectivity is abandoned once the film takes us to the Spahn Ranch where Manson holds sway.
Also Read: 'The Haunting...
- 5/7/2019
- by Dan Callahan
- The Wrap
The major thing that “Mapplethorpe” has in its favor is that the film is afraid of neither the life nor the work of the notorious photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.
Documentary director Ondi Timoner (“We Live in Public”), making her narrative debut, has ensured that this movie acknowledges the many hard edges and unattractive qualities of this man while also celebrating and not looking away from his most explicit and scariest photographs, many of which rather surprisingly appear on screen.
Most mainstream films are afraid of showing the male penis, or anything having to do with sadomasochism, but Timoner’s attitude here seems to be, “Bring it on!” Timoner’s gutsiness is shared (and then some) by her star Matt Smith, a British actor who very convincingly played another gay male icon, writer Christopher Isherwood, in a TV movie of Isherwood’s memoir “Christopher and His Kind” in 2011.
Also Read: 'Mapplethorpe,...
Documentary director Ondi Timoner (“We Live in Public”), making her narrative debut, has ensured that this movie acknowledges the many hard edges and unattractive qualities of this man while also celebrating and not looking away from his most explicit and scariest photographs, many of which rather surprisingly appear on screen.
Most mainstream films are afraid of showing the male penis, or anything having to do with sadomasochism, but Timoner’s attitude here seems to be, “Bring it on!” Timoner’s gutsiness is shared (and then some) by her star Matt Smith, a British actor who very convincingly played another gay male icon, writer Christopher Isherwood, in a TV movie of Isherwood’s memoir “Christopher and His Kind” in 2011.
Also Read: 'Mapplethorpe,...
- 2/27/2019
- by Dan Callahan
- The Wrap
The Coen Brothers' Western anthology, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, features real gems in its tall tales (as well as some fool's gold).
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” could be a movie. If that seems an odd thing to say at the top of a review for the Coen Brothers’ newest film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, that is because the “Buster Scruggs” of Buster Scruggs is only a fraction of the overall film. Or to be more precise, it is the first (and best) short film in an anthology of six Western yarns written and directed with real affection by Joel and Ethan Coen. And while among the other five shorts in the piece there are also gems (as well as a few pieces of fool’s gold), the picture never quite overcomes how strong the first short was.
Opening on a vast wide shot in John Ford’s cinematic backyard,...
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” could be a movie. If that seems an odd thing to say at the top of a review for the Coen Brothers’ newest film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, that is because the “Buster Scruggs” of Buster Scruggs is only a fraction of the overall film. Or to be more precise, it is the first (and best) short film in an anthology of six Western yarns written and directed with real affection by Joel and Ethan Coen. And while among the other five shorts in the piece there are also gems (as well as a few pieces of fool’s gold), the picture never quite overcomes how strong the first short was.
Opening on a vast wide shot in John Ford’s cinematic backyard,...
- 10/4/2018
- Den of Geek
The Coen Brothers' Western anthology, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, features real gems in its tall tales (as well as some fool's gold).
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” could be a movie. If that seems an odd thing to say at the top of a review for the Coen Brothers’ newest film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, that is because the “Buster Scruggs” of Buster Scruggs is only a fraction of the overall film. Or to be more precise, it is the first (and best) short film in an anthology of six Western yarns written and directed with real affection by Joel and Ethan Coen. And while among the other five shorts in the piece there are also gems (as well as a few pieces of fool’s gold), the picture never quite overcomes how strong the first short was.
Opening on a vast wide shot in John Ford’s cinematic backyard,...
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” could be a movie. If that seems an odd thing to say at the top of a review for the Coen Brothers’ newest film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, that is because the “Buster Scruggs” of Buster Scruggs is only a fraction of the overall film. Or to be more precise, it is the first (and best) short film in an anthology of six Western yarns written and directed with real affection by Joel and Ethan Coen. And while among the other five shorts in the piece there are also gems (as well as a few pieces of fool’s gold), the picture never quite overcomes how strong the first short was.
Opening on a vast wide shot in John Ford’s cinematic backyard,...
- 10/4/2018
- Den of Geek
Joe Masteroff, the librettist for two of Broadway’s most beloved musicals – Cabaret and She Loves Me – died today at the Actors Fund Home in Engelwood, New Jersey. He was 98 years old.
His death was confirmed by Howard Marren, a friend and his literary executor.
Born in Philadelphia to the owners of a notions store, Masteroff served in the Army during World War II, so thereafter qualified for free classes at the American Theatre Wing’s Professional School. He studied playwriting under the tutelage of Tea and Sympathy author Robert Anderson, and several years later his own play The Warm Peninsula starring Julie Harris toured nationally before arriving on Broadway.
Harold Prince saw The Warm Peninsula and hired Masteroff to adapt a musical based on an Hungarian play by Miklos Laszlo, which became 1963’s She Loves Me, with music by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick and direction by Prince. The...
His death was confirmed by Howard Marren, a friend and his literary executor.
Born in Philadelphia to the owners of a notions store, Masteroff served in the Army during World War II, so thereafter qualified for free classes at the American Theatre Wing’s Professional School. He studied playwriting under the tutelage of Tea and Sympathy author Robert Anderson, and several years later his own play The Warm Peninsula starring Julie Harris toured nationally before arriving on Broadway.
Harold Prince saw The Warm Peninsula and hired Masteroff to adapt a musical based on an Hungarian play by Miklos Laszlo, which became 1963’s She Loves Me, with music by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick and direction by Prince. The...
- 9/28/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
No matter what they do to Los Angeles, and lately they’ve done quite a lot with all the traffic, hyper-development, and electric scooters, they can’t get rid of the movie ghosts. The accumulated haunt of a century-old industry, those pop up in nooks and crannies, sometimes where you least expect them. There are a couple next door to Katy Perry’s coveted convent-house in Los Feliz, for instance. That’s where the Manson family killed the Labiancas a night after murdering Sharon Tate and friends, setting off Hollywood’s Helter Skelter panic. The address on the curb has been changed. But the ghosts are still there.
A mostly gentler sort stalk one of my favorite memory pockets, Santa Monica Canyon. Geographically, that’s a leafy trough that runs between the Pacific Palisades district of Los Angeles and the City of Santa Monica. It has identity issues. The postal addresses,...
A mostly gentler sort stalk one of my favorite memory pockets, Santa Monica Canyon. Geographically, that’s a leafy trough that runs between the Pacific Palisades district of Los Angeles and the City of Santa Monica. It has identity issues. The postal addresses,...
- 9/16/2018
- by Michael Cieply
- Deadline Film + TV
(See previous post: “Gay Pride Movie Series Comes to a Close: From Heterosexual Angst to Indonesian Coup.”) Ken Russell's Valentino (1977) is notable for starring ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev as silent era icon Rudolph Valentino, whose sexual orientation, despite countless gay rumors, seems to have been, according to the available evidence, heterosexual. (Valentino's supposed affair with fellow “Latin Lover” Ramon Novarro has no basis in reality.) The female cast is also impressive: Veteran Leslie Caron (Lili, Gigi) as stage and screen star Alla Nazimova, ex-The Mamas & the Papas singer Michelle Phillips as Valentino wife and Nazimova protégée Natacha Rambova, Felicity Kendal as screenwriter/producer June Mathis (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse), and Carol Kane – lately of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt fame. Bob Fosse's Cabaret (1972) is notable as one of the greatest musicals ever made. As a 1930s Cabaret presenter – and the Spirit of Germany – Joel Grey was the year's Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner. Liza Minnelli...
- 6/30/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Turner Classic Movies' 2017 Gay Pride film series comes to a close this evening and tomorrow morning, Thursday–Friday, June 29–30, with the presentation of seven movies, hosted by TV interviewer Dave Karger and author William J. Mann, whose books include Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines and Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969. Among tonight's movies' Lgbt connections: Edward Albee, Tony Richardson, Evelyn Waugh, Tab Hunter, John Gielgud, Roddy McDowall, Linda Hunt, Harvey Fierstein, Rudolf Nureyev, Christopher Isherwood, Joel Grey, and Tommy Kirk. Update: Coincidentally, TCM's final 2017 Gay Pride celebration turned out to be held the evening before a couple of international events – and one non-event – demonstrated that despite noticeable progress in the last three decades, gay rights, even in the so-called “West,” still have a long way to go. In Texas, the state's – all-Republican – Supreme Court decided that married gays should be treated as separate and unequal. In...
- 6/30/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Loved One
Blu-ray
Warner Archives
1965 / B&W / 1:85 / / 122 min. / Street Date May 9, 2017
Starring: Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer.
Cinematography: Haskell Wexler
Film Editor: Hal Ashby, Brian Smedley-Aston
Written by Terry Southern, Christopher Isherwood
Produced by Martin Ransohoff (uncredited), John Calley, Haskell Wexler
Directed by Tony Richardson
Funeral Director: Before you go, I was just wondering… would you be interested in some extras for the loved one?
Next Of Kin: What kind of extras?
Funeral Director: Well, how about a casket?
Mike Nichols and Elaine May – The $65 Dollar Funeral
That routine, a classic example of what was known in the early 60’s as “sick humor”, was nevertheless ubiquitous across mainstream variety shows like Ed Sullivan and Jack Paar. It also popularized the notion of a new boutique industry, the vanity funeral. The novelist Evelyn Waugh, decidedly less mainstream, documented the beginning of that phenomenon over a decade earlier with The Loved One,...
Blu-ray
Warner Archives
1965 / B&W / 1:85 / / 122 min. / Street Date May 9, 2017
Starring: Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer.
Cinematography: Haskell Wexler
Film Editor: Hal Ashby, Brian Smedley-Aston
Written by Terry Southern, Christopher Isherwood
Produced by Martin Ransohoff (uncredited), John Calley, Haskell Wexler
Directed by Tony Richardson
Funeral Director: Before you go, I was just wondering… would you be interested in some extras for the loved one?
Next Of Kin: What kind of extras?
Funeral Director: Well, how about a casket?
Mike Nichols and Elaine May – The $65 Dollar Funeral
That routine, a classic example of what was known in the early 60’s as “sick humor”, was nevertheless ubiquitous across mainstream variety shows like Ed Sullivan and Jack Paar. It also popularized the notion of a new boutique industry, the vanity funeral. The novelist Evelyn Waugh, decidedly less mainstream, documented the beginning of that phenomenon over a decade earlier with The Loved One,...
- 5/8/2017
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
In Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel, “A Single Man,” a homosexual dies unexpectedly and his body is immediately referred to as something akin to the morning’s garbage. In the 2009 film version directed by Tom Ford, Colin Firth doesn’t turn into garbage. Rather, he becomes the best-dressed corpse ever. David Hyde Pierce doesn’t resemble the contents of a body bag in Adam Bock’s provocative new play, “A Life,” nor is he even very well groomed. But he is a single gay man, not entirely satisfied with his life; and as in the Isherwood classic, we experience the ferocious rush of life.
- 10/25/2016
- by Robert Hofler
- The Wrap
Tom Ford's directing debut A Single Man made him a very wanted filmmaker in Hollywood. The big screen adaptation of the Christopher Isherwood novel of the same name earned one Oscar nomination and three Golden Globe noms. Now, seven years later, Ford's second directorial outing, Nocturnal Animals, is already being touted for award season. Just last week, he won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. He promises not to wait as long to make his next film. "I know what it is but I'm not ready to talk about it yet," Ford told me at the Toronto International Film Festival. "It's not going to be seven years. Let's say two and a half or three. I think it takes...
- 9/16/2016
- E! Online
Six years ago, critics and audiences were taken completely by surprise by A Single Man. The sensitive, stylish drama, adapted from a 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood, was about one day in the life of a dapper college professor (Colin Firth) who has decided to kill himself rather than live with the grief of his lover's death. For his poignant performance, Firth was nominated for an Academy Award. He lost - but when Firth scored the Best Actor Oscar the next year for The King's Speech, he took a moment to acknowledge A Single Man's first-time director from the podium: "And...
- 7/25/2016
- by Joe McGovern
- PEOPLE.com
Six years ago, critics and audiences were taken completely by surprise by A Single Man. The sensitive, stylish drama, adapted from a 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood, was about one day in the life of a dapper college professor (Colin Firth) who has decided to kill himself rather than live with the grief of his lover's death. For his poignant performance, Firth was nominated for an Academy Award. He lost - but when Firth scored the Best Actor Oscar the next year for The King's Speech, he took a moment to acknowledge A Single Man's first-time director from the podium: "And...
- 7/25/2016
- by Joe McGovern
- PEOPLE.com
They say tense sets often make for good movies and Cabaret is no exception. Desperate for a hit after the flop of Sweet Charity, director Bob Fosse rode herd on the cast, especially Joel Grey, who originated the role of the creepy Kit Kat Klub emcee on Broadway but almost lost his Oscar-winning part in the movie to Fosse’s initial choice….Ruth Gordon. At one point Fosse spitefully reduced all Grey’s musical numbers to snippets (the producers put it all back). The finished movie won eight Oscars including Best Director for Fosse and Best Actress for star Liza Minnelli, who never had a better role. Christopher Isherwood’s “Berlin Stories”, which introduced the character of Sally Bowles, had been filmed as a straight drama in 1955 under the title I Am a Camera.
- 7/11/2016
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
Today in 1998, the second Broadway revival of Caberat opened at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre then called the KIt Kat Klub, where it ran for 2377 performances. Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions. Set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, it focuses on nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around the 19-year-old English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with the young American writer Cliff Bradshaw. Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub which serves as a constant metaphor for the tenuous and threatening state of late Weimar Germany throughout the show.
- 3/19/2016
- by Stage Tube
- BroadwayWorld.com
Flicker Alley's posted a round of essays and interviews in conjunction with its release of its collection of American avant-garde works on DVD and Blu-ray. Discussed here are Stan Brakhage, Bruce Baillie, Lawrence Jordan, Joseph Cornell, Maya Deren, Shirley Clarke and more. Also in today's roundup: Books on Werner Herzog, Groucho Marx, Marlene Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, David Hare and Christopher Isherwood; new Film-Philosophy essays on Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Eclisse, Busby Berkeley, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood and Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko, Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox and Samuel Beckett. And more. » - David Hudson...
- 12/24/2015
- Keyframe
Flicker Alley's posted a round of essays and interviews in conjunction with its release of its collection of American avant-garde works on DVD and Blu-ray. Discussed here are Stan Brakhage, Bruce Baillie, Lawrence Jordan, Joseph Cornell, Maya Deren, Shirley Clarke and more. Also in today's roundup: Books on Werner Herzog, Groucho Marx, Marlene Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl, Orson Welles, Woody Allen, David Hare and Christopher Isherwood; new Film-Philosophy essays on Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Eclisse, Busby Berkeley, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood and Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko, Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox and Samuel Beckett. And more. » - David Hudson...
- 12/24/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
'Sunset Blvd.': Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond. The Charles Brackett Diaries: Gay Rumors quashed, troubled Billy Wilder partnership discussed in Q&A with Anthony Slide See previous post: “Charles Brackett Diaries: Politics and Gossip During the Studio Era.” First of all, how did you become involved in this Charles Brackett project? And what did your editorial job entail? I discovered the diaries about six years ago when I was asked by Brackett's grandson, Jim Moore, to place a financial value on them during the process of his donating them to the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It was clear to me that these diaries had not only considerable financial worth, but also, and perhaps more importantly, they were primary resources in the study of Hollywood history. Happily, Charles Brackett's family (who own the copyright) gave permission for me to edit the diaries,...
- 9/25/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Ingrid Bergman ca. early 1940s. Ingrid Bergman movies on TCM: From the artificial 'Gaslight' to the magisterial 'Autumn Sonata' Two days ago, Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” series highlighted the film career of Greta Garbo. Today, Aug. 28, '15, TCM is focusing on another Swedish actress, three-time Academy Award winner Ingrid Bergman, who would have turned 100 years old tomorrow. TCM has likely aired most of Bergman's Hollywood films, and at least some of her early Swedish work. As a result, today's only premiere is Fielder Cook's little-seen and little-remembered From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1973), about two bored kids (Sally Prager, Johnny Doran) who run away from home and end up at New York City's Metropolitan Museum. Obviously, this is no A Night at the Museum – and that's a major plus. Bergman plays an elderly art lover who takes an interest in them; her...
- 8/28/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Exclusive: Documentarian Cosima Spender plans feature about her grandfather, the 20th Century writer.
English poet, novelist and essayist Sir Stephen Spender is to be the subject of a new feature by his granddaughter, the documentary filmmaker Cosima Spender (Palio).
Subscriber Content
Interview: Cosima Spender, ‘Palio’
The London-based director told ScreenDaily: “I’ve written a short fiction that I’d like to make into a feature. It has been researched as a documentary and is based on the moment my father realised his father was homosexual.
“It’s about a family Christmas when a mother goes away and the father invites a young writer to stay with the family.”
“It’s not a biopic,” continued the director, whose previous credits include 2011 documentary Without Gorky, which charts the influence on her family of her maternal grandfather, the artist Arshile Gorky.
“It’s a slice of his life and will explore the emotional dynamics at play within the family,” she added...
English poet, novelist and essayist Sir Stephen Spender is to be the subject of a new feature by his granddaughter, the documentary filmmaker Cosima Spender (Palio).
Subscriber Content
Interview: Cosima Spender, ‘Palio’
The London-based director told ScreenDaily: “I’ve written a short fiction that I’d like to make into a feature. It has been researched as a documentary and is based on the moment my father realised his father was homosexual.
“It’s about a family Christmas when a mother goes away and the father invites a young writer to stay with the family.”
“It’s not a biopic,” continued the director, whose previous credits include 2011 documentary Without Gorky, which charts the influence on her family of her maternal grandfather, the artist Arshile Gorky.
“It’s a slice of his life and will explore the emotional dynamics at play within the family,” she added...
- 8/12/2015
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
One Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series Museum of Modern Art, NYC hrough September 7, 2015
One of the most startling impressions that one takes away from seeing the reunited Migration Series at the Museum of Modern Art is how current the paintings still feel current in a way that Céline still does, or Christopher Isherwood, or John Steinbeck -- documenters of a very specific moment of transition, faithfully recording sensitive observations. Jacob Lawrence’s cycle of sixty paintings on the subject of the Northern Migration is both a landmark work for an artist who was just twenty-three years old when he began it, and it is a work of historical importance in American art of the 20th Century.
Lawrence, who had dropped out of school when he was sixteen, was encouraged by his single mother to take art classes and visit museums. He studied at the Harlem Art Workshop, in the...
One of the most startling impressions that one takes away from seeing the reunited Migration Series at the Museum of Modern Art is how current the paintings still feel current in a way that Céline still does, or Christopher Isherwood, or John Steinbeck -- documenters of a very specific moment of transition, faithfully recording sensitive observations. Jacob Lawrence’s cycle of sixty paintings on the subject of the Northern Migration is both a landmark work for an artist who was just twenty-three years old when he began it, and it is a work of historical importance in American art of the 20th Century.
Lawrence, who had dropped out of school when he was sixteen, was encouraged by his single mother to take art classes and visit museums. He studied at the Harlem Art Workshop, in the...
- 5/20/2015
- by bradleyrubenstein
- www.culturecatch.com
Whether you appreciated the elegance of his filmmaking debut, A Single Man, or are one of the four people who can afford his clothes, Tom Ford is a compelling figure. He’s returning to filmmaking circles shortly with a thriller called Nocturnal Animals and is tapping the ex-Nightcrawler Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams for parts in the film.Ford’s follow-up to the 2009 Christopher Isherwood adaptation is another interpretation of a novel, this time an Austin Wright tale called Tony And Susan. The set-up involves the intriguingly meta-sounding device of a book-within-a-book. The first part sees a woman, Susan (Adam’s character, if she signs up), sent a manuscript by the husband she left two decades earlier, requesting her feedback.The second element dives into the manuscript itself. It’s called Nocturnal Animals and follows a family holiday that goes violently wrong, before reverting back to Susan’s recollections of her past marriage.
- 3/26/2015
- EmpireOnline
It’s been six years since fashion designer Tom Ford stunned audiences and critics alike with his film adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s novel, A Single Man. Now, it seems his second project is on its way at last, with confirmation that, not only has he adapted another novel, but that he will again direct the film, with George Clooney and Grant Heslov producing the project through Smokehouse Pictures. The film will be titled Nocturnal Animals.
Nocturnal Animals is not the title of the source material, however, but rather the title of the book-within-the-book that is titled Tony And Susan. Written by Austin Wright and published in 1993, it is characterized a postmodern noir thriller. In the story, a woman named Susan is surprised to receive a book manuscript through the mail. It is from her former husband – a man she divorced 20 years previously due to his ambition to be an author.
Nocturnal Animals is not the title of the source material, however, but rather the title of the book-within-the-book that is titled Tony And Susan. Written by Austin Wright and published in 1993, it is characterized a postmodern noir thriller. In the story, a woman named Susan is surprised to receive a book manuscript through the mail. It is from her former husband – a man she divorced 20 years previously due to his ambition to be an author.
- 3/25/2015
- by Sarah Myles
- We Got This Covered
Tom Ford and George Clooney will team up on new thriller Nocturnal Animals.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ford is attached to direct the film, which will be his first since his 2009 debut A Single Man.
Meanwhile, Clooney will produce with his Smokehouse Pictures partner Grant Heslov. He is not currently attached to star in the film.
Nocturnal Animals will be based on Tony and Susan, a book written by Austin Wright and published in 1993. It follows a woman who receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband of 20 years.
Ford has penned the script for the big-screen adaptation, which currently has no cast.
The fashion designer received acclaim for his work on A Single Man, an adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's famous novel. The film starred Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.
Last week, Clooney joined Sofia Coppola's upcoming Christmas special starring Bill Murray.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ford is attached to direct the film, which will be his first since his 2009 debut A Single Man.
Meanwhile, Clooney will produce with his Smokehouse Pictures partner Grant Heslov. He is not currently attached to star in the film.
Nocturnal Animals will be based on Tony and Susan, a book written by Austin Wright and published in 1993. It follows a woman who receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband of 20 years.
Ford has penned the script for the big-screen adaptation, which currently has no cast.
The fashion designer received acclaim for his work on A Single Man, an adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's famous novel. The film starred Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.
Last week, Clooney joined Sofia Coppola's upcoming Christmas special starring Bill Murray.
- 3/25/2015
- Digital Spy
At long last, fashion designer Tom Ford has announced his directorial follow-up to 2009's elegant Christopher Isherwood adaptation "A Single Man," which nabbed Colin Firth a Best Actor Oscar nomination. THR reports that Ford is set to lens the postmodern neo-noir thriller "Nocturnal Animals" and that George Clooney will produce alongside Smokehouse Pictures partner Grant Heslov. Though the project is not yet set up at a studio, Smokehouse has a first look deal with Sony. Based on Austin Wright's 1993 book "Tony and Susan," Tom Ford's script is about a woman, Susan, whose ex-husband sends her a book manuscript containing two stories: the title tale "Nocturnal Animals" about a man whose family vacation takes fatal turns, and the story of Susan as she recollects her first marriage and confronts her spiritual demons. Read More: 16 Questions for "A Single Man" Director Tom Ford The Film Stage has more enticing bits about the production,...
- 3/24/2015
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
Today in 1998, the second Broadway revival of Caberat opened at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre then renamed the Kit Kat Klub, where it ran for 2377 performances. Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions. Set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, it focuses on nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around the 19-year-old English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with the young American writer Cliff Bradshaw. Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub which serves as a constant metaphor for the tenuous and threatening state of late Weimar Germany throughout the show. The revival is currentlt back on Broadway, playing at Studio 54.
- 3/19/2015
- by Stage Tube
- BroadwayWorld.com
By Anjelica Oswald
Managing Editor
Into the Woods, Disney’s adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Broadway musical, could land an Oscar nomination for its screenplay, which was adapted by Lapine. It may be a stretch for Into the Woods to land in the top five, though. Adapted — or even original — musical screenplays may be discounted for the music in the Oscar race, which might be why few musicals are nominated for adapted or original screenplay. Twelve musicals have been nominated for adapted screenplay since 1929, but 2002’s Chicago was the last musical to do so.
Adapted from Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb’s 1975 musical of the same name, Chicago won six of its 13 nominations, including best picture. It was the first musical since 1968’s Oliver! to win best picture, but its screenplay lost to The Pianist.
Carol Reed’s Oliver! was nominated for 11 Oscars and won five. It...
Managing Editor
Into the Woods, Disney’s adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Broadway musical, could land an Oscar nomination for its screenplay, which was adapted by Lapine. It may be a stretch for Into the Woods to land in the top five, though. Adapted — or even original — musical screenplays may be discounted for the music in the Oscar race, which might be why few musicals are nominated for adapted or original screenplay. Twelve musicals have been nominated for adapted screenplay since 1929, but 2002’s Chicago was the last musical to do so.
Adapted from Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb’s 1975 musical of the same name, Chicago won six of its 13 nominations, including best picture. It was the first musical since 1968’s Oliver! to win best picture, but its screenplay lost to The Pianist.
Carol Reed’s Oliver! was nominated for 11 Oscars and won five. It...
- 12/30/2014
- by Anjelica Oswald
- Scott Feinberg
Francesco Clemente: Inspired by India The Rubin Museum of Art Through February 2, 2015 Two Tents Mary Boone Gallery Through December 20, 2014
The original impulse in my life as an artist was to write and to break from writing into image.... Art is the last oral tradition alive in the West. - Francesco Clemente
Francesco Clemente, the nomadic Neo-Expressionist painter and sculptor, continues to pursue his travels and artistic investigations, and, fortunately for New Yorkers this Fall, has brought back the resulting documents to two concurrent shows: Francesco Clemente: Inspired by India, at the Rubin Museum and Two Tents at Mary Boone. Clemente follows somewhat in the traditions set by writers such as Paul Bowles and Christopher Isherwood, or musicians like The Beatles and David Bowie -- artists who used travel both as a metaphor and a seemingly endless reserve of creative energies from which to renew interest in their pursuits.
The original impulse in my life as an artist was to write and to break from writing into image.... Art is the last oral tradition alive in the West. - Francesco Clemente
Francesco Clemente, the nomadic Neo-Expressionist painter and sculptor, continues to pursue his travels and artistic investigations, and, fortunately for New Yorkers this Fall, has brought back the resulting documents to two concurrent shows: Francesco Clemente: Inspired by India, at the Rubin Museum and Two Tents at Mary Boone. Clemente follows somewhat in the traditions set by writers such as Paul Bowles and Christopher Isherwood, or musicians like The Beatles and David Bowie -- artists who used travel both as a metaphor and a seemingly endless reserve of creative energies from which to renew interest in their pursuits.
- 12/19/2014
- by bradleyrubenstein
- www.culturecatch.com
Hollywood is the highly anticipated monograph of celebrated portrait artist Don Bachardy. With more than 300 original paintings and drawings, this stunning collection features the most famous actors and influential figures in Hollywood including directors, screenwriters, cinematographers, costumers, producers, and agents. As the longtime partner of English novelist Christopher Isherwood, Bachardy had early access to Hollywood’s elite. Bette Davis, Ian McKellen, Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, Katherine Hepburn, Mia Farrow, Jack Nicholson, Brooke Shields, and Patrick Swayze are rendered in the most sublime way, with bold strokes of blue, vivid splashes of pink and red, or featherlike pencil and bold charcoal sketches. A lifelong Hollywood native, Bachardy has been capturing stars for over...
- 9/19/2014
- by Pietro Filipponi
- The Daily BLAM!
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