A celebrity from the age of 11, Elizabeth Taylor was practiced at public relations for almost all her life, so there aren’t many personal revelations in Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes. But Nanette Burstein’s elegantly constructed documentary, mostly in Taylor’s own words backed by illuminating archival images, works as a lively bit of film history about movie stardom in the volatile 1960s as the studio system was fading and the media exploding.
The film — which premiered at Cannes in the Cannes Classics sidebar — is based on 40 hours of recently rediscovered audiotapes, recordings Taylor made in the mid-1960s for a ghost-written memoir (long out of print). It was the most frenzied moment of her fame, when she was coming off the paparazzi-fueled scandal that was Cleopatra. Taylor, who died in 2011, recalls her many marriages — four when she made these recordings, since she was on the first of two...
The film — which premiered at Cannes in the Cannes Classics sidebar — is based on 40 hours of recently rediscovered audiotapes, recordings Taylor made in the mid-1960s for a ghost-written memoir (long out of print). It was the most frenzied moment of her fame, when she was coming off the paparazzi-fueled scandal that was Cleopatra. Taylor, who died in 2011, recalls her many marriages — four when she made these recordings, since she was on the first of two...
- 5/17/2024
- by Caryn James
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
There have been countless books written about the immortal star Elizabeth Taylor, even some credited to her as both memoir or autobiography including 1989’s Elizabeth On Elizabeth. But a book released on January 1, 1965, probably comes closest to a pure autobiography, and the cover simply says, Elizabeth Taylor by Elizabeth Taylor. It is a by-the-numbers account of her life through her own words up until that point, but it actually was written by Richard Meryman, a journalist credited with among other things the last interview with Marilyn Monroe.
Meryman got Taylor to sit for some tape-recorded sessions in 1964, so he would be able to write the book as if Taylor did it herself. Sixty years later, those presumed “lost” recordings have been found and cleared for release by Taylor’s and Meryman’s estates. They have been in Meryman’s wife’s possession all these years,...
Meryman got Taylor to sit for some tape-recorded sessions in 1964, so he would be able to write the book as if Taylor did it herself. Sixty years later, those presumed “lost” recordings have been found and cleared for release by Taylor’s and Meryman’s estates. They have been in Meryman’s wife’s possession all these years,...
- 5/17/2024
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Don Siegel’s 1976 western The Shootist stars John Wayne in his final film appearance, though it’s perhaps just as notable for the muted nature of its regard for the pathology of violence. After all, Siegel is the same filmmaker who half a decade prior made Dirty Harry, in which Clint Eastwood’s renegade cop relishes squeezing the trigger of his 44-magnum revolver whenever the opportunity presents itself.
There’s a propulsive mania to Siegel’s direction of Dirty Harry, tapping as it does into the curious overlap between Harry’s police tactics and a psycho sniper’s bloodlust. Wayne’s J.B. Books in The Shootist has no such compelling correlate. He’s a former sheriff turned gunslinger, now an old man easing the pain of his terminal cancer with swigs of laudanum, and he’s aiming to die in peace. It’s 1901, and the fact that he can’t...
There’s a propulsive mania to Siegel’s direction of Dirty Harry, tapping as it does into the curious overlap between Harry’s police tactics and a psycho sniper’s bloodlust. Wayne’s J.B. Books in The Shootist has no such compelling correlate. He’s a former sheriff turned gunslinger, now an old man easing the pain of his terminal cancer with swigs of laudanum, and he’s aiming to die in peace. It’s 1901, and the fact that he can’t...
- 4/11/2024
- by Clayton Dillard
- 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
1993 was a year of change for filmmaker Steven Spielberg. On June 11, the director's dinosaur thriller "Jurassic Park" was released, making huge amounts of money and, eventually, becoming one of the biggest blockbusters of the decade. On December 15, the director's soul-rattling Holocaust drama "Schindler's List" was released, inviting a wave of praise and astonishment from audiences. It went on to win seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Up until June of 1993, Spielberg was perhaps best known for his action blockbusters and adventure films ("The Color Purple" and "Empire of the Sun" notwithstanding). After December 1993, Spielberg would become seemingly less interested in genre films and far more interested in movies aimed squarely at adults. He didn't seem terribly invested in his 1997 sequel to "Jurassic Park," titled "The Lost World," and, indeed, Spielberg's adventure films released since then have all felt distant and automatic, especially when compared to his more politically-bent historical dramas like "Munich,...
Up until June of 1993, Spielberg was perhaps best known for his action blockbusters and adventure films ("The Color Purple" and "Empire of the Sun" notwithstanding). After December 1993, Spielberg would become seemingly less interested in genre films and far more interested in movies aimed squarely at adults. He didn't seem terribly invested in his 1997 sequel to "Jurassic Park," titled "The Lost World," and, indeed, Spielberg's adventure films released since then have all felt distant and automatic, especially when compared to his more politically-bent historical dramas like "Munich,...
- 3/11/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
‘Shane’ celebrates 70th anniversary with Academy Museum screening and Christopher Nolan conversation
There are many films that have quotable last lines such as “After all, tomorrow is another day” from “Gone with the Wind.” And who can forget Humphrey Bogart telling Claude Rains: “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” But the beloved 1953 George Stevens’ Western “Shane” perhaps has one of the most endearing and emotional final lines. Young Joey (Brandon De Wilde) wants his idol, the former gunslinger Shane (Alan Ladd), to stay with his family. But the wounded hero continues to ride off.
“Shane………come back,” Joey cries out.
Be prepared to bring you handkerchiefs to the Academy Museum’s 70th anniversary screening Dec 10 at the David Geffen Theatre. Ladd, in his strongest performance, plays a world-weary gunslinger who wants to hang up his six-shooter. He ends up working for an honest, struggling rancher Joe, (Van Heflin), his wife Marian (Jean Arthur) and young son...
“Shane………come back,” Joey cries out.
Be prepared to bring you handkerchiefs to the Academy Museum’s 70th anniversary screening Dec 10 at the David Geffen Theatre. Ladd, in his strongest performance, plays a world-weary gunslinger who wants to hang up his six-shooter. He ends up working for an honest, struggling rancher Joe, (Van Heflin), his wife Marian (Jean Arthur) and young son...
- 12/7/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Two years in, the Academy Film Museum is rolling full steam ahead with a new programming director and a packed slate of upcoming films for the winter season. On Dec. 10, Christopher Nolan will present the classic Western “Shane” on its 70th anniversary and speak about the film for the George Stevens Lecture.
Other spotlight programs include:
A retrospective film series on “Parasite” actor Song Kang-ho in-person for four conversations starting Dec. 7 A 10th anniversary screening of “12 Years a Slave” on Feb. 25 with Steve McQueen. “3D-cember” with screenings like “Jaws” and “Frozen” in 3D “Works of Enduring Importance: 35 Years of the National Film Registry” starting Dec. 14 “Beware the Elements! Natural Disasters on Film” starting Jan. 4 A screening of 1972’s “Buck and the Preacher” will pay tribute to Harry Belafonte “Echoes of Africia” presents African stories on film from Feb. 1 to Feb. 9
K.J. Relth-Miller just took over as Director of Film...
Other spotlight programs include:
A retrospective film series on “Parasite” actor Song Kang-ho in-person for four conversations starting Dec. 7 A 10th anniversary screening of “12 Years a Slave” on Feb. 25 with Steve McQueen. “3D-cember” with screenings like “Jaws” and “Frozen” in 3D “Works of Enduring Importance: 35 Years of the National Film Registry” starting Dec. 14 “Beware the Elements! Natural Disasters on Film” starting Jan. 4 A screening of 1972’s “Buck and the Preacher” will pay tribute to Harry Belafonte “Echoes of Africia” presents African stories on film from Feb. 1 to Feb. 9
K.J. Relth-Miller just took over as Director of Film...
- 11/8/2023
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Going into its third year of film programming, The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Museum has an established style: unabashedly eclectic. This winter it will showcase everything from an Oscar-friendly George Stevens Lecture with Christopher Nolan, who will present a 70th anniversary screening of classic western “Shane;” the first-ever retrospective on Korean actor Song Kang-Ho (“Parasite”); a 10th-anniversary screening of Oscar-winner “12 Years a Slave” with director Steve McQueen; a spotlight on African cinema guest programmed by Mo Abudu and co-presented with the NAACP; and a series on natural disasters in movies that kicks off with “Twister” in 35 mm.
“There are multiple histories of cinema,” said chief audience officer Amy Homma over Zoom. “And what better way to show that than with screening as many wildly diverse, broad-ranging series, genres, and decades-spanning titles as possible? Our cinematheque program is hundreds of screenings per year and we’re screening eight to 10 titles per week.
“There are multiple histories of cinema,” said chief audience officer Amy Homma over Zoom. “And what better way to show that than with screening as many wildly diverse, broad-ranging series, genres, and decades-spanning titles as possible? Our cinematheque program is hundreds of screenings per year and we’re screening eight to 10 titles per week.
- 11/8/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
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
Ang Lee is an Oscar-winning filmmaker who has worked in a variety of genres and styles to explore the lives of people around the globe. Let’s take a look back at 12 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Born in Taiwan in 1954, Lee’s interest in film brought him to NYU’s graduate program, where he worked as a crew member on classmate Spike Lee‘s thesis project, “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads.” He directed his first feature, “Pushing Hands” (1991) at the age of 37.
Lee followed up his debut with back-to-back international successes, each one scoring Oscar nominations as Best Foreign Language Film: “The Wedding Banquet” (1993) and “Eat Drink Man Woman” (1994). In both films, the director explored the kinds of complex familial relationships that would animate many of his stories.
He was then drafted by Hollywood to helm the Jane Austin adaptation “Sense and Sensibility” (1995), which...
Born in Taiwan in 1954, Lee’s interest in film brought him to NYU’s graduate program, where he worked as a crew member on classmate Spike Lee‘s thesis project, “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads.” He directed his first feature, “Pushing Hands” (1991) at the age of 37.
Lee followed up his debut with back-to-back international successes, each one scoring Oscar nominations as Best Foreign Language Film: “The Wedding Banquet” (1993) and “Eat Drink Man Woman” (1994). In both films, the director explored the kinds of complex familial relationships that would animate many of his stories.
He was then drafted by Hollywood to helm the Jane Austin adaptation “Sense and Sensibility” (1995), which...
- 10/21/2023
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Documentary casts the movie star as a painful figure who inspired a new dialogue about Aids, but doesn’t do much to examine his Republican politics
The title of this efficient documentary, patching together archive footage with off-camera interview material, is naturally taken from the 1955 romantic drama All That Heaven Allows, directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Rock Hudson opposite Jane Wyman; it is a movie – and a genre – long since rescued from critical condescension. Hudson did indeed seem to have all that heaven allowed: an almost preternatural handsomeness with something like Cary Grant’s looks and pure movie-star glow, overlaid with a granite masculinity, and a cool, insouciant style, which appeared to enclose an enigma long before his gay identity and his Aids diagnosis was confirmed at the very end of his life.
Even when he went out of style during the American new wave, as the scuffed-up authenticity of Pacino,...
The title of this efficient documentary, patching together archive footage with off-camera interview material, is naturally taken from the 1955 romantic drama All That Heaven Allows, directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Rock Hudson opposite Jane Wyman; it is a movie – and a genre – long since rescued from critical condescension. Hudson did indeed seem to have all that heaven allowed: an almost preternatural handsomeness with something like Cary Grant’s looks and pure movie-star glow, overlaid with a granite masculinity, and a cool, insouciant style, which appeared to enclose an enigma long before his gay identity and his Aids diagnosis was confirmed at the very end of his life.
Even when he went out of style during the American new wave, as the scuffed-up authenticity of Pacino,...
- 10/18/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Back in 1992 Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson — who had met the University of Texas in Dallas and were roomies — decided to make a movie. But after spending $10,000 and shooting 13 minutes of the crime caper comedy “Bottle Rocket,” they ran out of money. Eventually, the short and the full script made its way to Oscar-winning writer/director/producer James L. Brooks. It just so happened that Columbia had a deal with Brooks to finance a low-budget film selected by the filmmaker. And in 1996, the feature-length version of “Bottle Rocket” was released with Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson and James Caan. Though the film didn’t set the box office on fire, critics realized Anderson was a new and exciting cinematic voice.
Anderson has made 11 feature films — his latest “Asteroid City” came out earlier this year — and has been nominated seven times for an Oscar including three for screenplay, two for animated features,...
Anderson has made 11 feature films — his latest “Asteroid City” came out earlier this year — and has been nominated seven times for an Oscar including three for screenplay, two for animated features,...
- 10/6/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest movie makers of all time, with titles such as “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” “Goodfellas,” and “The Irishman.” The Academy Awards think that highly of him, too. Scorsese has reaped nine Best Director nominations. That tally ties him with Steven Spielberg. Here’s the breakdown of Best Director bids for both of them:
Scorsese:
“Raging Bull” in 1981 — lost to Robert Redford for “Ordinary People.” “The Last Temptation of Christ” in 1989 — lost to Barry Levinson for “Rain Man.” “Goodfellas” in 1991 — lost to Kevin Costner for “Dances With Wolves.” “Gangs of New York” in 2003 — lost to Roman Polanski for “The Pianist.” “The Aviator” in 2005 — lost to Clint Eastwood for “Million Dollar Baby.” “The Departed” in 2007 — Won. “Hugo” in 2012 — lost to Michel Hazanavicius for “The Artist.” “The Wolf of Wall Street” in 2014 — lost to Alfonso Cuarón for “Gravity.” “The Irishman” in 2020 — lost to Bong Joon Ho for “Parasite.
Scorsese:
“Raging Bull” in 1981 — lost to Robert Redford for “Ordinary People.” “The Last Temptation of Christ” in 1989 — lost to Barry Levinson for “Rain Man.” “Goodfellas” in 1991 — lost to Kevin Costner for “Dances With Wolves.” “Gangs of New York” in 2003 — lost to Roman Polanski for “The Pianist.” “The Aviator” in 2005 — lost to Clint Eastwood for “Million Dollar Baby.” “The Departed” in 2007 — Won. “Hugo” in 2012 — lost to Michel Hazanavicius for “The Artist.” “The Wolf of Wall Street” in 2014 — lost to Alfonso Cuarón for “Gravity.” “The Irishman” in 2020 — lost to Bong Joon Ho for “Parasite.
- 9/13/2023
- by Jacob Sarkisian
- Gold Derby
With his long hair, sunglasses and bellbottoms, Hal Ashby was the epitome of the 1970s flower child, even though he was a decade older than most of the filmmakers working at the time. Though his flame burned brightly and briefly, he left behind a series of classics that signified the nose-thumbing, countercultural attitude of the era, with a bit of humanism and heart thrown in for good measure. Let’s take a look back at all 12 of his films, ranked worst to best.
Born on September 2, 1929 in Utah, Ashby ambled around before becoming an apprentice editor for Robert Swink, working for Hollywood legends William Wyler and George Stevens. He moved up the ranks to become an editor for Norman Jewison, with whom he shared a fraternal and professional relationship. They cut five films together, including “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” (1966), which earned him his first Oscar nomination,...
Born on September 2, 1929 in Utah, Ashby ambled around before becoming an apprentice editor for Robert Swink, working for Hollywood legends William Wyler and George Stevens. He moved up the ranks to become an editor for Norman Jewison, with whom he shared a fraternal and professional relationship. They cut five films together, including “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!” (1966), which earned him his first Oscar nomination,...
- 8/25/2023
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Noreen Nash, a starlet of the 1940s and ’50s who appeared in such notable films as The Southerner, Giant and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold, has died. She was 99.
Nash died Tuesday of natural causes at her home in Beverly Hills, her oldest son, Lee Siegel Jr., told The Hollywood Reporter.
Nash worked on about two dozen features during her two-decade career, including several “B” pictures like Phantom From Space (1953), where she portrayed an abducted scientist in a movie shot at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
The blue-eyed, dark-haired Nash also starred as the wife of an owner of a Palm Springs tennis club on the CBS summer replacement series The Charles Farrell Show — it stood in for I Love Lucy in 1956 — and appeared on episodes of Hopalong Cassidy, The Abbott and Costello Show, My Little Margie, Dragnet and 77 Sunset Strip.
Nash played the...
Nash died Tuesday of natural causes at her home in Beverly Hills, her oldest son, Lee Siegel Jr., told The Hollywood Reporter.
Nash worked on about two dozen features during her two-decade career, including several “B” pictures like Phantom From Space (1953), where she portrayed an abducted scientist in a movie shot at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
The blue-eyed, dark-haired Nash also starred as the wife of an owner of a Palm Springs tennis club on the CBS summer replacement series The Charles Farrell Show — it stood in for I Love Lucy in 1956 — and appeared on episodes of Hopalong Cassidy, The Abbott and Costello Show, My Little Margie, Dragnet and 77 Sunset Strip.
Nash played the...
- 6/8/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Just in time for Succession‘s end, let’s look at method acting. The Criterion Channel are highlighting the controversial practice in a 27-film series centered on Brando, Newman, Nicholson, and many other’s embodiment of “an intensely personal, internalized, and naturalistic approach to performance.” That series makes mention of Marilyn Monroe, who gets her own, 11-title highlight––the iconic commingling with deeper cuts.
Pride Month offers “Masc,” a consideration of “trans men, butch lesbians, and gender-nonconforming heroes” onscreen; the Michael Koresky-curated Queersighted returning with a study of the gay best friend; and the 20-film “LGBTQ+ Favorites.” Louis Garrel’s delightful The Innocent (about which I talked to him here), the director’s cut of Gregg Araki’s The Doom Generation, and Stanley Kwan’s hugely underseen Lan Yu make streaming premieres, while Araki’s Totally F***ed Up and Mysterious Skin also get a run. Criterion Editions include Five Easy Pieces,...
Pride Month offers “Masc,” a consideration of “trans men, butch lesbians, and gender-nonconforming heroes” onscreen; the Michael Koresky-curated Queersighted returning with a study of the gay best friend; and the 20-film “LGBTQ+ Favorites.” Louis Garrel’s delightful The Innocent (about which I talked to him here), the director’s cut of Gregg Araki’s The Doom Generation, and Stanley Kwan’s hugely underseen Lan Yu make streaming premieres, while Araki’s Totally F***ed Up and Mysterious Skin also get a run. Criterion Editions include Five Easy Pieces,...
- 5/22/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
NatGeo’s widely acclaimed new limited series “A Small Light” chronicles the heroism of Miep Gies and several other brave Amsterdam residents who hid Anne Frank and her family, as well as four other people from the Nazis in a hidden attic apartment in Otto Frank’s office building. After the eight Jewish residents were arrested and sent to concentration camps in 1944, it was Gies who saved Anne’s diary and kept it in her desk drawer. Otto Frank, who was the only member of the immediate family who survived the camps — Anne died of typhus in March 1945 at Bergen-Belson — returned to Amsterdam, Gies gave him Anne’s diary. And in 1947 “The Diary of a Young Girl” was published in Europe. Five years later, “Diary” made its way to America. It has been translated into over 67 languages.
Anne had received a red checkered autograph book for her 13th birthday on...
Anne had received a red checkered autograph book for her 13th birthday on...
- 5/17/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Hollywood stars and filmmakers joined for a weekend of celebrating film legacies and the impact they have had on cinema at the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival.
To kick off the festival at the Los Angeles’ Tcl Chinese Theatre, The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and Hollywood Legion Theater at Post 43, Angie Dickinson chatted with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz on opening night Thursday about Rio Bravo, her role as Feathers and starring opposite John Wayne and Dean Martin.
When talking about what it was like working with director Howard Hawks, Dickinson said, “He was a man of few words,” and while filming, he told her and the crew to “just relax, and he and I sat there, talking about nothing. It was just to relax me and get me to the point that he wanted me to be for the scene.”
Directors Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson also took part in a...
To kick off the festival at the Los Angeles’ Tcl Chinese Theatre, The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and Hollywood Legion Theater at Post 43, Angie Dickinson chatted with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz on opening night Thursday about Rio Bravo, her role as Feathers and starring opposite John Wayne and Dean Martin.
When talking about what it was like working with director Howard Hawks, Dickinson said, “He was a man of few words,” and while filming, he told her and the crew to “just relax, and he and I sat there, talking about nothing. It was just to relax me and get me to the point that he wanted me to be for the scene.”
Directors Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson also took part in a...
- 4/16/2023
- by Carly Thomas
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Western is back, again. After it died. Prior to which it came back again.
As film historian and co-host of the How the West was Cast podcast, Andrew Patrick Nelson argues, journalists and historians love to write about the Western being dead just as much as they enjoy writing about its resurgence. However, this ebb and flow is part of a predictable life cycle that has kept the genre alive for over a century.
The origins of the frontier narrative on our public consciousness dates to 1845, when John L. O’Sullivan coined the phrase “manifest destiny” in an essay about America’s perceived right to expansion. As the Wild West came to an end and the frontier became settled, Frederick Jackson Turner introduced his “frontier thesis” in 1893. Turner hit on the binary conflicts that make the Western as a mythological place so engaging. The frontier, as he defined it,...
As film historian and co-host of the How the West was Cast podcast, Andrew Patrick Nelson argues, journalists and historians love to write about the Western being dead just as much as they enjoy writing about its resurgence. However, this ebb and flow is part of a predictable life cycle that has kept the genre alive for over a century.
The origins of the frontier narrative on our public consciousness dates to 1845, when John L. O’Sullivan coined the phrase “manifest destiny” in an essay about America’s perceived right to expansion. As the Wild West came to an end and the frontier became settled, Frederick Jackson Turner introduced his “frontier thesis” in 1893. Turner hit on the binary conflicts that make the Western as a mythological place so engaging. The frontier, as he defined it,...
- 3/21/2023
- by Chris Yogerst
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
There have been no shortage of retellings of Anne Frank’s iconic book “The Diary of a Young Girl.” From the time it was first published in 1947 as Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex) in Dutch in a small edition of 3,036 copies and went on to become one of the most translated books in the world, it’s been adapted to every medium imaginable – from stage to screens big and small, as a musical, as a dance interpretation, even as a 2017 graphic diary. The first play version of “The Diary of Anne Frank” hit Broadway in 1955 and proved a rousing success, running more than 700 performances and earning its playwrights a Pulitzer Prize. A 1959 theatrical film directed by George Stevens earned eight Academy Award nominations and won three: for Shelley Winters as supporting actress as well as its cinematography and art direction/set decoration.
Yet throughout all of the wartime story’s many renderings,...
Yet throughout all of the wartime story’s many renderings,...
- 3/20/2023
- by Ray Richmond
- Gold Derby
Hollywood’s postwar shift to social consciousness addressed familiar issues like bigotry and discrimination. On his way to making his gargantuan, serious epics, famed director George Stevens paused for this almost entirely forgotten contemplation of American anxiety in the business rat race, with a side order of alcoholism and potential adultery. Ray Milland is the troubled ad man who tries to help the drink-impaired actress, Joan Fontaine. Wife Teresa Wright waits patiently back home, but for how long? Is Stevens just dabbling in neorealistic doldrums, or did he feel the wave of dull existential despair as well? It’s one of his least-known films.
Something to Live For
All Region Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] #199
952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 89 min. / Street Date February 22, 2023 / Available from [Imprint] / au 34.95
Starring: Joan Fontaine, Ray Milland, Teresa Wright, Richard Derr, Douglas Dick, Harry Bellaver, Paul Valentine, King Donovan, Kasey Rogers, Douglas Spencer, Mari Blanchard.
Cinematography: George Barnes
Production Designer: Hal Pereira,...
Something to Live For
All Region Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] #199
952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 89 min. / Street Date February 22, 2023 / Available from [Imprint] / au 34.95
Starring: Joan Fontaine, Ray Milland, Teresa Wright, Richard Derr, Douglas Dick, Harry Bellaver, Paul Valentine, King Donovan, Kasey Rogers, Douglas Spencer, Mari Blanchard.
Cinematography: George Barnes
Production Designer: Hal Pereira,...
- 3/14/2023
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, which is posting the day before the 95th Oscars takes place in Hollywood and airs on ABC, is Janet Yang, the first-term president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Yang, the Queens-born daughter of Chinese immigrants, is only the 36th person — and just the fourth female, second person of color and first person of Asian descent — to lead Hollywood’s most powerful organization, following in the footsteps of luminaries like Douglas Fairbanks, Frank Capra, Bette Davis, George Stevens, Gregory Peck, Robert Wise and Karl Malden.
Over the course of a conversation at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, where Yang has been staying this week in order to oversee preparations for the Oscars at the adjacent Dolby Theatre, the 66-year-old reflected on a life and career that has defied the odds at every turn.
Yang speaks...
Over the course of a conversation at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, where Yang has been staying this week in order to oversee preparations for the Oscars at the adjacent Dolby Theatre, the 66-year-old reflected on a life and career that has defied the odds at every turn.
Yang speaks...
- 3/11/2023
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” has had a great couple of days. The Oscar frontrunner won the top prize at the Producers Guild of America Awards on Saturday, proving that it can conquer the preferential ballot. The next day, it pulled off a historic sweep at Screen Actors Guild Awards with a record four wins for ensemble, lead actress for Michelle Yeoh, supporting actor for Ke Huy Quan and supporting actress for Jamie Lee Curtis. The triple individual wins — also a first for a film in SAG Awards history — were unexpected as Curtis upset odds-on favorite Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”), but they just speak to the movie’s strength. They also tee it up for a never-before-seen above-the-line sweep at the Oscars: “Everything Everywhere” can be the first film to win Best Picture, Best Director, a screenplay award and three acting prizes.
The multiversal hit is the runaway...
The multiversal hit is the runaway...
- 3/2/2023
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
This expensive production was dismissed as a flop, and literary critics scorned it for diluting the famed novel by Theodore Dreiser. But it plays well now: William Wyler gives star Laurence Olivier what may be his best film acting role ever. Jennifer Jones’ title part suffers from script changes that censor and sentimentalize Dreiser’s intentions, but the film remains a shattering tragedy. Eddie Albert co-stars in one of his first dramatic roles; this encoding includes a scene dropped from the original release.
Carrie (1952)
Region Free Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] #200
1952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 121, 118 min. / Street Date February 22, 2023 / Available from [Imprint] / Aud 34.95
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Miriam Hopkins, Eddie Albert, Basil Ruysdael, Ray Teal, Barry Kelley, William Reynolds, Mary Murphy, Charles Halton, William Baldwin, Dorothy Adams, Jacqueline de Witt, Don Beddoe, Royal Dano, Margaret Field.
Cinematography: Victor Milner
Art Directors: Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson
Costume Design: Edith Head
Film Editor: Robert Swink...
Carrie (1952)
Region Free Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] #200
1952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 121, 118 min. / Street Date February 22, 2023 / Available from [Imprint] / Aud 34.95
Starring: Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Miriam Hopkins, Eddie Albert, Basil Ruysdael, Ray Teal, Barry Kelley, William Reynolds, Mary Murphy, Charles Halton, William Baldwin, Dorothy Adams, Jacqueline de Witt, Don Beddoe, Royal Dano, Margaret Field.
Cinematography: Victor Milner
Art Directors: Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson
Costume Design: Edith Head
Film Editor: Robert Swink...
- 2/18/2023
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
If you grew up wanting to be a filmmaker, you are inescapably indebted to the directors of your youth. While your work will likely be infused with the going style (e.g. any kid hopping into what is now an old-fashioned artform won't be able to expunge countless hours of TikTok videos from their brain), you'll probably be standing on the shoulders of Barry Jenkins, Chloe Zhao and Ryan Coogler -- which means you'll be drawing from their reservoir of inspiration. Whether you know it or not, Robert Bresson, Agnes Varda, and Jean-Luc Godard are speaking through you. Every artist is always looking backward.
Steven Spielberg might've been the youngest of the 1970s New Hollywood film brats, but aesthetically, he was more deeply in touch with the just-ended era of studio filmmaking than any of his peers. He wanted to harness the groundbreaking technology at his blockbuster disposal to make classical,...
Steven Spielberg might've been the youngest of the 1970s New Hollywood film brats, but aesthetically, he was more deeply in touch with the just-ended era of studio filmmaking than any of his peers. He wanted to harness the groundbreaking technology at his blockbuster disposal to make classical,...
- 1/14/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
With two days to go until Christmas, I can’t think of a better gift for film lovers or those with an interest in iconic forces in the entertainment industry than the 2022 autobiography My Place in the Sun, which chronicles the life of George Stevens Jr — now 90 and still going strong in a remarkable career that has traversed the highest corridors of Hollywood to Washington, D.C.
Most significantly, however, it is the story of a father and son. The father is legendary two-time Oscar-winning director George Stevens, whose films ranged from Astaire and Rogers musicals, Gunga Din, The More the Merrier and Woman of the Year, to, following World War II, a string of immortal classics including A Place in the Sun, Giant, Shane and The Diary of Anne Frank. George Jr. spent a lot of time on some of those sets right up to 1965’s The Greatest Story Ever Told,...
Most significantly, however, it is the story of a father and son. The father is legendary two-time Oscar-winning director George Stevens, whose films ranged from Astaire and Rogers musicals, Gunga Din, The More the Merrier and Woman of the Year, to, following World War II, a string of immortal classics including A Place in the Sun, Giant, Shane and The Diary of Anne Frank. George Jr. spent a lot of time on some of those sets right up to 1965’s The Greatest Story Ever Told,...
- 12/23/2022
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
It's wild to consider, but there was a moment in Steven Spielberg's historic career when he faced a crucible, and he fell disastrously short.
The year was 1991. Spielberg had entered middle age and was still trying to segue from the escapist entertainment that had made him one of the most successful filmmakers of all time to dramas with loftier intentions. It worked at first. His 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker's "The Color Purple" was a respectful, emotionally devastating tale of a Black woman's hard-won liberation in the segregated South of the early 20th century. It was a box-office smash that received 11 Academy Award nominations, but Spielberg was mystifyingly denied a Best Director nod. When the film won zero Oscars, it felt personal, especially after he won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement.
His next serious film, 1987's "Empire of the Sun," based on J.G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel,...
The year was 1991. Spielberg had entered middle age and was still trying to segue from the escapist entertainment that had made him one of the most successful filmmakers of all time to dramas with loftier intentions. It worked at first. His 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker's "The Color Purple" was a respectful, emotionally devastating tale of a Black woman's hard-won liberation in the segregated South of the early 20th century. It was a box-office smash that received 11 Academy Award nominations, but Spielberg was mystifyingly denied a Best Director nod. When the film won zero Oscars, it felt personal, especially after he won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement.
His next serious film, 1987's "Empire of the Sun," based on J.G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel,...
- 11/18/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Whether you are religious or not, there is no denying that Jesus Christ is one of the most influential and important figures in human history. His life and teachings have inspired billions of people worldwide, and have been the subject of many movies over the years. The crucifixion is undeniably the most significant event in the short but meaningful life of Jesus.
In this blog post, we will take a look at 10 of the best movies about Jesus Christ. We’ve ranked these Biblical epics based on an aggregate of viewers’ ratings.
10/10
Risen (2016)
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Starring: Joseph Fiennes, Tom Felton, Peter Firth
IMDb User Rating 6.3/10 29K Rt Audience Score 70 10K Meta User Score 6.9 Votes 85
“Risen” is a 2016 historical drama about the aftermath of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. With a budget of 20 million, “Risen” is a 2016 American epic biblical drama film directed by Kevin Reynolds.
The story follows Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), a high-ranking Roman soldier,...
In this blog post, we will take a look at 10 of the best movies about Jesus Christ. We’ve ranked these Biblical epics based on an aggregate of viewers’ ratings.
10/10
Risen (2016)
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Starring: Joseph Fiennes, Tom Felton, Peter Firth
IMDb User Rating 6.3/10 29K Rt Audience Score 70 10K Meta User Score 6.9 Votes 85
“Risen” is a 2016 historical drama about the aftermath of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. With a budget of 20 million, “Risen” is a 2016 American epic biblical drama film directed by Kevin Reynolds.
The story follows Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), a high-ranking Roman soldier,...
- 10/28/2022
- by Buddy TV
- buddytv.com
As the pioneer of premium cable, HBO became popular for a programming lineup that offered plenty of adult-oriented choices alongside shows for children. But the cabler’s streaming service HBO Max continues to make tweaks in the wake of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, film enthusiasts are fearful the service is over-compensating in trying to protect viewers from the dangers of smoking — through removing images of cigarettes and cigars.
“No Smoking! Twitter users report HBO Max removed Warren Beatty’s and Paul Newman’s cigars from movie poster art used on its home page: ‘McCabe & Mrs. Miller.’ ‘The Life and Times of [Judge] Roy Bean,'” Twitter user Pete Salisbury wrote.
No Smoking!
Twitter users report HBO Max removed Warren Beatty’s and Paul Newman's cigars from movie poster art used on its home page:
McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
The Life and Times of Roy Bean. pic.twitter.com/QLPz...
“No Smoking! Twitter users report HBO Max removed Warren Beatty’s and Paul Newman’s cigars from movie poster art used on its home page: ‘McCabe & Mrs. Miller.’ ‘The Life and Times of [Judge] Roy Bean,'” Twitter user Pete Salisbury wrote.
No Smoking!
Twitter users report HBO Max removed Warren Beatty’s and Paul Newman's cigars from movie poster art used on its home page:
McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
The Life and Times of Roy Bean. pic.twitter.com/QLPz...
- 9/16/2022
- by Katie Reul
- Variety Film + TV
Jesse V Johnson, the director of the Bruce Willis starrer action-thriller ‘White Elephant’, is a die-hard fan of Samurai films. He recently shared what fascinated him about the Samurai films of the 1950s.
Elaborating on the same, the director said: “As a young man, I was fascinated by the 1950’s Samurai films. They were very interesting to me as they not only embraced and were heavily influenced by Westerns and detective films that would be showing in post-war 1950s Japan.”
Giving a brief peek into the history behind such films, he added, “Films were being played by the US occupying force for US troops stationed there, but because they also have interwoven codes of warrior conduct and were statements on loyalty and honour, perspectives that were less apparent in American Cinema at the time.”
The director also mentioned how ‘White Elephant’ emanates from the genre of his liking and falls in the same category.
Elaborating on the same, the director said: “As a young man, I was fascinated by the 1950’s Samurai films. They were very interesting to me as they not only embraced and were heavily influenced by Westerns and detective films that would be showing in post-war 1950s Japan.”
Giving a brief peek into the history behind such films, he added, “Films were being played by the US occupying force for US troops stationed there, but because they also have interwoven codes of warrior conduct and were statements on loyalty and honour, perspectives that were less apparent in American Cinema at the time.”
The director also mentioned how ‘White Elephant’ emanates from the genre of his liking and falls in the same category.
- 8/30/2022
- by Glamsham Bureau
- GlamSham
Taylor Sheridan’s modern-day Western “Yellowstone” tells an epic story about characters trying to hold on to values and a way of life that are swiftly transforming in a constantly changing world. The style of filmmaking that the show has adopted serves as a perfect cinematic corollary for its themes. Thoughtful and precise in both its narrative and visual construction, “Yellowstone” has more in common with the classic Hollywood genre films of John Ford, George Stevens, and Clint Eastwood than it does with most contemporary television series.
According to director of photography Christina Alexandra Voros, that is entirely intentional. “Taylor’s mantra is that we’re not making a TV show, we’re making a 10-hour movie, and that extends to every facet of how the show is made,” she told IndieWire. “There’s not a pattern. The pattern is how do you make the best show possible, and that...
According to director of photography Christina Alexandra Voros, that is entirely intentional. “Taylor’s mantra is that we’re not making a TV show, we’re making a 10-hour movie, and that extends to every facet of how the show is made,” she told IndieWire. “There’s not a pattern. The pattern is how do you make the best show possible, and that...
- 6/27/2022
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
Updated: Following a couple of Julie London Westerns*, Turner Classic Movies will return to its July 2017 Star of the Month presentations. On July 27, Ronald Colman can be seen in five films from his later years: A Double Life, Random Harvest (1942), The Talk of the Town (1942), The Late George Apley (1947), and The Story of Mankind (1957). The first three titles are among the most important in Colman's long film career. George Cukor's A Double Life earned him his one and only Best Actor Oscar; Mervyn LeRoy's Random Harvest earned him his second Best Actor Oscar nomination; George Stevens' The Talk of the Town was shortlisted for seven Oscars, including Best Picture. All three feature Ronald Colman at his very best. The early 21st century motto of international trendsetters, from Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and Turkey's Recep Erdogan to Russia's Vladimir Putin and the United States' Donald Trump, seems to be, The world is reality TV and reality TV...
- 7/28/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
(See previous post: Fourth of July Movies: Escapism During a Weird Year.) On the evening of the Fourth of July, besides fireworks, fire hazards, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, if you're watching TCM in the U.S. and Canada, there's the following: Peter H. Hunt's 1776 (1972), a largely forgotten film musical based on the Broadway hit with music by Sherman Edwards. William Daniels, who was recently on TCM talking about 1776 and a couple of other movies (A Thousand Clowns, Dodsworth), has one of the key roles as John Adams. Howard Da Silva, blacklisted for over a decade after being named a communist during the House Un-American Committee hearings of the early 1950s (Robert Taylor was one who mentioned him in his testimony), plays Benjamin Franklin. Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, a role he would reprise in John Huston's 1976 short Independence. (In the short, Pat Hingle was cast as John Adams; Eli Wallach was Benjamin Franklin.) Warner...
- 7/5/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Fourth of July movies: A few recommended titles that should help you temporarily escape current global madness Two thousand and seventeen has been a weirder-than-usual year on the already pretty weird Planet Earth. Unsurprisingly, this Fourth of July, the day the United States celebrates its Declaration of Independence from the British Empire, has been an unusual one as well. Instead of fireworks, (at least some) people's attention has been turned to missiles – more specifically, a carefully timed North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile test indicating that Kim Jong-un could theoretically gain (or could already have?) the capacity to strike North America with nuclear weapons. Then there were right-wing trolls & history-deficient Twitter users berating National Public Radio for tweeting the Declaration of Independence, 140 characters at a time. Besides, a few days ago the current U.S. president retweeted a video of himself body-slamming and choking a representation of CNN – courtesy of a gif originally created by a far-right Internet...
- 7/5/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Frances Dee movies: From 'An American Tragedy' to 'Four Faces West' Frances Dee began her film career at the dawn of the sound era, going from extra to leading lady within a matter of months. Her rapid ascencion came about thanks to Maurice Chevalier, who got her as his romantic interested in Ludwig Berger's 1930 romantic comedy Playboy of Paris. Despite her dark(-haired) good looks and pleasant personality, Dee's Hollywood career never quite progressed to major – or even moderate – stardom. But she was to remain a busy leading lady for about 15 years. Tonight, Turner Classic Movies is showing seven Frances Dee films, ranging from heavy dramas to Westerns. Unfortunately missing is one of Dee's most curious efforts, the raunchy pre-Coder Blood Money, which possibly features her most unusual – and most effective – performance. Having said that, William A. Wellman's Love Is a Racket is a worthwhile subsitute, though the...
- 5/18/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
“Success is no fun unless you share it with someone,” confirms a composed Fay Bainter in George Stevens’ 1942 comedy classic Woman of the Year, a battles of the sexes comedy addressing how love and marriage doesn’t exactly function like a horse and carriage.
Continue reading...
Continue reading...
- 4/25/2017
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveriesNEWSJohn Huston, Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich on the set of The Other Side of the WindWe're still holding our breath, but it looks like we may all get to see Orson Welles' beleaguered film project The Other Side of the Wind, to be released in some fashion by Netflix.The Tribeca Film Festival, running April 17 - 30, has announced its full lineup. Robert Osborne, Turner Classic Movies host and defacto representative in the United States for the appreciation of older films, has died at the age of 84. With his passing, the number of venerable, welcoming advocates for classic cinema is dropping precariously low.Recommended VIEWINGThe proof is the pudding: Director Terrence Malick actually participated in a public, recorded conversation! He was at SXSW to promote his new film, Austin-set Song to Song, and took place in a discussion with Richard Linklater...
- 3/14/2017
- MUBI
Netflix has released the trailer for a fascinating new three part documentary called Five Came Back. It focuses on how World War II changed Hollywood and features directors like Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro diving into this subject matter.
Netflix put out an extensive press release with tons of details on what the doc will entail and I'm completely captivated by the film's subject matter. I love the history of film and the history of WWII and seeing a doc focusing on how these two things affected each other is film geek candy! Here are the additional details:
The movie is an adaptation of the book Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War written by Mark Harris. It's tells "the extraordinary story of how Hollywood changed World War II – and how World War II changed Hollywood, through the interwoven experiences of five filmmakers...
Netflix put out an extensive press release with tons of details on what the doc will entail and I'm completely captivated by the film's subject matter. I love the history of film and the history of WWII and seeing a doc focusing on how these two things affected each other is film geek candy! Here are the additional details:
The movie is an adaptation of the book Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War written by Mark Harris. It's tells "the extraordinary story of how Hollywood changed World War II – and how World War II changed Hollywood, through the interwoven experiences of five filmmakers...
- 2/28/2017
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Tony Sokol Simon Brew Mar 1, 2017
How the big directors of the 1940s were drafted in to make films for the American military in World War II...
World War II's battles were fought on the battlefields, but also there was, as you probably know, a sizeable propaganda effort too. Major American film directors were involved in the war effort, making propaganda films. for the Us military. This story was wonderfully told by Mark Harris in his terrific book, Five Came Back. And now Netflix has a three-part documentary based on his work heading our way. And a trailer has just been released.
See related Prime Suspect prequel on its way Celebrating Jimmy McGovern's Cracker Endeavour series 4 episode 4 review: Harvest Inspector Morse 30th anniversary: the top 10 episodes
In the series, directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, Paul Greengrass, Lawrence Kasdan and Steven Spielberg discuss the great generation of the 1940s,...
How the big directors of the 1940s were drafted in to make films for the American military in World War II...
World War II's battles were fought on the battlefields, but also there was, as you probably know, a sizeable propaganda effort too. Major American film directors were involved in the war effort, making propaganda films. for the Us military. This story was wonderfully told by Mark Harris in his terrific book, Five Came Back. And now Netflix has a three-part documentary based on his work heading our way. And a trailer has just been released.
See related Prime Suspect prequel on its way Celebrating Jimmy McGovern's Cracker Endeavour series 4 episode 4 review: Harvest Inspector Morse 30th anniversary: the top 10 episodes
In the series, directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, Paul Greengrass, Lawrence Kasdan and Steven Spielberg discuss the great generation of the 1940s,...
- 2/28/2017
- Den of Geek
As creators today find themselves questioning just what impact their work can genuinely have on the world, Netflix reaches to the past for an example of great filmmakers who risked their lives to make a difference. “Five Came Back,” a three-part documentary series set to premiere March 31, spotlights the legendary directors of 1940s Hollywood who went to the front lines of World War II to document what they saw.
Read More: Steven Spielberg’s Strange History With ‘Cruising’
Helping to tell the wartime stories of John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens are some modern-day legends. Spotlighted in the trailer below are interviews with Steven Spielberg, Paul Greengrass, Guillermo del Toro, Lawrence Kasdan and Francis Ford Coppola. Meryl Streep steps in to narrate.
Written by Mark Harris (adapted from his book) and directed by Laurent Bouzereau, the series digs into the legacy of documentary work created...
Read More: Steven Spielberg’s Strange History With ‘Cruising’
Helping to tell the wartime stories of John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens are some modern-day legends. Spotlighted in the trailer below are interviews with Steven Spielberg, Paul Greengrass, Guillermo del Toro, Lawrence Kasdan and Francis Ford Coppola. Meryl Streep steps in to narrate.
Written by Mark Harris (adapted from his book) and directed by Laurent Bouzereau, the series digs into the legacy of documentary work created...
- 2/28/2017
- by Liz Shannon Miller
- Indiewire
One of the more popular film-related books of the last few years is Mark Harris‘ Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War, which recounts the experience directors John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens had heading to war and then returning to Hollywood to make some of their greatest films. In a welcome surprise only recently revealed, the book has now been turned into a three-part series on Netflix and it’ll arrive next month.
Featuring narration from Meryl Streep and interviews with Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, Steven Spielberg, Paul Greengrass, and Lawrence Kasdan, the first trailer has arrived. Judging from this preview, it looks to be a rousing documentary capturing this crucial time in cinematic history and the world at large. Directed by Laurent Bouzereau, he and his team pored through 100 hours of archival and newsreel footage...
Featuring narration from Meryl Streep and interviews with Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, Steven Spielberg, Paul Greengrass, and Lawrence Kasdan, the first trailer has arrived. Judging from this preview, it looks to be a rousing documentary capturing this crucial time in cinematic history and the world at large. Directed by Laurent Bouzereau, he and his team pored through 100 hours of archival and newsreel footage...
- 2/28/2017
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Emma Stone shines with Ryan Gosling in Damien Chazelle's La La Land Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Take the opening number from Jacques Demy's Les Demoiselles De Rochefort mixed with Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 and copy to Los Angeles. Put girls in traffic light-colored dresses that vaguely resemble those from Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly's On the Town. Add an introspective song, channeling Claudine Longet, from Blake Edwards' The Party - plus an elephant and mix in some Esther Williams underwater fun. Make a melody sound like the one given by Michel Legrand to Michel Piccoli's M Dame. Borrow from Fred Astaire: Sand Under Shoes in Mark Sandrich's Top Hat, A Fine Romance of George Stevens' Swing Time, and the lift in Charles Walters' The Belle Of New York. From Kelly: Seine dance, paintings coming to life, studio setting and It's Always Fair Weather - without the war.
Take the opening number from Jacques Demy's Les Demoiselles De Rochefort mixed with Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 and copy to Los Angeles. Put girls in traffic light-colored dresses that vaguely resemble those from Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly's On the Town. Add an introspective song, channeling Claudine Longet, from Blake Edwards' The Party - plus an elephant and mix in some Esther Williams underwater fun. Make a melody sound like the one given by Michel Legrand to Michel Piccoli's M Dame. Borrow from Fred Astaire: Sand Under Shoes in Mark Sandrich's Top Hat, A Fine Romance of George Stevens' Swing Time, and the lift in Charles Walters' The Belle Of New York. From Kelly: Seine dance, paintings coming to life, studio setting and It's Always Fair Weather - without the war.
- 2/26/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Is that my stomach rumbling at the prospect of seeing a 'ramen Western' again? Or are my eyes crying with joy at the thought of experiencing classic Coppola in Blu-ray? The Criterion Collection has announced their forthcoming Blu-ray discs for April 2017 and the lineup includes not only Tampopo and Rumble Fish, but also Wim Wenders Buena Vista Social Club, George Stevens' Woman of the Year, and Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort. Click through the gallery to read the descriptions, courtesy of Criterion, and the covers. And then start budgeting!...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 1/18/2017
- Screen Anarchy
It’s about half-way through the month, which means it’s time for The Criterion Collection to reveal their next slate of additions. A clear highlight of the April batch is Francis Ford Coppola‘s newly restored black-and-white drama Rumble Fish, which will feature commentary from the director and much more. There’s also Juzo Itami‘s Tampopo, which has enjoyed as successful theatrical restoration the last year, and features a new video essay by Tony Zhou, as well as a feature-length making of documentary.
Also coming to the collection is the George Stevens romantic dramedy Woman of the Year with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, as well as Wim Wenders‘ documentary Buena Vista Social Club. Along with those, we’ll also be getting stand-alone editions of The Young Girls of Rochefort and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, previously only available through the incredible Jacques Demy set, which is easily my...
Also coming to the collection is the George Stevens romantic dramedy Woman of the Year with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, as well as Wim Wenders‘ documentary Buena Vista Social Club. Along with those, we’ll also be getting stand-alone editions of The Young Girls of Rochefort and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, previously only available through the incredible Jacques Demy set, which is easily my...
- 1/18/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Four new movies are coming to the Criterion Collection this April: Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo,” Francis Ford Coppola’s “Rumble Fish,” Wim Wenders’ “Buena Vista Social Club” and George Stevens’ “Woman of the Year.” In addition, two musicals directed by Jacques Demy already in the Collection are receiving new standalone editions: “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” and “The Young Girls of Rochefort.” More information below.
Read More: The Criterion Collection’s 2017 Lineup: What Movies Are Being Added This Year?
“Tampopo”
“The tale of an eccentric band of culinary ronin who guide the widow of a noodle shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe, this rapturous “ramen western” by Japanese director Juzo Itami is an entertaining, genre-bending adventure underpinned by a deft satire of the way social conventions distort the most natural of human urges, our appetites. Interspersing the efforts of Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto) and friends to make her café...
Read More: The Criterion Collection’s 2017 Lineup: What Movies Are Being Added This Year?
“Tampopo”
“The tale of an eccentric band of culinary ronin who guide the widow of a noodle shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe, this rapturous “ramen western” by Japanese director Juzo Itami is an entertaining, genre-bending adventure underpinned by a deft satire of the way social conventions distort the most natural of human urges, our appetites. Interspersing the efforts of Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto) and friends to make her café...
- 1/17/2017
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
By his own admission there are very few luminaries in his lifetime that Warren Beatty has never met. When you talk to him as I got to do recently one afternoon at his Los Angeles home, iconic names would come up and he would say, “Oh, did you know him?” He was asking about people like Orson Welles, George Stevens, Samuel Goldwyn. I had to say no, I didn’t know them, but Beatty did — and he has a story for every one of them, even an occasional impression. Beatty, himself a…...
- 11/16/2016
- Deadline
In its own way, the Governors Awards is the most important film event of the year. On the surface, it’s the Academy Awards rendered in miniature as the Academy Board of Governors presents honorary Oscars to veteran film artists. But in reality, this is the Oscar starting gun wrapped in tuxedos and Louboutins: There’s never greater proximity to Academy voters.
Launched in 2009 to present career awards while not extending the already-long Oscarcast, the Governors Awards are meant to evoke the more-intimate feel of early Academy Award ceremonies. However, Oscar consultants quickly saw the event as an odyssey in its own right, since it provides an opportunity for intimate, grade-a campaigning just at the start of Phase 1 — the period that defines the Oscar season up until nominations are announced.
It’s a moment that won’t be matched for the rest of the season, but it also makes for...
Launched in 2009 to present career awards while not extending the already-long Oscarcast, the Governors Awards are meant to evoke the more-intimate feel of early Academy Award ceremonies. However, Oscar consultants quickly saw the event as an odyssey in its own right, since it provides an opportunity for intimate, grade-a campaigning just at the start of Phase 1 — the period that defines the Oscar season up until nominations are announced.
It’s a moment that won’t be matched for the rest of the season, but it also makes for...
- 11/14/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
While the film that had the most direct influence on the forthcoming Star Wars: Episode VIII is certainly J.J. Abrams‘ The Force Awakens, director Rian Johnson has shared some key inspiration when it comes to the tone and themes of his upcoming sci-fi sequel. While he previously stated two inspirations for the Star Wars saga’s next installment, that list has expanded, thanks his talk at Star Wars Celebration Europe.
The list includes six titles that Johnson encouraged the story group of Lucasfilm to watch before filming began, a thematic lookbook that features a mixture of beloved classics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai and lesser-known gems such as 1943’s Sahara. However, Twelve O’Clock High still stands as Johnson’s top pick for most influential. The most recent film on this list is from 1960, suggesting Johnson’s cinematic influences are less peer-based than deeply embedded in a more classical style.
The list includes six titles that Johnson encouraged the story group of Lucasfilm to watch before filming began, a thematic lookbook that features a mixture of beloved classics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai and lesser-known gems such as 1943’s Sahara. However, Twelve O’Clock High still stands as Johnson’s top pick for most influential. The most recent film on this list is from 1960, suggesting Johnson’s cinematic influences are less peer-based than deeply embedded in a more classical style.
- 7/18/2016
- by Mike Mazzanti
- The Film Stage
“My leading men had been dogs and horses.”
That’s Elizabeth Taylor referring to her various co-stars up until she was cast opposite Montgomery Clift in director George Stevens’ 1951 melodrama A Place in the Sun.
Taylor, the child star of MGM films such as Lassie Come Home and National Velvet, was just 17 when Stevens asked her to play Angela Vickers, the wealthy socialite who falls in love with George Eastman (Clift), an ambitious, but poor, young man who is already engaged to pregnant factory worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). Desperate to get rid of Alice, George resorts to extreme measures.
Although still a teenager, Taylor exudes a worldly sexuality that is unsettling for one so young, but she would mature into and harness that magnetic sex appeal, and emerge as one of Hollywood’s most celebrated stars.
A Place in the Sun screens as part of Cineplex’s Classic Film Series on July 10th,...
That’s Elizabeth Taylor referring to her various co-stars up until she was cast opposite Montgomery Clift in director George Stevens’ 1951 melodrama A Place in the Sun.
Taylor, the child star of MGM films such as Lassie Come Home and National Velvet, was just 17 when Stevens asked her to play Angela Vickers, the wealthy socialite who falls in love with George Eastman (Clift), an ambitious, but poor, young man who is already engaged to pregnant factory worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). Desperate to get rid of Alice, George resorts to extreme measures.
Although still a teenager, Taylor exudes a worldly sexuality that is unsettling for one so young, but she would mature into and harness that magnetic sex appeal, and emerge as one of Hollywood’s most celebrated stars.
A Place in the Sun screens as part of Cineplex’s Classic Film Series on July 10th,...
- 7/7/2016
- by Cineplex Magazine
- Cineplex
On this day in history as it relates to the movies...
1916 Disaster epic super producer Irwin Allen is born. (More on him this afternoon)
1919 Stage legend Uta Hagen is born. Though she only ever makes three movies, she originates Tony winning roles on stage that later win Oscars for movie stars (The Country Girl and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?). Also the co-author of "Respect for Acting" and a reknowned acting teacher with 70s legends Pacino & De Niro as students
1928 Oscar winning composer Richard M Sherman (of Sherman Brothers fame) is born. Jason Schwartzman plays him in Saving Mr Banks (2013) about the making of Mary Poppins (1964)
1942 Anne Frank receives a diary for her 13th birthday. She does not live much longer during the horrific events of The Holocaust but The Diary of Anne Frank becomes a key text of the 20th century. The George Stevens film adaptation (of the Pulitzer winning play of the same name by the screenwriters) released in 1959 receives 8 nominations including Best Picture and takes home three Oscars
1946 Oscar-nominated costume designer Maurizio Millenotti is born in Italy. Credits include: Otello, Hamlet (1990 version), Malèna, The Passion of the Christ and Federico Fellini's And the Ship Sails On.
1962 Three bank robbers escape from Alcatraz. The story becomes the Clint Eastwood picture Escape From Alcatraz (1979)
← 1967 The Supreme Court strikes down anti-miscenegation laws banning interracial marriage in the Loving v Virginia case. This year's Oscar hopeful Loving (2016), starring Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton tells the Loving story. There's also a movement to make June 12th, "Loving Day," an official Us holiday for celebrating multiracial families. Sadly the movie isn't opening today for this anniversary so we'll have to wait months to see it. Perhaps the 50th anniversary next year, after the story is more widely known with the movie, will help add momentum.
1985 Dave Franco is born
1992 Housesitter with Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn and Dana Delany hits theaters
2010 Slow burning hit "Bulletproof" peaks on the Us charts nearly a year after its release. Two years later Beca deploys it to fuck up Aubrey's stale act in Pitch Perfect (2012)...
1916 Disaster epic super producer Irwin Allen is born. (More on him this afternoon)
1919 Stage legend Uta Hagen is born. Though she only ever makes three movies, she originates Tony winning roles on stage that later win Oscars for movie stars (The Country Girl and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?). Also the co-author of "Respect for Acting" and a reknowned acting teacher with 70s legends Pacino & De Niro as students
1928 Oscar winning composer Richard M Sherman (of Sherman Brothers fame) is born. Jason Schwartzman plays him in Saving Mr Banks (2013) about the making of Mary Poppins (1964)
1942 Anne Frank receives a diary for her 13th birthday. She does not live much longer during the horrific events of The Holocaust but The Diary of Anne Frank becomes a key text of the 20th century. The George Stevens film adaptation (of the Pulitzer winning play of the same name by the screenwriters) released in 1959 receives 8 nominations including Best Picture and takes home three Oscars
1946 Oscar-nominated costume designer Maurizio Millenotti is born in Italy. Credits include: Otello, Hamlet (1990 version), Malèna, The Passion of the Christ and Federico Fellini's And the Ship Sails On.
1962 Three bank robbers escape from Alcatraz. The story becomes the Clint Eastwood picture Escape From Alcatraz (1979)
← 1967 The Supreme Court strikes down anti-miscenegation laws banning interracial marriage in the Loving v Virginia case. This year's Oscar hopeful Loving (2016), starring Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton tells the Loving story. There's also a movement to make June 12th, "Loving Day," an official Us holiday for celebrating multiracial families. Sadly the movie isn't opening today for this anniversary so we'll have to wait months to see it. Perhaps the 50th anniversary next year, after the story is more widely known with the movie, will help add momentum.
1985 Dave Franco is born
1992 Housesitter with Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn and Dana Delany hits theaters
2010 Slow burning hit "Bulletproof" peaks on the Us charts nearly a year after its release. Two years later Beca deploys it to fuck up Aubrey's stale act in Pitch Perfect (2012)...
- 6/12/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
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