Filmmakers and executives, creatives of music, theater and art remembered Tom Luddy as friend and mentor, tastemaker and cultural force who deployed an astonishingly vast network to nurture talent and bring people and projects together over decades.
The co-founder of the Telluride Film Festival passed away in February.
“I am thinking of getting a tattoo of you on my arm,” said Irish director Mark Cousins at tribute event at the Paris Theatre over the weekend. “Here is Hitchcock on my arm, and here is and Kira Muratova. Maybe you would fit between the two?” He added, “For the rest of my life, I will see partly through your eyes. I miss you and I love you.”
“Tom Luddy was a constant presence. The sun around which so many of us have revolved,” said Ken Burns. The two met when Burns screened Huey Long at Telluride in 1985. “For the next 35-plus years,...
The co-founder of the Telluride Film Festival passed away in February.
“I am thinking of getting a tattoo of you on my arm,” said Irish director Mark Cousins at tribute event at the Paris Theatre over the weekend. “Here is Hitchcock on my arm, and here is and Kira Muratova. Maybe you would fit between the two?” He added, “For the rest of my life, I will see partly through your eyes. I miss you and I love you.”
“Tom Luddy was a constant presence. The sun around which so many of us have revolved,” said Ken Burns. The two met when Burns screened Huey Long at Telluride in 1985. “For the next 35-plus years,...
- 4/17/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Rushes: Bruno Dumont's "The Empire," John Carpenter Interviewed, Hito Steyerl x Film Comment Podcast
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSHaunted Hotel.The British Film Institute has begun unveiling the program for the London Film Festival, which runs from October 5-16. So far, they have announced the official competition, featuring films from Alice Diop, Mark Jenkin, and Hlynur Pálmason, and the VR- and Ar-oriented "Extended Realities" strand, including a new work from Guy Maddin, Haunted Hotel.Production has begun on Bruno Dumont's The Empire. Cineuropa reports that the science-fiction film depicts the "epic parallel life of knights from interplanetary kingdoms"; the cast includes Lyna Khoudri (César-winner for Papicha) and the gendarmerie duo from Li'l Quinquin, Bernard Pruvost and Philippe Jore.The international film critics association Fipresci have chosen the winner of their 2022 Grand Prix for Film of the Year: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car.Recommended VIEWINGAndrew Mau and Alan Mak's seminal...
- 8/30/2022
- MUBI
Academy Award-winning director Barry Jenkins will serve as the guest director of this year’s Telluride Film Festival, the festival announced on Thursday.
Jenkins will select a series of films to present at the 48th Telluride Film Festival, which will take place Sept. 2-6, 2021.
“Each year as we think about who a good Guest Director would be, Tom and I weigh different factors,” executive director Julie Huntsinger said in a statement. “Many are based in the intellectual realm: film knowledge, appreciation and, of course, serious talent. But our recipe always includes something more ephemeral – something that has to do with the quality of the human heart. Rare is the person who exceeds on each of these criteria. Barry Jenkins checks every box and more. We feel lucky and a little incredulous that our long-time friend and very talented colleague has agreed to join us as Guest Director this year. The...
Jenkins will select a series of films to present at the 48th Telluride Film Festival, which will take place Sept. 2-6, 2021.
“Each year as we think about who a good Guest Director would be, Tom and I weigh different factors,” executive director Julie Huntsinger said in a statement. “Many are based in the intellectual realm: film knowledge, appreciation and, of course, serious talent. But our recipe always includes something more ephemeral – something that has to do with the quality of the human heart. Rare is the person who exceeds on each of these criteria. Barry Jenkins checks every box and more. We feel lucky and a little incredulous that our long-time friend and very talented colleague has agreed to join us as Guest Director this year. The...
- 6/17/2021
- by Umberto Gonzalez
- The Wrap
If you were thinking of attending this year’s annual Labor Day weekend cinephile celebration high in the Rocky Mountains, it’s too late. Coveted passes to the 46th Telluride Film Festival sold out months ago, and the Los Angeles charter flights to Montrose, Colorado are booked.
Every year the Telluride Film Festival welcomes a new round of filmmakers and cinephiles seeking mutual satisfaction. And it marks the real start of the Oscar conversation. Sure, Sundance launched “The Farewell,” “The Report,” and “Clemency” and a raft of strong documentaries, and Cannes yielded “Rocketman” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and a rich crop of likely foreign-language contenders. But all these films must withstand a powerful riptide of Oscar-bound movies with massive awards campaigns behind them. Distributors don’t head for Telluride if they aren’t confident that their entries will emerge with buzz and momentum heading into Toronto.
Some...
Every year the Telluride Film Festival welcomes a new round of filmmakers and cinephiles seeking mutual satisfaction. And it marks the real start of the Oscar conversation. Sure, Sundance launched “The Farewell,” “The Report,” and “Clemency” and a raft of strong documentaries, and Cannes yielded “Rocketman” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and a rich crop of likely foreign-language contenders. But all these films must withstand a powerful riptide of Oscar-bound movies with massive awards campaigns behind them. Distributors don’t head for Telluride if they aren’t confident that their entries will emerge with buzz and momentum heading into Toronto.
Some...
- 6/19/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
If you were thinking of attending this year’s annual Labor Day weekend cinephile celebration high in the Rocky Mountains, it’s too late. Coveted passes to the 46th Telluride Film Festival sold out months ago, and the Los Angeles charter flights to Montrose, Colorado are booked.
Every year the Telluride Film Festival welcomes a new round of filmmakers and cinephiles seeking mutual satisfaction. And it marks the real start of the Oscar conversation. Sure, Sundance launched “The Farewell,” “The Report,” and “Clemency” and a raft of strong documentaries, and Cannes yielded “Rocketman” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and a rich crop of likely foreign-language contenders. But all these films must withstand a powerful riptide of Oscar-bound movies with massive awards campaigns behind them. Distributors don’t head for Telluride if they aren’t confident that their entries will emerge with buzz and momentum heading into Toronto.
Some...
Every year the Telluride Film Festival welcomes a new round of filmmakers and cinephiles seeking mutual satisfaction. And it marks the real start of the Oscar conversation. Sure, Sundance launched “The Farewell,” “The Report,” and “Clemency” and a raft of strong documentaries, and Cannes yielded “Rocketman” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and a rich crop of likely foreign-language contenders. But all these films must withstand a powerful riptide of Oscar-bound movies with massive awards campaigns behind them. Distributors don’t head for Telluride if they aren’t confident that their entries will emerge with buzz and momentum heading into Toronto.
Some...
- 6/19/2019
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Stars: Masayuki Mori, Eitaro Ozawa, Kinuyo Tanaka, Mitsuko Mito, Machiko Kyō | Written by Matsutarō Kawaguchi, Yoshikata Yoda | Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
Kenji Mizoguchi was one part of the Holy Trinity of directors – alongside Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu – spearheading the Golden Age of Japanese cinema in the 1950s. Released in 1953, Ugetsu is based on the book by Ueda Akinari, written in the 18th century (one of two known works by the author). Mizoguchi states upfront that he’s “refreshing the fantasies” of Akinari, which is a nice way of putting it.
The story opens in the village of Nakanogō in Omi Province, sometime in the 16th century. Genjūrō (Masayuki Mori) and Tōbei (Eitaro Ozawa) are best pals. Genjūrō is a potter; Tōbei is a clutz who dreams of being a samurai. One day the village is attacked by soldiers. Genjūrō and Tōbei flee with their wives, Miyagi (Kinuyo Tanaka) and...
Kenji Mizoguchi was one part of the Holy Trinity of directors – alongside Akira Kurosawa and Yasujirō Ozu – spearheading the Golden Age of Japanese cinema in the 1950s. Released in 1953, Ugetsu is based on the book by Ueda Akinari, written in the 18th century (one of two known works by the author). Mizoguchi states upfront that he’s “refreshing the fantasies” of Akinari, which is a nice way of putting it.
The story opens in the village of Nakanogō in Omi Province, sometime in the 16th century. Genjūrō (Masayuki Mori) and Tōbei (Eitaro Ozawa) are best pals. Genjūrō is a potter; Tōbei is a clutz who dreams of being a samurai. One day the village is attacked by soldiers. Genjūrō and Tōbei flee with their wives, Miyagi (Kinuyo Tanaka) and...
- 3/5/2019
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
The Telluride Film Festival has selected novelist Jonathan Lethem as its guest director for its 45th annual fest.
The festival, running over Labor Day weekend on Aug. 31 to Sept. 3, announced the selection on Friday. Lethem will pick a series of films to screen at the festival and plans to participate in discussions at the screenings.
Lethem has written 10 novels, five short story collections, a novella, two books of essays, a comic series, and articles in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and McSweeney’s. He’s best known for his fifth novel, “Motherless Brooklyn,” the 1999 book that won the National Book Critics Circle Award, Macallan Gold Dagger for Crime Fiction, and Salon Book Award.
The film adaptation of “Motherless Brooklyn” — directed by Edward Norton, and starring Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe, and Leslie Mann — is currently in production and slated for release in 2019. Lethem’s more recent novels include New York Times...
The festival, running over Labor Day weekend on Aug. 31 to Sept. 3, announced the selection on Friday. Lethem will pick a series of films to screen at the festival and plans to participate in discussions at the screenings.
Lethem has written 10 novels, five short story collections, a novella, two books of essays, a comic series, and articles in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and McSweeney’s. He’s best known for his fifth novel, “Motherless Brooklyn,” the 1999 book that won the National Book Critics Circle Award, Macallan Gold Dagger for Crime Fiction, and Salon Book Award.
The film adaptation of “Motherless Brooklyn” — directed by Edward Norton, and starring Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe, and Leslie Mann — is currently in production and slated for release in 2019. Lethem’s more recent novels include New York Times...
- 6/15/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Satoshi Kon's Tokyo Godfathers (2003) is showing December 18, 2017 - January 17, 2018 and Paprika (2006) from December 19 - January 18, 2018 on Mubi in the United Kingdom in the retrospective Satoshi Kon, Anime Maestro. Tokyo GodfathersIt could be said that consistency and eclecticism make up two sides of the auteurist coin, in which the artist's voice can be seen and felt across a body of work that is either noticeably focused in subject matter, thematic concerns, or stylistic approaches (Alfred Hitchcock, François Truffaut, Wes Anderson) or wildly varied in any or all of those areas (Louis Malle, Steven Soderbergh). In that respect, Satoshi Kon got to have it both ways with the final two completed animated features in his oeuvre, the satisfyingly odd parting pairing of Tokyo Godfathers (2003) and Paprika (2006). Sorely missed these past seven years since his premature death from pancreatic cancer on...
- 12/20/2017
- MUBI
Ugetsu
Blu-ray
Criterion
1953 / B&W / 1:33 / Street Date June 6, 2017
Starring: Mitsuko Mito, Masayuki Mori, Kikue Mouri, Sakae Ozawa, Kinuyo Tanaka
Cinematography: Kazuo Miyagawa
Film Editor: Mitsuzô Miyata
Written by Matsutarô Kawaguchi, Yoshikata Yoda
Produced by Masaichi Nagata
Music: Fumio Hayasaka, Tamekichi Mochizuki, Ichirô Saitô
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
In 1941 Orson Welles was busy giving the film industry a hot foot with Citizen Kane, a bullet-train of a movie whose rhythms sprang from the ever accelerating hustle and bustle of contemporary American life. That same year one of Japan’s greatest filmmakers, Kenji Mizoguchi, was taking his sweet time with a four hour samurai epic set 240 years in the past, The 47 Ronin.
The story of a band of loyal soldiers seeking revenge on a corrupt landowner, The 47 Ronin plays out in a precisely measured, ceremonial style, its 241 minutes leading up to the moment when the fierce band of brothers...
Blu-ray
Criterion
1953 / B&W / 1:33 / Street Date June 6, 2017
Starring: Mitsuko Mito, Masayuki Mori, Kikue Mouri, Sakae Ozawa, Kinuyo Tanaka
Cinematography: Kazuo Miyagawa
Film Editor: Mitsuzô Miyata
Written by Matsutarô Kawaguchi, Yoshikata Yoda
Produced by Masaichi Nagata
Music: Fumio Hayasaka, Tamekichi Mochizuki, Ichirô Saitô
Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi
In 1941 Orson Welles was busy giving the film industry a hot foot with Citizen Kane, a bullet-train of a movie whose rhythms sprang from the ever accelerating hustle and bustle of contemporary American life. That same year one of Japan’s greatest filmmakers, Kenji Mizoguchi, was taking his sweet time with a four hour samurai epic set 240 years in the past, The 47 Ronin.
The story of a band of loyal soldiers seeking revenge on a corrupt landowner, The 47 Ronin plays out in a precisely measured, ceremonial style, its 241 minutes leading up to the moment when the fierce band of brothers...
- 7/1/2017
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Anytime I watch Mizoguchi’s work…really any of it, but especially from this later period of his career – which includes The Crucified Lovers, Sansho the Bailiff, The Life of Oharu, and The Woman in the Rumor – I really am put face to face with how relatively little we gladly settle for in much of the rest of cinema. It’s not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with all those other movies. Many of them I value a good deal more than I do Mizoguchi. But in Mizoguchi, as one often does in Bergman, you’re granted a rare combination of imagination, audacity, and mastery that few films even attempt and very, very, very few manage to pull off. You can too often pick apart some tonal shift, some acting choice, some extraneous scene or shot or just something that doesn’t fit. In Mizoguchi’s best work, everything fits.
- 6/29/2017
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
After four years Martin Scorsese is back with another six filmic gems from all corners of the Earth. Love struggles in the slums of Thailand and the economic boom town of Taipei; underdog heroes undertake troubled missions in Turkey and Kazakhstan, a Malay storyteller plays cinematic games with basic narrative, and a vintage Brazilian art film is pure visual poetry. They’ve all been rescued by the World Cinema Project.
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 2
Blu-ray + DVD
The Criterion Collection 873-879
1931 – 2000 / Color + B&W / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 30, 2017 / 124.95
Directed by Lino Brocka, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Ermek Shinarbaev, Mário Peixoto, Lütfi Ö. Akad, Edward Yang
I readily confess that in my patchy history of film festival attendance, I gravitated not toward the really obscure foreign films, unless they promise to be as entertaining as things I’m more familiar with. Based on the results, one of...
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 2
Blu-ray + DVD
The Criterion Collection 873-879
1931 – 2000 / Color + B&W / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 30, 2017 / 124.95
Directed by Lino Brocka, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Ermek Shinarbaev, Mário Peixoto, Lütfi Ö. Akad, Edward Yang
I readily confess that in my patchy history of film festival attendance, I gravitated not toward the really obscure foreign films, unless they promise to be as entertaining as things I’m more familiar with. Based on the results, one of...
- 5/23/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
As a film student, I, like many before me, found myself caught under the mesmerizing spell of Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky soon after I watched the opening shot of his seminal Stalker in class. I rushed to find a copy and, sitting on my dorm room bed — laptop open, headphones blasting — I watched, mouth agape, as the sheer poeticism and beauty of his work washed over me. For some, Russian slow cinema is a sleep-inducing slog better left on the dusty shelves of film history. For others (myself included), it proves a rapturous experience through its challenges and subsequent rewards. Steeped in philosophy, dread, and beauty, Tarkovsky’s picture is a staple and lasting example of the medium’s particular powers. With each revisit, Stalker continually unfolds new layers to the attentive viewer: though it was released in 1979, essayists and scholars (not to mention teachers and students) are still having a field day.
- 2/2/2017
- by Mike Mazzanti
- The Film Stage
Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column.
– Exclusive: The 6th Annual Lower East Side Film Festival and their 2016 panel of judges, including Ethan Hawke, Cindy Tolan, Steve Farneth and Raul Castillo have announced their winners. Check them out below.
Best Feature Film – “Americana” – By Zachary Shedd
Best Live Action Short Film – “Killer” – By Matt Kazman
Best Animated Short Film – “The Mega Plush: Episode I” – By Matt Burniston
Best Music Video – The Knocks’ “Collect My Love” – By Austin Peters, Music by The Knocks, featuring Alex Newell
Best Documentary Short Film – “Erosion” – By Brandon Bloch, Tim Sessler and Brandon Bray
The Advocacy Award Presented by Here TV – “Video” – By Randy Yang
The Lesff Neighborhood Award – “Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream” – By Michael Levine
Best of Fest, The Lesff Prix D’Or – “Art of the Prank” – By Andrea Marini
Audience Award...
– Exclusive: The 6th Annual Lower East Side Film Festival and their 2016 panel of judges, including Ethan Hawke, Cindy Tolan, Steve Farneth and Raul Castillo have announced their winners. Check them out below.
Best Feature Film – “Americana” – By Zachary Shedd
Best Live Action Short Film – “Killer” – By Matt Kazman
Best Animated Short Film – “The Mega Plush: Episode I” – By Matt Burniston
Best Music Video – The Knocks’ “Collect My Love” – By Austin Peters, Music by The Knocks, featuring Alex Newell
Best Documentary Short Film – “Erosion” – By Brandon Bloch, Tim Sessler and Brandon Bray
The Advocacy Award Presented by Here TV – “Video” – By Randy Yang
The Lesff Neighborhood Award – “Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream” – By Michael Levine
Best of Fest, The Lesff Prix D’Or – “Art of the Prank” – By Andrea Marini
Audience Award...
- 6/17/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
September tends to be the time of year that movie studios start busting out the big guns, and 2016 finds the Criterion Collection following suit, as the boutique home video label will be releasing one of the most significant cinematic landmarks on which they’ve yet to put their stamp.
Krzysztof Kieślowski’s mammoth “Dekalog” makes the company’s September lineup something of a bumper crop in and of itself, but — lucky for us — it’ll be accompanied by an essential Kenji Mizoguchi classic, two ample doses of Jacqueline Susann-inspired campiness, some old school Coen brothers and much more. Check out the full release slate below, listed in rough order of our excitement for each title.
1.) “Dekalog” (dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1988), Spine #837
This would be at the very top of the list regardless of what else Criterion is releasing in September. One of the greatest achievements in all of film (though...
Krzysztof Kieślowski’s mammoth “Dekalog” makes the company’s September lineup something of a bumper crop in and of itself, but — lucky for us — it’ll be accompanied by an essential Kenji Mizoguchi classic, two ample doses of Jacqueline Susann-inspired campiness, some old school Coen brothers and much more. Check out the full release slate below, listed in rough order of our excitement for each title.
1.) “Dekalog” (dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1988), Spine #837
This would be at the very top of the list regardless of what else Criterion is releasing in September. One of the greatest achievements in all of film (though...
- 6/16/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Hundreds of writers have signed an open letter condemning the candidacy of Donald Trump, who is the presumptive Republican nominee for the presidency. Writers Unite Against Trump Stephen King, Cheryl Strayed, Junot Diaz, Michael Chabon, Jennifer Egan, Tobias Wolff, Dave Eggers, Amy Tan, Richard Russo, Phillip Lopate and Ann Packer are among the writers who […]
The post Writers Unite Behind Open Letter Condemning Donald Trump’s Candidacy; Stephen King & Cheryl Strayed Among Signers appeared first on uInterview.
The post Writers Unite Behind Open Letter Condemning Donald Trump’s Candidacy; Stephen King & Cheryl Strayed Among Signers appeared first on uInterview.
- 5/26/2016
- by Chelsea Regan
- Uinterview
Dailies is a round-up of essential film writing, news bits, videos, and other highlights from across the Internet. If you’d like to submit a piece for consideration, get in touch with us in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheFilmStage.
If you’re in Dublin on June 3rd, The Tree of Life is screening with a live score from a 100-piece orchestra.
Watch a video on the parallels between the original Star Wars trilogy and The Force Awakens:
With A Brighter Summer Day now on Criterion, producer Curtis Tsui discusses the making of the film (and read Godfrey Chesire‘s essay):
The inspiration for the film was the real-life murder of a teenage girl by a classmate, committed in Taipei on June 15, 1961—an event that deeply affected filmmaker Edward Yang and other members of his generation in Taiwan. In fact, A Brighter Summer Day’s Chinese title...
If you’re in Dublin on June 3rd, The Tree of Life is screening with a live score from a 100-piece orchestra.
Watch a video on the parallels between the original Star Wars trilogy and The Force Awakens:
With A Brighter Summer Day now on Criterion, producer Curtis Tsui discusses the making of the film (and read Godfrey Chesire‘s essay):
The inspiration for the film was the real-life murder of a teenage girl by a classmate, committed in Taipei on June 15, 1961—an event that deeply affected filmmaker Edward Yang and other members of his generation in Taiwan. In fact, A Brighter Summer Day’s Chinese title...
- 3/28/2016
- by TFS Staff
- The Film Stage
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.News Jan Němec, the Czech director of Diamonds of the Night (1964), has died. Keyframe has an overview of his work. Above: the Czech poster for Němec's 1966 film, A Report on the Party and the Guests, via Adrian Curry's blog Movie Poster of the Day.Speculation around the 2016 Cannes Film Festival selection is raging, but Variety is pretty sure it will include several new American films, including new movies directed by Sean Penn, Woody Allen and Jeff Nichols.The Criterion Collection has announced its next lineup of releases, which includes Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Olivier Assayas's Clouds of Sils Maria, and Michelangelo Antonionio's Le amiche.New issues of Cinema Scope and Senses of Cinema are out. Yes,...
- 3/23/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Silent comedy rules! Harold Lloyd epitomizes 'twenties optimism while serving up the fun. Even better, he filmed this on the streets of New York, so we feel as if we stepped into a time machine. The great disc extras include input from New Yorker extraordinaire Bruce Goldstein. It's a great show for holiday viewing -- unless your family hates New York. Speedy Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 788 1928 / Color / 1:33 silent aperture / 86 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 8, 2015 / 39.95 Starring Harold Lloyd, Ann Christy, Bert Woodruff, Babe Ruth, Byron Douglas, Brooks Benedict. Cinematography Walter Lundin Film Editor Carl Himm Original Music Carl Davis Written by John Grey, Lex Neal, Howard Rogers, Jay Howe Produced by Harold Lloyd Directed by Ted Wilde
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Criterion's Blu-ray of Harold Lloyd's 1928 comedy Speedy is a double pleasure. First, it reminds us that Harold Lloyd is a flat-out delight, as funny...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Criterion's Blu-ray of Harold Lloyd's 1928 comedy Speedy is a double pleasure. First, it reminds us that Harold Lloyd is a flat-out delight, as funny...
- 12/12/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Read More: Phillip Lopate On Why Chantal Akerman Mattered The film world was shocked by devastating news on Tuesday when it was reported that the widely acclaimed and pioneering Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman had died at the age of 65. Last night, the U.S. premiere of Akerman’s latest, and ultimately, final film, "No Home Movie," continued as scheduled at the 53rd New York Film Festival, but news of the filmmaker’s death cast a long shadow over the night’s event. "No Home Movie" is an intimate documentary that paints a portrait of Akerman’s mother, a Holocaust survivor living in Belgium, over the last years of her life. A visibly shaken Kent Jones, the Director of Programming of the New York Film Festival, introduced the screening alongside Film Comment critic Amy Taubin. Both of them spoke to Akerman’s monumental career as a challenging and deeply personal filmmaker.
- 10/8/2015
- by Tarek Shoukri
- Indiewire
It Happened One Night
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Robert Riskin
USA, 1934
When Frank Capra came upon the 1933 Samuel Hopkins Adams story “Night Bus,” he thought it would make a great film. He bought the property and took it to screenwriter Robert Riskin, with whom he had worked a few years prior on Platinum Blonde (1931). The script was set to be Capra’s next feature for Columbia, then a lower-rung studio where he was their preeminent director. The problem? Nobody wanted to make the film. Several top actors and actresses of the day turned down the picture, Robert Montgomery, Carole Lombard, and Myrna Loy among them. Clark Gable, not yet the caliber of star he would become, eventually accepted the male lead, and Claudette Colbert eventually (and reluctantly) took the female lead … under the condition that her $25,000 salary would be doubled, which it was. The film’s entire budget...
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Robert Riskin
USA, 1934
When Frank Capra came upon the 1933 Samuel Hopkins Adams story “Night Bus,” he thought it would make a great film. He bought the property and took it to screenwriter Robert Riskin, with whom he had worked a few years prior on Platinum Blonde (1931). The script was set to be Capra’s next feature for Columbia, then a lower-rung studio where he was their preeminent director. The problem? Nobody wanted to make the film. Several top actors and actresses of the day turned down the picture, Robert Montgomery, Carole Lombard, and Myrna Loy among them. Clark Gable, not yet the caliber of star he would become, eventually accepted the male lead, and Claudette Colbert eventually (and reluctantly) took the female lead … under the condition that her $25,000 salary would be doubled, which it was. The film’s entire budget...
- 11/28/2014
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
Hitchhiking Lessons
By Raymond Benson
The first time a comedy swept the Academy Awards was in 1934, when Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night took home the prizes for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert), and Best Screenplay. (The next time all five major awards were snagged by one picture was in 1975 for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.)
It was the beginning of the screwball comedy movement. It Happened One Night may not have been the first screwball comedy, and it may not even really be a screwball comedy (according to critics Molly Haskell and Phillip Lopate, in a video conversation supplement in which they discuss screwball comedies, Happened is lacking in the chaotic elements that one would find in, say, Twentieth Century, which came out the same year, or even Bringing Up Baby, perhaps the quintessential screwball comedy). But while Capra...
By Raymond Benson
The first time a comedy swept the Academy Awards was in 1934, when Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night took home the prizes for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert), and Best Screenplay. (The next time all five major awards were snagged by one picture was in 1975 for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.)
It was the beginning of the screwball comedy movement. It Happened One Night may not have been the first screwball comedy, and it may not even really be a screwball comedy (according to critics Molly Haskell and Phillip Lopate, in a video conversation supplement in which they discuss screwball comedies, Happened is lacking in the chaotic elements that one would find in, say, Twentieth Century, which came out the same year, or even Bringing Up Baby, perhaps the quintessential screwball comedy). But while Capra...
- 11/25/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Winner of five Oscars, Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night remains an outstanding entertainment, and a touchstone of Hollywood’s most enduring cinematic genre: the Romantic Comedy. Filled with naughty, cloying sexuality and a lovable slate of archetypal characters, the film encapsulated the aspirations and desperations of 1930s America, even while evoking giggles of delight from a battered audience facing a dark and uncertain future. While the Great Depression is never addressed directly, the pressures of those days infuse every aspect of It Happened One Night, from its depiction of pampered, frivolous one per-centers to its array of dodgy conmen, hapless working stiffs and penniless drifters. The fact that love continued to find a way through the world’s political and economic maelstroms was a comforting notion in 1934; a notion perfectly suited to Capra’s trademark optimistic populism.
The film’s stagebound, talky exposition scene may feel awkward at first,...
The film’s stagebound, talky exposition scene may feel awkward at first,...
- 11/18/2014
- by David Anderson
- IONCINEMA.com
Francesco Munzi's third feature, Black Souls, has premiered in competition in Venice, will screen in Toronto, and has so far been met with respectable reviews. "That strange, conflicted tone of 'operatic realism' that the critic and essayist Phillip Lopate found in the films of Luchino Visconti also runs through the core of Munzi’s film," finds the Telegraph's Robbie Collin. "Fans of Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, which told an even more intricate story of the Camorran crime syndicate from Naples, 200 miles up the coast, might find this equally thrilling, if far less frantic." We gather more reviews and the first trailer. » - David Hudson...
- 9/6/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Francesco Munzi's third feature, Black Souls, has premiered in competition in Venice, will screen in Toronto, and has so far been met with respectable reviews. "That strange, conflicted tone of 'operatic realism' that the critic and essayist Phillip Lopate found in the films of Luchino Visconti also runs through the core of Munzi’s film," finds the Telegraph's Robbie Collin. "Fans of Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, which told an even more intricate story of the Camorran crime syndicate from Naples, 200 miles up the coast, might find this equally thrilling, if far less frantic." We gather more reviews and the first trailer. » - David Hudson...
- 9/6/2014
- Keyframe
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Nov. 18, 2014
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable take it on the road in It Happened One Night.
Opposites attract with magnetic force in 1934’s It Happened One Night, a romantic road-trip delight from Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life), about a spoiled runaway socialite (Sleep My Love’s Claudette Colbert) and a roguish man-of-the-people reporter (Gone with the Wind’s Clark Gable) who is determined to get the scoop on her scandalous disappearance.
Featuring two actors at the top of their game, sparking with a chemistry that has never been bettered, It Happened One Night represents the birth of the screwball comedy.
The first film to accomplish the very rare feat of sweeping all five major Oscar categories (best picture, best actor, best actress, best director, and best screenplay), It Happened One Night is among the most gracefully constructed and edited...
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable take it on the road in It Happened One Night.
Opposites attract with magnetic force in 1934’s It Happened One Night, a romantic road-trip delight from Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life), about a spoiled runaway socialite (Sleep My Love’s Claudette Colbert) and a roguish man-of-the-people reporter (Gone with the Wind’s Clark Gable) who is determined to get the scoop on her scandalous disappearance.
Featuring two actors at the top of their game, sparking with a chemistry that has never been bettered, It Happened One Night represents the birth of the screwball comedy.
The first film to accomplish the very rare feat of sweeping all five major Oscar categories (best picture, best actor, best actress, best director, and best screenplay), It Happened One Night is among the most gracefully constructed and edited...
- 8/22/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Criterion has announced their November slate of releases and among them is Frank Capra's romantic-comedy classic It Happened One Night and Blu-ray upgrade of Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura and Sydney Pollack's Tootsie starring Dustin Hoffman. First off, and most exciting as far as I'm concerned, is Capra's It Happened One Night, which I speculated previously would be added to the collection sooner rather than later. Starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, this is an all-timer in terms of romantic comedies and Criterion is delivering it with an all new 4K digital restoration, new conversation between critics Molly Haskell and Phillip Lopate, the 1997 feature-length documentary Frank Capra's American Dream, Capra's first film, the 1922 silent short The Ballad of Fisher's Boarding House, the American Film Institute's tribute to Capra from 1982 and the film's trailer. The release arrives on November 18. The other title I'm excited about is Antonioni's L'avventura, the...
- 8/15/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
After a new print screened at the 2014 City of Lights City of Angels Festival earlier this spring, Cohen Media Group has released a digitally remastered Blu-ray of Otar Iosseliani’s 1984 classic yet elusive title, Favorites of the Moon. Awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 41st Venice International Film Festival, the film, along with most of the Georgian filmmaker’s titles, have long been unavailable to U.S. audiences, a shame considering his prolific stature and important body of work that subversively undermines frameworks within the dominant culture he’s navigating as an exiled dissident.
Taking its title from Shakespeare’s Henry IV describing thieves, “Diana’s foresters, gentlemen of the shade, favorites of the moon,” Iosseliani expounds on the same motif, casting all of humanity in the shade of the moon, a symbol of disorder, chaos and unrest. In essence, the plot is a roundelay, utilizing a set of...
Taking its title from Shakespeare’s Henry IV describing thieves, “Diana’s foresters, gentlemen of the shade, favorites of the moon,” Iosseliani expounds on the same motif, casting all of humanity in the shade of the moon, a symbol of disorder, chaos and unrest. In essence, the plot is a roundelay, utilizing a set of...
- 8/12/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
In the spirit of spring, Dino Rici’s tragicomedy Il Sorpasso from 1962 has been given a vibrant rebirth courtesy of Criterion. Rarely seen and largely forgotten in recent years, Il Sorpasso retains many structures of the classic road movie, seasoned with glimpses of the era’s growing sense of rebellious dissatisfaction. Over the years, it has proven to be an influential work; its descendant branches laced throughout any analysis of the classic film genre of wandering heroes. Artistically, Il Sorpasso may not rank among the best of the category, but its seductive amalgam of bildungsroman, social commentary and cautionary tale make for a compelling and infectious watch.
Il Sorpasso’s unlikely odyssey orbits around the burgeoning friendship between Bruno (Vittorio Gassman), a zesty 40 year old raconteur and Roberto (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a quiet, bookish law student half his age. Bruno dashes about the ancient streets of Rome in a battered Lancia...
Il Sorpasso’s unlikely odyssey orbits around the burgeoning friendship between Bruno (Vittorio Gassman), a zesty 40 year old raconteur and Roberto (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a quiet, bookish law student half his age. Bruno dashes about the ancient streets of Rome in a battered Lancia...
- 4/29/2014
- by David Anderson
- IONCINEMA.com
In Paolo Sorrentino’s lavishly received Italian crime potboiler Il Divo, the stage is set with a world building montage that places us in a blood-bathed Rome ruled by politically backed hit men, and finally settles in, dollies up, and asks it’s leading man, Toni Servillo giving his best dead-eyed Giulio Andreotti impression, to stare straight into the camera and speak directly on how others seem to perceive him. Bizarrely, The Great Beauty begins almost the exact same way, but this version of Rome is not one of physical violence and political intimidation, but one solely focused on aristocratic appearances and the reciprocation of surface relationships.
Servillo, this time living in the skin of a facetiously jaded, secretly sulking part-time journalist and eternal socialite named Jep Gambardella, is found standing in the midst of his own lavish 65th birthday party, once again staring into the camera, memories of what...
Servillo, this time living in the skin of a facetiously jaded, secretly sulking part-time journalist and eternal socialite named Jep Gambardella, is found standing in the midst of his own lavish 65th birthday party, once again staring into the camera, memories of what...
- 3/25/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
We love to go on and on when the Academy gets it wrong, especially in the notoriously flawed Documentary and Foreign Language categories. And so we should give them a pat on the back when they get it right. Yes, “Blue is the Warmest Color” deserved more attention but my vote still would have gone to Paolo Sorrentino’s masterful “The Great Beauty,” released today on Blu-ray and DVD from The Criterion Collection. It’s one of the best films of the last several years; a mesmerizing ode to the diversionary quality of excess. Don’t miss it.
Rating: 5.0/5.0
Sorrentino opens his film with three long, complementary sequences: A man drops dead while on a tour group visit through a site of former Roman excess; dozens of beautiful, rich people dance the night away at a rooftop party; the city wakes up as a convent comes to life and locals walk their dogs.
Rating: 5.0/5.0
Sorrentino opens his film with three long, complementary sequences: A man drops dead while on a tour group visit through a site of former Roman excess; dozens of beautiful, rich people dance the night away at a rooftop party; the city wakes up as a convent comes to life and locals walk their dogs.
- 3/25/2014
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 29, 2014
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Vittorio Gassman hit the road in Il Sorpasso.
The ultimate Italian road comedy, the 1962 film Il sorpasso stars the unlikely pair of Vittorio Gassman (Big Deal on Madonna Street) and Jean-Louis Trintignant (Le Combat dans l’ile, Amour) as, respectively, a waggish, free-wheeling bachelor and the bookish law student he takes on a madcap trip from Rome to rural Southern Italy.
An unpredictable journey that careens from slapstick to tragedy, Il sorpasso, directed by Dino Risi (the original Scent of a Woman), is a wildly entertaining commentary on the pleasures and consequences of the good life.
Considered by many to be a holy grail of commedia all’italiana, Il sorpasso remains a fresh and lively entertainment, and one that has long been adored in its native Italy.
Presented in Italian with English subtitles Criterion’s Blu-ray...
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Vittorio Gassman hit the road in Il Sorpasso.
The ultimate Italian road comedy, the 1962 film Il sorpasso stars the unlikely pair of Vittorio Gassman (Big Deal on Madonna Street) and Jean-Louis Trintignant (Le Combat dans l’ile, Amour) as, respectively, a waggish, free-wheeling bachelor and the bookish law student he takes on a madcap trip from Rome to rural Southern Italy.
An unpredictable journey that careens from slapstick to tragedy, Il sorpasso, directed by Dino Risi (the original Scent of a Woman), is a wildly entertaining commentary on the pleasures and consequences of the good life.
Considered by many to be a holy grail of commedia all’italiana, Il sorpasso remains a fresh and lively entertainment, and one that has long been adored in its native Italy.
Presented in Italian with English subtitles Criterion’s Blu-ray...
- 1/30/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Blu-ray Release Date: Oct. 22, 2013
Price: Blu-ray $124.95
Studio: Criterion
John Cassavetes—genius, visionary, and the progenitor of American independent film—receives some high-definition respect from Criterion in the John Cassavetes: Five Films collection.
A former theater actor fascinated by the power of improvisation, Cassavetes brought his search for truth in performance to the screen. The five films in this anthology of dramas—all of which the director maintained total control over by financing them himself and making them outside the studio system—are electrifying and compassionate creations, populated by all manner of humanity: beatniks, hippies, businessmen, actors, housewives, strippers, club owners, gangsters, children.
Cassavetes has often been called an actor’s director, but this body of work—even greater than the sum of its extraordinary parts—shows him to be an audience’s director.
Here’s a breakdown of the movies:
Lelia Goldoni and Anthony Ray star in John Cassavetes' 1959 directorial debut Shadows.
Price: Blu-ray $124.95
Studio: Criterion
John Cassavetes—genius, visionary, and the progenitor of American independent film—receives some high-definition respect from Criterion in the John Cassavetes: Five Films collection.
A former theater actor fascinated by the power of improvisation, Cassavetes brought his search for truth in performance to the screen. The five films in this anthology of dramas—all of which the director maintained total control over by financing them himself and making them outside the studio system—are electrifying and compassionate creations, populated by all manner of humanity: beatniks, hippies, businessmen, actors, housewives, strippers, club owners, gangsters, children.
Cassavetes has often been called an actor’s director, but this body of work—even greater than the sum of its extraordinary parts—shows him to be an audience’s director.
Here’s a breakdown of the movies:
Lelia Goldoni and Anthony Ray star in John Cassavetes' 1959 directorial debut Shadows.
- 9/6/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Here's my recap of a long and rather unbelievably rich festival day at Telluride. 9:15 Am: Maurice Pialat's "L'enfance nu" ("Naked Childhood") and a short by Pialat, "Love Exists," critic Phillip Lopate's choice as Guest Director. A large part of me yearns to be in the huge comfortable Palm theater next door, where Alexander Payne's "Nebraska" is screening, with a Q & A afterwards. But it turns out that "Love Exists," Pialat's take on the boredom of late-50s life in the suburbs of Paris, is a small masterpiece: exquisitely shot in black, white, and silver-grey, cleverly cut, wittily narrated. It immediately becomes the best thing I've seen so far at Telluride. And "L'enfance nu" is also a small masterpiece; people are weeping all over the theater. Afterwards I am happy to be able to introduce Phillip to the man who was seated next to me, who came...
- 8/31/2013
- by Meredith Brody
- Thompson on Hollywood
Twenty-seven new features will screen over the extended five-day anniversary event and there will be tributes to Robert Redford, T-Bone Burnett, the Coen Brothers and Mohammad Rasoulof - and there has already been a Us acquisition.
While observers do not expect much buyer activity at the festival, Zeitgeist announced it had made a preemptive Us buy on Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine’s The Galapagos Affair (see below).
The Sony Pictures Classics team, RADiUS-twc, IFC, Fox Searchlight’s production head Claudia Lewis and president of Paramount Film Group Adam Goodman are among those expected to attend the Colorado event, which runs from Aug 29 through the additional day of programming on Sept 2.
The main programme features are:
All Is Lost, Robert RedfordBefore The Winter Chill (France) Philippe ClaudelBethlehem (Israel) Yuval AdlerBlue Is The Warmest Color (France) Abdellatif KechicheBurning Bush (Czech Republic) Agnieszka HollandDeath Row: Blaine Milam + Robert Fratta, Werner HerzogFifi Howls From Happiness, Mitra FarahaniThe...
While observers do not expect much buyer activity at the festival, Zeitgeist announced it had made a preemptive Us buy on Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine’s The Galapagos Affair (see below).
The Sony Pictures Classics team, RADiUS-twc, IFC, Fox Searchlight’s production head Claudia Lewis and president of Paramount Film Group Adam Goodman are among those expected to attend the Colorado event, which runs from Aug 29 through the additional day of programming on Sept 2.
The main programme features are:
All Is Lost, Robert RedfordBefore The Winter Chill (France) Philippe ClaudelBethlehem (Israel) Yuval AdlerBlue Is The Warmest Color (France) Abdellatif KechicheBurning Bush (Czech Republic) Agnieszka HollandDeath Row: Blaine Milam + Robert Fratta, Werner HerzogFifi Howls From Happiness, Mitra FarahaniThe...
- 8/28/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Apart from the three sneak screening titles that will stir up the buzz in the coming days, Julie Huntsinger and Tom Luddy’s 40th edition of the Telluride Film Festival excels in bringing a concentration of solid docus from the likes of Errol Morris and Werner Herzog who this year cuts the ribbon on a theatre going by his name and introduces Death Row, a pinch of Berlin Film Fest items (Gloria, Slow Food Story, Fifi Howls from Happiness) Palme d’Or winner (this year Abdellatif Kechiche will be celebrated), upcoming Sony Pictures Classics items (Tim’s Vermeer, The Lunchbox), Venice to Telluride to Tiff titles (Bethlehem, Tracks and Under the Skin), the latest Jason Reitman film (Labor Day) and the barely known docu-home-movie whodunit (by helmers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine) The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden which features narration from the likes of Cate Blanchett, Diane Kruger and Connie Nielsen.
- 8/28/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
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