Over the course of her career, Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira has sold over 60 million records worldwide and has won numerous awards including Grammys, Latin Grammys, World Music Awards, American Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards, just to name a few. She is the only artist from South America to have a number one song in the US, and has had four of the 20 top-selling hits of the last decade—including 2006’s unforgettable “Hips Don’t Lie,” the biggest-selling single of the 21st Century, which reached the #1 spot in an astonishing 55 countries. Shakira began writing songs at the age of eight, learned to speak English by studying the work of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Walt Whitman, and took history classes at UCLA during her break between albums.
At the age of 18, she founded the Pies Descalzos (Barefoot) Foundation which currently provides education and nutrition to over six thousand impoverished children in...
At the age of 18, she founded the Pies Descalzos (Barefoot) Foundation which currently provides education and nutrition to over six thousand impoverished children in...
- 12/21/2023
- Look to the Stars
Phrases like “Tone poem” and “meditation” are normally used by critics to describe works of art that are small and delicate.
Margareth Olin’s new documentary Songs of Earth, Norway’s selection for best international feature at next year’s Academy Awards, is surely a tone poem and equally surely a meditation on all manner of things, from our relationship with nature to the parent-child bond. The film, which boasts Liv Ullmann and Wim Wenders among its executive producers, is also surely a delicate film, one that frequently feels like it benefits more from being experienced than analyzed or interrogated.
Yet Songs of Earth is not a small movie. It’s a documentary that should be seen on the biggest screen at your disposal — whatever showcases its epic cinematography to its best advantage. Don’t sell Songs of Earth short, mind you, as an exclusively visual experience. Its sound design...
Margareth Olin’s new documentary Songs of Earth, Norway’s selection for best international feature at next year’s Academy Awards, is surely a tone poem and equally surely a meditation on all manner of things, from our relationship with nature to the parent-child bond. The film, which boasts Liv Ullmann and Wim Wenders among its executive producers, is also surely a delicate film, one that frequently feels like it benefits more from being experienced than analyzed or interrogated.
Yet Songs of Earth is not a small movie. It’s a documentary that should be seen on the biggest screen at your disposal — whatever showcases its epic cinematography to its best advantage. Don’t sell Songs of Earth short, mind you, as an exclusively visual experience. Its sound design...
- 11/15/2023
- by Daniel Fienberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Done right, a cliffhanger can be the most effective plot device on television.
The best can leave you tearing out your hair, wishing the next episode was available immediately. The greatest offer mystery by teasing answers but never making the outcome obvious. The worst, the ones that make you want to stop watching a show, are often those that “jump the shark”.
For many years, the benchmark for great cliffhangers was the “Who shot Jr?” storyline on Dallas, the American TV show that caused a media storm in 1980. So widely talked about was the twist that Jimmy Carter even joked about the fictional murder during his second presidential campaign.
The cliffhanger soon developed into something more than just being a “whodunit”. Sitcoms – such as The Office US and Friends – went on to incorporate the device to tease relationships, keeping viewers coming back for resolution. Soaps, from EastEnders to Neighbours, have...
The best can leave you tearing out your hair, wishing the next episode was available immediately. The greatest offer mystery by teasing answers but never making the outcome obvious. The worst, the ones that make you want to stop watching a show, are often those that “jump the shark”.
For many years, the benchmark for great cliffhangers was the “Who shot Jr?” storyline on Dallas, the American TV show that caused a media storm in 1980. So widely talked about was the twist that Jimmy Carter even joked about the fictional murder during his second presidential campaign.
The cliffhanger soon developed into something more than just being a “whodunit”. Sitcoms – such as The Office US and Friends – went on to incorporate the device to tease relationships, keeping viewers coming back for resolution. Soaps, from EastEnders to Neighbours, have...
- 3/30/2023
- by Jacob Stolworthy and Jack Shepherd
- The Independent - TV
Breaking Bad remains one of the most popular TV shows of all time, still making headlines years after its final season. One of the series’ most memorable props, Walter White’s underwear, recently went up for auction. And it sold for over six times its expected price.
1 of the most recognizable ‘Breaking Bad’ scenes features Walter White in his tighty-whities
The critically acclaimed Breaking Bad premiered in 2008 and ran for five seasons until 2013. Created by Vince Gilligan, it follows Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a high school chemistry teacher who beings cooking and selling methamphetamine to provide for his family after his cancer diagnosis.
The series garnered attention for its complex characters, gripping plot, and stunning cinematography. Breaking Bad won numerous awards, including 16 Primetime Emmy Awards, and became widely regarded as one of the greatest television dramas of all time.
Over its five-season run, the show featured several iconic symbols. But...
1 of the most recognizable ‘Breaking Bad’ scenes features Walter White in his tighty-whities
The critically acclaimed Breaking Bad premiered in 2008 and ran for five seasons until 2013. Created by Vince Gilligan, it follows Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a high school chemistry teacher who beings cooking and selling methamphetamine to provide for his family after his cancer diagnosis.
The series garnered attention for its complex characters, gripping plot, and stunning cinematography. Breaking Bad won numerous awards, including 16 Primetime Emmy Awards, and became widely regarded as one of the greatest television dramas of all time.
Over its five-season run, the show featured several iconic symbols. But...
- 3/28/2023
- by Mishal Ali Zafar
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.
The Movie: "Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror"
Where You Can Stream It: Shudder and AMC+
The Pitch: Shudder's four-episode docuseries tells the story of queer horror in cinema. It's not just a history lesson, though — it's also wildly entertaining, spicing up its talking-head style cultural commentary with deep-cut archival footage, illustrated readings of historical documents, and a fabulously catchy soundtrack from frequent RuPaul collaborator ShyBoy. It's also the only documentary out there inspired enough to cultivate a wide-ranging conversation that includes "Hannibal" creator Bryan Fuller (who executive produced), gay icon Jennifer Tilly, famed monster actor Doug Jones, author Carmen Maria Machado, roughly a third of the cast of "Yellowjackets," a blood-soaked Alaska Thunderf*** 5000, and /Film's own B.J. Colangelo,...
The Movie: "Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror"
Where You Can Stream It: Shudder and AMC+
The Pitch: Shudder's four-episode docuseries tells the story of queer horror in cinema. It's not just a history lesson, though — it's also wildly entertaining, spicing up its talking-head style cultural commentary with deep-cut archival footage, illustrated readings of historical documents, and a fabulously catchy soundtrack from frequent RuPaul collaborator ShyBoy. It's also the only documentary out there inspired enough to cultivate a wide-ranging conversation that includes "Hannibal" creator Bryan Fuller (who executive produced), gay icon Jennifer Tilly, famed monster actor Doug Jones, author Carmen Maria Machado, roughly a third of the cast of "Yellowjackets," a blood-soaked Alaska Thunderf*** 5000, and /Film's own B.J. Colangelo,...
- 1/20/2023
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
Ivana Miloš, The Man Who Made Cacti Bloom (2022), monotype, gouache, and collage on paper.Home Is Where The Plant Grows“His spirit responds to his country's spirit....he incarnates its geography and natural life and rivers and lakes.“—Walt Whitman, PrefaceIn Europe, most people dislike the highly invasive Himalayan balsam. It is spreading aggressively across the continent, suffocating potential plant diversity while suffusing whole areas with a sweet and musty smell. My response to the plant is quite different. I adore everything about it. Its pink-purple flowers bending to the ground like little bells, its toothlike glands, rain dropping from its leaves, and especially the way its oval-shaped seed pods impatiently explode when I touch them with my fingers. And then the way my fingers smell afterwards—I could go on and on. This plant grew right in front of my family home. It was everywhere: Next to the pathway,...
- 9/27/2022
- MUBI
[Warning: The below contains Major spoilers for Dickinson, Season 3, Episode 4, “This is my letter to the World.”] Dickinson continues to enchant in its third and final season, and despite the continuing horrors of War, the latest episode saw Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) transported to New York City where she meets Walt Whitman (Billy Eichner) and ends up having a magical time. “Emily was reading Leaves of Grass, and [in] this fantasy sequence, she goes to a Civil War hospital in New York City and meets Walt Whitman, who then takes her to Pfaff’s beer cellar,” production designer Neil Patel shares. And just like most of the show’s elements, which are based on historical fact, the beer cellar location and its dreamy free-thinking crowd were in fact inspired by the real Pfaff’s. It “was a famous intellectual [hotspot], often called the first New York hipster bar, which was located in lower Broadway above Bleecker Street,” Patel adds. “So, we ...
- 11/12/2021
- TV Insider
And the beatnik went on. On Friday, Nov. 12, Apple TV+ is dropping a new episode of Dickinson featuring Billy Eichner as Walt Whitman, who gives Hailee Steinfeld's Emily Dickinson a lesson in poetry, love and more. In this season three clip exclusive to E! News, Emily has gone to the Big Apple to follow her destiny and become a writer. Looking for inspiration, she reaches out to the legendary writer. What she gets is much more than Leaves of Grass to sit on. She pays a visit to Walt during the Civil War—who is busy working his historically accurate volunteer job as a nurse—to pitch him her career goals. "This is why I'm here," she declares. "This is why...
- 11/11/2021
- E! Online
Warning: Spoilers ahead! Dickinson is finding the good in goodbye with its final season. Yes, the country is in the midst of a Civil War, a tragic moment in history that showrunner Alena Smith has been building up to for the past two seasons, but this season is (opposed to the war) not all bad for the Dickinson family. In fact, Emily Dickinson (Hailee Steinfeld) is growing more sure of the person she wants to be, and Billy Eichner's character, Walt Whitman, is to thank for this pivotal change in the protagonist. As Hailee told E! News in a recent interview, Walt comes into Emily's life and helps her have her "coming out...
- 11/4/2021
- E! Online
As the country becomes increasingly, bitterly divided and people desperately want things to return to “normal,” the question of how much art can contribute to society crops up repeatedly. Once again, series creator Alena Smith reflects our present back to us with her radical retelling of Emily Dickinson’s life in “Dickinson,” where the third and final season finds the Civil War in full swing and everyone reconsidering their lives.
In the wake of her crash and burn at chasing fame, Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) pursues a new purpose for writing, putting pen to paper for the grander purpose of instilling hope in both her family and the troops. Steinfeld’s best work throughout the series has been in steering Emily through her own misguided reasons for creating, whether it’s a poem, more time with her lover Sue (Ella Hunt), or harmony within her family. But the cold realization for...
In the wake of her crash and burn at chasing fame, Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) pursues a new purpose for writing, putting pen to paper for the grander purpose of instilling hope in both her family and the troops. Steinfeld’s best work throughout the series has been in steering Emily through her own misguided reasons for creating, whether it’s a poem, more time with her lover Sue (Ella Hunt), or harmony within her family. But the cold realization for...
- 11/3/2021
- by Kristen Lopez
- Indiewire
The good news: Dickinson‘s Emily has found the love of her life. The bad news: She won’t have much longer to enjoy it.
Apple TV+ has released a trailer for the upcoming third and final season of the period comedy — debuting Friday, Nov. 5 on the streamer — and though Emily and her beloved Sue are happily together now, everything else around them is going to hell. The nation is in the throes of the Civil War, with people dying left and right, and as Emily and her family and friends attend a funeral, she voices her wish to heal...
Apple TV+ has released a trailer for the upcoming third and final season of the period comedy — debuting Friday, Nov. 5 on the streamer — and though Emily and her beloved Sue are happily together now, everything else around them is going to hell. The nation is in the throes of the Civil War, with people dying left and right, and as Emily and her family and friends attend a funeral, she voices her wish to heal...
- 10/13/2021
- by Dave Nemetz
- TVLine.com
We are born, we live, and we die. Before we can get on that particular merry-go-round, however, we must first be interviewed. The interrogator is tall, quiet, fastidious, well-dressed. Small granny spectacles perch on his nose as he asks questions of those who sit before him. And when he’s not doing that, he’s reviewing former “vacancies” that he’s filled, watching on a bank of monitors displaying numerous lives in progress. If we are lucky, we are chosen to go forth, from cradle to grave. If not, perhaps...
- 8/1/2021
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
When the world first met Ted Lasso, he was half the man he is today…maybe even a quarter. The character originated in a 2013 TV ad commissioned to mark NBC Sports’ acquisition of the US broadcast rights to English Premier League games. Titled ‘An American Coach in London’, it was a five-minute comedy sketch created as a showcase for the peculiarities of the English sport for US fans, and as a riff on the clumsy yank abroad stereotype.
The premise saw Lasso imported to coach Premier League team Tottenham Hotspurs – or, as he calls them, ‘The Spurs’ – despite having no grasp of the game’s rules or context. He gets the lingo wrong, the rules wrong, the training wrong, and is totally unaware that everybody thinks he’s a complete tit.
In a 2013 behind-the-scenes interview with Spurs TV, Jason Sudeikis explained:
“I’m playing an American football coach who’s...
The premise saw Lasso imported to coach Premier League team Tottenham Hotspurs – or, as he calls them, ‘The Spurs’ – despite having no grasp of the game’s rules or context. He gets the lingo wrong, the rules wrong, the training wrong, and is totally unaware that everybody thinks he’s a complete tit.
In a 2013 behind-the-scenes interview with Spurs TV, Jason Sudeikis explained:
“I’m playing an American football coach who’s...
- 7/22/2021
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
Bill Murray Rocks Cannes With Surprise Musical Performance At Premiere Of ‘New Worlds’ Concert Movie
With Cannes winding down tonight—just one last movie in the festival’s official selection, by Gaspar Noe, was left to play—Bill Murray took to the stage at the Debussy theater with cellist Jan Vogler, pianist Vanessa Perez and violinist Mira Wang for a 25-minute concert of music following the premiere of Andrew Muscato’s doc New Worlds: The Cradle of Civilization.
The film captures Murray, Vogler and friends’ concert in June 2018 at the Acropolis in Greece, in which the ensemble blended classical music, jazz, poetry and literature for an eclectic evening of art, at the culmination of their European tour. It was trumped as “a program that showcases the core of the American values in literature and music,” and featured monologues, singing, and plenty of comedy from Murray as the talented trio of musicians backed him up. The show blended Walt Whitman, George Gershwin, Van Morrison, Leonard Bernstein and Bach,...
The film captures Murray, Vogler and friends’ concert in June 2018 at the Acropolis in Greece, in which the ensemble blended classical music, jazz, poetry and literature for an eclectic evening of art, at the culmination of their European tour. It was trumped as “a program that showcases the core of the American values in literature and music,” and featured monologues, singing, and plenty of comedy from Murray as the talented trio of musicians backed him up. The show blended Walt Whitman, George Gershwin, Van Morrison, Leonard Bernstein and Bach,...
- 7/16/2021
- by Joe Utichi
- Deadline Film + TV
Bill Murray is among the cast of Wes Anderson’s new film that will begin production in Spain in August, Variety has learned.
Sources close to the project have confirmed Murray’s casting. The actor has appeared in nine of Anderson’s movies to date, excluding the new pic.
The as-yet-untitled film also stars Tilda Swinton, as she revealed exclusively to Variety in June. Though the film is shooting in Spain, “it’s not about Spain,” Swinton had hinted. Meanwhile Anderson had said he’s “not ready to share any details” about the new film.
Murray and Swinton co-star in Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” which recently had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Murray is an old Anderson hand. Besides the Spain project and “The French Dispatch,” the duo have also worked together on “Isle of Dogs,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Moonrise Kingdom,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “The Darjeeling Limited,...
Sources close to the project have confirmed Murray’s casting. The actor has appeared in nine of Anderson’s movies to date, excluding the new pic.
The as-yet-untitled film also stars Tilda Swinton, as she revealed exclusively to Variety in June. Though the film is shooting in Spain, “it’s not about Spain,” Swinton had hinted. Meanwhile Anderson had said he’s “not ready to share any details” about the new film.
Murray and Swinton co-star in Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” which recently had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
Murray is an old Anderson hand. Besides the Spain project and “The French Dispatch,” the duo have also worked together on “Isle of Dogs,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Moonrise Kingdom,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “The Darjeeling Limited,...
- 7/16/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Producer of HBO Max hit “Veneno,” Spain’s Buendía Estudios, a joint venture of Atresmedia and Movistar Plus, is now developing a series on Federico García Lorca, Spain’s greatest and best known modern poet, executed by dictator Francisco Franco supporters in 1936 for his left-wing views and homosexuality.
Currently in development, “Lorca in New York,” a six hour miniseries, is based on an original idea by Granada writer-producer Eduardo Galdo. It is created and developed by Buendía Estudios’ and Galdo Media.
“We now have extensive story lines which will allow us to move the project on the market,” said Sonia Martínez, Buendía Estudios’ editorial director. Buendía has developed a creative dossier.“It’s quite special given the important visual and music components of the series.”
“Lorca in New York” catches the poet over 1929-30 during the greatest spiritual crisis of his life, victim of an unrequited passion for Salvador Dalí,...
Currently in development, “Lorca in New York,” a six hour miniseries, is based on an original idea by Granada writer-producer Eduardo Galdo. It is created and developed by Buendía Estudios’ and Galdo Media.
“We now have extensive story lines which will allow us to move the project on the market,” said Sonia Martínez, Buendía Estudios’ editorial director. Buendía has developed a creative dossier.“It’s quite special given the important visual and music components of the series.”
“Lorca in New York” catches the poet over 1929-30 during the greatest spiritual crisis of his life, victim of an unrequited passion for Salvador Dalí,...
- 6/8/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
"Have you ever met anyone from a dream before?" Newcity Chicago Film Project is releasing an indie film titled Dreaming Grand Avenue, written & directed by filmmaker Hugh Schulze. The film is already out and available to watch through "virtual cinemas" at a few small art houses in the US. It's a mysterious drama about a connection between two strangers. Maggie and Jimmy have never met, but they keep showing up in each other's dreams. As they navigate memories, traumas, hopes and desires in sleep and the waking world, they’ll discover the truth of their linked destiny with the help of a dream detective, a sleep scientist, and the poet Walt Whitman himself. The film stars Jackson Rathbone, Andrea Londo, Wendy Robie, Tony Castillo, and Tony Fitzpatrick. There's just something about this film that intrigues me. It's worth a look. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Hugh Schulze's Dreaming Grand Avenue,...
- 11/2/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
“Nine Days” takes a ludicrous premise and plays it straight. Writer-director Edson Oda’s innovative drama revolves around the tireless plight of Will (Winston Duke), a jaded middle-manager trapped in a purgatorial cycle of interviewing souls for the opportunity of life. Oda’s script is rich with bold ideas, beginning with the surreal notion of entire lives unfolding through VHS tapes and climaxes with a hyperbolic recitation of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” It’s an enchanting fantasy bookended with genuine emotional beats. Somewhere in between them, however, it settles into a dreary slog bogged down by repetitive existential blather over the course of two hours, as if enmeshed in a soul-searching journey of its own.
. The opening act has a striking immersive quality as the purgatorial setting gradually comes together. Spending tireless hours in a dimly-lit house surrounded by emptiness in every direction, Will watches the lives of...
. The opening act has a striking immersive quality as the purgatorial setting gradually comes together. Spending tireless hours in a dimly-lit house surrounded by emptiness in every direction, Will watches the lives of...
- 1/28/2020
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Longtime Grammy telecast producer Ken Ehrlich has delivered his Grammy swan song (figuratively and literally), and it couldn’t have happened without … Walt Whitman. To usher out his 40-year era as the guiding light behind some of TV’s greatest musical moments, Ehrlich chose the song “I Sing the Body Electric” from the 1980 movie musical “Fame” and assembled quite the formidable choir to perform it at the January 26 ceremony: Camila Cabello, Cyndi Lauper, Ben Platt, Common and War and Treaty’s Michael and Tanya Trotter will tackle vocals, with musical accompaniment provided by Jack Antonoff (guitar), Gary Clark Jr. (electric guitar), Lang Lang (piano) and The Ricky Minor Band. Reimagining the choreography was a “Fame” original: Debbie Allen.
So where exactly did Whitman, one of America’s first superstar poets, a Bob Dylan of his day, fit in? The song, written for the beloved movie musical by Michael Gore (younger...
So where exactly did Whitman, one of America’s first superstar poets, a Bob Dylan of his day, fit in? The song, written for the beloved movie musical by Michael Gore (younger...
- 1/27/2020
- by Jeremy Helligar
- Variety Film + TV
It ends with one of cinema’s most quotable lines of dialogue, as a chain-smoking Bette Davis slyly slows a Paul Henreid in his lukewarm wish to pursue a tenuous romance with her Charlotte Vale exclaiming, “Oh Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars.” The film, is of course, Now, Voyager (1942), borrowing its title from the Walt Whitman poem “The Untold Want” and adapted from a novel by Olive Higgins Prouty. It is, perhaps, the most quintessential of Bette Davis’ women’s pictures of her studio era days. If Joan Crawford was the star of melodramas as the woman from the wrong side of the tracks, Davis’ early days as leading lady tended towards women who transformed from ugly ducklings to elegant, ‘party favor’ swans (that is before 1950’s All About Eve would resurrect and revamp her screen image forever, equaled perhaps only by...
- 12/11/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
From its enthusiasm for literature to its rousing finale, Peter Weir’s film is a salute to inspiration itself
To appreciate the cultural impact of Peter Weir’s 1989 coming-of-age classic, Dead Poets Society, one need only note that for a whole generation the line “O Captain! My Captain!” evokes not the poem from which it originated – Walt Whitman’s 1865 elegy to the then recently assassinated Us president Abraham Lincoln – but actor Robin Williams.
Weir’s film, about an enigmatic and unconventional teacher and the students whose lives he turns upside down, celebrates its 30th birthday this month. Its appropriation of Whitman’s poetry is a testament to its enduring legacy – and to one scene in particular, seared into the public consciousness.
To appreciate the cultural impact of Peter Weir’s 1989 coming-of-age classic, Dead Poets Society, one need only note that for a whole generation the line “O Captain! My Captain!” evokes not the poem from which it originated – Walt Whitman’s 1865 elegy to the then recently assassinated Us president Abraham Lincoln – but actor Robin Williams.
Weir’s film, about an enigmatic and unconventional teacher and the students whose lives he turns upside down, celebrates its 30th birthday this month. Its appropriation of Whitman’s poetry is a testament to its enduring legacy – and to one scene in particular, seared into the public consciousness.
- 7/16/2019
- by Luke Buckmaster
- The Guardian - Film News
Versatile actor Rip Torn died on Tuesday at the age of 88. The actor passed away in his home in Lakeville, Connecticut. His publicist, Rick, Miramontez, announced his death. Torn was a well-known actor who played diverse roles as Walt Whitman, Richard Nixon and Judas Iscariot. His role as Artie in The Larry Sanders Show […]
The post Rip Torn, ‘Larry Sanders Show’ Star, Dies At 88 appeared first on uInterview.
The post Rip Torn, ‘Larry Sanders Show’ Star, Dies At 88 appeared first on uInterview.
- 7/10/2019
- by Eileen Nguyen
- Uinterview
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Tuesday.
This week’s question: What TV cliffhanger sticks out to you the most? It could have been a good one, a bad one, one that was resolved, or not. New and old shows apply.
April Neale (@aprilmac), Monsters & Critics
I have a feeling everyone is going to go whole hog “Sopranos,” the fade-to-black “Made in America” scene that pissed America off, underscored with Journey playing as we wondered if the onion rings were crispy and perhaps an overthought circular-shaped metaphor for the “on and on and on-ness” of life in all its banal nothingness. Sometimes rings are just rings. So many questions. Chase dodged, downplayed and diverted like the pro he is in all the followup “Wtf David” interviews.
But for me it was a tie: “Dexter’s” Season 4 finale (dead Rita (Julie Benz) in the tub…...
This week’s question: What TV cliffhanger sticks out to you the most? It could have been a good one, a bad one, one that was resolved, or not. New and old shows apply.
April Neale (@aprilmac), Monsters & Critics
I have a feeling everyone is going to go whole hog “Sopranos,” the fade-to-black “Made in America” scene that pissed America off, underscored with Journey playing as we wondered if the onion rings were crispy and perhaps an overthought circular-shaped metaphor for the “on and on and on-ness” of life in all its banal nothingness. Sometimes rings are just rings. So many questions. Chase dodged, downplayed and diverted like the pro he is in all the followup “Wtf David” interviews.
But for me it was a tie: “Dexter’s” Season 4 finale (dead Rita (Julie Benz) in the tub…...
- 7/10/2019
- by Hanh Nguyen
- Indiewire
Jim Knipfel Jul 10, 2019
We look back on Rip Torn's career and how the occasional troublemaker turned bit parts into leading roles.
In the summer of 1969, Rip Torn was drunkenly screaming through New York’s West Village on his motorcycle when he slammed it into a police cruiser. Torn broke his leg in the accident but didn’t notice. The next morning, he got up, got on a plane, and flew to Paris where he was set to star in Joseph Strick’s film version of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. He shot the entire film all hopped up on painkillers for an untreated leg. And you know what? He still gives a remarkable performance. It wasn’t the only time he worked with broken bones either.
For over 60 years, Rip Torn carried on in the proud tradition of John Barrymore, Errol Flynn, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lawrence Tierney...
We look back on Rip Torn's career and how the occasional troublemaker turned bit parts into leading roles.
In the summer of 1969, Rip Torn was drunkenly screaming through New York’s West Village on his motorcycle when he slammed it into a police cruiser. Torn broke his leg in the accident but didn’t notice. The next morning, he got up, got on a plane, and flew to Paris where he was set to star in Joseph Strick’s film version of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. He shot the entire film all hopped up on painkillers for an untreated leg. And you know what? He still gives a remarkable performance. It wasn’t the only time he worked with broken bones either.
For over 60 years, Rip Torn carried on in the proud tradition of John Barrymore, Errol Flynn, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lawrence Tierney...
- 7/10/2019
- Den of Geek
Tony Sokol Jul 10, 2019
Rip Torn, who played characters from Judas Iscariot to the producer on The Larry Sanders Show, dies at 88.
Respected and versatile character actor Rip Torn died Tuesday in Lakeville, Conn., according to Variety. Publicist Rick Miramontez did not release a cause of death, but said Torn was with his wife, Amy Wright, and two daughters, Katie and Angelica. He was 88.
Torn believed actors should “play drama as comedy and comedy as drama,” according to the statement, and the actor was equally at home both. He starred in comedies like Albert Brooks' Defending Your Life and the Men in Black films, as well as TV comedies 30 Rock, playing General Electric CEO Don Geiss, mentor to Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Torn won an Emmy for his part in HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, and was nominated for a Tony award in...
Rip Torn, who played characters from Judas Iscariot to the producer on The Larry Sanders Show, dies at 88.
Respected and versatile character actor Rip Torn died Tuesday in Lakeville, Conn., according to Variety. Publicist Rick Miramontez did not release a cause of death, but said Torn was with his wife, Amy Wright, and two daughters, Katie and Angelica. He was 88.
Torn believed actors should “play drama as comedy and comedy as drama,” according to the statement, and the actor was equally at home both. He starred in comedies like Albert Brooks' Defending Your Life and the Men in Black films, as well as TV comedies 30 Rock, playing General Electric CEO Don Geiss, mentor to Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Torn won an Emmy for his part in HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, and was nominated for a Tony award in...
- 7/10/2019
- Den of Geek
Actor Rip Torn, who earned Oscar and Tony nominations as well as an Emmy Award and two Obies, has died Tuesday in Lakeville Conn., his representative confirmed. He was 88.
Torn was equally at home in the comedy of the “Men in Black” film series or TV’s “The Larry Sanders Show” (for which he won his Emmy) and in the drama of “Sweet Bird of Youth” or “Anna Christie,” to name two of the numerous classic works of theater in which he appeared.
The actor was nominated for a supporting-actor Oscar in 1984 for his work as a father who confronts tragedy in Martin Ritt’s “Cross Creek,” one of many rural dramas in which he appeared during his career.
He drew a Tony nomination in 1960 for his first performance on Broadway, as the sadistic son of the town boss in Elia Kazan’s original production of Tennessee Williams’ “Sweet Bird of Youth.
Torn was equally at home in the comedy of the “Men in Black” film series or TV’s “The Larry Sanders Show” (for which he won his Emmy) and in the drama of “Sweet Bird of Youth” or “Anna Christie,” to name two of the numerous classic works of theater in which he appeared.
The actor was nominated for a supporting-actor Oscar in 1984 for his work as a father who confronts tragedy in Martin Ritt’s “Cross Creek,” one of many rural dramas in which he appeared during his career.
He drew a Tony nomination in 1960 for his first performance on Broadway, as the sadistic son of the town boss in Elia Kazan’s original production of Tennessee Williams’ “Sweet Bird of Youth.
- 7/10/2019
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSEdith Scob by Christophe BeauregardThe prolific actress Édith Scob, a frequent collaborator of George Franju and Raúl Ruiz, has passed away. Scob first gained widespread attention for her role as the masked and disfigured daughter in Franju's 1960 Eyes Without a Face, to which she would later pay tribute in Leos Carax's Holy Motors.Guan Hu's war epic The Eight Hundred has been pulled from Chinese theatres and the Shanghai Film Festival, joining Zhang Yimou's One Second as yet another title affected by increasingly strict Chinese film censors. Recommended Viewingh. Paul Moon analyzes every appearance of Walt Whitman in cinema and television, from Intolerance to Breaking Bad, on the occasion of the poet's 200th birthday. Recommended READINGKenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising.“When you do find a version of yourself, or many, a tectonic change occurs.
- 6/26/2019
- MUBI
It’s been a grueling 11 months for Stacey Snider.
The 20th Century Fox Film chairman and CEO was just putting her imprint on the studio when Rupert Murdoch decided to sell the bulk of his media empire to Disney. That’s left Snider with the unenviable task of having to keep Fox running smoothly even as her employees brace for layoffs that could result in thousands of lost jobs.
Worse yet, Snider will be among those getting pink-slipped. Although several of her top lieutenants, including vice chairman Emma Watts, Fox 2000 chief Elizabeth Gabler and Fox Searchlight co-heads Steve Gilula and Nancy Utley, have gotten new jobs at Disney, Snider will not make the move. During a recent talk at her sleekly modern Beverly Hills home, she is clearly stung by being passed over by Disney. However, she’s focused on finding new opportunities to keep making movies, television shows and other forms of content.
The 20th Century Fox Film chairman and CEO was just putting her imprint on the studio when Rupert Murdoch decided to sell the bulk of his media empire to Disney. That’s left Snider with the unenviable task of having to keep Fox running smoothly even as her employees brace for layoffs that could result in thousands of lost jobs.
Worse yet, Snider will be among those getting pink-slipped. Although several of her top lieutenants, including vice chairman Emma Watts, Fox 2000 chief Elizabeth Gabler and Fox Searchlight co-heads Steve Gilula and Nancy Utley, have gotten new jobs at Disney, Snider will not make the move. During a recent talk at her sleekly modern Beverly Hills home, she is clearly stung by being passed over by Disney. However, she’s focused on finding new opportunities to keep making movies, television shows and other forms of content.
- 10/23/2018
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
John Cena and Nikki Bella broke the hearts of WWE fans all over the world when they announced their split in April, just weeks before their May 5 wedding. The couple first began dating in 2012 and got engaged at WrestleMania 33 in April 2017. While John and Nikki have yet to confirm the current status of their relationship, reports seems to suggest that their opposing views on marriage and starting a family are what ultimately caused a rift between them. As we await more details, keep reading to see everything that's unfolded since John and Nikki called it quits.
Related: 57 Photos of John Cena and Nikki Bella's Over-the-Top Romance April 15, 2018 Nikki and John end their engagement. Just weeks before their May 5 wedding, Nikki and John released a joint statement to Us Weekly announcing their split. "While this decision was a difficult one, we continue to have a great deal of love and respect for one another,...
Related: 57 Photos of John Cena and Nikki Bella's Over-the-Top Romance April 15, 2018 Nikki and John end their engagement. Just weeks before their May 5 wedding, Nikki and John released a joint statement to Us Weekly announcing their split. "While this decision was a difficult one, we continue to have a great deal of love and respect for one another,...
- 6/1/2018
- by Monica Sisavat
- Popsugar.com
Steven Spielberg and Leonardo DiCaprio are looking to team up on another film project together. They are in early discussions to join an epic biopic that will tell the story of Ulysses S. Grant. The movie will be based on the biography written by Ron Chernow, and it will be adapted by David James Kelly, who recently worked in the upcoming Robin Hood movie with Taron Egerton and Jamie Foxx.
Spielberg obviously still has some interest in exploring the Civil War. He did a fantastic job with his film Lincoln and I have no doubt that he and DiCaprio would make a solid movie about Grant. I hope this works out because it would be great to see these two talented individuals work together again. The last time they worked together was on the film Catch Me If You Can. Here's a description of the book that the movie will be based on:
Ulysses S.
Spielberg obviously still has some interest in exploring the Civil War. He did a fantastic job with his film Lincoln and I have no doubt that he and DiCaprio would make a solid movie about Grant. I hope this works out because it would be great to see these two talented individuals work together again. The last time they worked together was on the film Catch Me If You Can. Here's a description of the book that the movie will be based on:
Ulysses S.
- 5/17/2018
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Okay, let’s get this out of the way at the beginning: Yesterday I published a novel. The title is The Perils of Captain Mighty and the Redemption of Danny the Kid. I’ll add one more fact: The original title was The Perils of Captain Power and the Redemption of Danny the Kid, but there were a couple of still active copyrights for “Captain Power” and although these copyrights weren’t likely to cause any problems, they could, and so Power becomes Mighty and we proceed to the next paragraph.
Are you expecting a little chest-beating here? Not happening. Not that I have anything against some self-congratulation and some of the writers I most admire were not above it. To cite three, a trio of my favorite Nineteenth Century scribblers: Charles Dickens (who, according to one source “thrived in the spotlight”); Mark Twain (who, according to another, had a “flair self-promotion”); and Walt Whitman,...
Are you expecting a little chest-beating here? Not happening. Not that I have anything against some self-congratulation and some of the writers I most admire were not above it. To cite three, a trio of my favorite Nineteenth Century scribblers: Charles Dickens (who, according to one source “thrived in the spotlight”); Mark Twain (who, according to another, had a “flair self-promotion”); and Walt Whitman,...
- 4/27/2017
- by Dennis O'Neil
- Comicmix.com
Bill Murray is going on tour with a chamber music trio for a program of songs and literary readings. Murray will be promoting the album New Worlds. The record is a collaboration between Murray, famed cellist Jan Vogler, violinist Mira Wang and others. Murray will read selections from famous American authors such as Walt Whitman, Mark Twain […]
Source: uInterview
The post Bill Murray Joins Cellist Jan Vogle For Music And Spoken Word Tour appeared first on uInterview.
Source: uInterview
The post Bill Murray Joins Cellist Jan Vogle For Music And Spoken Word Tour appeared first on uInterview.
- 4/22/2017
- by Aleks Simeonova
- Uinterview
Bill Murray has found a new passion: classical music. The actor has teamed up with acclaimed German-born cellist Jan Vogler to put together a stage show, titled “New Worlds,” which will premiere in the summer, according to The New York Times. The show will be accompanied by an album, to be released in August.
Read More: Bill Murray Sings A Happy Tune In Paul Shaffer’s New Animated Music Video — Watch
Accompanied by Vogler, violinist Mira Wang and pianist Vanessa Perez, Murray will sing an array of songs, including some selections from “West Side Story” and Stephen Foster’s “Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair.” The actor will also read fragments of Walt Whitman and Ernest Hemingway, while the trio, led by Vogler, plays Schubert, Bach and Piazzolla.
“New Worlds” will premiere on July 20 at Festival Napa Valley, followed by a North American tour, which will include a performance at...
Read More: Bill Murray Sings A Happy Tune In Paul Shaffer’s New Animated Music Video — Watch
Accompanied by Vogler, violinist Mira Wang and pianist Vanessa Perez, Murray will sing an array of songs, including some selections from “West Side Story” and Stephen Foster’s “Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair.” The actor will also read fragments of Walt Whitman and Ernest Hemingway, while the trio, led by Vogler, plays Schubert, Bach and Piazzolla.
“New Worlds” will premiere on July 20 at Festival Napa Valley, followed by a North American tour, which will include a performance at...
- 4/20/2017
- by Yoselin Acevedo
- Indiewire
Edgar Allen Poe: Buried Alive screens Thursday March 9th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood). The movie starts at 7:30. Director Eric Stange, a visiting fellow with the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, will answer questions following the screening. This is a Free event!
Far more than a biography, Edgar Allen Poe: Buried Alive employs a variety of tools to create a narrative that is both visually stunning and deeply engaging. Drawn on the rich palette of Poe’s evocative imagery and sharply drawn plots to help bring new understanding to his life, his place in American art and history, and the iconic position he holds in popular culture around the world. This film has received a production grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and will be broadcast on the acclaimed PBS arts and culture series American Masters.
Tony-award-winning actor Denis O’Hare portrays...
Far more than a biography, Edgar Allen Poe: Buried Alive employs a variety of tools to create a narrative that is both visually stunning and deeply engaging. Drawn on the rich palette of Poe’s evocative imagery and sharply drawn plots to help bring new understanding to his life, his place in American art and history, and the iconic position he holds in popular culture around the world. This film has received a production grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and will be broadcast on the acclaimed PBS arts and culture series American Masters.
Tony-award-winning actor Denis O’Hare portrays...
- 3/6/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
To the cadre of fans who have followed South Korean director Hong Sang-soo’s work over the years, he’s best-known for repeating different versions of the same formula: Portraits of chatty, neurotic creative types, usually filmmakers and actors, all of whom usually wind up drinking a lot of Soju and arguing through their problems with alternately funny and insightful results.
More recently, Hong has also been known as one half of a marriage scandal that dominated Korean tabloids more than any of his movies. While the media speculated, the peripatetic filmmaker quietly stuck to his one-film-a-year pace while remaining silent on the topic. Now, he has provided a response in the best terms at his disposal — with a movie. “On the Beach at Night Alone” is a fascinating sublimation of autobiography into Hong’s precise creative terms, a bittersweet character study as poignant, witty and deceptively slight as much...
More recently, Hong has also been known as one half of a marriage scandal that dominated Korean tabloids more than any of his movies. While the media speculated, the peripatetic filmmaker quietly stuck to his one-film-a-year pace while remaining silent on the topic. Now, he has provided a response in the best terms at his disposal — with a movie. “On the Beach at Night Alone” is a fascinating sublimation of autobiography into Hong’s precise creative terms, a bittersweet character study as poignant, witty and deceptively slight as much...
- 2/16/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
A new year has arrived and with it the challenge of reviewing a new work from Korea's arthouse darling Hong Sang-soo. On the Beach at Night Alone, which borrows its name from the title of a Walt Whitman poem and premieres at the Berlin International Film Festival, his third time there in competition after Night and Day and Nobody's Daughter Haewon, certainly does not depart in any significant way from the stylings and themes of his body of work to date. What has changed and gives this work a bitter edge not seen since 2009's Like You Know It All is a frankness that conflates the fictions of his work and his personal life to a much stronger degree than usual, yet many viewers, particularly...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/16/2017
- Screen Anarchy
Icymi: Chip and Joanna Gaines are one of Hgtv’s cutest couples.
With Chip as the contractor and resident jokester and Joanna as the shiplap-savvy interior designer who keeps him in line, it’s no wonder the two have such a sweet chemistry that Fixer Upper fans can’t get enough of. But no matter what pranks Chip pulls or what remodeling hazard their projects throw their way, the Gaineses always seem to get through it together. To inspire your #relationshipgoals on this most romantic day of the year, here are some of our favorite lovey-dovey Chip and Jo moments.
With Chip as the contractor and resident jokester and Joanna as the shiplap-savvy interior designer who keeps him in line, it’s no wonder the two have such a sweet chemistry that Fixer Upper fans can’t get enough of. But no matter what pranks Chip pulls or what remodeling hazard their projects throw their way, the Gaineses always seem to get through it together. To inspire your #relationshipgoals on this most romantic day of the year, here are some of our favorite lovey-dovey Chip and Jo moments.
- 2/14/2017
- by Megan Stein
- PEOPLE.com
Philadelphia Eagles' Josh Huff was arrested for gun and weed possession after he was pulled over for speeding ... TMZ Sports has learned. According to the Delaware River Port Authority criminal complaint, the 25-year-old wide receiver was stopped on the Walt Whitman Bridge in Jersey around 11 Am after cops saw him going 25 mph over the speed limit. Police say his car reeked of weed -- and when a cop asked him about the smell, Huff handed...
- 11/1/2016
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
Robert Keeling Nov 11, 2016
A salute to some of the finest uplifting moments in film, and to cinema's ability to lift your day.
A few weeks ago we published a list of traumatic moments that have appeared in family films. Of course we all enjoyed that waltz through painful childhood nightmare fuel, but the question was raised, why not do a list of slightly more positive and upbeat movie scenes instead? Thus, this: 25 of the most triumphant movie moments of all time.
Everyone has that go-to feel-good movie which they stick on when life is getting them down. Had a bad week at work? Stick Four Weddings on. Football team lose 5-0 and get soaked through on your way home? Time for Baseketball. Leave a tenner in the pocket of your jeans that just went in the wash and thus suddenly realise that life is a never-ending cycle of pain and...
A salute to some of the finest uplifting moments in film, and to cinema's ability to lift your day.
A few weeks ago we published a list of traumatic moments that have appeared in family films. Of course we all enjoyed that waltz through painful childhood nightmare fuel, but the question was raised, why not do a list of slightly more positive and upbeat movie scenes instead? Thus, this: 25 of the most triumphant movie moments of all time.
Everyone has that go-to feel-good movie which they stick on when life is getting them down. Had a bad week at work? Stick Four Weddings on. Football team lose 5-0 and get soaked through on your way home? Time for Baseketball. Leave a tenner in the pocket of your jeans that just went in the wash and thus suddenly realise that life is a never-ending cycle of pain and...
- 10/30/2016
- Den of Geek
Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Paterson’ And ‘Gimme Danger’: How Two New Films Speak to the Artistic Process — Nyff
The following essay was written by a participant in the 2016 New York Film Festival Critics Academy, a workshop for aspiring critics co-produced by IndieWire, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Film Comment.
Jim Jarmusch is no stranger to making films about artists or films that reference other works of art: “Dead Man’s” protagonist is named after the English poet William Blake, in “Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai,” Jarmusch pays homage to Seijun Suzuki’s “Branded to Kill,” and “Only Lovers Left Alive” has a vampire protagonist who doubles as a famous rock musician. Jarmusch’s latest two films which, played at the New York Film Festival this year—“Gimme Danger” and “Paterson” — continue this pattern of making a film about artists. What ultimately ties all these works together is a nostalgic longing for old art, and this can be seen through references Jarmusch’s films make...
Jim Jarmusch is no stranger to making films about artists or films that reference other works of art: “Dead Man’s” protagonist is named after the English poet William Blake, in “Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai,” Jarmusch pays homage to Seijun Suzuki’s “Branded to Kill,” and “Only Lovers Left Alive” has a vampire protagonist who doubles as a famous rock musician. Jarmusch’s latest two films which, played at the New York Film Festival this year—“Gimme Danger” and “Paterson” — continue this pattern of making a film about artists. What ultimately ties all these works together is a nostalgic longing for old art, and this can be seen through references Jarmusch’s films make...
- 10/19/2016
- by Anthony Dominguez
- Indiewire
Something Weird Video reports Herschell Gordon Lewis, the director credited with inventing the “splatter” sub-genre of horror cinema, has died. He was 87.
Lewis began in the film industry by producing and directing exploitation movies featuring nudity, a profitable endeavor that nonetheless limited their ability to be marketed and distributed, thanks to censorship by the Motion Picture Production Code. However, he soon became known as “the godfather of gore” for his gruesome and sometimes silly outings released throughout the ’60s and ’70s. 1963’s Blood Feast (which featured some great ad copy for the movie) is arguably his best known film, showcasing gore effects that included an actual sheep’s tongue. As Lewis told Film Journal, “I’ve often compared Blood Feast to a Walt Whitman poem. It’s no good, but it was the first of its kind.”
Blood Feast kickstarted a run of cult classics, like Two Thousand ...
Lewis began in the film industry by producing and directing exploitation movies featuring nudity, a profitable endeavor that nonetheless limited their ability to be marketed and distributed, thanks to censorship by the Motion Picture Production Code. However, he soon became known as “the godfather of gore” for his gruesome and sometimes silly outings released throughout the ’60s and ’70s. 1963’s Blood Feast (which featured some great ad copy for the movie) is arguably his best known film, showcasing gore effects that included an actual sheep’s tongue. As Lewis told Film Journal, “I’ve often compared Blood Feast to a Walt Whitman poem. It’s no good, but it was the first of its kind.”
Blood Feast kickstarted a run of cult classics, like Two Thousand ...
- 9/26/2016
- by Alex McCown-Levy, Mike Vanderbilt
- avclub.com
James Schamus gave Indignation star Logan Lerman books by Sylvia Plath, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg and Bertrand Russell Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Starting out on the Museum of Modern Art red carpet, I connected Sarah Gadon's Olivia to Arnaud Desplechin's Jimmy P: Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian. Logan Lerman, at the Yale Club, let me probe into how he prepared to take on the role of Marcus Messner in James Schamus's adaptation of Philip Roth's Indignation, set during the Korean War at a small Ohio college.
Messner arrives at the school from New Jersey; from the start, his roommates, both part of a Jewish minority, annoy him and keep him from studying by playing loud music or memorising Malvolio's yellow stocking speech from Twelfth Night.
James Schamus, Howard Cohen, Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon in Mary Katrantzou, Andrew Bregman, Eric D'arbeloff Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Marcus identifies as atheist,...
Starting out on the Museum of Modern Art red carpet, I connected Sarah Gadon's Olivia to Arnaud Desplechin's Jimmy P: Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian. Logan Lerman, at the Yale Club, let me probe into how he prepared to take on the role of Marcus Messner in James Schamus's adaptation of Philip Roth's Indignation, set during the Korean War at a small Ohio college.
Messner arrives at the school from New Jersey; from the start, his roommates, both part of a Jewish minority, annoy him and keep him from studying by playing loud music or memorising Malvolio's yellow stocking speech from Twelfth Night.
James Schamus, Howard Cohen, Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon in Mary Katrantzou, Andrew Bregman, Eric D'arbeloff Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Marcus identifies as atheist,...
- 7/27/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Legendary American independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has been a frequent visitor to the Cannes Film Festival ever since winning the Camera d’Or for Stranger Than Paradise in 1984. He took the Grand Jury prize in 2005 for Broken Flowers but has never managed to nab the Big One. His latest film, Paterson, which premiered last week in competition here, is the story of a bus driver (played by Adam Driver) named Paterson who lives in Paterson NJ, walks his wife’s bulldog, Marvin, and writes poems in his spare time. We sat down with the great silver-haired Son of Lee Marvin to talk hip-hop, Tilda Swinton, and the poetry of everyday things.
Some critics have called this your most personal film. How do would you respond to a statement like that?
I don’t know. With our last film, Only Lovers Left Alive, everyone said “Aha! His most personal film!” I don’t know.
Some critics have called this your most personal film. How do would you respond to a statement like that?
I don’t know. With our last film, Only Lovers Left Alive, everyone said “Aha! His most personal film!” I don’t know.
- 5/23/2016
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
The May 21 season finale of Saturday Night Live, hosted by series alum Fred Armisen, had viewers in stitches with one particular sketch titled "Farewell, Mr. Bunting." The bit parodies the ending scene of 1989's Dead Poets Society, in which Robin Williams' character John Keating, a high school teacher, is given an emotional send-off from his students after being fired. In the film, Keating's students salute their teacher as he gathers his classroom belongings by standing atop their desks and reciting the words of poet Walt Whitman. SNL's sketch is a frame-by-frame reenactment of the scene — castmembers
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- 5/22/2016
- by Meena Jang
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Was it Godard or was it Truffaut who said “critics make the best directors”?
A film critic by trade and a poet in his heart, Brian D. Johnson began his film “Al Purdy Was Here” as a fundraising tool to save the A-frame cabin in the woods built by Canadian poet Al Purdy and his wife Eurithe. As making the film progressed, Johnson began to see much more in the film than merely a vehicle [piece] to raise money. “Al Purdy Was Here” soon evolved into something much greater, something deeply poetic by a writer who himself treasures poetry even as he critiques films….
Brian says, “It is about art and life and the fact that they are often in conflict as we try to make our lives. Poetry is my aim…finding poetry in cinema. But music was the reason I made the film.”
Canada's leading musicians and artists come together to tell the tale of Al Purdy.
The documentary features archival materials and first-hand accounts, including interviews with his publisher Howard White, editor Sam Solecki, widow Eurithe Purdy, poets Dennis Lee, Steven Heighton and George Bowering—and Bowering's wife Jean Baird, the powerhouse behind the campaign to save and restore Purdy's A-Frame cabin.
Read Indiewire for more about the movie here.
Gordon Pinsent (“Away from Her”), Michael Ondaatje (“The English Patient”), Leonard Cohen (“Natural Born Killers”), Margaret Atwood (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) all pay tribute to him along with other well known writers, actors, directors and singers who adapt his poetry.
This film premiered, naturally enough, at Tiff 2015 but I only caught up with it at Iff Panama this year because Brian – whom I met one year in Havana and loaned him $100 to pay his hotel bill -- was at Iff Panama where his film was screening. With him was our friend-in-common, Latinaphile, Helga Stephenson, so I tagged along as a friend to see a film about a person I had never heard of before. And I was entranced by what I saw.
Al Purdy was known to be a raucous, barroom brawling Canadian poet, something on a par with Charles Bukowski. In fact they were friends and corresponded extensively, but there is some question as to whether Purdy’s character as a barroom brawler was put on as his persona to help popularize his poetry. Was he actually such a rough person? His wife, Eurithe Purdy, who survived him and is featured in the movie said that at home he was quite a peaceable man (when he was not boozing it up with his pals). He was also a philosophical soul, enraptured by nature—Canada's Walt Whitman as well as its Bukowski.
Sl: How did you get these musicians?
I went to the pantheon of famous Canadian singer-songwriters and asked them to compose and record music inspired by Purdy's work. We paid engineers and musicians. But the artists licensed their songs to us for free, and in return they got to own the rights to the songs.
I got in touch with Neil Young through his brother. I loved Neil's music, and interviewed him for one of his films. Remember Neil Young: Heart of Gold directed by Jonathan Demme?
I sent Neil a Purdy poem called "My 48 Pontiac", written from the Pov of a car in a junk yard—knowing Neil loves old cars. He never did get around to recording an original number for us, but he loved the poem, and the project. So when we wanted to use "Journey Through the Past" (from Neil's 1971 Massey Hall concert album) on the soundtrack, he gave us the rights at no cost.
We selected half a dozen songs for the movie but commissioned and recorded six more, and we're assembling all of them on an album called "The Al Purdy Songbook".
Meanwhile, the film's score was composed by my son, Casey Johnson, who recorded it all with purely analog technology—in the spirit of Purdy's rough and raw esthetic.
The music played at a 2013 benefit concert to save Purdy's cabin in the woods become the impetus for me to make the movie. I remember leaving the show and telling the organizers, "The next thing you should do is an Al Purdy Songbook.") I didn't know I'd end up doing it myself. And as it turned out, it was the music that made the film possible. Musicians are more famous than poets. They have an audience. And this is a movie about a dead poet. How do you make a movie about a dead poet?
The music brings it to life . . . I suppose I could have made a zombie movie instead.
Sl: How did you cast the movie?
You get the most famous people lined up and then the rest follow. I’m friends with Michael Ondaatje. I know Margaret Atwood. I know Leonard Cohen. So I started there.
Sl: How did you finance the film?
The CBC Documentary Channel gave us 25% of the budget and that triggered the rest of the financing. The Rogers Documentary Fund and the Rogers Cable Fund became the other principal contributors.
But Ron Mann, who exec produced, got the ball rolling, and his company, Films We Like, came onboard as the Canadian distributor. We're still looking for international distribution.
The movie felt like a barn-raising, with everyone pitching in to help make it work.
Brian D. Johnson is former film critic for Maclean's, Canada's weekly newsmagazine, is the current president of the Toronto Film Critics Association. Over the years, he also worked as a musician and published poetry, a novel, and several works of non-fiction, including a 25th-anniversary history of Tiff, "Brave Films, Wild Nights, 25 Years of Festival Fever. "Al Purdy was Here” (2015) is his first feature documentary. Once again he'll be writing about film for Maclean's in May at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
A film critic by trade and a poet in his heart, Brian D. Johnson began his film “Al Purdy Was Here” as a fundraising tool to save the A-frame cabin in the woods built by Canadian poet Al Purdy and his wife Eurithe. As making the film progressed, Johnson began to see much more in the film than merely a vehicle [piece] to raise money. “Al Purdy Was Here” soon evolved into something much greater, something deeply poetic by a writer who himself treasures poetry even as he critiques films….
Brian says, “It is about art and life and the fact that they are often in conflict as we try to make our lives. Poetry is my aim…finding poetry in cinema. But music was the reason I made the film.”
Canada's leading musicians and artists come together to tell the tale of Al Purdy.
The documentary features archival materials and first-hand accounts, including interviews with his publisher Howard White, editor Sam Solecki, widow Eurithe Purdy, poets Dennis Lee, Steven Heighton and George Bowering—and Bowering's wife Jean Baird, the powerhouse behind the campaign to save and restore Purdy's A-Frame cabin.
Read Indiewire for more about the movie here.
Gordon Pinsent (“Away from Her”), Michael Ondaatje (“The English Patient”), Leonard Cohen (“Natural Born Killers”), Margaret Atwood (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) all pay tribute to him along with other well known writers, actors, directors and singers who adapt his poetry.
This film premiered, naturally enough, at Tiff 2015 but I only caught up with it at Iff Panama this year because Brian – whom I met one year in Havana and loaned him $100 to pay his hotel bill -- was at Iff Panama where his film was screening. With him was our friend-in-common, Latinaphile, Helga Stephenson, so I tagged along as a friend to see a film about a person I had never heard of before. And I was entranced by what I saw.
Al Purdy was known to be a raucous, barroom brawling Canadian poet, something on a par with Charles Bukowski. In fact they were friends and corresponded extensively, but there is some question as to whether Purdy’s character as a barroom brawler was put on as his persona to help popularize his poetry. Was he actually such a rough person? His wife, Eurithe Purdy, who survived him and is featured in the movie said that at home he was quite a peaceable man (when he was not boozing it up with his pals). He was also a philosophical soul, enraptured by nature—Canada's Walt Whitman as well as its Bukowski.
Sl: How did you get these musicians?
I went to the pantheon of famous Canadian singer-songwriters and asked them to compose and record music inspired by Purdy's work. We paid engineers and musicians. But the artists licensed their songs to us for free, and in return they got to own the rights to the songs.
I got in touch with Neil Young through his brother. I loved Neil's music, and interviewed him for one of his films. Remember Neil Young: Heart of Gold directed by Jonathan Demme?
I sent Neil a Purdy poem called "My 48 Pontiac", written from the Pov of a car in a junk yard—knowing Neil loves old cars. He never did get around to recording an original number for us, but he loved the poem, and the project. So when we wanted to use "Journey Through the Past" (from Neil's 1971 Massey Hall concert album) on the soundtrack, he gave us the rights at no cost.
We selected half a dozen songs for the movie but commissioned and recorded six more, and we're assembling all of them on an album called "The Al Purdy Songbook".
Meanwhile, the film's score was composed by my son, Casey Johnson, who recorded it all with purely analog technology—in the spirit of Purdy's rough and raw esthetic.
The music played at a 2013 benefit concert to save Purdy's cabin in the woods become the impetus for me to make the movie. I remember leaving the show and telling the organizers, "The next thing you should do is an Al Purdy Songbook.") I didn't know I'd end up doing it myself. And as it turned out, it was the music that made the film possible. Musicians are more famous than poets. They have an audience. And this is a movie about a dead poet. How do you make a movie about a dead poet?
The music brings it to life . . . I suppose I could have made a zombie movie instead.
Sl: How did you cast the movie?
You get the most famous people lined up and then the rest follow. I’m friends with Michael Ondaatje. I know Margaret Atwood. I know Leonard Cohen. So I started there.
Sl: How did you finance the film?
The CBC Documentary Channel gave us 25% of the budget and that triggered the rest of the financing. The Rogers Documentary Fund and the Rogers Cable Fund became the other principal contributors.
But Ron Mann, who exec produced, got the ball rolling, and his company, Films We Like, came onboard as the Canadian distributor. We're still looking for international distribution.
The movie felt like a barn-raising, with everyone pitching in to help make it work.
Brian D. Johnson is former film critic for Maclean's, Canada's weekly newsmagazine, is the current president of the Toronto Film Critics Association. Over the years, he also worked as a musician and published poetry, a novel, and several works of non-fiction, including a 25th-anniversary history of Tiff, "Brave Films, Wild Nights, 25 Years of Festival Fever. "Al Purdy was Here” (2015) is his first feature documentary. Once again he'll be writing about film for Maclean's in May at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
- 4/26/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Prince, iconic singer-songwriter and seven-time Grammy winner, has died. He was 57. In the mid '80s, just as his career hit an all-time high following the release of his hit single "Purple Rain", Prince sat down with People to discuss his life and rique music. Read the 1984 cover story below:He glittered in a white sequined cape, ornately futuristic atop a bank of speakers in the darkened hall. Eerie synthesizer chords echoed through the arena, laser lights dappled the crowd and a garbled heavenly voice rumbled, "I'm confused." And as confetti rained down, 19,000 fans at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena saw the...
- 4/21/2016
- PEOPLE.com
Prince, iconic singer-songwriter and seven-time Grammy winner, has died. He was 57. In the mid '80s, just as his career hit an all-time high following the release of his hit single "Purple Rain", Prince sat down with People to discuss his life and rique music. Read the 1984 cover story below:He glittered in a white sequined cape, ornately futuristic atop a bank of speakers in the darkened hall. Eerie synthesizer chords echoed through the arena, laser lights dappled the crowd and a garbled heavenly voice rumbled, "I'm confused." And as confetti rained down, 19,000 fans at Detroit's Joe Louis Arena saw the...
- 4/21/2016
- PEOPLE.com
By capturing 1920s New York – and all the glamour, danger and alienation it contained – Paul Strand set the foundations for a skyscraping subgenre
Some of the greatest silent films had no actors and no story. Many of the very first films fall into this category: the short films we call “actualities”, which capture glimpses of everyday life (factory workers flooding through a gate, a train entering a station). But after the actualities came something more poetic, an avant garde subgenre that gave birth to masterpieces and helped people to understand the changing world of the early 20th century.
In the 1920s, the “city symphony” transformed the raw material of actualities into something more musical, modern and unexpected. The genre was born with Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler’s Manhatta (1921), which places lines from a Walt Whitman poem (Mannahatta) between unforgettable images of New York City’s architecture, towering over its residents.
Some of the greatest silent films had no actors and no story. Many of the very first films fall into this category: the short films we call “actualities”, which capture glimpses of everyday life (factory workers flooding through a gate, a train entering a station). But after the actualities came something more poetic, an avant garde subgenre that gave birth to masterpieces and helped people to understand the changing world of the early 20th century.
In the 1920s, the “city symphony” transformed the raw material of actualities into something more musical, modern and unexpected. The genre was born with Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler’s Manhatta (1921), which places lines from a Walt Whitman poem (Mannahatta) between unforgettable images of New York City’s architecture, towering over its residents.
- 3/21/2016
- by Pamela Hutchinson
- The Guardian - Film News
Perhaps like me you recall first encountering the poetry of Walt Whitman as a high-school student and reacting to certain lines with adolescent giggles. It’s an experience shared by the narrator of Garth Greenwell’s exquisite first novel What Belongs to You, an English teacher at the American College in Sofia, a midwestern stranger in Bulgaria feeling often thrilled and threatened by its foreignness. Early on he recalls walking in the mountain village of Blagoevgrad, chaperoning some students to a conference on mathematical linguistics, “a field in which I had little interest and no expertise” — a flash of offhand candor that inspires steady faith in his telling. Walking along a path between mountain and river, he does a great deal of seeing: “The air was thick with movement, butterflies and day moths and also, hanging iridescent in the sun, tiny ephemerae shining and embalmed, pushed helplessly here and there...
- 1/20/2016
- by Christian Lorentzen
- Vulture
Mary Hrbacek: The Tao of Trees 107 West, NYC
In her October exhibition at 107 West, Mary Hrbacek displays her series World Trees, 2015. Consisting of 24 acrylic on linen paintings, the series represents Hrbacek’s engagement and commitment to world sustainability. In a lyrical, evocative manner she accentuates the import of trees' life-giving properties that allow humans to live and breathe. In this she recognizes that an individual working with the community can make for a real democracy. Hrbacek also realizes that there is a dark side to life and nature, as seen in her work Silver Dark Monarch, 2015 (acrylic on linen, 8x10") that looks ominous when compared to some of her other tree paintings. Dark Monarch with its pink, black, green and silver tones recalls the withering effects of such an entity’s sovereignty. Hrbacek's motifs are inspired by trees she came across in her travels to such places as Vermont, Italy,...
In her October exhibition at 107 West, Mary Hrbacek displays her series World Trees, 2015. Consisting of 24 acrylic on linen paintings, the series represents Hrbacek’s engagement and commitment to world sustainability. In a lyrical, evocative manner she accentuates the import of trees' life-giving properties that allow humans to live and breathe. In this she recognizes that an individual working with the community can make for a real democracy. Hrbacek also realizes that there is a dark side to life and nature, as seen in her work Silver Dark Monarch, 2015 (acrylic on linen, 8x10") that looks ominous when compared to some of her other tree paintings. Dark Monarch with its pink, black, green and silver tones recalls the withering effects of such an entity’s sovereignty. Hrbacek's motifs are inspired by trees she came across in her travels to such places as Vermont, Italy,...
- 12/1/2015
- by Thalia Vrachopoulos
- www.culturecatch.com
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