Pathé has unveiled a trailer for “Monsieur Aznavour,” showing the Golden-Globe nominated actor Tahar Rahim transformed as Charles Aznavour, the French-Armenian singer, songwriter and actor who sold more than 180 million records around the world.
The movie charts Aznavour’s rise to stardom in the 1950s and his friendships with many artists, including Edith Piaf, who took him with her on a tour of France and the U.S.
“Monsieur Aznavour” will be released by Pathé on Oct. 23. It’s directed by singer-turned-filmmakers Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade (“Patients”), and produced by Jean-Rachid Kallouche’s Kallouche Cinema and Mandarin & Compagnie, the banner behind Francois Ozon’s and Anne Fontaine’s films.
Kallouche, who teamed with Eric and Nicolas Altmayer at Mandarin on Grand Corps Malade and Idir’s previous films, is married to Katia Aznavour, the daughter of the late artist.
Rahim spoke to Variety briefly about his role...
The movie charts Aznavour’s rise to stardom in the 1950s and his friendships with many artists, including Edith Piaf, who took him with her on a tour of France and the U.S.
“Monsieur Aznavour” will be released by Pathé on Oct. 23. It’s directed by singer-turned-filmmakers Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade (“Patients”), and produced by Jean-Rachid Kallouche’s Kallouche Cinema and Mandarin & Compagnie, the banner behind Francois Ozon’s and Anne Fontaine’s films.
Kallouche, who teamed with Eric and Nicolas Altmayer at Mandarin on Grand Corps Malade and Idir’s previous films, is married to Katia Aznavour, the daughter of the late artist.
Rahim spoke to Variety briefly about his role...
- 5/22/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Al Hassan, who had a 40-year-plus career as a road manager for the likes of Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gormé, Tony Danza and Jim Stafford, died April 12 in Washington, his family announced. He was 87.
Hassan’s job took him across the U.S. and to Canada, Africa, Asia and Europe as he also supported Leif Garrett, Susan Anton and Nana Mouskouri, among many other entertainers.
The fifth of six children, Albert LeRoy Hassan was born on Dec. 2, 1936, and raised in the steel town of New Castle, Pennsylvania. After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served for three years, then graduated from the University of Maryland with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in theater.
In college, Hassan worked with football coach Tom Nugent and was involved in the effort to recruit Joe Namath, a star high school quarterback and fellow Pennsylvanian from Beaver Falls. Namath did sign with...
Hassan’s job took him across the U.S. and to Canada, Africa, Asia and Europe as he also supported Leif Garrett, Susan Anton and Nana Mouskouri, among many other entertainers.
The fifth of six children, Albert LeRoy Hassan was born on Dec. 2, 1936, and raised in the steel town of New Castle, Pennsylvania. After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served for three years, then graduated from the University of Maryland with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in theater.
In college, Hassan worked with football coach Tom Nugent and was involved in the effort to recruit Joe Namath, a star high school quarterback and fellow Pennsylvanian from Beaver Falls. Namath did sign with...
- 4/26/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jean-Paul Vignon, the romantic French vocalist and actor who impressed audiences on both sides of the Atlantic during an eight-decade career, died March 22 of liver cancer in Beverly Hills, his family announced. He was 89.
Performing a repertoire of contemporary pop and American standards, Vignon debuted in the U.S. in 1963 at the famed New York supper club The Blue Angel, where he opened for stand-up comic Woody Allen.
Ed Sullivan would soon showcase him on his Sunday night CBS variety show in eight appearances — including one in which he sang a duet with young Liza Minnelli — and he became a regular guest on Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin’s programs.
Signed to Columbia Records, Vignon released his first U.S. album, Because I Love You, in 1964. Three years later, he had a supporting role opposite William Holden and Cliff Robertson in the World War II film The Devil’s Brigade.
In...
Performing a repertoire of contemporary pop and American standards, Vignon debuted in the U.S. in 1963 at the famed New York supper club The Blue Angel, where he opened for stand-up comic Woody Allen.
Ed Sullivan would soon showcase him on his Sunday night CBS variety show in eight appearances — including one in which he sang a duet with young Liza Minnelli — and he became a regular guest on Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin’s programs.
Signed to Columbia Records, Vignon released his first U.S. album, Because I Love You, in 1964. Three years later, he had a supporting role opposite William Holden and Cliff Robertson in the World War II film The Devil’s Brigade.
In...
- 4/3/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Nolita Cinema’s musical Hear Me Love, starring France’s biggest pop star Clara Luciani in her first lead role, has started shooting in Paris as part of a revival of the film musical in France.
Set between Paris and Rome’s Cinecitta’s Studios in the 1970s, Hear Me Love (Joli Joli) follows a struggling writer looking for inspiration for his second novel who falls in love with a famous movie star. It is the fifth feature by French film and theatre director Diastème and is being scored by composer Alex Beaupain.
Ginger & Fed is selling the film...
Set between Paris and Rome’s Cinecitta’s Studios in the 1970s, Hear Me Love (Joli Joli) follows a struggling writer looking for inspiration for his second novel who falls in love with a famous movie star. It is the fifth feature by French film and theatre director Diastème and is being scored by composer Alex Beaupain.
Ginger & Fed is selling the film...
- 2/19/2024
- ScreenDaily
Netflix has closed a deal with Spanish singer-songwriter Julio Iglesias to bring his life to the screen in series form. “For the first time, this music living legend will participate in the creative process of a project in which he will share everything about his life and his incredible musical trajectory,” the streamer said on Thursday.
The project, currently in development, will “tell the story of how Iglesias became the first non-English artist to enter the American and Asian markets and turned into a universal star who is among the five biggest record sellers in history,” Netflix said. “Throughout his more than 55 years of artistic career, Julio Iglesias has recorded and sung in 12 languages and has connected fans from all over the world, becoming the first Spanish artist with universal reach to have his songs sung all over the planet.”
Financial details weren’t disclosed.
“After that many speculations, books,...
The project, currently in development, will “tell the story of how Iglesias became the first non-English artist to enter the American and Asian markets and turned into a universal star who is among the five biggest record sellers in history,” Netflix said. “Throughout his more than 55 years of artistic career, Julio Iglesias has recorded and sung in 12 languages and has connected fans from all over the world, becoming the first Spanish artist with universal reach to have his songs sung all over the planet.”
Financial details weren’t disclosed.
“After that many speculations, books,...
- 2/8/2024
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Maurice Hines, the Broadway dancer, choreographer and actor who famously showcased his skills alongside his late younger brother, Gregory Hines, in a Nicholas Brothers-like act featured in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club, has died. He was 80.
Hines died Friday of natural causes at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey, his cousin and rep, Richard Nurse, told The Hollywood Reporter. He lived there for a couple of years.
The elegant, Harlem-born Hines received a Tony Award nomination in 1986 for best actor in a musical for Uptown … It’s Hot and starred again on Broadway in 2006’s Hot Feet. He conceived, directed and choreographed both productions.
In his THR review of the 2019 documentary Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back, Frank Scheck wrote that the Hines brothers had a falling out and didn’t talk for 10 years “for reasons that Maurice refuses to discuss to this day. He provides no explanation in the film,...
Hines died Friday of natural causes at the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey, his cousin and rep, Richard Nurse, told The Hollywood Reporter. He lived there for a couple of years.
The elegant, Harlem-born Hines received a Tony Award nomination in 1986 for best actor in a musical for Uptown … It’s Hot and starred again on Broadway in 2006’s Hot Feet. He conceived, directed and choreographed both productions.
In his THR review of the 2019 documentary Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back, Frank Scheck wrote that the Hines brothers had a falling out and didn’t talk for 10 years “for reasons that Maurice refuses to discuss to this day. He provides no explanation in the film,...
- 12/30/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Holding the world premiere of Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” in Paris was a no-brainer for Sony’s motion picture group chairman and CEO Tom Rothman, due to the film’s French DNA and its subject, the famous French emperor (played by Joaquin Phoenix).
“Where else could you begin the worldwide rollout of ‘Napoleon’ than France?,” said Rothman on the red carpet of the event at the Salle Pleyel concert hall, where Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby and Tahar Rahim were able to attend thanks to the end of the 118-day SAG-AFTRA strike.
But the French theatrical bow comes with a downside for Apple, which financed the pricey movie and will now have to wait 17 months to launch the movie on its service due to France’s strict windowing rules.
“It’s a great credit to Apple who made the film because this particular movie (…) is a big screen experience,” said Rothman. “It...
“Where else could you begin the worldwide rollout of ‘Napoleon’ than France?,” said Rothman on the red carpet of the event at the Salle Pleyel concert hall, where Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby and Tahar Rahim were able to attend thanks to the end of the 118-day SAG-AFTRA strike.
But the French theatrical bow comes with a downside for Apple, which financed the pricey movie and will now have to wait 17 months to launch the movie on its service due to France’s strict windowing rules.
“It’s a great credit to Apple who made the film because this particular movie (…) is a big screen experience,” said Rothman. “It...
- 11/14/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Bad Bunny is the most-streamed artist on the planet, a status further underscored by the fact that his new album, Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana, is certain to debut at Number One on the Billboard 200 album chart. He’s a fashion icon, a WWE mainstay, a gods-gift to both tabloid editors and internet rubberneckers. His last album, 2022’s Un Verano Sin Ti, was among his most eclectic to date, incorporating indie luminaries from the world of Latin pop to both expand the boundaries of reggaeton and (possibly...
- 10/16/2023
- by Jon Dolan and Vita Dadoo
- Rollingstone.com
Bad Bunny lives lavish and dines with the finest in the video for “Monaco,” which dropped Friday.
The video opens with Bad Bunny as an old Hollywood star being photographed by paparazzi as he enters a restaurant to have dinner with his friends as Al Pacino watches from another table. (Pacino has pasta fed to him.)
Sipping some white wine, Bad Bunny joins the iconic actor at his table, and the two have a conversation. It’s a fitting cameo, since later in the song he raps about The Godfather: “Yo sigo tranquilo,...
The video opens with Bad Bunny as an old Hollywood star being photographed by paparazzi as he enters a restaurant to have dinner with his friends as Al Pacino watches from another table. (Pacino has pasta fed to him.)
Sipping some white wine, Bad Bunny joins the iconic actor at his table, and the two have a conversation. It’s a fitting cameo, since later in the song he raps about The Godfather: “Yo sigo tranquilo,...
- 10/13/2023
- by Tomás Mier
- Rollingstone.com
Europe has a brand-new media giant.
Vuelta Group, a private-equity fueled company headed by former Canal+ and Goldman Sachs executive Jerome Levy, made a very big launch on the European scene on Thursday, announcing its acquisition of Scandinavian independent film company Scanbox, German distributor/producer SquareOne Entertainment and French international sales company Playtime.
Vuelta (Latin for “to go around”) is planning future acquisitions in France, Italy, Spain and the Benelux region as it looks to build a pan-European television and film studio focusing on the production and distribution of European content across the continent.
The Vuelta launch is a further sign of consolidation in the European indie market, which has already seen several independent producers and distributors subsumed into Pe-backed studios such as Leonine and Mediawan or snatched up by global indie giants like Fremantle and Banijay.
The Veulta setup will see each of its subsidiary companies continue to operate...
Vuelta Group, a private-equity fueled company headed by former Canal+ and Goldman Sachs executive Jerome Levy, made a very big launch on the European scene on Thursday, announcing its acquisition of Scandinavian independent film company Scanbox, German distributor/producer SquareOne Entertainment and French international sales company Playtime.
Vuelta (Latin for “to go around”) is planning future acquisitions in France, Italy, Spain and the Benelux region as it looks to build a pan-European television and film studio focusing on the production and distribution of European content across the continent.
The Vuelta launch is a further sign of consolidation in the European indie market, which has already seen several independent producers and distributors subsumed into Pe-backed studios such as Leonine and Mediawan or snatched up by global indie giants like Fremantle and Banijay.
The Veulta setup will see each of its subsidiary companies continue to operate...
- 7/6/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Of all the classic summer berries — straw, blue, goose, rasp — blackberries ripen latest. That makes them an appropriate fruit for sturdy 48-year-old loner Etero (Eka Chavleishvili) to be reaching for at the beginning of Elene Naveriani’s slyly delightful “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry.” But then, further distracted by the other title star, a handsome blackbird, she takes a tumble in to a ravine. It could have killed her. Indeed, there’s a moment where she envisions that it has. She watches as idly curious passersby gather around her body; anyone who has ever imagined their own funeral would be disappointed by this paltry turnout.
One subtle trick of Naveriani’s second feature, making good on the promise of her Locarno-awarded debut “Wet Sand,” is to convey that this near-death experience marks a rupture in Etero’s normal routine, while also establishing the shape of that routine. Perhaps it’s the first...
One subtle trick of Naveriani’s second feature, making good on the promise of her Locarno-awarded debut “Wet Sand,” is to convey that this near-death experience marks a rupture in Etero’s normal routine, while also establishing the shape of that routine. Perhaps it’s the first...
- 6/7/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
The €26m production starts principal photography on May 30 in the Paris region.
UTA Independent Film Group has boarded Playtime’s buzzy upcomimg biopic Monsieur Aznavour. starring Tahar Rahim, to lead on US sales.
The film about the legendary French singer Charles Aznavour also stars Bastien Bouillon and Marie-Julie Baup.
Mehdi Idir and French rap artist Grand Corps Malade direct following the duo’s hit films Step by Step and School Life. T
The producers are prolific French producers Eric and Nicolas Altmayer of Mandarin & Compagnie and Jean-Rachid’s Kallouche Cinema.
The €26m production starts principal photography on May 30 in...
UTA Independent Film Group has boarded Playtime’s buzzy upcomimg biopic Monsieur Aznavour. starring Tahar Rahim, to lead on US sales.
The film about the legendary French singer Charles Aznavour also stars Bastien Bouillon and Marie-Julie Baup.
Mehdi Idir and French rap artist Grand Corps Malade direct following the duo’s hit films Step by Step and School Life. T
The producers are prolific French producers Eric and Nicolas Altmayer of Mandarin & Compagnie and Jean-Rachid’s Kallouche Cinema.
The €26m production starts principal photography on May 30 in...
- 5/22/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Playtime has boarded “Monsieur Aznavour,” the prestige biopic of legendary French-Armenian Charles Aznavour starring Tahar Rahim. Budgeted at €26 million, the film will start principal photography on May 30. Pathé has scooped French rights and will give it a wide release in theaters.
Surely one of the hottest packages to hit this year’s Cannes market, the film will chart Aznavour’s sprawling life journey, from his poor childhood to his rise to fame, from his triumphs to his failures, from Paris to New York. Aznavour was devoted to his art until the very end, singing his songs in ten languages, on every stage, in every city, desperately searching for perfection. He sold more than 180 million records around the world.
Rahim, who’s rolling off Marvel’s “Madame Web” and Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,” is highly committed to the part and has been preparing it for months. He will be in Cannes...
Surely one of the hottest packages to hit this year’s Cannes market, the film will chart Aznavour’s sprawling life journey, from his poor childhood to his rise to fame, from his triumphs to his failures, from Paris to New York. Aznavour was devoted to his art until the very end, singing his songs in ten languages, on every stage, in every city, desperately searching for perfection. He sold more than 180 million records around the world.
Rahim, who’s rolling off Marvel’s “Madame Web” and Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,” is highly committed to the part and has been preparing it for months. He will be in Cannes...
- 5/17/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Tahar Rahim, who earned BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for his starring roles in “A Prophet” and “The Mauritanian,” is set to play Charles Aznavour, the iconic French-Armenian singer, songwriter and actor who sold more than 180 million records around the world.
Titled “Monsieur Aznavour,” the biopic will be directed by singer-turned-filmmakers Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade (“Patients”), and produced by Jean-Rachid Kallouche’s Kallouche Cinema and Mandarin & Compagnie, the banner behind Francois Ozon’s and Anne Fontaine’s films.
Kallouche, who teamed with Eric and Nicolas Altmayer at Mandarin on Grand Corps Malade and Idir’s previous films, is married to Katia Aznavour, the daughter of the late artist. Filming will kick off in the summer for an estimated delivery in 2024, to mark Aznavour’s centenary.
The movie will chart Aznavour’s rise to stardom in the 1950s and his friendships with many artists, including Edith Piaf, who took...
Titled “Monsieur Aznavour,” the biopic will be directed by singer-turned-filmmakers Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade (“Patients”), and produced by Jean-Rachid Kallouche’s Kallouche Cinema and Mandarin & Compagnie, the banner behind Francois Ozon’s and Anne Fontaine’s films.
Kallouche, who teamed with Eric and Nicolas Altmayer at Mandarin on Grand Corps Malade and Idir’s previous films, is married to Katia Aznavour, the daughter of the late artist. Filming will kick off in the summer for an estimated delivery in 2024, to mark Aznavour’s centenary.
The movie will chart Aznavour’s rise to stardom in the 1950s and his friendships with many artists, including Edith Piaf, who took...
- 2/15/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Filmmaker Argam Gevorgyan’s experimental/music video hybrid short La Beaute takes the song of the same name by Palina and envelops it with a story of twin Armenian brothers who have to face a tragic goodbye. The most striking aspect of Gevorgyan’s film is its vertical format, this is a film designed to be watched on a phone. The vertical imagery makes for an aesthetically pleasing stylistic choice, with each frame tightly composed with a strong eye for detail, but it’s also a thematic one, reflecting the penned-in world Gevorgyan’s characters find themselves in. Dn is excited to present the film on our pages today and joined Gevorgyan for a conversation where he discusses the creative motivations of the vertical format, his ongoing relationship with Armenia’s history, and the challenge of getting the film off the ground financially.
What was the beginning of your collaboration...
What was the beginning of your collaboration...
- 11/18/2022
- by James Maitre
- Directors Notes
Stubborn and iconoclastic as always, Jean-Luc Godard has passed to another realm–and by his own choice– at age 91. Ever-iconoclastic, impudent and exasperating, forever pushing boundaries but remaining elusive, and an artist in every fiber of his being, Godard always did exactly what he wanted to do; for a few years many followed him ardently, and for lots of us in the 1960s he led the way into a vastly exciting and personal form of cinema. Thereafter he went entirely his own way, losing most of his audience but remaining at the forefront of exploring what cinema is, could be, and, sometimes, what it absolutely shouldn’t be.
The official obituaries and tributes will certainly convey Godard’s importance and influence through the 1960s, the way he helped liberate cinema from its literary and orderly appearance to something far more energized, unexpected, jarring and often exhilarating. Although Godard consumed and...
The official obituaries and tributes will certainly convey Godard’s importance and influence through the 1960s, the way he helped liberate cinema from its literary and orderly appearance to something far more energized, unexpected, jarring and often exhilarating. Although Godard consumed and...
- 9/14/2022
- by Todd McCarthy
- Deadline Film + TV
"I want to be like everyone else." "Thank God, you never will." This looks fantastic - time to catch up with it. Samuel Goldwyn Films has secured the rights to (finally) release a film called C.R.A.Z.Y., which first premiered back in 2005. For those that don't know, this was the big breakout film for Quebecois filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée, who unfortunately died late last year. C.R.A.Z.Y. has never been available to watch in the U.S. since its initial festival run in 2005, despite winning tons of awards up in Canada. A young French Canadian, one of five boys in a conservative family in the 1960s/1970s, struggles to reconcile his emerging identity with his father's values. The film also features an extensive soundtrack, featuring artists like David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Patsy Cline, Charles Aznavour, and The Rolling Stones. It stars Marc-André Grondin, Michel Côté, and Danielle Proulx. It's nice to see a...
- 5/11/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Every Wes Anderson film is filled with musical delights, from offbeat songs to unexpected score cues, and “The French Dispatch” is no exception.
Composer Alexandre Desplat and music supervisor Randall Poster are among the first to read any new Anderson script. “He and I have been corresponding with music since the day we met,” says Poster, “and over the course of 25 years there’s a lot of musical history that we draw upon for different projects.”
“The French Dispatch,” an homage to the New Yorker magazine’s traditions and writers, was special for the Paris-based Desplat because the film is based in “a fantasized France,” as he puts it, a not-quite-real France as seen through Anderson’s unique prism.
Desplat scored the opening sequence (with Bill Murray as the editor) and two of the three episodes in the film, about an imprisoned artist (Benicio del Toro) and a police commissioner...
Composer Alexandre Desplat and music supervisor Randall Poster are among the first to read any new Anderson script. “He and I have been corresponding with music since the day we met,” says Poster, “and over the course of 25 years there’s a lot of musical history that we draw upon for different projects.”
“The French Dispatch,” an homage to the New Yorker magazine’s traditions and writers, was special for the Paris-based Desplat because the film is based in “a fantasized France,” as he puts it, a not-quite-real France as seen through Anderson’s unique prism.
Desplat scored the opening sequence (with Bill Murray as the editor) and two of the three episodes in the film, about an imprisoned artist (Benicio del Toro) and a police commissioner...
- 10/23/2021
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
It’s been such a long wait for the release of the new film from Wes Anderson that the filmmaker himself is already prepping to shoot his next film this summer. 2021, however, is finally the year of The French Dispatch and ahead of a Cannes Film Festival debut, a stateside premiere at New York Film Festival, and a release on October 22, we’ve now got another tease in the form of the official soundtrack details and a preview.
Made up of 25 tracks, the score comes from Anderson’s recent frequent collaborator Alexandre Desplat as well piano solos performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet, notes Film Music Reporter, who revealed the first details. Also including songs by Grace Jones, Ennio Morricone, Jarvis Cocker, Chantal Goya, and more, we’ve collected the currently available tracks on a Spotify playlist. The tracklist itself also gives some hints at what to expect from the story with car chases,...
Made up of 25 tracks, the score comes from Anderson’s recent frequent collaborator Alexandre Desplat as well piano solos performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet, notes Film Music Reporter, who revealed the first details. Also including songs by Grace Jones, Ennio Morricone, Jarvis Cocker, Chantal Goya, and more, we’ve collected the currently available tracks on a Spotify playlist. The tracklist itself also gives some hints at what to expect from the story with car chases,...
- 6/15/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
“Did you think you were making a French independent film?” rails literary agent Vincent (Mikaël Chirinian) in French independent film “The World After Us.” He’s angry with his callow young client, Labidi (Aurélien Gabrielli), because Labidi has abruptly changed tack on a novel that’s already been optioned, and has also changed its title to, inevitably, “The World After Us.” Louda Ben Salah-Cazanas’ directorial debut is sensitively made, well observed and beautifully performed, but as this rather desultory stab at reflexivity suggests, it doesn’t have many surprises in store.
Where it really works is as a character portrait of the young aspiring author, to great measure aided by Gabrielli’s soulful, faintly Charles Aznavour vibe and tamped-down, off-kilter charm. Labidi, whose doting and delightful working-class Muslim parents (Saadia Bentaïeb and Jacques Nolot) run a small café in Lyon, lives in Paris. Actually, he basically squats there, sleeping on...
Where it really works is as a character portrait of the young aspiring author, to great measure aided by Gabrielli’s soulful, faintly Charles Aznavour vibe and tamped-down, off-kilter charm. Labidi, whose doting and delightful working-class Muslim parents (Saadia Bentaïeb and Jacques Nolot) run a small café in Lyon, lives in Paris. Actually, he basically squats there, sleeping on...
- 3/18/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Gary Gunas Dies: Broadway Executive Producer Of ‘The Who’s Tommy’, ‘Jekyll & Hyde’, ‘Ragtime’ Was 73
Gary Gunas, executive producer of such Broadway musicals as The Who’s Tommy, Jekyll & Hyde and Ragtime, died today of pancreatic cancer at his home in London. He was 73.
His death was announced by his husband Bill Rosenfield.
Born in Manchester, Ct, Gunas began his career Off Broadway in 1969 as an apprentice company manager for the musical Promenade. In the 1970s he shifted to Broadway productions and tours, working in the office of Marvin A. Krauss Associates as a company manager, associate Gm and eventually general manager on many shows including Godspell, American Buffalo, Beatlemania, Dancin’, Woman of the Year, Dreamgirls and Best Musical Tony winner La Cage aux Folles, as well as notable revivals of Gypsy, starring Angela Lansbury; King Richard III, starring Al Pacino; and Death of a Salesman, starring Dustin Hoffman.
During that time period, Gunas also general managed stage performances by such performers as Peter Allen,...
His death was announced by his husband Bill Rosenfield.
Born in Manchester, Ct, Gunas began his career Off Broadway in 1969 as an apprentice company manager for the musical Promenade. In the 1970s he shifted to Broadway productions and tours, working in the office of Marvin A. Krauss Associates as a company manager, associate Gm and eventually general manager on many shows including Godspell, American Buffalo, Beatlemania, Dancin’, Woman of the Year, Dreamgirls and Best Musical Tony winner La Cage aux Folles, as well as notable revivals of Gypsy, starring Angela Lansbury; King Richard III, starring Al Pacino; and Death of a Salesman, starring Dustin Hoffman.
During that time period, Gunas also general managed stage performances by such performers as Peter Allen,...
- 2/22/2021
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Fear No Evil / Ritual of Evil
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1969, 1970 / 196 Min. / 1:33.1
Starring Louis Jourdan, Wilfred Hyde-White, Bradford Dillman
Cinematography by Andrew J. McIntyre, Lionel Lindon
Directed by Paul Wendkos, Robert Day
Just as she hops into bed with Charles Aznavour in Shoot the Piano Player, Michèle Mercier exclaims, “Television is a cinema that you can see at home.” Et voilà—from Michèle’s lips to Studio City’s ear, Hollywood responded with a new kind of home entertainment, movies made exclusively for TV. The first examples of this awkward hybrid began to appear in the mid-sixties, but it wasn’t the first time the small-screen tried to expand its horizons; CBS beat movie studios to the punch with Playhouse 90‘s original productions of The Miracle Worker in 1957 and Judgment at Nuremberg in 1959. And there was the occasional holiday treat like NBC’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin starring Van Johnson...
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1969, 1970 / 196 Min. / 1:33.1
Starring Louis Jourdan, Wilfred Hyde-White, Bradford Dillman
Cinematography by Andrew J. McIntyre, Lionel Lindon
Directed by Paul Wendkos, Robert Day
Just as she hops into bed with Charles Aznavour in Shoot the Piano Player, Michèle Mercier exclaims, “Television is a cinema that you can see at home.” Et voilà—from Michèle’s lips to Studio City’s ear, Hollywood responded with a new kind of home entertainment, movies made exclusively for TV. The first examples of this awkward hybrid began to appear in the mid-sixties, but it wasn’t the first time the small-screen tried to expand its horizons; CBS beat movie studios to the punch with Playhouse 90‘s original productions of The Miracle Worker in 1957 and Judgment at Nuremberg in 1959. And there was the occasional holiday treat like NBC’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin starring Van Johnson...
- 12/8/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Sting will compile an array of collaborations from over the years into a new album, Duets, out November 27th.
The 17-song set features previously released tunes like “It’s Probably Me” with Eric Clapton, “Desert Rose” with Cheb Mami, “Don’t Make Me Wait” with Shaggy, “Whenever I Say Your Name” with Mary J. Blige, “Fragile” with Julio Iglesias, and “My Funny Valentine” with Herbie Hancock. The collection will also feature more recent tunes, like “Little Something,” with Melody Gardot, plus one new song, “September,” which Sting recorded with the famed Italian singer,...
The 17-song set features previously released tunes like “It’s Probably Me” with Eric Clapton, “Desert Rose” with Cheb Mami, “Don’t Make Me Wait” with Shaggy, “Whenever I Say Your Name” with Mary J. Blige, “Fragile” with Julio Iglesias, and “My Funny Valentine” with Herbie Hancock. The collection will also feature more recent tunes, like “Little Something,” with Melody Gardot, plus one new song, “September,” which Sting recorded with the famed Italian singer,...
- 10/28/2020
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
Herbert Kretzmer, whose English lyrics for a then little-known French musical Les Miserables helped turn the show into a blockbuster production, has died at the age of 95.
High-profile theater figures including lyricist Tim Rice first shared the news and his agent has since confirmed it to The New York Times. Kretzmer passed away on Wednesday at his home in London, days after his 95th birthday.
Alongside his work on Les Mis, the South African-born Kretzmer was a highly-regarded UK theater and TV critic for publications including the Daily Mail. He also penned English-language lyrics to the songs of French songwriter Charles Aznavour.
Les Misérables producer Cameron Mackintosh led tributes today, saying, “It is terribly sad to hear that the great Herbert Kretzmer passed away last night after a period of illness. His wonderful words for Les Misérables will live on in his memory forever more and the Christmas season at...
High-profile theater figures including lyricist Tim Rice first shared the news and his agent has since confirmed it to The New York Times. Kretzmer passed away on Wednesday at his home in London, days after his 95th birthday.
Alongside his work on Les Mis, the South African-born Kretzmer was a highly-regarded UK theater and TV critic for publications including the Daily Mail. He also penned English-language lyrics to the songs of French songwriter Charles Aznavour.
Les Misérables producer Cameron Mackintosh led tributes today, saying, “It is terribly sad to hear that the great Herbert Kretzmer passed away last night after a period of illness. His wonderful words for Les Misérables will live on in his memory forever more and the Christmas season at...
- 10/14/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Al Kasha, the Academy Award-winning composer who, along with songwriting partner Joel Hirschhorn, won Oscars for the soft rock disaster movie classics “The Morning After” and “We May Never Love Like This Again,” died Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 83.
His death was announced by spokesperson Deborah Radel. A cause of death was not disclosed.
Dominating music charts – and Oscar’s Best Original Song category – in 1973 with “The Morning After,” from The Poseidon Adventure, and again in ’75 with “We May Never Love Like This Again” from The Towering Inferno, Kasha and Hirschhorn returned to film songwriting with 1977’s Disney classic Pete’s Dragon. The duo was Oscar-nominated for that song score and the song “Candle On The Water,” sung by Pete’s Dragon star Helen Reddy.
For his Broadway stage work, Kasha received Tony Award nominations for the scores of 1981’s Copperfield and 1982’s Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Both Broadway productions were short-lived,...
His death was announced by spokesperson Deborah Radel. A cause of death was not disclosed.
Dominating music charts – and Oscar’s Best Original Song category – in 1973 with “The Morning After,” from The Poseidon Adventure, and again in ’75 with “We May Never Love Like This Again” from The Towering Inferno, Kasha and Hirschhorn returned to film songwriting with 1977’s Disney classic Pete’s Dragon. The duo was Oscar-nominated for that song score and the song “Candle On The Water,” sung by Pete’s Dragon star Helen Reddy.
For his Broadway stage work, Kasha received Tony Award nominations for the scores of 1981’s Copperfield and 1982’s Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Both Broadway productions were short-lived,...
- 9/15/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Palme d’Or nominee and actress was at Iffr for a retrospective of her work in January.
Belgian filmmaker, producer and actress Marion Hansel has died aged 71 after a heart attack.
Some of her best-known films as a director include Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea, which played in competition at Cannes in 1995, and Dust, which won the Silver Lion at Venice in 1985.
Hansel was at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) for a retrospective of her work in January, where she spoke to Screen about how a trip to hospital inspired her recent autobiographical essay film, There Was A Little Ship.
Belgian filmmaker, producer and actress Marion Hansel has died aged 71 after a heart attack.
Some of her best-known films as a director include Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea, which played in competition at Cannes in 1995, and Dust, which won the Silver Lion at Venice in 1985.
Hansel was at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) for a retrospective of her work in January, where she spoke to Screen about how a trip to hospital inspired her recent autobiographical essay film, There Was A Little Ship.
- 6/9/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
If you’re looking to take a break from binge-watching garbage television and exercise your brain during quarantine, film historian Annette Insdorf and 92Y might have a perfect solution for you. Beginning Sunday, March 29, you can take the online film course “Reel Pieces Remote: Classic Films with Annette Insdorf,” for five weeks every Sunday at 8 p.m.
The five films she has selected — all of them indisputable masterpieces — can be streamed on The Criterion Channel. You can view the film any time before the Sunday night class, along with a prerecorded introduction from Insdorf, followed by the weekly lecture that will also engage live group discussion. Signing up for the 92Y class includes a free Criterion Channel trial membership good for 45 days. The cost for the five courses altogether is $150 — not free by any means, if you’re in the position to enroll.
More from IndieWireThe Show Must Go On:...
The five films she has selected — all of them indisputable masterpieces — can be streamed on The Criterion Channel. You can view the film any time before the Sunday night class, along with a prerecorded introduction from Insdorf, followed by the weekly lecture that will also engage live group discussion. Signing up for the 92Y class includes a free Criterion Channel trial membership good for 45 days. The cost for the five courses altogether is $150 — not free by any means, if you’re in the position to enroll.
More from IndieWireThe Show Must Go On:...
- 3/22/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Willie Nelson will turn 87 on April 29th — on April 24th, he’ll release his 70th album. Titled First Rose of Spring, the record features two new songs written by Nelson with producer Buddy Cannon, and Nelson’s interpretations of tracks penned by Toby Keith, Chris Stapleton, and his longtime friend and contemporary Billy Joe Shaver. The country legend, whose last album was Ride Me Back Home, tackles Keith’s “Don’t Let the Old Man In,” Stapleton’s “Our Song,” and Shaver’s “We Are the Cowboys.”
Ahead of the release,...
Ahead of the release,...
- 2/21/2020
- by Joseph Hudak
- Rollingstone.com
Saudi Arabian film director Mahmoud Sabbagh, who made a splash with groundbreaking romcom “Barakah Meets Barakah” and black comedy “Amra and the Second Marriage,” roughly a year ago became president of Saudi’s Red Sea International Film Festival, the kingdom’s first full-fledged festival and market. The ambitious event, which will run March 12-21 in Jeddah, recently announced a lineup featuring a fresh mix of international films launching in the region as well as a robust representation of Arab titles. Sabbagh spoke exclusively to Variety about the challenges of attracting movies, talents, and industry executives to its inaugural edition. Excerpts from the conversation.
It’s tough launching a film festival with ambitions to put it in on the map. And it’s no secret that there is an aversion to Saudi [due to the Jamal Khashoggi murder.] How tough was it to get movies and people to come?
Each film or director or...
It’s tough launching a film festival with ambitions to put it in on the map. And it’s no secret that there is an aversion to Saudi [due to the Jamal Khashoggi murder.] How tough was it to get movies and people to come?
Each film or director or...
- 2/20/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Saudi Arabia’s nascent Red Sea International Film festival has unveiled its inaugural lineup featuring the Middle East premiere of Harvey Weinstein-inspired workplace abuse drama “The Assistant” amid a fresh mix of feature films and docs from Europe, the U.S., Asia, and Africa launching in the region on top of a robust representation of Arab films.
Significantly, the opener will be “The Book of Sun” by debuting Saudi directorial duo Faris and Suhaib Godus, about a teenager named Husam who, prompted by the growing phenomenon of Saudi YouTube content, embarks with a group of geeks on a mission to make a no-budget horror pic. Production of this film was supported by the fest.
Oliver Stone will preside over the competition jury.
Red Sea festival chief Mahmoud Sabbagh in a statement called “Book of Sun” “a testament to the passionate community of pioneering filmmakers who have inspired and drive Saudi cinema culture.
Significantly, the opener will be “The Book of Sun” by debuting Saudi directorial duo Faris and Suhaib Godus, about a teenager named Husam who, prompted by the growing phenomenon of Saudi YouTube content, embarks with a group of geeks on a mission to make a no-budget horror pic. Production of this film was supported by the fest.
Oliver Stone will preside over the competition jury.
Red Sea festival chief Mahmoud Sabbagh in a statement called “Book of Sun” “a testament to the passionate community of pioneering filmmakers who have inspired and drive Saudi cinema culture.
- 2/17/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Pulsar Content, the newly launched Parisian sales boutique, has closed deals on “Aznavour by Charles,” a documentary feature on the late French-Armenian crooner Charles Aznavour, directed by Marc di Domenico and narrated by Romain Duris.
“Aznavour by Charles” delivers an intimate portrait of the iconic singer through exclusive footage of him through the years, and interviews with some of his famous friends, including Edith Piaf and Frank Sinatra. The documentary closed the Angouleme Film Festival and had a market screening at Toronto.
Pulsar Content has sold the film to Canada (Les films Opale), Italy (Zivago), Israel (Lev), Latin America (Babilla), Brazil (Imovision), Benelux (Athena), Switzerland (Praesens), Bulgaria (6A Entertainment), former Yugoslavia (McF), the Middle East (Salim Ramia) and Baltics (A-One).
Pulsar, which was launched by former Bac films executives Gilles Sousa and Marie Garrett at Toronto, is also selling “A Perfect Enemy,” a psychological thriller directed by Spanish filmmaker Kike Maíllo,...
“Aznavour by Charles” delivers an intimate portrait of the iconic singer through exclusive footage of him through the years, and interviews with some of his famous friends, including Edith Piaf and Frank Sinatra. The documentary closed the Angouleme Film Festival and had a market screening at Toronto.
Pulsar Content has sold the film to Canada (Les films Opale), Italy (Zivago), Israel (Lev), Latin America (Babilla), Brazil (Imovision), Benelux (Athena), Switzerland (Praesens), Bulgaria (6A Entertainment), former Yugoslavia (McF), the Middle East (Salim Ramia) and Baltics (A-One).
Pulsar, which was launched by former Bac films executives Gilles Sousa and Marie Garrett at Toronto, is also selling “A Perfect Enemy,” a psychological thriller directed by Spanish filmmaker Kike Maíllo,...
- 11/10/2019
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Martin Scorsese’s eagerly awaited Netflix movie “The Irishman” wasn’t completed on time to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival, but Thierry Fremaux, Cannes’s topper, managed to pin down the high-profile movie and Scorsese himself for the upcoming Lumiere festival in Lyon next month. Dedicated to heritage movies, the Lumiere festival was created 10 years ago by Fremaux and French helmer Bertrand Tavernier.
Following its world premiere at the New York Film Festival and its international premiere at the BFI fest in London, “The Irishman” will screen at the Lumiere fest. Scorsese previously received a sprawling career tribute at this French festival in 2015 and was celebrated by an impressive delegation, including the late Abbas Kiarostami, Matteo Garrone, Elia Suleiman, Pablo Trapero Gaspard Noe and Alice Rohrwacher.
The French premiere of “The Irishman” will take place on Oct.15; it will mark one of rare opportunities to see “The Irishman...
Following its world premiere at the New York Film Festival and its international premiere at the BFI fest in London, “The Irishman” will screen at the Lumiere fest. Scorsese previously received a sprawling career tribute at this French festival in 2015 and was celebrated by an impressive delegation, including the late Abbas Kiarostami, Matteo Garrone, Elia Suleiman, Pablo Trapero Gaspard Noe and Alice Rohrwacher.
The French premiere of “The Irishman” will take place on Oct.15; it will mark one of rare opportunities to see “The Irishman...
- 9/20/2019
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
French film industry veterans Gilles Sousa and Marie Garrett, the duo behind Bac Films’ thriving international sales division, are teaming up with Logical Pictures to launch the Paris-based sales outfit Pulsar Content. The banner has also announced a partnership with Nicolas Winding Refn.
The production and financing outfit Logical Pictures was launched in Cannes 2016 and has so far invested in more than 20 projects, including “Farming,” which premiered at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival last year and will be released by Lionsgate in the U.K. next month, as well as Coralie Fargeat’s thriller “Revenge.”
Logical Pictures has invested in Refn’s new streaming service, Nwr, and will be working with Pulsar Content on the filmmaker’s diverse projects, including his next feature film.
“Refn and I both share a similar vision of the industry’s evolution in terms of new opportunities,” Logical Pictures president Frederic Fiore said. “Since Refn...
The production and financing outfit Logical Pictures was launched in Cannes 2016 and has so far invested in more than 20 projects, including “Farming,” which premiered at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival last year and will be released by Lionsgate in the U.K. next month, as well as Coralie Fargeat’s thriller “Revenge.”
Logical Pictures has invested in Refn’s new streaming service, Nwr, and will be working with Pulsar Content on the filmmaker’s diverse projects, including his next feature film.
“Refn and I both share a similar vision of the industry’s evolution in terms of new opportunities,” Logical Pictures president Frederic Fiore said. “Since Refn...
- 8/28/2019
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
In December 2018, musician Morrissey mentioned actor Donnelly Rhodes in a post on his blog, along with a photo of the former Soap and The Young and the Restless star.
"2018 was cruel to the Arts; more have quietly slipped away than you possibly realize: Peter Wyngarde, Charles Aznavour, Vic Damone, Nancy Wilson, Dorothy Malone, Bernardo Bertolucci, Aretha Franklin, Givenchy, Donnelly Rhodes," he wrote.
This month, Morrissey released a new vinyl single, "Lover-To-Be," which featured the same photo of Rhodes on the cover. It is unclear if Morrissey was a fan of the late actor, or if another connection existed.
Rhodes played Phillip Chancellor II on The Young and the Restless in 1974-1975. The character's death set up decades worth of story for Katherine (Jeanne Cooper) and Jill.
"2018 was cruel to the Arts; more have quietly slipped away than you possibly realize: Peter Wyngarde, Charles Aznavour, Vic Damone, Nancy Wilson, Dorothy Malone, Bernardo Bertolucci, Aretha Franklin, Givenchy, Donnelly Rhodes," he wrote.
This month, Morrissey released a new vinyl single, "Lover-To-Be," which featured the same photo of Rhodes on the cover. It is unclear if Morrissey was a fan of the late actor, or if another connection existed.
Rhodes played Phillip Chancellor II on The Young and the Restless in 1974-1975. The character's death set up decades worth of story for Katherine (Jeanne Cooper) and Jill.
- 4/16/2019
- by Roger Newcomb
- We Love Soaps
For Sunday’s Oscars 2019 ceremony, producers had a difficult decision of which film industry people would make the cut and who would be left out of the “In Memoriam.” For the segment, Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Philharmonic performed music by Oscar winner John Williams.
Over 100 Academy members or film industry veterans died in the past 12 months. Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam galleries for the year of 2018 and the newly-started gallery for 2019.
SEEDirector Stanley Donen, dead at 94, was light on his feet and a movie musical heavyweight
Stanley Donen would have certainly been included, but he died on the weekend after the segment had been finalized (look for him on the 2020 show). Here is list of some of the people included in the Memoriam tribute for the ceremony (Academy members are indicated with ** by their names):
Susan Anspach (actor)
Bernardo Bertolucci (director)
Yvonne Blake (costume designer)**
Paul Bloch...
Over 100 Academy members or film industry veterans died in the past 12 months. Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam galleries for the year of 2018 and the newly-started gallery for 2019.
SEEDirector Stanley Donen, dead at 94, was light on his feet and a movie musical heavyweight
Stanley Donen would have certainly been included, but he died on the weekend after the segment had been finalized (look for him on the 2020 show). Here is list of some of the people included in the Memoriam tribute for the ceremony (Academy members are indicated with ** by their names):
Susan Anspach (actor)
Bernardo Bertolucci (director)
Yvonne Blake (costume designer)**
Paul Bloch...
- 2/25/2019
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
While Academy Awards producers have strived for a much shorter ceremony this year, the annual “In Memoriam” segment will definitely remain. In fact this moment on Sunday’s 2019 event should be extra classy since Gustavo Dudamel and the L.A. Philharmonic will be performing as part of the tribute.
Over 100 Academy members or film industry veterans died in the past 12 months. But which ones will be featured in the short segment? There are generally outcries each year from family members upset about people being left out. Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam galleries for the year of 2018 and the newly-started gallery for 2019.
Virtually certain to be part of the montage are Oscar-winning directors Bernardo Bertolucci and Milos Forman, Oscar-nominated actors Carol Channing, Albert Finney and Burt Reynolds, director and actress Penny Marshall, executive producer and entertainment icon Stan Lee and many more.
SEEDana Carvey, Mike Myers, Queen Latifah, Barbra Streisand...
Over 100 Academy members or film industry veterans died in the past 12 months. But which ones will be featured in the short segment? There are generally outcries each year from family members upset about people being left out. Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam galleries for the year of 2018 and the newly-started gallery for 2019.
Virtually certain to be part of the montage are Oscar-winning directors Bernardo Bertolucci and Milos Forman, Oscar-nominated actors Carol Channing, Albert Finney and Burt Reynolds, director and actress Penny Marshall, executive producer and entertainment icon Stan Lee and many more.
SEEDana Carvey, Mike Myers, Queen Latifah, Barbra Streisand...
- 2/22/2019
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
One of the saddest and most important segments of the SAG Awards each year is the In Memoriam segment. For the 2019 event, it turns out to be even sadder for family members of certain long-time members of the Screen Actors Guild. Which actors and actresses were not even featured in this portion of the program on Sunday night? Check out this list below:
Marty Allen (actor)
Charles Aznavour (actor)
Kaye Ballard (actor)
Dushon Monique Brown (actor)
Joseph Campanella (actor)
Roy Clark (actor/singer)
Vic Damone (actor/singer)
Daryl Dragon (host/musician)
Louise Latham (actor)
Robin Leach (host)
Stan Lee (executive/host)
Katherine MacGregor (actor)
Robert Mandan (actor)
Peggy McKay (actor)
Tim O’Connor (actor)
Roger Perry (actor)
Douglas Rain (actor)
Ken Swofford (actor)
Clint Walker (actor)
Nancy Wilson (actor/singer)
Louis Zorich (actor)
SEE2019 SAG Awards: Full winners list in the 6 film and 9 TV categories
For the ceremony hosted by...
Marty Allen (actor)
Charles Aznavour (actor)
Kaye Ballard (actor)
Dushon Monique Brown (actor)
Joseph Campanella (actor)
Roy Clark (actor/singer)
Vic Damone (actor/singer)
Daryl Dragon (host/musician)
Louise Latham (actor)
Robin Leach (host)
Stan Lee (executive/host)
Katherine MacGregor (actor)
Robert Mandan (actor)
Peggy McKay (actor)
Tim O’Connor (actor)
Roger Perry (actor)
Douglas Rain (actor)
Ken Swofford (actor)
Clint Walker (actor)
Nancy Wilson (actor/singer)
Louis Zorich (actor)
SEE2019 SAG Awards: Full winners list in the 6 film and 9 TV categories
For the ceremony hosted by...
- 1/28/2019
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Sunday’s telecast of the 2019 Screen Actors Guild Awards will feature a special In Memoriam segment devoted to many of the actors and actresses who have died since last year’s ceremony in late January. Sure to be among those saluted include actress and director Penny Marshall, Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Burt Reynolds and Grammy winner Aretha Franklin. Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam galleries for the year of 2018 and the newly-started gallery for 2019.
The 25th annual ceremony will be hosted by past winner Megan Mullally (“Will and Grace”) for TNT and TBS on Sunday, January 27, at 8:00 p.m. Et; 5:00 p.m. Pt. Tom Hanks will be presenting the SAG life achievement award to Alan Alda.
SEE2019 SAG Awards nominations: Full list of Screen Actors Guild Awards nominees
Over 100 people in SAG/AFTRA have passed away in the past 12 months. Which of the following 50 names will also...
The 25th annual ceremony will be hosted by past winner Megan Mullally (“Will and Grace”) for TNT and TBS on Sunday, January 27, at 8:00 p.m. Et; 5:00 p.m. Pt. Tom Hanks will be presenting the SAG life achievement award to Alan Alda.
SEE2019 SAG Awards nominations: Full list of Screen Actors Guild Awards nominees
Over 100 people in SAG/AFTRA have passed away in the past 12 months. Which of the following 50 names will also...
- 1/25/2019
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Reel-Important People is a monthly column that highlights those individuals in or related to the movies that have left us in recent weeks. Below you'll find names big and small and from all areas of the industry, though each was significant to the movies in his or her own way. Paul G. Allen (1953-2018) - Businessman. In addition to co-founding Microsoft and his work in various other ventures, he co-owned Vulcan Productions and produced the movies Hard Candy, Far From Heaven, Titus and the documentaries Lightning in a Bottle, Pandora's Promise, Racing Extinction, Girl Rising and Netflix's The Ivory Game. He was played by Josh Hopkins in the movie Pirates of Silicon Valley. He died on October 15. (Nyt) Charles Aznavour (1924-2018) - Singer, Actor. In addition to his...
- 11/2/2018
- by Christopher Campbell
- Movies.com
Will Vinton, the Oscar- and Emmy-winning filmmaker who co-created the animation process known as “claymation” and is best known for the hugely successful “California Raisins” ad campaign, died Wednesday following a 12-year battle with multiple myeloma. He was 70.
“He saw the world as an imaginative playground full of fantasy, joy, and character. He instilled in us the greatest values of creativity, strength, and pride in ones own work. He created stories and characters filled with laughter, music, and powerful lessons that are globally beloved,” Vinton’s family said in a statement posted on his Facebook account.
“He brightened any room with his signature mustache, and he continued to make jokes and laugh until the very end. His work will live on in animation history and will continue to inspire creative thinkers and makers.”
Also Read: Charles Aznavour, Iconic French Singer, Composer and Actor, Dies at 94
An Oregon native, Vinton studied...
“He saw the world as an imaginative playground full of fantasy, joy, and character. He instilled in us the greatest values of creativity, strength, and pride in ones own work. He created stories and characters filled with laughter, music, and powerful lessons that are globally beloved,” Vinton’s family said in a statement posted on his Facebook account.
“He brightened any room with his signature mustache, and he continued to make jokes and laugh until the very end. His work will live on in animation history and will continue to inspire creative thinkers and makers.”
Also Read: Charles Aznavour, Iconic French Singer, Composer and Actor, Dies at 94
An Oregon native, Vinton studied...
- 10/5/2018
- by Ross A. Lincoln
- The Wrap
Charles Aznavour, the French singer and musical stylist sometimes referred to a France’s Sinatra, has died at age 94.
His death at one of his homes in France was confirmed by both his producer Gerard Drouout Productions and the French Culture Ministry.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement: “Profoundly French, viscerally attached to his Armenian roots, famous in the entire world, Charles Aznavour accompanied the joys and sorrows of three generations. His masterpieces, his timbre, his unique influence will long survive him.”
Though he never achieved fame in the United States on the level of his European popularity, his dramatic gestures and story-telling style of singing and songwriting was a major influence on Liza Minnelli, David Bowie and even Bob Dylan. In a 1998 concert at Madison Square Garden featuring Dylan and Joni Mitchell, Dylan paid tribute to Aznavour with a performance of Aznavour’s “The Times We’ve Known.
His death at one of his homes in France was confirmed by both his producer Gerard Drouout Productions and the French Culture Ministry.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement: “Profoundly French, viscerally attached to his Armenian roots, famous in the entire world, Charles Aznavour accompanied the joys and sorrows of three generations. His masterpieces, his timbre, his unique influence will long survive him.”
Though he never achieved fame in the United States on the level of his European popularity, his dramatic gestures and story-telling style of singing and songwriting was a major influence on Liza Minnelli, David Bowie and even Bob Dylan. In a 1998 concert at Madison Square Garden featuring Dylan and Joni Mitchell, Dylan paid tribute to Aznavour with a performance of Aznavour’s “The Times We’ve Known.
- 10/1/2018
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
French-Armenian singer-songwriter-actor Charles Aznavour, best known for songs such as “She,” “Yesterday When I Was Young” and “For Mama,” has died. Aznavour, who was 94, died in his sleep from a cardiac arrest in his home in Mouries, France, according to his agent.
Aznavour sold more than 180 million records and appeared in more than 60 films. Bob Dylan considered Aznavour, sometimes referred to as a Gallic Frank Sinatra, to be “one of the greatest live performers” he’d ever seen. CNN named him Entertainer of the Century in 1998, and he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted Monday: “Charles Aznavour was profoundly French, deeply attached to his Armenian roots and known throughout the world. He has accompanied the joys and pain of three generations. His masterpieces, the tone of his voice, his unique radiance will long survive him.”
Aznavour, who continued to perform...
Aznavour sold more than 180 million records and appeared in more than 60 films. Bob Dylan considered Aznavour, sometimes referred to as a Gallic Frank Sinatra, to be “one of the greatest live performers” he’d ever seen. CNN named him Entertainer of the Century in 1998, and he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted Monday: “Charles Aznavour was profoundly French, deeply attached to his Armenian roots and known throughout the world. He has accompanied the joys and pain of three generations. His masterpieces, the tone of his voice, his unique radiance will long survive him.”
Aznavour, who continued to perform...
- 10/1/2018
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
On paper, A Skin So Soft will probably look like another one of Canadian auteur Denis Côté’s off-center, exploratory documentaries. The filmmaker’s tenth feature follows the daily routine of six Quebecois bodybuilders, and their almost maniacal dedication to the art of building the perfect body. But we know, both from his skewed fictions and from his tilted documentaries, that there’s always more to his films than meets the eye. As it turns out, this free-form documentary, shot with a minimal crew for a ridiculously small amount of money, is out to find the people that are hidden inside the body armor—the workout as revelation of an identity, a personality, the muscles as a mere facade for the person inside. It’s a film that Côté himself describes as one of his personal favorites, something that has been confirmed by A Skin So Soft’s warm reception...
- 7/5/2018
- MUBI
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Pere Portabella's Nocturno 29 (1968) is showing May 9 - June 8, 2018 in the many countries around the world as part of the series The Directors' Fortnight.Pere Portabella’s Nocturno 29 arrives at the beginning of his directorial career, the film being his first feature after the short No compteu amb els dits (1967). Together, these form the start of a filmography marked with the political charge and deliberate abstraction that were hallmarks of Spain’s so-called Barcelona School. There is a tendency among film writing to see films of the Barcelona School in light of ‘authorial intention’—that is, as a deposit of a social relationship brought about by a specific time and place. Yet one can also view the film individually as a collection of unique iconography pertaining to Spanish class consciousness in its own right.The film is, ostensibly, about...
- 5/23/2018
- MUBI
“The Image Book,” the new film from Jean-Luc Godard, premiered today at Cannes with a sense of momentousness. It felt as though we were getting the Godard bulletin on the state of the world. At the same time, it’s the rare work of his that has the aura of a horror film. The two feelings are far from disconnected: “The Image Book” is a Godardian bulletin, and the world that he’s looking at through his color-saturated semiotic channel-surfing kaleidoscope is one that has fallen into horror and is spinning out of control. Or maybe it’s fallen under too much control.
Early on, there’s a chapter title that says “1. Remakes,” as if Godard were about to launch a riff on the corruption of Hollywood (if only!). The shot that follows is a retouched image of a nuclear bomb exploding. That’s a very Godardian black joke: the...
Early on, there’s a chapter title that says “1. Remakes,” as if Godard were about to launch a riff on the corruption of Hollywood (if only!). The shot that follows is a retouched image of a nuclear bomb exploding. That’s a very Godardian black joke: the...
- 5/11/2018
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Pop stars write closing credit songs all the time. But the story behind Elvis Costello’s moving song “You Shouldn’t Look at Me That Way,” about an older woman’s complicated allure, is crazy. Producer Barbara Broccoli and Peter Turner went to see his show at the London Palladium and were shocked to see a photo of Gloria Grahame on the stage. When they went backstage, they asked Costello to write a song for “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” starring Annette Bening as the aging Hollywood actress who has an affair with younger actor Peter Turner (Jamie Bell).
Read More:Annette Bening Finds the Truth in the Very Strange Tale of Gloria Grahame and ‘Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool’
Costello had hung out with Alan Bleasdale, the playwright of one of the plays Turner starred in during that period. But while Costello is a film buff...
Read More:Annette Bening Finds the Truth in the Very Strange Tale of Gloria Grahame and ‘Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool’
Costello had hung out with Alan Bleasdale, the playwright of one of the plays Turner starred in during that period. But while Costello is a film buff...
- 1/12/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Pop stars write closing credit songs all the time. But the story behind Elvis Costello’s moving song “You Shouldn’t Look at Me That Way,” about an older woman’s complicated allure, is crazy. Producer Barbara Broccoli and Peter Turner went to see his show at the London Palladium and were shocked to see a photo of Gloria Grahame on the stage. When they went backstage, they asked Costello to write a song for “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” starring Annette Bening as the aging Hollywood actress who has an affair with younger actor Peter Turner (Jamie Bell).
Read More:Annette Bening Finds the Truth in the Very Strange Tale of Gloria Grahame and ‘Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool’
Costello had hung out with Alan Bleasdale, the playwright of one of the plays Turner starred in during that period. But while Costello is a film buff...
Read More:Annette Bening Finds the Truth in the Very Strange Tale of Gloria Grahame and ‘Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool’
Costello had hung out with Alan Bleasdale, the playwright of one of the plays Turner starred in during that period. But while Costello is a film buff...
- 1/12/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
French singer France Gall has died. She was 70.
Gall, who owned France’s pop charts for decades and who inspired “My Way,” died Sunday morning in Paris’ American Hospital. Cause of death was a severe infection complicated by cancer, according to her publicist.
Born Isabelle Gall in 1947, she was the daughter of a songwriter who had penned hits for Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour.
After her first theatre and radio performances, Gall was signed to a record label while still a minor, eventually releasing her first single in October 1963, “Ne Sois Pas Bete,” a French cover of the Laurie Sisters’ “Stand A Little Closer.
Gall, who owned France’s pop charts for decades and who inspired “My Way,” died Sunday morning in Paris’ American Hospital. Cause of death was a severe infection complicated by cancer, according to her publicist.
Born Isabelle Gall in 1947, she was the daughter of a songwriter who had penned hits for Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour.
After her first theatre and radio performances, Gall was signed to a record label while still a minor, eventually releasing her first single in October 1963, “Ne Sois Pas Bete,” a French cover of the Laurie Sisters’ “Stand A Little Closer.
- 1/7/2018
- by Peter Mikelbank
- PEOPLE.com
French rock idol Johnny Hallyday, remembered as the nation’s answer to Elvis Presley in the 1960s, has died at age 74.
The legendary singer died from lung cancer, his family confirmed.
“Johnny Hallyday has left us,” Hallyday’s wife, Laeticia, said in a statement to The Guardian. “I write these words without believing them. But yet, it’s true. My man is no longer with us. He left us tonight as he lived his whole life, with courage and dignity.”
Beginning in 1960, Hallyday was the heartbeat of Gallic rock n’ roll, becoming its best known and best-selling artist for nearly six decades.
The legendary singer died from lung cancer, his family confirmed.
“Johnny Hallyday has left us,” Hallyday’s wife, Laeticia, said in a statement to The Guardian. “I write these words without believing them. But yet, it’s true. My man is no longer with us. He left us tonight as he lived his whole life, with courage and dignity.”
Beginning in 1960, Hallyday was the heartbeat of Gallic rock n’ roll, becoming its best known and best-selling artist for nearly six decades.
- 12/6/2017
- by Peter Mikelbank and Alexia Fernandez
- PEOPLE.com
Revelations about Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual assault jolted the film industry around the world. Yet even as victims continue to speak out, much of the community has been stunned into another silence.
Generations of former Weinstein employees, including those who toiled on his staff during the seminal Miramax days, refuse to speak publicly for fear that the association could make them complicit. Others who collaborated with Weinstein — an expansive Venn diagram of publicists, sales agents, programmers, and their institutions — remain wary of saying anything that could somehow drag them further into his orbit.
The Cannes Film Festival, where Weinstein was the steward for Palme d’Or winners “sex, lies and videotape” and “Pulp Fiction,” is no exception. Taking precedence over any other conversation, the world’s most revered gathering of international cineastes prefer to fixate on the art form. Cannes didn’t create Weinstein, but it was the...
Generations of former Weinstein employees, including those who toiled on his staff during the seminal Miramax days, refuse to speak publicly for fear that the association could make them complicit. Others who collaborated with Weinstein — an expansive Venn diagram of publicists, sales agents, programmers, and their institutions — remain wary of saying anything that could somehow drag them further into his orbit.
The Cannes Film Festival, where Weinstein was the steward for Palme d’Or winners “sex, lies and videotape” and “Pulp Fiction,” is no exception. Taking precedence over any other conversation, the world’s most revered gathering of international cineastes prefer to fixate on the art form. Cannes didn’t create Weinstein, but it was the...
- 10/23/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
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