When Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Hideo Oguni were writing the screenplay for their 1954 epic "Seven Samurai," they couldn't have predicted its lasting influence on cinema. Not only did Kurosawa's masterful direction alter and revolutionize the way action sequences would be shot, but the premise became a reliable and lasting template that multiple other filmmakers would employ in the ensuing decades. For those unlucky enough to have never seen "Seven Samurai," the setup is simple: a remote farming village is regularly looted by passing bandits, leaving them destitute. Unable to withstand another attack, the villagers gather up their modest means and hire seven rogue samurai to protect them. The samurai know that the job won't pay, but each one has their own reasons for joining the cause. Using their cunning and limited means, the samurai repel the bandit attack.
Most recently, the "Seven Samurai" premise was transposed onto Zack Snyder's "Rebel Moon.
Most recently, the "Seven Samurai" premise was transposed onto Zack Snyder's "Rebel Moon.
- 5/21/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
The fantastical films of French director Albert Lamorisse often limn the boundaries between the earthly and the sublime, with his characters trying to flee or transcend the physical limitations and demands of the material world through flight or the spiritual world of the imagination. In his most famous film, the Palme d’Or-winning short The Red Balloon, Lamorisse presents this dichotomy in a most elemental fashion, with his camera following a young boy, Pascal (Pascal Lamorisse), as he traipses about Paris with a balloon that appears to have a mind of its own.
There’s a consistent levity to the film as both boy and balloon engage in various sorts of play as they wander aimlessly about town. Yet their frivolity is met with resistance from a world that devalues the importance of joy and imagination, both through adults that won’t let Pascal inside places with his balloon and...
There’s a consistent levity to the film as both boy and balloon engage in various sorts of play as they wander aimlessly about town. Yet their frivolity is met with resistance from a world that devalues the importance of joy and imagination, both through adults that won’t let Pascal inside places with his balloon and...
- 12/22/2023
- by Derek Smith
- Slant Magazine
Seeking revenge as a result of being wronged is akin to a crime of passion: you're miffed at being mistreated, and so your rage takes over your mind before (or unless) cooler heads prevail. Seeking revenge as a result of profound loss, however, hews closer to pre-meditated obsession, the hole in your life slowly but surely filling up with a need for retribution until your life isn't for you and your loved ones anymore: it's all about getting payback.
Many action revenge thrillers explore this concept, and they generally feature characters who are already well-versed in the ways of killing. The theme of revenge becoming an all-consuming force, however, is best expressed with characters who used to be ordinary average folks before an enormous wrong or loss changes them forever, and not necessarily for the better. John Woo's latest action opus "Silent Night" — his first in Hollywood since 2003's...
Many action revenge thrillers explore this concept, and they generally feature characters who are already well-versed in the ways of killing. The theme of revenge becoming an all-consuming force, however, is best expressed with characters who used to be ordinary average folks before an enormous wrong or loss changes them forever, and not necessarily for the better. John Woo's latest action opus "Silent Night" — his first in Hollywood since 2003's...
- 12/1/2023
- by Bill Bria
- Slash Film
Coming this December: a collection of wide-eyed fantasies for the whole family and a classic fable reinvented through boundary-pushing stop-motion animation. Plus: a blackhearted noir set in Manhattan at Christmastime—now on Blu-ray. The Criterion Collection December 2023 New Releases The Red Balloon Everyday life becomes an adventure in the wide-eyed fables and fantasies of Albert Lamorisse. Balancing imaginative whimsy with documentary-like authenticity, his beloved short films Bim, the Little Donkey; White Mane; and the Academy Award–winning The Red Balloonfind unforgettable emotional, spiritual, and moral resonance in the realms of children and animals, while his captivating but now rarely seen features Stowaway in the Sky and Circus Angel exult ... Read more...
- 10/23/2023
- by Thomas Miller
- Seat42F
And with that, Criterion’s year closes out. They’ve ended 2023 with a small set of additions, on the 4K front rescuing Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson’s Pinocchio from the always-more-fragile-than-you-think streaming clutches of Netflix. Meanwhile, The Red Balloon––arguably the greatest children’s film ever made––is getting the box set treatment with four additional films by Albert Lamorisse, and Allen Baron’s New York noir Blast of Silence comes to Blu-ray. That black-and-white’s surely looking fantastic in hi-def.
Find artwork below and more details at Criterion:
The post The Criterion Collection’s December Lineup Includes Guillermo del Toro, The Red Balloon Box Set, and Blast of Silence first appeared on The Film Stage.
Find artwork below and more details at Criterion:
The post The Criterion Collection’s December Lineup Includes Guillermo del Toro, The Red Balloon Box Set, and Blast of Silence first appeared on The Film Stage.
- 9/18/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
It started with a playdate. It was the 2019 Berlin Film festival, and five industry professionals — Sarah Calderon of The Film Agency, Berlinale programmer Aurelie Godet, Olimpia Pont Chafer of Torino Film, Alan Seville of the European Works in Progress program, and Rotterdam festival programmer Michelle Carey — all working moms, met up for a break from the Berlin hustle and bustle and to give their kids a chance to interact with other non-adults.
“We started talking about what we were all facing, trying to balance being a parent with this job, and the stresses on our personal life,” Carey recalls. “We all said: this has to change.”
Anyone who has experienced the film festival circuit as the parent of young children can emphatize. With its cycle of international travel, late-night premieres and boozy after-hours events, most international fests are distinctly un-family friendly. It’s fine for celebrities able to pay for private nannies and entertainment.
“We started talking about what we were all facing, trying to balance being a parent with this job, and the stresses on our personal life,” Carey recalls. “We all said: this has to change.”
Anyone who has experienced the film festival circuit as the parent of young children can emphatize. With its cycle of international travel, late-night premieres and boozy after-hours events, most international fests are distinctly un-family friendly. It’s fine for celebrities able to pay for private nannies and entertainment.
- 2/17/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
When it comes to storytelling, "Wall-e" is as close to perfection as you can get. It was one of Disney-Pixar's most charming hits and one of the highest-grossing films of 2008.
Andrew Stanton stood at the helm of Pixar's ninth feature, which isn't silent but the spiritual kin of silent films. The future-set story finds its Charlie Chaplin avatar in a robot of the same name as the title. Wall-e is a non-verbal trash-collecting machine who lives a solitary life on a future Earth so befouled by garbage that, like a nightmare roommate, the humans fled to space rather than tidy up after themselves. A visit from a hot probe-bot and an update on Earth's viability brings the musical-loving Wall-e out of the smog and onto a starship, where mayhem, rebellion, mutiny, and ultimately love ensues.
/Film's resident Pixar animation expert Josh Spiegel has chronicled the risk that Pixar Animation Studios...
Andrew Stanton stood at the helm of Pixar's ninth feature, which isn't silent but the spiritual kin of silent films. The future-set story finds its Charlie Chaplin avatar in a robot of the same name as the title. Wall-e is a non-verbal trash-collecting machine who lives a solitary life on a future Earth so befouled by garbage that, like a nightmare roommate, the humans fled to space rather than tidy up after themselves. A visit from a hot probe-bot and an update on Earth's viability brings the musical-loving Wall-e out of the smog and onto a starship, where mayhem, rebellion, mutiny, and ultimately love ensues.
/Film's resident Pixar animation expert Josh Spiegel has chronicled the risk that Pixar Animation Studios...
- 11/8/2022
- by Anya Stanley
- Slash Film
Being a parent and working in the film industry is tough. Being a parent at a film festival, with your child in tow, is another matter. Thanks to a fully supported day care facility in Cannes called The Red Balloon, or Le Ballon Rouge, after Albert Lamorisse’s popular children’s film, I just about conducted “business as usual” on the Croisette. I’m still reeling from this opportunity, as are the other participating parents who continue to converse in a long “parents in Cannes” WhatsApp group chat. Some variation of “I couldn’t have attended Cannes without this service” is the most common […]
The post Adventures in Festival Babysitting: The Need for Day Care at Film Festivals first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Adventures in Festival Babysitting: The Need for Day Care at Film Festivals first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 6/6/2022
- by Tiffany Pritchard
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Being a parent and working in the film industry is tough. Being a parent at a film festival, with your child in tow, is another matter. Thanks to a fully supported day care facility in Cannes called The Red Balloon, or Le Ballon Rouge, after Albert Lamorisse’s popular children’s film, I just about conducted “business as usual” on the Croisette. I’m still reeling from this opportunity, as are the other participating parents who continue to converse in a long “parents in Cannes” WhatsApp group chat. Some variation of “I couldn’t have attended Cannes without this service” is the most common […]
The post Adventures in Festival Babysitting: The Need for Day Care at Film Festivals first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Adventures in Festival Babysitting: The Need for Day Care at Film Festivals first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 6/6/2022
- by Tiffany Pritchard
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Wes Anderson’s long-awaited “The French Dispatch” is finally here. After world premiering to strong reviews at the Cannes Film Festival in July, the anthology film traveled to Telluride and the New York Film Festival ahead of its theatrical release October 22. The movie is billed as “a love letter to journalists set at an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th century French city.” The cast includes Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson.
IndieWire’s Eric Kohn awarded “The French Dispatch” a B+ review out of Cannes. “It’s hard to imagine another living filmmaker with a style as instantly recognizable as Wes Anderson, a feat that works against him no matter how expansive his approach,” Kohn wrote. “‘The French Dispatch’ doubles down on it, with a freewheeling...
IndieWire’s Eric Kohn awarded “The French Dispatch” a B+ review out of Cannes. “It’s hard to imagine another living filmmaker with a style as instantly recognizable as Wes Anderson, a feat that works against him no matter how expansive his approach,” Kohn wrote. “‘The French Dispatch’ doubles down on it, with a freewheeling...
- 10/21/2021
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
With it being seven years since his last live-action film, 2014’s The Grand Budapast Hotel, Wes Anderson is hard at work. Following a Cannes premiere, The French Dispatch finally arrives in limited theaters on October 22 followed by a wide release the following week, and he’s already shooting his next film (recently revealed to have the title Asteroid City) outside of Madrid with Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Rupert Friend, Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, Hope Davis, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, Tony Revolori, and Matt Dillon.
As is the case with all of his work, Wes Anderson synthesizes cinema history in his own specific language and for The French Dispatch he has provided a list of influences. As revealed in a promotional book sent to The Flim Stage and styled after the film’s magazine, 32 films are listed that “provided inspiration to the filmmakers,...
As is the case with all of his work, Wes Anderson synthesizes cinema history in his own specific language and for The French Dispatch he has provided a list of influences. As revealed in a promotional book sent to The Flim Stage and styled after the film’s magazine, 32 films are listed that “provided inspiration to the filmmakers,...
- 10/12/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
From Don’t Breathe 2, actor Brendan Sexton III discusses some of his favorite films with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante as viewed through that wondrous video home system format known as… VHS.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Dark (2015)
Gremlins (1984)
Infested (2002)
Don’t Breathe (2016)
Don’t Breathe 2 (2021)
Unforgiven (1992)
The Beguiled (1971)
The Beguiled (2017)
Welcome To The Dollhouse (1995)
Pecker (1998)
Hairspray (1988)
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
Session 9 (2001)
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Seven Psychopaths (2012)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
The Last Boy Scout (1991)
Cheech & Chong’s Up In Smoke (1978)
Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie (1980)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
48 Hrs. (1982)
Dumbo (1941)
Eddie Murphy Raw (1987)
Mickey And The Beanstalk (1947)
Grindhouse (2007)
Planet Terror (2007)
Death Proof (2007)
The Howling (1981)
Enter The Dragon (1973)
Game Of Death (1978)
Take A Hard Ride (1975)
Three The Hard Way (1974)
Death Promise (1977)
Piranha (1978)
Hollywood Boulevard (1976)
Yojimbo (1961)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Goodfellas (1990)
Hell In The Pacific (1968)
Grand Prix (1966)
The Red Balloon (1956)
Stowaway In The Sky (1960)
La Haine...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Dark (2015)
Gremlins (1984)
Infested (2002)
Don’t Breathe (2016)
Don’t Breathe 2 (2021)
Unforgiven (1992)
The Beguiled (1971)
The Beguiled (2017)
Welcome To The Dollhouse (1995)
Pecker (1998)
Hairspray (1988)
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
Session 9 (2001)
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Seven Psychopaths (2012)
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
The Last Boy Scout (1991)
Cheech & Chong’s Up In Smoke (1978)
Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie (1980)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
48 Hrs. (1982)
Dumbo (1941)
Eddie Murphy Raw (1987)
Mickey And The Beanstalk (1947)
Grindhouse (2007)
Planet Terror (2007)
Death Proof (2007)
The Howling (1981)
Enter The Dragon (1973)
Game Of Death (1978)
Take A Hard Ride (1975)
Three The Hard Way (1974)
Death Promise (1977)
Piranha (1978)
Hollywood Boulevard (1976)
Yojimbo (1961)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Goodfellas (1990)
Hell In The Pacific (1968)
Grand Prix (1966)
The Red Balloon (1956)
Stowaway In The Sky (1960)
La Haine...
- 9/7/2021
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Beau Willimon, creator of Netflix’s House of Cards, is overseeing a TV remake of classic board game Risk after signing a first-look deal with Hasbro-owned eOne.
Willimon, who also created Hulu space drama The First, will write and oversee the development of a series adaptation of the strategy game, which was created by Albert Lamorisse in 1957 and has gone on to become one of the most popular board games in history.
It comes after Willimon and Jordan Tappis’ production company Westward inked a multi-year deal with The Rookie and Sharp Objects producer eOne.
It is the latest Hasbro property being developed by eOne after it was acquired by the toy giant in 2019 for around $4B. The company is working on TV and film adaptations of Power Rangers with Jonathan Entwistle, while Deadline revealed that The Clarkson Twins, writers on Amazon’s Wheel of Time, are one of a...
Willimon, who also created Hulu space drama The First, will write and oversee the development of a series adaptation of the strategy game, which was created by Albert Lamorisse in 1957 and has gone on to become one of the most popular board games in history.
It comes after Willimon and Jordan Tappis’ production company Westward inked a multi-year deal with The Rookie and Sharp Objects producer eOne.
It is the latest Hasbro property being developed by eOne after it was acquired by the toy giant in 2019 for around $4B. The company is working on TV and film adaptations of Power Rangers with Jonathan Entwistle, while Deadline revealed that The Clarkson Twins, writers on Amazon’s Wheel of Time, are one of a...
- 1/11/2021
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
The 2020 movie calendar has been dramatically altered over the last couple weeks, but one film still on the schedule is Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” opening in July from Searchlight Pictures. Anderson’s latest is his return to live-action filmmaking after the stop-motion “Isle of Dogs” and features a star-studded cast that includes Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, and Bill Murray. The film is set at an American newspaper outpost in 20th century France and brings to life three stories the editorial team is selecting to republish in tribute to their late editor-in-chief.
Similar to “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The French Dispatch” takes place across different timelines and uses different aspect ratios to keep the different stories organized. Anderson even uses black-and-white photography this go-round to differentiate between stories. Anderson reunited with his Oscar-winning “Grand Budapest” production designer Adam Stockhausen for his new film,...
Similar to “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The French Dispatch” takes place across different timelines and uses different aspect ratios to keep the different stories organized. Anderson even uses black-and-white photography this go-round to differentiate between stories. Anderson reunited with his Oscar-winning “Grand Budapest” production designer Adam Stockhausen for his new film,...
- 3/20/2020
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
“Parasite” had a big weekend, winning Best Original Screenplay at the Writers Guild of America Awards on Saturday and the BAFTAs on Sunday for Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won, setting it up nicely to claim the corresponding Oscar next weekend. Should that happen, the South Korean hit would be the sixth foreign language film to do so.
The first five are:
1. Switzerland’s “Marie-Louise” (1945), written by Richard Schweizer
2. France’s “The Red Ballon” (1956), written by Albert Lamorisse
3. Italy’s “Divorce Italian Style” (1962), written by Ennio de Concini, Alfredo Giannetti and Pietro Germi
4. France’s “A Man and a Woman” (1966), written by Claude Lelouch and Pierre Uytterhoeven
5. Spain’s “Talk to Her” (2002), written by Pedro Almodovar
Of these, “A Man and a Woman” is the only one to also take home Best International Feature Film, formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film, which “Parasite” is basically a lock to win.
The first five are:
1. Switzerland’s “Marie-Louise” (1945), written by Richard Schweizer
2. France’s “The Red Ballon” (1956), written by Albert Lamorisse
3. Italy’s “Divorce Italian Style” (1962), written by Ennio de Concini, Alfredo Giannetti and Pietro Germi
4. France’s “A Man and a Woman” (1966), written by Claude Lelouch and Pierre Uytterhoeven
5. Spain’s “Talk to Her” (2002), written by Pedro Almodovar
Of these, “A Man and a Woman” is the only one to also take home Best International Feature Film, formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film, which “Parasite” is basically a lock to win.
- 2/3/2020
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
Film event adds family-friendly initiative yet for female directors it looks to be business as usual
This year, the Cannes film festival is rolling out an initiative called Le Ballon Rouge – named after a children’s film by Albert Lamorisse – which offers a package of services aimed at making the festival more attractive to families.
There is a breast-feeding and baby-changing area; a dedicated kids’ pavilion; an accreditation process providing two free additional badges for a nanny and baby; priority and easy access for parents with young children and prams; plus something called Le Ballon Rouge baby VIP kit, which includes a list of certified nannies for after-hours care.
This year, the Cannes film festival is rolling out an initiative called Le Ballon Rouge – named after a children’s film by Albert Lamorisse – which offers a package of services aimed at making the festival more attractive to families.
There is a breast-feeding and baby-changing area; a dedicated kids’ pavilion; an accreditation process providing two free additional badges for a nanny and baby; priority and easy access for parents with young children and prams; plus something called Le Ballon Rouge baby VIP kit, which includes a list of certified nannies for after-hours care.
- 5/10/2019
- by Lanre Bakare Arts and culture correspondent
- The Guardian - Film News
The Festival de Cannes and the Marché du Film, in collaboration with the newly-formed collective Parenting at Film Festivals, is launching an unprecedented and ground-breaking family-friendly festival journey, Le Ballon Rouge, where children are the New VIPs.
Work-life balance is a constant challenge for parents in modern society. In the film industry, it is a daily battle. A vast majority of film professionals must travel regularly to film festivals and markets, sometimes with their babies and young children, and may have had a tough time combining their family and professional priorities. So often, it is just easier to leave the children at home, or more drastically, they may feel. forced to make a decision between their career and the prospect of starting a family.
Festival de Cannes General Delegate Thierry Frémaux and Marché du Film Executive Director Jérôme Paillard said of the initiative:
Although the ever-present issue of work-life balance affects everyone,...
Work-life balance is a constant challenge for parents in modern society. In the film industry, it is a daily battle. A vast majority of film professionals must travel regularly to film festivals and markets, sometimes with their babies and young children, and may have had a tough time combining their family and professional priorities. So often, it is just easier to leave the children at home, or more drastically, they may feel. forced to make a decision between their career and the prospect of starting a family.
Festival de Cannes General Delegate Thierry Frémaux and Marché du Film Executive Director Jérôme Paillard said of the initiative:
Although the ever-present issue of work-life balance affects everyone,...
- 4/13/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The Cannes Film Festival is making a U-turn from the days when high heels were required on the red carpet .
This year babies, children and their nannies will be given special accreditation by the festival free of charge at the festival, the first in a series of accommodations to working moms and dads – including breastfeeding stations – the festival announced on Tuesday.
Parents will have access to a kids’ pavilion and changing and feeding area in the Palais de Festival, and parents entering the Palais with children will be given priority access. Kids will even get their own VIP bag that includes a map of other services in Cannes, a list of certified nannies and more.
Also Read: 'Capernaum' Director Nadine Labaki Named 2019 Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury President
Cannes and the Marché du Film are making these moves in collaboration with a newly-formed collective called Parenting at Film Festivals.
The...
This year babies, children and their nannies will be given special accreditation by the festival free of charge at the festival, the first in a series of accommodations to working moms and dads – including breastfeeding stations – the festival announced on Tuesday.
Parents will have access to a kids’ pavilion and changing and feeding area in the Palais de Festival, and parents entering the Palais with children will be given priority access. Kids will even get their own VIP bag that includes a map of other services in Cannes, a list of certified nannies and more.
Also Read: 'Capernaum' Director Nadine Labaki Named 2019 Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury President
Cannes and the Marché du Film are making these moves in collaboration with a newly-formed collective called Parenting at Film Festivals.
The...
- 4/9/2019
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
NEWSThe great cinematographer Robby Müller has died at the age of 78. His contributions to films by Wim Wenders, William Friedkin (To Live and Die in L.A.), and Jim Jarmusch (Dead Man), among many others, mark him as one of the most important artists in cinema history.Recommended VIEWINGJean-Luc Godard's trailer, which doubles as a charming self-portrait, for the Ji.hlava Film Festival is sublime in ways similar to his latest feature, The Image Book:On the other side of the spectrum of "old man movies," there is Robert Zemeckis' Welcome to Marwen, as glimpsed by this tonally manic and strangely beguiling trailer—a companion piece to Joe Dante's Small Soldiers, perhaps?A rousing trailer for what looks to be an incendiary political film from the American non-fiction filmmaker Robert Greene, Bisbee '17.Museum of Modern Art curator La Frances Hui takes an insightful jaunt through the films...
- 7/4/2018
- MUBI
August Wilson (Courtesy: Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images)
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
There’s a bit of a unique situation happening in the best adapted screenplay category this year. While every single person up for that trophy are first-time nominees, our attention is focused on the one posthumous contender: August Wilson. With the man behind Fences up for a trophy, he becomes the person with the second-biggest gap between their death and a potential Oscar win in history.
The Academy nominated Wilson in the best adapted screenplay category for Fences — directed by Denzel Washington who also starred in the film alongside Viola Davis — along with a talented group. Other nominees include Eric Heisserer for Arrival, Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi for Hidden Figures, Luke Davies for Lion, and Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney for Moonlight. Not only is Wilson the only posthumous nominee here but he is the only...
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
There’s a bit of a unique situation happening in the best adapted screenplay category this year. While every single person up for that trophy are first-time nominees, our attention is focused on the one posthumous contender: August Wilson. With the man behind Fences up for a trophy, he becomes the person with the second-biggest gap between their death and a potential Oscar win in history.
The Academy nominated Wilson in the best adapted screenplay category for Fences — directed by Denzel Washington who also starred in the film alongside Viola Davis — along with a talented group. Other nominees include Eric Heisserer for Arrival, Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi for Hidden Figures, Luke Davies for Lion, and Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney for Moonlight. Not only is Wilson the only posthumous nominee here but he is the only...
- 1/26/2017
- by Carson Blackwelder
- Scott Feinberg
Albert Lamorisse, the talented maker of fantasy short films and the board game Risk (here the game is rebranded as The Arbalest) influences a young Foster Kalt, a dreamer whose invention, despite being dazzling, is laughed at on the eve of its debut in 1968. His proposal is a device that converts oxygen to helium, filling a balloon without a clunky tank. It appears the world, or at least the object of his affection, prefers the Rubik’s Cube.
Luckily for writer/director Adam Pinney, The Arbalest is a far more fitting title than Risk. A piercingly original and very funny debut feature, the picture takes no prisoners as it constantly changes shapes and form. Its subject, the elusive fictional Foster Kalt (Mike Brune), is a narcissist who takes aim at those that dare laugh at him — an unholy combo of Donald Trump’s ego and The Hudsucker Proxy’s Norville Barnes...
Luckily for writer/director Adam Pinney, The Arbalest is a far more fitting title than Risk. A piercingly original and very funny debut feature, the picture takes no prisoners as it constantly changes shapes and form. Its subject, the elusive fictional Foster Kalt (Mike Brune), is a narcissist who takes aim at those that dare laugh at him — an unholy combo of Donald Trump’s ego and The Hudsucker Proxy’s Norville Barnes...
- 5/12/2016
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
It was a winner right out of the starting gate, an instant classic that's still a pleasure for the eyes and ears. Carroll Ballard and Caleb Deschanel's marvel of a storybook movie has yet to be surpassed, with a boy-horse story that seems to be taking place in The Garden of Eden. The Black Stallion Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 765 1979 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 117 min. / Street Date July 14, 2015 / 39.95 Starring Kelly Reno, Mickey Rooney, Teri Garr, Clarence Muse, Hoyt Axton, Michael Higgins, Ed McNamara, Doghmi Larbi, John Karlsen, Leopoldo Trieste, Marne Maitland, Cass-Olé. Cinematography Caleb Deschanel Film Editor Robert Dalva Supervising Sound Editor Alan Splet Original Music Carmine Coppola Written by Melissa Mathison, Jeanne Rosenberg, William D. Wittliff from the novel by Walter Farley Produced by Fred Roos, Tom Sternberg Directed by Carroll Ballard
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Francis Coppola divided audiences with his war epic Apocalypse Now, but in the same...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Francis Coppola divided audiences with his war epic Apocalypse Now, but in the same...
- 9/15/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
There are people out there who have never seen The Princess Bride. They walk among us, holding down jobs, contributing to society, and generally living happy, semi-fulfilled lives. But whisper a perfectly-timed “mawage” in their direction during a wedding, and the resulting blank stare or awkward chuckle will expose an inconceivable pop-cultural blind spot. Someone failed them when they were growing up.
In many ways it’s too late for them, but we can still save the next generation. The 55 Essential Movies Kids Must Experience (Before They Turn 13) is a starting point. This isn’t a list of the 55 “best” kids movies,...
In many ways it’s too late for them, but we can still save the next generation. The 55 Essential Movies Kids Must Experience (Before They Turn 13) is a starting point. This isn’t a list of the 55 “best” kids movies,...
- 6/23/2014
- by EW staff
- EW.com - PopWatch
As we continue to move forward through the list, let us consider: how do you define an original screenplay? In theory, everything is based on something. Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine is basically a modern A Streetcar Named Desire. But, somehow, Jasmine is classified as an original screenplay. When a film is wholly original, nothing like it had been done before, and others have tried to copy it since. Plenty of original screenplays (some in this list) take on tired genres, but flip the script. But the ones that really catch the audience by surprise are the ones that feel imaginative, creative, and different.
40. Spirited Away (2001)
Written by Hayao Miyazaki
That’s a good start! Once you’ve met someone, you never really forget them. It just takes a while for your memories to return.
No writer/director on this list may be more fantastical than the great Hayao Miyazaki,...
40. Spirited Away (2001)
Written by Hayao Miyazaki
That’s a good start! Once you’ve met someone, you never really forget them. It just takes a while for your memories to return.
No writer/director on this list may be more fantastical than the great Hayao Miyazaki,...
- 2/24/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
Development continues on the Columbia Pictures, Hasbro and Overbrook Entertainment production of an adaptation of the Hasbro board game "Risk", with screenwriter John Hlavin ("Underworld 4") attached.
"Hasbro has already seen tremendous success with 'Transformers' and 'G.I. Joe'," said Columbia President Doug Belgrad. "The strategic thinking and the tactical gambles that players must take in the game are what make 'Risk' a classic, thoroughly engaging game. Those elements translated into an action-packed, thrilling story are what will make this a uniquely exciting movie."
The strategic board game, originally produced by Parker Brothers (now a division of Hasbro), was invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse, released in 1957, as "La Conquête du Monde" ("The Conquest of the World").
The turn-based game, designed for two to six players, had a standard version, played on a board depicting a map of the Earth, divided into forty-two territories, grouped into six continents.
"Hasbro has already seen tremendous success with 'Transformers' and 'G.I. Joe'," said Columbia President Doug Belgrad. "The strategic thinking and the tactical gambles that players must take in the game are what make 'Risk' a classic, thoroughly engaging game. Those elements translated into an action-packed, thrilling story are what will make this a uniquely exciting movie."
The strategic board game, originally produced by Parker Brothers (now a division of Hasbro), was invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse, released in 1957, as "La Conquête du Monde" ("The Conquest of the World").
The turn-based game, designed for two to six players, had a standard version, played on a board depicting a map of the Earth, divided into forty-two territories, grouped into six continents.
- 11/13/2013
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
Youth In Revolt (and More): Cousins Channels Marker
It should be no question that Mark Cousins’ vast knowledge of film history is integral to his own filmmaking process, with his previously lauded endeavor, the epic 15 hour personal tour of cinematic lineage in The Story of Film: An Odyssey posing as a definitive screen history of uncomparable expansiveness. But his employment of film history is not just an implementation of influence. Rather, it is the subject he can not seem to tear himself from. This time around his focus falls on the cinematic depiction of youth in cinema, why they have become unfathomably integral to so many great works of art and how they continue to have our attention on the big screen. Like its predecessor, A Story of Children and Film takes us around the globe and through time to highlight cinematic greatness with the same brilliantly insightful wit,...
It should be no question that Mark Cousins’ vast knowledge of film history is integral to his own filmmaking process, with his previously lauded endeavor, the epic 15 hour personal tour of cinematic lineage in The Story of Film: An Odyssey posing as a definitive screen history of uncomparable expansiveness. But his employment of film history is not just an implementation of influence. Rather, it is the subject he can not seem to tear himself from. This time around his focus falls on the cinematic depiction of youth in cinema, why they have become unfathomably integral to so many great works of art and how they continue to have our attention on the big screen. Like its predecessor, A Story of Children and Film takes us around the globe and through time to highlight cinematic greatness with the same brilliantly insightful wit,...
- 9/5/2013
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Odd List Aliya Whiteley Feb 19, 2013
Covering 85 years of cinema, Aliya provides her pick of 25 stylish, must-see French movies...
I’m going to kick this off in best New-Wave style by pointing out that we should be praising each great director’s body of work rather than showcasing favourite movies in a list format; after all, France came up with the concept of the auteur filmmaker, stamping their personality on a film, using the camera to portray their version of the world.
Yeah, well, personality is everything. So here’s a highly personal choice, arranged in chronological order, of 25 of the most individualistic French films. They may be long or short, old or new, but they all have one thing in common – they’ve got directorial style. And by that I don’t mean their shoes match their handbags.
The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (1928)
There are no stirring battle scenes,...
Covering 85 years of cinema, Aliya provides her pick of 25 stylish, must-see French movies...
I’m going to kick this off in best New-Wave style by pointing out that we should be praising each great director’s body of work rather than showcasing favourite movies in a list format; after all, France came up with the concept of the auteur filmmaker, stamping their personality on a film, using the camera to portray their version of the world.
Yeah, well, personality is everything. So here’s a highly personal choice, arranged in chronological order, of 25 of the most individualistic French films. They may be long or short, old or new, but they all have one thing in common – they’ve got directorial style. And by that I don’t mean their shoes match their handbags.
The Passion Of Joan Of Arc (1928)
There are no stirring battle scenes,...
- 2/18/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
For those of you who have dreamed of watching your favorite classics on the big screen with your family, the new Film Forum series, Film Forum Jr. is just the ticket. Starting this Sunday, January 6, and running through March 31, families and early rising film fans of every ilk will have the opportunity to view silent films, foreign classics, and many gems from the golden age of Hollywood, thanks to the generosity of The Cordelia Corporation. Programmed by Bruce Goldstein, the series runs a total of thirteen Sundays and starts promptly at 11:00Am. Best of all? All tickets cost only $7 dollars, a great incentive to ready your brood for a morning matinee at the movies. The series kicks off with Albert Lamorisse's classic, The Red Balloon. Film Forum Jr. allows audiences to experience these film classics the way they were meant to be seen (even with a ...
- 1/3/2013
- TribecaFilm.com
Iran In Color Dreams And Visions Of Stan Brakhage
How can we approach Stan Brakhage’s world? Shall we return to his inspiration drawn from the poets of San Francisco and the New York experimental filmmakers of the 1950s? Should we consider his inadequate filmmaking facilities which shrank every year, eventually reducing him to scratching negatives with his fingernails on the hospital bed at the end of his life? Besides all his sources of inspiration, from Eisenstein and Dreyer to Gertrud Stein and Rilke, I intend to examine rather an obscure source material for 18 short films of Brakhage, which most probably hasn’t been taken into consideration yet: Iran and its classical arts.
These 18 short films, called Persians, and made between 1999 to 2001, are among his last films, and based on years of studying Iran’s art and culture. They have been made by the methods of painting and scratching on...
How can we approach Stan Brakhage’s world? Shall we return to his inspiration drawn from the poets of San Francisco and the New York experimental filmmakers of the 1950s? Should we consider his inadequate filmmaking facilities which shrank every year, eventually reducing him to scratching negatives with his fingernails on the hospital bed at the end of his life? Besides all his sources of inspiration, from Eisenstein and Dreyer to Gertrud Stein and Rilke, I intend to examine rather an obscure source material for 18 short films of Brakhage, which most probably hasn’t been taken into consideration yet: Iran and its classical arts.
These 18 short films, called Persians, and made between 1999 to 2001, are among his last films, and based on years of studying Iran’s art and culture. They have been made by the methods of painting and scratching on...
- 10/22/2012
- by Ehsan Khoshbakht
- MUBI
There was plenty of discussion across the movie blogosphere following last week's announcement that Vertigo had dethroned Citizen Kane as the greatest film of all time according to Sight & Sound's decennial poll. In addition to revealing the top 50 as determined by critics, they also provided a top 10 based on a separate poll for directors only. In the print version of the magazine, they have taken it a step further by reprinting some of the individual top 10 lists from the filmmakers who participated, and we now have some of them here for your perusal. Among them, we have lists from legends like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Quentin Tarantino, but there are also some unexpected newcomers who took part including Richard Ayoade (Submarine), Miranda July (Me and You and Everyone We Know) and Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene). Some of these lists aren't all that surprising (both Quentin Tarantino...
- 8/6/2012
- by Sean
- FilmJunk
by Steve Dollar
Shorts—as in short films—have become a peculiar manifestation of film festival culture. Almost any festival you go to will have multiple shorts programs on the schedule. And guaranteed, the filmmaker you meet who wins the short-film prize will be back soon with something special, whether it's the guy who made Hesher (see the Down Under zombie mash note I Love Sarah Jane) or the guy who made Beasts of the Southern Wild (anticipated by Glory at Sea). I don't really know under what circumstances they are exhibited anywhere else outside the institutional/museum/repertory world. Nonetheless, YouTube and Vimeo appear to be terrific bounties for short-film surfing and many an auteur's DVD bonus features would be sorely lacking if they didn't include available and relevant short exercises that laid the groundwork for the masterpiece at hand.
Josh and Benny Safdie had the bright idea of...
Shorts—as in short films—have become a peculiar manifestation of film festival culture. Almost any festival you go to will have multiple shorts programs on the schedule. And guaranteed, the filmmaker you meet who wins the short-film prize will be back soon with something special, whether it's the guy who made Hesher (see the Down Under zombie mash note I Love Sarah Jane) or the guy who made Beasts of the Southern Wild (anticipated by Glory at Sea). I don't really know under what circumstances they are exhibited anywhere else outside the institutional/museum/repertory world. Nonetheless, YouTube and Vimeo appear to be terrific bounties for short-film surfing and many an auteur's DVD bonus features would be sorely lacking if they didn't include available and relevant short exercises that laid the groundwork for the masterpiece at hand.
Josh and Benny Safdie had the bright idea of...
- 6/28/2012
- GreenCine Daily
As a little girl I loved going to the Studio Drive In in Culver City where we lived.
My older sister and I would get into our pajamas, my little baby brother would be in the car seat for babies in the front seat between the driver and the passenger. We brought out own fried chicken ot eat for dinner. We'd go get popcorn or bonbons or a Holloway sucker (the best!) at the concessions stand ahead of the movies or at the intermission if we were still awake and we'd watch a double bill – usually a western and or a comedy.
When we got older and at the age of 16, we all got cars of our own. Mine was a 53 Ford convertible repainted royal blue. Groups of us would go to the Olympic Drive In and would sneak others in in the trunk.
When I was really little my father and mother would take my sister and me to the movies. I was always making my father take me to the bathroom. That started my habit of sitting on the aisle. As a film buyer it was known as the acquisitions seat, but to my mind, the quick getaway was to the Ladies Room. And as a three or four year old, I was always asking my mother and sister, "is this real?" I was so literal minded as a child I could never figure out why the song said “Let Freedom Ring”. How could Freedom Ring? A ring was jewelry. Ring like a bell…but Freedom is not a bell. Moving on…
We saw this Bob Hope film. He was a gambler. And he put a gun into his mouth. Instead of shooting his brains out, he took a bite and it was chocolate. That really threw my literal mind into a loop. What was real? How did that happen? The movie was called Sorrowful Jones. The joke was something I had a hard time understanding. The same with the silents which we saw at the Silent Movie Theater. Laurel and Hardy were always hitting each other and falling; Charlie Chase was always in trouble as was Charlie Chaplin. I never understood what was funny about all the accidents, falling down, hitting each other and would have terrible anxiety attacks at the silent movies. I liked movies like Francis the Talking Mule. That was funny to my childish mind.
For those wonderful Disney cartoons like Cinderella or Alice in Wonderland, Robin Hood or Peter Pan, my father would take us to Beverly Hills and we would stand in line for the Fine Arts Theater. At the corner was a shoe store which only sold sample sizes (4 ½). I would admire their high heeled shoes and couldn’t wait for the time that I would be older and could wear them. Fortunately, when my foot hit the 4 ½ size, I was in high school and so I could buy the shoes for all the formal dances we attended.
Fine Arts Theater
Every Saturday my sister and I, and later my brother would go to the ten-cent Saturday afternoon matinee at the Meralta with a newsreel, previews, cartoon, and a main feature. The Meralta introduced me to The Dream of Wild Horses.[1]"Meralta" was derived from owners' Pearl Merrill and Laura Peralta's surnames. They lived above the new plush theater. But the movies there were mostly horror and genre. My brother always went there for the latest horror film.
Meralta Theater, Culver City
If we didn’t go to the Meralta, we’d go to the Culver. When we were looking to meet other kids from other schools, we'd go to the much fancier Culver Theater.
The Culver had great films, like Little Women, Gone with the Wind, Gentlemen Prefer Blonds, How to Marry a Millionaire, River of No Return, There’s No Business Like Show Business, Easter Parade, A Date with Judy (My sister’s name!), The Three Musketeers, Words and Music, Force of Evil, Neptune’s Daughter, Adam’s Rib, Showboat, An American in Paris, Lili, Giant, Rebel Without a Cause. Looking at this list, except for the Marilyn Monroe movies which 20th Century Fox owned and the two James Dean films which Warner Bros. owned, all of the films were MGM films. That makes perfect sense because Culver City was a company town.
The Culver also had “loges”. These were fancier red velvet seats with ashtrays above the large aisle you would find on entering the theater and choosing your seat – below unless you went up to the loge. There teenagers would "make out" and bad girls and guys would smoke (Excuse my racism, but as a Jew growing up in a working class wasp neighborhood, I learned these kids were either Pachucos or white trash.) Not that we were such good Jewish kids...there weren’t any Jewish kids that I knew of who went to the movies. My friends were my school friends, and they were all white working class kids. If people weren’t working for Hughes Aircraft, they were in the crafts at MGM. We had one bit actor living down the street named Cameron Mitchell. And it was a pretty racist neighborhood…anti-Semitism was learned at home and in Sunday Schools where kids invited me (called a Christ Killer) to learn about bringing Jesus into my heart and there were no blacks that I ever saw. The Pachucos lived in another neighborhood and we’d see them in the movies, shopping or at the middle and high school next to my elementary school. Asians? There might have been a Chinese restaurant, but I don’t recall seeing Asians in school or at the theater or shopping.
Jewish kids made up my group of friends when I got to junior high and we had moved to Beverlywood from Culver City; 90% of the school was Jewish. Our parents would still drop us at the movies and we would go to Saturday matinees at the Picfair on Pico and Fairfax which eventually burned down around the time of the Watts Riots, or to the Lido on Pico.
The Picfair Theater burned down in 1965.
We’d see Academy Award winning films at the Pickfair. We'd cry at Carousel, Oklahoma, Midnight Lace, Peyton Place, Imitation of Life. Great films! Or we'd sometimes go to the other theater in Pico called Lido. It was just so boring. Maybe they showed Marty there or Country Girl and I wasn't up for slow drama.
For really fancy movies which held premieres, like Around the World in 80 Days, we would go to the Carthay Circle Theater. Of course I’d go in the days after the premiere itself. Rarely – though sometimes we’d go to the Hollywood palaces, Grauman’s Chinese, The Egyptian or Pantages Theaters on Hollywood Boulevard. The best thing about Grauman’s Chinese was the ladies room with a room filled with mirrors and little alcoves to sit and put on lipstick. They even had lipstick blotters, white heavy weight paper shaped like your lips to blot the lipstick.
In 1959 The Fine Arts Theatre 8556 Wilshire Boulevardin Beverly Hills showed Room at the Top, (‘The Most Daring Film in a Decade’), and it played there for over six months. I was in the 10th grade and went to see it. I liked it but am not sure how much I understood.
In high school we discovered Le Chein Andalou and the Coronet and Baronet theater where Charles Laughton had played in Brecht's premiere play Galileo produced by John Houseman. Sometimes they didn't have enough foreign films (like one about a woman who turned into a panther at night) and they'd show psychological teaching films like "Folie a Deux" when madness is shared by two, in this 20 minute short it was a mother and daughter. They'd show films on Schizophrenia, etc. and it made me want to study psychology. We saw all of Bergman, Renoir and saw La Strada and La Dolce Vida. When I moved back east and went to Brandeis then movie going got great! Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds. After that I saw every Wajda film and even knew how to pronounce his name. But after Man of Marble or Man of Steel I started to get disinterested. I have no idea what theaters we went to in Cambridge or New York except for the Bleecker Street Theater where we’d often go for the weekend.
For dates we’d go up the street (Beverwil) to Beverly Hills to the Beverly Theater or the Beverly Canon. There they had programs printed for the movies (The Young Lions). Afterward we’d go to Blum’s[2] for their crunchy cake or Wil Wrights Ice Cream Parlor for ice cream sundaes.
And a theater we would always forget except when some exceptional foreign film was showing there, was the Vagabond, way down on Wilshire Blvd. toward downtown.
[1]Wikipedia: The 1953 children's film Crin-Blanc, English title White Mane, portrayed the horses and the region. A short black-and-white film directed by Albert Lamorisse, director of Le ballon rouge (1956), Crin-blanc won the 1953 Prix Jean Vigo and the short film Grand Prix at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, as well as awards at Warsaw and Rome.[10] In 1960 Denys Colomb Daunant, writer and actor for Crin-blanc, made the documentary Le Songe des Chevaux Sauvages, "Dream of the Wild Horses". It featured Camargue horses and slow motion photography, and won the Small Golden Berlin Bear at the 1960 Berlin International Film Festival.[11]
[2]Blum's was a pink spun sugar fantasy come to life. It had a gift shop. It had shocking pink banquettes. It had surly waitresses. And it had cake. Not those plastic looking, multi colored and tasteless layered cakes offered in cafes around Union Square. No. They had Blum's Famous Coffee Crunch cake. (This legendary cake is so memorable that Nancy Silverton has included a recipe for it in her latest cookbook.)
Blum's was partly a restaurant for the ladies who didn't work and spent their days going downtown to shop, meet friends and get home before the children came home from school. (http://www.culinarymuse.com/2005/10/blums_where_are.html)...
My older sister and I would get into our pajamas, my little baby brother would be in the car seat for babies in the front seat between the driver and the passenger. We brought out own fried chicken ot eat for dinner. We'd go get popcorn or bonbons or a Holloway sucker (the best!) at the concessions stand ahead of the movies or at the intermission if we were still awake and we'd watch a double bill – usually a western and or a comedy.
When we got older and at the age of 16, we all got cars of our own. Mine was a 53 Ford convertible repainted royal blue. Groups of us would go to the Olympic Drive In and would sneak others in in the trunk.
When I was really little my father and mother would take my sister and me to the movies. I was always making my father take me to the bathroom. That started my habit of sitting on the aisle. As a film buyer it was known as the acquisitions seat, but to my mind, the quick getaway was to the Ladies Room. And as a three or four year old, I was always asking my mother and sister, "is this real?" I was so literal minded as a child I could never figure out why the song said “Let Freedom Ring”. How could Freedom Ring? A ring was jewelry. Ring like a bell…but Freedom is not a bell. Moving on…
We saw this Bob Hope film. He was a gambler. And he put a gun into his mouth. Instead of shooting his brains out, he took a bite and it was chocolate. That really threw my literal mind into a loop. What was real? How did that happen? The movie was called Sorrowful Jones. The joke was something I had a hard time understanding. The same with the silents which we saw at the Silent Movie Theater. Laurel and Hardy were always hitting each other and falling; Charlie Chase was always in trouble as was Charlie Chaplin. I never understood what was funny about all the accidents, falling down, hitting each other and would have terrible anxiety attacks at the silent movies. I liked movies like Francis the Talking Mule. That was funny to my childish mind.
For those wonderful Disney cartoons like Cinderella or Alice in Wonderland, Robin Hood or Peter Pan, my father would take us to Beverly Hills and we would stand in line for the Fine Arts Theater. At the corner was a shoe store which only sold sample sizes (4 ½). I would admire their high heeled shoes and couldn’t wait for the time that I would be older and could wear them. Fortunately, when my foot hit the 4 ½ size, I was in high school and so I could buy the shoes for all the formal dances we attended.
Fine Arts Theater
Every Saturday my sister and I, and later my brother would go to the ten-cent Saturday afternoon matinee at the Meralta with a newsreel, previews, cartoon, and a main feature. The Meralta introduced me to The Dream of Wild Horses.[1]"Meralta" was derived from owners' Pearl Merrill and Laura Peralta's surnames. They lived above the new plush theater. But the movies there were mostly horror and genre. My brother always went there for the latest horror film.
Meralta Theater, Culver City
If we didn’t go to the Meralta, we’d go to the Culver. When we were looking to meet other kids from other schools, we'd go to the much fancier Culver Theater.
The Culver had great films, like Little Women, Gone with the Wind, Gentlemen Prefer Blonds, How to Marry a Millionaire, River of No Return, There’s No Business Like Show Business, Easter Parade, A Date with Judy (My sister’s name!), The Three Musketeers, Words and Music, Force of Evil, Neptune’s Daughter, Adam’s Rib, Showboat, An American in Paris, Lili, Giant, Rebel Without a Cause. Looking at this list, except for the Marilyn Monroe movies which 20th Century Fox owned and the two James Dean films which Warner Bros. owned, all of the films were MGM films. That makes perfect sense because Culver City was a company town.
The Culver also had “loges”. These were fancier red velvet seats with ashtrays above the large aisle you would find on entering the theater and choosing your seat – below unless you went up to the loge. There teenagers would "make out" and bad girls and guys would smoke (Excuse my racism, but as a Jew growing up in a working class wasp neighborhood, I learned these kids were either Pachucos or white trash.) Not that we were such good Jewish kids...there weren’t any Jewish kids that I knew of who went to the movies. My friends were my school friends, and they were all white working class kids. If people weren’t working for Hughes Aircraft, they were in the crafts at MGM. We had one bit actor living down the street named Cameron Mitchell. And it was a pretty racist neighborhood…anti-Semitism was learned at home and in Sunday Schools where kids invited me (called a Christ Killer) to learn about bringing Jesus into my heart and there were no blacks that I ever saw. The Pachucos lived in another neighborhood and we’d see them in the movies, shopping or at the middle and high school next to my elementary school. Asians? There might have been a Chinese restaurant, but I don’t recall seeing Asians in school or at the theater or shopping.
Jewish kids made up my group of friends when I got to junior high and we had moved to Beverlywood from Culver City; 90% of the school was Jewish. Our parents would still drop us at the movies and we would go to Saturday matinees at the Picfair on Pico and Fairfax which eventually burned down around the time of the Watts Riots, or to the Lido on Pico.
The Picfair Theater burned down in 1965.
We’d see Academy Award winning films at the Pickfair. We'd cry at Carousel, Oklahoma, Midnight Lace, Peyton Place, Imitation of Life. Great films! Or we'd sometimes go to the other theater in Pico called Lido. It was just so boring. Maybe they showed Marty there or Country Girl and I wasn't up for slow drama.
For really fancy movies which held premieres, like Around the World in 80 Days, we would go to the Carthay Circle Theater. Of course I’d go in the days after the premiere itself. Rarely – though sometimes we’d go to the Hollywood palaces, Grauman’s Chinese, The Egyptian or Pantages Theaters on Hollywood Boulevard. The best thing about Grauman’s Chinese was the ladies room with a room filled with mirrors and little alcoves to sit and put on lipstick. They even had lipstick blotters, white heavy weight paper shaped like your lips to blot the lipstick.
In 1959 The Fine Arts Theatre 8556 Wilshire Boulevardin Beverly Hills showed Room at the Top, (‘The Most Daring Film in a Decade’), and it played there for over six months. I was in the 10th grade and went to see it. I liked it but am not sure how much I understood.
In high school we discovered Le Chein Andalou and the Coronet and Baronet theater where Charles Laughton had played in Brecht's premiere play Galileo produced by John Houseman. Sometimes they didn't have enough foreign films (like one about a woman who turned into a panther at night) and they'd show psychological teaching films like "Folie a Deux" when madness is shared by two, in this 20 minute short it was a mother and daughter. They'd show films on Schizophrenia, etc. and it made me want to study psychology. We saw all of Bergman, Renoir and saw La Strada and La Dolce Vida. When I moved back east and went to Brandeis then movie going got great! Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds. After that I saw every Wajda film and even knew how to pronounce his name. But after Man of Marble or Man of Steel I started to get disinterested. I have no idea what theaters we went to in Cambridge or New York except for the Bleecker Street Theater where we’d often go for the weekend.
For dates we’d go up the street (Beverwil) to Beverly Hills to the Beverly Theater or the Beverly Canon. There they had programs printed for the movies (The Young Lions). Afterward we’d go to Blum’s[2] for their crunchy cake or Wil Wrights Ice Cream Parlor for ice cream sundaes.
And a theater we would always forget except when some exceptional foreign film was showing there, was the Vagabond, way down on Wilshire Blvd. toward downtown.
[1]Wikipedia: The 1953 children's film Crin-Blanc, English title White Mane, portrayed the horses and the region. A short black-and-white film directed by Albert Lamorisse, director of Le ballon rouge (1956), Crin-blanc won the 1953 Prix Jean Vigo and the short film Grand Prix at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, as well as awards at Warsaw and Rome.[10] In 1960 Denys Colomb Daunant, writer and actor for Crin-blanc, made the documentary Le Songe des Chevaux Sauvages, "Dream of the Wild Horses". It featured Camargue horses and slow motion photography, and won the Small Golden Berlin Bear at the 1960 Berlin International Film Festival.[11]
[2]Blum's was a pink spun sugar fantasy come to life. It had a gift shop. It had shocking pink banquettes. It had surly waitresses. And it had cake. Not those plastic looking, multi colored and tasteless layered cakes offered in cafes around Union Square. No. They had Blum's Famous Coffee Crunch cake. (This legendary cake is so memorable that Nancy Silverton has included a recipe for it in her latest cookbook.)
Blum's was partly a restaurant for the ladies who didn't work and spent their days going downtown to shop, meet friends and get home before the children came home from school. (http://www.culinarymuse.com/2005/10/blums_where_are.html)...
- 3/27/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The saying goes: If Hollywood is really the movie capital of the world, then Oscar night is the world’s biggest wrap party, and like all parties, each event comes with unwelcome guests, embarrassing situations, strange fashions and controversial moments. In fact, controversy and the Oscars seem to go hand in hand and despite the fact that the Academy Awards are, for the most part, an elegant and tightly controlled affair, some very strange things do occur. Let’s take a look back through the history of the Academy Awards, and some of it’s strangest and more controversial moments – which sadly were also the most memorable.
Shadow Dancers
For the 2007 ceremony, producers hired the dance troop Pilobolus to recreate famous images from that year’s most popular films.
Political Rants
Richard Gere was last asked to present in 1993 when he interrupted the ceremony to give a long speech attacking...
Shadow Dancers
For the 2007 ceremony, producers hired the dance troop Pilobolus to recreate famous images from that year’s most popular films.
Political Rants
Richard Gere was last asked to present in 1993 when he interrupted the ceremony to give a long speech attacking...
- 2/24/2012
- by Kyle Reese
- SoundOnSight
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade organizers have been trying to convince Tim Burton (Alice in Wonderland) to create a balloon for the event since 2004. The director finally agreed, and was only limited by two design rules, to stay away from something skinny and pointy. Today we have a look at the balloon, called "B.Boy," that has the following backstory: He was created from the leftover balloons used in children's parties at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Forbidden from playing with other children because of his jagged teeth and crazy-quilt stitching, B. retreated to a basement lair, where he obsesses over Albert Lamorisse's film 'The Red Balloon' and dreams that he, too, will be able to fly someday. Burton was in New York with Helena Bonham Carter and his child to witness the event and the unveiling of his balloon. Check some photos of B.
- 11/25/2011
- WorstPreviews.com
Those fans of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade got a little treat from filmmaker Tim Burton yesterday when the annual parade debuted a new float designed by Burton, which took to the skies over a beautiful day in Manhattan in all of its patchy blue glory. The character, named B., even comes with his own backstory, which we shared with you recently in another post on the float. "B. was created, Frankenstein’s monster-style, from the leftover balloons used in children’s parties at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Forbidden from playing with other children because of his jagged teeth and crazy-quilt stitching, B. retreated to a basement lair, where he obsesses over Albert Lamorisse’s film The Red Balloon and dreams that he, too, will be able to...
Read More...
Read More...
- 11/25/2011
- by Erik Davis
- Movies.com
Thanksgiving has always been one of those ‘lesser’ holidays for me. Not because it didn’t have historical (albeit questionable) or emotional significance, but mostly that it fell between the two holiday juggernauts of the year. I mean, I’ve always liked turkey and all, but with Halloween and Christmas you generally had a lot more to distract you from the fact that you’re spending time with your family. Clearly, this is why the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was conjured into being and why it remains such a staple today. And this year more than ever I am anticipating the fun frolic of whimsical characters like Snoopy, Woody Woodpecker, Mickey Mouse and …Tim Burton?
The gothic filmmaker famous for Alice In Wonderland, Sweeney Todd and Beetlejuice has designed a new balloon to be featured in next month’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. ”It’s such a surreal thing that...
The gothic filmmaker famous for Alice In Wonderland, Sweeney Todd and Beetlejuice has designed a new balloon to be featured in next month’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. ”It’s such a surreal thing that...
- 10/24/2011
- by elvis
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
Growing up, it was a tradition in our house to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade while mom got the turkey in the oven, but as my tastes turned to the horror side of the fence, interest in the annual event waned. This year, however, there's a new entrant designing a balloon who promises to bring a bit of spooky to the show: the one and only Tim Burton!
Per The New York Times next month the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will feature a new balloon designed by Tim Burton, the artist and filmmaker who has brought a Gothic sensibility to movies like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands as well as his adaptations of Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland, and the upcoming Dark Shadows.
“It’s such a surprise to be asked, and it was great,” Burton told the Times in a telephone interview from London. “It’s such...
Per The New York Times next month the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will feature a new balloon designed by Tim Burton, the artist and filmmaker who has brought a Gothic sensibility to movies like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands as well as his adaptations of Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland, and the upcoming Dark Shadows.
“It’s such a surprise to be asked, and it was great,” Burton told the Times in a telephone interview from London. “It’s such...
- 10/22/2011
- by The Woman In Black
- DreadCentral.com
Sony Pictures has hired John Hlavin to write its adaptation of Hasbro’s strategy board game of world domination, Risk.
The studio snatched up the movie rights in November 2009 and, according to THR, they’re joined by Will Smith’s production company, Overbrook Entertainment. The game was invented by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse in 1957 before it was purchased by Parker Brothers two years later.
Hlavin was a story editor on episodes of “The Shield,” creator of a Top 10 script on 2009’s Black List (titled The Gunslinger), and credited writer on the upcoming vampires versus lycans continuation Underworld 4: New Dawn.
Hlavin’s take on the game will be set in modern times and a “contemporary global action thriller,” so start assembling your forces on the peninsular stronghold of Kamchatka.
Hollywood is already well into production on several other Hasbro properties, including Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the developing sequel G.
The studio snatched up the movie rights in November 2009 and, according to THR, they’re joined by Will Smith’s production company, Overbrook Entertainment. The game was invented by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse in 1957 before it was purchased by Parker Brothers two years later.
Hlavin was a story editor on episodes of “The Shield,” creator of a Top 10 script on 2009’s Black List (titled The Gunslinger), and credited writer on the upcoming vampires versus lycans continuation Underworld 4: New Dawn.
Hlavin’s take on the game will be set in modern times and a “contemporary global action thriller,” so start assembling your forces on the peninsular stronghold of Kamchatka.
Hollywood is already well into production on several other Hasbro properties, including Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the developing sequel G.
- 6/10/2011
- by Jeff Leins
- newsinfilm.com
Scribe John Hlavin ("Underworld: New Dawn," "The Shield") has been hired to pen the film adaptation of the board game "Risk" for Sony Pictures reports Risky Biz Blog.
Created in 1957 by French director Albert Lamorisse and picked up by Parker Brothers two years later, the Cold War-era strategy game has players fighting for world domination - battling each other to try and acquire every territory on the world map.
Sony acquired the rights to the Hasbro property back in late 2009 and began plans for a "global action thriller" based on the property. It marks one of several films based on board games currently in development at studios.
Created in 1957 by French director Albert Lamorisse and picked up by Parker Brothers two years later, the Cold War-era strategy game has players fighting for world domination - battling each other to try and acquire every territory on the world map.
Sony acquired the rights to the Hasbro property back in late 2009 and began plans for a "global action thriller" based on the property. It marks one of several films based on board games currently in development at studios.
- 6/10/2011
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Hold your jokes about Hollywood's newfound obsession with board games to the end if you will, because we've got some serious news to share about Risk. The Sony Pictures film has found its screenwriter in John Hlavin, an experienced scribe who has written for The Shield, penned Underworld: New Dawn and wrote the original buzzed-about script The Gunslinger.
Risk, of course, will be based on Hasbro's war game of the same name. Fun Fact: The game itself was created by Albert Lamorisse, the director of famed French artsy-fartsy children's film The Red Balloon. If the new Risk movie turns out to be anything like the game, we'll excitedly buy a copy of it and then let it gather dust on a shelf as all of our friends refuse to waste a full Saturday playing it.
How about we skip Risk and go right to the Warhammer movie?
Deadline describes Risk...
Risk, of course, will be based on Hasbro's war game of the same name. Fun Fact: The game itself was created by Albert Lamorisse, the director of famed French artsy-fartsy children's film The Red Balloon. If the new Risk movie turns out to be anything like the game, we'll excitedly buy a copy of it and then let it gather dust on a shelf as all of our friends refuse to waste a full Saturday playing it.
How about we skip Risk and go right to the Warhammer movie?
Deadline describes Risk...
- 6/10/2011
- UGO Movies
Back in 2009, it was reported that Sony Pictures acquired film rights to the classic board game "Risk," which was invented in 1957 by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse as "La Conquete du Monde" (Conquest of the World). Now comes word that John Hlavin, who recently wrote "Underworld 4: New Dawn," has been hired to pen the script. The new movie is described as an action thriller that will be set in modern day and take place all around the world. "Risk" is Cold War-era strategy game, in which players form armies and use them to attack the territories belonging to other players. Over the years, versions of the game have been designed around different eras throughout history as well as the moon.
- 6/10/2011
- WorstPreviews.com
Filed under: Movie News
It's game time at the movies.
Hasbro's 'Risk' is the latest in a line of movies springing from board games to make it to the big screen ('Battleship,' 'Candyland,' 'Ouija'). Sony has tapped screenwriter John Hlavin ('The Shield') to adapt the world domination board game into a global action thriller, according to TheWrap. The game was invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse in 1957 and released in France as 'La Conquête du Monde' ('The Conquest of the World'); Parker Brothers brought it to the U.S. two years later.
Roland Emmerich has been offered the helm of Universal's 'Asteroids,' a sci-fi thriller loosely based on the old Atari game, according to CinemaBlend. The post-apocalyptic story, written by 'The Race to Witch Mountain' scribe Matt Lopez, has the remnants of human civilization living on far-flung colonies within an asteroid...
It's game time at the movies.
Hasbro's 'Risk' is the latest in a line of movies springing from board games to make it to the big screen ('Battleship,' 'Candyland,' 'Ouija'). Sony has tapped screenwriter John Hlavin ('The Shield') to adapt the world domination board game into a global action thriller, according to TheWrap. The game was invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse in 1957 and released in France as 'La Conquête du Monde' ('The Conquest of the World'); Parker Brothers brought it to the U.S. two years later.
Roland Emmerich has been offered the helm of Universal's 'Asteroids,' a sci-fi thriller loosely based on the old Atari game, according to CinemaBlend. The post-apocalyptic story, written by 'The Race to Witch Mountain' scribe Matt Lopez, has the remnants of human civilization living on far-flung colonies within an asteroid...
- 6/10/2011
- by Moviefone Staff
- Moviefone
Columbia Pictures, Hasbro and Overbrook Entertainment have attached screenwriter John Hlavin ("Underworld 4: New Dawn") for a motion pciture adaptation of the Hasbro board game "Risk".
"Hasbro has already seen tremendous success with 'Transformers' and 'G.I. Joe'," said Columbia President Doug Belgrad. "The strategic thinking and the tactical gambles that players must take in the game are what make 'Risk' a classic, thoroughly engaging game. Those elements translated into an action-packed, thrilling story are what will make this a uniquely exciting movie."
The strategic board game, originally produced by Parker Brothers (now a division of Hasbro), was invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse, released in 1957, as "La Conquête du Monde" ("The Conquest of the World").
The turn-based game, designed for two to six players, had a standard version, played on a board depicting a map of the Earth, divided into forty-two territories, grouped into six continents.
By controlling armies,...
"Hasbro has already seen tremendous success with 'Transformers' and 'G.I. Joe'," said Columbia President Doug Belgrad. "The strategic thinking and the tactical gambles that players must take in the game are what make 'Risk' a classic, thoroughly engaging game. Those elements translated into an action-packed, thrilling story are what will make this a uniquely exciting movie."
The strategic board game, originally produced by Parker Brothers (now a division of Hasbro), was invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse, released in 1957, as "La Conquête du Monde" ("The Conquest of the World").
The turn-based game, designed for two to six players, had a standard version, played on a board depicting a map of the Earth, divided into forty-two territories, grouped into six continents.
By controlling armies,...
- 6/10/2011
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
Films about global war aren't new. Science fiction, action, drama, even comedies and horror movies have used the familiar, if intense structure to tell tales of victory and defeat. However, some of our best memories of these grand conflicts were probably made in epic battles between family and friends thanks to the Parker Brothers board game Risk. Created in the 1950s by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse, the game features players battling to take control of the world and, in 2009, Sony Pictures purchased the rights [1] to make a film version. Now, they've finally taken the next step by hiring a writer to turn the incredibly broad premise into a concise screenplay: John Hlavin. Hlavin recently wrote the upcoming fourth Underworld, Underworld: New Dawn, but also worked on FX's The Shield for several seasons and has films set up at DreamWorks and Warner Bros. And while there's no immediate clue as to...
- 6/9/2011
- by Germain Lussier
- Slash Film
Hasbro's board game "Risk" is heading to the movies. Screenwriter John Hlavin is adapting the game, which has sold millions of copies, into a global action thriller, Sony Pictures Entertainment said Thursday. The game was invented by a filmmaker, Frenchman Albert Lamorisse. Two years later, Parker Brothers took the game to the United States. Hlavin is best known for his work on FX's "The Shield." The movie will be overseen at Columbia by Hannah Minghella, Sam Dickerman and Jonathan Kadin. Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner and head of Hasbro Films Bennett Schneir are producing, along...
- 6/9/2011
- by Joshua L. Weinstein
- The Wrap
It looks as though we are getting another board game turned into a feature film! Sony Pictures has hired John Hlavin to write the script for a feature film based on the Risk board game. Deadline reports that the project is a co-production from Hasbro Entertainment and Overbrook Entertainment, and that it's planned as a contemporary global action thriller. The film is being produced by Brian Goldner, Bennett Schneir and James Lassiter.
Hlavin has written a number of scripts and is best know for his work on The Shield. His original script The Gunslinger for Warner Bros. was on the Black List. Audiences will see his work on the script for Underworld: New Dawn next year from Paramount, and a heist script for Steve Zaillian's Film Rites and DreamWorks. The board game was created in 1957 by Albert Lamorisse, the French director of The Red Balloon. It was initially called...
Hlavin has written a number of scripts and is best know for his work on The Shield. His original script The Gunslinger for Warner Bros. was on the Black List. Audiences will see his work on the script for Underworld: New Dawn next year from Paramount, and a heist script for Steve Zaillian's Film Rites and DreamWorks. The board game was created in 1957 by Albert Lamorisse, the French director of The Red Balloon. It was initially called...
- 6/9/2011
- by Tiberius
- GeekTyrant
Screenwriter John Hlavin has been set by Sony Pictures to write Risk, a contemporary global action thriller based on the venerable board game. Pic is a co-production between Hasbro Entertainment and Overbrook Entertainment, and the producers are Brian Goldner, Bennett Schneir and James Lassiter. Hlavin has written on The Shield, and his original script The Gunslinger for Warner Bros made the Black List. He scripted Underworld: New Dawn for Paramount, which will release early next year, and turned in a heist script to Steve Zaillian's Film Rites and DreamWorks. Risk was created by Albert Lamorisse, the French director of The Red Balloon in 1957. He called it La Conquete du Monde (The Conquest of the World). It was brought to the Us by Parker Brothers two years later as Risk. Will the fact it was invented by a moviemaker keep Deadline commenters from sarcastically demanding new projects like Gnip Gnop: The Movie,...
- 6/9/2011
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Chicago – Throughout his extensive work as a film columnist, author and journalist, Robert K. Elder has been drawn to exploring both the universality and striking diversity of the human experience. In his books, Elder is intent on capturing specific moments within the lives of his subjects, while discovering their universal truths through their juxtaposition.
Elder’s latest book, “The Film That Changed My Life,” is no exception. The book compiles one-on-one interviews with thirty directors about the pivotal moviegoing experience that altered their sense of cinema (and sense of self). Filmmakers and film buffs alike will undoubtedly find the book to be a compulsive page turner. John Woo discusses his idolization of James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause,” while Frank Oz gushes about his love of Welles in “Touch of Evil” and Atom Egoyan recalls the moment he first stumbled upon Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona.”
On June 11, Elder will...
Elder’s latest book, “The Film That Changed My Life,” is no exception. The book compiles one-on-one interviews with thirty directors about the pivotal moviegoing experience that altered their sense of cinema (and sense of self). Filmmakers and film buffs alike will undoubtedly find the book to be a compulsive page turner. John Woo discusses his idolization of James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause,” while Frank Oz gushes about his love of Welles in “Touch of Evil” and Atom Egoyan recalls the moment he first stumbled upon Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona.”
On June 11, Elder will...
- 6/7/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
On Sunday, the Cannes Film Festival Jury, headed by Robert De Niro, will be announcing this year’s Palme d’Or. And while that’s certainly exciting, it's easy to overlook its twin award, the Palme d’Or for short film. The honor has existed for almost as long as the festival itself and over the years has jump-started quite a few careers, from Norman McLaren and Albert Lamorisse to Jane Campion and Nuri Bilge Ceylan. One can even trace the origins of the Romanian New Wave to 2004 and the victory of Cătălin Mitulescu’s “Trafic,” a year before his compatriots’ features started raising…...
- 5/20/2011
- Spout
Before making his Palme d'Or winner Scarecrow, Jerry Schatzberg made his debut Puzzle of a Downfall Child with 'it' girl Faye Dunaway. The film has somewhat disappeared for all but Dunaway completists, but that will change this year, beginning with the release of the poster for the 64th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival. Schatzberg was first well known as a photographer before diving in to filmmaking (many have seen his cover of Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde album), and, naturally, he took an exquisite set of shots of Dunaway around the production of the film. These exquisite shots, in turn, have made for an exquisite poster. It brings back the festival's penchant for dark, mysterious images, like those seen in 2006 (In the Mood For Love still) and 2008 (David Lynch photograph), a style that easily bests last year's image of Juliette Binoche shielding her eyes from the brightness.
- 4/4/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
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