Vladimir Nakobov’s 1938 novel “Laughter in the Dark” begins with its rich and horny (but happily married) hero arriving at the vision that will ultimately ruin his life. A retired art critic with cinematic aspirations, old Albinus is struck by the idea of taking a famous painter, “preferably of the Dutch School,” and animating one of his signature works into the stuff of motion pictures. Film technology was still in its infancy, and it made anything seem possible. What if someone could use it to breathe new life into a static canvas, adding new dimensions to the artist’s vision and illustrating what might have happened in the moments before and after the one that was immortalized in oil?
Albinus, to his credit, recognized the unique challenges that might be involved in such an endeavor. “It would entail a delicacy of work calling for novel improvements in the method of animation,...
Albinus, to his credit, recognized the unique challenges that might be involved in such an endeavor. “It would entail a delicacy of work calling for novel improvements in the method of animation,...
- 8/31/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Above: Danish poster for Maid for Murder a.k.a. She’ll Have to Go (Robert Asher, UK, 1962).Next week is a red letter week for New York cinephiles because Anna Karina is coming to town. Nouvelle vague icon, muse of Jean-Luc Godard, and one of the most alluring presences in cinema, Anna Karina, now aged 75 and still gorgeous, is gracing us with her presence at three of New York’s temples of cinema: at Bam on Tuesday, May 3, where she will talk to Melissa Anderson following a screening of A Woman is a Woman; at MoMI on Wednesday, May 4, where she will have a conversation with Molly Haskell following a screening of Pierrot le fou; and at Film Forum on Friday, May 6, where she will kick off a week long run of Band of Outsiders and the accompanying series Anna & Jean-Luc. It would be easy to fill this post...
- 5/1/2016
- MUBI
Plus: Gabriele Muccino circles Laughter In The Dark
Trilogy Films, Big Mouth Productions, Cedar Creek Productions and Chicken & Egg Pictures have struck a partnership with Ro*Co Films, Abramorama, Film Sprout and Independent Lens to distribute Dawn Porter’s Sundance film.
Trapped won the Us Documentary special jury award for social impact filmmaking in Park City and follows the work of clinic workers and lawyers battling to keep abortion legal for American women.
It will open in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. on March 4.
Gabriele Muccino is in talks to direct the erotic thriller Laughter In The Dark based on the Vladimir Nabokov novel from a script by newcomers Bradley McMann and Justin Parker. Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell of Stone Village Productions will produce with Sander Soeth of Intuit Films. Stone Village has partnered with investment firm Source Rock Partners to finance. The producers have earmarked a mid-May start in New York...
Trilogy Films, Big Mouth Productions, Cedar Creek Productions and Chicken & Egg Pictures have struck a partnership with Ro*Co Films, Abramorama, Film Sprout and Independent Lens to distribute Dawn Porter’s Sundance film.
Trapped won the Us Documentary special jury award for social impact filmmaking in Park City and follows the work of clinic workers and lawyers battling to keep abortion legal for American women.
It will open in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. on March 4.
Gabriele Muccino is in talks to direct the erotic thriller Laughter In The Dark based on the Vladimir Nabokov novel from a script by newcomers Bradley McMann and Justin Parker. Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell of Stone Village Productions will produce with Sander Soeth of Intuit Films. Stone Village has partnered with investment firm Source Rock Partners to finance. The producers have earmarked a mid-May start in New York...
- 2/5/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Long considered to be one of British auteur Tony Richardson’s greatest miscalculations is his 1970 film Ned Kelly, certainly the most notable but arguably the definitive version as concerns one of Australia’s most infamous outlaws. Arriving on Blu-ray for the first time, the title remains a curious novelty, one of a handful of on-screen appearances featuring The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger in a high-profile role. As many of these once-reviled titles go, the history behind the making of the film tends to overshadow the compromised product, and Richardson’s failed period piece is no exception.
In the late 1800s Outback, horse thief and aspiring bank robber Ned Kelly (Jagger) is released after serving a three year prison sentence. Harassed by the law and his angry neighbors, the ornery bushranger is forced into action when his mother (Clarissa Kaye) is unjustly accused of murder and sentenced to prison. His resulting...
In the late 1800s Outback, horse thief and aspiring bank robber Ned Kelly (Jagger) is released after serving a three year prison sentence. Harassed by the law and his angry neighbors, the ornery bushranger is forced into action when his mother (Clarissa Kaye) is unjustly accused of murder and sentenced to prison. His resulting...
- 7/21/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Vladimir Nabokov "was trading in movie-friendly, noirish suspense long before Lolita," writes John Colapinto for the New Yorker in a consideration of adaptations by Stanley Kubrick, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Jerzy Skolimowski. "His 1938 novel, Laughter in the Dark, is a lurid love triangle involving an amateur film producer, a would-be film animator, and an underage aspiring actress." Also under review: Adrian Martin's Mise en Scène and Film Style, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unpublished letters from Hollywood, a biography of Bob Hope and Patton Oswalt's new memoir. » - David Hudson...
- 1/5/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Vladimir Nabokov "was trading in movie-friendly, noirish suspense long before Lolita," writes John Colapinto for the New Yorker in a consideration of adaptations by Stanley Kubrick, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Jerzy Skolimowski. "His 1938 novel, Laughter in the Dark, is a lurid love triangle involving an amateur film producer, a would-be film animator, and an underage aspiring actress." Also under review: Adrian Martin's Mise en Scène and Film Style, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unpublished letters from Hollywood, a biography of Bob Hope and Patton Oswalt's new memoir. » - David Hudson...
- 1/5/2015
- Keyframe
Debut competition titles at cinematography festival unveiled.
Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 15-22), has revealed the line-up of films screening in three of the festival’s competition sections including Cinematographers’ Debut, Directors’ Debut and Student Etudes.
The entries are:
Cinematographers’ Debut Competition
Duane Hopkins’ Bypass;
UK, 2014; Cinematographer: David Procter
Sidney Lexy Plaut’s Dark Samurai;
Denmark, 2014; Cinematographer: Sidney Lexy Plaut
Zeresenay Berhane Mehari’s Difret;
Ethiopia, USA, 2014; Cinematographer: Monika Lenczewska
Krzysztof Skonieczny’s Hardkor Disko;
Poland, 2014; Cinematographer: Kacper Fertacz
Arild Østin Ommundsen’s It’s Only Make Believe;
Norway, 2013; Cinematographer: Arild Østin Ommundsen
Michael Cody and Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s Ruin;
Australia, 2013; Cinematographer: Ari Wegner
Ester Martin Bergsmark’s Something Must Break;
Sweden, 2014; Cinematographers: Lisabi Fridell and Minka Jakerson
David Pablos’ The Life After;
Mexico, 2013; Cinematographer: José De- La-Torre
Saar Klein’s Things People Do;
USA, 2014; Cinematographer: Matthias Koenigswieser
Jonas Alexander Arnby’s When Animals Dream;
Denmark, 2013; Cinematographer: [link=nm...
Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 15-22), has revealed the line-up of films screening in three of the festival’s competition sections including Cinematographers’ Debut, Directors’ Debut and Student Etudes.
The entries are:
Cinematographers’ Debut Competition
Duane Hopkins’ Bypass;
UK, 2014; Cinematographer: David Procter
Sidney Lexy Plaut’s Dark Samurai;
Denmark, 2014; Cinematographer: Sidney Lexy Plaut
Zeresenay Berhane Mehari’s Difret;
Ethiopia, USA, 2014; Cinematographer: Monika Lenczewska
Krzysztof Skonieczny’s Hardkor Disko;
Poland, 2014; Cinematographer: Kacper Fertacz
Arild Østin Ommundsen’s It’s Only Make Believe;
Norway, 2013; Cinematographer: Arild Østin Ommundsen
Michael Cody and Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s Ruin;
Australia, 2013; Cinematographer: Ari Wegner
Ester Martin Bergsmark’s Something Must Break;
Sweden, 2014; Cinematographers: Lisabi Fridell and Minka Jakerson
David Pablos’ The Life After;
Mexico, 2013; Cinematographer: José De- La-Torre
Saar Klein’s Things People Do;
USA, 2014; Cinematographer: Matthias Koenigswieser
Jonas Alexander Arnby’s When Animals Dream;
Denmark, 2013; Cinematographer: [link=nm...
- 10/16/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Ghita Nørby stars in family drama to be shot on Danish island of Funen.
While preparing two German features – new adaptions of Russian author Vladimir Nabokov’s Laughter in the Dark and Austrian author Stefan Zweig’s Beware of Pity - Danish Oscar-winning director Bille August will on Monday start principal photography for a new Danish family drama, Quiet Heart (Stille hjerte), on the island of Funen.
From an original story by Christian Torpe, the Jesper Mothorst production for Sf Film willl reunite August with Danish actress Ghita Nørby, who played the lead in his Ingmar Bergman film from 1992, The Best Intentions (Den goda viljan), which received the Palme d’Or in Cannes.
August also won the top prize in Cannes for Pelle the Conqueror (Pelle Erobreren/1988), which went on to collect the Golden Globe and the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Feature.
Quiet Heart follows three generations of a family, gathered for a weekend...
While preparing two German features – new adaptions of Russian author Vladimir Nabokov’s Laughter in the Dark and Austrian author Stefan Zweig’s Beware of Pity - Danish Oscar-winning director Bille August will on Monday start principal photography for a new Danish family drama, Quiet Heart (Stille hjerte), on the island of Funen.
From an original story by Christian Torpe, the Jesper Mothorst production for Sf Film willl reunite August with Danish actress Ghita Nørby, who played the lead in his Ingmar Bergman film from 1992, The Best Intentions (Den goda viljan), which received the Palme d’Or in Cannes.
August also won the top prize in Cannes for Pelle the Conqueror (Pelle Erobreren/1988), which went on to collect the Golden Globe and the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Feature.
Quiet Heart follows three generations of a family, gathered for a weekend...
- 11/14/2013
- by jornrossing@aol.com (Jorn Rossing Jensen)
- ScreenDaily
Ghita Nørby stars in family drama to be shot on Danish island of Funen.
While preparing two German features – new adaptions of Russian author Vladimir Nabokov’s Laughter in the Dark and Austrian author Stefan Zweig’s Beware of Pity - Danish Oscar-winning director Bille August will on Monday start principal photography for a new Danish family drama, Quiet Heart (Stille hjerte), on the island of Funen.
From an original story by Christian Torpe, the Jesper Mothorst production for Sf Film willl reunite August with Danish actress Ghita Nørby, who played the lead in his Ingmar Bergman film from 1992, The Best Intentions (Den goda viljan), which received the Palme d’Or in Cannes.
August also won the top prize in Cannes for Pelle the Conqueror (Pelle Erobreren/1988), which went on to collect the Golden Globe and the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Feature.
Quiet Heart follows three generations of a family, gathered for a weekend...
While preparing two German features – new adaptions of Russian author Vladimir Nabokov’s Laughter in the Dark and Austrian author Stefan Zweig’s Beware of Pity - Danish Oscar-winning director Bille August will on Monday start principal photography for a new Danish family drama, Quiet Heart (Stille hjerte), on the island of Funen.
From an original story by Christian Torpe, the Jesper Mothorst production for Sf Film willl reunite August with Danish actress Ghita Nørby, who played the lead in his Ingmar Bergman film from 1992, The Best Intentions (Den goda viljan), which received the Palme d’Or in Cannes.
August also won the top prize in Cannes for Pelle the Conqueror (Pelle Erobreren/1988), which went on to collect the Golden Globe and the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Feature.
Quiet Heart follows three generations of a family, gathered for a weekend...
- 11/14/2013
- by jornrossing@aol.com (Jorn Rossing Jensen)
- ScreenDaily
"Nicol Williamson, the British actor best known for his role as the wizard Merlin in the 1981 film Excalibur, has died of esophageal cancer," reports the AP. "Williamson had dozens of film credits to his name but won more plaudits for his stage acting. Playwright John Osborne once described him as 'the greatest actor since Marlon Brando.' He was nominated for a Tony Award in 1966 for his role in Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence and again in 1974 for Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. He also was nominated three times for acting honors at the British Academy Film Awards, Britain's equivalent of the Oscars."
"He made his professional stage debut at the Dundee Repertory Theatre in 1960, before appearing in Tony Richardson's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Court Theatre," notes the BBC. "He later teamed up with Richardson again, to star his Hamlet production at the Roundhouse. It was so successful,...
"He made his professional stage debut at the Dundee Repertory Theatre in 1960, before appearing in Tony Richardson's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Court Theatre," notes the BBC. "He later teamed up with Richardson again, to star his Hamlet production at the Roundhouse. It was so successful,...
- 1/26/2012
- MUBI
Gerry Harrison writes: As a humble second assistant director in 1969, I was privileged to meet Elizabeth Taylor (obituary, 24 March), beautiful but very unassuming, at a party to mark the commencement of shooting of the film Laughter in the Dark, in which her husband, Richard Burton, was about to star.
Arranged by Tony Richardson, the film's director, the party was to give the picture, which was beset with forebodings about its financial guarantees and Burton's heavy drinking, a positive start. Close to one of our locations near Oxford was the Bear at Woodstock, the only hotel in Britain, other than the Dorchester, where Burton was prepared to stay. I was asked to travel there from London with Richard and Elizabeth in their Rolls-Royce. I sat in the front with their chauffeur. The boot, I remember, was filled with cases of champagne.
For two hours I was able to hear an astonishing...
Arranged by Tony Richardson, the film's director, the party was to give the picture, which was beset with forebodings about its financial guarantees and Burton's heavy drinking, a positive start. Close to one of our locations near Oxford was the Bear at Woodstock, the only hotel in Britain, other than the Dorchester, where Burton was prepared to stay. I was asked to travel there from London with Richard and Elizabeth in their Rolls-Royce. I sat in the front with their chauffeur. The boot, I remember, was filled with cases of champagne.
For two hours I was able to hear an astonishing...
- 3/26/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
Self-made Hollywood producer best known for adapting novels
Elliott Kastner, who has died of cancer aged 80, was the model of a film producer, working his way up from the mailroom at the William Morris Agency in New York to Los Angeles, where he joined another powerful talent agency, McA, in 1959. He soon became vice-president of Universal Pictures, but after two years he risked everything to become an independent producer, a move that paid off.
This achievement required a certain amount of ruthlessness, and Kastner was relentless in his pursuit of getting what he wanted. Mostly he wanted to entice well-known playwrights and novelists to write screenplays, or gain the rights of those works whose authors were no longer around to cajole.
Kastner persuaded William Inge (Bus Riley's Back in Town, 1965), Iris Murdoch (A Severed Head, 1970), Edna O'Brien (Zee and Co, 1972) and Peter Shaffer (Equus, 1977) to adapt their works for the screen,...
Elliott Kastner, who has died of cancer aged 80, was the model of a film producer, working his way up from the mailroom at the William Morris Agency in New York to Los Angeles, where he joined another powerful talent agency, McA, in 1959. He soon became vice-president of Universal Pictures, but after two years he risked everything to become an independent producer, a move that paid off.
This achievement required a certain amount of ruthlessness, and Kastner was relentless in his pursuit of getting what he wanted. Mostly he wanted to entice well-known playwrights and novelists to write screenplays, or gain the rights of those works whose authors were no longer around to cajole.
Kastner persuaded William Inge (Bus Riley's Back in Town, 1965), Iris Murdoch (A Severed Head, 1970), Edna O'Brien (Zee and Co, 1972) and Peter Shaffer (Equus, 1977) to adapt their works for the screen,...
- 7/29/2010
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
American film producer Elliot Kastner has died, aged 80.
He had been battling cancer and passed away on Wednesday in London, where he had lived and worked for many years. Further details about his illness were not released as WENN went to press.
Kastner began his professional career as a literary agent, and went on to produce films based on novels including Vladimir Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark and Iris Murdoch's A Severed Head.
His other film credits included: Harper, starring Paul Newman; World War II drama Where Eagles Dare, starring Richard Burton; and The Missouri Breaks, with Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson.
Kastner made three movies with Brando and five with Burton, including 1977 psychological drama Equus.
However, he is perhaps best-known for his film adaptations of Raymond Chandler's novels, such as The Long Goodbye (1973), Farewell, My Lovely (1975) and The Big Sleep (1978).
Kastner is survived by a son, Dillon, and a daughter, Milita. He is also survived by three stepsons from his second marriage to Tessa Kennedy.
He had been battling cancer and passed away on Wednesday in London, where he had lived and worked for many years. Further details about his illness were not released as WENN went to press.
Kastner began his professional career as a literary agent, and went on to produce films based on novels including Vladimir Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark and Iris Murdoch's A Severed Head.
His other film credits included: Harper, starring Paul Newman; World War II drama Where Eagles Dare, starring Richard Burton; and The Missouri Breaks, with Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson.
Kastner made three movies with Brando and five with Burton, including 1977 psychological drama Equus.
However, he is perhaps best-known for his film adaptations of Raymond Chandler's novels, such as The Long Goodbye (1973), Farewell, My Lovely (1975) and The Big Sleep (1978).
Kastner is survived by a son, Dillon, and a daughter, Milita. He is also survived by three stepsons from his second marriage to Tessa Kennedy.
- 7/2/2010
- WENN
Vladimir Nabokov's unfinished novella, The Original of Laura, is being published despite the author's instructions that it be destroyed after his death. Martin Amis confronts the tortuous questions posed by a genius in decline
Language leads a double life – and so does the novelist. You chat with family and friends, you attend to your correspondence, you consult menus and shopping lists, you observe road signs (Look Left), and so on. Then you enter your study, where language exists in quite another form – as the stuff of patterned artifice. Most writers, I think, would want to go along with Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), when he reminisced in 1974:
". . . I regarded Paris, with its gray-toned days and charcoal nights, merely as the chance setting for the most authentic and faithful joys of my life: the coloured phrase in my mind under the drizzle, the white page under the desk lamp awaiting me in my humble home.
Language leads a double life – and so does the novelist. You chat with family and friends, you attend to your correspondence, you consult menus and shopping lists, you observe road signs (Look Left), and so on. Then you enter your study, where language exists in quite another form – as the stuff of patterned artifice. Most writers, I think, would want to go along with Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), when he reminisced in 1974:
". . . I regarded Paris, with its gray-toned days and charcoal nights, merely as the chance setting for the most authentic and faithful joys of my life: the coloured phrase in my mind under the drizzle, the white page under the desk lamp awaiting me in my humble home.
- 11/14/2009
- by Martin Amis
- The Guardian - Film News
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