News

Few American filmmakers of the last 40 years await a major rediscovery like Hal Hartley, whose traces in modern movies are either too-minor or entirely unknown. Thus it’s cause for celebration that the Criterion Channel are soon launching a major retrospective: 13 features (which constitutes all but My America) and 17 shorts, a sui generis style and persistent vision running across 30 years. Expect your Halloween party to be aswim in Henry Fool costumes.

Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies offer chills and thrills of a different sort

Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains,...

As you embark upon a career as an actor, there are few better role models to follow than Sir Ben Kingsley. Over the course of his 50-year career, Kingsley has proven himself to be one of the most versatile and compelling actors of his generation. From his breakout role as Mahatma Gandhi which earned him international acclaim and an Academy Award for Best Actor, to complex villainous roles in films like Sexy Beast, to blockbusters like Iron Man 3 and Shutter Island, Kingsley brings a gravitas and nuance to every performance. His dedication to his craft and ability to completely transform himself for diverse roles should inspire any aspiring actor. This article will explore the life, career, acting process and accomplishments of the legendary Sir Ben Kingsley. His is a career to which all actors can aspire.

Ben Kingsley. Depostiphotos Early Life and Training

To understand Sir Ben Kingsley’s illustrious acting career,...

Barry Newman alongside the iconic white Dodge Challenger in Vanishing Point

52 years after he became a cult icon by starring in Richard C Sarafian's Vanishing Point, Barry Newman has passed away. According to The Hollywood Reporter, he died of natural causes at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

The Boston-born actor, who originally trained as an anthropologist, appeared on Broadway and had small roles in a number of films and TV series before Vanishing Point made him a star, first in Europe and then in the US. He remained in the industry well into old age, retiring just eight years ago, and his career included appearances in Bowfinger, The Limey and, more recently, What The Bleep Do We Know!? He got back behind the wheel in 1972's Fear Is The Key, and continued to choose thrillers in his later years.

He is survived by his wife Angela....

Just a few days ago, we published a list of great car movies (which is about to get a follow-up), and one of the movies we highlighted was 1971’s Vanishing Point. Many people consider it the greatest car movie ever made, with Quentin Tarantino paying homage to it in Death Proof, with the “hero car” a 1970 Dodge Challenger, just like the one featured in that movie. Sadly, the star of Vanishing Point, Barry Newman, is no more, with THR reporting the iconic seventies actor has died at 92.

In the movie, Newman plays Kowalski, a disaffected ex-cop turned car delivery driver who makes a wager that he can drive from Denver to San Francisco in two days. Hopped up on speed and driving up to 160 miles an hour, he quickly runs afoul of the law, but nothing will stop him from delivering the Dodge Charger by the agreed-upon delivery date. He soon becomes a counter-culture hero,...

Barry Newman, who propelled a supercharged Dodge Challenger across the American West in Vanishing Point and portrayed a defense attorney on the NBC series Petrocelli, has died. He was 92.

Newman died May 11 of natural causes at NewYork-Presbyterian Columbia University Irving Medical Center, his wife, Angela, told The Hollywood Reporter.

After appearing on Broadway and starring in The Lawyer (1970), the Boston-born actor was up for a change of pace when he was offered the role of a man tasked with transporting a car from Denver to San Francisco in the action-packed Fox film Vanishing Point (1971), directed by Richard C. Sarafian.

“This was very unique,” he said. “I had just done this film about a lawyer, a Harvard graduate, and I thought this is a different kind of thing. The guy was the rebel, the antihero. I enjoyed doing that very much.”

Newman’s taciturn character, Kowalski, was a Vietnam veteran, former...

Exclusive: Guy Burnet and Nora Arnezeder are set to star in the psychological thriller Glorious Empire written and directed by Matt Szymanowski. Andre Gaines will produce and Valerie Edwards will Executive Produce for Cinemation Studios. Produce will commence at end of summer.

Glorious Empire is a love story that turns into a living nightmare as Jeremy (Burnet) suspects his girlfriend Dagmara (Arnezeder), is gaslighting Jeremy and his family in order to cover up an affair with Jeremy’s brother. Even Jeremy’s concerned parents question his mental state, until it is revealed that Dagmara may have gotten away with the ultimate deception. The pic is described as a modern day homage to thrillers such as Play Misty for Me, Fatal Attraction and Single White Female.

Szymanowski is a Polish Film School-trained writer/director and Glorious Empire reps his...

Exclusive: Cassian Elwes and Andre Gaines are producing a remake of the 1972 classic revenge thriller Fear is the Key after closing a deal to acquire the rights from StudioCanal. The story, based on a book by Alistair MacLean, takes place in Louisiana and follows the character of John Talbot as he plots an elaborate revenge scheme on the people who killed his family in a plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico. By pretending to be a criminal, Talbot gets close to the culprits…...

Twin Peaks, Season 2, Episode 21, “Miss Twin Peaks”

Written by Barry Pullman

Directed by Tim Hunter

Aired June 10, 1991 on ABC

“Why have we all lost touch with this beauty? We tell ourselves the world is not alive so that we won’t feel its pain. But instead we feel it all the more. Maybe saving a forest starts with preserving the little feelings that die inside us every day. Those parts of ourselves we deny. Because if that interior land is not honored, then neither will we honor the land we walk.” – Annie Blackburn

Twin Peaks is a show that’s fascinated with the female form. The pilot episode of the series is literally all about the female body, the wrapped-in-plastic form of Laura Palmer and whatever secrets surround this sad sight. And from there it only escalates. The seductive swaying of Audrey Horne to music only she can hear. Norma...

Monkeys! Mark Wahlberg! Opposable thumbs! All this and more is in the new episode of No Seriously Its Awesome, the podcast that’s more exciting than James Bond, the Queen and Kenneth Branagh all going on a picnic together!

Hosted exclusively by Hey U Guys, every episode of No Seriously Its Awesome invites a guest to pick a film that they love that either a) everyone else hates, or b) no one else has even heard of, and then discuss the potential merits of said film. It’s about celebrating the unloved children of pop culture, the weird bastard offspring that clutter late night TV schedules and the £3 bins in HMV.

This latest episode sees host Wil Jones speak to Brendon Connelly, film editor of Bleeding Cool and a veritable veteran of film journalism on the internet.

Brendon’s unloved classic is the 2001 “reimagining” of Planet Of The Apes, from visionary mall goth Tim Burton.

Hosted exclusively by Hey U Guys, every episode of No Seriously Its Awesome invites a guest to pick a film that they love that either a) everyone else hates, or b) no one else has even heard of, and then discuss the potential merits of said film. It’s about celebrating the unloved children of pop culture, the weird bastard offspring that clutter late night TV schedules and the £3 bins in HMV.

The sixth episode sees Wil Jones speak to Georgie Hobbs, Film PR extraordinaire, occasional journalist and Wil’s direct line manager at work.

Georgie film of choice is Young Sherlock Holmes – a film that lives on a pub trivia question for being the first narrative feature to ever feature CGI effects. Despite coming from the minds of Steven Spielberg, Chris Columbus and Barry Levison, it bombed on its initial release, and it now mostly just filler on the Film4 Saturday afternoon schedule.

Is Nancy Meyers the Werner Herzog of romantic comedies? Is Jack Black funny at all? Is Jude Law a robot? Some or more of the answers to these can be found in the latest episode of No, Seriously It’s Awesome.

Hosted exclusively by Hey U Guys, every episode of No Seriously, It’S Awesome sees host Wil Jones invite a guest to pick a film that they love that either a) everyone else hates, or b) no one else has even heard of, and then discuss the potential merits of said film. It’s about celebrating the unloved children of pop culture, the weird bastard offspring that clutter late night TV schedules and the £3 bins in HMV.

The super-exciting guests on this week’s episode are Sam Clements and Simon Renshaw, the lovely hosts of the Picturehouse Podcast, a podcast that transcends it’s corporate promotional origins to be a genuinely funny,...

If you are looking for the sound of two people talking for you to listen to with your ears, then you’re in luck – the fourth of No Seriously Its Awesome is now available.

Hosted exclusively by Hey U Guys, every episode of No Seriously Its Awesome invites a guest to pick a film that they love that either a) everyone else hates, or b) no one else has even heard of, and then discuss the potential merits of said film. It’s about celebrating the unloved children of pop culture, the weird bastard offspring that clutter late night TV schedules and the £3 bins in HMV.

The fourth episode sees Wil Jones speak to Neil Alcock, Empire Magazine contributor and curator of popular movie film blog The Incredible Suit. As well as spewing excellent Lol-stuffed movie criticism and opinion onto the internet, he’s also the creator of the exciting James Bond blogging project BlogalongaBond.

The third episode of No Seriously Its Awesome, the Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain of the podcast world, is now let loose on the internet.

Hosted exclusively by Hey U Guys, every episode of No Seriously Its Awesome invites a guest to pick a film that they love that either a) everyone else hates, or b) no one else has even heard of, and then discuss the potential merits of said film. It’s about celebrating the unloved children of pop culture, the weird bastard offspring that clutter late night TV schedules and the £3 bins in HMV.

Our third episode sees Wil Jones speak to Chris Laverty, editor of the sublime blog Clothes On Film. As the sharper of you may gather, it’s a blog dedicated to film costumes, and has gotten love from such esteemed places as Grazia, Cosmopolitan, The Guardian and BBC 6 Music, and Chris himself has acted as costume...

Production designer behind the deadly gadgets used by James Bond – and his foes

The production designer Syd Cain, who has died aged 93, was one of many behind-the-scenes professionals elevated to something like prominence by the worldwide interest in the James Bond films. An industry veteran who began work in British cinema as a draughtsman in 1947, contributing to the look of the gothic melodrama Uncle Silas, Cain is credited on a range of film and television projects, but remains best known for his work in various design capacities on the 007 series, from Dr No in 1962 to GoldenEye in 1995.

Born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, Cain served in the armed forces in the second world war, surviving a plane crash and recovering from a broken back. Working at Denham Studios in Buckinghamshire in the 1940s and 50s, he moved up from uncredited draughtsman (on Adam and Evelyne, The Interrupted Journey, You Know What Sailors Are...

Below you will find a list of movie that Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright has never seen. Not long ago Wright went out and asked his friends and fans to recommend some movies they thought he may have missed over the last thirty years of his life. He got recommendations from Quentin Tarantino, Daniel Waters, Bill Hader, John Landis, Guillermo Del Toro, Joe Dante, Judd Apatow, Joss Whedon, Greg Mottola, Schwartzman, Doug Benson, Rian Johnson, Larry Karaszeski, Josh Olson, Harry Knowles and hundreds of fans on this blog.

From these recommendations, Wright created a master list of recommended films that were frequently mentioned. The director now wants the fans to choose which of the films on the list he should watch on the big screen.

Wright is holding a film event at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles called Films Edgar Has Never Seen.

Edgar Wright's latest epic project [1] has him partnering with Quentin Tarantino, Judd Apatow, Joss Whedon, Bill Hader, Guillermo Del Toro, Joe Dante, Greg Mottola, Harry Knowles, Rian Johnson and, probably, several of you. Like all of us, Wright has a bunch of classic and cult films he's never seen. Unlike all of us, he has the means to see them for the first time on the big screen and will do just that in December [2] at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles during Films Edgar Has Never Seen. The director of Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World asked both his famous friends (some of which are listed above) and fans to send in their personal must see lists and, from those titles, Wright came up with one mega list from which he'll pick a few movies to watch December 9-16. After the jump check...

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,...

Producer Elliott Kastner has died at age 80. Known for his humorous personality and penchant for off-color jokes, Kastner was a larger-than-life character. Although born in America, he made England his home through much of his career and maintained an office at Pinewood Studios until the end of his life. Kastner moved from the music industry into film production with his first credit as producer on the 1965 film Bus Riley's Back in Town. He was one of the first producers to secure independent financing for his films, then sell the distribution rights to major studios. Kastner had many high profile films to his credit including Harper with Paul Newman, The Missouri Breaks and The Nightcomers- both with Marlon Brando, and perhaps most notably the 1969 MGM WWII film Where Eagles Dare...

Those Brits who subscribe to Cinema Retro can stop gloating over already having the latest issue of the magazine. We can now report that issue #14 arrived in the USA and was shipped immediately to all subscribers in North America. For those of you who have still not taken the plunge and subscribed, try resisting this:

Our 8 Page Film In Focus: Director Jack Cardiff'S Cult Hit Girl On A Motorcycle Starring Alain Delon And Marianne Faithfull - The Full Behind-the-scenes Story With Dozens Of Rare, Sexy Photosexclusive Interview: Oscar Nominee James Caan Recalls His Early Days In The Film Industry As Well As Making El Dorado With John Wayne, Robert Mitchum And Howard Hawks.Exclusive Interview: Oscar Winner Ernest Borgnine Recalls Making The Wild Bunch, Willard And The Poseidon Adventureexclusive Interview: Karen Black On Working With Alfred Hitchcock On Family Plotexclusive Interview: Screenwriter Gerry Wilson On The Making Of The...