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We’ve always loved setting trends at The Film Stage and are accordingly chuffed that, nine months after we screened a 35mm print at the Roxy, Roman Polanski’s late-career triumph The Ghost Writer comes to the Criterion Channel in next month’s Coastal Thrillers, a series that does what it says on the tin: The Lady from Shanghai, Key Largo, The Long Goodbye, The Fog, and the other best film of 2010, Scorsese’s Shutter Island. It pairs well with Noir and the Blacklist featuring films by Joseph Losey, Fritz Lang, Jules Dassin, and so on. Retrospectives are held for Terry Southern, Kathryn Bigelow, Jem Cohen, and (just in time for Caught By the Tides) Jia Zhangke, while Spike Lee gets his own Adventures In Moviegoing.

For recent restorations, Antonioni’s Il Grido and Anthony Harvey’s Dutchman appear. Criterion Editions include The Runner, Touchez pas au grisbi, Godzilla vs.

It’s hard to believe now but before taking 12 long years to follow 1987’s Full Metal Jacket with Eyes Wide Shut in 1999, the famously meticulous Stanley Kubrick was comparatively prolific — in the ’60s alone he released four of his 13 features. In these days of instant gratification, a director taking longer than three years is either deemed to be M.I.A. or about to pop up with a secret film made entirely under the radar. But absence does make the heart grow fonder, and these five directors can expect a warm welcome in 2025.

Kathryn Bigelow

Back with: Untitled. Last film Detroit (2017) Kathryn Bigelow directing ‘Zero Dark Thirty’

Kathryn Bigelow made history in 2010 when she became the first woman ever to win the Oscar for Best Director (she won Best Picture too), but the California...

February is a time for lovers. Romance, as well as the hope to find it are abound and what better place to seek it out than at your local repertory cinema. Sure, a dark theater full of strangers may seem like an odd space for finding a potential suitor, but who knows what can happen at the concession stand or under the marquee? One thing’s for sure: There’s nothing quite like the allure of the big screen.

This month’s offerings across New York and Los Angeles feature a whole host of fare designed to fill audience’s hearts, not just in the sense of discovering love, but also reaching to the soul. Starting January 31 and running through March 5, Film at Lincoln Center will be hosting a career retrospective titled “Frederick Wiseman: An American Institution” that is sure to envelop newcomers to the documentarian’s hypnotic work, as well as longtime fans.

The career trajectory of character actor extraordinaire Willem Dafoe is one of the more unusual among contemporary Hollywood stars. From his early days of being routinely cast as a heavy, Dafoe worked his way through the system thanks to the sheer force of his talent, finally being cast as leads, often portraying in detail such real-life figures as actor Max Schreck, artist Vincent Van Gogh and even Jesus Christ.

Among Dafoe’s early bad guy roles were as biker gang leaders in both Kathryn Bigelow‘s “The Loveless” and Walter Hill‘s “Streets of Fire.” But his performance as kindly Sgt. Elias in Oliver Stone‘s “Platoon” changed all that, resulting in his first Academy Award nomination. Three more Oscar nominations followed, and Dafoe has also earned three Golden Globe nominations and four noms from the Screen Actors Guild.

In 2024, he brought three more great performances to life with “Kinds of Kindness,...

Idris Elba is set to appear in an upcoming Netflix movie. While much of the film is being kept under wraps, some of the cast and crew have already been announced. In fact, fans of the Yellowstone franchise might recognize one of his co-stars in the project.

Many Of Elba’s Co-Stars Have Been Announced

Actress Aminah Nieves will join Idris Elba for the upcoming film. Nieves is known for her breakout role as Teonna Rainwater in the Yellowstone prequel series, 1923. In 1923, Nieves plays a young woman of the Crow people who is put into a government-funded, Indian residential girls’ school.

At this time, not much is known about Nieves’ role in the story. However, Nieves will get to work with a lot of prominent talent both behind and in front of the cameras.

Aminah Nieves – YouTube

Elba himself has had quite a prolific career. He first arguably came to...

Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark rejected romanticized vampire fiction, portraying vampires as vicious parasites. The movie depicted vampires in a pathetic yet human light, offering a unique take on the genre. Despite its undeniable quality, Near Dark was destined to fail due to its challenging nature.

These days, Kathryn Bigelow is best known for her hard-hitting and realistic movies inspired by true events. She garnered this reputation after her highly acclaimed war drama The Hurt Locker won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture in 2010. Since then, the director thrived in this gritty niche, as seen in her War on Terror follow-up Zero Dark Thirty and her grim period film Detroit. To no one's surprise, her next movie will be a political thriller set in the White House during a missile attack. The movie is currently untitled, and will be produced by and released on Netflix in the near future.

Deadpool & Wolverine‘s biggest surprise cameo was Wesley Snipes’ vampire-hunter character Blade. Fans never expected Snipes to return to his role after how messy things turned out after Blade: Trinity. During his appearance at San Diego Comic-Con, Snipes explained how his role in the film happened and, most importantly, his biggest challenge in reprising the role.

Ryan Reynolds starred alongside Wesley Snipes in Blade: Trinity | New Line Cinema

The Demolition Man actor revealed that he was in no shape to play the action hero when the call came from Ryan Reynolds. He is older than any other superhero actor who appeared in the film as he turns 62 this July 31st. Critics often point out how Snipes’ Blade trilogy saved the entire Marvel universe from going bankrupt.

Wesley Snipes Opens Up About His Biggest Challenge In Reprising The Blade Role Wesley Snipes in the Blade trilogy | New Line Cinema

After keeping...

Kevin Feige has answered a long-standing question about Marvels original X-Men movie, sharing the reason why fans did not get to see the characters in their iconic comic-accurate costumes. While the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine movie is about to right a wrong by giving Hugh Jackmans Wolverine his yellow and blue suit for the first time in a live-action project, it seems that his first appearance in black leather was all down to a popular Keanu Reeves movie released just before X-Mens debut in 2000.

While speaking at a special event ahead of Deadpool & Wolverines premiere, Feige addressed the reason for the redesign of the X-Mens costumes. According to the Marvel Studios boss, someone at the time decided that the huge reaction to The Matrix in 1999 was enough to warrant trying to emulate the look of that sci-fi blockbusters central characters. As per ComicBook.coms Brandon Davis, Feige explained:

"There...

From vampire noir to Bin Laden, Point Break to Detroit, the first woman to win an Oscar for best director has never pulled her punches

Watching new Jeff Nichols release The Bikeriders, starring Austin Butler and Tom Hardy as 60s Chicago greasers, I was reminded of two other movies: László Benedek’s 1953 Marlon Brando vehicle The Wild One, explicitly cited as an inspiration, and The Loveless, the 1981 feature debut of Kathryn Bigelow, the American film-maker (b.1951) who would go on to become the first woman to win a best director Oscar with her 2008 war drama The Hurt Locker.

A symphony of leather-clad posing (with just a touch of Kenneth Anger), The Loveless was a staple of the late-night circuit in the 80s, often on a double bill with David Lynch’s Eraserhead. Sharing directing credits with Monty Montgomery, Bigelow playfully deconstructed masculinity and machismo in a manner that was one...

The biker movie genre has produced a number of memorable films that explore themes of rebellion, camaraderie, and the struggle for identity. Films like The Wild One, Easy Rider, and The Loveless have all had a major impact on the niche genre. The Bikeriders has taken great influence from several of the following films and pairs nicely with each of them in a double feature.

There are several other movies like The Bikeriders, in terms of tone, themes, and key characters. Directed by Jeff Nichols, the drama-crime film delves into the rugged world of a 1960s Chicago biker gang. Adapted from Danny Lyon's photographic book, The Bikeriders intricately weaves fictional narratives with real-life inspirations drawn from Lyon's interviews. The story centers on Kathy (Jodie Comer), who becomes deeply enmeshed with the Vandals motorcycle club after falling for Benny (Austin Butler), a charismatic member whose genuine nature stands out...

Kathryn Bigelow is directing a new untitled Netflix movie set at the White House amidst a national crisis. The director hasn't released a film since Detroit in 2017, further growing the hype surrounding her next project. Bigelow previously worked on a movie called Aurora for Netflix, but it was canceled.

Netflix is producing a film that will be directed by the award-winning filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow, and aside from the movie's premise and impressive cast, I'm most excited by the fact that Bigelow is involved. Unfortunately, the upcoming film does not have a title (that we know of) as of the writing of this article since it is in its early development stages. However, Netflix has released some information regarding its premise and who is set to star in Bigelow's next movie.

Kathryn Bigelow won Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars in 2009 for The Hurt Locker, making her the first...

Willem Dafoe has a face made for film. When the sixty-something actor appears on screen, his prominent cheekbones, wide eyes, and toothy grin are difficult to take your gaze off. Combined with his slender frame and his raspy, gravely, deep voice, the actor’s portrayal of Jesus Christ allegedly prompted Sergio Leone to opine “This is not the face of our Lord, this is the face of Satan!”

Dafoe hasn’t played Satan at all over the course of his career, but he’s certainly played his share of villains, bringing his signature menace to dozens of cinematic crooks and psychopaths. After his first lead role, in Kathryn Bigelow’s 1982 biker drama “The Loveless,” his early parts were largely antagonists to the lead heroes, such as the alluring but frightening criminals in “Streets of Fire” and “To Live and Die in L.A.” The part that arguably brought him the most widespread,...

Ridley Scott‘s wildly ambitious “Napoleon” might be the director’s last word on its subject, but it’s not the first time he tackled both the glory and the absurdity of the Napoleonic era. One could say that “Napoleon” has been 46 years in the making, since Scott first began thinking about and researching the French emperor during the making of his debut feature, “The Duellists,” in 1977. That film tells the story of two officers (Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel) in Napoleon’s army who engage in an obsessive ritual of duels that goes on for so long that they ultimately forget what even started the grievance; in its setting, visual style, and themes, it’s an exceptionally well-realized template for most of the Ridley Scott epics that would follow — and he shot this historical extravaganza on a budget of around $800,000.

By the time Scott made “The Duellists,” he had...

London film festival Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy are magnetic in this power struggle-cum-love triangle inspired by Danny Lyon’s 1968 photographic study of Chicago bikers

Jeff Nichols’s motorcycle movie is about a love triangle and a succession crisis – inspired by the immersive 1968 study of Chicago bikers by photojournalist Danny Lyon, whose black-and-white pictures flash up with the closing credits. This film opens up the storytelling throttle with a throaty growl, delivering the doomy romance of an old-fashioned western and the thrills of a mob drama.

The Bikeriders is set in a world in which the increasingly careworn gang leader competes for the affection of his toughest follower with this man’s girlfriend, while at the same time grooming him as his heir. Yet this is a group where the biker king – whatever his plans for a dauphin – can be challenged for the crown by any subordinate according...

The "Amazing Spider-Man" movies aren't as widely celebrated as the Sam Raimi trilogy, or as popular as the MCU Spidey flicks. But for me, there was a heart to "The Amazing Spider-Man" and its 2014 sequel that made Andrew Garfield's two outings as the wall-crawler just as good as any other Spider-Man movie. Unfortunately, I am very much in the minority on this highly important topic. Sure, they have their fans, but people in general just didn't seem to resonate with the Garfield films and their tragic history. Which is fine, especially since we got to see Garfield's Peter Parker return to rapturous applause in 2021's "Spider-Man: No Way Home."

Alongside him were a couple of villains from the "Amazing Spider-Man"-verse, including the Rhys Ifans' Lizard, who basically manifested as CGI mixed with some reused footage from the original movie. More importantly, though, Jamie Foxx was given another go...

Inside is a psychological thriller directed by Vasilis Kastoupis and starring Willem Dafoe.

Willem Dafoe gets down to business and tells himself what Tom Hanks said to himself years ago: I’ll do this one myself. An interpretative tour de force, indeed… you have to take it ever so calmly and with an even greater degree of reflective spirit.

Plot

An art thief gets locked in a house in the middle of a crime. A hellish heat, with the water turned off and only the images on the TV for company.

Plot

An art thief gets locked in a house in the middle of a crime. A hellish heat, with the water turned off and only the images on the TV for company.

Film Review Inside (2023)

A film that, due to its plot, aims to be Kafkaesque but ends up being… boring (although some critics have said that “it is...

In a British cinema scene increasingly dominated by multiplexes, Islington’s Screen on the Green remains something of a landmark. It may no longer be the independent it once was — having been bought 14 years ago by the boutique Everyman chain — but the North London stalwart still stands out, its quirky half-moon facade, red neon signage and pun-heavy marquee beckoning audiences into its single, intimate auditorium.

The programming these days mixes artsy discernment with commercial necessity: this week’s bill, for example, balances “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness,” with an offbeat short film screening and album launch on the weekend. That balance of inclusivity and eccentricity has kept it a go-to venue for London film lovers, and is very much the legacy of its former owner, British exhibition and distribution legend Romaine Hart, who passed away last December at the age of 88.

In...

Roadside Attractions’ faith-based family comedy Family Camp opened to 1.42 million and is no. 9 of the top 10 ten this weekend on 854 screens. One of the strongest specialty openings this year, the film saw a release campaign led by Wta Media lean heavily into the faith-based audience with strong grassroots marketing to churches and ministry organizations, an active digital and social presence and partnerships with the K-love and Air1 faith-based radio networks.

Star Tommy Woodard and Eddie James (The Skit Guys) have promoted the film at their live events for the past six months.

Top performing markets were centered in the Midwest and South and include LA/Orange County, Dallas-Ft. Worth, San Antonio, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Nashville, and Sacramento for the story of two polar-opposite families that find themselves reluctantly sharing a cabin for a week away at church camp. With a highly coveted camp trophy at stake, dads Tommy and Eddie...

Mariah Carey may be a household name when it comes to Christmas music or '90s and 2000s pop and R&b hits, but anyone attempting Mariah Carey Heardle knows her catalogue is far more extensive. This daily game is one of the latest musical spinoffs of the popular Wordle, and the latest in a growing collection of artist-specific Heardle games. Each day, players have six attempts to identify the day's Carey song from brief bursts of the start of the song.

With more than 200 unique or remixed songs over Carey's career so far, you might struggle to guess the correct song in such a short clip. To keep the game from being a "Heartbreaker," we've assembled the first lyrics of every Mariah Carey song from her studio albums. Good luck, Lambs, and keep that streak alive!

Songs From Mariah Carey's "Mariah Carey" "Vision of Love" (first lyrics: "Treated me...

Stars: Bishop Stevens, Bai Ling, Michael Wainwright, Scott Engrotti, Raj Kala, Michael Pare, Vincent Rivera, Chanel Ryan, Charles Chudabala, Thomas Haley | Written by Rod Smith | Directed by Massimiliano Cerchi

Lockdown, not to be confused with the Kevin Nash film Lockdown and so many others, has finally been released. Why do I say finally? Because production wrapped on it back in 2017. When a film that has marketable names in the cast sits on the shelf that long it’s usually a sign that it’s really awful or so artsy nobody knows what to do with it. And this ain’t no art film.

In a Los Angeles precinct Captain Davis is interrogating Cherry a hooker turned armed robber. Elsewhere one of the cops makes the mistake of trying to pick up some cash he sees on the floor only to end up dead and relieved of his cell keys, gun,...

Friendship, mountains, growing up, and our changed rapport with the planet in the wake of the pandemic are the main elements in Cannes competition title “The Eight Mountains” by Belgian directors Felix van Groeningen (“Beautiful Boy”) and Charlotte Vandermeersch. (Watch the trailer above.)

The film is based on an Italian novel of the same title by Paolo Cognetti. It has won multiple awards in Italy and France and is also the author’s first book published in the U.S.

“The Eight Mountains” is a coming-of-age tale set over three decades about two young Italian boys — one, named Pietro, who is the son of a chemist, the other, Bruno, of a stonemason — who spend their childhoods together in a secluded Alpine village roaming the surrounding peaks and valleys before their paths diverge. Many years later, they reconnect in the same place.

The film marks the first foray into Italian-language filmmaking for Van Groeningen who,...

Martha De Laurentiis, a producer with more than forty years of experience in the entertainment industry and wife of the late Dino De Laurentiis, died on Saturday following a long battle with cancer. She was 67.

News of De Laurentiis’ death was shared on Instagram by television writer and producer Bryan Fuller. Fuller developed and executive produced the NBC series “Hannibal,” an adaptation of Thomas Harris’ novels which featured Mads Mikkelsen as Dr. Hannibal Lecter. De Laurentiis was an executive producer on the series.

“What an amazing lady. Martha De Laurentiis left us yesterday peacefully with her family at her side,” Fuller wrote. “Long live Martha and her brilliant legacy.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bryan Fuller (@bryanfullergram)

Martha De Laurentiis was born on July 10, 1954. She formed the Dino De Laurentiis Company in 1980 with her partner and eventual husband, Dino. The two wed in 1990 and remained married...

Wake up, Neo.

It’s December 2021 and to celebrate HBO Max is bringing back a classic sci-fi franchise for one last ride. The list of new releases on HBO Max this month is highlighted by The Matrix Resurrections on Dec. 22. This is the long-awaited return to the reality-bending saga from The Wachowskis. Writer/director Lana Wachowski returns as do stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss as Neo and Trinity, respectively. This time around it’s 20 years after The Matrix Revolutions and “Neo lives a seemingly ordinary life as Thomas A. Anderson in San Francisco where his therapist prescribes him blue pills. Neither he nor Trinity recognize each other. However, Morpheus offers him the red pill and reopens his mind to the world of the Matrix.”

While The Matrix Resurrections is the big draw this time around, HBO Max has some other intriguing originals to speak of. The David Thewlis and...

The great Willem Dafoe was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1955. Since his first uncredited appearance in Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate” – in which Dafoe, enjoying his first real Hollywood gig before going on to star in Kathryn Bigelow’s arty biker tone poem “The Loveless,” would go on to be fired for lying about speaking Dutch – the Oscar-nominated actor has featured in over a hundred films, all of which are automatically more interesting because he is in them.

Continue reading Willem Dafoe: The Essential Films & Performances at The Playlist.

As the coronavirus pandemic still rages on, precious few remain skeptical about going to the movies. But while your AMCs and others claim some godlike safety from Covid, there remains a chunk of people still uncomfortable hitting up theaters. To them, we bring you the September 2020 Criterion Channel lineup.

It starts off with quite the swath of content too. Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó hits the service on September 1, and its seven-plus hours should take up a large chunk of your day. Coming soon after is a collection of more than a dozen Joan Blondell starrers from the pre-Code era, including Howard Hawks’ The Crowd Roars, three collaborations with Mervyn LeRoy, and Ray Enright & Busby Berkeley’s Dames.

For some stuff released almost a century later, the service also sees the addition of documentary bender Robert Greene. His Actress, Kate Plays Christine, and Bisbee ’17 join soon after. Janicza Bravo, director of Lemon,...

A four-time Academy Award nominee, Willem Dafoe developed his cinematic charisma — seen in films like “The Florida Project” and “At Eternity’s Gate” — in his early career in theater. After studying drama at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Dafoe moved to New York in 1976 and joined what would eventually become The Wooster Group. His involvement in the experimental troupe led him to film and his first mention in Variety on Aug. 25, 1981, for his performance in “Breakdown” (now called “The Loveless”). Dafoe continued with the group for 27 years, building an impressive filmography along the way that includes “To Live and Die in L.A.” (1985); “Platoon” (1986), for which he earned his first Oscar nomination; and “Shadow of the Vampire” (2000).

The busy actor, now 64, is starring in “The Lighthouse” with Robert Pattinson, “Motherless Brooklyn” with Edward Norton and Disney’s “Togo.”

How does it feel to look back at “Breakdown”?

My identity [until that role] was theater, so “Breakdown...

Willem Dafoe in The Loveless will be available on Blu-ray July 9th From Arrow Video

“They Re Going Nowhere… Fast!”

The United States, late 1950s. A time of generational conflict, of immense social change, of bold fashions and toe-tapping music just some of the elements that collide in thrilling fashion in The Loveless, the feature debut of both its star, Willem Dafoe (To Live and Die in La), and its directors, Monty Montgomery and future Academy Award®-winner* Kathryn Bigelow.

A motorcycle gang roars into a small southern town en route to the Daytona races, unnerving and angering the locals with their standoffish attitude and disrespect for social niceties. When one of their number, the charismatic Vance (Dafoe), hooks up with sportscar-driving Telena, he incurs the wrath of the girl s father, setting the gang on a collision course with the rest of the town as simmering tensions boil over into violent retribution.

With its expressive crags, Willem Dafoe’s face has been unmistakable since the days of “Platoon” and “The Last Temptation of Christ.” However, with more recent supporting roles in multiple “Spider-Man” movies and “Aquaman,” he’s noticed a different response when people spot him in public.

“I’ll run into people sometimes who say, ‘You don’t make movies anymore?’” he said over breakfast in the West Village. “It’s embarrassing. They look at you like, ‘Poor guy! You really had something going and it’s not happening for you anymore.’”

In truth, movies happen for Dafoe faster than ever. This former experimental theater performer almost never stops working, garnering four Oscar nominations. But he tackles so many varied projects — ranging from superhero universes to microbudget biopics like Abel Ferrara’s “Pasolini” — that it’s often hard to see the big picture. With a tireless work ethic and near-unmatched pliability,...

Willem Dafoe is one hell of a talented actor that has starred in some pretty awesome movies. He’s also played some extremely interesting characters in those movies!

While promoting his upcoming film At Eternity’s Gate, Dafoe sat down with GQ for an interview where he talked about playing Vincent Van Gogh. During that interview he also broke down an amazing list of the iconic roles he’s played over the years.

Willem Dafoe down his most iconic characters, including his roles in ‘The Loveless,’ ‘To Live and Die in L.A.,’ ‘Platoon,’ ‘The Last Temptation of Christ,’ ‘Mississippi Burning,’ ‘Wild at Heart,’ ‘The Boondock Saints,’ ‘Spider-Man,’ ‘The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,’ ‘Mr. Bean’s Holiday,’ ‘Antichrist,’ ‘The Florida Project’ and ‘At Eternity’s Gate.’

What would you say your favorite Willem Dafoe movie is?...

The life of legendary Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh has resulted in a couple of pretty good films, including Vincente Minnelli‘s “Lust for Life” (1956) with Kirk Douglas as well as Robert Altman‘s 1990 biopic with Tim Roth as Van Gogh. Willem Dafoe takes a slightly different tack to van Gogh in painter Julian Schnabel‘s latest film “At Eternity’s Gate,” which is opening this weekend. Dafoe’s take on the artist is complex, as the film is set in the final years of van Gogh’s life in which he creates masterpieces while being hospitalized and finally winding up in an asylum. Oh, and there’s that business about an ear.

Early on in his film career, Dafoe was typed into playing a bad guy, such as his biker gang leaders in Kathryn Bigelow‘s “The Loveless” and Walter Hill‘s “Streets of Fire.” But his performance as kindly Sgt.

As the specialized world begins to move past a rich diet of awards contenders — still providing the bulk of the gross — films from established directors opened in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, led by British auteur Sally Potter’s “The Party” (Roadside Attractions). Mark Pellington’s “Nostalgia” (Bleecker Street), with a similar strong ensemble cast, succumbed to weak reviews.

Russian foreign-language Oscar nominee “The Loveless” (Sony Pictures Classics) opened well for a subtitled release in two cities. While Francois Ozon’s sexy “Double Love” (Cohen Media) got off to a big-city national start during the week, the result is at the low end of the French director’s films.

With all the hype on the stronger-than-average results among this year’s Oscar nominees, comic book movie “Black Panther” in its first three days totaled more than the grosses for the entire runs of even top Best Picture nominees “Dunkirk” and “Get Out.

The Berlin International Film Festival will present Willem Dafoe with an Honorary Golden Bear in recognition of the actor’s life work, the festival announced Tuesday. Following the presentation on Feb. 20, the festival will screen Daniel Nettheim’s 2001 film “The Hunter” starring the actor. Dafoe has over 100 film credits to his name, including “The Loveless,” “Roadhouse 66,” “To Live and Die in L.A.,” “Platoon,” “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “Cry-Baby,” “Mississippi Burning,” “American Psycho,” “Spider-Man,” “Finding Nemo,” “The Aviator,” “Inside Man,” “Mr. Bean’s Holiday,” “The Fault in Our Stars,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “John Wick” and most recently “Murder on...

It’s the rare director who can make consistently compelling films over the course of three decades, but every one of Kathryn Bigelow’s movies is worth watching. (Well, all the ones she directed solo, at least.) This week brings the release of her latest Oscar contender, the riveting historical drama “Detroit.” If you’re hoping to catch up on her impressively varied career, here’s how to prioritize. 10. “The Loveless” (1982) Well, everyone has to start somewhere. And we see what Bigelow and her co-director, Monty Montgomery, were aiming for with this uneven drama: an updated version of “The Wild One,...

Ana Lily Amirpour’s feature debut is a bloody triumph…

Iranian-American writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour describes her weirdly exhilarating feature debut, which premiered at Sundance last year, as the Iranian love-child of Sergio Leone and David Lynch, with Nosferatu as a babysitter. It is set in the fictional Iranian ghost town of Bad City (the name nods toward Frank Miller’s Sin City) and plays out like the missing link between Kathryn Bigelow’s first two features; the ultra-cool biker pastiche The Loveless and the latterday vampire flick Near Dark. It is steeped in the pop iconography of the past, yet its crystalline anamorphic black-and-white photography has an unmistakably contemporary edge. Cinematically, it exists in a twilight zone between nations (American locations, Iranian culture), between centuries (late 19th and early 21st), between languages (Persian dialogue, silent cinema gestures) and, most importantly, between genres.

Arash Marandi is “the Persian James Dean...

Ana Lily Amirpour’s feature debut is a bloody triumph…

Iranian-American writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour describes her weirdly exhilarating feature debut, which premiered at Sundance last year, as the Iranian love-child of Sergio Leone and David Lynch, with Nosferatu as a babysitter. It is set in the fictional Iranian ghost town of Bad City (the name nods toward Frank Miller’s Sin City) and plays out like the missing link between Kathryn Bigelow’s first two features; the ultra-cool biker pastiche The Loveless and the latterday vampire flick Near Dark. It is steeped in the pop iconography of the past, yet its crystalline anamorphic black-and-white photography has an unmistakably contemporary edge. Cinematically, it exists in a twilight zone between nations (American locations, Iranian culture), between centuries (late 19th and early 21st), between languages (Persian dialogue, silent cinema gestures) and, most importantly, between genres.

Arash Marandi is “the Persian James Dean...

Near Dark opens with a close-up of a mosquito siphoning blood from an arm. Like the vampires - who, notably, are never referred to as such in the film - that haunt the velvet shadows of Kathryn Bigelow's 1987 picture, the mosquito feeds on blood in order to exist, no more, no less. But another comparison presents itself.

"When we realised we were going to have a live mosquito interact with one of our actors, we had to grow that mosquito so that there were no contaminants. That was a six-month process," Bigelow tells us on the DVD commentary. The same applies to the movie's mythology. Near Dark strips away gothic elements (crucifixes, holy water, stakes through hearts) and supernatural hokum (transformations into bats, etc) to offer a spare tale of love, family and survival. It's a vampire movie, but clean and purpose-built.

Back in the mid-'80s, Bigelow wanted to make a western.

Challenging stereotypes and conventions for nearly 30 years, Kathryn Bigelow is one of the most successful female directors to date. While most female filmmakers have risen to power by directing films that appeal to women, Bigelow has broken the mould with challenging and engaging topics, and largely directing men in high-adrenalin action films, such as Point Break and Strange Days making her an exception to the rule. The American film director, producer and screenwriter, received high critical acclaim for her 2008 film The Hurt Locker, including two Oscars for Best Film and Best Director – making her the only woman to ever win this prize in the 84 years of the Academy’s history.

In honour of her latest film, the highly anticipated Zero Dark Thirty, about the decade long hunt for Osama Bin Laden, we have compiled a list of Kathryn Bigelow’s films over the years, showing what it is that makes...

As an action woman in a medium ruled by men, the Oscar-winning director has always bucked convention. But does her new film about the hunt for Bin Laden defend the use of torture?

Next month, the new Kathryn Bigelow movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden opens in British cinemas. It's called Zero Dark Thirty and it arrives in eye-catching style, trailing a great noisy convoy of criticism, praise and controversy.

When production was first announced, several Republican politicians and various rightwing groups accused the film of being a propaganda weapon for the re-election of Barack Obama; the idea was that a film about the apprehension and killing of Bin Laden would reflect well on the president.

The conservative watchdog Judicial Watch claimed that the Obama administration had unfairly and improperly given Bigelow and her writer-co-producer, Mark Boal, access to classified information. And a Republican-directed pressure group, involving former CIA officers,...

Via the internets comes news of The Big Shot Movie Club, “a club for movie fans of all kinds.” The Big Shot Movie Club is Sarah Winshall and Julia Bembenek, and they write on their website:

We will watch and discuss three movies we love every month relevant to a specific theme. The movies we watch will always be available online or at a your local video store. Hopefully, each month our loyal club members will learn about some lost gems and be reminded of their favorite classics as they watch and read and comment along with us.

Coming up on their blog are discussions of Peter Weir’s The Mosquito Coast and Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Betty Blue, but I’m also excited by some of the byways the blog has already traveled. For example, following a discussion of Kathryn Bigelow’s debut film, The Loveless (“… this world spreads out...

The Hurt Locker is easily the best of the movies which have focused on the ongoing war.

Skillfully directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Locker is both a psychological portrait and an exciting action film. It captures the complexities of the war in Iraq with visceral suspense as well as explosive battle sequences and powerful performances.

By taking a close look at a trio of courageous but also very human soldiers, it brings the conflict to life in a way that no previous movie has managed to do…read more [USA Today]

What a shame that the one movie about the Iraq war that has a chance of being viewed by a large worldwide audience should be so disappointing. According to press reports, members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finally found a movie about the Iraq war they liked because it is “apolitical.” Actually, “The Hurt Locker” is just the...

In the last of The Hollywood Reporter's annual Awards Roundtable series, THR's Elizabeth Guider and Matthew Belloni gathered six A-list directors -- Kathryn Bigelow ("The Hurt Locker"); James Cameron ("Avatar"); Lee Daniels ("Precious"); Peter Jackson ("The Lovely Bones"); Jason Reitman ("Up in the Air"); and Quentin Tarantino ("Inglourious Basterds") -- for a candid discussion of filmmaking at the highest level.

The Hollywood Reporter: Do you guys consider yourselves outsiders or insiders?

Jason Reitman: Dead silence. (Laughs.)

James Cameron: If we're all outsiders, who's on the inside?

Quentin Tarantino: Well, actually, that's a very interesting question to start off with because I did my first movie in '92, so this was the year I actually counted how long I've been in the business. Officially as a director, that's 17 years, and I think for the first 10 years I did consider myself an outsider. But if you last this long...

The 13th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Awards, presented by Starz, have announced that director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Near Dark, Strange Days) will be honored with the "Hollywood Director Award."

Kathryn Bigelow recently directed the The Hurt Locker, a film that has received great acclaim. It stars Jeremy Renner, Brian Geraghty and Anthony Mackie in a riveting portrait of three members of the Army's elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal (Eod) squad battling insurgents in Iraq. Bigelow's remarkable work has alternated between edgy and art-house fare (The Loveless, Near Dark, The Weight of Water) and action products (Point Break, Strange Days, K-19: The Widowmaker) throughout a highly regarded career spanning more than 25 years...

The ceremony will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on October 26, 2009.

The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp), the nation's oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers, announced today that director Kathryn Bigelow, actors Natalie Portman and Stanley Tucci, and producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, will each be presented with a career Tribute at the 19th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards on Monday November 30th in New York. Ifp also announced it has moved the gala awards ceremony to Monday, November 30 at Cipriani Wall Street, from the previously announced date of Tuesday, December 1st.

Signaling the official kick-off to the film awards season, the Gotham Independent Film Awards is one of the leading awards for independent film. Anchoring the evening's six competitive awards for Best Feature, Best Documentary, Breakthrough Director, Breakthrough Actor, Best Ensemble Performance and Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You, are four Tributes to film community icons.

This year's Tribute selection represents a range of individuals -...

My blogs are often created as responses to requests of clients seeking research or to my own interests. I was recently put on the board of the new website www.Twolia.com and my blog on that site will be posted here as well because it is hitting that all important demographic: Woman.

Here is the first:

I am going to blog about women in film...starting with Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" which is bound for Academy Awards.

If you want to follow this blog, also sign up for free to www.imdb.com because that's where you can find out more about the names here. If you are a film professional, you might sign up ($100/ year) to www.IMDbPro.com where you'll get even more information with contact information.

So, Kathryn Bigelow has been an actress, is a writer, director and producer. A list of films she's...

The 11th annual CineVegas Film Festival, which takes place next month in Las Vegas, will honor actors Jon Voight and Willem Dafoe, directors George and Mike Kuchar and videogame developers Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago.

The awards will be presented on June 14 at the CineVegas Awards Reception at Rain Nightclub in the Palms Casino Resort.

Voight, with credits ranging from "Midnight Cowboy" to the just-completed season of "24" and an Oscar for "Coming Home," will be given the Marquee Award, recognizing "his artistic excellence, professional accomplishment and dedication to cinema." As part of its tribute to the actor, CineVegas will present a newly remastered director's cut of Hal Ashby's "Lookin' to Get Out," in which Voight starred.

Dafoe, who stars in the controversial "Antichrist," which bowed at the Festival de Cannes, is to receive the Vanguard Actor Award, which honors "the distinctive mark he has made in film through his brave performances.

Action/Horror director Kathryn Bigelow is being given an entire weekend devoted to her films at The Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, California by the American Cinematheque June 5, 6, and 7 2009. Bigelow directed the vampire movie Near Dark and action flicks Point Break and K-19: The Widowmaker, and the sci-fi movie Strange Days. Her new action war film The Hurt Locker is premiering in Los Angeles on June 5th and she'll be in person, all weekend, for screenings of all her recent films.

Bigelow is one of the only women to ever direct big budget action movies in Hollywood and to be seen as a peer by her male counterparts like James Cameron, Michael Bay, and Ridley Scott...

Native Californian director Kathryn Bigelow began her artistic endeavors at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Whitney Museum Independent Study program, She later transferred into graduate work in filmmaking at Columbia University's School of the Arts.