At the intersection of big-star international dealmaking, the 70mm epic, and the humble sword ‘n’ shield actioner, this comic book viking saga stacks one absurd, borderline bad taste action scene on top of another. It’s an irresistible mash-up of earlier successes, well directed visually by Jack Cardiff. Richard Widmark at forty must play the Viking action hero, Russ Tamblyn at thirty is still a physical dervish, and Sidney Poitier takes on the strangest casting of his career. Plus, low sexist comedy from a platoon of hearty Brit thesps!
The Long Ships
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 137
1964 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 126 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / Available from Viavision / Aus 34.95
Starring: Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Russ Tamblyn, Rosanna Schiaffino, Oskar Homolka, Edward Judd, Lionel Jeffries, Beba Loncar, Clifford Evans, Gordon Jackson, Colin Blakely, Paul Stassino, Leonard Rossiter, Jeanne Moody, Julie Samuel.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Production Designer: Vlastimir Gavrik, Zoran Zorcic
Art Director: Bill Constable...
The Long Ships
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 137
1964 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 126 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / Available from Viavision / Aus 34.95
Starring: Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Russ Tamblyn, Rosanna Schiaffino, Oskar Homolka, Edward Judd, Lionel Jeffries, Beba Loncar, Clifford Evans, Gordon Jackson, Colin Blakely, Paul Stassino, Leonard Rossiter, Jeanne Moody, Julie Samuel.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Production Designer: Vlastimir Gavrik, Zoran Zorcic
Art Director: Bill Constable...
- 8/6/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Haven’t yet seen all the best old-school vintage naval combat epics? This color & ‘scope thriller has a terrific cast of Brit stars and up-n-comers, can boast excellent visuals and is historically accurate. Alec Guinness captains a ship during the Napoleonic Wars, and finds his duty complicated by a psychopathic top officer (Dirk Bogarde) who usurps authority and sees the crew as fresh meat for his sadistic ideas about discipline. All the tech and art credits are top-tier, plus we get nice supporting perfs from the likes of Anthony Quayle, Nigel Stock, Maurice Denham, Victor Maddern, Tom Bell, and Murray Melvin.
Damn the Defiant!
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 136
1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / H.M.S. Defiant / Available from Viavision / Australian 34.95 / and Amazon US / 34.95
Starring: Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde, Maurice Denham, Nigel Stock, Richard Carpenter, Peter Gill, David Robinson, Robin Stewart, Ray Brooks, Peter Greenspan, Anthony Quayle, Tom Bell,...
Damn the Defiant!
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 136
1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 101 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / H.M.S. Defiant / Available from Viavision / Australian 34.95 / and Amazon US / 34.95
Starring: Alec Guinness, Dirk Bogarde, Maurice Denham, Nigel Stock, Richard Carpenter, Peter Gill, David Robinson, Robin Stewart, Ray Brooks, Peter Greenspan, Anthony Quayle, Tom Bell,...
- 7/26/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The term ‘filmed opera’ in no way describes this phantasmagoria. Powell & Pressburger re-envisions the Offenbach work with dance sequences refracted through a cinematic prism. It’s high art made for the movies, without the condescenscion seen in Disney’s Fantasia. The stars are Moira Shearer and Robert Helpmann. Powell perfects techniques from Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes to fuse music, theater, dance and cinema; Martin Scorsese calls it a ‘composed film.’ This full restoration reinstates footage not seen since the first previews in 1951.
The Tales of Hoffmann
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 317
1951 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 133 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 7, 2022 / 39.95
Starring: Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann, Ludmilla Tchérina, Anne Ayars, Pamela Brown, Léonide Massine, Frederick Ashton, Mogens Wieth, Robert Rounseville;
— And the voices of: Robert Rounseville, Monica Sinclair, Bruce Dargavel, Fisher Morgan, Rene Soames, Dorothy Bond, Grahame Clifford, Murry Dickie, Margherita Grandi, Owen Brannigan, Ann Ayars, Joan Alexander...
The Tales of Hoffmann
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 317
1951 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 133 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 7, 2022 / 39.95
Starring: Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann, Ludmilla Tchérina, Anne Ayars, Pamela Brown, Léonide Massine, Frederick Ashton, Mogens Wieth, Robert Rounseville;
— And the voices of: Robert Rounseville, Monica Sinclair, Bruce Dargavel, Fisher Morgan, Rene Soames, Dorothy Bond, Grahame Clifford, Murry Dickie, Margherita Grandi, Owen Brannigan, Ann Ayars, Joan Alexander...
- 6/14/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
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“A Beautiful Mess”
By Raymond Benson
Filmmaker Stanley Donen had substantial success with his comedy-thriller, Charade (1963), which starred Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. It was hyped and critiqued as “Hitchcockian” in tone and style, especially the light-hearted and glitzy To Catch a Thief (1955). (There are many who mistakenly believe that Charade is a Hitchcock film.)
The studio then wanted to repeat that success with a similar picture, Arabesque, also with Cary Grant in the lead role with Donen directing again. However, Grant felt that the script was “terrible” and passed. Donen allegedly wasn’t too thrilled with the script, either, and he wasn’t too keen on making the picture without Grant.
Then Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren expressed interest in the movie, so Donen acquiesced. Sounds like a fairy tale scenario for the greenlighting of a Hollywood movie, right? The two Oscar-winning stars were cast,...
“A Beautiful Mess”
By Raymond Benson
Filmmaker Stanley Donen had substantial success with his comedy-thriller, Charade (1963), which starred Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. It was hyped and critiqued as “Hitchcockian” in tone and style, especially the light-hearted and glitzy To Catch a Thief (1955). (There are many who mistakenly believe that Charade is a Hitchcock film.)
The studio then wanted to repeat that success with a similar picture, Arabesque, also with Cary Grant in the lead role with Donen directing again. However, Grant felt that the script was “terrible” and passed. Donen allegedly wasn’t too thrilled with the script, either, and he wasn’t too keen on making the picture without Grant.
Then Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren expressed interest in the movie, so Donen acquiesced. Sounds like a fairy tale scenario for the greenlighting of a Hollywood movie, right? The two Oscar-winning stars were cast,...
- 8/29/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Peter Benchley’s follow-up to Jaws is a treasure hunt thriller starring Robert Shaw and filmed in the pearly waters off Bermuda. The exciting underwater scenes boosted the careers of Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset but the memory that stuck in the minds of millions was a particular wardrobe decision for Bisset’s siren of the deep. Who needs Spanish gold and a fortune in lost morphine? This import disc features a commentary by actress Illeana Douglas.
The Deep
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 28
1977 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date December 30, 2020 / Available from Viavision / 34.95
Starring: Robert Shaw, Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte, Louis Gossett, Eli Wallach, Robert Tessier.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Underwater Director: Al Giddings
Film Editor: David Berlatsky
Original Music: John Barry
Written by Tracy Keenan Wynn, Peter Benchley from his novel
Produced by Peter Guber
Directed by Peter Yates
After a couple of early 1970s shows that became enormous blockbusters —Love Story,...
The Deep
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 28
1977 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date December 30, 2020 / Available from Viavision / 34.95
Starring: Robert Shaw, Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte, Louis Gossett, Eli Wallach, Robert Tessier.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Underwater Director: Al Giddings
Film Editor: David Berlatsky
Original Music: John Barry
Written by Tracy Keenan Wynn, Peter Benchley from his novel
Produced by Peter Guber
Directed by Peter Yates
After a couple of early 1970s shows that became enormous blockbusters —Love Story,...
- 2/13/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
72 Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
By Tim McGlynn
“If you were a man, I’d divorce you!”
Myra Gardener (Sylvia Miles) insults her stage producer husband, Odell (James Mason), with this line in the 1982 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun during a spat while vacationing on a fictional Italian island in the Adriatic Sea. They are attempting to entice Broadway legend Arlena Stuart Marshall (Diana Rigg) to appear in their next musical, despite her reputation as a spoiled diva. Evil Under the Sun has recently been released on Blu-ray by the good people at Kino Lorber, who have also seen fit to issue new editions of The Mirror Crack’d and Death on the Nile.
The screenplay, by Anthony Shaffer, is loaded with witty and sometimes randy putdowns that help breathe a bit of life into this rather formulaic whodunit from director Guy Hamilton. When Arlena...
By Tim McGlynn
“If you were a man, I’d divorce you!”
Myra Gardener (Sylvia Miles) insults her stage producer husband, Odell (James Mason), with this line in the 1982 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun during a spat while vacationing on a fictional Italian island in the Adriatic Sea. They are attempting to entice Broadway legend Arlena Stuart Marshall (Diana Rigg) to appear in their next musical, despite her reputation as a spoiled diva. Evil Under the Sun has recently been released on Blu-ray by the good people at Kino Lorber, who have also seen fit to issue new editions of The Mirror Crack’d and Death on the Nile.
The screenplay, by Anthony Shaffer, is loaded with witty and sometimes randy putdowns that help breathe a bit of life into this rather formulaic whodunit from director Guy Hamilton. When Arlena...
- 2/10/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
TV’s 1979 Titanic movie comes to Blu in two versions. We liked it when new but didn’t care for the cut-down theatrical version that hit DVD in 2002. Kino’s disc completes a set of various film versions of the infamous 1912 disaster, and allows us the chance for a Titanic ‘battle of the bands’ — we’ll rate them from several criteria. The filmed-in-England production has a nicely-chosen soap opera cast: David Janssen, Cloris Leachman, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Anna Quayle, David Warner, Susan Saint James, Harry Andrews.
S.O.S. Titanic
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1979 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 102 + 144 min. / Street Date October 13, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: David Janssen, Cloris Leachman, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Anna Quayle, David Warner, Timothy Spall, Susan Saint James, Harry Andrews, Ed Bishop, Jerry Hauser, Aubrey Morris, Norman Rossington, Catherine Byrne, Warren Clarke, Madge Ryan.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Film Editor: Rusty Coppleman
Original Music: Howard Blake
Special effects: Wally Veevers,...
S.O.S. Titanic
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1979 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 102 + 144 min. / Street Date October 13, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: David Janssen, Cloris Leachman, Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Anna Quayle, David Warner, Timothy Spall, Susan Saint James, Harry Andrews, Ed Bishop, Jerry Hauser, Aubrey Morris, Norman Rossington, Catherine Byrne, Warren Clarke, Madge Ryan.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Film Editor: Rusty Coppleman
Original Music: Howard Blake
Special effects: Wally Veevers,...
- 10/6/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Classic cinematics from first-rank filmmakers. No ballet or heroism, so not a crowd pleaser, but Michael Powell’s original version of Gone to Earth is another unique Archers creation. Jennifer Jones finally gets to chew on a character role with grit, as a natural virgin/vixen misunderstood by contrasting suitors. David O. Selznick’s revision The Wild Heart is a classic too — of unnecessary meddling.
Gone to Earth / The Wild Heart
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1950 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 110, 86 min. / Street Date June 25, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jennifer Jones, David Farrar, Cyril Cusack, Sybil Thorndike, Edward Chapman, Esmond Knight, Hugh Griffith.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
From the novel by: Mary Webb
Music by Brian Easdale
Written, Produced and Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
This is one beautiful production, one that will thrill Powell & Pressburger fans eager to see all of his films. With his typical cinematic simplicity,...
Gone to Earth / The Wild Heart
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1950 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 110, 86 min. / Street Date June 25, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jennifer Jones, David Farrar, Cyril Cusack, Sybil Thorndike, Edward Chapman, Esmond Knight, Hugh Griffith.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
From the novel by: Mary Webb
Music by Brian Easdale
Written, Produced and Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
This is one beautiful production, one that will thrill Powell & Pressburger fans eager to see all of his films. With his typical cinematic simplicity,...
- 7/9/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Could this be retitled “Dial ‘F’ for Fog?” Jean Simmon’s greedy maid blackmails her employer Stewart Granger with proof that he murdered his wife, kicking off a criminal ‘deadlock’ in a London household. The cold-fish schemer Granger ponders his next murderous move while Simmons enjoys playing the lady of the house — having dared to leapfrog two social classes, she hopes that her victim will respond with kindness, not homicide. This gothic domestic murder tale should be required reading for marriage counselors.
Footsteps in the Fog
Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1955 / Color / 1:75 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date July 30, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99
Starring: Stewart Granger, Jean Simmons, Bill Travers, Belinda Lee, Ronald Squire, Finlay Currie, William Hartnell, Percy Marmont, Margery Rhodes, Barry Keegan, Victor Maddern, Erik Chitty.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Film Editor: Alan Osbiston
Original Music: Benjamin Frankel
Written by Dorothy Reid, Lenore Coffee, adapted by Arthur Pierson from a short...
Footsteps in the Fog
Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1955 / Color / 1:75 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date July 30, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99
Starring: Stewart Granger, Jean Simmons, Bill Travers, Belinda Lee, Ronald Squire, Finlay Currie, William Hartnell, Percy Marmont, Margery Rhodes, Barry Keegan, Victor Maddern, Erik Chitty.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Film Editor: Alan Osbiston
Original Music: Benjamin Frankel
Written by Dorothy Reid, Lenore Coffee, adapted by Arthur Pierson from a short...
- 7/31/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
In a sense, Arabesque (1966) is a sort of warmed-over rehash of Donen's earlier Charade (1963), which was a really nifty mock-Hitchcockian comedy thriller with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. The later film stars Gregory Peck, who's no Grant, and Sophia Loren, who isn't Hepburn but is Loren—which ain't nothing.Donen was reputedly highly unhappy with the script, despite being the movie's producer, and his cinematographer Christopher Challis records him saying that their only hope was to present the story in as stylish and eccentric a manner as possible: this, for the most part, they do. (A pretty-well identical tale is told of Sidney J. Furie and The Ipcress File, and the result is similar in each case: a pop-art expressionist fairyland London in which everyone is or might be a spy or double or treble agent.)The opening scene, in which George Coulouris is murdered at the optician with poisoned eyedrops,...
- 9/5/2017
- MUBI
Powell & Pressburger’s big-scale historical epic is perhaps the best show ever about an old-school naval encounter between battleships. The first half depicts the showdown between England and Germany in the South Atlantic, and the second half a tense diplomatic game in the neutral country of Uruguay. Peter Finch, Bernard Lee and Anthony Quayle shine as sea captains.
Panzerschiff Graf Spee (The Battle of the River Plate)
Region B Blu-ray
ITV Studios Home Entertainment (Germany)
1956 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 119, 106 117 min./ Pursuit of the Graf Spee / Street Date 2010 / Available from Amazon UK £16.90
Starring: Peter Finch, Bernard Lee, Anthony Quayle, John Gregson, Ian Hunter, Jack Gwillim, Lionel Murton, Anthony Bushell, Peter Illing, Michael Goodliffe, Patrick Macnee, Christopher Lee.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Production Design: Arthur Lawson
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
Original Music: Brian Easdale
Written, Produced & Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressberger
The best way so far to see the impressive The Battle of the River Plate...
Panzerschiff Graf Spee (The Battle of the River Plate)
Region B Blu-ray
ITV Studios Home Entertainment (Germany)
1956 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 119, 106 117 min./ Pursuit of the Graf Spee / Street Date 2010 / Available from Amazon UK £16.90
Starring: Peter Finch, Bernard Lee, Anthony Quayle, John Gregson, Ian Hunter, Jack Gwillim, Lionel Murton, Anthony Bushell, Peter Illing, Michael Goodliffe, Patrick Macnee, Christopher Lee.
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Production Design: Arthur Lawson
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
Original Music: Brian Easdale
Written, Produced & Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressberger
The best way so far to see the impressive The Battle of the River Plate...
- 7/22/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Two for the Road
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 111 min. / Street Date January 10, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Albert Finney, Eleanor Bron, William Daniels, Claude Dauphin, Nadia Gray
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Art Direction: Marc Frederic, Willy Holt
Film Editor: Madeleine Gug
Original Music: Henry Mancini
Written by Frederic Raphael
Produced and Directed by Stanley Donen
Some so-called sophisticated ‘sixties romantic dramas have dated pretty badly, as it’s not easy to create a movie acceptable to a fickle audience, that doesn’t end up with attitudes, politics or even costumes that don’t look ‘wrong’ just a few years later. I’ve found that enjoying Audrey Hepburn’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s takes a conscious act of selective blindness. The music, the style, the images were swooningly vital to an audience perhaps ten years older than this reviewer. Hepburn’s ravishing Holly Golightly misses...
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 111 min. / Street Date January 10, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Albert Finney, Eleanor Bron, William Daniels, Claude Dauphin, Nadia Gray
Cinematography: Christopher Challis
Art Direction: Marc Frederic, Willy Holt
Film Editor: Madeleine Gug
Original Music: Henry Mancini
Written by Frederic Raphael
Produced and Directed by Stanley Donen
Some so-called sophisticated ‘sixties romantic dramas have dated pretty badly, as it’s not easy to create a movie acceptable to a fickle audience, that doesn’t end up with attitudes, politics or even costumes that don’t look ‘wrong’ just a few years later. I’ve found that enjoying Audrey Hepburn’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s takes a conscious act of selective blindness. The music, the style, the images were swooningly vital to an audience perhaps ten years older than this reviewer. Hepburn’s ravishing Holly Golightly misses...
- 1/17/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Cinematography festival to present retrospective on the innovative British film-making duo, attended by Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
Camerimage (Nov 15-22) is to host a special retrospective around the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
The film festival that celebrates cinematography, held in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz, will be attended by Powell’s wife and three-time Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker as well as film scholars and Powell-Pressburger experts Erich Sargeant and Ian Christie.
Films of the due set to be screened at Camerimage include:
The Edge Of The World; 1937; cin. Monty Berman, Skeets Kelly, Ernest Palmer
One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing; 1942; cin. Ronald Neame
The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp; 1943; cin. Georges Périnal
A Canterbury Tale; 1944; cin. Erwin Hillier
‘I Know Where I’m Going!’; 1945; cin. Erwin Hillier
A Matter Of Life And Death; 1946; cin. Jack Cardiff
Black Narcissus; 1947; cin. Jack Cardiff
The Red Shoes; 1948; cin. Jack Cardiff
[link...
Camerimage (Nov 15-22) is to host a special retrospective around the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
The film festival that celebrates cinematography, held in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz, will be attended by Powell’s wife and three-time Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker as well as film scholars and Powell-Pressburger experts Erich Sargeant and Ian Christie.
Films of the due set to be screened at Camerimage include:
The Edge Of The World; 1937; cin. Monty Berman, Skeets Kelly, Ernest Palmer
One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing; 1942; cin. Ronald Neame
The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp; 1943; cin. Georges Périnal
A Canterbury Tale; 1944; cin. Erwin Hillier
‘I Know Where I’m Going!’; 1945; cin. Erwin Hillier
A Matter Of Life And Death; 1946; cin. Jack Cardiff
Black Narcissus; 1947; cin. Jack Cardiff
The Red Shoes; 1948; cin. Jack Cardiff
[link...
- 10/3/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
My father, John Harris, who has died aged 87, had a 53-year career in films, working on movies such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), The Man With the Golden Gun (1974), Superman (1978) and The Running Man (1987).
He was born in Wimbledon, south-west London, the second son of a solicitor, and educated at King's College school, Wimbledon. From an early age he was fascinated by cameras and he asked for a Zeiss Ikon for his 14th birthday. In 1941, he started work in the camera department at Gainsborough Pictures at "the Bush", their studio in Lime Grove, west London, as a clapper boy and focus puller.
He served in the navy during the second world war, and was an official naval photographer at the Japanese surrender in Hong Kong in 1945. He became a freelance camera operator in 1949 when "the Bush" studio was taken over by the BBC and Gainsborough closed soon afterwards.
Early in his career,...
He was born in Wimbledon, south-west London, the second son of a solicitor, and educated at King's College school, Wimbledon. From an early age he was fascinated by cameras and he asked for a Zeiss Ikon for his 14th birthday. In 1941, he started work in the camera department at Gainsborough Pictures at "the Bush", their studio in Lime Grove, west London, as a clapper boy and focus puller.
He served in the navy during the second world war, and was an official naval photographer at the Japanese surrender in Hong Kong in 1945. He became a freelance camera operator in 1949 when "the Bush" studio was taken over by the BBC and Gainsborough closed soon afterwards.
Early in his career,...
- 8/2/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
Creative cinematographer and a key member of the Powell-Pressburger movie production team
Although the cinematographer Christopher Challis, who has died aged 93, was an essential member of the Archers production company of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, he joined them as director of photography at the time of their decline. However, he worked on more of the great British writing-directing team's films than any other cinematographer. These eccentric, extravagant, intelligent and witty fantasies went against the British realist tradition, allowing more scope for a creative cinematographer such as Challis. The sensuous use of Technicolor and flamboyant sets and designs made them closer to the MGM world of Vincente Minnelli and of Stanley Donen, who used Challis on six of his films.
Perhaps Challis's finest achievement was on Powell and Pressburger's The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) which, as he explained, had "no optical effects or tricks. It was all edited in...
Although the cinematographer Christopher Challis, who has died aged 93, was an essential member of the Archers production company of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, he joined them as director of photography at the time of their decline. However, he worked on more of the great British writing-directing team's films than any other cinematographer. These eccentric, extravagant, intelligent and witty fantasies went against the British realist tradition, allowing more scope for a creative cinematographer such as Challis. The sensuous use of Technicolor and flamboyant sets and designs made them closer to the MGM world of Vincente Minnelli and of Stanley Donen, who used Challis on six of his films.
Perhaps Challis's finest achievement was on Powell and Pressburger's The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) which, as he explained, had "no optical effects or tricks. It was all edited in...
- 6/10/2012
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
We're picking out your finest responses to our My favourite film series, for which Guardian writers have selected the movies they go back to time and again.
Here's a roundup of how you responded in week three, when the selections were American Splendor, The Red Shoes, The Princess Bride, Rio Bravo and Hoop Dreams
Who was Harvey Pekar? He was a grouch, a slouch, a miserablist. He griped and bitched about everything. But he did it in style. And he did it publicly, through American Splendor – a series of autobiographical comic books and the subsequent movie adaptation, which Amy Fleming chose to open the third week of our My favourite film series.
"Harvey didn't do happy," wrote Amy. "But he did funny and truth, and so does this movie – beautifully." Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman's film was a cinematic holiday from Hollywood's gloss and fantasy, she said. Trudging around,...
Here's a roundup of how you responded in week three, when the selections were American Splendor, The Red Shoes, The Princess Bride, Rio Bravo and Hoop Dreams
Who was Harvey Pekar? He was a grouch, a slouch, a miserablist. He griped and bitched about everything. But he did it in style. And he did it publicly, through American Splendor – a series of autobiographical comic books and the subsequent movie adaptation, which Amy Fleming chose to open the third week of our My favourite film series.
"Harvey didn't do happy," wrote Amy. "But he did funny and truth, and so does this movie – beautifully." Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman's film was a cinematic holiday from Hollywood's gloss and fantasy, she said. Trudging around,...
- 11/14/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
A Dandy in Aspic (1968) is Anthony Mann's last film, or perhaps not: he died during production, and the remaining footage, including the film's ending, was shot under the direction of the star, Laurence Harvey. Original author and screenwriter Derek Marlowe wrote of Harvey's contribution, "He directed his own mis-talent, changed it and the script – which is rather like Mona Lisa touching up her portrait while Leonardo is out of the room." Which is the first of many problems the film presents in the path of anyone trying to appreciate it.
Even those who decry the auteur theory (and I've been known to do so myself, depending on whether I'm being employed as a screenwriter or director) may admit, if pressed, that the director is the only person suitably placed to oversee every aspect of a film and ensure a measure of balance and coordination: in other words, the...
Even those who decry the auteur theory (and I've been known to do so myself, depending on whether I'm being employed as a screenwriter or director) may admit, if pressed, that the director is the only person suitably placed to oversee every aspect of a film and ensure a measure of balance and coordination: in other words, the...
- 8/12/2010
- MUBI
Cop Out
I missed Kevin Smith's homage to the buddy cop genre and can't wait to pick this up. His movies always have great extras as well.
Extras include:
"Maximum Comedy Mode" - Picture-in-Picture walk-ons, stretches of audio and video commentary, more than an hour of deleted scenes and outtakes, additional behind-the-scenes footage, wisdom from the Shit Bandit, pop-up production factoids, storyboards, etc.Focus Point featurettes:a Couple of DicksThe New Buddy Cop DuoKevin Pollak - Man of a Thousand Voices and InterestsImprovising - Now That's FunnyPoh Boy's Diamond VaultStunts-Brooklyn StyleTracy Morgan Speaks SpanglishDave's Calling CarKevin Smith DirectsThe individual Shit Bandit wisdom shorts
The Losers
Got mixed reviews but as a fan of the comic I wanna check it out.
Extras include:
Zoe and The LosersBand of Buddies: Ops TrainingAction-Style StorytellingAlternate EndingFirst Look - Batman: Under the Red Hood
The Runaways
Have heard good things about this Joan Jett biopic.
I missed Kevin Smith's homage to the buddy cop genre and can't wait to pick this up. His movies always have great extras as well.
Extras include:
"Maximum Comedy Mode" - Picture-in-Picture walk-ons, stretches of audio and video commentary, more than an hour of deleted scenes and outtakes, additional behind-the-scenes footage, wisdom from the Shit Bandit, pop-up production factoids, storyboards, etc.Focus Point featurettes:a Couple of DicksThe New Buddy Cop DuoKevin Pollak - Man of a Thousand Voices and InterestsImprovising - Now That's FunnyPoh Boy's Diamond VaultStunts-Brooklyn StyleTracy Morgan Speaks SpanglishDave's Calling CarKevin Smith DirectsThe individual Shit Bandit wisdom shorts
The Losers
Got mixed reviews but as a fan of the comic I wanna check it out.
Extras include:
Zoe and The LosersBand of Buddies: Ops TrainingAction-Style StorytellingAlternate EndingFirst Look - Batman: Under the Red Hood
The Runaways
Have heard good things about this Joan Jett biopic.
- 7/21/2010
- by josh@reelartsy.com (Joshua dos Santos)
- Reelartsy
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