It's well known to fans of "The Wizard of Oz" that actor Ray Bolger was originally cast to play the Tin Man and famed comedian Buddy Ebsen was cast as the Scarecrow. They swapped roles at Bolger's insistence, as Bolger had a personal attachment to the role; he was inspired to become an actor after seeing Vaudevillian Fred Stone play the part on stage when Bolger was a child. Ebsen was fine with changing roles, although he had to drop out of production due to makeup problems. The silvery Tin Man makeup contained powered aluminum and Ebsen breathed in big clouds of it, making him sick. At the time, many merely assumed Ebsen had an allergy. Ebsen was replaced with Jack Haley, and the makeup was altered to be a paste instead of a powder.
With the possible exception of "Star Wars," no film's production has been more meticulously recorded...
With the possible exception of "Star Wars," no film's production has been more meticulously recorded...
- 3/10/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Filmax has acquired international rights to Spanish thriller “Nina,” the new feature written and directed by Andrea Jaurrieta (“Ana by Day”) that bows at this week’s Málaga Film Festival as one of its higher profile titles in main competition.
Loosely based on the play of the same name by José Ramón Fernández, which borrows elements of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” “Nina” tells the story of a woman, an actress, who returns to her home town on Spain’s rugged northern coast seeking to take revenge on a celebrated writer. As she encounters past acquaintances, including a once close childhood friend, and faces dark memories, she begins to question whether vengeance is the only way forward.
“Nina” stars Goya-winning actress Patricia López Arnaiz (“Ane is Missing”) as the titular character and San Sebastián Silver Shell winner Darío Grandinetti, famed for his performance in Pedro Almodovar’s “Talk to Her,...
Loosely based on the play of the same name by José Ramón Fernández, which borrows elements of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” “Nina” tells the story of a woman, an actress, who returns to her home town on Spain’s rugged northern coast seeking to take revenge on a celebrated writer. As she encounters past acquaintances, including a once close childhood friend, and faces dark memories, she begins to question whether vengeance is the only way forward.
“Nina” stars Goya-winning actress Patricia López Arnaiz (“Ane is Missing”) as the titular character and San Sebastián Silver Shell winner Darío Grandinetti, famed for his performance in Pedro Almodovar’s “Talk to Her,...
- 3/4/2024
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
In his last dramatic and interminable years, Michael Cimino spent his days in solitude rewatching old movies in the Bel-Air mansion he bought during his heyday. On the rare occasions that he ventured out, he drove a Rolls-Royce he acquired while making The Deer Hunter in 1978, his chauffeur having left long ago, as well as his success.
Even in those final moments, he did everything he could to show a winning image to Hollywood, a town that had ostracized him ever since the colossal Heaven’s Gate fiasco that had bankrupted United Artists during the early ’80s. He had a perpetually ironic, scornful smile, but he was the first to know how pointless, even miserable, that act was. The only thing he had left from his triumphant years was some money, and he would show up at the hangouts of movers and shakers like the Polo Lounge, where he often ended...
Even in those final moments, he did everything he could to show a winning image to Hollywood, a town that had ostracized him ever since the colossal Heaven’s Gate fiasco that had bankrupted United Artists during the early ’80s. He had a perpetually ironic, scornful smile, but he was the first to know how pointless, even miserable, that act was. The only thing he had left from his triumphant years was some money, and he would show up at the hangouts of movers and shakers like the Polo Lounge, where he often ended...
- 2/17/2024
- by Antonio Monda
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
February––particularly its third week––is all about romance. Accordingly the Criterion Channel got creative with their monthly programming and, in a few weeks, will debut Interdimensional Romance, a series of films wherein “passion conquers time and space, age and memory, and even death and the afterlife.” For every title you might’ve guessed there’s a wilder companion: Alan Rudolph’s Made In Heaven, Soderbergh’s remake, and Resnais’ Love Unto Death. Mostly I’m excited to revisit Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth, a likely essential viewing before Megalopolis.
February also marks Black History Month, and Criterion’s series will include work by Shirley Clarke (also subject of a standalone series), Garrett Bradley, Cheryl Dunye, and Julie Dash, while movies by Sirk, Minnelli, King Vidor, and Lang play in “Gothic Noir.” Greta Gerwig gets an “Adventures in Moviegoing” and can be seen in Mary Bronstein’s Yeast,...
February also marks Black History Month, and Criterion’s series will include work by Shirley Clarke (also subject of a standalone series), Garrett Bradley, Cheryl Dunye, and Julie Dash, while movies by Sirk, Minnelli, King Vidor, and Lang play in “Gothic Noir.” Greta Gerwig gets an “Adventures in Moviegoing” and can be seen in Mary Bronstein’s Yeast,...
- 1/11/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
When people think of open-air ice skating in New York City, well, they probably conjure up the festive Christmas-y confines of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Unless they're old. Baby Boomer old. For members of the generation that protested the Vietnam War before turning into conservative zombies who treat Fox News as an informational IV drip, there is first and foremost the image of the late Ryan O'Neal's Oliver Barrett IV gazing forlornly at the Wollman Skating Rink in Central Park as Francis Lai's brilliantly overwrought main theme jerks tears from our ducts with a vicious intensity worthy of Pinhead.
Most Boomers won't get that reference. And for those born as early as the Reagan era who are generally incurious about movies, you probably haven't watched Arthur Hiller's "Love Story." It is a film of its time, but, oh, what a film it was, at least commercially. Based on Erich Segal...
Most Boomers won't get that reference. And for those born as early as the Reagan era who are generally incurious about movies, you probably haven't watched Arthur Hiller's "Love Story." It is a film of its time, but, oh, what a film it was, at least commercially. Based on Erich Segal...
- 12/9/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Top: Napoleon (Gaumont), Middle: Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure (Orion Pictures), Bottom: Napoleon Bunny-Part (Warner Bros. Pictures)Graphic: The A.V. Club
Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 21, 1821, but the iconic French emperor has lived on (and on and on) in numerous movies and television shows. Esteemed director Ridley Scott, who...
Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 21, 1821, but the iconic French emperor has lived on (and on and on) in numerous movies and television shows. Esteemed director Ridley Scott, who...
- 11/24/2023
- by Ian Spelling
- avclub.com
It’s not every day that Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson team up. But IndieWire has learned they will today: The three directors have scheduled an emergency call with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav about the layoffs of Turner Classic Movies’ top brass.
The network laid off much of its leadership yesterday, including executive VP and general manager Pola Changnon; senior VP of programming and content strategy, Charles Tabesh; VP of brand creative and marketing Dexter Fedor; VP of enterprises and strategic partnerships Genevieve McGillicuddy, who also served as the director of the annual TCM Film Festival; and VP of studio production Anne Wilson.
These people were responsible for everything from curating lineups, to shooting intros and outros, and for creating original shows, documentaries, and video essays that serve as major contributions to American cultural history.
Scorsese has often said he has Turner Classic Movies on...
The network laid off much of its leadership yesterday, including executive VP and general manager Pola Changnon; senior VP of programming and content strategy, Charles Tabesh; VP of brand creative and marketing Dexter Fedor; VP of enterprises and strategic partnerships Genevieve McGillicuddy, who also served as the director of the annual TCM Film Festival; and VP of studio production Anne Wilson.
These people were responsible for everything from curating lineups, to shooting intros and outros, and for creating original shows, documentaries, and video essays that serve as major contributions to American cultural history.
Scorsese has often said he has Turner Classic Movies on...
- 6/21/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Founded in 1953, bought by Julio Fernández in 1987 and now run by his brother Carlos Fernandez and daughter Laura Fernández, Filmax is one of its biggest true-blue independent studios in Spain, involved in film and TV production, and movie distribution, international film and TV sales and exhibition.
How it got there is another question. “At Filmax, we’ve always bet on creative talent. In Spain, there’s always been creative talents that have revolutionized its sector: Architects, artists and designers,” says Laura Fernández, a Filmax executive producer. “Filmax has known how to find talent in all parts of film production: Composers, screenwriters, DPs, casting, VFX and directors.”
Jaume Balagueró’s “Nameless” gave Filmax its first experience of fulsome international pre-sales at 1999’s Mifed, helping to usher in a golden age of Spanish auteur genre that resonates to this day.
A director on “Polseres Vermelles,” the original Catalan version of “The Red Band Society...
How it got there is another question. “At Filmax, we’ve always bet on creative talent. In Spain, there’s always been creative talents that have revolutionized its sector: Architects, artists and designers,” says Laura Fernández, a Filmax executive producer. “Filmax has known how to find talent in all parts of film production: Composers, screenwriters, DPs, casting, VFX and directors.”
Jaume Balagueró’s “Nameless” gave Filmax its first experience of fulsome international pre-sales at 1999’s Mifed, helping to usher in a golden age of Spanish auteur genre that resonates to this day.
A director on “Polseres Vermelles,” the original Catalan version of “The Red Band Society...
- 5/18/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
This Mother’s Day weekend, let’s celebrate self-sacrificing, feuding, exhausted, loving screen mums, from Stella Dallas to Lady Bird, Mommie Dearest to 20th Century Women
We often talk a bit flippantly about female movie stars past a certain age being consigned to “mum roles”: blandly supportive background figures who pop up merely to nag or nurture when required. “Mum” shouldn’t be a byword for mainstream cinema’s laziest, most ageist and least dimensional instincts when it comes to female characterisation; the best films about motherhood treat it as a state of being, not just as a balm for others.
Many of the so-called “women’s pictures” of Hollywood’s golden age hinged on complex, conflicted portrayals of motherhood. King Vidor’s excellent 1937 version of Stella Dallas (Amazon Prime Video) is the mother-daughter weepie to end them all, powered by Barbara Stanwyck’s wrenching performance as a working-class...
We often talk a bit flippantly about female movie stars past a certain age being consigned to “mum roles”: blandly supportive background figures who pop up merely to nag or nurture when required. “Mum” shouldn’t be a byword for mainstream cinema’s laziest, most ageist and least dimensional instincts when it comes to female characterisation; the best films about motherhood treat it as a state of being, not just as a balm for others.
Many of the so-called “women’s pictures” of Hollywood’s golden age hinged on complex, conflicted portrayals of motherhood. King Vidor’s excellent 1937 version of Stella Dallas (Amazon Prime Video) is the mother-daughter weepie to end them all, powered by Barbara Stanwyck’s wrenching performance as a working-class...
- 3/18/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- The Guardian - Film News
This past year, we've had a lot of discussions about whether Brendan Fraser should have been cast in Darren Aronofsky's "The Whale" due to him requiring a fat suit to play the role. On the one hand, we are all happy to see Fraser be given a lead role by a major director, which hasn't happened in many years. On the other, it is yet another entry on the long list of roles that should presumably have gone to fat actors but didn't. The likelihood that a central character is explicitly written to be large is already incredibly small, but if all those parts are getting taken by actors who need padding and prosthetics to make themselves appear large, when else are fat actors going to be given opportunities to lead films?
As someone who is indeed fat, I often find myself frustrated by this, but I also understand...
As someone who is indeed fat, I often find myself frustrated by this, but I also understand...
- 2/18/2023
- by Mike Shutt
- Slash Film
Babylon (2022).Hollywood has been making movies about movies for almost as long as there have been movies. This is not surprising given the town’s penchant for self-mythologizing; the dramatic potential of silver-screen fame, always an Icarus flight on wax wings melting in the California sun; and the allure of a glimpse behind the scenes into the factory where the dreams are made. It would be hypocritical to mock the self-importance of a place that exerts such an inexhaustible fascination—on me, I own, and probably on you—and Hollywood’s addiction to turning the cameras on itself has produced a few masterpieces of clear-eyed ambivalence. It has also revealed, even in less successful efforts, a strain of insecurity and self-loathing under the celebratory tinsel. Some films portray the industry as crass and cruel, spitting out used-up stars and corrupting artistic integrity; some exploit chaotic, unhinged movie sets for laughs or thrills.
- 2/3/2023
- MUBI
Los Angeles, Jan 16 (Ians) Gina Lollobrigida, the 1950s Italian bombshell who starred in films including ‘Fanfan la Tulipe’, ‘Beat the Devil’, ‘Trapeze’ and ‘Buona Sera, Mrs Campbell’, has died. She was 95.
A generation of Indians will remember Lollobrigida from her sensational appearance at the 1978 International Film Festival of India (Iffi), where her flirty exchanges with Kabir Bedi were grist for the gossip magazine mill as well as politically incorrect comparisons between her physical attributes and those of Zeenat Aman.
Kabir Bedi, in his autobiography ‘Stories I Must Tell’, recalls a famous face-off Praveen Babi had with Lollobrigida at a party the Italian actress hosted in his honour for playing Sandokan in the famous Italian television series. The temperamental Indian actress was upset with Lollobrigida because she was apparently getting too comfortable with Bedi.
Lollobrigida also provided fodder for film magazines when it was rumoured that she was being cast by...
A generation of Indians will remember Lollobrigida from her sensational appearance at the 1978 International Film Festival of India (Iffi), where her flirty exchanges with Kabir Bedi were grist for the gossip magazine mill as well as politically incorrect comparisons between her physical attributes and those of Zeenat Aman.
Kabir Bedi, in his autobiography ‘Stories I Must Tell’, recalls a famous face-off Praveen Babi had with Lollobrigida at a party the Italian actress hosted in his honour for playing Sandokan in the famous Italian television series. The temperamental Indian actress was upset with Lollobrigida because she was apparently getting too comfortable with Bedi.
Lollobrigida also provided fodder for film magazines when it was rumoured that she was being cast by...
- 1/16/2023
- by News Bureau
- GlamSham
Gina Lollobrigida, the 1950s Italian bombshell who starred in films including ‘Fanfan la Tulipe’, ‘Beat the Devil’, ‘Trapeze’ and ‘Buona Sera, Mrs Campbell’, has died. She was 95. A generation of Indians will remember Lollobrigida from her sensational appearance at the 1978 International Film Festival of India (Iffi), where her flirty exchanges with Kabir Bedi were grist for the gossip magazine mill as well as politically incorrect comparisons between her physical attributes and those of Zeenat Aman.
Kabir Bedi, in his autobiography ‘Stories I Must Tell’, recalls a famous face-off Praveen Babi had with Lollobrigida at a party the Italian actress hosted in his honour for playing Sandokan in the famous Italian television series. The temperamental Indian actress was upset with Lollobrigida because she was apparently getting too comfortable with Bedi.
Lollobrigida also provided fodder for film magazines when it was rumoured that she was being cast by Krishna Shah in his Indo-American movie,...
Kabir Bedi, in his autobiography ‘Stories I Must Tell’, recalls a famous face-off Praveen Babi had with Lollobrigida at a party the Italian actress hosted in his honour for playing Sandokan in the famous Italian television series. The temperamental Indian actress was upset with Lollobrigida because she was apparently getting too comfortable with Bedi.
Lollobrigida also provided fodder for film magazines when it was rumoured that she was being cast by Krishna Shah in his Indo-American movie,...
- 1/16/2023
- by News Bureau
- GlamSham
Tributes are pouring in for Gina Lollobrigida, one of Europe’s biggest movie stars, who died on Monday at the age of 95.
A global sex symbol during the 1950s and ’60s, Lollobrigida worked with Hollywood heavyweights such as Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Errol Flynn and Rock Hudson.
Sophia Loren was one of the first people to pay tribute to “La Lollo,” as the Italians called her. Loren said in a statement she “is deeply shaken and saddened” by the news of Lollobrigida’s death.
The two divas had parallel careers in Italy and Hollywood and were often considered rivals.
Italy’s Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano tweeted: “Adieu to a diva of the big screen, protagonist of half a century of Italian cinema. Your charm will remain eternal. Ciao Lollo.”
“Ciao Gina. With You the last diva has left us,” Tweeted actor director Giulio Base, whose wife, Filming Italy festival chief Tiziana Rocca,...
A global sex symbol during the 1950s and ’60s, Lollobrigida worked with Hollywood heavyweights such as Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Errol Flynn and Rock Hudson.
Sophia Loren was one of the first people to pay tribute to “La Lollo,” as the Italians called her. Loren said in a statement she “is deeply shaken and saddened” by the news of Lollobrigida’s death.
The two divas had parallel careers in Italy and Hollywood and were often considered rivals.
Italy’s Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano tweeted: “Adieu to a diva of the big screen, protagonist of half a century of Italian cinema. Your charm will remain eternal. Ciao Lollo.”
“Ciao Gina. With You the last diva has left us,” Tweeted actor director Giulio Base, whose wife, Filming Italy festival chief Tiziana Rocca,...
- 1/16/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Gina Lollobrigida, the 1950s Italian bombshell who starred in films including “Fanfan la Tulipe,” “Beat the Devil,” “Trapeze” and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” has died. She was 95.
According to Italian news agency Lapresse, Lollobrigida died in a clinic in Rome. No cause of death has been cited. In September she had had surgery to repair a thigh bone broken in a fall, but she recovered and competed for a Senate seat in Italy’s elections held last year in September, though she did not win.
After resisting Howard Hughes’ offer to make movies in Hollywood in 1950, Lollobrigida starred with Gerard Philipe in the 1952 French swashbuckler “Fanfan la Tulipe,” a fest winner and popular favorite.
Her first American movie, shot in Italy, was John Huston’s 1953 film noir spoof “Beat the Devil,” in which she starred with Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones. The same year she starred with Vittorio De Sica in Luigi Comencini’s “Bread,...
According to Italian news agency Lapresse, Lollobrigida died in a clinic in Rome. No cause of death has been cited. In September she had had surgery to repair a thigh bone broken in a fall, but she recovered and competed for a Senate seat in Italy’s elections held last year in September, though she did not win.
After resisting Howard Hughes’ offer to make movies in Hollywood in 1950, Lollobrigida starred with Gerard Philipe in the 1952 French swashbuckler “Fanfan la Tulipe,” a fest winner and popular favorite.
Her first American movie, shot in Italy, was John Huston’s 1953 film noir spoof “Beat the Devil,” in which she starred with Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones. The same year she starred with Vittorio De Sica in Luigi Comencini’s “Bread,...
- 1/16/2023
- by Carmel Dagan and Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Tár writer/director Todd Field discusses a few of his favorite movies with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
You Only Live Twice (1967) – Dana Gould’s trailer commentary
Tár (2022)
Man With A Movie Camera (1929)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
The Big Parade (1925)
Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)
The Crowd (1928)
Star Wars (1977)
The Servant (1963)
Parasite (2019) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Dennis Cozzalio’s review
The Three Musketeers (1973) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary
Figures In A Landscape (1970)
M (1931)
M (1951)
I Am Cuba (1964)
The Cranes Are Flying (1957) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review
Letter Never Sent (1960)
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965)
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969)
The Towering Inferno (1974) – George Hickenlooper’s trailer commentary
The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
The Sting (1973)
The World of Henry Orient (1964) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary
Thelma And Louise (1991)
Murmur Of The Heart (1971)
The Silent World (1956)
Opening Night (1977)
The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie (1976) – Larry Karaszewski’s...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
You Only Live Twice (1967) – Dana Gould’s trailer commentary
Tár (2022)
Man With A Movie Camera (1929)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Koyaanisqatsi (1982)
The Big Parade (1925)
Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)
The Crowd (1928)
Star Wars (1977)
The Servant (1963)
Parasite (2019) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Dennis Cozzalio’s review
The Three Musketeers (1973) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary
Figures In A Landscape (1970)
M (1931)
M (1951)
I Am Cuba (1964)
The Cranes Are Flying (1957) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review
Letter Never Sent (1960)
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1965)
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969)
The Towering Inferno (1974) – George Hickenlooper’s trailer commentary
The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
The Sting (1973)
The World of Henry Orient (1964) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary
Thelma And Louise (1991)
Murmur Of The Heart (1971)
The Silent World (1956)
Opening Night (1977)
The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie (1976) – Larry Karaszewski’s...
- 1/10/2023
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Although Universal had struck on big hits with "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" in 1923 and "The Phantom of the Opera" in 1925, studio honcho Carl Laemmle, Sr. was no fan of the horror genre. It was his monster-obsessed son, Carl Laemmle, Jr., that encouraged the studio to adapt the then-popular stage production of "Dracula" to film. The movie, released in 1931 and directed by Tod Browning, was stagey and nightmarish, and it deeply burned itself into the collective unconscious. Bela Lugosi, as Dracula, taught the world how vampires behave.
"Dracula" was one of Universal's biggest hits, and Carl Jr. knew that multiple more monster projects could be instantly pushed into the pipeline. The 1930s saw the release of "Frankenstein," "Dracula's Daughter," "The Invisible Man," "Bride of Frankenstein," "The Black Cat," "The Invisible Ray," "Werewolf of London," "The Raven," and scads of others. Horror became the studio's niche.
The wave of popular horror films at Universal,...
"Dracula" was one of Universal's biggest hits, and Carl Jr. knew that multiple more monster projects could be instantly pushed into the pipeline. The 1930s saw the release of "Frankenstein," "Dracula's Daughter," "The Invisible Man," "Bride of Frankenstein," "The Black Cat," "The Invisible Ray," "Werewolf of London," "The Raven," and scads of others. Horror became the studio's niche.
The wave of popular horror films at Universal,...
- 11/11/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Do you know when the first movie premiere in Hollywood history was held?
On Oct. 18. 1922 Sid Grauman opened his movie palace the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. with superstar Douglas Fairbank’s latest swashbuckler “Robin Hood.” The red carpet was rolled out for Fairbanks, his wife Mary Pickford and their good friend (and partner in United Artists) Charlie Chaplin. It cost 5 to attend the premiere. And the movie, which was the top box office draw, played there exclusively for several months. The Egyptian cost 800,000 to build and took 18 months to complete for Grauman and real estate developer Charles E. Toberman. It is currently being renovated by Netflix in cooperation with the American Cinematheque.
“Robin Hood,” directed by Allan Dwan, was one of the most expensive movies of the silent era, costing just under 1 million. The castle was the biggest set ever made for a silent movie. Some scenes feature over 1,200 extras.
On Oct. 18. 1922 Sid Grauman opened his movie palace the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. with superstar Douglas Fairbank’s latest swashbuckler “Robin Hood.” The red carpet was rolled out for Fairbanks, his wife Mary Pickford and their good friend (and partner in United Artists) Charlie Chaplin. It cost 5 to attend the premiere. And the movie, which was the top box office draw, played there exclusively for several months. The Egyptian cost 800,000 to build and took 18 months to complete for Grauman and real estate developer Charles E. Toberman. It is currently being renovated by Netflix in cooperation with the American Cinematheque.
“Robin Hood,” directed by Allan Dwan, was one of the most expensive movies of the silent era, costing just under 1 million. The castle was the biggest set ever made for a silent movie. Some scenes feature over 1,200 extras.
- 10/25/2022
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
John Wayne only received credit for directing two films throughout his 50-year career, but his fingerprints are all over many of his star vehicles. Having cut his teeth during the silent era under the tutelage of masters like John Ford, King Vidor, and Michael Curtiz, Wayne became an expert in the manufacture of movies. He understood camera placement, framing, how long to hold onto a shot, and when to cut. Though it was Ford who made him a star with 1939's landmark Western "Stagecoach," Wayne is as responsible for burnishing his big-screen image as any of his behind-the-scenes collaborators.
In Scott Eyman's biography "John Wayne: The Life and Legend," the author reveals that The Duke's experience knocking out programmers for Republic Pictures taught him that the difference between a B movie and an A movie was the "difference ... between a quick punch to the jaw and the expression on a face.
In Scott Eyman's biography "John Wayne: The Life and Legend," the author reveals that The Duke's experience knocking out programmers for Republic Pictures taught him that the difference between a B movie and an A movie was the "difference ... between a quick punch to the jaw and the expression on a face.
- 10/15/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Film at Lincoln Center
As a restoration of Three Colors: White begins its run, a massive retrospective of King Vidor gets underway.
Anthology Film Archives
A series on Warhol’s durational cinema runs this weekend; Essential Cinema has Buñuel.
Roxy Cinema
The series “Woman as Witch” offers plenty scintillating—prints of Black Sunday (on 16mm), Showgirls, and Carnival of Souls all have multiples showings this weekend—while Ciao! Manhattan and The Assassination of Jesse James return 35mm and a 16mm animation program runs on Sunday.
Paris Theater
Close Encounters, Suspiria, Cold Water, and Death on the Nile all screen in a “Directors Selects” series.
IFC Center
A series on Los Angeles films is underway—including They Live, The Long Goodbye, and the new restoration of Heat—while the Lost Highway continues; The Shining and Taxi Driver has late showings.
Film Forum...
Film at Lincoln Center
As a restoration of Three Colors: White begins its run, a massive retrospective of King Vidor gets underway.
Anthology Film Archives
A series on Warhol’s durational cinema runs this weekend; Essential Cinema has Buñuel.
Roxy Cinema
The series “Woman as Witch” offers plenty scintillating—prints of Black Sunday (on 16mm), Showgirls, and Carnival of Souls all have multiples showings this weekend—while Ciao! Manhattan and The Assassination of Jesse James return 35mm and a 16mm animation program runs on Sunday.
Paris Theater
Close Encounters, Suspiria, Cold Water, and Death on the Nile all screen in a “Directors Selects” series.
IFC Center
A series on Los Angeles films is underway—including They Live, The Long Goodbye, and the new restoration of Heat—while the Lost Highway continues; The Shining and Taxi Driver has late showings.
Film Forum...
- 8/4/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
US one sheet for Our Daily Bread.Though he was a name-above-the-title director back in the day and made some of the enduring classics of American cinema, the great Hollywood director King Vidor is no longer remembered as Hollywood royalty. The son of a Hungarian immigrant, Vidor made some 50 feature films over the course of 40 years, was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Director (in 1979 he was finally awarded an Honorary Oscar), and some of his films—The Crowd (1928) and Hallelujah! (1929) in particular—are die-hard masterpieces. Starting today, New York’s Film at Lincoln Center will be showing 20 of Vidor’s features in an attempt to redress the balance and revitalize his reputation. It is the first major US retrospective of his work since “Rediscovering King Vidor” ran at the Public Theater in 1994, on the 100th anniversary of his birth..Restlessly exploring multiple genres, working from the...
- 8/3/2022
- MUBI
Taylor Swift made a rare public appearance at the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday, in conversation with the indie director Mike Mills to discuss her short film for “All Too Well.” She spoke with Mills for an hour at New York’s Beacon Theatre, giving a fascinating look into her creative process. This was a whole new side of Dr. Swift — meet Film Geek (Taylor’s Version).
Taylor has gone radio silent on social media for most of the year. She gave her NYU commencement speech last month, but she got even more personal here,...
Taylor has gone radio silent on social media for most of the year. She gave her NYU commencement speech last month, but she got even more personal here,...
- 6/12/2022
- by Rob Sheffield
- Rollingstone.com
“The Wizard of Oz” is the all-movie; in my film school days, professors would use King Vidor’s canon cornerstone as a teachable exemplar for just about everything, from the usage of color to the dream-logic of cinema to the mechanisms of Golden Age Hollywood manufacturing. The new documentary “Lynch / Oz” applies this lens as a way of seeing the works of David Lynch with greater clarity and understanding, and in doing so, draws on the seemingly infinite number of angles from which the foundational fantasy can be analyzed.
Continue reading ‘Lynch / Oz’ Review: Alexandre O. Philippe Curates A Deep Dive Into David Lynch’s ‘Wizard Of Oz’ Obsession [Tribeca] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Lynch / Oz’ Review: Alexandre O. Philippe Curates A Deep Dive Into David Lynch’s ‘Wizard Of Oz’ Obsession [Tribeca] at The Playlist.
- 6/10/2022
- by Charles Bramesco
- The Playlist
Sensing a potential trend in the possible nominations of three major Oscars categories — best director, actor and actress — we could see a first-time occurrence for the Academy Awards on Tuesday. However, if you read the tea leaves put forth by the nominations for the DGA and SAG, there’s a strong possibility that all three of those categories may not include a first-time nominee — a first in Oscar history.
For best actor, the SAG lineup recognized all former nominees and winners — Javier Bardem (“Being the Ricardos”), Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog”), Andrew Garfield, Will Smith (“King Richard”) and Denzel Washington (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”). Even the ones on the bubble are once-nominated or crowned, including Mahershala Ali (“Swan Song”), Bradley Cooper (“Nightmare Alley”) and Leonardo DiCaprio (“Don’t Look Up”). The closest first-timers in the running seem to be Golden Globe nominees Peter Dinklage (“Cyrano”) and Cooper Hoffman (“Licorice Pizza...
For best actor, the SAG lineup recognized all former nominees and winners — Javier Bardem (“Being the Ricardos”), Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog”), Andrew Garfield, Will Smith (“King Richard”) and Denzel Washington (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”). Even the ones on the bubble are once-nominated or crowned, including Mahershala Ali (“Swan Song”), Bradley Cooper (“Nightmare Alley”) and Leonardo DiCaprio (“Don’t Look Up”). The closest first-timers in the running seem to be Golden Globe nominees Peter Dinklage (“Cyrano”) and Cooper Hoffman (“Licorice Pizza...
- 2/7/2022
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Westerns are populated with cowboys, gunslingers, bandits, Native American, horses, cows and buffalos. But the genre is much more complex than shoot-‘em-ups. In fact, the best Westerns are Shakespearean in nature exploring such universal subjects as love, hate, revenge, greed, power and good versus evil. One of the most popular sub-genres is the “ranch” Western where the patriarch or matriarch — remember Barbara Stanwyck in “The Big Valley”– governs with a strict and often violent hand. They act like they are above the law and often take legal matters into their own hand. They are often widowers or widows and have sons who run the spectrum from hero to villain.
Jane Campion’s highly acclaimed Netflix Oscar-contender “The Power of the Dog” falls into this sub-genre. Set in Montana in 1925, the story revolves around the charismatic but sadistic Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) who relishes being the master of a cattle rancher.
Jane Campion’s highly acclaimed Netflix Oscar-contender “The Power of the Dog” falls into this sub-genre. Set in Montana in 1925, the story revolves around the charismatic but sadistic Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) who relishes being the master of a cattle rancher.
- 1/7/2022
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
The November 12, 1958 edition of The Village Voice featured the first installment of the column “Movie Journal” by Jonas Mekas.
“Movie Journal” would become what the Underground Film Journal would argue was the most significant organizing tool of avant-garde cinema created by Jonas, even more so than the Film-makers’ Cooperative and the Anthology Film Archives he helped found. But what was the column like before it gained such notoriety?
Well, we don’t have to guess. The book collection Movie Journal doesn’t start reprinting Jonas’s columns until 1959, but the entire archives of the Voice are online.
As a weekly publication, the Voice only published twelve “Movie Journal” columns in 1958. The Underground Film Journal has read all twelve and extracted what films Jonas reviewed each week; as well as made notes of significant avant-garde film happenings.
Jonas reviewed only a few avant-garde films those first two months, including Maya Deren...
“Movie Journal” would become what the Underground Film Journal would argue was the most significant organizing tool of avant-garde cinema created by Jonas, even more so than the Film-makers’ Cooperative and the Anthology Film Archives he helped found. But what was the column like before it gained such notoriety?
Well, we don’t have to guess. The book collection Movie Journal doesn’t start reprinting Jonas’s columns until 1959, but the entire archives of the Voice are online.
As a weekly publication, the Voice only published twelve “Movie Journal” columns in 1958. The Underground Film Journal has read all twelve and extracted what films Jonas reviewed each week; as well as made notes of significant avant-garde film happenings.
Jonas reviewed only a few avant-garde films those first two months, including Maya Deren...
- 11/28/2021
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
In today’s parlance, Nina Mae McKinney, a performer of incomparable magnetism and impressive versatility, would be called “Black famous.” Although she burst onto the silver screen in a landmark feature, MGM’s Hallelujah, mainstream stardom eluded her. Hallelujah was one of the first studio pictures with an all-Black cast, and its director, King Vidor, was a leading filmmaker in the nascent industry. McKinney was lauded as the first Black movie star, and it seemed the sky was the limit for this triple-threat actor, singer and dancer. But with no Black filmmakers in its studio system, Hollywood had no particular compulsion ...
- 11/11/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In today’s parlance, Nina Mae McKinney, a performer of incomparable magnetism and impressive versatility, would be called “Black famous.” Although she burst onto the silver screen in a landmark feature, MGM’s Hallelujah, mainstream stardom eluded her. Hallelujah was one of the first studio pictures with an all-Black cast, and its director, King Vidor, was a leading filmmaker in the nascent industry. McKinney was lauded as the first Black movie star, and it seemed the sky was the limit for this triple-threat actor, singer and dancer. But with no Black filmmakers in its studio system, Hollywood had no particular compulsion ...
- 11/11/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSDario Argento's Dark GlassesFollowing his appearance in Gaspar Noé's Vortex, Dario Argento returns to directing with Dark Glasses, his first feature since Dracula 3D (2012). Starring Asia Argento and Andrea Zhang, the thriller follows a serial killer, a blind sex worker, and a 10-year-old Chinese boy in Rome's Chinese community. John Woo is also set to make a return to Hollywood with Silent Night, a "no dialogue" action film about a father (played by Joel Kinnaman) who seeks to avenge his son's death. Film Labs, a "worldwide network of artist-run film laboratories," now has a new website! The website includes more than 500 films made at artist-run film labs from Vancouver to South Korea, as well as technical resources and distribution information. Dancer, choreographer, theatrical director, and filmmaker Wakefield Poole has died. A pioneer of the gay pornography industry,...
- 11/3/2021
- MUBI
It’s been said that American women of the 1950s admired Marilyn Monroe, but they wanted to be Audrey Hepburn, who projected an entirely different appeal. Hepburn had talent, grace, a dazzling smile and the strength to overcome any obstacle. Paramount now rounds up their Audrey Hepburn holdings to release this seven-picture ode to the great actress, the sentimental favorite. Several are near-perfect entertainments, great films everybody should see. All are handsomely remastered in HD, in their proper aspect ratios. I’d consider this definite holiday gift-giving material.
Audrey Hepburn 7 – Movie Collection
Roman Holiday, Sabrina, War and Peace, Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Paris When It Sizzles, My Fair Lady
Blu-ray
Paramount Home Entertainment
1952-1964 / Color + B&w / Street Date October 5, 2021
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Humphrey Bogart, Mel Ferrer, Fred Astaire, George Peppard, William Holden, Rex Harrison.
Directed by William Wyler, Billy Wilder, King Vidor, Stanley Donen, Blake Edwards,...
Audrey Hepburn 7 – Movie Collection
Roman Holiday, Sabrina, War and Peace, Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Paris When It Sizzles, My Fair Lady
Blu-ray
Paramount Home Entertainment
1952-1964 / Color + B&w / Street Date October 5, 2021
Starring: Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Humphrey Bogart, Mel Ferrer, Fred Astaire, George Peppard, William Holden, Rex Harrison.
Directed by William Wyler, Billy Wilder, King Vidor, Stanley Donen, Blake Edwards,...
- 10/19/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“We are questioning a canon and creating a canon.”
Thus did Doris Berger, senior director of curatorial affairs at the Academy Museum, explain when asked by Sharon Rosen Leib of The Forward why Jews had what seemed to her a disconcertingly small place in this new shrine to the movies.
The exchange was reported in an October 14 piece entitled: “Jews built Hollywood. So why is their history erased from the Academy’s new museum?”
In truth, Jews and their work have an inevitable presence throughout the museum, though their contribution doesn’t get a tribute on the order of those afforded Haile Gerima, Hayao Miyazaki, Sophia Loren, Satyajit Ray or Jane Campion. Billy Wilder, Michael Curtiz, King Vidor, Howard Koch and other Jewish filmmakers certainly make appearances.
Moreover, the museum seems to promise something for almost everyone over time.
“The Academy Museum is deeply committed to presenting a holistic and...
Thus did Doris Berger, senior director of curatorial affairs at the Academy Museum, explain when asked by Sharon Rosen Leib of The Forward why Jews had what seemed to her a disconcertingly small place in this new shrine to the movies.
The exchange was reported in an October 14 piece entitled: “Jews built Hollywood. So why is their history erased from the Academy’s new museum?”
In truth, Jews and their work have an inevitable presence throughout the museum, though their contribution doesn’t get a tribute on the order of those afforded Haile Gerima, Hayao Miyazaki, Sophia Loren, Satyajit Ray or Jane Campion. Billy Wilder, Michael Curtiz, King Vidor, Howard Koch and other Jewish filmmakers certainly make appearances.
Moreover, the museum seems to promise something for almost everyone over time.
“The Academy Museum is deeply committed to presenting a holistic and...
- 10/19/2021
- by Michael Cieply
- Deadline Film + TV
Dreams and disputations about “modernization” vs. “the land,” of what free labor did and could entail, were profuse in mid-1930s America. Alive in the minds and actions of the displaced worker and cloistered idealist alike. Director King Vidor had long been using moving images to think along the same lines, but in 1934 these ideas collided with real world events, and his own aspirations for independence within his trade, and produced a sui generis film. Born as a reaction to the widespread suffering of the Great Depression, and from reading a Reader’s Digest article advocating for co-operative farming as a solution to unemployment, Our Daily Bread was developed by Vidor and his then wife and close-collaborator Florence Hill, as a semi-sequel to his 1928 film The Crowd, which followed the tribulations of an ambitious “everyman.” Like The Crowd, Our Daily Bread features the Sims couple, John and Mary, this time...
- 8/16/2021
- MUBI
Debuting on opening night of the Cannes Film Festival a full year after it was originally expected to appear, “Annette” arrives on a pedestal from which it’s too easily toppled. This latest dose of weirdness from “Holy Motors” director Leos Carax — a tortured celebrity love story set to the maddening music of Sparks and starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard — would surely fare better in an underdog position than anointed from the outset. It’s not for everyone, as there’s little demand for 140-minute bummer musicals at the moment, though Carax’s grand experiment is certainly bold enough to find its share of defenders.
Maybe “Annette” is just ahead of its time, as champions of avant-garde duo Russell and Ron Mael, aka Sparks, like to say of the pair who wrote it, although Carax’s interpretation of their ironic endeavor reaches backward, braiding the sincerity of silent film with postmodern self-awareness,...
Maybe “Annette” is just ahead of its time, as champions of avant-garde duo Russell and Ron Mael, aka Sparks, like to say of the pair who wrote it, although Carax’s interpretation of their ironic endeavor reaches backward, braiding the sincerity of silent film with postmodern self-awareness,...
- 7/6/2021
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Whether a viewer in 1896 or 2020, cinema has always been a dynamic and variable experience. Cinema as an event—as a manifestation of a meeting point between the art of moving images and an audience, big or small—has never fit any one definition, and this last year, so severely disrupted by a global pandemic, has deeply underscored the versatility and resilience of our great love.Our viewing this year, like that of so many, has been strange: compromised, confrontational, escapist, euphoric, painful, revelatory—encompassing all of the reactions one can have to film. How we encountered our favorite movies and most meaningful cinematic experiences of the year was hardly new: A by-now-normal mix of festivals, theatres, various subscription and transactional streaming services, as well as private screener links and gems buried on over-stuffed hard drives. But for most of the year, the communal experience shrunk to living rooms and glowing screens.
- 12/23/2020
- MUBI
It’s time to start packing, to call around to find out what might be playing, to pull out the sweaters and a warm jacket for the first time in months and, above all, to look forward to a guaranteed long weekend of films that will all be worth seeing and that will provide a strong indication of what kind of serious movie year this will be.
Unfortunately, everyone knows the depressing answer to that question. And now, for some of us, is when the miserable truth of the matter is staring us straight in the face: the movie screens in Telluride will be empty over this Labor Day weekend for the first time in 46 years. There will be no hour-plus ride from the Montrose Airport to the host town of just 2,325 year-round residents, no dash to grab the schedule where the titles to be shown will be revealed for the first time,...
Unfortunately, everyone knows the depressing answer to that question. And now, for some of us, is when the miserable truth of the matter is staring us straight in the face: the movie screens in Telluride will be empty over this Labor Day weekend for the first time in 46 years. There will be no hour-plus ride from the Montrose Airport to the host town of just 2,325 year-round residents, no dash to grab the schedule where the titles to be shown will be revealed for the first time,...
- 9/2/2020
- by Todd McCarthy
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe on-demand success of Trolls: World Tour, and subsequent comments made by NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell, has led to a significant development in the friction between studios and cinemas: AMC Theatres announced it will no longer play any Universal movies. The ongoing dispute speaks to the many changes likely to take place as response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Recommended VIEWINGThe Walker Art Center has made available more than 60 "in-depth portraits of directors, actors, writers, and producers who were celebrated in the Walker Cinema at pivotal moments in their careers." This abundant archive includes Bong Joon-ho, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Stan Brakhage, Julie Dash, and even Tom Hanks. Grasshopper's official trailer for Dan Sallitt's Fourteen, which stars Tallie Mehdel and Norma Kuhling as two long-time friends in New York. Read our review of the film here.
- 5/6/2020
- MUBI
Vidor Retrospective is a Hot Alternate Reality at Berlin 70 — by Alex DeleonWith the pickings slim this year in the Competition section, and not much better in the other main sidebars, the nearly complete King Vidor retrospective covering some 33 films from the magnificent silent war saga ‘The Big Parade’, 1925, to ‘War and Peace’, 1956. Vidor’s career spanned some four decades and is a canny choice for a solid retrospective at Berlin 70. All films are in the category “The don’t make ’em like this anymore” and are nearly all daily sellouts.
Nota Bene: King Vidor is Not to be confused with another Vidor in Hollywood, the Hungarian born director Charles (Károly) Vidor,. Vidor is a fairly common Hungarian surname. King Vidor was the son of a 19th-century Hungarian immigrant who settled in Texas.
The King Vidor retrospective is so rich in new discoveries that it is practically a festival within the festival on its own.
Nota Bene: King Vidor is Not to be confused with another Vidor in Hollywood, the Hungarian born director Charles (Károly) Vidor,. Vidor is a fairly common Hungarian surname. King Vidor was the son of a 19th-century Hungarian immigrant who settled in Texas.
The King Vidor retrospective is so rich in new discoveries that it is practically a festival within the festival on its own.
- 4/13/2020
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Some classic Russian films are impressive, others are interesting — and this one takes our heads off, as if we were seeing great moviemaking for the first time. Soviet filmmaking under Stalin was locked in the grip of stifling bureaucratic sameness; Mikhail Kalatazov waited until the passing of Joe Stalin to direct with a degree of freedom. This show about lovers separated by war won prizes around the world, giving Soviet films new life internationally — its bravura montages and fluid camera set pieces still astound.
The Cranes are Flying
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 146
1957 / B&w / 1:37 flat full frame / 97 min. / Letjat zhuravli / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 24, 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Tatyana Samojlova, Aleksey Batalov, Vasily Merkuryev, Aleksandr Shvorin, Svetalana Kharitonova.
Cinematography: Sergey Urusevsky
Film Editor: Mariya Timofeyeva
Original Music: Moisej Vajnberg
Written by Viktor Rozov from his play
Produced and Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov
Yes, we saw a lot of pictures in film school,...
The Cranes are Flying
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 146
1957 / B&w / 1:37 flat full frame / 97 min. / Letjat zhuravli / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 24, 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Tatyana Samojlova, Aleksey Batalov, Vasily Merkuryev, Aleksandr Shvorin, Svetalana Kharitonova.
Cinematography: Sergey Urusevsky
Film Editor: Mariya Timofeyeva
Original Music: Moisej Vajnberg
Written by Viktor Rozov from his play
Produced and Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov
Yes, we saw a lot of pictures in film school,...
- 3/7/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
American director-producer-screenwriter King Vidor (1894-1982), whose long and notable career parallels the history of Hollywood filmmaking, is the subject of a 35-film retrospective at the Berlinale, curated by Rainer Rother, artistic director of the Deutsche Kinematek and head of the Retrospective program. The films, chosen from five decades, will be screened in the best extant copies. Rother notes, “We are able to present very good 35mm prints of most of the films; given the developments in the industry, that most likely won’t be possible too often anymore.” Screenings will take place at CinemaxX 8 and at Zeughauskino, which is part of the Deutsches Historisches Museum. Select silent works will feature live piano accompaniment.
After several retrospectives centering on films from specific time periods or genres, or illuminating the history of aesthetic and technical innovations, Rother felt it was a good time to dedicate a retrospective to a director again. Why Vidor?...
After several retrospectives centering on films from specific time periods or genres, or illuminating the history of aesthetic and technical innovations, Rother felt it was a good time to dedicate a retrospective to a director again. Why Vidor?...
- 2/20/2020
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
Coming to Film Forum in New York City is “Black Women,” a 70-film screening series that spotlights 81 years – 1920 to 2001 – of trailblazing African American actresses in American movies.
Scheduled to run from January 17 to February 13, the series is curated by film historian and professor Donald Bogle, author of six books concerning blacks in film and television, including the groundbreaking “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films” (1973).
“Last year, Bruce Goldstein, the repertory programmer at Film Forum, asked me if there was something I was interested in doing, and this was a topic that I had been thinking about, because I recently updated my book on the subject, ‘Brown Sugar,’ which dealt with African American women in entertainment from the early years of the late 19th century to the present,” said Bogle. “That’s really the way it came about, and it just developed from there.
Scheduled to run from January 17 to February 13, the series is curated by film historian and professor Donald Bogle, author of six books concerning blacks in film and television, including the groundbreaking “Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films” (1973).
“Last year, Bruce Goldstein, the repertory programmer at Film Forum, asked me if there was something I was interested in doing, and this was a topic that I had been thinking about, because I recently updated my book on the subject, ‘Brown Sugar,’ which dealt with African American women in entertainment from the early years of the late 19th century to the present,” said Bogle. “That’s really the way it came about, and it just developed from there.
- 1/17/2020
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
World War II has been a favorite subject of Hollywood since 1940, before the U.S. even entered the fighting. But the industry has been less interested in World War I, aka The Great War or The War to End All Wars (as it was sadly/optimistically dubbed).
In the past 25 years, there have been 16 best-picture Oscar nominees set during WWII. In those same years, there was only one set in World War I: Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse.” This is just one of many reasons why Universal-DreamWorks’ “1917,” a strong Oscar contender this year, seems so remarkable.
Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who co-wrote “1917” with director Sam Mendes, says she’s not surprised filmmakers have gravitated to the later war. “The Second World War was about countries uniting to fight the tyranny of the Nazis; it seemed like the only option to save humanity. But with the First World War, the motivations are obscure.
In the past 25 years, there have been 16 best-picture Oscar nominees set during WWII. In those same years, there was only one set in World War I: Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse.” This is just one of many reasons why Universal-DreamWorks’ “1917,” a strong Oscar contender this year, seems so remarkable.
Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who co-wrote “1917” with director Sam Mendes, says she’s not surprised filmmakers have gravitated to the later war. “The Second World War was about countries uniting to fight the tyranny of the Nazis; it seemed like the only option to save humanity. But with the First World War, the motivations are obscure.
- 1/2/2020
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh
Blu ray
Disney Movie Club
1964/ 1:66 / 151 min.
Starring Patrick McGoohan, George Cole, Michael Hordern
Directed by James Neilson
One part Walt Disney, one part Patrick McGoohan – a bittersweet recipe if ever there was one. The notoriously brusque Irishman was immune to the crowd-pleasing sentimentality that shaped Disney’s empire yet he headlined two of that studio’s most appealing entertainments, The Three Lives of Thomasina and The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. An esoteric feline fantasy and a blood and thunder adventure tale, the films couldn’t have been more unalike but McGoohan anchored them both, reveling in the contradictions of his own characters. In Thomasina he plays a veterinarian with little love for animals. In Scarecrow he’s a kindly minister who spends his evenings terrorizing the parish.
In 18th century England, a brutal age marked by despots and dissent, the Scarecrow haunts the tiny fishing port of Dymchurch.
Blu ray
Disney Movie Club
1964/ 1:66 / 151 min.
Starring Patrick McGoohan, George Cole, Michael Hordern
Directed by James Neilson
One part Walt Disney, one part Patrick McGoohan – a bittersweet recipe if ever there was one. The notoriously brusque Irishman was immune to the crowd-pleasing sentimentality that shaped Disney’s empire yet he headlined two of that studio’s most appealing entertainments, The Three Lives of Thomasina and The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. An esoteric feline fantasy and a blood and thunder adventure tale, the films couldn’t have been more unalike but McGoohan anchored them both, reveling in the contradictions of his own characters. In Thomasina he plays a veterinarian with little love for animals. In Scarecrow he’s a kindly minister who spends his evenings terrorizing the parish.
In 18th century England, a brutal age marked by despots and dissent, the Scarecrow haunts the tiny fishing port of Dymchurch.
- 12/21/2019
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
While much has been made about Quentin Tarantino’s plans for his tenth and (supposed final) film, the director’s next creative project might not be a film at all. In a wide-ranging conversation with fellow filmmaker Martin Scorsese published in the fall issue of “DGA Quarterly,” Tarantino revealed that he’s working on a book whose plot ponders Hollywood vs. foreign cinema. “I’ve got this character who had been in World War II and he saw a lot of bloodshed there. And now he’s back home, and it’s like the ’50s, and he doesn’t respond to movies anymore. He finds them juvenile after everything that he’s been through. As far as he’s concerned, Hollywood movies are movies,” Tarantino said. “And so then, all of a sudden, he starts hearing about these foreign movies by Kurosawa and Fellini. … And so he’s like, ‘Well,...
- 9/30/2019
- by Chris Lindahl
- Indiewire
As the Festival World Evolves, Locarno Finds Itself Through Marriage of the Mainstream and the Risky
The following essay was produced as part of the 2019 Locarno Critics Academy, a workshop for aspiring film critics that took place during the 72nd edition of the Locarno Film Festival.
“Locarno … has become respectable, too,” Locarno’s incoming Artistic Director Lili Hinstin wrote in the press release that accompanied the festival’s program announcement last July. She borrowed the quotation from the People’s Pervert John Waters, who has long shared the very sentiment with regards to his own work.
As Hinstin explained, the decades-old festival is not just respectable now, it’s also respected and “that respect was gained by being one of the major world festival that takes the bigger risks. The one that shakes things up, brings surprises, ruffles feathers, asks questions.” The 72nd edition of the festival presented many challenges for Hinstin and her mission to keep such an ethos going, from how to fill the...
“Locarno … has become respectable, too,” Locarno’s incoming Artistic Director Lili Hinstin wrote in the press release that accompanied the festival’s program announcement last July. She borrowed the quotation from the People’s Pervert John Waters, who has long shared the very sentiment with regards to his own work.
As Hinstin explained, the decades-old festival is not just respectable now, it’s also respected and “that respect was gained by being one of the major world festival that takes the bigger risks. The one that shakes things up, brings surprises, ruffles feathers, asks questions.” The 72nd edition of the festival presented many challenges for Hinstin and her mission to keep such an ethos going, from how to fill the...
- 9/14/2019
- by Laura Davis
- Indiewire
Gay Talese comparing Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Michael Cimino to Italian painters working for the Popes during the Renaissance: "These painters now are directors." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In early 1970, Gay Talese drove up unannounced to the Spahn Ranch. It was less than a year after the murders of Sharon Tate, Voytek Frykowski, Abigail Folger, and Jay Sebring by members of the Manson family that had lived there. The journalistic adventure of meeting George Spahn was turned by Gay into the Esquire magazine article Charlie Manson's Home On The Range. The location is featured in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt with Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate and Bruce Dern as Spahn.
Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) and Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood
King Vidor's Duel in the Sun, starring Gregory Peck,...
In early 1970, Gay Talese drove up unannounced to the Spahn Ranch. It was less than a year after the murders of Sharon Tate, Voytek Frykowski, Abigail Folger, and Jay Sebring by members of the Manson family that had lived there. The journalistic adventure of meeting George Spahn was turned by Gay into the Esquire magazine article Charlie Manson's Home On The Range. The location is featured in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time … In Hollywood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt with Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate and Bruce Dern as Spahn.
Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) and Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood
King Vidor's Duel in the Sun, starring Gregory Peck,...
- 8/29/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Man Without a Star
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1955/ 2.00:1 / 89 min.
Starring Kirk Douglas, William Campbell, Jeanne Crain, Claire Trevor
Cinematography by Russell Metty
Directed by King Vidor
King Vidor, the director behind the bucolic Kansas sequences in The Wizard of Oz and the histrionics of Duel in the Sun, has it both ways in 1955’s Man Without a Star starring Kirk Douglas.
Douglas follows his director’s lead – acting primarily with his teeth, the eager to please ham gives a performance almost as broad as his wayward sailor in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. But as screenwriter Borden Chase slowly pulls back the masks on his characters, Douglas settles into a more reasonable approximation of a human being.
Closing in on 40, the irrepressible show-off plays a wandering cowpoke named Dempsey Rae who follows constellations for clues to his destiny and so far he’s come up empty – the “man without a star.
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1955/ 2.00:1 / 89 min.
Starring Kirk Douglas, William Campbell, Jeanne Crain, Claire Trevor
Cinematography by Russell Metty
Directed by King Vidor
King Vidor, the director behind the bucolic Kansas sequences in The Wizard of Oz and the histrionics of Duel in the Sun, has it both ways in 1955’s Man Without a Star starring Kirk Douglas.
Douglas follows his director’s lead – acting primarily with his teeth, the eager to please ham gives a performance almost as broad as his wayward sailor in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. But as screenwriter Borden Chase slowly pulls back the masks on his characters, Douglas settles into a more reasonable approximation of a human being.
Closing in on 40, the irrepressible show-off plays a wandering cowpoke named Dempsey Rae who follows constellations for clues to his destiny and so far he’s come up empty – the “man without a star.
- 8/27/2019
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Tony Sokol Jul 30, 2019
Western movies, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, wouldn't have been the same without the infamous ranch owned by George Spahn.
Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood attempts to take back stolen potential via the kind of fantasy fulfillment that's made only possible on celluloid. As with the Beatles' song "Helter Skelter," Sharon Tate, and the peace and love generation as a whole, the icons of hope in the 1960s were all tainted by mere association with Charles Manson. None of these needed to be linked to the murderous narcissist. Tate, magnificently captured Margot Robbie in the film, would have continued the rising trajectory of her film and modeling career; "Helter Skelter" would be remembered as the song that invented heavy metal, when it was just Paul McCartney trying to make as much noise on vinyl as possible; peace and Love would...
Western movies, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, wouldn't have been the same without the infamous ranch owned by George Spahn.
Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood attempts to take back stolen potential via the kind of fantasy fulfillment that's made only possible on celluloid. As with the Beatles' song "Helter Skelter," Sharon Tate, and the peace and love generation as a whole, the icons of hope in the 1960s were all tainted by mere association with Charles Manson. None of these needed to be linked to the murderous narcissist. Tate, magnificently captured Margot Robbie in the film, would have continued the rising trajectory of her film and modeling career; "Helter Skelter" would be remembered as the song that invented heavy metal, when it was just Paul McCartney trying to make as much noise on vinyl as possible; peace and Love would...
- 7/30/2019
- Den of Geek
The following essay is from Peter von Bagh’s book Cinefilia (2013). Drawing on his writings in Filmihullu (1996) and sketches for the catalogue of San Sebastian Film Festival (2007), it was entirely rewritten by von Bagh (1943–2014) for Cinefilia. It is presented here for the first time in English, translated and edited by Antti Alanen, for the occasion of a retrospective dedicated to Henry King at Il Cinema Ritrovato, June 22–30, 2019. Henry King."When direction shows, it's bad." —Henry KingWould I be able to sketch an overview of the film career of Henry King (1886–1982), which started already when D. W. Griffith’s was directing The Birth of a Nation (1915) and ended around the time when John Ford finished The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)? In the following I will try to define certain characteristics of Henry King’s signature, although his films are quite different from one another. What might be in common, for example,...
- 6/13/2019
- MUBI
“On 12th June, 1812, the forces of western Europe crossed the frontiers of Russia and war began. In other words, an event took place that was contrary to all human reason and human nature.”
The 422-minute Russian version of War And Peace (1966) directed by
Sergei Bondarchuk screens in four installments at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. Part one is April 25, part April 26, part three April 27, and part four April 28. The films start each night at 7:30. A special punch-pass to all four parts can be purchased for $15 (tickets also available à la carte at their regular rates on a night-by-night basis)
In an attempt to show the Russian film industry to be as mighty as America’s during the Cold War years—and in the process to one-up King Vidor’s popular 1956 adaptation of the classic Leo Tolstoy text—the Russian film industry and the whole of the Russian government threw...
The 422-minute Russian version of War And Peace (1966) directed by
Sergei Bondarchuk screens in four installments at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium. Part one is April 25, part April 26, part three April 27, and part four April 28. The films start each night at 7:30. A special punch-pass to all four parts can be purchased for $15 (tickets also available à la carte at their regular rates on a night-by-night basis)
In an attempt to show the Russian film industry to be as mighty as America’s during the Cold War years—and in the process to one-up King Vidor’s popular 1956 adaptation of the classic Leo Tolstoy text—the Russian film industry and the whole of the Russian government threw...
- 4/23/2019
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
When you speak to Kevin Brownlow, you have a direct link to some of the greatest silent film directors who ever lived. The British film historian, now 80, interviewed and befriended many early film veterans when he was just in his twenties. He then spearheaded early efforts to preserve and restore silent films at a time when silent film was often derided. To say Brownlow has some stories about those early directors would be an understatement.
“King Vidor would say to me, ‘Every time I saw a Cecil B. DeMille picture, it made me want to quit the business,’” Brownlow said during a phone interview with IndieWire from his home in London — a sentiment about the “Ten Commandments” filmmaker Brownlow disagrees with. In the 1960s, he also encountered Josef von Sternberg, Allan Dwan, and Abel Gance, whose 1927 epic “Napoleon” Brownlow spent over 12 years restoring before debuting a reconstituted print of the...
“King Vidor would say to me, ‘Every time I saw a Cecil B. DeMille picture, it made me want to quit the business,’” Brownlow said during a phone interview with IndieWire from his home in London — a sentiment about the “Ten Commandments” filmmaker Brownlow disagrees with. In the 1960s, he also encountered Josef von Sternberg, Allan Dwan, and Abel Gance, whose 1927 epic “Napoleon” Brownlow spent over 12 years restoring before debuting a reconstituted print of the...
- 4/20/2019
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
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