If you had to name the most original filmmaker of the last half-century, what’s the first name that comes to mind? David Cronenberg? Wes Anderson? Maybe Werner Herzog or the Coen brothers? While all of them are certainly worthy contenders, it’s hard to argue against the lasting merits of David Lynch, the truly unique cinematic surrealist who has been tormenting audiences with nightmarishly vexing material since his feature film debut Eraserhead in 1977. Indeed, few filmmakers have become name brands unto themselves in the way Lynch’s name evokes a particular type of psychological moviegoing experience. And while he’s worked in many different genres in his career with varying results, no one explores the nature of dreams and the human subconscious like Lynch has repeatedly done throughout his filmography. Moreover, as seen in his tour-de-force 1986 neo-noir mystery Blue Velvet, Lynch has an uncanny knack for digging beneath the...
- 11/27/2023
- by Jake Dee
- JoBlo.com
Most artists, if they’re lucky, invent one thing. But Kenneth Anger, who was a filmmaker, an author, a debauched aristocratic scenester and, to the day of his death at 96, a figure of puckish mystery, invented several things, each one of them epic.
In “Fireworks,” his transcendent 14-minute avant-garde film of 1947, Anger invented the very consciousness and imagery of gay liberation — not the desire to be liberated (which was buried in the hearts of gay people everywhere), but the rapturous visual reverie of what that liberation might look like, what it would feel like, why it seemed so forbidden, and why it needed to be. In “Scorpio Rising,” his homoerotic demon-biker/Top-40-orgy blast from the underground, Anger invented MTV, invented what Martin Scorsese did in “Mean Streets” and David Lynch did in “Blue Velvet,” invented a way to express how music and reality talk to each other.
In “Hollywood Babylon,...
In “Fireworks,” his transcendent 14-minute avant-garde film of 1947, Anger invented the very consciousness and imagery of gay liberation — not the desire to be liberated (which was buried in the hearts of gay people everywhere), but the rapturous visual reverie of what that liberation might look like, what it would feel like, why it seemed so forbidden, and why it needed to be. In “Scorpio Rising,” his homoerotic demon-biker/Top-40-orgy blast from the underground, Anger invented MTV, invented what Martin Scorsese did in “Mean Streets” and David Lynch did in “Blue Velvet,” invented a way to express how music and reality talk to each other.
In “Hollywood Babylon,...
- 5/27/2023
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
According to a report in Variety, pioneering experimental queer filmmaker Kenneth Anger, the director of seminal shorts like "Fireworks," "Rabbit's Moon," "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome," and "Scorpio Rising," has died at the age of 96.
The news was announced on Anger's website by Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers, the managers of Anger's art galleries. He had passed away on May 11, 2023, and the news was only just announced today.
Anger was a firebrand, an artistic rebel who aggressively and provocatively eschewed convention to present the world a new, cohesive type of underground, ultra-queer aesthetic that informs media and culture to this day. His shorts "Fireworks" and "Scorpio Rising" in particular blended traditionally ultra-masculine imagery -- Naval officers, leather-clad bikers -- with unapologetic gay lust, revealing the desire that exists so naturally in those worlds. Anger also blended images of queerness with religious iconography, tearing down conventional Christian morality, and introducing...
The news was announced on Anger's website by Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers, the managers of Anger's art galleries. He had passed away on May 11, 2023, and the news was only just announced today.
Anger was a firebrand, an artistic rebel who aggressively and provocatively eschewed convention to present the world a new, cohesive type of underground, ultra-queer aesthetic that informs media and culture to this day. His shorts "Fireworks" and "Scorpio Rising" in particular blended traditionally ultra-masculine imagery -- Naval officers, leather-clad bikers -- with unapologetic gay lust, revealing the desire that exists so naturally in those worlds. Anger also blended images of queerness with religious iconography, tearing down conventional Christian morality, and introducing...
- 5/24/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
The Beatles achieved many extraordinary feats as recording artists through their years in the music industry. However, none was more stunning than the day they dominated the top four slots of the Billboard singles charts on Mar. 28, 1964.
Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison photographed in 1964 | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images The Beatles’ debut album dropped in 1963 in Great Britain and 1964 in the US
The Beatles’ debut album, Please Please Me, debuted in 1963. It recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of its release.
Before the release of Please Please Me, The Beatles released two singles. “Love Me Do” hit the charts on Oct. 5, 1962, and “Please Please Me” debuted on Jan. 11, 1963.
The Please Please Me album was not released in America and was a UK hit. Instead, the group’s debut album was rebranded Introducing The Beatles, and debuted in the United States on Jan. 10, 1964, with a different tracklisting. Americans...
Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison photographed in 1964 | Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images The Beatles’ debut album dropped in 1963 in Great Britain and 1964 in the US
The Beatles’ debut album, Please Please Me, debuted in 1963. It recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of its release.
Before the release of Please Please Me, The Beatles released two singles. “Love Me Do” hit the charts on Oct. 5, 1962, and “Please Please Me” debuted on Jan. 11, 1963.
The Please Please Me album was not released in America and was a UK hit. Instead, the group’s debut album was rebranded Introducing The Beatles, and debuted in the United States on Jan. 10, 1964, with a different tracklisting. Americans...
- 3/28/2023
- by Lucille Barilla
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
What were the biggest hit songs of the 1960s? The decade was dominated by the beginnings of rock and roll, ballads, folk, pop and R&b. Tour our gallery below as we reveal the top nine singles according to our sister Pmc company Billboard.
The decade began with “El Paso” from country music legend Marty Robbins. Diana Ross and the Supremes completed the decade with the final #1 hit song, “Someday We’ll Be Together.” Some of the longest-lasting hit tunes were from The Beatles, The Supremes, Elvis Presley, The Four Seasons, The Rolling Stones and The Monkees.
The artists with the most #1 singles were The Beatles (18), The Supremes (12), Elvis Presley (7), The Rolling Stones (5), Bobby Vinton (4) and The Four Seasons (4).
Which of those artists were the best of the decade for weeks in the #1 position? Enjoy going back 50 to 60 years in our photo gallery below. Tour our other recent decade galleries...
The decade began with “El Paso” from country music legend Marty Robbins. Diana Ross and the Supremes completed the decade with the final #1 hit song, “Someday We’ll Be Together.” Some of the longest-lasting hit tunes were from The Beatles, The Supremes, Elvis Presley, The Four Seasons, The Rolling Stones and The Monkees.
The artists with the most #1 singles were The Beatles (18), The Supremes (12), Elvis Presley (7), The Rolling Stones (5), Bobby Vinton (4) and The Four Seasons (4).
Which of those artists were the best of the decade for weeks in the #1 position? Enjoy going back 50 to 60 years in our photo gallery below. Tour our other recent decade galleries...
- 3/22/2023
- by Chris Beachum and Misty Holland
- Gold Derby
What were the biggest hit songs of the 1960s? The decade was dominated by the beginnings of rock and roll, ballads, folk, pop and R&b. Tour our gallery below as we reveal the top nine singles according to our sister Pmc company Billboard.
The decade began with “El Paso” from country music legend Marty Robbins. Diana Ross and the Supremes completed the decade with the final #1 hit song, “Someday We’ll Be Together.” Some of the longest-lasting hit tunes were from The Beatles, The Supremes, Elvis Presley, The Four Seasons, The Rolling Stones and The Monkees.
The artists with the most #1 singles were The Beatles (18), The Supremes (12), Elvis Presley (7), The Rolling Stones (5), Bobby Vinton (4) and The Four Seasons (4).
Which of those artists were the best of the decade for weeks in the #1 position? Enjoy going back 50 to 60 years in our photo gallery below. Tour our other recent decade galleries...
The decade began with “El Paso” from country music legend Marty Robbins. Diana Ross and the Supremes completed the decade with the final #1 hit song, “Someday We’ll Be Together.” Some of the longest-lasting hit tunes were from The Beatles, The Supremes, Elvis Presley, The Four Seasons, The Rolling Stones and The Monkees.
The artists with the most #1 singles were The Beatles (18), The Supremes (12), Elvis Presley (7), The Rolling Stones (5), Bobby Vinton (4) and The Four Seasons (4).
Which of those artists were the best of the decade for weeks in the #1 position? Enjoy going back 50 to 60 years in our photo gallery below. Tour our other recent decade galleries...
- 3/20/2023
- by Misty Holland
- Gold Derby
Bill Murray was such an integral part of the success of "Saturday Night Live" that many people will assert he was there for the entirety of the show's pioneering first five seasons. He was a member of the "National Lampoon Radio Hour" ensemble that included John Belushi, Gilda Radner, and Chevy Chase, and left an indelible mark on SNL as trend-chasing Nick the Lounge Singer and Todd DILAMuca, the noogie-administering boyfriend of Radner's Lisa Loopner.
Murray, however, was effectively red-shirted for the first season of SNL. Though he was clearly, abundantly talented enough to crack the first season's lineup, producer Lorne Michaels, who was overseeing NBC's late Saturday night experiment, had to kill a darling or two at the last second to appease the network's miserly budgeting. The 25-year-old Murray wound up being the odd oddball out.
Not Quite Ready For The Not Ready For Prime Time Players
According...
Murray, however, was effectively red-shirted for the first season of SNL. Though he was clearly, abundantly talented enough to crack the first season's lineup, producer Lorne Michaels, who was overseeing NBC's late Saturday night experiment, had to kill a darling or two at the last second to appease the network's miserly budgeting. The 25-year-old Murray wound up being the odd oddball out.
Not Quite Ready For The Not Ready For Prime Time Players
According...
- 3/12/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Songwriter, composer, producer and arranger Burt Bacharach, a dominant force in American popular music for half a century, died of natural causes in Los Angeles on Wednesday. He was 94.
Bacharach’s publicist Tina Brausam revealed the news on Thursday.
As a tunesmith, the nonpareil melodist Bacharach found fame in every medium.
His songs — many of them written with lyricist Hal David — became chart-topping successes, particularly in the hands of vocalist Dionne Warwick. Among ’60s songwriting duos, only Lennon-McCartney rivaled Bacharach-David in terms of commercial and artistic achievement. Bacharach collected six Grammys as a writer, arranger and performer from 1967-2005.
His music was ubiquitous on screens both big and small in the ’60s and ’70s, and he was recognized by the Academy Awards and Golden Globes for his work on “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) and “Arthur” (1981). He collected a 1971 Emmy for a TV recital of his work.
On Broadway,...
Bacharach’s publicist Tina Brausam revealed the news on Thursday.
As a tunesmith, the nonpareil melodist Bacharach found fame in every medium.
His songs — many of them written with lyricist Hal David — became chart-topping successes, particularly in the hands of vocalist Dionne Warwick. Among ’60s songwriting duos, only Lennon-McCartney rivaled Bacharach-David in terms of commercial and artistic achievement. Bacharach collected six Grammys as a writer, arranger and performer from 1967-2005.
His music was ubiquitous on screens both big and small in the ’60s and ’70s, and he was recognized by the Academy Awards and Golden Globes for his work on “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) and “Arthur” (1981). He collected a 1971 Emmy for a TV recital of his work.
On Broadway,...
- 2/9/2023
- by Chris Morris
- Variety Film + TV
Composer Angelo Badalamenti has died, leaving behind a musical legacy that spanned ’80s slashers, holiday season slapstick, and, of course, his long running creative partnership with director David Lynch. In memory of the man who collaborated with a Beatle and Bowie and was responsible for so much of the unmistakable mood of the Lynch filmography, the IndieWire staff picked five of the film and TV compositions that will forever transport us to a place where the birds sing a pretty song, and there’s always music in the air.
“Blue Velvet,” “Main Title” (1986)
The first collaboration between Badalamenti and Lynch, “Blue Velvet” boasts a main title that sees the late composer wryly hinting at the devilish duplicity of Jeffrey Beaumont’s (Kyle MacLachlan) descent into a suburban underworld with characteristic brilliance.
Presented over a blue velvet curtain, with the embellished names of Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, and the rest of...
“Blue Velvet,” “Main Title” (1986)
The first collaboration between Badalamenti and Lynch, “Blue Velvet” boasts a main title that sees the late composer wryly hinting at the devilish duplicity of Jeffrey Beaumont’s (Kyle MacLachlan) descent into a suburban underworld with characteristic brilliance.
Presented over a blue velvet curtain, with the embellished names of Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, and the rest of...
- 12/12/2022
- by Erik Adams, Sarah Shachat, Ryan Lattanzio and Alison Foreman
- Indiewire
Click here to read the full article.
Angelo Badalamenti, the acclaimed David Lynch composer who went from teaching in junior high school in Brooklyn to creating haunting, ethereal music for the filmmaker’s Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive, has died. He was 85.
Badalamenti died Sunday of natural causes surrounded by family at his home in Lincoln Park, New Jersey, his niece Frances Badalamenti told The Hollywood Reporter.
The classically trained composer also collaborated with an eclectic mix of singers in virtually every genre during his long career, from Nina Simone, Nancy Wilson, Shirley Bassey, Patti Austin, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Marianne Faithfull, Liza Minnelli, Mel Tillis and Roberta Flack to Pet Shop Boys, Anthrax, Dolores O’Riordan, Tim Booth and LL Cool J.
Badalamenti composed the theme music for ABC’s Twin Peaks, NBC’s Profiler and Bravo’s Inside the Actors Studio, and for the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona,...
Angelo Badalamenti, the acclaimed David Lynch composer who went from teaching in junior high school in Brooklyn to creating haunting, ethereal music for the filmmaker’s Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive, has died. He was 85.
Badalamenti died Sunday of natural causes surrounded by family at his home in Lincoln Park, New Jersey, his niece Frances Badalamenti told The Hollywood Reporter.
The classically trained composer also collaborated with an eclectic mix of singers in virtually every genre during his long career, from Nina Simone, Nancy Wilson, Shirley Bassey, Patti Austin, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Marianne Faithfull, Liza Minnelli, Mel Tillis and Roberta Flack to Pet Shop Boys, Anthrax, Dolores O’Riordan, Tim Booth and LL Cool J.
Badalamenti composed the theme music for ABC’s Twin Peaks, NBC’s Profiler and Bravo’s Inside the Actors Studio, and for the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona,...
- 12/12/2022
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The first James Bond film, ‘Dr. No,” starring Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Jack Lord and Joseph Wiseman, opened in England on Oct. 2, 1962. But the 007 classic didn’t open in New York and Los Angeles until May 29, 1963. Let’s travel back almost six decades to look at the top events, movie, TV series, books and other cultural events of that year in James Bond history, which was punctuated by the tragic assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on Nov. 22.
35th Annual Academy Awards
Best Picture: “Lawrence of Arabia”
Best Director: David Lean, “Lawrence of Arabia”
Best Actor: Gregory Peck, “To Kill a Mockingbird
Best Actress: Anne Bancroft, “The Miracle Worker”
Best Supporting Actor: Ed Begley, “Sweet Bird of Youth”
Best Supporting Actress: Patty Duke, “The Miracle Worker”
Top 10 highest grossing films
“Cleopatra”
“How the West Was Won”
“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”
“Tom Jones”
“Irma La Douce...
35th Annual Academy Awards
Best Picture: “Lawrence of Arabia”
Best Director: David Lean, “Lawrence of Arabia”
Best Actor: Gregory Peck, “To Kill a Mockingbird
Best Actress: Anne Bancroft, “The Miracle Worker”
Best Supporting Actor: Ed Begley, “Sweet Bird of Youth”
Best Supporting Actress: Patty Duke, “The Miracle Worker”
Top 10 highest grossing films
“Cleopatra”
“How the West Was Won”
“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”
“Tom Jones”
“Irma La Douce...
- 10/8/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Thirty-eight minutes. That’s how long you have to wait for the good stuff in Godzilla vs. Kong. And by good stuff, I of course mean the sight of a gorilla punching a lizard so hard that the aircraft carrier beneath them buckles from the impact. It’s the image Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. have been building toward for the better part of a decade in their four-film MonsterVerse saga. Yet now that it’s here, it arrives less like the crescendo of an epic shared universe than it does as a late night B-movie on cable TV. But B-movies starring Godzilla and King Kong have always had their charms, and this is the first one with an astronomical budget to realize them.
As the shortest of Legendary’s MosnterVerse movies, Godzilla vs. Kong is also the slightest, with a multitude of humanoids running around shouting about Hollow Earths and gravitational inversions.
As the shortest of Legendary’s MosnterVerse movies, Godzilla vs. Kong is also the slightest, with a multitude of humanoids running around shouting about Hollow Earths and gravitational inversions.
- 3/29/2021
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
For a criminal who revealed his agenda in exhaustively detailed black-and-white — via his famous essay “Industrial Society and the Future,” published in The Washington Post months ahead of his 1996 capture — Ted Kaczynski remains a somewhat unreadable figure. The domestic terrorist better known as the Unabomber killed three people and injured two dozen more in a national bombing campaign aimed at protesting man’s environmental destruction and technological dependence. Yet his manifesto shed little light on who he actually was, or how a mild-mannered math professor from Chicago grew into an eccentric, isolated survivalist and, eventually, FBI most-wanted material. That makes him a subject both fascinating and oddly resistant to dramatization, though that hasn’t stopped writers and filmmakers from trying over the years.
The latest such effort, Tony Stone’s growlingly moody “Ted K,” is a biopic that effectively honors its subject with its opaque severity. There’s little attempt...
The latest such effort, Tony Stone’s growlingly moody “Ted K,” is a biopic that effectively honors its subject with its opaque severity. There’s little attempt...
- 3/6/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Angel Olsen took to her Instagram on Sunday to sing a new 11-minute song, “Time Bandits.”
Sitting at the piano, she dove into the first verse while staring at the camera: “The feeling takes over at first it’s surprising/But then I surrender no longer in hiding.” Later, she repeats: “I want you I want you I need you right now/To be here and lay down and get on the ground.”
View this post on Instagram
I wrote this after I came home from St. Louis a few weeks ago…...
Sitting at the piano, she dove into the first verse while staring at the camera: “The feeling takes over at first it’s surprising/But then I surrender no longer in hiding.” Later, she repeats: “I want you I want you I need you right now/To be here and lay down and get on the ground.”
View this post on Instagram
I wrote this after I came home from St. Louis a few weeks ago…...
- 10/12/2020
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Angel Olsen has partnered with composer Emile Mosseri for a cover of Bobby Vinton’s “Mr. Lonely.” The rendition appears on the soundtrack to Kajillionaire, Miranda July’s upcoming film out this month.
Olsen takes the 1962 song to new heights, her velvety vocals climbing octaves while backed by Mosseri’s subtle instrumentation. “Letters, never a letter/I get no letters in the mail,” she sings. “I’ve been forgotten, yes, forgotten/Oh, how I wonder, how is it I failed.”
After Mosseri and July met and decided to collaborate on the score,...
Olsen takes the 1962 song to new heights, her velvety vocals climbing octaves while backed by Mosseri’s subtle instrumentation. “Letters, never a letter/I get no letters in the mail,” she sings. “I’ve been forgotten, yes, forgotten/Oh, how I wonder, how is it I failed.”
After Mosseri and July met and decided to collaborate on the score,...
- 9/16/2020
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Jo-An Anderson Fox, the Nashville-based talent, marketing and television development executive whose client list included Bobby Vinton, Perry Como, Jerry Vale, Engelbert Humperdink, Marty Raybon, Perry Danos and Johnny Mathis, died of heart failure Monday in her home. Her daughter, Jill Anderson McIntosh, confirmed the death.
Fox’s career stretched from Connecticut and Broadway to Nashville. Born Jo-An Burns in Schenectady, NY to Joseph and Ann Burns, she attended Niskayuna High School before earning her B.A. degree in Theater at Suny Plattsburgh. She went on to earn a Masters in Theater Management at Suny Albany.
For several years, she served as a marketing executive at the Oakdale Musical Theatre before forming The Anderson Group in 1985. In 1998, she relocated to Nashville, where she became VP of A&r, Marketing and Artist Development at Grand Vista Music.
In recent years, she devoted her time to scouting and developing young talent under the umbrella of her company,...
Fox’s career stretched from Connecticut and Broadway to Nashville. Born Jo-An Burns in Schenectady, NY to Joseph and Ann Burns, she attended Niskayuna High School before earning her B.A. degree in Theater at Suny Plattsburgh. She went on to earn a Masters in Theater Management at Suny Albany.
For several years, she served as a marketing executive at the Oakdale Musical Theatre before forming The Anderson Group in 1985. In 1998, she relocated to Nashville, where she became VP of A&r, Marketing and Artist Development at Grand Vista Music.
In recent years, she devoted her time to scouting and developing young talent under the umbrella of her company,...
- 9/25/2019
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Tony Sokol Sep 6, 2019
The film Yesterday imagines a world where the Beatles never existed. But what might have filled the gap?
In Danny Boyle's film Yesterday, a struggling young musician played by Jack Malik suffers an accident at exactly the same moment a major power surge burns all evidence of former skiffle group the Beatles out of the collective memory of the masses. Only the musician remembers the songs, the stories, and the band's place in the history of popular music. The film, however, is still set in a world where the culture that was shaped by the influence of four relatively working class musicians from a port city remained curiously intact. The Rolling Stones are still around; so is Childish Gambino, thank the gods of music. But Oasis doesn't come up on Google searches when partnered with “Wonderwall.” We can assume there was no Squeeze, Electric Light Orchestra,...
The film Yesterday imagines a world where the Beatles never existed. But what might have filled the gap?
In Danny Boyle's film Yesterday, a struggling young musician played by Jack Malik suffers an accident at exactly the same moment a major power surge burns all evidence of former skiffle group the Beatles out of the collective memory of the masses. Only the musician remembers the songs, the stories, and the band's place in the history of popular music. The film, however, is still set in a world where the culture that was shaped by the influence of four relatively working class musicians from a port city remained curiously intact. The Rolling Stones are still around; so is Childish Gambino, thank the gods of music. But Oasis doesn't come up on Google searches when partnered with “Wonderwall.” We can assume there was no Squeeze, Electric Light Orchestra,...
- 9/5/2019
- Den of Geek
Hollywood Vampires: The Birth of Midnight Movies on L.A.'s Sunset Strip is a three-part series of essays by Tim Concannon.Once Upon A Time On The Sunset STRIP1969 on the Sunset Strip was a period of dislocation, dissipation and dissolution from which the Hollywood of the Seventies emerged. A movie theatre adjoining Santa Monica Boulevard, where the Underground Cinema 12 film festival held sold-out midnight shows attended by thousands of Freaks, is an overlooked catalyst of L.A.'s underground scene, alongside Pandora's Box, the club recreated in Riot On the Sunset Strip (1967) and which was the focus of the November 1966 Sunset Strip disturbances.Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time...in Hollywood—which is woven around the Manson family murders in 1969, though it isn't focused on them—is situated in the same unsettling hinterland between film stardom and savage violence that Peter Bogdanovich's Targets touches on as well.
- 7/31/2019
- MUBI
Blue Velvet
Blu ray
Criterion
1986 / 2.35 : 1 / 120 Min.
Starring Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern
Cinematography by Frederick Elmes
Directed by David Lynch
Voyeurs come in all shapes and sizes, from wallflowers like Russ Meyer’s Immoral Mr. Teas to the handsome but lethal pin-up artist of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom – all of them slackers compared to Jeff Jeffries, the sleepless shutterbug played by James Stewart in Hitchcock’s Rear Window.
A house-bound photo-journalist obsessed with the strange behavior of his reclusive neighbor, Jeffries stops at nothing in his compulsive pursuit. This being a Hitchcock film, what drives Jeff’s curiosity is a mix of fear and desire that in the end implicates everyone, including the audience.
Jeffries’s boyish smile disguised his darker inclinations – a notion Mel Brooks had in mind when he christened David Lynch “Jimmy Stewart from Mars” – an apt characterization of the director as...
Blu ray
Criterion
1986 / 2.35 : 1 / 120 Min.
Starring Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Isabella Rossellini, Laura Dern
Cinematography by Frederick Elmes
Directed by David Lynch
Voyeurs come in all shapes and sizes, from wallflowers like Russ Meyer’s Immoral Mr. Teas to the handsome but lethal pin-up artist of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom – all of them slackers compared to Jeff Jeffries, the sleepless shutterbug played by James Stewart in Hitchcock’s Rear Window.
A house-bound photo-journalist obsessed with the strange behavior of his reclusive neighbor, Jeffries stops at nothing in his compulsive pursuit. This being a Hitchcock film, what drives Jeff’s curiosity is a mix of fear and desire that in the end implicates everyone, including the audience.
Jeffries’s boyish smile disguised his darker inclinations – a notion Mel Brooks had in mind when he christened David Lynch “Jimmy Stewart from Mars” – an apt characterization of the director as...
- 6/8/2019
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
A horde of David Lynch devotees descended on New York venue Brooklyn Steel this weekend to drink Log Lady Lager, watch Blue Velvet with an intro by its stars and soak in some avant-garde ambiance via a stacked lineup of musical performances.
The first New York–based, Lynch-curated Festival of Disruption featured talks with Lynch-approved actorsKyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini and Naomi Watts, a keynote speech by thefilmmaker himself and performances by Animal Collective (who used a psychedelic, biology-inspiredbackdrop), My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Flying Lotus (whoperformed a Lynch-themed DJ set) and Rebekah del Rio,...
The first New York–based, Lynch-curated Festival of Disruption featured talks with Lynch-approved actorsKyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini and Naomi Watts, a keynote speech by thefilmmaker himself and performances by Animal Collective (who used a psychedelic, biology-inspiredbackdrop), My Morning Jacket's Jim James, Flying Lotus (whoperformed a Lynch-themed DJ set) and Rebekah del Rio,...
- 5/21/2018
- Rollingstone.com
This week, Chris Feil's soundtrack series covers a David Lynch classic...
David Lynch has used music to genius effect over his career, particularly drawing from 50s and 60s crooners to create a cinematic world displaced in time. But Lynch’s most definitive use of preexisting songs is in one of his most narratively focused masterpieces, Blue Velvet. This is the best example of how he distorts the wholesomeness of the sound to reveal darker tones beneath performative American culture.
Music is as much a piece of this suburban facade as any of Lynch’s hellscapes, announcing as much when it fades from Angelo Badalamenti’s operatic overture to Bobby Vinton’s title classic. A placid sky descends upon a thorny rose bush, gorgeously staining the picked fence’s rigid sterility like how Lynch poisons our relationship to the music. Vinton’s voice is tinny in its soulfulness, a swingy sanitized...
David Lynch has used music to genius effect over his career, particularly drawing from 50s and 60s crooners to create a cinematic world displaced in time. But Lynch’s most definitive use of preexisting songs is in one of his most narratively focused masterpieces, Blue Velvet. This is the best example of how he distorts the wholesomeness of the sound to reveal darker tones beneath performative American culture.
Music is as much a piece of this suburban facade as any of Lynch’s hellscapes, announcing as much when it fades from Angelo Badalamenti’s operatic overture to Bobby Vinton’s title classic. A placid sky descends upon a thorny rose bush, gorgeously staining the picked fence’s rigid sterility like how Lynch poisons our relationship to the music. Vinton’s voice is tinny in its soulfulness, a swingy sanitized...
- 7/12/2017
- by Chris Feil
- FilmExperience
David Lynch proved himself as a master of film music in his 1986 feature.
“Every note of music has enough breath to carry you away, and as a director, all you have to do is let the right wind blow at the right time” — David Lynch
Sound and music are incredibly important in David Lynch’s films. From Eraserhead (1977) on, Lynch has shown his talent for creating creepy and dreamy soundscapes, which include music and dialogue as well as diegetic and non-diegetic sound effects. Perhaps Lynch’s most popular film, Blue Velvet (1986) perfectly blends together pop music, original score, and Lynchian sound effects. Blue Velvet is especially rich with beautiful music that both comments on and runs counter to the images onscreen. This was the first film in which Lynch focused on both original score/sound effects and pre-existing pop music.
David Lynch is never completely serious or completely joking — he is always both at the same time...
“Every note of music has enough breath to carry you away, and as a director, all you have to do is let the right wind blow at the right time” — David Lynch
Sound and music are incredibly important in David Lynch’s films. From Eraserhead (1977) on, Lynch has shown his talent for creating creepy and dreamy soundscapes, which include music and dialogue as well as diegetic and non-diegetic sound effects. Perhaps Lynch’s most popular film, Blue Velvet (1986) perfectly blends together pop music, original score, and Lynchian sound effects. Blue Velvet is especially rich with beautiful music that both comments on and runs counter to the images onscreen. This was the first film in which Lynch focused on both original score/sound effects and pre-existing pop music.
David Lynch is never completely serious or completely joking — he is always both at the same time...
- 3/28/2017
- by Angela Morrison
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman will co-produce a remake of John Landis' 1981 horror comedy, An American Werewolf in London, Deadline reports.
Landis' son, Max, is slated to write and direct the film. The younger Landis recently made his feature film directorial debut with the romantic comedy, Me Him Her, which he also wrote. Landis has also written several movies including Mr. Right, Victor Frankenstein and American Ultra.
Kirkman will produce the remake with Walking Dead executive producer David Alpert through their production company Skybound Entertainment. News of the...
Landis' son, Max, is slated to write and direct the film. The younger Landis recently made his feature film directorial debut with the romantic comedy, Me Him Her, which he also wrote. Landis has also written several movies including Mr. Right, Victor Frankenstein and American Ultra.
Kirkman will produce the remake with Walking Dead executive producer David Alpert through their production company Skybound Entertainment. News of the...
- 11/8/2016
- Rollingstone.com
[Blue Velvet] was the song that sparked the movie!—David Lynch(1)Blue velvet, red lips, sprawling, manicured neighborhood lawns; the transgressions that go on behind the closed doors of ostensibly squeaky-clean American suburbia; the mysterious melancholy behind a pop song written in the early 1950s: these were the things that inspired David Lynch to write Blue Velvet. Kyle MacLachlan plays Jeffrey Beaumont in the film, a young man who returns to his hometown of Lumberton after his father has had a stroke. Whilst walking home after visiting his father in hospital, Jeffrey comes across an ant-infested human ear in an empty lot and takes it upon himself to investigate the mystery surrounding it, resulting in his being seduced and almost destroyed by the seamy underbelly of the town. In his investigations Jeffrey is torn between two worlds, one of innocence and one of corruption, and it is a duality that is not...
- 11/8/2016
- MUBI
Last year's surreal, star-studded musical tribute to David Lynch will be released as a double album, The Music of David Lynch, featuring performances from Karen O, the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd, Duran Duran, Sky Ferreira, Moby and more, Pitchfork reports.
The one-night only concert/fundraiser for the David Lynch Foundation featured a variety of musicians tackling songs from and inspired by Lynch's projects. The filmmaker's longtime composer, Angelo Badalamenti, even recreated "Laura Palmer's Theme" and "Dance of the Dream Man" from Twin Peaks, which will open the album's first and second LPs,...
The one-night only concert/fundraiser for the David Lynch Foundation featured a variety of musicians tackling songs from and inspired by Lynch's projects. The filmmaker's longtime composer, Angelo Badalamenti, even recreated "Laura Palmer's Theme" and "Dance of the Dream Man" from Twin Peaks, which will open the album's first and second LPs,...
- 4/7/2016
- Rollingstone.com
To help make the wait for the new Twin Peaks ever so slightly easier, David Lynch‘s fourth feature will be returning to theaters in advance of its 30th anniversary. Blue Velvet, released on September 19th, 1986, is one of the director’s most evocative and emotionally charged films, following Kyle MacLachlan’s character as he burrows down a rabbit hole of darkness.
Today brings a new trailer and poster to highlight the anniversary release, which will first arrive at Film Forum for a week-long run, starting on March 25, before expanding elsewhere in the United States and hitting the U.K. this fall. If you have yet to see one of Lynch’s best films — also starring Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper and Laura Dern — or even if you name it as one of your favorites, be sure to seek it out if it’s playing near you. Check out the trailer and poster below,...
Today brings a new trailer and poster to highlight the anniversary release, which will first arrive at Film Forum for a week-long run, starting on March 25, before expanding elsewhere in the United States and hitting the U.K. this fall. If you have yet to see one of Lynch’s best films — also starring Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper and Laura Dern — or even if you name it as one of your favorites, be sure to seek it out if it’s playing near you. Check out the trailer and poster below,...
- 3/3/2016
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Ann-Margret movies: From sex kitten to two-time Oscar nominee. Ann-Margret: 'Carnal Knowledge' and 'Tommy' proved that 'sex symbol' was a remarkable actress Ann-Margret, the '60s star who went from sex kitten to respected actress and two-time Oscar nominee, is Turner Classic Movies' star today, Aug. 13, '15. As part of its “Summer Under the Stars” series, TCM is showing this evening the movies that earned Ann-Margret her Academy Award nods: Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge (1971) and Ken Russell's Tommy (1975). Written by Jules Feiffer, and starring Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel, the downbeat – some have found it misogynistic; others have praised it for presenting American men as chauvinistic pigs – Carnal Knowledge is one of the precursors of “adult Hollywood moviemaking,” a rare species that, propelled by the success of disparate arthouse fare such as Vilgot Sjöman's I Am Curious (Yellow) and Costa-Gavras' Z, briefly flourished from...
- 8/14/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Reese Witherspoon and Jean-Marc Vallée making Wild
Jean-Marc Vallée’s eighth feature film Wild is just about to begin its theatrical release in North America. The film stars Reese Witherspoon, who plays Cheryl Strayed as she goes on an incredible, though unprepared, hike across the Pacific Crest Trail to morn the death of her mother. This new release provides a great opportunity to reflect on the director’s career and survey the literature surrounding him.
Even though I’m sympathetic to Barry Hertz’s article in Maclean’s, "Jean-Marc Vallée: Film’s redemption man" (Sept. 15, 2014), for acknowledging the director’s talent and growing international reputation, it still doesn’t do Vallée justice as it concludes with vague generalizations that, instead of enlightening, overlook his actual merits. Hertz overemphasizes Vallée’s work with actors and argues that he ‘lacks’ a unique style of directing, criticizes him for his modesty, and...
Jean-Marc Vallée’s eighth feature film Wild is just about to begin its theatrical release in North America. The film stars Reese Witherspoon, who plays Cheryl Strayed as she goes on an incredible, though unprepared, hike across the Pacific Crest Trail to morn the death of her mother. This new release provides a great opportunity to reflect on the director’s career and survey the literature surrounding him.
Even though I’m sympathetic to Barry Hertz’s article in Maclean’s, "Jean-Marc Vallée: Film’s redemption man" (Sept. 15, 2014), for acknowledging the director’s talent and growing international reputation, it still doesn’t do Vallée justice as it concludes with vague generalizations that, instead of enlightening, overlook his actual merits. Hertz overemphasizes Vallée’s work with actors and argues that he ‘lacks’ a unique style of directing, criticizes him for his modesty, and...
- 12/3/2014
- by David M. L. Davidson
- MUBI
Joan Rivers won't be getting the perfect funeral she wrote about ... because the famous singer she wanted to perform is too sick to make her wish come true. In her 2012 book, Joan described her perfect funeral as "a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action." She wrote, "I don’t want some rabbi rambling on; I want Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents. I don’t want a eulogy; I want Bobby Vinton to...
- 9/5/2014
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
Of course Joan had the best funeral requests ever.
As Melissa Rivers said in her final statement about her mother Joan Rivers' passing, “Although that is difficult to do right now, I know her final wish would be that we return to laughing soon."
Lucky for us, Joan is helping us do just that with the troves of amazing comedy she left behind. Even she was able to laugh about her own mortality in her 2012 book, I Hate Everyone…Starting With Me. This is what she had this to say about her funeral:
"When I die (and yes, Melissa, that day will come; and yes, Melissa, everything’s in your name), I want my funeral to be a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action…I want Craft services, I want paparazzi and I want publicists making a scene! I want it to be Hollywood all the way. I don’t want some rabbi rambling on; I want...
As Melissa Rivers said in her final statement about her mother Joan Rivers' passing, “Although that is difficult to do right now, I know her final wish would be that we return to laughing soon."
Lucky for us, Joan is helping us do just that with the troves of amazing comedy she left behind. Even she was able to laugh about her own mortality in her 2012 book, I Hate Everyone…Starting With Me. This is what she had this to say about her funeral:
"When I die (and yes, Melissa, that day will come; and yes, Melissa, everything’s in your name), I want my funeral to be a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action…I want Craft services, I want paparazzi and I want publicists making a scene! I want it to be Hollywood all the way. I don’t want some rabbi rambling on; I want...
- 9/4/2014
- Entertainment Tonight
"Are you kidding me, man?!" composer Angelo Badalamenti howls jokingly when Rolling Stone asks him what he thought of Twin Peaks, the TV series he scored in the early Nineties. "It was really off the wall. I thought it was either going to sink violently down the drain or, hopefully, capture the intrigue of enthusiastic people conversing by the office water cooler on a Monday morning."
12 Things We Learned from David Lynch's Talk at Bam
As it turned out, Twin Peaks was an instant hit when it premiered on April 8th,...
12 Things We Learned from David Lynch's Talk at Bam
As it turned out, Twin Peaks was an instant hit when it premiered on April 8th,...
- 7/25/2014
- Rollingstone.com
The same week Bruno Mars releases “Unorthodox Jukebox,” the first single from his sophomore set ascends to the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. “Locked Out Of Heaven” rises one spot to end Rihanna’s “Diamonds” after three weeks at No. 1. The song is Mars’ fourth No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in a 34-month span, giving him the record for the fastest accumulation of a quartet of No. 1s by any male artist in 48 years. You have to go back to Bobby Vinton, who scored the same trick in 30 months, starting in 1962 with “Roses Are...
- 12/12/2012
- Hitfix
Lana Del Rey's first TV spot for high street store H&M has emerged online. The 30-second clip, in which Del Rey models the brand's autumn/winter collection, shows the singer performing 'Blue Velvet', a song first made famous by Tony Bennett, and popularised by Bobby Vinton.
As Del Rey sings into a vintage-style microphone, the camera pans to show a line of identically clothed Lana 'clones' watching, along with a number of other emotional observers. The singer's signature (more)...
As Del Rey sings into a vintage-style microphone, the camera pans to show a line of identically clothed Lana 'clones' watching, along with a number of other emotional observers. The singer's signature (more)...
- 9/15/2012
- by By Alison Rowley
- Digital Spy
Four new Lana Del Rey tracks have made their way online, just as the deluxe edition of her early 2012 album Born To Die looms for a fall release.
Unreleased Del Rey tunes "Afraid," "Big Bad Wolf" and "Playing Dangerous" leaked online Thursday. The breathy singer croons on the tracks, once again invoking the Nancy Sintra persona that has followed her since her "Video Games" debut.
In June, Del Rey performed new track "Body Electric" for a sold-out crowd in Los Angeles' El Rey Theatre, reported NME.
Turning from wolves to jaguars, the beautiful Del Rey is now the face of luxury car brand Jaguar. Ads featuring the auburn singer promoting Jaguar's new F-Type surfaced, but an automobile is nowhere in sight, according to the Hollywood Reporter. It is just Del Rey against serene backdrops pouting her famous lips.
Choosing Del Rey as Jaguar's spokesmodel seemed natural, according to Adrian Hallmark,...
Unreleased Del Rey tunes "Afraid," "Big Bad Wolf" and "Playing Dangerous" leaked online Thursday. The breathy singer croons on the tracks, once again invoking the Nancy Sintra persona that has followed her since her "Video Games" debut.
In June, Del Rey performed new track "Body Electric" for a sold-out crowd in Los Angeles' El Rey Theatre, reported NME.
Turning from wolves to jaguars, the beautiful Del Rey is now the face of luxury car brand Jaguar. Ads featuring the auburn singer promoting Jaguar's new F-Type surfaced, but an automobile is nowhere in sight, according to the Hollywood Reporter. It is just Del Rey against serene backdrops pouting her famous lips.
Choosing Del Rey as Jaguar's spokesmodel seemed natural, according to Adrian Hallmark,...
- 8/24/2012
- by Cavan Sieczkowski
- Huffington Post
The disco ball is dimming its sparkle today. Mere moments after the sad news broke that Donna Summer tragically succumbed to her battle with cancer, her celebrity friends and admirers took to Twitter and released statements to offer their respects to the legendary Queen of Disco.
Related: Queen of Disco Donna Summer Dies
Mary J. Blige: Rip Donna Summer!!!!!!!!! You were truly a game changer!!!
Ryan Seacrest: I remember sitting in the front seat of my mom's toyota while she sang Donna Summer's "she works hard for the money" songs were just classic
Alyssa Milano: I used to do interpretative dance in my living room to Donna Summer's music when I was a little girl. Rest in peace.
Niecy Nash: Rip Donna Summer #discodiva #sadtweet Whitney. Tina Marie. Vesta. Now Donna Summer. The choir in heaven has a new member. They will be singing up a beautiful storm:)
La Toya Jackson: My condolence...
Related: Queen of Disco Donna Summer Dies
Mary J. Blige: Rip Donna Summer!!!!!!!!! You were truly a game changer!!!
Ryan Seacrest: I remember sitting in the front seat of my mom's toyota while she sang Donna Summer's "she works hard for the money" songs were just classic
Alyssa Milano: I used to do interpretative dance in my living room to Donna Summer's music when I was a little girl. Rest in peace.
Niecy Nash: Rip Donna Summer #discodiva #sadtweet Whitney. Tina Marie. Vesta. Now Donna Summer. The choir in heaven has a new member. They will be singing up a beautiful storm:)
La Toya Jackson: My condolence...
- 5/17/2012
- Entertainment Tonight
Chillerama introduced the world to a number of things, from sex-hungry ghouls to man-eating semen, but perhaps the most memorable segment in last year’s anthology hit is Tim Sullivan’s I Was A Teenage Werebear. The hybrid of Rebel Without A Cause and Beach Blanket Bingo (with a little bit of s&m) is a hilarious musical that goes over the top to a sweet tune. Now the tunes featured in Werebear are available in a limited edition soundtrack that, despite being on the market less than 24 hours at this point, is already causing waves.
Sullivan initially offered the disc on Ebay as a bulk quantity auction, but within hours, the auction giant removed his listing, citing it as, “sexually and morally offensive.” As a result, the filmmaker has had to ask interested parties to order directly from him by sending an request to newrebel2211@gmail.com with your...
Sullivan initially offered the disc on Ebay as a bulk quantity auction, but within hours, the auction giant removed his listing, citing it as, “sexually and morally offensive.” As a result, the filmmaker has had to ask interested parties to order directly from him by sending an request to newrebel2211@gmail.com with your...
- 2/17/2012
- by Justin
- FamousMonsters of Filmland
David Lynch deploys music in his movies to devastating effect. Ahead of a retrospective, we pick his best statements in sound
David Lynch once said: "Sound is almost like a drug. It's so pure that when it goes in your ears, it instantly does something to you." With the exception of perhaps Quentin Tarantino, no one has repurposed music with greater effect in film than Lynch. And so, in light of his forthcoming BFI retrospective, here are some of his greatest musical moments.
Mulholland Drive – Llorando
The open-ended narrative of Mulholland Drive, coupled with Lynch's surreal technique, lends this movie a hallucinatory quality. It makes this scene even more jarring because Lynch's use of music is so beautiful. At a pivotal point in the film, lovers Betty and Rita visit the ghostly, near-empty Club Silencio. A performer announces "No hay bander": there is no band. And yet we hear one.
David Lynch once said: "Sound is almost like a drug. It's so pure that when it goes in your ears, it instantly does something to you." With the exception of perhaps Quentin Tarantino, no one has repurposed music with greater effect in film than Lynch. And so, in light of his forthcoming BFI retrospective, here are some of his greatest musical moments.
Mulholland Drive – Llorando
The open-ended narrative of Mulholland Drive, coupled with Lynch's surreal technique, lends this movie a hallucinatory quality. It makes this scene even more jarring because Lynch's use of music is so beautiful. At a pivotal point in the film, lovers Betty and Rita visit the ghostly, near-empty Club Silencio. A performer announces "No hay bander": there is no band. And yet we hear one.
- 1/31/2012
- by Eleanor Morgan
- The Guardian - Film News
With the highly anticipated horror comedy anthology Chillerama finally hitting Blu-ray and DVD this week and his top-secret mockumentary about to exclusively premiere on Dread Central very soon, hot up-and-coming actor Anton Troy surely has a lot of things to talk about. As a result we're excited to present our exclusive interview with the star of Tim Sullivan’s segment of Chillerama, "I Was A Teenage Werebear".
What do we need to know about Anton Troy?
Anton Troy: Well, I’m an actor in the horror anthology film ‘Chillerama’. Which is a great deal of fun. I’m very passionate about my art. I try to bring a level of humanity to all of my portrayals.
How did you get involved with Tim’s segment of the movie?
At: I got involved through Gabby West, who’s also in the movie; she’s the winner of ‘Scream Queens 2...
What do we need to know about Anton Troy?
Anton Troy: Well, I’m an actor in the horror anthology film ‘Chillerama’. Which is a great deal of fun. I’m very passionate about my art. I try to bring a level of humanity to all of my portrayals.
How did you get involved with Tim’s segment of the movie?
At: I got involved through Gabby West, who’s also in the movie; she’s the winner of ‘Scream Queens 2...
- 11/28/2011
- by Mikhael Agafonov
- DreadCentral.com
Kansas City, Mo. -- Todd Haley scored major points with his Kansas City Chiefs players after he was spotted at a Lil Wayne concert at the Sprint Center on Monday night.
The 41-year-old head coach promised to attend the rapper's show after the Chiefs used one of his songs as part of a video for their pregame warm-up last season. Haley recalls saying, "If he comes to town, and I get an opportunity to give him a copy of it and thank him, I'll do it."
Haley called it "a great show," and Lil Wayne tweeted at him and Chiefs cornerback Brandon Flowers afterward: "Props to Tech 9 and the Kc Chiefs Coach Haley and (hash)24 B. Flowers for the luv!"
Several players said they appreciated Haley's taste in music, though they weren't told that Haley admitted to listening to Barbara Streisand and Bobby Vinton, too.
Kc was krrrazeeee!!! Props to...
The 41-year-old head coach promised to attend the rapper's show after the Chiefs used one of his songs as part of a video for their pregame warm-up last season. Haley recalls saying, "If he comes to town, and I get an opportunity to give him a copy of it and thank him, I'll do it."
Haley called it "a great show," and Lil Wayne tweeted at him and Chiefs cornerback Brandon Flowers afterward: "Props to Tech 9 and the Kc Chiefs Coach Haley and (hash)24 B. Flowers for the luv!"
Several players said they appreciated Haley's taste in music, though they weren't told that Haley admitted to listening to Barbara Streisand and Bobby Vinton, too.
Kc was krrrazeeee!!! Props to...
- 8/23/2011
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Second #188
Jeffrey’s father has just suffered a stroke while watering his front yard, and has fallen to his back, writhing in pain, the hose that he still holds—in a sad and funny and helpless way—spraying water all around. That shot is followed by this one, as the camera pans slowly down, the background a blur, capturing the water in mid-air as Bobby Vinton sings “Blue Velvet,” which he had released in 1963, several months before the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The song, written by Bernie Wayne and Lee Morris, dates back to 1950. Wayne was a prolific composer, who wrote at least two other songs with Lynchian resonance: “A Patch of Blue” (with Jerry Goldsmith) from the movie of the same name and the jingle “Chock Full O’Nuts is the Heavenly Coffee,” which would have been right at home in Twin Peaks. This frame at second #188 is...
Jeffrey’s father has just suffered a stroke while watering his front yard, and has fallen to his back, writhing in pain, the hose that he still holds—in a sad and funny and helpless way—spraying water all around. That shot is followed by this one, as the camera pans slowly down, the background a blur, capturing the water in mid-air as Bobby Vinton sings “Blue Velvet,” which he had released in 1963, several months before the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The song, written by Bernie Wayne and Lee Morris, dates back to 1950. Wayne was a prolific composer, who wrote at least two other songs with Lynchian resonance: “A Patch of Blue” (with Jerry Goldsmith) from the movie of the same name and the jingle “Chock Full O’Nuts is the Heavenly Coffee,” which would have been right at home in Twin Peaks. This frame at second #188 is...
- 8/15/2011
- by Nicholas Rombes
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Craig here with Take Three. Today: Isabella Rossellini
Take One: Blue Velvet (1986)
“She... Wore... Bluuuuuue Vel-vet.” Indeed she did: bluer than velvet was the night. Ladies and gentlemen, Rossellini was the Blue Lady, Miss Dorothy Vallens, in David Lynch’s mid-eighties masterpiece Blue Velvet. Vallens was a tortured torch singer, a gas-guzzling freakopath Frank Booth’s (Dennis Hopper) late-night inviter and pervy amateur detective Jeffrey Beaumont’s (Kyle MacLachlan) sexual initiation vixen. And yet, behind it all, lay a fretful wife and mother. Rossellini’s introductory scene in the film showed her as a midnight siren, a depressed blue dahlia who, once done with her sad, strange rendition of Bobby Vinton’s titular song, seems to dematerialise into a pair of Lynch’s signature red curtains.
After she finds snooping Jeffrey in her closet she’s both defender of her home and explorer of her own dark thoughts. She’s furious,...
Take One: Blue Velvet (1986)
“She... Wore... Bluuuuuue Vel-vet.” Indeed she did: bluer than velvet was the night. Ladies and gentlemen, Rossellini was the Blue Lady, Miss Dorothy Vallens, in David Lynch’s mid-eighties masterpiece Blue Velvet. Vallens was a tortured torch singer, a gas-guzzling freakopath Frank Booth’s (Dennis Hopper) late-night inviter and pervy amateur detective Jeffrey Beaumont’s (Kyle MacLachlan) sexual initiation vixen. And yet, behind it all, lay a fretful wife and mother. Rossellini’s introductory scene in the film showed her as a midnight siren, a depressed blue dahlia who, once done with her sad, strange rendition of Bobby Vinton’s titular song, seems to dematerialise into a pair of Lynch’s signature red curtains.
After she finds snooping Jeffrey in her closet she’s both defender of her home and explorer of her own dark thoughts. She’s furious,...
- 4/3/2011
- by Craig Bloomfield
- FilmExperience
Filed under: Features, Horror
In the new horror film 'Insidious,' lots of creepy happenings occur inside the house belonging to Renai (Rose Byrne), like the radio that suddenly switches to Tiny Tim's 'Tiptoe Through the Tulips.'
The high-pitched '60s novelty song is arguably shudder-inducing in its own right, but in the new film from the director of 'Saw,' certain spirits' fondness for the tune makes it even creepier.
Trust the power of movies to change the way we view certain songs forever. If you get a shiver when you hear Bobby Vinton crooning 'Blue Velvet' or fear for your life if John Denver's 'Rocky Mountain High' comes on the radio, you're not alone.
Warning: Clips are disturbing (which is kind of the whole point of this article) and generally Nsfw.
Continue Reading...
In the new horror film 'Insidious,' lots of creepy happenings occur inside the house belonging to Renai (Rose Byrne), like the radio that suddenly switches to Tiny Tim's 'Tiptoe Through the Tulips.'
The high-pitched '60s novelty song is arguably shudder-inducing in its own right, but in the new film from the director of 'Saw,' certain spirits' fondness for the tune makes it even creepier.
Trust the power of movies to change the way we view certain songs forever. If you get a shiver when you hear Bobby Vinton crooning 'Blue Velvet' or fear for your life if John Denver's 'Rocky Mountain High' comes on the radio, you're not alone.
Warning: Clips are disturbing (which is kind of the whole point of this article) and generally Nsfw.
Continue Reading...
- 3/29/2011
- by Sharon Knolle
- Moviefone
"On the occasion of David Lynch's 65th birthday (and with the 25th anniversary of his masterpiece Blue Velvet coming up this September), Flavorpill presents 65 obscure facts about the renegade director/writer/photographer/musician/artist." Aaron Wertheimer's got a fun list there. For example, "7. In the early 80s, Stanley Kubrick referred to Eraserhead as his favorite film." Less of a surprise: "12. His favorite painter is Francis Bacon."
In the current La Weekly, Gustavo Turner talks with Lynch about the singles he's been releasing lately, but not before noting: "Anyone familiar with his film work has long figured out that Lynch is a genuine sound freak: Witness the uncanny industrial soundscapes of Eraserhead, the unforgettable aural stampede that elevates The Elephant Man, his 180-degree redefinition of Bobby Vinton and Roy Orbison in Blue Velvet, the groundbreaking romanticism of the Twin Peaks score, the jagged, deranged edges of Lost Highway and, especially,...
In the current La Weekly, Gustavo Turner talks with Lynch about the singles he's been releasing lately, but not before noting: "Anyone familiar with his film work has long figured out that Lynch is a genuine sound freak: Witness the uncanny industrial soundscapes of Eraserhead, the unforgettable aural stampede that elevates The Elephant Man, his 180-degree redefinition of Bobby Vinton and Roy Orbison in Blue Velvet, the groundbreaking romanticism of the Twin Peaks score, the jagged, deranged edges of Lost Highway and, especially,...
- 1/23/2011
- MUBI
Perhaps I'm wrong in this assumption, but I've always felt that Joel and Ethan Coen's debut film, Blood Simple (1984), has a tendency to fall under the shadow of their later neo-noir accomplishments, most notably Fargo (1996) and No Country for Old Men (2007). While the film has popped back up into popular consciousness during the past decade thanks to the theatrical release of a Director's Cut (one that was shockingly shorter and leaner than the original theatrical version...make a note Judd Apatow) and Zhang Yimou's incredibly loose remake A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop (2009, unreleased in the Us), it still feels neglected, stranded somewhere in the mid-1980s. This feeling of neglect struck me when teaching American Film History in fall 2009 to a class of undergraduates. My traditional discussion icebreaker (which consists of asking the student for their name, major, and favorite film) yielded many students to throw...
- 8/11/2010
- by Drew Morton
When I originally put together the list of the neo-noirs I was planning on including in this retrospective, I had put down two David Lynch titles: Lost Highway (1997) and Mulholland Dr. (2001). Unfortunately, Mulholland Dr., one of my favorite films of the aughts, had already been covered by the site when we attempted the film club, so I didn't want to whip a dead horse by covering it again. Having promised I'd watch Lost Highway with a friend, I was at a loss as to what to watch. I scanned my DVD shelf, my eyes momentarily meeting with Blue Velvet (1986), and I began to mentally scratch my head. I hadn't watched the film in nearly a decade, not since being forced onto a David Lynch kick brought on by the theatrical release of Mulholland Dr. in high school. For some reason, I never had the urge to return to it, not...
- 7/20/2010
- by Drew Morton
Wayne Allwine, who provided the voice of Mickey Mouse for the past 32 years, died May 18 at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications due to diabetes. He was 62.
Allwine's wife, Russi Taylor, who provides the voice of Minnie Mouse, was at his side at the time of his passing.
Allwine, also was an Emmy-winning sound effects editor, was the voice of Disney's world-renowned mouse since 1977, when he first lent his familiar falsetto to animated segments for "The New Mickey Mouse Club." He went on to provide Mickey's voice for such theatrical efforts as "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983), "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988), "The Prince and the Pauper" (1990), the Oscar-nominated short "Runaway Brain" (1997) and the direct-to-dvd feature "Mickey, Donald and Goofy: The Three Musketeers" (2004).
Allwine's voice also has been heard at Disney parks around the world, on television, at live stage events and on radio broadcasts.
Walt Disney provided the original sounds...
Allwine's wife, Russi Taylor, who provides the voice of Minnie Mouse, was at his side at the time of his passing.
Allwine, also was an Emmy-winning sound effects editor, was the voice of Disney's world-renowned mouse since 1977, when he first lent his familiar falsetto to animated segments for "The New Mickey Mouse Club." He went on to provide Mickey's voice for such theatrical efforts as "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983), "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988), "The Prince and the Pauper" (1990), the Oscar-nominated short "Runaway Brain" (1997) and the direct-to-dvd feature "Mickey, Donald and Goofy: The Three Musketeers" (2004).
Allwine's voice also has been heard at Disney parks around the world, on television, at live stage events and on radio broadcasts.
Walt Disney provided the original sounds...
- 5/20/2009
- by By Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
One of the things that I’ve always admired about organized sports is how well regulated they tend to be. There are always referees on the sidelines penalizing players for doing things that they shouldn’t be doing. The coaches, even when they’re red-faced, belligerent stereotypes, seem to always be pushing people to do their best, even if it means nearly killing them. Even better, the fan base is able to respond in real-time when people do things that really suck, making their displeasure all the clearer by throwing food and occasionally attempting to assassinate players (soccer only). I'm leading up to M. Night Shyamalan. Sort of. Really douchey picture of him though, right?
You’d think that people would have come up with something like that for the film world, because let’s face it: the Razzies aren’t enough. There needs to be some better way to let directors,...
You’d think that people would have come up with something like that for the film world, because let’s face it: the Razzies aren’t enough. There needs to be some better way to let directors,...
- 3/4/2009
- by Anders Nelson
- JustPressPlay.net
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