English-born film editor Anne V. Coates, who won an Academy Award for cutting David Lean’s classic “Lawrence of Arabia,” has died. She was 92.
She earned that 1963 Oscar: In addition to its impressive balance of imposing desert landscapes and vivid human drama (culled from some 31 miles of footage), the nearly four-hour epic contains one of the most famous “match” cuts in movie history, from a shot of Peter O’Toole blowing out a match to a majestic desert sunrise.
Coates went on to receive four more Academy Award nominations, for editing Peter Glenville’s “Becket” (1964), David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man” (1980), Wolfgang Petersen’s “In the Line of Fire” (1993) and Steven Soderbergh’s “Out of Sight” (1988).
Her other credits include “Young Cassidy” (1965), “The Bofors Gun” (1968), “The Public Eye” (1972), “Murder on the Orient Express” (1974), “What About Bob?” (1991), “Chaplin” (1992), “Congo” (1995), “Striptease” (1996) and Soderbergh’s “Erin Brockovich” (2000).
Her more recent credits include “The Golden Compass...
She earned that 1963 Oscar: In addition to its impressive balance of imposing desert landscapes and vivid human drama (culled from some 31 miles of footage), the nearly four-hour epic contains one of the most famous “match” cuts in movie history, from a shot of Peter O’Toole blowing out a match to a majestic desert sunrise.
Coates went on to receive four more Academy Award nominations, for editing Peter Glenville’s “Becket” (1964), David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man” (1980), Wolfgang Petersen’s “In the Line of Fire” (1993) and Steven Soderbergh’s “Out of Sight” (1988).
Her other credits include “Young Cassidy” (1965), “The Bofors Gun” (1968), “The Public Eye” (1972), “Murder on the Orient Express” (1974), “What About Bob?” (1991), “Chaplin” (1992), “Congo” (1995), “Striptease” (1996) and Soderbergh’s “Erin Brockovich” (2000).
Her more recent credits include “The Golden Compass...
- 5/9/2018
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
Ron Moody as Fagin in 'Oliver!' based on Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' Ron Moody as Fagin in Dickens musical 'Oliver!': Box office and critical hit (See previous post: "Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' Actor, Academy Award Nominee Dead at 91.") Although British made, Oliver! turned out to be an elephantine release along the lines of – exclamation point or no – Gypsy, Star!, Hello Dolly!, and other Hollywood mega-musicals from the mid'-50s to the early '70s.[1] But however bloated and conventional the final result, and a cast whose best-known name was that of director Carol Reed's nephew, Oliver Reed, Oliver! found countless fans.[2] The mostly British production became a huge financial and critical success in the U.S. at a time when star-studded mega-musicals had become perilous – at times downright disastrous – ventures.[3] Upon the American release of Oliver! in Dec. 1968, frequently acerbic The...
- 6/19/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Screening at Edinburgh International Film Festival as part of a retrospective on writer John McGrath, Jack Gold’s first two features, The Bofors Gun (1968) and The Reckoning (1969), made for punchy, exciting viewing.
Both films were made fairly fast and cheap—Gold, experienced in TV, keeps them moving with stabs of the zoom lens, an active camera and choppy, rough-hewn cutting. They’re not things of beauty, visually, but take their energy and spleen from Nicol Williamson’s manic performances.
The Bofors Gun takes place at a British army base in Germany, where David Warner has to command the night’s guard of the titular cannon without incident in order to get returned to Blighty the following day. His reluctance to discipline his men leads to horrific consequences, mostly caused by a drunken Irishman played by drunken Scottish actor Williamson (Merlin in Excalibur). Williamson’s capacity for loquacious, frenzied and diabolic grandstanding is exercised thoroughly.
Both films were made fairly fast and cheap—Gold, experienced in TV, keeps them moving with stabs of the zoom lens, an active camera and choppy, rough-hewn cutting. They’re not things of beauty, visually, but take their energy and spleen from Nicol Williamson’s manic performances.
The Bofors Gun takes place at a British army base in Germany, where David Warner has to command the night’s guard of the titular cannon without incident in order to get returned to Blighty the following day. His reluctance to discipline his men leads to horrific consequences, mostly caused by a drunken Irishman played by drunken Scottish actor Williamson (Merlin in Excalibur). Williamson’s capacity for loquacious, frenzied and diabolic grandstanding is exercised thoroughly.
- 7/11/2014
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Richard Norton-Taylor and Simon Hattenstone write: Barry Jackson's best-known role may have been the pathologist George Bullard in Midsomer Murders, but his favourite was the title role of Horace, the hero with learning difficulties of a BBC Play for Today (1972) and a series for ITV (1982), written for him by Roy Minton.
He was quietly determined and ludicrously brave. One night when he was making the film The Bofors Gun (1968) he was out with its fiery star Nicol Williamson – not a man to mess with. Williamson challenged him to a game of darts with a difference: while one placed his hand on the dart board, the other would throw round it. Barry went first, and duly threw round Williamson. Then Williamson went and threw the dart straight through Barry's hand. Barry smiled and didn't utter a world. You didn't dare show weakness in front of Nicol, he later told us.
He was quietly determined and ludicrously brave. One night when he was making the film The Bofors Gun (1968) he was out with its fiery star Nicol Williamson – not a man to mess with. Williamson challenged him to a game of darts with a difference: while one placed his hand on the dart board, the other would throw round it. Barry went first, and duly threw round Williamson. Then Williamson went and threw the dart straight through Barry's hand. Barry smiled and didn't utter a world. You didn't dare show weakness in front of Nicol, he later told us.
- 12/10/2013
- by Richard Norton-Taylor, Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
Actor whose unpredictability never undermined his electrifying talent
Nicol Williamson, whose death of oesophageal cancer at the age of 73 has been announced, was arguably the most electrifying actor of his generation, but one whose career flickered and faded like a faulty light fitting. Tall and wiry, with a rasping scowl of a voice, a battered baby face and a mop of unruly curls, he was the best modern Hamlet since John Gielgud, and certainly the angriest, though he scuppered his own performance at the Round House, north London, in 1969, by apologising to the audience and walking off the stage. The experience was recycled in a 1991 Broadway comedy called I Hate Hamlet, in which he proved his point and fell out badly with his co-star.
Williamson's greatest performance was as the dissolute and disintegrating lawyer Bill Maitland in John Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence at the Royal Court theatre in 1964. It was...
Nicol Williamson, whose death of oesophageal cancer at the age of 73 has been announced, was arguably the most electrifying actor of his generation, but one whose career flickered and faded like a faulty light fitting. Tall and wiry, with a rasping scowl of a voice, a battered baby face and a mop of unruly curls, he was the best modern Hamlet since John Gielgud, and certainly the angriest, though he scuppered his own performance at the Round House, north London, in 1969, by apologising to the audience and walking off the stage. The experience was recycled in a 1991 Broadway comedy called I Hate Hamlet, in which he proved his point and fell out badly with his co-star.
Williamson's greatest performance was as the dissolute and disintegrating lawyer Bill Maitland in John Osborne's Inadmissible Evidence at the Royal Court theatre in 1964. It was...
- 1/27/2012
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
Nicol Williamson who played Merlin in John Boorman's Excalibur, dies of cancer. The British actor known for his memorable role as Merlin in the 1981 film, as well as The Seven-Per-Cent Solution as Sherlock Holmes died in Amsterdam on December 16th of esophageal cancer, reports Variety. Sad news indeed. I remember watching Excalibur over 20 times at least when I was younger. A timeless classic that can be watched today and still be incredibly powerful. Williamson was nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards for 1968's The Bofors Gun and Inadmissible Evidence in the same year. He also scored a BAFTA TV Award for his work in 1972's The Gangster Show: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.
- 1/25/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Nicol Williamson who played Merlin in John Boorman's Excalibur, dies of cancer. The British actor known for his memorable role as Merlin in the 1981 film, as well as The Seven-Per-Cent Solution as Sherlock Holmes died in Amsterdam on December 16th of esophageal cancer, reports Variety. Sad news indeed. I remember watching Excalibur over 20 times at least when I was younger. A timeless classic that can be watched today and still be incredibly powerful. Williamson was nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards for 1968's The Bofors Gun and Inadmissible Evidence in the same year. He also scored a BAFTA TV Award for his work in 1972's The Gangster Show: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.
- 1/25/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Nicol Williamson who played Merlin in John Boorman's Excalibur, dies of cancer. The British actor known for his memorable role as Merlin in the 1981 film, as well as The Seven-Per-Cent Solution as Sherlock Holmes died in Amsterdam on December 16th of esophageal cancer, reports Variety. Sad news indeed. I remember watching Excalibur over 20 times at least when I was younger. A timeless classic that can be watched today and still be incredibly powerful. Williamson was nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards for 1968's The Bofors Gun and Inadmissible Evidence in the same year. He also scored a BAFTA TV Award for his work in 1972's The Gangster Show: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.
- 1/25/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
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