‘Spector’ Examines the Life and Crime of Phil Spector, and Reclaims Lana Clarkson’s Story: TV Review
The pop hits of Phil Spector — and there are many of them — depend on a theatrical maximalism. As a producer, Spector’s innovation was the “Wall of Sound,” a shock-and-awe approach to music that is as dazzling as it is overwhelming. Just listen to the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” or Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep — Mountain High” to understand his approach: The songs are so densely orchestrated that they’re practically tactile.
Spector’s reputation today is, rightly, more rooted in the events of his life than in the art he made. But “Spector,” a four-part documentary series on Showtime directed by Sheena M. Joyce and Don Argott, works to make a case that his music — its particular qualities and the stressful process by which it was made — helps explain the man.
Like many artists, Spector drew from life; his first hit, the Teddy Bears’ “To Know Him Is to Love Him,...
Spector’s reputation today is, rightly, more rooted in the events of his life than in the art he made. But “Spector,” a four-part documentary series on Showtime directed by Sheena M. Joyce and Don Argott, works to make a case that his music — its particular qualities and the stressful process by which it was made — helps explain the man.
Like many artists, Spector drew from life; his first hit, the Teddy Bears’ “To Know Him Is to Love Him,...
- 11/3/2022
- by Daniel D'Addario
- Variety Film + TV
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed its 276-member-strong class of 2013.
The list, published by The Hollywood Reporter, includes actors, cinematographers, designers, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, makeup artists and hairstylists, "members-at-large," musicians, producers, PR folks, short filmmakers and animators, sound technicians, visual effects artists, and writers.
Jason Bateman, Rosario Dawson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Milla Jovovich, Lucy Liu, Jennifer Lopez, Emily Mortimer, Sandra Oh, Jason Schwartzman, and Michael Peña are among the roster of actors, while "The Heat" and "Bridesmaids" helmer Paul Feig made the directors' cut.
"We did not change our criteria at all," says Academy president Hawk Koch of this year's larger-than-usual class. "Yes, this year there is a tremendous amount of women, a tremendous amount of people of color, people from all walks of life. This year, we asked the branches to look at everybody who wasn't in the Academy but who deserved to be.
The list, published by The Hollywood Reporter, includes actors, cinematographers, designers, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, makeup artists and hairstylists, "members-at-large," musicians, producers, PR folks, short filmmakers and animators, sound technicians, visual effects artists, and writers.
Jason Bateman, Rosario Dawson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Milla Jovovich, Lucy Liu, Jennifer Lopez, Emily Mortimer, Sandra Oh, Jason Schwartzman, and Michael Peña are among the roster of actors, while "The Heat" and "Bridesmaids" helmer Paul Feig made the directors' cut.
"We did not change our criteria at all," says Academy president Hawk Koch of this year's larger-than-usual class. "Yes, this year there is a tremendous amount of women, a tremendous amount of people of color, people from all walks of life. This year, we asked the branches to look at everybody who wasn't in the Academy but who deserved to be.
- 7/4/2013
- by Laura Larson
- Moviefone
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today the 276 members of the entertainment industry invited to join organization. The list includes actors, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, producers and more. Of those listed below, those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy's membership in 2013. "These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today," said Academy President Hawk Koch in a press release. "Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy." Koch also told Variety, "In the past eight or nine years, each branch could only bring in X amount of members. There were people each branch would have liked to get in but couldn't. We asked them to be more inclusive of the best of the best, and each branch was excited, because they got...
- 6/28/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The Academy just added 276 Oscar voters.
That’s 100 more than last year, and part of an easing of a longstanding cap on the number of new members allowed to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences each year.
AMPAS usually adds between 130 and 180 new members, replacing those who have quit or passed away. The membership now stands around 6,000.
Jason Bateman, Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emmanuelle Riva, and Chris Tucker are among the actors who have been invited to join, the organization announced today.
Other interesting additions: the musician Prince, Girls and Tiny Furniture writer/director/actress Lena Dunham,...
That’s 100 more than last year, and part of an easing of a longstanding cap on the number of new members allowed to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences each year.
AMPAS usually adds between 130 and 180 new members, replacing those who have quit or passed away. The membership now stands around 6,000.
Jason Bateman, Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emmanuelle Riva, and Chris Tucker are among the actors who have been invited to join, the organization announced today.
Other interesting additions: the musician Prince, Girls and Tiny Furniture writer/director/actress Lena Dunham,...
- 6/28/2013
- by Anthony Breznican
- EW - Inside Movies
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 276 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2013.
“These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today,” said Academy President Hawk Koch. “Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy.”
The 2013 invitees are:
Actors
Jason Bateman – “Up in the Air,” “Juno”
Miriam Colon – “City of Hope,” “Scarface”
Rosario Dawson – “Rent,” “Frank Miller’s Sin City”
Kimberly Elise – “For Colored Girls,” “Beloved”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Lincoln,” “The Dark Knight Rises”
Charles Grodin – “Midnight Run,” “The Heartbreak Kid”
Rebecca Hall – “Iron Man 3,” “The Town”
Lance Henriksen – “Aliens,” “The Terminator”
Jack Huston – “Not Fade Away,” “Factory Girl”
Milla Jovovich – “Resident Evil,...
“These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today,” said Academy President Hawk Koch. “Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy.”
The 2013 invitees are:
Actors
Jason Bateman – “Up in the Air,” “Juno”
Miriam Colon – “City of Hope,” “Scarface”
Rosario Dawson – “Rent,” “Frank Miller’s Sin City”
Kimberly Elise – “For Colored Girls,” “Beloved”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Lincoln,” “The Dark Knight Rises”
Charles Grodin – “Midnight Run,” “The Heartbreak Kid”
Rebecca Hall – “Iron Man 3,” “The Town”
Lance Henriksen – “Aliens,” “The Terminator”
Jack Huston – “Not Fade Away,” “Factory Girl”
Milla Jovovich – “Resident Evil,...
- 6/28/2013
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Research for my film about the spoon-bender's 40-year career as a secret psychic operative turned up some unlikely facts
With the news of America's National Security Agency's massive electronic surveillance operations dominating the headlines right now, the documentary film I've just made for the BBC about spoon-bender Uri Geller's long and secret career as a psychic operative is timely in ways I never expected.
My journey, as I searched for corroboration of the rumours (and the heavy hints dropped by Geller himself) about his services to the intelligence communities of three continents, took me into a strange alternative reality, populated with men (always men) from the CIA, the FBI, Nasa, Britain's Ministry of Defence, and yes, the Nsa that everyone's talking about this week. (I'll say nothing of Mossad, though Israel's legendary intelligence agency kept cropping up.)
As I crossed the Us with my crew, from New York to California via Florida and Texas,...
With the news of America's National Security Agency's massive electronic surveillance operations dominating the headlines right now, the documentary film I've just made for the BBC about spoon-bender Uri Geller's long and secret career as a psychic operative is timely in ways I never expected.
My journey, as I searched for corroboration of the rumours (and the heavy hints dropped by Geller himself) about his services to the intelligence communities of three continents, took me into a strange alternative reality, populated with men (always men) from the CIA, the FBI, Nasa, Britain's Ministry of Defence, and yes, the Nsa that everyone's talking about this week. (I'll say nothing of Mossad, though Israel's legendary intelligence agency kept cropping up.)
As I crossed the Us with my crew, from New York to California via Florida and Texas,...
- 6/13/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Pussy Riot, Uri Geller: Sheffield Doc/Fest 2013 line-up The United Kingdom’s Sheffield Doc/Fest 2013 kicks off on June 12, featuring 27 World Premieres. Topics range from "psychic spy" Uri Geller (Uri Geller and Vikram Jayanti’s The Secret Life of Uri Geller — Psychic Spy) to shale mining (Lech Kowalski’s Drill Baby Drill), from the science behind Planet Earth’s fast-approaching climactic armageddon (David Sington and Simon Lamb’s Thin Ice: The Inside Story of Climate Science) to the life and times of international professional thieves (Havana Marking’s Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers). Below are a few Sheffield Doc/Fest 2013 highlights. (Photo: Pussy Riot — A Punk Prayer.) Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin’s Pussy Riot — A Punk Prayer follows the Pussy Riot trial in which three of the band’s members stood accused of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” following a performance staged at Moscow...
- 5/29/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
“The problem with being a fookin’ gun nut is that sooner or later somebody gets shot,” said Ringo Starr to filmmaker Vikram Jayanti, the subject of their conversation also being the subject of Jayanti’s sensational documentary, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector,” which finally gets a national U.S. release Tuesday night -- on BBC America.For some reason -- natural British reticence, perchance? -- the Beeb hasn’t been exploiting the obvious ties to David Mamet’s “Phil Spector,” recently shown on HBO and roundly blasted for its treatment of victim Lana Clarkson, the somebody (see Ringo) who got shot in Spector’s Alhambra mansion back in 2003 (and whom Spector was convicted, in 2009, of murdering). It was, in fact, Jayanti’s film that inspired Mamet, and which first raised the questions about Spector’s guilt that Mamet took to another level entirely. Jayanti’s film, a...
- 4/1/2013
- by John Anderson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Victims' rights groups fear that David Mamet movie will question music producer's murder conviction
Four years ago the Wall of Sound music producer Phil Spector was convicted of murdering B-movie actress Lana Clarkson at his Los Angeles castle home. Many believe Clarkson's death was a tragedy waiting to happen – Spector was well known for terrorising women, and musicians, with guns – but the guilty verdict was a surprise in a town where celebrities with far stronger evidence against them typically walk free.
Now a new HBO-produced film to be broadcast next Sunday, Phil Spector, has sparked a row between victims' rights groups and those, like the film-makers, who believe the evidence against the producer did not rise to the threshold of "beyond reasonable doubt".
Al Pacino, who stars as Spector, has revealed that, while he was undecided about Spector's guilt, David Mamet, the movie's writer and director, was certain of his innocence.
Four years ago the Wall of Sound music producer Phil Spector was convicted of murdering B-movie actress Lana Clarkson at his Los Angeles castle home. Many believe Clarkson's death was a tragedy waiting to happen – Spector was well known for terrorising women, and musicians, with guns – but the guilty verdict was a surprise in a town where celebrities with far stronger evidence against them typically walk free.
Now a new HBO-produced film to be broadcast next Sunday, Phil Spector, has sparked a row between victims' rights groups and those, like the film-makers, who believe the evidence against the producer did not rise to the threshold of "beyond reasonable doubt".
Al Pacino, who stars as Spector, has revealed that, while he was undecided about Spector's guilt, David Mamet, the movie's writer and director, was certain of his innocence.
- 3/17/2013
- by Edward Helmore
- The Guardian - Film News
Deadline is, only for informational purposes, posting the 2012 Golden Globes nominations held by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association with the awards to be broadcast live on NBC on January 15th. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: it’s a completely meaningless awards show from a scandal-riddled organization on a network desperate for ratings. That’s why I opt out of analyzing the nominations every year: because the Golden Globes have zero integrity. Studios and networks who lavishly lobby the HFPA almost always score nominations. Stars win in direct correlation to their glamour quotient. Everything about the awards is geared towards hyping the media’s interest and the telecast’s ratings. And that includes inviting host Ricky Gervais, who can’t resist openly loathing the HFPA from the stage. No one will forget last year when he took the stage and was even more blasphemous towards...
- 12/15/2011
- by NIKKI FINKE
- Deadline TV
Deadline is, only for informational purposes, posting the 2012 Golden Globes nominations held by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association with the awards to be broadcast live on NBC on January 15th. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: it’s a completely meaningless awards show from a scandal-riddled organization on a network desperate for ratings. That’s why I opt out of analyzing the nominations every year: because the Golden Globes have zero integrity. Studios and networks who lavishly lobby the HFPA almost always score nominations. Stars win in direct correlation to their glamour quotient. Everything about the awards is geared towards hyping the media’s interest and the telecast’s ratings. And that includes inviting host Ricky Gervais, who can’t resist openly loathing the HFPA from the stage. No one will forget last year when he took the stage and was even more blasphemous towards...
- 12/15/2011
- by NIKKI FINKE
- Deadline Hollywood
The 30th annual Vancouver International Film Festival (Viff) is starting to finally announce their roster of films with an outstanding line-up of documentaries that celebrate the power of cinema and the arts across the Dance, Music, Theatre and the Visual Arts mediums. Legendary filmmakers Wim Wenders , Frederick Wiseman, and Mike Figgis are among the talent presenting films at the festival this year which runs from September 29-October 14th. Here is a taste of what to expect so far:
Pina
Germany/France/UK | Director: Wim Wenders
One German master more than does justice to another as Wim Wenders fashions a kinetic and gorgeous tribute to the singular German choreographer and dancer Pina Bausch. “Entertainment that will send culture vultures swooning… the film lets the artist’s work speak for itself via big, juicy slabs of performance.” — Variety
Flamenco, Flamenco
Spain | Director: Carlos Saura
Carlos Saura continues to mine a rich vein...
Pina
Germany/France/UK | Director: Wim Wenders
One German master more than does justice to another as Wim Wenders fashions a kinetic and gorgeous tribute to the singular German choreographer and dancer Pina Bausch. “Entertainment that will send culture vultures swooning… the film lets the artist’s work speak for itself via big, juicy slabs of performance.” — Variety
Flamenco, Flamenco
Spain | Director: Carlos Saura
Carlos Saura continues to mine a rich vein...
- 8/18/2011
- by Gregory Ashman
- SoundOnSight
If you were to make a pros-&-cons list on the qualities of Phil Spector, it might read something like this:
Pros
-Famous producer known for his “Wall of Sound” recording technique
-Responsible for a wide-range of iconic recordings; everything from “Unchained Melody” to “Rock and Roll High School”
-The Beatles’ “Let it Be” album (according to some)
Cons
-The Beatles’ “Let it Be” album (according to some)
-Shot B-movie actress Lana Clarkson in the face…
This may be a gross over-simplification of a complicated and brilliant man. But, in all fairness, these are the main bullet points the average person conjures when they think of the now infamous Phil Spector. Currently serving a 19 year-to-life term for second degree murder, Phil Spector has become more well known for his alcoholism, mental instability, and penchant for guns then his career as a producer. They say there is a fine line between genius and insanity,...
Pros
-Famous producer known for his “Wall of Sound” recording technique
-Responsible for a wide-range of iconic recordings; everything from “Unchained Melody” to “Rock and Roll High School”
-The Beatles’ “Let it Be” album (according to some)
Cons
-The Beatles’ “Let it Be” album (according to some)
-Shot B-movie actress Lana Clarkson in the face…
This may be a gross over-simplification of a complicated and brilliant man. But, in all fairness, these are the main bullet points the average person conjures when they think of the now infamous Phil Spector. Currently serving a 19 year-to-life term for second degree murder, Phil Spector has become more well known for his alcoholism, mental instability, and penchant for guns then his career as a producer. They say there is a fine line between genius and insanity,...
- 10/26/2010
- by bret
- OriginalAlamo.com
Vienna, Oct 26 – ‘Pink Saris’ and ‘Jan Villa’ are two of the India-themed films being shown at the Viennale, the city’s international film festival. While the former focuses on the evils of child marriage, the latter shows the sights and sounds of Mumbai after the 2005 floods.
‘You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger’, starring Indian actress Freida Pinto, was also screened at the festival that began Oct 21 and will conclude Nov 3.
Vikram Teja Jayanti, an Oscar-winning filmmaker of Indian origin, too is.
‘You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger’, starring Indian actress Freida Pinto, was also screened at the festival that began Oct 21 and will conclude Nov 3.
Vikram Teja Jayanti, an Oscar-winning filmmaker of Indian origin, too is.
- 10/26/2010
- by News
- RealBollywood.com
By Sean O’Connell
Hollywoodnews.com: A documentary examining the trials and tribulations of jailed record producer Phil Spector received the blessings of one of Spector’s sons, following a screening Thursday night in Los Angeles.
Louis Spector, 44, attended the screening and told director Vikram Jayanti he found the documentary to be touching and moving, according to Reuters.
“It was a real experience that I quite enjoyed, and I love the respect that you gave Lana Clarkson on her behalf and the respect you gave to my father,” Louis said.
Clarkson, of course, died in Spector’s California mansion in 2003. The music icon claimed it was a suicide, but a jury eventually found him guilty of second-degree murder last year. Spector’s currently serving a life sentence.
Jayanti’s documentary, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector,” spawns from a lengthy interview the producer did for the BBC prior to his first trial.
Hollywoodnews.com: A documentary examining the trials and tribulations of jailed record producer Phil Spector received the blessings of one of Spector’s sons, following a screening Thursday night in Los Angeles.
Louis Spector, 44, attended the screening and told director Vikram Jayanti he found the documentary to be touching and moving, according to Reuters.
“It was a real experience that I quite enjoyed, and I love the respect that you gave Lana Clarkson on her behalf and the respect you gave to my father,” Louis said.
Clarkson, of course, died in Spector’s California mansion in 2003. The music icon claimed it was a suicide, but a jury eventually found him guilty of second-degree murder last year. Spector’s currently serving a life sentence.
Jayanti’s documentary, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector,” spawns from a lengthy interview the producer did for the BBC prior to his first trial.
- 8/20/2010
- by Sean O'Connell
- Hollywoodnews.com
When John Waters, in a classic aphorism, said that “everyone looks better under arrest,” he was talking about the scurrilous ’70s — the age of Charles Manson and Patty Hearst and Jim Jones — but the words apply perfectly to our era (think Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Martha Stewart, Mel Gibson), and I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen as riveting an example of the principle as what’s on display in The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector. For much of this electrifying, one-of-a-kind, crime-meets-beauty-meets-tragedy documentary (it was made for the BBC, and directed by Vikram Jayanti), we watch as Phil Spector,...
- 7/10/2010
- by Owen Gleiberman
- EW.com - The Movie Critics
One man's transit from the Wall of Sound to the walls of prison.
Phil Spector at the Wall of Sound
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives
The big "get" of "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector" is a long, rambling, megalomaniacal interview with the legendary producer, conducted during his first murder trial in 2007, when he was free on a $1 million bond. Spector's hands tremble with palsy. He is wearing a Dutch-boy blond wig for the occasion. He trumpets the fabulousness of the 1960s, his decade of glory, when he and some other people fought to end the Vietnam War. He talks about the Beatles, and especially John Lennon, both of whom he produced. (Paul McCartney became an enemy after Spector heavily reconfigured his completed track, "The Long and Winding Road.") He displays a curious antipathy toward the singer Tony Bennett, and grouses about the late Buddy Holly, whose recording...
Phil Spector at the Wall of Sound
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives
The big "get" of "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector" is a long, rambling, megalomaniacal interview with the legendary producer, conducted during his first murder trial in 2007, when he was free on a $1 million bond. Spector's hands tremble with palsy. He is wearing a Dutch-boy blond wig for the occasion. He trumpets the fabulousness of the 1960s, his decade of glory, when he and some other people fought to end the Vietnam War. He talks about the Beatles, and especially John Lennon, both of whom he produced. (Paul McCartney became an enemy after Spector heavily reconfigured his completed track, "The Long and Winding Road.") He displays a curious antipathy toward the singer Tony Bennett, and grouses about the late Buddy Holly, whose recording...
- 7/2/2010
- MTV Movie News
One man's transit from the Wall of Sound to the walls of prison.
Phil Spector at the Wall of Sound
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives
The big "get" of "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector" is a long, rambling, megalomaniacal interview with the legendary producer, conducted during his first murder trial in 2007, when he was free on a $1 million bond. Spector's hands tremble with palsy. He is wearing a Dutch-boy blond wig for the occasion. He trumpets the fabulousness of the 1960s, his decade of glory, when he and some other people fought to end the Vietnam War. He talks about the Beatles, and especially John Lennon, both of whom he produced. (Paul McCartney became an enemy after Spector heavily reconfigured his completed track, "The Long and Winding Road.") He displays a curious antipathy toward the singer Tony Bennett, and grouses about the late Buddy Holly, whose recording...
Phil Spector at the Wall of Sound
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives
The big "get" of "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector" is a long, rambling, megalomaniacal interview with the legendary producer, conducted during his first murder trial in 2007, when he was free on a $1 million bond. Spector's hands tremble with palsy. He is wearing a Dutch-boy blond wig for the occasion. He trumpets the fabulousness of the 1960s, his decade of glory, when he and some other people fought to end the Vietnam War. He talks about the Beatles, and especially John Lennon, both of whom he produced. (Paul McCartney became an enemy after Spector heavily reconfigured his completed track, "The Long and Winding Road.") He displays a curious antipathy toward the singer Tony Bennett, and grouses about the late Buddy Holly, whose recording...
- 7/2/2010
- MTV Music News
Welcome back to Moment of Truth, Movieline's weekly spotlight on the best in nonfiction cinema. This week we hear from Vikram Jayanti, director of The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector, which is now playing in New York with dates to come in other cities and on TV as well.
Kind of like grieving, there are five stages to viewing Vikram Jayanti's enthralling new documentary The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector.
Kind of like grieving, there are five stages to viewing Vikram Jayanti's enthralling new documentary The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector.
- 7/1/2010
- Movieline
This documentary is an almost too-perfect example of a discomfiting trend, one in which the privilege of access determines the ability to get an entire film made. Which is to say that about the only thing director Vikram Jayanti did right with his film was in scoring a lengthy interview with this film's subject, legendary rock producer Phil Spector. He obtained this interview as Spector was in the middle of his first trial for the killing of actress Lana Clarkson, whose career had foundered to the point that in 2003 she was hostessing at a Hollywood House of Blues. It was there that she was alleged to have met Spector, and sojourned with him to the legendary castle where he once, for all intents and purposes, held his one-time wife Ronnie Spector hostage for many years. Clarkson did not leave the place alive. The one other indisputable fact we can take...
- 6/30/2010
- MUBI
If most recent documentaries assaying '60s and '70s rock and roll are any indication, filmmakers expect viewers to approach pop music history not with open minds but with empty heads.
Case in point: the curiosity that led me to watch "Stones In Exile," a recent non-fiction film on the making of the Rolling Stones beyond seminal LP "Exile On Main Street," was rewarded by supposedly contextualizing input from a young man in a band called Kings Of Leon who appeared in his choice of comments to have never heard of either the Stones or their 1972 album.
No offense to anyone's record collection, but the complete absence of Bono, Jack White, Sheryl Crow and the rest of the rock doc talking head usual suspects in Vikram Jayanti's new film puts it in the winner's circle right out of the gate. That film is "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector,...
Case in point: the curiosity that led me to watch "Stones In Exile," a recent non-fiction film on the making of the Rolling Stones beyond seminal LP "Exile On Main Street," was rewarded by supposedly contextualizing input from a young man in a band called Kings Of Leon who appeared in his choice of comments to have never heard of either the Stones or their 1972 album.
No offense to anyone's record collection, but the complete absence of Bono, Jack White, Sheryl Crow and the rest of the rock doc talking head usual suspects in Vikram Jayanti's new film puts it in the winner's circle right out of the gate. That film is "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector,...
- 6/30/2010
- by Bruce Bennett
- ifc.com
Celebrating its 40th anniversary, New York's Film Forum has announced its summer 2010 slate, which includes Dover Kosashvili's "Anton Chekov's The Duel," Jessica Oreck's "Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo," Emmanuel Laurent's "Two In The Wave," Johan Grimonprez's "Double Take," Kate Davis & David Heilbroner's "Stonewall Uprising," Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio's "Alamar," Vikram Jayanti's "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector," Tamra Davis's "Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child," Marco Amenta's "The Sicilian Girl," and ...
- 3/11/2010
- Indiewire
The 28th annual Vancouver International Film Festival (Viff) will be held October 1-16, 2009. Founded in 1982, Viff's mandate is "...to encourage the understanding of other nations through the art of cinema, to foster the art of cinema, to facilitate the meeting in British Columbia of cinema professionals from around the world and to stimulate the motion picture industry in British Columbia and Canada..." Over 150,000 people are expected to attend 640 screenings of 360 films from 80 countries. Here is an up-to-date list of directors, confirmed to attend Viff 2009, along with their films : "1428" Du Haibin "1999" Lenin Sivam "65_RedRoses" Philip Lyall & Nimisha Mukerji "Adelaide" Liliana Greenfield-Sanders "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector" Vikram Jayanti "Ana & Arthur" Larry Young "The Anchorage" Anders Edström & Curtis Winter "Antoine" Laura Bari "Argippo Resurrected" Dan Krames "The Art of Drowning" Diego Maclean "At Home By Myself... With You" Kris Booth "At The Edge Of The World" Dan Stone...
- 9/27/2009
- HollywoodNorthReport.com
SXSW is one of my favorite festivals of the year as it showcases some of the best and most innovative real independent films, and with this host of world premiers, it's also playing alot of Sundance material as well as genre fare from all over the world, many of which we've covered heavily in these pages.
From the Sundance lineup, we have films like Moon, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, You Won't Miss Me, Grace, and Humpday, among others.
For the world genre material we've covered, there's Lake Mungo, The Square, Zift, and Awaydays.
I think you get the point that lots of great looking film will be playing. I'll leave a bit of the exploration to you..
Lineup after the break.
Narrative Features Competition
Artois the Goat
Director: Kyle Bogart. Writer: Cliff and Kyle Bogart
Lab technician Virgil Gurdies embarks on an epic quest to craft the greatest...
From the Sundance lineup, we have films like Moon, The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, You Won't Miss Me, Grace, and Humpday, among others.
For the world genre material we've covered, there's Lake Mungo, The Square, Zift, and Awaydays.
I think you get the point that lots of great looking film will be playing. I'll leave a bit of the exploration to you..
Lineup after the break.
Narrative Features Competition
Artois the Goat
Director: Kyle Bogart. Writer: Cliff and Kyle Bogart
Lab technician Virgil Gurdies embarks on an epic quest to craft the greatest...
- 2/2/2009
- QuietEarth.us
NEW YORK -- Five leading documentarians praised Michael Moore and discussed the fractured state of documentary film during a panel Thursday hosted by the New York Public Library Young Lions Committee. Panelists included Ken Burns (The Civil War), Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me), Albert Maysles (Gimme Shelter), Vikram Jayanti (When We Were Kings) and Jehane Noujaim (Startup.com), and the group was moderated by NBC's Campbell Brown. "He infuriates me," Burns said, "(but) we ought to celebrate Michael Moore for having the guts to get out there. (Spurlock's) and Moore's films bring out a physical truth. Moore is terrific just because he bugs Bill O'Reilly."...
- 5/27/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Indie banner ThinkFilm has acquired North American rights to Born Into Brothels, the feature by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski that won the documentary audience award at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The company also has sealed a series of long-simmering deals on a spate of other indie docu titles, including Matt Mahurin's I Like Killing Flies, Vikram Jayanti's Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine, Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perrenou's Genesis and Barry Avrich's The Last Mogul: The Life and Times of Lew Wasserman. Brothels -- a look at children growing up around prostitution in squalid Calcutta, India -- is being released in association with HBO/Cinemax Documentary Films in New York on Dec. 8, with a national expansion planned next year.
Crime novelist James Ellroy likes to say Curtis Hanson's film of his book, "L.A. Confidential", is the best thing that ever happened to his writing despite his complete lack of control over the movie. To this he should now add Vikram Jayanti's documentary "James Ellroy's Feast of Death". This new film perfectly captures the feverish intensity of his prose. It expresses the hypnotic manner in which a reader gets sucked into a nightmare of murder and corruption, leaving him with the uneasy feeling he's been exposed to sheer evil.
Hanging out with the restless author as he prowls Los Angeles' nighttime streets, chows down with homicide detectives at the Pacific Dining Car, reads to fans in a bookstore and visits scenes of two brutal murders that continue to obsess him, Jayanti portrays a man caught in the grip of humanity's darkest side.
The film, first broadcast for BBC Arena in May, makes a great festival film. Like Terry Zwigoff's "Crumb", it concerns a personality with a significant public profile to deserve a theatrical shot. While Ellroy's raw language and the graphic nature of crime-scene photos will keep the film off public airwaves, this is a surefire cable offering.
Ellroy has written a series of novels that mix fictional and real-life characters from L.A.'s seedy past to explore its criminal underbelly. He has since moved on to his "Underworld America" trilogy, which delves into national crime during the JFK era -- a second novel, "The Cold Six Thousand", has recently been published.
In the film, he once again links the murder of his mother when he was 10 to his childhood fascination with crime fiction. Later, L.A.'s most infamous unsolved murder, the "Black Dahlia" case, gripped his imagination.
As Ellroy rehashes old cases and the mystique of murder investigations with police detectives, Jayanti establishes that what might seem like a morbid fascination with death is actually a search for truth.
Ellroy wants to confront: He wants to confront the war against women; the PC police, who decry his uncompromising language and portraits; and the "hagiography (that) sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight."
What are we to make of a mind so filled with brutality and corruption? A sicko, you say? No, Jayanti fires back. Ellroy's writings rage with anger and a genuine concern for victims of violence. This is what violence really looks like, he says in book after book.
He loves his writing and his manic obsessions. "I'm having a blast", Ellroy says. The man is seen here as one of America's most original moralists.
JAMES ELLROY'S FEAST OF DEATH
Vicpix Ltd.
Producer-director: Vikram Jayanti
Director of photography: Maryse Alberti
Music: Rob Lane
Editor: Emma Matthews
Color/stereo
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Hanging out with the restless author as he prowls Los Angeles' nighttime streets, chows down with homicide detectives at the Pacific Dining Car, reads to fans in a bookstore and visits scenes of two brutal murders that continue to obsess him, Jayanti portrays a man caught in the grip of humanity's darkest side.
The film, first broadcast for BBC Arena in May, makes a great festival film. Like Terry Zwigoff's "Crumb", it concerns a personality with a significant public profile to deserve a theatrical shot. While Ellroy's raw language and the graphic nature of crime-scene photos will keep the film off public airwaves, this is a surefire cable offering.
Ellroy has written a series of novels that mix fictional and real-life characters from L.A.'s seedy past to explore its criminal underbelly. He has since moved on to his "Underworld America" trilogy, which delves into national crime during the JFK era -- a second novel, "The Cold Six Thousand", has recently been published.
In the film, he once again links the murder of his mother when he was 10 to his childhood fascination with crime fiction. Later, L.A.'s most infamous unsolved murder, the "Black Dahlia" case, gripped his imagination.
As Ellroy rehashes old cases and the mystique of murder investigations with police detectives, Jayanti establishes that what might seem like a morbid fascination with death is actually a search for truth.
Ellroy wants to confront: He wants to confront the war against women; the PC police, who decry his uncompromising language and portraits; and the "hagiography (that) sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight."
What are we to make of a mind so filled with brutality and corruption? A sicko, you say? No, Jayanti fires back. Ellroy's writings rage with anger and a genuine concern for victims of violence. This is what violence really looks like, he says in book after book.
He loves his writing and his manic obsessions. "I'm having a blast", Ellroy says. The man is seen here as one of America's most original moralists.
JAMES ELLROY'S FEAST OF DEATH
Vicpix Ltd.
Producer-director: Vikram Jayanti
Director of photography: Maryse Alberti
Music: Rob Lane
Editor: Emma Matthews
Color/stereo
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Universal-owned cable network Trio has greenlighted an original documentary offering a critical examination of the Golden Globes. The Golden Globes: Hollywood's Dirty Little Secret, which will air as part of the network's Awards Mania programming block next month, probes how the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. has come to wield tremendous power in the entertainment industry. Secret is directed by Vikram Jayanti (When We Were Kings), who also executive produces with Jonathan Stack of Gabriel Films. " 'Secret' is designed to give viewers some insight into this powerful, highly sought-after yet somewhat mystifying Hollywood accolade," Trio president Lauren Zalaznick said in a statement.
- 11/4/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Crime novelist James Ellroy likes to say Curtis Hanson's film of his book, "L.A. Confidential", is the best thing that ever happened to his writing despite his complete lack of control over the movie. To this he should now add Vikram Jayanti's documentary "James Ellroy's Feast of Death". This new film perfectly captures the feverish intensity of his prose. It expresses the hypnotic manner in which a reader gets sucked into a nightmare of murder and corruption, leaving him with the uneasy feeling he's been exposed to sheer evil.
Hanging out with the restless author as he prowls Los Angeles' nighttime streets, chows down with homicide detectives at the Pacific Dining Car, reads to fans in a bookstore and visits scenes of two brutal murders that continue to obsess him, Jayanti portrays a man caught in the grip of humanity's darkest side.
The film, first broadcast for BBC Arena in May, makes a great festival film. Like Terry Zwigoff's "Crumb", it concerns a personality with a significant public profile to deserve a theatrical shot. While Ellroy's raw language and the graphic nature of crime-scene photos will keep the film off public airwaves, this is a surefire cable offering.
Ellroy has written a series of novels that mix fictional and real-life characters from L.A.'s seedy past to explore its criminal underbelly. He has since moved on to his "Underworld America" trilogy, which delves into national crime during the JFK era -- a second novel, "The Cold Six Thousand", has recently been published.
In the film, he once again links the murder of his mother when he was 10 to his childhood fascination with crime fiction. Later, L.A.'s most infamous unsolved murder, the "Black Dahlia" case, gripped his imagination.
As Ellroy rehashes old cases and the mystique of murder investigations with police detectives, Jayanti establishes that what might seem like a morbid fascination with death is actually a search for truth.
Ellroy wants to confront: He wants to confront the war against women; the PC police, who decry his uncompromising language and portraits; and the "hagiography (that) sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight."
What are we to make of a mind so filled with brutality and corruption? A sicko, you say? No, Jayanti fires back. Ellroy's writings rage with anger and a genuine concern for victims of violence. This is what violence really looks like, he says in book after book.
He loves his writing and his manic obsessions. "I'm having a blast", Ellroy says. The man is seen here as one of America's most original moralists.
JAMES ELLROY'S FEAST OF DEATH
Vicpix Ltd.
Producer-director: Vikram Jayanti
Director of photography: Maryse Alberti
Music: Rob Lane
Editor: Emma Matthews
Color/stereo
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Hanging out with the restless author as he prowls Los Angeles' nighttime streets, chows down with homicide detectives at the Pacific Dining Car, reads to fans in a bookstore and visits scenes of two brutal murders that continue to obsess him, Jayanti portrays a man caught in the grip of humanity's darkest side.
The film, first broadcast for BBC Arena in May, makes a great festival film. Like Terry Zwigoff's "Crumb", it concerns a personality with a significant public profile to deserve a theatrical shot. While Ellroy's raw language and the graphic nature of crime-scene photos will keep the film off public airwaves, this is a surefire cable offering.
Ellroy has written a series of novels that mix fictional and real-life characters from L.A.'s seedy past to explore its criminal underbelly. He has since moved on to his "Underworld America" trilogy, which delves into national crime during the JFK era -- a second novel, "The Cold Six Thousand", has recently been published.
In the film, he once again links the murder of his mother when he was 10 to his childhood fascination with crime fiction. Later, L.A.'s most infamous unsolved murder, the "Black Dahlia" case, gripped his imagination.
As Ellroy rehashes old cases and the mystique of murder investigations with police detectives, Jayanti establishes that what might seem like a morbid fascination with death is actually a search for truth.
Ellroy wants to confront: He wants to confront the war against women; the PC police, who decry his uncompromising language and portraits; and the "hagiography (that) sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight."
What are we to make of a mind so filled with brutality and corruption? A sicko, you say? No, Jayanti fires back. Ellroy's writings rage with anger and a genuine concern for victims of violence. This is what violence really looks like, he says in book after book.
He loves his writing and his manic obsessions. "I'm having a blast", Ellroy says. The man is seen here as one of America's most original moralists.
JAMES ELLROY'S FEAST OF DEATH
Vicpix Ltd.
Producer-director: Vikram Jayanti
Director of photography: Maryse Alberti
Music: Rob Lane
Editor: Emma Matthews
Color/stereo
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/5/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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