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9 items from 2012
The Films Of Billy Wilder: A Retrospective
27 March 2012 1:44 PM, PDT | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
"I want to thank three persons,” said Michel Hazanavicius, accepting the 2012 Best Picture Oscar for “The Artist.” “I want to thank Billy Wilder, I want to thank Billy Wilder and I want to thank Billy Wilder.” He wasn’t the first director to namecheck Wilder in an acceptance speech. In 1994, Fernando Trueba, accepting the Foreign Language Film Oscar for "Belle Epoque" quipped, "I would like to believe in God in order to thank him. But I just believe in Billy Wilder... so, thank you Mr. Wilder." Wilder reportedly called the next day "Fernando? It's God."
So just what exactly was it that inspired these men to expend some of the most valuable seconds of speechifying airtime they'll ever know, to tip their hats to Wilder? And can we bottle it?
Born in a region of Austria/Hungary that is now part of Poland, Wilder's story feels like an archetype of »
- Oliver Lyttelton
We Read It: Michael Mann & John Logan's Unmade 1930s Noir A Nasty Look At Old Hollywood That Doesn't Quite Work
21 March 2012 10:56 AM, PDT | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Of all the unmade, potentially great projects of the last few years, one of the most talked about is the untitled 1930s noir thriller penned by Oscar nominee John Logan ("The Aviator," "Hugo") with the intention that Michael Mann would direct and Leonardo DiCaprio would star. The project started doing the rounds back in 2007, but despite interest from New Line, the film, with an estimated budget of $120 million, proved too expensive and too risky to get made.
But a piece last month in Slate has brought the project back into the spotlight, even if details on the script remain at this point a little vague. As such, we thought it warranted a little more investigation, so we managed to obtain a copy of the script to take a closer look at what could have been: the plot, the characters, the influences and the references.
It begins in 1938 in a Beverly »
- Oliver Lyttelton
Myrna Loy Q&A: Author Emily Leider
12 March 2012 3:18 PM, PDT | Alt Film Guide | See recent Alt Film Guide news »
Myrna Loy Myrna Loy Biography: Intro You've written books on Mae West and Rudolph Valentino. Why Myrna Loy? Shortest answer: I saw her on Libeled Lady on TCM one night, and said to myself, "She is so delightful. Has there been a book on her?" Longer answer: My previous book was on Valentino, who "discovered" Myrna when she was a Prologue dancer at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre and gave her the first screen test she ever had. I liked the link. The subtitle of your Myrna Loy book is "The Only Good Girl in Hollywood." How was Loy a "Good Girl"? Or was she? The title comes from something said about Myrna by John Ford when she was starting out as a silent-film actress and kept getting assigned roles as an exotic vixen. Ford said, "Wouldn't you know? The one they have playing tramps is the only good girl in Hollywood. »
- Andre Soares
Ten silent super-stars facing the advent of 'talkies'
7 March 2012 7:02 AM, PST | Shadowlocked | See recent Shadowlocked news »
The great movie pioneer D.W. Griffiths once said “we do not want now and we shall never want the human voice with our films.” Shame he failed to realise that film-making is a technical medium that will always develop. In the last 100 years we have had the introduction of colour, trick photography, 3D and CGI, among other numerous innovations such as CinemaScope - and even Smellovision. But none of these compare to the most revolutionary of cinematic changes: sound.
The silent era of the twenties holds little more than curiosity-value for many modern film fans. Other than a few notable exceptions such as Nosferatu (1922) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925), it’s become a long-forgotten part of cinema history. But back then we had the Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolies of their day! Big stars and talented actors who sadly failed to survive the test of time.
The coming of sound was controversial, »
George Cukor: Womens Director?
22 February 2012 3:38 PM, PST | Alt Film Guide | See recent Alt Film Guide news »
Known as a refined "women's director," George Cukor has had his considerable output either relegated to the sidelines or simply dismissed by those who like their directors macho and their films male-centered. Not helping matters is the general perception that Cukor was merely a hired hand for the likes of David O. Selznick at Rko and Louis B. Mayer at MGM, instead of an auteur following a clear professional path. Except, of course, for the (assumed) fact that he was a women's director — and we're back to square one. In truth, George Cukor was one of the most accomplished directors of the studio era. His movies may lack the wide vistas found in John Ford's Westerns, or those personal cinematic/thematic touches that make, say, an Alfred Hitchcock movie recognizably Hitchcockian. But that's because Cukor's camera was set up so audiences would forget it was there and thus be allowed to — or rather, »
- Andre Soares
Greer Garson, Joan Crawford: Deceased Honorary Oscar-less
17 February 2012 4:01 PM, PST | Alt Film Guide | See recent Alt Film Guide news »
Walter Pidgeon, Greer Garson in William Wyler's Mrs. Miniver Honorary Oscars and Women Pt.2: Doris Day, Danielle Darrieux, Joan Fontaine, Maureen O'Hara On the list of film industry women who have yet to receive an Honorary Award, I did not include Olivia de Havilland, Elizabeth Taylor, Maggie Smith, Glenda Jackson, Luise Rainer, Jane Fonda, Meryl Streep, Sally Field, Jodie Foster, and Jessica Lange because each of them has already won two acting awards. Barbara Kopple, Thelma Schoonmaker, and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, for their part, have each already won two Oscars for, respectively, documentary feature, film editing, and screenwriting. Barbra Streisand, I should note, has also won two Oscars; the second one, however, was as co-composer (with Paul Williams) of the song "Evergreen" from A Star Is Born. Only someone like Elia Kazan — i.e., with friends in high Academy places — can have two Academy Award wins in a »
- Andre Soares
Who Invented the Oscars?
11 February 2012 10:55 AM, PST | Hollywoodnews.com | See recent Hollywoodnews.com news »
HollywoodNews.com: The founders of the now infamous Academy were a motley crew as individuals, but when they first converged in Hollywood, then just a small town with dirt roads, sparks flew and fueled a common dream: to bring artistic validity to their beloved new medium.
Today, movies are so ingrained in our culture it is hard to imagine a time when former cowpunchers, prospectors, vaudevillians, even junk dealers made up the rules as they went along. Prohibition and the Great Depression were keeping everyone on edge, and the business was rife with murders and drug scandals. Something had to happen. And so on January 11th, 1927, thirty-six members of Hollywood’s elite and not-so-elite came together at the behest of MGM chief Louis B. Mayer. From Cecil B. DeMille to Mary Pickford, Harry M. Warner, who owned a bike shop before launching the revolutionary “talkie” The Jazz Singer, even Joseph M. »
- HollywoodNews.com
TCM Celebrates The Artist With List Of 10 Most Influential Silent Films
18 January 2012 2:09 PM, PST | WeAreMovieGeeks.com | See recent WeAreMovieGeeks.com news »
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has unveiled its list of 10 Most Influential Silent Films in celebration of Michel Hazanavicius’ ode to the silent era, The Artist, which won three Golden Globes® Sunday night, including Best Picture . Musical or Comedy, Best Actor . Musical or Comedy for Jean Dujardin and Best Original Score. The Artist also picked up 12 British Academy Film Award nominations. The Weinstein Company will expand its release of The Artist nationwide on Friday.
TCM’s list of 10 Most Influential Silent Films spans from the years 1915 to 1928 and features such remarkable films as D.W. Griffith’s groundbreaking (and controversial) The Birth of a Nation (1915), which revolutionized filmmaking techniques; Nanook of the North (1922), a film frequently cited as the first feature-length documentary; Cecil B. DeMille’s epic silent version of The Ten Commandments (1923); Sergei Eisenstein’s oft-imitated Battleship Potemkin (1925), which took montage techniques to an entirely new level; and Fritz Lang’s »
- Michelle McCue
Rin Tin Tin the First Actual Best Actor Academy Award Winner? Think Again
3 January 2012 7:05 PM, PST | Alt Film Guide | See recent Alt Film Guide news »
Author Susan Orlean, whose book The Orchid Thief became — more or less — director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's all but unwatchable Adaptation (Meryl Streep played Orlean), has another book out, Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend, published last September. Today, Deadline's Mike Fleming wrote a piece in which he explains that Orlean "discovered that the true Best Actor winner in the first Oscars in 1929 was the German Shepherd, not the German silent film actor Emil Jannings, who walked away with the prize." A quote from Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend found in The Hollywood Reporter reads: "According to Hollywood legend, Rinty received the most votes for best actor. But members of the Academy, anxious to establish the awards were serious and important, decided that giving an Oscar to a dog did not serve that end." I haven't read Orlean's book, so »
- Andre Soares
2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2005 | 2004
9 items from 2012
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