Buddy Adler was just two years into his brief reign as the Head of Production for 20th Century Fox in 1958 when producer Walter Wanger brought him an epic project that could potentially pull the then-struggling studio out of its box office slump. The film wound up soaring so far over budget that Fox would be forced to sell 180 acres of its Los Angeles backlot to Alcoa just to stay financially afloat.
Had Adler made "Cleopatra" on his own terms, the title role would've been a sensibly priced production toplined by one of the studio's affordable contract stars (e.g. Joan Collins or Joanne Woodward). Wanger, however, had outsized dreams. He saw the historical drama as a Hollywood epic for the ages. He believed in its potential to dominate the box office and win scores of Academy Awards. He wanted Elizabeth Taylor, arguably the most popular movie star on the planet,...
Had Adler made "Cleopatra" on his own terms, the title role would've been a sensibly priced production toplined by one of the studio's affordable contract stars (e.g. Joan Collins or Joanne Woodward). Wanger, however, had outsized dreams. He saw the historical drama as a Hollywood epic for the ages. He believed in its potential to dominate the box office and win scores of Academy Awards. He wanted Elizabeth Taylor, arguably the most popular movie star on the planet,...
- 4/14/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
“I’ve seen Paris, France, and Paris, Paramount Pictures,” Ernst Lubitsch said, or so they say, “and on the whole I prefer Paris, Paramount Pictures.”
The great director’s preference for the Hollywood city of lights over the French one expresses a common enough affinity for illusion over reality, but the studio in question was not chosen for alliteration alone. If gritty Warner Bros. specialized in mean streets and threadbare apartments and glitzy MGM spent big on grand hotels and emerald cities, Paramount transported moviegoers into realms of dreamy exoticism, allegedly set in Vienna, Budapest or St. Petersburg, but conjured with better-than-the-original costuming, set design, lighting and dialogue. In an age before jumbo jets, who was to quibble over verisimilitude?
A new version of Paramount looks to be a-borning: Controlling stakeholder Shari Redstone may put her company on the auction block. Whatever conglomerate or mogul buys the assets, it’ll...
The great director’s preference for the Hollywood city of lights over the French one expresses a common enough affinity for illusion over reality, but the studio in question was not chosen for alliteration alone. If gritty Warner Bros. specialized in mean streets and threadbare apartments and glitzy MGM spent big on grand hotels and emerald cities, Paramount transported moviegoers into realms of dreamy exoticism, allegedly set in Vienna, Budapest or St. Petersburg, but conjured with better-than-the-original costuming, set design, lighting and dialogue. In an age before jumbo jets, who was to quibble over verisimilitude?
A new version of Paramount looks to be a-borning: Controlling stakeholder Shari Redstone may put her company on the auction block. Whatever conglomerate or mogul buys the assets, it’ll...
- 2/29/2024
- by Thomas Doherty
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Park City – The grass isn’t always greener is an axiom that has driven horror movies or “almost” horror movies since the silent film era. It’s no surprise then, that Aaron Schimberg’s “A Different Man” is clearly inspired by the noir thrillers of a time gone by. And whether you are as fascinated with that genre as the filmmaker is will determine your interest in this (sorta) tragic tale.
Read More: “A Real Pain”: Kieran Culkin is superb in Jesse Eisenberg’s funny and moving dramedy [Review]
Partially inspired by Rouben Mamoulian’s 1931 “Dr.
Continue reading ‘A Different Man’ Review: Sebastian Stan Discovers Being Pretty Can Be A Horror Story [Sundance] at The Playlist.
Read More: “A Real Pain”: Kieran Culkin is superb in Jesse Eisenberg’s funny and moving dramedy [Review]
Partially inspired by Rouben Mamoulian’s 1931 “Dr.
Continue reading ‘A Different Man’ Review: Sebastian Stan Discovers Being Pretty Can Be A Horror Story [Sundance] at The Playlist.
- 1/22/2024
- by Gregory Ellwood
- The Playlist
Nine decades ago this December, moviegoers were witnessing the beginning of one of the most successful movie teams, as well as the demise of one of the most dramatic.
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made box office magic during the Depression-era 1930s in nine Art Deco musical comedy delights from Rko including 1934’s “The Gay Divorcee” and 1936’s “Swing Time.” Their chemistry was unmatched, and they literally made beautiful musical together introducing countless standards including the Oscar-winning “The Continental” and “The Way You Look Tonight.” And their dancing was robust, romantic and heavenly-just check out the “Never Gonna Dance” routine from “Swing Time.”
It was 90 years ago this week, their first pairing “Flying Down to Rio” opened at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. One of the big surprises is that the duo aren’t the stars of the lightweight pre-Code musicals: Dolores Del Rio, Gene Raymond...
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made box office magic during the Depression-era 1930s in nine Art Deco musical comedy delights from Rko including 1934’s “The Gay Divorcee” and 1936’s “Swing Time.” Their chemistry was unmatched, and they literally made beautiful musical together introducing countless standards including the Oscar-winning “The Continental” and “The Way You Look Tonight.” And their dancing was robust, romantic and heavenly-just check out the “Never Gonna Dance” routine from “Swing Time.”
It was 90 years ago this week, their first pairing “Flying Down to Rio” opened at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. One of the big surprises is that the duo aren’t the stars of the lightweight pre-Code musicals: Dolores Del Rio, Gene Raymond...
- 12/28/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Studiocanal launches short story adaptation ‘Cat Person’.
Thriller Five Nights At Freddy’s heads the new titles at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, as one of a selection of genre choices available to audiences on the pre-Halloween weekend.
Opening in 609 cinemas through Universal, Five Nights At Freddy’s is adapted from Scott Cawthon’s videogame franchise of the same name. The film stars Hunger Games actor Josh Hutcherson as a security guard at an abandoned entertainment venue, who discovers that its animatronic mascots move and kill anyone still there after midnight.
Directed by Emma Tammi, the film is produced by horror...
Thriller Five Nights At Freddy’s heads the new titles at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, as one of a selection of genre choices available to audiences on the pre-Halloween weekend.
Opening in 609 cinemas through Universal, Five Nights At Freddy’s is adapted from Scott Cawthon’s videogame franchise of the same name. The film stars Hunger Games actor Josh Hutcherson as a security guard at an abandoned entertainment venue, who discovers that its animatronic mascots move and kill anyone still there after midnight.
Directed by Emma Tammi, the film is produced by horror...
- 10/27/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
These last few years the Criterion Channel have made October viewing much easier to prioritize, and in the spirit of their ’70s and ’80s horror series we’ve graduated to––you guessed it––”’90s Horror.” A couple of obvious classics stand with cult favorites and more unknown entities (When a Stranger Calls Back and Def By Temptation are new to me). Three more series continue the trend: “Technothrillers” does what it says on the tin, courtesy the likes of eXistenZ and Demonlover; “Art-House Horror” is precisely the kind of place to host Cure, Suspiria, Onibaba; and “Pre-Code Horror” is a black-and-white dream. Phantom of the Paradise, Unfriended, and John Brahm’s The Lodger are added elsewhere.
James Gray is the latest with an “Adventures in Moviegoing” series populated by deep cuts and straight classics. Stonewalling and restorations of Trouble Every Day and The Devil, Probably make streaming debuts, while Flesh for Frankenstein,...
James Gray is the latest with an “Adventures in Moviegoing” series populated by deep cuts and straight classics. Stonewalling and restorations of Trouble Every Day and The Devil, Probably make streaming debuts, while Flesh for Frankenstein,...
- 9/28/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Joseph L. Mankiewicz’ “Cleopatra,” which opened in New York on June 12, 1963 and in Los Angeles a week later, was not a flop. In fact, the 243-minute film was a box office champ making $26 million at the box office, $6 million more than the Cinerama epic “How the West was Won.” But being the most expensive movie of its time — the budget ended up being around $44 million which would be around $429.5 million in 2023 — it took a long time to recoup its staggering costs. The film was such a drain on Twentieth Century Fox, the studio ended up having to sell nearly 300 acres of its backlot. That acreage was transformed into Century City.
The budgets started to soar when the original production with Elizabeth Taylor, who asked for and received $1 million for her services, Peter Finch as Julius Caesar, Stephen Boyd as Marc Antony and veteran filmmaker Rouben Mamoulian as director, stopped production...
The budgets started to soar when the original production with Elizabeth Taylor, who asked for and received $1 million for her services, Peter Finch as Julius Caesar, Stephen Boyd as Marc Antony and veteran filmmaker Rouben Mamoulian as director, stopped production...
- 6/19/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Rouben Mamoulian is one of the best directors of Golden Age Hollywood, but his efforts often go underseen and underappreciated. One only has to watch his films to admire, and love, his skill as a director. Love Me Tonight (1932) sweeps and swoons with romantic energy; Queen Christina (1933) is a moody biopic that plays with shadows and sexuality; Becky Sharp (1935) is one of the first Technicolor features and is an array of delectable pastels to backdrop to colourful cohorts. And, of course, Mamoulian’s finest work – Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931) an imaginative horror that looks deep into the monster lurking in man’s soul.
Mamoulian’s Blood and Sand (1941) is also undeniably exquisite art. Played on the gorgeous, yet volatile nitrate as part of BFI’s Film on Film Festival, there has never been a Mamoulian presentation quite like it in recent years.
Starring Tyrone Power and Rita Hayworth, Blood and Sand revolves around Juan,...
Mamoulian’s Blood and Sand (1941) is also undeniably exquisite art. Played on the gorgeous, yet volatile nitrate as part of BFI’s Film on Film Festival, there has never been a Mamoulian presentation quite like it in recent years.
Starring Tyrone Power and Rita Hayworth, Blood and Sand revolves around Juan,...
- 6/16/2023
- by Sarah Cook
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
It is my experience that one gets a far richer, stranger cinema education in pursuing the careers of actors, that group defined first by (assuming luck shines upon them) two or three era-defining films and then so much that dictates their industry—pet projects, contractual obligations, called-in favors alimony payments, auteur one-offs, and on and on. Few embody that deluge of circumstance better than Michelle Yeoh and Isabelle Huppert, both of whom are receiving spotlights in March. The former’s is a who’s-who of Hong Kong talent, new favorites (The Heroic Trio), items we can at least say are of interest (Trio‘s not-great sequel Executioners), etc.
Huppert’s series runs longer, and notwithstanding certain standards that have long sat on the channel it adds some heavy hitters: Hong’s In Another Country, Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. And, of course,...
Huppert’s series runs longer, and notwithstanding certain standards that have long sat on the channel it adds some heavy hitters: Hong’s In Another Country, Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. And, of course,...
- 2/22/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The year 1931 might have been the scariest in cinema. Universal caused audiences to shriek with their horror classics: James Whale’s “Frankenstein” starring Boris Karloff as the monster; Tod Browning’s “Dracula” with Bela Lugosi reprising his Broadway triumph as the count who never drinks wine, as well as a Spanish language version directed by George Melford and starring Carlos Villarias.
But Universal wasn’t that only studio scaring the living daylights out of moviegoers that year. Paramount also tapped into the horror craze with Rouben Mamoulian’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” a pre-Code adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s tale of the duality of man. “I’ll show you what horror means,” growls Mr. Hyde in one particularly brutal scene. Star Fredric March won his first Oscar at the fourth annual Academy Awards on Nov. 10, 1932. He tied for Best Actor with Wallace Berry as a washed-up boxer in...
But Universal wasn’t that only studio scaring the living daylights out of moviegoers that year. Paramount also tapped into the horror craze with Rouben Mamoulian’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” a pre-Code adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s tale of the duality of man. “I’ll show you what horror means,” growls Mr. Hyde in one particularly brutal scene. Star Fredric March won his first Oscar at the fourth annual Academy Awards on Nov. 10, 1932. He tied for Best Actor with Wallace Berry as a washed-up boxer in...
- 11/1/2022
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
Still by far the best adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson story, Paramount’s glossy pre-Code is also one of the most prestigious horror shows on record. Fredric March won an acting Oscar and it’s one of Miriam Hopkins’ best performances. The film is sexually daring and technically astute — with the help of cameraman Karl Struss director Rouben Mamoulian makes use of every cinematic trick he can conjure. The horrible Mr. Hyde is conceived as a near-simian primitive man, equating unrestrained lust and desire as something ‘society’ must repress. The disc packaging says it’s two minutes longer than the 2004 Warner DVD . . . but it’s not.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1931 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 98 min. / Available at Amazon.com / General site Wac-Amazon / Street Date October 25, 2022 / 21.99
Starring: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart, Holmes Herbert, Halliwell Hobbes, Edgar Norton, Tempe Pigott, Douglas Walton.
Cinematography: Karl Struss...
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1931 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 98 min. / Available at Amazon.com / General site Wac-Amazon / Street Date October 25, 2022 / 21.99
Starring: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart, Holmes Herbert, Halliwell Hobbes, Edgar Norton, Tempe Pigott, Douglas Walton.
Cinematography: Karl Struss...
- 10/15/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Though their “’80s Horror” lineup would constitute enough of a Halloween push, the Criterion Channel enter October all guns blazing. The month’s lineup also includes a 19-movie vampire series running from 1931’s Dracula (English and Spanish both) to 2014’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the collection in-between including Herzog’s Nosferatu, Near Dark, and Let the Right One In. Last year’s “Universal Horror” collection returns, a 17-title Ishirō Honda retrospective has been set, and a few genre titles stand alone: Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte, The House of the Devil, and Island of Lost Souls.
Streaming premieres include restorations of Tsai Ming-liang’s Vive L’amour and Ed Lachman’s Lou Reed / John Cale concert film Songs for Drella; October’s Criterion editions are Samuel Fuller’s Forty Guns, Bill Duke’s Deep Cover, Haxan, and My Own Private Idaho. Meanwhile, Ari Aster has curated an “Adventures...
Streaming premieres include restorations of Tsai Ming-liang’s Vive L’amour and Ed Lachman’s Lou Reed / John Cale concert film Songs for Drella; October’s Criterion editions are Samuel Fuller’s Forty Guns, Bill Duke’s Deep Cover, Haxan, and My Own Private Idaho. Meanwhile, Ari Aster has curated an “Adventures...
- 9/26/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products released each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.
Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!
Jamie Lee Curtis Shirt from Poltergeists and Paramours
Poltergeists and Paramours pays tribute to Jamie Lee Curtis’ horror legacy with “The Nights She Survived” design by Neil Fraser featuring her characters from Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night, Terror Train, and Halloween 2018.
It’s available on T-shirts in black (27), black tie-dye (27), and Halloween tie-dye. They’ll ship in 2-4 weeks. In honor of Curtis, 25 of the proceeds will be donated to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. An additional 25 will be split between The Trevor Project and National Center for Transgender Equality.
Archie Comics-Inspired Horror Art from Gallery 1988
Following the success of his solo show last year, Matt Talbot created more Archie Comics-inspired horror artwork from his...
Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!
Jamie Lee Curtis Shirt from Poltergeists and Paramours
Poltergeists and Paramours pays tribute to Jamie Lee Curtis’ horror legacy with “The Nights She Survived” design by Neil Fraser featuring her characters from Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night, Terror Train, and Halloween 2018.
It’s available on T-shirts in black (27), black tie-dye (27), and Halloween tie-dye. They’ll ship in 2-4 weeks. In honor of Curtis, 25 of the proceeds will be donated to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. An additional 25 will be split between The Trevor Project and National Center for Transgender Equality.
Archie Comics-Inspired Horror Art from Gallery 1988
Following the success of his solo show last year, Matt Talbot created more Archie Comics-inspired horror artwork from his...
- 9/9/2022
- by Alex DiVincenzo
- bloody-disgusting.com
Stanley Donen's 1952 film "Singin' in the Rain," starring Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, and the obnoxiously chipper Gene Kelly, was once held up in the pages of /Film as the Platonic ideal of movie musicals. It is a certainly a dance showcase of the highest order, and an unapologetic Hollywood nostalgia piece. Silent films are on the way out, sound pictures are on the way in, and singing and dancing are all set to be the future of cinema. "Singin' on the Rain" is also a jukebox musical. The songs are all old standards, including the title number, which came from "The Hollywood Revue of 1929" as did "You Were Meant for Me." "You Are My Lucky Star" was from "The Hollywood Revue of 1936," and "Good Morning" came from Busby Berkeley's 1939 film "Babes in Arms." Kelly and Donen concluded their film with a very, very long -- a Very long...
- 8/21/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Budd Boetticher’s excellent semi-autobiographical film may be Hollywood’s most uncondescending depiction of high-end Mexican culture. Robert Stack is the pushy Gringo who only slowly understands Latin society’s definitions of loyalty and machismo; his rocky relationship with Joy Page’s cultured señorita is as important as the bullfighting story with Gilbert Roland. It’s Boetticher’s best film, presented for the first time in two encodings, the 87-minute release version and the UCLA Film and TV Archive’s restoration of the full 124-minute seen South of the Border. The extra commentary and featurettes are welcome too.
Bullfighter and the Lady
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1951 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 124 + 87 min. / Torero, Muerte en la arena, Tarde de toros, L’amante del torero, El torero y la dama, Death in the Sands / Street Date , 2022 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring: Robert Stack, Joy Page, Gilbert Roland, Virginia Grey,...
Bullfighter and the Lady
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1951 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 124 + 87 min. / Torero, Muerte en la arena, Tarde de toros, L’amante del torero, El torero y la dama, Death in the Sands / Street Date , 2022 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring: Robert Stack, Joy Page, Gilbert Roland, Virginia Grey,...
- 7/30/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Look into the series Criterion Channel have programmed for August and this lineup is revealed as (in scientific terms) quite something. “Hollywood Chinese” proves an especially deep bench, spanning “cinema’s first hundred years to explore the ways in which the Chinese people have been imagined in American feature films” and bringing with it the likes of Cronenberg’s M. Butterfly, Cimino’s Year of the Dragon, Griffith’s Broken Blossoms, and Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet—among 20-or-so others. A three-film Marguerite Duras series brings one of the greatest films ever (India Song) and two lesser-screened experiments; films featuring Yaphet Kotto include Blue Collar, Across 110th Street, and Midnight Run; and lest we ignore a Myrna Loy retro that goes no later than 1949.
Criterion editions include The Asphalt Jungle, Husbands, Rouge, and Sweet Smell of Success; streaming premieres for Loznitsa’s Donbass, Béla Tarr’s watershed Damnation, and...
Criterion editions include The Asphalt Jungle, Husbands, Rouge, and Sweet Smell of Success; streaming premieres for Loznitsa’s Donbass, Béla Tarr’s watershed Damnation, and...
- 7/25/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
In just her fourth American movie the Swedish import Ingrid Bergman proves herself the most sensual creature in Hollywood, running away with Spencer Tracy and Victor Fleming’s remake of Mamoulian’s pre-Code classic. The morals are cleaned up and the sex angle tamed down (except for Fröken Bergman) and the acting is less stylized — overall it’s a fine show. Ingrid learned quickly how things were done at MGM — she swiped the film’s plum role from Lana Turner.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1941 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 113 min. / Available at Amazon.com / General site Wac-Amazon / Street Date May 17, 2022 / 21.99
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner, Donald Crisp, Ian Hunter, Barton MacLane, Sara Allgood.
Cinematography: Joseph Ruttenberg
Art Director: Cedric Gibbons
Film Editor: Harold F. Kress
Original Music: Franz Waxman
Written by John Lee Mahin from a novella by Robert Louis Stevenson
Produced and Directed...
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1941 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 113 min. / Available at Amazon.com / General site Wac-Amazon / Street Date May 17, 2022 / 21.99
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner, Donald Crisp, Ian Hunter, Barton MacLane, Sara Allgood.
Cinematography: Joseph Ruttenberg
Art Director: Cedric Gibbons
Film Editor: Harold F. Kress
Original Music: Franz Waxman
Written by John Lee Mahin from a novella by Robert Louis Stevenson
Produced and Directed...
- 5/14/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
With it being seven years since his last live-action film, 2014’s The Grand Budapast Hotel, Wes Anderson is hard at work. Following a Cannes premiere, The French Dispatch finally arrives in limited theaters on October 22 followed by a wide release the following week, and he’s already shooting his next film (recently revealed to have the title Asteroid City) outside of Madrid with Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Rupert Friend, Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, Hope Davis, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, Tony Revolori, and Matt Dillon.
As is the case with all of his work, Wes Anderson synthesizes cinema history in his own specific language and for The French Dispatch he has provided a list of influences. As revealed in a promotional book sent to The Flim Stage and styled after the film’s magazine, 32 films are listed that “provided inspiration to the filmmakers,...
As is the case with all of his work, Wes Anderson synthesizes cinema history in his own specific language and for The French Dispatch he has provided a list of influences. As revealed in a promotional book sent to The Flim Stage and styled after the film’s magazine, 32 films are listed that “provided inspiration to the filmmakers,...
- 10/12/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
This ‘dawn of sound’ classic from Josef Sternberg is an important early entry in the gangster genre, a romanticized tale of urban crime with little violence but a full measure of romantic revenge. Star George Bancroft is the title underworld kingpin, who risks everything to hold his girlfriend Fay Wray the way he holds onto power — with his fists and with his gun. The highly sentimental story has some odd ideas about prison rules on Death Row; although packed with ‘Sternbergian’ touches the visuals aren’t as overtly poetic as is his norm. It’s an interesting study from the first year of ‘all talkie’ pictures: the audio is highly creative but the dialogue delivery is slow — perfect for anyone learning English!
Thunderbolt
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1929 / B&w / 1:20 Movietone (?) / 85 min. / Street Date July 20, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: George Bancroft, Fay Wray, Richard Arlen, Tully Marshall, Eugenie Besserer, James Spottswood,...
Thunderbolt
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1929 / B&w / 1:20 Movietone (?) / 85 min. / Street Date July 20, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: George Bancroft, Fay Wray, Richard Arlen, Tully Marshall, Eugenie Besserer, James Spottswood,...
- 7/27/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This mix is a focus on moments of Johann Sebastian Bach’s neverending filmography that have stuck to memory. The opener belongs in my mind to Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale (2000). “Air on D String” has over 30,000 titles featured on an IMDb search and I find myself thinking of Scorsese's After Hours (1985). Bach’s sound is sacred, a fact that two of cinema’s beloved philosophers, Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovsky responded to throughout their careers. This mix includes Bach in Persona (1966) and The Sacrifice (1986). The earliest use in horror, in Rouben Mamoulian’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) with the “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Bwv 565” is now synonymous with the macabre. A piece which fans of Fantasia (1940) and Sunset Boulevard (1950) will recognize too. And an audience may feel differently about “The Goldberg Variations” upon watching Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of The Lambs (1991). The sounds of Bach...
- 7/1/2021
- MUBI
Marriage, social pressure, professional disappointment — and if you want to be really unhappy, add alcohol to that mix. Fredric March and Sylvia Sidney are convincing sophisticates but also vulnerable people negotiating fragile lives. What can be done when one’s mate is dissolving in booze and drawn to the arms of another? Dorothy Arzner’s best picture shows us a woman who won’t give up on her marriage, for the right reasons. It’s a serious and adult pre-Code drama, the kind that sounds more salacious than it is. Sylvia Sydney crafts a portrait of a fine woman under pressure, who maintains her dignity even in an attempt at an ‘open marriage.’ The unusual title is a light-hearted toast reflecting inner despair. The disc comes with excellent extras on director Dorothy Arzner.
Merrily We Go to Hell
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1076
1932 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 83 min. / available through...
Merrily We Go to Hell
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1076
1932 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 83 min. / available through...
- 6/15/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
All hail the cinematic delights of Luis Buñuel, a world-class directing genius whose work ranges from insightfully impish to point-blank outrageous. Driven from Spain by Fascists and from New York by commie hunters, he found a cinematic haven in Mexico, adapting his surreal mindset to popular film forms. These final three French features embrace the surrealist ethos, where a coherent narrative is optional. We definitely recognize our ‘rational’ world; Buñuel’s high art simply tells the truth.
Three Films by Luis Buñuel
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object of Desire
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 102. 290, 143
1972-1977 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 5, 2021 / 99.95
Cinematography: Edmond Richard
Production Designer: Pierre Guffroy
Film Editor: Hélène Plemiannikov
Written by Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière
Produced by Serge Silberman
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Tracking down the films of Luis Buñuel has been an ongoing effort.
Three Films by Luis Buñuel
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object of Desire
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 102. 290, 143
1972-1977 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 5, 2021 / 99.95
Cinematography: Edmond Richard
Production Designer: Pierre Guffroy
Film Editor: Hélène Plemiannikov
Written by Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière
Produced by Serge Silberman
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Tracking down the films of Luis Buñuel has been an ongoing effort.
- 1/9/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Above: 42nd StreetWhile other genres undoubtedly advanced with the dawning of sound technology, the musical is likely the most indebted to the reverberations of this complementary process. More than that, though, the movie musical was fundamentally born with the surge of sound—it simply could not have existed otherwise. And since that time, the musical has indeed been a uniquely cinematic venture, less beholden to conventional narratives and often disposed to experimentations in color, location, camera mobility, production design, and special effects. Especially in its heyday, the so-called “Golden Age” lasting between the mid-1930s and late-‘50s, Hollywood musicals were an enrapturing experience, delighting audiences with spectacle, romance, athleticism, fine performances, and, of course, song and dance. Some of America’s brightest stars sparkled in the musical, while many of...
- 10/7/2020
- MUBI
Does a musical have to have big dance numbers, glorious cinematography and stereophonic sound? I agree with a consensus of critics and fans that this 1932 pre-Code marvel is the best musical romance of all. Maurice Chevalier may be ‘nothing but a tailor’ yet he steals the heart of Jeanette MacDonald’s princess and shocks her titled, discriminating family. Forget MGM operetta saccharine and say hello to a sexed-up fling annotated with suggestive pre-Code dialogue and song lyrics. Some of the better naughty content is delivered by Myrna Loy, who was never as gloriously slinky-seductive. Isn’t it romantic?
Love Me Tonight
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1932 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 88 104, 96 min. / Street Date September 9, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Charles Ruggles, Charles Butterworth, Myrna Loy, C. Aubrey Smith, Elizabeth Patterson, Ethel Griffies, Joseph Cawthorne, Robert Greig.
Cinematography: Victor Milner
Film Editor: William Shea
Original Music: John Leipold
Songs: Lorenz Hart,...
Love Me Tonight
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1932 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 88 104, 96 min. / Street Date September 9, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Charles Ruggles, Charles Butterworth, Myrna Loy, C. Aubrey Smith, Elizabeth Patterson, Ethel Griffies, Joseph Cawthorne, Robert Greig.
Cinematography: Victor Milner
Film Editor: William Shea
Original Music: John Leipold
Songs: Lorenz Hart,...
- 9/19/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The show must go on. At least the Venice Film Festival must go on. Even a pandemic can’t stop the oldest international film festival from taking place Sept. 2 through Sept. 12 in the picturesque of grand canals. Of course, safety is first with masks, social distancing etc. are all in place as critics get a first glance at possible award-winners.
Over the past seven years, the festival has held world premieres of such Oscar-winners as 2013’s “Gravity”; 2014’s “Birdman”; 2015’s “Spotlight”; 2016’s “La La Land”; 2017’s “The Shape of Water”; 2018’s “Roma”; and 2019’s “Joker.” Only two films that won the festival’s top prize have gone on to win Best Picture at the Oscars: 1948’s “Hamlet” and 2017’s “The Shape of Water.”
The festival began in 1932 as part of the Venice Biennale, the city’s legendary exhibition of the arts under the guidance of President of the Biennale, Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata,...
Over the past seven years, the festival has held world premieres of such Oscar-winners as 2013’s “Gravity”; 2014’s “Birdman”; 2015’s “Spotlight”; 2016’s “La La Land”; 2017’s “The Shape of Water”; 2018’s “Roma”; and 2019’s “Joker.” Only two films that won the festival’s top prize have gone on to win Best Picture at the Oscars: 1948’s “Hamlet” and 2017’s “The Shape of Water.”
The festival began in 1932 as part of the Venice Biennale, the city’s legendary exhibition of the arts under the guidance of President of the Biennale, Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata,...
- 9/2/2020
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
As Disney quietly disappears huge swathes of film history into its vaults, I'm going to spend 2020 celebrating Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox Film Corporation's films, what one might call their output if only someone were putting it out.And now they've quietly disappeared William Fox's name from the company: guilty by association with Rupert Murdoch, even though he never associated with him.***"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars," Oscar Wilde as purred by George Sanders, is enough to make any film worth while.A friend of mine once appeared on a daytime quiz show, on which he was required to complete the quote from the word "...but..." His heroic stab at an answer was, "...but some of us belong there?" I suppose one of the achievements of Otto Preminger's The Fan, a 1950 film of Wilde's 1892 play Lady Windermere's Fan,...
- 6/23/2020
- MUBI
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Curator Jessica Regan on The Wizard of Oz, Judy Garland, Gilbert Adrian connection In Pursuit of Fashion The Sandy Schreier Collection: “Oh yes, in relation to the gingham bows that are on the kittens.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Costume designer Gilbert Adrian had longtime working relationships with some of the biggest stars on the silver screen, including Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Jean Harlow, Jeanette MacDonald, Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford. He created the ruby slippers and designed the gingham dress worn by Judy Garland as Dorothy in Victor Fleming’s The Wizard Of Oz.
Jessica Regan on working with Nathan Crowley and Shane Valentino: “They were looking at 1930s film set design and taking inspiration …” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Adrian designed Garbo’s clothes for 17 of her 24 American films and helped in making her a lasting icon of style. “She has created a type,...
Costume designer Gilbert Adrian had longtime working relationships with some of the biggest stars on the silver screen, including Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Jean Harlow, Jeanette MacDonald, Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford. He created the ruby slippers and designed the gingham dress worn by Judy Garland as Dorothy in Victor Fleming’s The Wizard Of Oz.
Jessica Regan on working with Nathan Crowley and Shane Valentino: “They were looking at 1930s film set design and taking inspiration …” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Adrian designed Garbo’s clothes for 17 of her 24 American films and helped in making her a lasting icon of style. “She has created a type,...
- 11/30/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
I owe much of my love of horror to 1931’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Before I was old enough to have access to many of the movies I would one day love, I was going to the public library and checking out books about classic monster movies. The Crestwood House series were staples and in constant rotation, but the one I would read and re-read more than any other was called Movie Monsters by Thomas G. Ayelsworth. This was where I first fell in love with Lugosi's Dracula and Karloff's monster, where I learned the difference between the Lon Chaney Wolf Man and Henry Hull in Werewolf of London. In many cases, it would be years before I would ever see these movies, but I had the titles and stars of all of them memorized by the time I was eight years old. It is this book, more than anything else,...
- 10/7/2019
- by Patrick Bromley
- DailyDead
The AFI Conservatory, one of the crown jewels of the American Film Institute, celebrated its 50th anniversary in style Thursday night at the place where it all started, the fabled Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. One of the first “colleges” for filmmakers (there were only four at the time), it opened at Greystone in 1969 and stayed there until 1981 ,when it moved to Griffith Park, where it still stands at the former Immaculate Heart campus.
The students — or fellows, as they are called for that first class — included future Oscar- nominated legends like Terrence Malick, Paul Schrader, and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, the latter among many alumni who returned to the original campus for a class-reunion-of-all-class-reunions Thursday. Others attending included three-time Oscar nominee and 2019 Honorary Academy Award winner David Lynch from the class of 1970, Pieter Jan Brugge (Class of 1979), Jay Cassidy (1976), Susannah Grant (1991), Liz Hannah (2009), Marshall Herskovitz (1975), Mel Jones (2010), Matthew Libatique (1992), Melina...
The students — or fellows, as they are called for that first class — included future Oscar- nominated legends like Terrence Malick, Paul Schrader, and cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, the latter among many alumni who returned to the original campus for a class-reunion-of-all-class-reunions Thursday. Others attending included three-time Oscar nominee and 2019 Honorary Academy Award winner David Lynch from the class of 1970, Pieter Jan Brugge (Class of 1979), Jay Cassidy (1976), Susannah Grant (1991), Liz Hannah (2009), Marshall Herskovitz (1975), Mel Jones (2010), Matthew Libatique (1992), Melina...
- 9/21/2019
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Some show had to be the first — back in 1935, this was the first movie to be produced entirely in full 3 strip Technicolor. Just like any revolutionary filmic development, it came from outside the studio system, which says something about how Hollywood works — studios will spend millions of dollars to take advantage of a striking innovation, but let somebody else do the painful R&D. Pioneer Pictures’ project began filming started with one director but then restarted with Rouben Mamoulian, who a little earlier had already shown the town a thing or two about the possibilities of sound. A stage play of the classic novel becomes almost a pageant of color, led by the reliable Miriam Hopkins. Is the movie any good? That’s debatable. But it needs to be seen, to fully appreciate the movie miracle created by chemists, not artists.
Becky Sharp
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1935 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 84 min.
Becky Sharp
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1935 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 84 min.
- 4/2/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Hollywood classics don’t have to be stuffy — this 1940 swashbuckling adventure has style, great action, laughs and one of the most attractive screen couples of their day, Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell. And that’s not mentioning a superb fencing match, a great, quaint Spanish dance, and a smart cast directed by Rouben Mamoulian at his best. This German import is fully compatible with U.S. players.
The Mark of Zorro
Im Zeichen des Zorro
All-Region Blu-ray Special Edition
Explosive Media GmbH
1940 / B&W/colorized / 1:37 Academy / 94 min. / Im Zeichen des Zorro / Street Date September 27, 2018 / Available through Amazon.de / Eur 15,99
Starring: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Basil Rathbone, Gale Sondergaard,
Eugene Pallette, J. Edward Bromberg, Montagu Love, Janet Beecher, George Regas, Chris-Pin Martin.
Cinematography: Arthur Miller
Film Editor: Robert Bischoff
Original Music: Alfred Newman
Written by John Taintor Foote, Garrett Fort
Produced by Raymond Griffith, Darryl F. Zanuck
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
“I am off to California,...
The Mark of Zorro
Im Zeichen des Zorro
All-Region Blu-ray Special Edition
Explosive Media GmbH
1940 / B&W/colorized / 1:37 Academy / 94 min. / Im Zeichen des Zorro / Street Date September 27, 2018 / Available through Amazon.de / Eur 15,99
Starring: Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Basil Rathbone, Gale Sondergaard,
Eugene Pallette, J. Edward Bromberg, Montagu Love, Janet Beecher, George Regas, Chris-Pin Martin.
Cinematography: Arthur Miller
Film Editor: Robert Bischoff
Original Music: Alfred Newman
Written by John Taintor Foote, Garrett Fort
Produced by Raymond Griffith, Darryl F. Zanuck
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
“I am off to California,...
- 3/2/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This article marks Part 1 of the Gold Derby series reflecting on Horror Films at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the spine-tingling movies that earned Academy Awards nominations, including the following films from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.
In considering history of horror cinema and its performance at the Oscars, it must first be acknowledged that a plethora of pictures from this genre were released prior to the very existence of the Academy Awards. The legendary likes of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920), “Nosferatu” (1922) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925), among others, all earned releases prior to the first Oscar ceremony, in 1928.
There were not many horror films eligible for consideration at the 1st Academy Awards – the most worthy of such recognition would have been “The Man Who Laughs” (1928), one of countless horror movies released in the first half of the century by Universal Pictures. The picture did not garner recognition,...
In considering history of horror cinema and its performance at the Oscars, it must first be acknowledged that a plethora of pictures from this genre were released prior to the very existence of the Academy Awards. The legendary likes of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1920), “Nosferatu” (1922) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925), among others, all earned releases prior to the first Oscar ceremony, in 1928.
There were not many horror films eligible for consideration at the 1st Academy Awards – the most worthy of such recognition would have been “The Man Who Laughs” (1928), one of countless horror movies released in the first half of the century by Universal Pictures. The picture did not garner recognition,...
- 10/16/2018
- by Andrew Carden
- Gold Derby
Greta Garbo would’ve celebrated her 113th birthday on September 18. Born in 1905, the Swedish-born actress became a star with a string of hit films throughout the 1920s and 1930s before disappearing from screens in 1941 at the age of 36. Though she appeared in only a handful of titles, enough have remained classics to give her a special place in history. In honor of her birthday, let’s take a look back at 10 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Garbo got her start in the silent era, acting in her native Sweden before coming to Hollywood at the behest of MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer. She soon became a popular presence on the silver screen as a romantic leading lady. Her performance in “Flesh and the Devil” (1926) as a seductress who tears two friends apart proved she was a woman to die for.
Since English was not her first language,...
Garbo got her start in the silent era, acting in her native Sweden before coming to Hollywood at the behest of MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer. She soon became a popular presence on the silver screen as a romantic leading lady. Her performance in “Flesh and the Devil” (1926) as a seductress who tears two friends apart proved she was a woman to die for.
Since English was not her first language,...
- 9/18/2018
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
The first Esposizione d’Arte Cinematografica, later to be known as the Venice Intl. Film Festival, kicked off Aug. 6, 1932, with a screening of Rouben Mamoulian’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” on the terrace of the Lido’s Hotel Excelsior, followed by a grand ball.
The pic, produced by Paramount, went on to win an acting Oscar for Fredric March in an auspicious start, at least as an awards tastemaker, for the world’s oldest international film fest. It kicks off its 75th edition on Aug. 29.
Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night,” above, Edmund Goulding’s “Grand Hotel,” King Vidor’s “The Champ” and “A Nous la liberté” by René Clair are among other titles, now classics, that screened during that first edition. The fest was born from Italy’s desire to be seen as the center of art and culture in the wake of the disastrous World War I,...
The pic, produced by Paramount, went on to win an acting Oscar for Fredric March in an auspicious start, at least as an awards tastemaker, for the world’s oldest international film fest. It kicks off its 75th edition on Aug. 29.
Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night,” above, Edmund Goulding’s “Grand Hotel,” King Vidor’s “The Champ” and “A Nous la liberté” by René Clair are among other titles, now classics, that screened during that first edition. The fest was born from Italy’s desire to be seen as the center of art and culture in the wake of the disastrous World War I,...
- 8/28/2018
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Cannes Classics 2018’s opening nighter is Irish filmmaker Mark Cousins’ intimate documentary “The Eyes of Orson Welles,” which was invited to Cannes before Netflix pulled its own two Welles entries, the completed “The Other Side of the Wind” and Morgan Neville’s accompanying Welles documentary “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead.”
Cousins (“The Story of Film: An Odyssey”) narrates his charming love letter to the late Welles, which is the first original film backed by the Filmstruck and TCM partnership (as well as the BBC and other funders), and is for sale to Cannes buyers.
“I’m interested in a more personal voice,” he said in a phone interview from Scotland, “in what happens when you look someone in the eye, as it were, and address them directly. It’s a more intimate and emotional language.”
He first adopted letter-writing on “Eisenstein and Lawrence,” his 2016 documentary short about...
Cousins (“The Story of Film: An Odyssey”) narrates his charming love letter to the late Welles, which is the first original film backed by the Filmstruck and TCM partnership (as well as the BBC and other funders), and is for sale to Cannes buyers.
“I’m interested in a more personal voice,” he said in a phone interview from Scotland, “in what happens when you look someone in the eye, as it were, and address them directly. It’s a more intimate and emotional language.”
He first adopted letter-writing on “Eisenstein and Lawrence,” his 2016 documentary short about...
- 5/9/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Cannes Classics 2018’s opening nighter is Irish filmmaker Mark Cousins’ intimate documentary “The Eyes of Orson Welles,” which was invited to Cannes before Netflix pulled its own two Welles entries, the completed “The Other Side of the Wind” and Morgan Neville’s accompanying Welles documentary “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead.”
Cousins (“The Story of Film: An Odyssey”) narrates his charming love letter to the late Welles, which is the first original film backed by the Filmstruck and TCM partnership (as well as the BBC and other funders), and is for sale to Cannes buyers.
“I’m interested in a more personal voice,” he said in a phone interview from Scotland, “in what happens when you look someone in the eye, as it were, and address them directly. It’s a more intimate and emotional language.”
He first adopted letter-writing on “Eisenstein and Lawrence,” his 2016 documentary short about...
Cousins (“The Story of Film: An Odyssey”) narrates his charming love letter to the late Welles, which is the first original film backed by the Filmstruck and TCM partnership (as well as the BBC and other funders), and is for sale to Cannes buyers.
“I’m interested in a more personal voice,” he said in a phone interview from Scotland, “in what happens when you look someone in the eye, as it were, and address them directly. It’s a more intimate and emotional language.”
He first adopted letter-writing on “Eisenstein and Lawrence,” his 2016 documentary short about...
- 5/9/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Sing the Body Electric: Huppert Glows in Bozon’s Eccentric Take on Robert Louis Stevenson
“Things one can’t do are the one I want to,” utters a mournful Frederic March as the eponymous Dr. Jekyll in Rouben Mamoulian’s pre-code 1932 production of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famed novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The classic 1886 text has been adapted for the cinema countless times, a fascinating example of the eternal struggle between the id and ego of the good doctor and his lascivious alternate personality, both immortal fixtures in the pop culture zeitgeist. But outside of something…...
“Things one can’t do are the one I want to,” utters a mournful Frederic March as the eponymous Dr. Jekyll in Rouben Mamoulian’s pre-code 1932 production of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famed novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The classic 1886 text has been adapted for the cinema countless times, a fascinating example of the eternal struggle between the id and ego of the good doctor and his lascivious alternate personality, both immortal fixtures in the pop culture zeitgeist. But outside of something…...
- 4/26/2018
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Fritz Lang continues his take-no-prisoners indictment of America’s curious relationship with crime; this time he presents the thesis that an innocent man can be a pawn in cosmic game of injustice. Three-time loser Henry Fonda, the glummest actor in ’30s films, doesn’t mean to rob or kill, but gosh darn it, They Made Him a Criminal. Those considerations aside, it’s a wonderful cinematic achievement, made all the better by a decent digital restoration.
You Only Live Once
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1937 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 86 min. / Street Date July 25, 2017 / 29.98
Starring: Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Barton MacLane, Jean Dixon,
William Gargan, Jerome Cowan, Charles ‘Chic’ Sale, Margaret Hamilton, Warren Hymer,
Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, Ward Bond, Jack Carson, Jonathan Hale
Cinematography: Leon Shamroy
Art Direction: Alexander Toluboff
Film Editor: Daniel Mandell
Original Music: Hugo Friedhofer
Written by Graham Baker and Gene Towne
Produced by Walter Wanger
Directed by Fritz Lang...
You Only Live Once
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1937 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 86 min. / Street Date July 25, 2017 / 29.98
Starring: Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Barton MacLane, Jean Dixon,
William Gargan, Jerome Cowan, Charles ‘Chic’ Sale, Margaret Hamilton, Warren Hymer,
Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, Ward Bond, Jack Carson, Jonathan Hale
Cinematography: Leon Shamroy
Art Direction: Alexander Toluboff
Film Editor: Daniel Mandell
Original Music: Hugo Friedhofer
Written by Graham Baker and Gene Towne
Produced by Walter Wanger
Directed by Fritz Lang...
- 7/31/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Leah Purcell accepting the Sydney Unesco City of Film Award..
Sydney Film Festival closed last night, with Ildikó Enyedi.s On Body and Soul awarded the $60,000 Sydney Film Prize..
The film from the Hungarian director has previously also won the Berlinale Golden Bear, and follows an unconventional romance between two co-workers who discover that each night they have exactly the same dreams.
Accepting the award Enyedi said: .It was such an amazingly strong competition. It.s marvellous that.such a film can move so many people, it gives me so much hope in cinema and in human communication.
Sydney filmmakers Sascha Ettinger Epstein and Claire Haywood were awarded the $10,000 Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary for The Pink House, about the last brothel in Kalgoorlie.
In a joint statement, the jury, which was made up of Ramona S. Diaz, CEO Documentary Australia Foundation Dr Mitzi Goldman and Amin Palangi said:.
"Amongst ten noteworthy films,...
Sydney Film Festival closed last night, with Ildikó Enyedi.s On Body and Soul awarded the $60,000 Sydney Film Prize..
The film from the Hungarian director has previously also won the Berlinale Golden Bear, and follows an unconventional romance between two co-workers who discover that each night they have exactly the same dreams.
Accepting the award Enyedi said: .It was such an amazingly strong competition. It.s marvellous that.such a film can move so many people, it gives me so much hope in cinema and in human communication.
Sydney filmmakers Sascha Ettinger Epstein and Claire Haywood were awarded the $10,000 Documentary Australia Foundation Award for Australian Documentary for The Pink House, about the last brothel in Kalgoorlie.
In a joint statement, the jury, which was made up of Ramona S. Diaz, CEO Documentary Australia Foundation Dr Mitzi Goldman and Amin Palangi said:.
"Amongst ten noteworthy films,...
- 6/19/2017
- by Staff Writer
- IF.com.au
Jacques Demy’s international breakthrough musical gives us Catherine Deneuve and wall-to-wall Michel Legrand pop-jazz — it’s a different animal than La La Land but they’re being compared anyway. The story of a romance without a happily-ever-after is doggedly naturalistic, despite visuals as bright and buoyant as an old MGM show.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 716
1964 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Les parapluies de Cherbourg / Street Date April 11, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon, Marc Michel, Ellen Farner, Mireille Perrey, Jean Champion.
Cinematography: Jean Rabier
Production design:Bernard Evein
Film Editors: Anne-Marie Cotret, Monique Teisseire
Original Music: Michel Legrand
Produced by Mag Bodard
Written and Directed by Jacques Demy
What with all the hubbub about last year’s Oscar favorite La La Land, I wonder if Hollywood will be trotting out more retro-nostalgia, ‘let’s put on a show’ musical fantasy fare.
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 716
1964 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Les parapluies de Cherbourg / Street Date April 11, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Anne Vernon, Marc Michel, Ellen Farner, Mireille Perrey, Jean Champion.
Cinematography: Jean Rabier
Production design:Bernard Evein
Film Editors: Anne-Marie Cotret, Monique Teisseire
Original Music: Michel Legrand
Produced by Mag Bodard
Written and Directed by Jacques Demy
What with all the hubbub about last year’s Oscar favorite La La Land, I wonder if Hollywood will be trotting out more retro-nostalgia, ‘let’s put on a show’ musical fantasy fare.
- 4/15/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Mubi's retrospective The Many Sins of Walerian Borowczyk is showing February 12 - June 18, 2017 in the United States and in many other countries around the world.The late 1970s marks a stylistic departure for Walerian Borowczyk, as the Polish director moved away from a controlled, painterly style and toward a ‘corporeal’ style, wherein changes in aesthetic choices allowed him to explore the human body in greater depth than in his previous films. While the liberal portrayal of sex and sexuality (lending itself to the liberal portrayal of bodies, human or otherwise) is present in Borowczyk’s live-action films as early as his anthology Immoral Tales from 1973, the preoccupation with the body specifically comes to the fore with the films Behind Convent Walls (1978), Immoral Women (1979), L’armoire (1979), Lulu (1980), and The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (1981). It is in this four-year period that the viewer will notice Borowczyk's moving away...
- 4/6/2017
- MUBI
The inevitable occurred Saturday night as Damien Chazelle accepted the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for “La La Land” from last year’s winner, A.G. Inarritu. The DGA winner is usually a pretty certain match with the Oscar for the Best Director — the winner has not gone on to take the Academy Award only seven times. (The most recent example: in 2012 non-Oscar directing nominee Ben Affleck won the DGA Award for “Argo,” while Ang Lee won the Oscar for “Life of Pi.”)
Chazelle beat fellow first-time DGA and Oscar nominees Barry Jenkins (presented by his charming trio of stars in $1.5 million “Moonlight”), Kenneth Lonergan (introduced by “Manchester By the Sea” star Casey Affleck) and Denis Villeneuve (tributed by Amy Adams of “Arrival”).
“Film is a universal language,” Chazelle said, recalling how the French New Wave directors fell in love with Hollywood sans sub-titles. He also...
Chazelle beat fellow first-time DGA and Oscar nominees Barry Jenkins (presented by his charming trio of stars in $1.5 million “Moonlight”), Kenneth Lonergan (introduced by “Manchester By the Sea” star Casey Affleck) and Denis Villeneuve (tributed by Amy Adams of “Arrival”).
“Film is a universal language,” Chazelle said, recalling how the French New Wave directors fell in love with Hollywood sans sub-titles. He also...
- 2/5/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The inevitable occurred Saturday night as Damien Chazelle accepted the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for “La La Land” from last year’s winner, A.G. Inarritu. The DGA winner is usually a pretty certain match with the Oscar for the Best Director — the winner has not gone on to take the Academy Award only seven times. (The most recent example: in 2012 non-Oscar directing nominee Ben Affleck won the DGA Award for “Argo,” while Ang Lee won the Oscar for “Life of Pi.”)
Chazelle beat fellow first-time DGA and Oscar nominees Barry Jenkins (presented by his charming trio of stars in $1.5 million “Moonlight”), Kenneth Lonergan (introduced by “Manchester By the Sea” star Casey Affleck) and Denis Villeneuve (tributed by Amy Adams of “Arrival”).
“Film is a universal language,” Chazelle said, recalling how the French New Wave directors fell in love with Hollywood sans sub-titles. He also...
Chazelle beat fellow first-time DGA and Oscar nominees Barry Jenkins (presented by his charming trio of stars in $1.5 million “Moonlight”), Kenneth Lonergan (introduced by “Manchester By the Sea” star Casey Affleck) and Denis Villeneuve (tributed by Amy Adams of “Arrival”).
“Film is a universal language,” Chazelle said, recalling how the French New Wave directors fell in love with Hollywood sans sub-titles. He also...
- 2/5/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
A version of this article originally appeared on EW.com.
La La Land, Damien Chazelle’s musical romance (and EW’s favorite movie of 2016) is packing theaters in major cities across the country. Its earning power has been mighty impressive, guaranteeing that the film will be open for box office business at least until the Oscars in February, where the film leads all hopefuls with a record-tying 14 nominations.
Chazelle’s movie features a number of song and dance sequences that are both steeped in homage for old musicals and wondrously modern. In one scene, which drew inspiration from classic Hollywood...
La La Land, Damien Chazelle’s musical romance (and EW’s favorite movie of 2016) is packing theaters in major cities across the country. Its earning power has been mighty impressive, guaranteeing that the film will be open for box office business at least until the Oscars in February, where the film leads all hopefuls with a record-tying 14 nominations.
Chazelle’s movie features a number of song and dance sequences that are both steeped in homage for old musicals and wondrously modern. In one scene, which drew inspiration from classic Hollywood...
- 1/27/2017
- by alexisloinazpeople
- PEOPLE.com
The Notebook is the North American home for Locarno Film Festival Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian's blog. Chatrian has been writing thoughtful blog entries in Italian on Locarno's website since he took over as Director in late 2012, and now you can find the English translations here on the Notebook as they're published. The Locarno Film Festival will be taking place August 2 - 12. We can begin with one of those anecdotes that are the stuff of Hollywood, marking the birth of a star and mapping out a whole career. Gene Tierney had already caught the eye of Anatole Litvak when aged only 17 and, after a happy period of study abroad (right here in Switzerland, in Lausanne), had been invited by a cousin to visit a Hollywood film set. But she took her father’s advice and turned down an offer from Warner Bros in favor of starting on the stage, on Broadway.
- 1/9/2017
- MUBI
Jimmy Fallon‘s cold open at Sunday night’s Golden Globes is chasing all the lights that shine.
The host of this year’s 74th annual Golden Globes ceremony will parody the opening scene from hit musical La La Land, which led all features with seven total nominations including best musical or comedy motion picture.
Fallon released a 10-second teaser of the cold open to his official Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon YouTube account on Sunday evening.
Directed by Damien Chazelle, La La Land opens with a show-stopping number in the middle of a Los Angeles freeway set to the...
The host of this year’s 74th annual Golden Globes ceremony will parody the opening scene from hit musical La La Land, which led all features with seven total nominations including best musical or comedy motion picture.
Fallon released a 10-second teaser of the cold open to his official Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon YouTube account on Sunday evening.
Directed by Damien Chazelle, La La Land opens with a show-stopping number in the middle of a Los Angeles freeway set to the...
- 1/8/2017
- by Lindsay Kimble
- PEOPLE.com
From September 16 through 29, the Film Society of Lincoln Center will be screening new restorations of all six films that make up Eric Rohmer's Moral Tales: The Bakery Girl of Monceau, Suzanne’s Career, My Night at Maud's, La collectionneuse, Claire's Knee and Love in the Afternoon. More goings on: Work by Curt McDowell and Tom Rubnitz, Derek Jarman's Will You Dance With Me?, David Miller's Sudden Fear with Joan Crawford in New York; The Monkees and Guillermo del Toro in Los Angeles; Rouben Mamoulian at Harvard; art inspired by Wes Anderson's films in San Francisco; remembering Abbas Kiarostami in Toronto; and a Mohsen Makhmalbaf series in London. » - David Hudson...
- 8/11/2016
- Keyframe
From September 16 through 29, the Film Society of Lincoln Center will be screening new restorations of all six films that make up Eric Rohmer's Moral Tales: The Bakery Girl of Monceau, Suzanne’s Career, My Night at Maud's, La collectionneuse, Claire's Knee and Love in the Afternoon. More goings on: Work by Curt McDowell and Tom Rubnitz, Derek Jarman's Will You Dance With Me?, David Miller's Sudden Fear with Joan Crawford in New York; The Monkees and Guillermo del Toro in Los Angeles; Rouben Mamoulian at Harvard; art inspired by Wes Anderson's films in San Francisco; remembering Abbas Kiarostami in Toronto; and a Mohsen Makhmalbaf series in London. » - David Hudson...
- 8/11/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
It's in glorious Technicolor Metrocolor, CinemaScope and StereoPhonic Sound! Fred Astaire's final MGM musical gives him Cyd Charisse and a Cole Porter score, plus some nice Hermes Pan choreography. The script and Rouben Mamoulian's direction aren't the best, but the combined magic of the musical and dancing talent saves the day. Silk Stockings Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1957 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 117 min. / Street Date July 12, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Janis Paige, Peter Lorre, George Tobias, Jules Munshin, Joseph Buloff, Wim Sonneveld Cinematography Robert Bronner Art Direction Randall Duell, William A. Horning Film Editor Harold F. Kress Original Music Cole Porter Written by Abe Burrows, Leonard Gershe, George S. Kaufman, Leueen MacGrath, and Leonard Spigelgass Produced by Arthur Freed Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
On the Town? The Pajama Game? Damn Yankees? The Warner Archive Collection's next musical up for the...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
On the Town? The Pajama Game? Damn Yankees? The Warner Archive Collection's next musical up for the...
- 7/23/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Brazilian film debuted in Competiton at Cannes.
Director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Brazilian social justice drama Aquarius has won the $47,000 (Au$63,000) Sydney Film Prize, the major award of the Sydney Film Festival (June 8-19).
Mendonca Filho’s story of a strong-willed homeowner’s battle against unscrupulous real estate developers was awarded the top prize at the closing night of the 63rd Sff on Sunday.
Jury president and UK producer Simon Field said Aquarius, which premiered in Competition at Cannes last month, is “a compelling and relevant statement about contemporary Brazil, and the power of an individual standing up for what she believes.”
“Mendonça Filho has created a film that is both political and personal – witty, sexy and playful. A film of effortless verve and intelligence,” he said.
“At the heart of the film is Sonia Braga’s astonishing and brave performance of a fearless character, resisting pressures from her family, and the corporate...
Director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Brazilian social justice drama Aquarius has won the $47,000 (Au$63,000) Sydney Film Prize, the major award of the Sydney Film Festival (June 8-19).
Mendonca Filho’s story of a strong-willed homeowner’s battle against unscrupulous real estate developers was awarded the top prize at the closing night of the 63rd Sff on Sunday.
Jury president and UK producer Simon Field said Aquarius, which premiered in Competition at Cannes last month, is “a compelling and relevant statement about contemporary Brazil, and the power of an individual standing up for what she believes.”
“Mendonça Filho has created a film that is both political and personal – witty, sexy and playful. A film of effortless verve and intelligence,” he said.
“At the heart of the film is Sonia Braga’s astonishing and brave performance of a fearless character, resisting pressures from her family, and the corporate...
- 6/20/2016
- ScreenDaily
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