Clockwise from top left: The Wicker Man (Warner Bros.), Vanilla Sky (Paramont), Oldboy (FilmDistrict), The Toy (Columbia)Image: AVClub
In Hollywood, it often seems that the sincerest form of flattery is to remake a foreign film. Domestic versions of international hits are a long-running thing in a town where familiarity assumes success,...
In Hollywood, it often seems that the sincerest form of flattery is to remake a foreign film. Domestic versions of international hits are a long-running thing in a town where familiarity assumes success,...
- 11/1/2023
- by Ian Spelling
- avclub.com
Patton Oswalt once sagely joked that science is "all about coulda, not about shoulda." History is riddled with examples confirming his premise: the development of the A-bomb, Project MKUltra, and the advent of biological warfare. The worst of these achievements are irrevocable threats to humankind; the threat of nuclear war — which, if waged at full scale, would likely render most of the planet uninhabitable — will always be with us. Other thresholds, once passed, would render life barely worth living.
The growing popularity of ChatGPT has been a societal litmus test. People are understandably curious about the hot new technology. Goldbrickers at the professional and academic levels are downright ecstatic about its effort-saving applications. As the Artificial Intelligence model becomes more sophisticated, it will likely be able to churn out A-level analyses and essays. In time, ChatGPT and AI programs like it will be capable of generating novels, screenplays and, most chillingly,...
The growing popularity of ChatGPT has been a societal litmus test. People are understandably curious about the hot new technology. Goldbrickers at the professional and academic levels are downright ecstatic about its effort-saving applications. As the Artificial Intelligence model becomes more sophisticated, it will likely be able to churn out A-level analyses and essays. In time, ChatGPT and AI programs like it will be capable of generating novels, screenplays and, most chillingly,...
- 4/25/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Gaumont has enlisted distributors in major European markets and beyond for “A Difficult Year,” a topical comedy directed by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, the French filmmaking duo behind the smash hit “Intouchables.”
Deals were scored on the heels at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous showcase in Paris, where Gaumont unveiled the film’s promo to buyers with Toledano and Nakache on hand.
“A Difficult Year” has now been sold to Spain (A Contracorriente), Belgium and Netherlands (Cineart), Italy (iWonder), Germany and Austria (Weltkino), Poland (Gutek), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), Greece (Feelgood), Hungary (Mozinet), Czech Republic, Slovakia (Aerofilms), Portugal (Nos), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Romania (Independenta) and Israel (Lev).
Gaumont will next present the promo at the Berlinale’s European Film Market where it will be closing further sales.
Toledano and Nakache’s eighth feature, “A Difficult Year” is bolstered by an ensemble cast including Jonathan Cohen, Pio Marmaï, Noémie Merlant and Mathieu Amalric. The...
Deals were scored on the heels at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous showcase in Paris, where Gaumont unveiled the film’s promo to buyers with Toledano and Nakache on hand.
“A Difficult Year” has now been sold to Spain (A Contracorriente), Belgium and Netherlands (Cineart), Italy (iWonder), Germany and Austria (Weltkino), Poland (Gutek), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), Greece (Feelgood), Hungary (Mozinet), Czech Republic, Slovakia (Aerofilms), Portugal (Nos), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Romania (Independenta) and Israel (Lev).
Gaumont will next present the promo at the Berlinale’s European Film Market where it will be closing further sales.
Toledano and Nakache’s eighth feature, “A Difficult Year” is bolstered by an ensemble cast including Jonathan Cohen, Pio Marmaï, Noémie Merlant and Mathieu Amalric. The...
- 1/25/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Joe and Anthony Russo's path to becoming the kingpins of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was neither direct nor likely. Prior to taking on "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," the brothers had been most successful as single-camera sitcom directors; they won an Emmy for their work on the pilot of "Arrested Development," and shot some of the most beloved episodes of "Community." They were far less successful as filmmakers. Their first feature, "Welcome to Collinwood," a remake of Mario Monicelli's delightful heist flick "Big Deal on Madonna Street" starring William H. Macy, Sam Rockwell and George Clooney, fell flat with critics and audiences. Their second effort,...
The post How Steven Soderbergh Shaped The Russo Brothers' Filmmaking Style appeared first on /Film.
The post How Steven Soderbergh Shaped The Russo Brothers' Filmmaking Style appeared first on /Film.
- 8/1/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
After making a brief cameo during the opening monologue of last week’s Will Forte-hosted “Saturday Night Live” — in which Lorne Michaels himself joked about the apparent ridiculousness of booking both a “Will” and a “Willem” on back-to-back weeks — this week’s “SNL” saw Academy Award nominee Willem Dafoe join the ranks of this season’s first-time hosts. As a character actor known for his intensity and very specific — if not subtle — acting choices, Dafoe had “SNL” fans expecting a very strange episode.
Host: Willem Dafoe
If given the chance to guess where Willem Dafoe is originally from, it seems highly unlikely that most people would actually guess correctly and say “Appleton, Wisconsin.” (Which is also part of why the British/”Sir Willem Dafoe” joke in the “Nugenix” sketch works as well as it does.) As he noted in his monologue, he got his start as an actor in New York City.
Host: Willem Dafoe
If given the chance to guess where Willem Dafoe is originally from, it seems highly unlikely that most people would actually guess correctly and say “Appleton, Wisconsin.” (Which is also part of why the British/”Sir Willem Dafoe” joke in the “Nugenix” sketch works as well as it does.) As he noted in his monologue, he got his start as an actor in New York City.
- 1/30/2022
- by LaToya Ferguson
- Indiewire
Late great Italian actor Vittorio Gassman, who is best known to U.S. audiences as the star of classics such as “Big Deal on Madonna Street” and “Il Sorpasso” (“The Easy Life”), will be celebrated by the Los Angeles-Italia Film Fashion and Art Festival, which will run March 20-26 at Hollywood’s Tcl Chinese Theater.
The annual pre-Oscars event comprising movies and music and celebrating showbiz ties between Italy and Hollywood, now at its 17th edition, will pay tribute to the centennial of Gassman’s birth with a mini-retro honoring the memory of the iconic thesp who, among other accolades, won the best actor prize at Cannes in 1975 for his performance as a blind man in Dino Risi’s ”Profumo di Donna,” later remade in English as ”Scent of a Woman” with Al Pacino.
“We are honored and extremely pleased to pay a well-deserved tribute to an Italian genius whose...
The annual pre-Oscars event comprising movies and music and celebrating showbiz ties between Italy and Hollywood, now at its 17th edition, will pay tribute to the centennial of Gassman’s birth with a mini-retro honoring the memory of the iconic thesp who, among other accolades, won the best actor prize at Cannes in 1975 for his performance as a blind man in Dino Risi’s ”Profumo di Donna,” later remade in English as ”Scent of a Woman” with Al Pacino.
“We are honored and extremely pleased to pay a well-deserved tribute to an Italian genius whose...
- 1/11/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Retitled from the even more indistinct “Way Down” for U.S. release, Spanish heist “The Vault” stubbornly remains one of those movies you know you’ll be forgetting almost as soon as you finish watching it. There’s nothing really wrong with this glossy tale of a “mission impossible” raid on a heavily fortified Madrid bank to retrieve treasure, as slickly directed by Jaume Balaguero of the “[rec]” series. It’s just that a caper of this type needs tense set pieces, surprising twists, idiosyncratic characters or charismatic stars — ideally, all the above — to distinguish itself, and this one falls short in all those departments.
Viewers who really love this sort of thing may get caught up in the procedural aspects of the story anyway. But anyone desiring more from a heist movie than the genre’s familiar conventions professionally executed will find “The Vault” a bit empty. Saban Films is...
Viewers who really love this sort of thing may get caught up in the procedural aspects of the story anyway. But anyone desiring more from a heist movie than the genre’s familiar conventions professionally executed will find “The Vault” a bit empty. Saban Films is...
- 3/26/2021
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Chadwick Boseman’s tragic death at the age of 43 shocked the world on August 28, 2020. The talented young actor, best known around the world for his portrayal of the superhero Black Panther, broke into Hollywood through a series of portrayals of black historical figures. Boseman was a versatile actor, capable of playing his roles with both a dignified stoicism and a manic energy. In honor of the late actor’s memory, let’s take a look back at his greatest film roles in our ranked photo gallery.
SEEWill Chadwick Boseman break Oscar record held by James Dean?
Boseman began his career as a theater actor and director, and shortly after starred in several small television roles, culminating in a recurring role on the show “Persons Unknown.” The actor got his big break when he was cast as baseball star Jackie Robinson in the biopic “42,” and was subsequently cast as singer James Brown in another biopic,...
SEEWill Chadwick Boseman break Oscar record held by James Dean?
Boseman began his career as a theater actor and director, and shortly after starred in several small television roles, culminating in a recurring role on the show “Persons Unknown.” The actor got his big break when he was cast as baseball star Jackie Robinson in the biopic “42,” and was subsequently cast as singer James Brown in another biopic,...
- 1/16/2021
- by Zach Moore
- Gold Derby
“We’re not thieves,” insists the ringleader of a heist in “Heroic Losers,” a South American crowd-pleaser about a rural collective seeking justice against big-city banking elites. He may be wrong in the most literal sense, but like an Argentinean Danny Ocean, he’s assembled a group of amateurs who have no intention of filling their coffers with ill-gotten gains — they just want their money back. Adding to a tradition of modest heist comedies like “Going in Style” and “Big Deal on Madonna Street,” . That populist touch has put it on track to be the year’s biggest box-office hit in its home country, and other territories will surely pounce after its international premiere in Toronto.
Anchoring this motley ensemble is Ricardo Darín, the durable star of Borensztein’s previous two films, “Chinese Take-Out” and “Kóblic,” though international audiences will likely remember him from “Nine Queens,” which also placed him...
Anchoring this motley ensemble is Ricardo Darín, the durable star of Borensztein’s previous two films, “Chinese Take-Out” and “Kóblic,” though international audiences will likely remember him from “Nine Queens,” which also placed him...
- 9/8/2019
- by Scott Tobias
- Variety Film + TV
The Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival has provided some strong picks this year, including French heist comedy The World Is Yours which was rousingly received. The second feature from Romain Gavras (son of Costa-Gavras), who is best known for his music video work with such artists as Mia, Kanye West and Justice, stars Vincent Cassel who appeared in and produced his 2010 debut Our Day Will Come. The collaborators chatted with Deadline this week about the film, riffing on one another and the influence of Italian comedies on this stylish sophomore effort (check out the video above).
The World Is Yours follows François, a small-time drug dealer who wants to call it quits and become the official distributor of the Mr Freeze popsicle brand in North Africa. His dream vanishes when he learns that his mother (Isabelle Adjani) has spent all his life savings. When his boss presents...
The World Is Yours follows François, a small-time drug dealer who wants to call it quits and become the official distributor of the Mr Freeze popsicle brand in North Africa. His dream vanishes when he learns that his mother (Isabelle Adjani) has spent all his life savings. When his boss presents...
- 5/17/2018
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
After polling critics from around the world for the greatest American films of all-time, BBC has now forged ahead in the attempt to get a consensus on the best comedies of all-time. After polling 253 film critics, including 118 women and 135 men, from 52 countries and six continents a simple, the list of the 100 greatest is now here.
Featuring canonical classics such as Some Like It Hot, Dr. Strangelove, Annie Hall, Duck Soup, Playtime, and more in the top 10, there’s some interesting observations looking at the rest of the list. Toni Erdmann is the most recent inclusion, while the highest Wes Anderson pick is The Royal Tenenbaums. There’s also a healthy dose of Chaplin and Lubitsch with four films each, and the recently departed Jerry Lewis has a pair of inclusions.
Check out the list below (and my ballot) and see more on their official site.
100. (tie) The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese,...
Featuring canonical classics such as Some Like It Hot, Dr. Strangelove, Annie Hall, Duck Soup, Playtime, and more in the top 10, there’s some interesting observations looking at the rest of the list. Toni Erdmann is the most recent inclusion, while the highest Wes Anderson pick is The Royal Tenenbaums. There’s also a healthy dose of Chaplin and Lubitsch with four films each, and the recently departed Jerry Lewis has a pair of inclusions.
Check out the list below (and my ballot) and see more on their official site.
100. (tie) The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese,...
- 8/22/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Claudia Cardinale is this poster girl for the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival (May 17th-28th).
The Italian star, whose credits include classics like 8½, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Leopard, Big Deal on Madonna Street, and Rocco and His Brothers is 78 now. She's still a regular on film festival red carpets. This photo of her was taken in 1959 when she was just 21 (and people are not happy that it's been reportedly airbrushed to make her thighs smaller.)
More news: Another Italian goddess Monica Bellucci has been named the Mistress of Ceremonies; Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu (4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Beyond the Hills) will preside over the Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury; and the Main Competition Jury president is Spain's Pedro Almodóvar. We don't yet know what the films he'll be judging are (and who will be on his jury) but speculated titles include Alexander Payne's Downsizing,...
The Italian star, whose credits include classics like 8½, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Leopard, Big Deal on Madonna Street, and Rocco and His Brothers is 78 now. She's still a regular on film festival red carpets. This photo of her was taken in 1959 when she was just 21 (and people are not happy that it's been reportedly airbrushed to make her thighs smaller.)
More news: Another Italian goddess Monica Bellucci has been named the Mistress of Ceremonies; Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu (4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Beyond the Hills) will preside over the Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury; and the Main Competition Jury president is Spain's Pedro Almodóvar. We don't yet know what the films he'll be judging are (and who will be on his jury) but speculated titles include Alexander Payne's Downsizing,...
- 3/29/2017
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Earlier this year, it was announced that Turner Classic Movies and the Criterion Collection — perhaps the two most trusted names in the distribution and exhibition of important classic and contemporary cinema — would be joining forces to create a streaming service dedicated to sharing their combined library with cinephiles around the world. For months, it sounded too good to be true. Today, it suddenly became as real as the screen in front of your face.
If the movies are truly as dead as they say, then FilmStruck is nothing short of heaven on Earth. It’s here, it’s alive, and hot damn has it come out of the gate swinging. Hundreds of essential titles are ready to go on launch day, and while hundreds more are imminently on the way, there’s already more than enough to satisfy whatever mood you’re in and scratch itches that you didn’t even know you had.
If the movies are truly as dead as they say, then FilmStruck is nothing short of heaven on Earth. It’s here, it’s alive, and hot damn has it come out of the gate swinging. Hundreds of essential titles are ready to go on launch day, and while hundreds more are imminently on the way, there’s already more than enough to satisfy whatever mood you’re in and scratch itches that you didn’t even know you had.
- 11/1/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
“It kind of freed me from a lot of criticisms people have from my other films,” Whit Stillman told us at Sundance earlier this year, speaking about adapting Jane Austen‘s epistolary novel Lady Susan, which became Love & Friendship. “Things can work really well and not be entirely realistic and often they can be better than realism. We love the old James Bond films. They weren’t realistic, but they’re delightful. And the great 30s films. The Awful Truth with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. It’s not realistic; it’s just perfect.”
To celebrate Stillman’s latest feature becoming his most successful yet at the box office, we’re highlighting his 10 favorite films, from a ballot submitted for the most recent Sight & Sound poll. Along with the aforementioned Leo McCarey classic, he includes romantic touchstones from Preston Sturges, Ernst Lubitsh, and François Truffaut. As for his favorite Alfred Hitchcock, he fittingly picks perhaps one of the best scripts he directed, and one not mentioned often enough.
We’ve covered many directors’ favorites, but this is one that perhaps best reflects the style and tone of an artist’s filmography. Check it out below, followed by our discussion of his latest film, if you missed it.
The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey)
Big Deal on Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli)
The Gay Divorcee (Mark Sandrich)
Howards End (James Ivory)
Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (Preston Sturges)
The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)
Stolen Kisses (François Truffaut)
Stranger than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch)
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock)
Wagon Master (John Ford)
See more directors’ favorite films.
To celebrate Stillman’s latest feature becoming his most successful yet at the box office, we’re highlighting his 10 favorite films, from a ballot submitted for the most recent Sight & Sound poll. Along with the aforementioned Leo McCarey classic, he includes romantic touchstones from Preston Sturges, Ernst Lubitsh, and François Truffaut. As for his favorite Alfred Hitchcock, he fittingly picks perhaps one of the best scripts he directed, and one not mentioned often enough.
We’ve covered many directors’ favorites, but this is one that perhaps best reflects the style and tone of an artist’s filmography. Check it out below, followed by our discussion of his latest film, if you missed it.
The Awful Truth (Leo McCarey)
Big Deal on Madonna Street (Mario Monicelli)
The Gay Divorcee (Mark Sandrich)
Howards End (James Ivory)
Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (Preston Sturges)
The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch)
Stolen Kisses (François Truffaut)
Stranger than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch)
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock)
Wagon Master (John Ford)
See more directors’ favorite films.
- 6/13/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
During a directorial career that spanned more than six decades, Viareggio-born Mario Monicelli, who would be 100 years old this week, was renowned as one of the masters of Italian comedy. Although he had been making films for many years before, his fiercely acerbic humor first came to international prominence in the late 1950s with pictures such as the heist film pastiche Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) and Wwi satire The Great War (1959). In this video essay, I focus on the theme of frustrated desire in two Monicelli films from the 1960s: Renzo and Luciana, his contribution to the 1962 anthology film Boccaccio ’70, and the Marcello Mastroianni vehicle Casanova ’70 (1965). >> - Pasquale Iannone...
- 5/16/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
During a directorial career that spanned more than six decades, Viareggio-born Mario Monicelli, who would be 100 years old this week, was renowned as one of the masters of Italian comedy. Although he had been making films for many years before, his fiercely acerbic humor first came to international prominence in the late 1950s with pictures such as the heist film pastiche Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) and Wwi satire The Great War (1959). In this video essay, I focus on the theme of frustrated desire in two Monicelli films from the 1960s: Renzo and Luciana, his contribution to the 1962 anthology film Boccaccio ’70, and the Marcello Mastroianni vehicle Casanova ’70 (1965). >> - Pasquale Iannone...
- 5/16/2015
- Keyframe
Miracolo!: Monicelli’s Exuberant, Digitally Restored Classic
There hasn’t been a performer that’s come close to equaling the vibrant energy of Italian actress Anna Magnani, that furious powerhouse that graced some of the best works of Rossellini, Visconti, Pasolini, and Renoir and swept her way through English language cinema, winning an Oscar for 1955’s The Rose Tattoo. It’s with great pleasure to discover that Mario Monicelli’s forgotten classic The Passionate Thief was digitally restored last year, playing at the 2014 Telluride Film Festival before being treated to a limited theatrical run this Spring at select theaters. Starring Magnani with her frequent stage collaborator, famed comedian Toto, and a nubile Ben Gazzara, the trio wanders through Rome’s streets one lackluster New Year’s Eve as they stumble through a series of escapades.
Based on short stories by famed author Alberto Moravia (The Conformist; Two Women; Contempt...
There hasn’t been a performer that’s come close to equaling the vibrant energy of Italian actress Anna Magnani, that furious powerhouse that graced some of the best works of Rossellini, Visconti, Pasolini, and Renoir and swept her way through English language cinema, winning an Oscar for 1955’s The Rose Tattoo. It’s with great pleasure to discover that Mario Monicelli’s forgotten classic The Passionate Thief was digitally restored last year, playing at the 2014 Telluride Film Festival before being treated to a limited theatrical run this Spring at select theaters. Starring Magnani with her frequent stage collaborator, famed comedian Toto, and a nubile Ben Gazzara, the trio wanders through Rome’s streets one lackluster New Year’s Eve as they stumble through a series of escapades.
Based on short stories by famed author Alberto Moravia (The Conformist; Two Women; Contempt...
- 4/14/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Anna Magnani in a publicity photo for The Passionate Thief.One thing cinephiles learn fast is just how easy it is, thanks to the limits and whims of distribution, for celebrated films to fade into the background outside their homeland. So one way to begin with Italian director Mario Monicelli is how overshadowed he is today on the world stage. You could say, only half-ironically, that he'd be more famous if only more people had heard of him, or if his global reputation kept up with the one he holds in Italy. Monicelli began filmmaking in the 1930s, was a prolific screenwriter in the 40s, took off as a director in the 50s, and continued making movies without much pause until his death in 2010. In his heyday as a hitmaker, he worked with stars like Anna Magnani, Marcello Mastroianni, Totò, Claudia Cardinale, and Monica Vitti. He once shared a Golden...
- 4/6/2015
- by Duncan Gray
- MUBI
Bill Hader has come a long way since his stint on Saturday Night Live, creating many popular characters and impersonations such as Stefon, Vincent Price and CNN’s Jack Cafferty. He is one of the highlights in such films as Adventureland, Knocked Up, Superbad and Pineapple Express, and so it is easy to see why author Mike Sacks interviewed him for his new book Poking A Dead Frog. In it, Hader talks about his career and he also lists 200 essential movies every comedy writer should see. Xo Jane recently published the list for those of us who haven’t had a chance to read the book yet. There are a ton of great recommendations and plenty I haven’t yet seen, but sadly my favourite comedy of all time isn’t mentioned. That would be Some Like It Hot. Still, it really is a great list with a mix of old and new.
- 8/28/2014
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
I don’t make films myself, but it seems obvious to me there are but two places to learn how to make movies: in the outside world constrained by so-called reality, and in the inside world of the cinema’s darkness, constrained by so-called illusion. Travelogue tales and quotidian reportage being of little interest here, a log for illusionary research and experience, I must duly deliver my film report on the films that came upon me in the darkness of the Melbourne International Film Festival, which ran from July 31 - August 17, and the lessons learned.
Awe Sum
Epic of Everest
So many academics and cinephiles alike seem consternated by Walter Benjamin's paen to the the aura of an original artwork, something squandered, lost, obfuscated, or obliterated in the mechanical reproduction of art in post cards, photographic duplicates, and, of course, cinema. But upon encountering at the festival a restoration...
Awe Sum
Epic of Everest
So many academics and cinephiles alike seem consternated by Walter Benjamin's paen to the the aura of an original artwork, something squandered, lost, obfuscated, or obliterated in the mechanical reproduction of art in post cards, photographic duplicates, and, of course, cinema. But upon encountering at the festival a restoration...
- 8/20/2014
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 29, 2014
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Vittorio Gassman hit the road in Il Sorpasso.
The ultimate Italian road comedy, the 1962 film Il sorpasso stars the unlikely pair of Vittorio Gassman (Big Deal on Madonna Street) and Jean-Louis Trintignant (Le Combat dans l’ile, Amour) as, respectively, a waggish, free-wheeling bachelor and the bookish law student he takes on a madcap trip from Rome to rural Southern Italy.
An unpredictable journey that careens from slapstick to tragedy, Il sorpasso, directed by Dino Risi (the original Scent of a Woman), is a wildly entertaining commentary on the pleasures and consequences of the good life.
Considered by many to be a holy grail of commedia all’italiana, Il sorpasso remains a fresh and lively entertainment, and one that has long been adored in its native Italy.
Presented in Italian with English subtitles Criterion’s Blu-ray...
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Vittorio Gassman hit the road in Il Sorpasso.
The ultimate Italian road comedy, the 1962 film Il sorpasso stars the unlikely pair of Vittorio Gassman (Big Deal on Madonna Street) and Jean-Louis Trintignant (Le Combat dans l’ile, Amour) as, respectively, a waggish, free-wheeling bachelor and the bookish law student he takes on a madcap trip from Rome to rural Southern Italy.
An unpredictable journey that careens from slapstick to tragedy, Il sorpasso, directed by Dino Risi (the original Scent of a Woman), is a wildly entertaining commentary on the pleasures and consequences of the good life.
Considered by many to be a holy grail of commedia all’italiana, Il sorpasso remains a fresh and lively entertainment, and one that has long been adored in its native Italy.
Presented in Italian with English subtitles Criterion’s Blu-ray...
- 1/30/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
As the Academy celebrates 85 years of great films at the Oscars on February 24th, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is set to take movie fans on the ultimate studio tour with the 2013 edition of 31 Days Of Oscar®. Under the theme Oscar by Studio, the network will present a slate of more than 350 movies grouped according to the studios that produced or released them. And as always, every film presented during 31 Days Of Oscar is an Academy Award® nominee or winner, making this annual event one of the most anticipated on any movie lover’s calendar.
As part of the network’s month-long celebration, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has graciously provided the original Academy Awards® radio broadcasts from 1930-1952. Specially chosen clips from the radio archives will be featured throughout TCM’s 31 Days Of Oscar website.
Hollywood was built upon the studio system, which saw nearly ever aspect...
As part of the network’s month-long celebration, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has graciously provided the original Academy Awards® radio broadcasts from 1930-1952. Specially chosen clips from the radio archives will be featured throughout TCM’s 31 Days Of Oscar website.
Hollywood was built upon the studio system, which saw nearly ever aspect...
- 12/17/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
We love crime movies. We may go on and on about Scorsese’s ability to incorporate Italian neo-realism techniques into Mean Streets (1973), the place of John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle (1950) in the canon of postwar noir, The Godfather (1972) as a socio-cultural commentary on the distortion of the ideals of the American dream blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda…but that ain’t it.
We love crime movies because we love watching a guy who doesn’t have to behave, who doesn’t have to – nor care to – put a choker on his id and can let his darkest, most visceral impulses run wild. Some smart-mouth gopher tells hood Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci), “Go fuck yourself,” in Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990), and does Tommy roll with it? Does he spit back, “Fuck me? Nah, fuck you!” Does he go home and tell his mother?
Nope.
He pulls a .45 cannon out from...
We love crime movies because we love watching a guy who doesn’t have to behave, who doesn’t have to – nor care to – put a choker on his id and can let his darkest, most visceral impulses run wild. Some smart-mouth gopher tells hood Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci), “Go fuck yourself,” in Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990), and does Tommy roll with it? Does he spit back, “Fuck me? Nah, fuck you!” Does he go home and tell his mother?
Nope.
He pulls a .45 cannon out from...
- 10/30/2012
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
E' stato il figlio (Daniele Ciprì) + L'Intervallo (Leonardo Di Constanzo)
Festival programming creates unexpected and unplanned dialogs between films: all in the head of the viewer, helping to meditate about "contemporary." Italian films E' stato il figlio (The Son Did It) and L'Intervallo (The Interval) are two different approaches to the search for an image for today of Italian people.
Brilliant cinematographer Daniele Ciprì became famous together with co-author/director Franco Maresco for their insolent, provocative and censorship challenging TV programs and films. Deeply rooted in their Sicilian background and culture, keen on "bad taste," "freaks" and politically incorrect statements, the two mavericks have been a creative breath in Italian production of the 90s. The team is not a team anymore. Ciprì alone here adapts for the screen a successful 2005 giallo by Roberto Alajmo, a story of greed, oppression and submission set in a poor neighborhood of Palermo.
Nicola (Toni Servillo), his father,...
Festival programming creates unexpected and unplanned dialogs between films: all in the head of the viewer, helping to meditate about "contemporary." Italian films E' stato il figlio (The Son Did It) and L'Intervallo (The Interval) are two different approaches to the search for an image for today of Italian people.
Brilliant cinematographer Daniele Ciprì became famous together with co-author/director Franco Maresco for their insolent, provocative and censorship challenging TV programs and films. Deeply rooted in their Sicilian background and culture, keen on "bad taste," "freaks" and politically incorrect statements, the two mavericks have been a creative breath in Italian production of the 90s. The team is not a team anymore. Ciprì alone here adapts for the screen a successful 2005 giallo by Roberto Alajmo, a story of greed, oppression and submission set in a poor neighborhood of Palermo.
Nicola (Toni Servillo), his father,...
- 9/11/2012
- MUBI
Rounding up a bit of what the critics have been saying about the work screening at the New Directions/New Films festival tomorrow, we begin with Adam Leon's Gimme the Loot, winner of the Grand Jury's award for Best Narrative Feature at SXSW just a last week. In his latest entry at Artinfo, J Hoberman, who was on that jury, calls it "a funny, smart-mouthed, high-energy comedy about Bronx graffiti writers that's less a remake of the 80s indie hit Wild Style than a movie in the doomed caper tradition of Big Deal on Madonna Street. Not without some dubious stereotypes, the movie transcends them thanks to Leon's adroit direction and infectious self-enjoyment of its ensemble cast."
At GreenCine Daily, Steve Dollar agrees that it "has the run-and-gun mobility and funky vibe of a 1980s downtown comedy, evoking in various ways a kinship with the likes of Susan Seidelman,...
At GreenCine Daily, Steve Dollar agrees that it "has the run-and-gun mobility and funky vibe of a 1980s downtown comedy, evoking in various ways a kinship with the likes of Susan Seidelman,...
- 3/22/2012
- MUBI
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 24, 2012
Price: DVD $19.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Criterion
Marcello Mastroianni urges disgruntled textile workers to unite in 1963's The Organizer.
Directed by Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street), the 1963 Italian period film The Organizer stars the great Marcello Mastroianni (Marriage Italian Style).
Set in turn-of-the-20th-century Turin, the movie looks at how an accident in a textile factory incites workers to stage a walkout. But it’s not until they receive unexpected aid from a traveling professor (Mastroianni) that they find a voice, unite and stand up for themselves.
A carefully crafted historical film stunningly shot by master cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno (Senso), The Organizer is filled with a surprising amount of humor and is ultimately an effective ode to the power of the people.
Criterion’s new high-definition digital restoration of the drama movie features an uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition.
The Blu-ray and DVD...
Price: DVD $19.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Criterion
Marcello Mastroianni urges disgruntled textile workers to unite in 1963's The Organizer.
Directed by Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street), the 1963 Italian period film The Organizer stars the great Marcello Mastroianni (Marriage Italian Style).
Set in turn-of-the-20th-century Turin, the movie looks at how an accident in a textile factory incites workers to stage a walkout. But it’s not until they receive unexpected aid from a traveling professor (Mastroianni) that they find a voice, unite and stand up for themselves.
A carefully crafted historical film stunningly shot by master cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno (Senso), The Organizer is filled with a surprising amount of humor and is ultimately an effective ode to the power of the people.
Criterion’s new high-definition digital restoration of the drama movie features an uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition.
The Blu-ray and DVD...
- 1/23/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
There’s something very intense about the surgical precision of a great heist drama — Rififi, the grand-daddy of the genre, was banned in some countries for being too much of a how-to for crooks — and anything that super-serious becomes perfect fodder for comedy. Which leads us to the comedic-heist movie, which dates back as least as far as 1958’s Big Deal on Madonna Street (in which a pawnshop robbery goes hilariously awry) to this week’s Tower Heist. Slap on your safe-cracking gloves and check out some of our fave funny felonies, and share your own in the comments.
Read More...
Read More...
- 10/31/2011
- by Alonso Duralde
- Movies.com
Release Date: Oct. 11, 2011
Price: Blu-ray $34.95
Studio: Kino
Anita Ekberg is all smiles in Boccaccio '70
Four legendary Italian filmmakers direct some of Europe’s biggest stars in the landmark 1962 anthology comedy-drama film Boccaccio’70.
Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street), Federico Fellini (The Clowns) Luchino Visconti (Senso) and Vittorio De Sica (Shoeshine) direct Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg, Romy Schneider and many others through a quartet of titillating stories filled with unabashed eros. Modeled on Boccaccio’s Decameron, the four are comic moral tales about the hypocrisies surrounding sex in 1960s Italy.
Monicelli’s “Renzo e Luciana” (cut out of the original American release) is a tale of young love and office politics in the big city. Fellini’s notorious “Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio” features Ekberg as a busty model in a milk advertisement whose image begins to haunt an aging prude. Visconti’s “Il Lavoro” stars Romy Schneider as...
Price: Blu-ray $34.95
Studio: Kino
Anita Ekberg is all smiles in Boccaccio '70
Four legendary Italian filmmakers direct some of Europe’s biggest stars in the landmark 1962 anthology comedy-drama film Boccaccio’70.
Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street), Federico Fellini (The Clowns) Luchino Visconti (Senso) and Vittorio De Sica (Shoeshine) direct Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg, Romy Schneider and many others through a quartet of titillating stories filled with unabashed eros. Modeled on Boccaccio’s Decameron, the four are comic moral tales about the hypocrisies surrounding sex in 1960s Italy.
Monicelli’s “Renzo e Luciana” (cut out of the original American release) is a tale of young love and office politics in the big city. Fellini’s notorious “Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio” features Ekberg as a busty model in a milk advertisement whose image begins to haunt an aging prude. Visconti’s “Il Lavoro” stars Romy Schneider as...
- 10/1/2011
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases to Blu-Ray Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
Boccaccio ’70 (1962)
Synopsis: Four legendary filmmakers direct some of Europe’s biggest stars in Boccaccio ’70, a landmark anthology film. Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street), Federico Fellini (8½), Luchino Visconti (The Leopard) and Vittorio De Sica (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow) direct Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg, Romy Schneider and more through four stories of unashamed eros. Modeled on Boccaccio’s Decameron, they are comic moral tales about the hypocrisies surrounding sex in 1960s Italy. Monicelli’s “Renzo e Luciana” (cut out of the original American release) is a frothy tale of young love and office politics in the big city. Fellini’s notorious “Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio” features Ekberg as a busty model in a milk advertisement whose image begins to haunt an aging prude. Visconti’s “Il Lavoro” stars Romy Schneider as a trophy wife enduring her husband’s very public affairs,...
Boccaccio ’70 (1962)
Synopsis: Four legendary filmmakers direct some of Europe’s biggest stars in Boccaccio ’70, a landmark anthology film. Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street), Federico Fellini (8½), Luchino Visconti (The Leopard) and Vittorio De Sica (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow) direct Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg, Romy Schneider and more through four stories of unashamed eros. Modeled on Boccaccio’s Decameron, they are comic moral tales about the hypocrisies surrounding sex in 1960s Italy. Monicelli’s “Renzo e Luciana” (cut out of the original American release) is a frothy tale of young love and office politics in the big city. Fellini’s notorious “Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio” features Ekberg as a busty model in a milk advertisement whose image begins to haunt an aging prude. Visconti’s “Il Lavoro” stars Romy Schneider as a trophy wife enduring her husband’s very public affairs,...
- 9/19/2011
- by Travis Keune
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Beaver may not have been quite the comeback that Mel Gibson wanted, but it was probably the comeback that he deserved. Still, signs point to the fact that the film's relative under-performance is due less to disdain for the actor and more towards a general sense of disinterest and lack of awareness about the film. For real comeback action Mel Gibson will probably have to work in a genre that has more potential for audience impact. How about some form of buddy comedy -- that being the format that defined one stage of his career thanks to the Lethal Weapon films? Indeed, he is now in talks to join the buddy heist comedy Sleight of Hand, which has Kiefer Sutherland, Gerard Depardieu and Thomas Jane set for smaller roles. Variety [1] talks about the film, which Brad Mirman (Shadows in the Sun) is directing and also has co-stars Giancarlo Giannini,...
- 5/18/2011
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
The portrayal of the working class in cinema has usually gone along with good intention rather than ‘entertainment’. There seems to be compulsion for films portraying its plight to be grim, this being particularly true of the cinema which wears its political inclinations on its sleeve – like the early Soviet films (Eisenstein’s Strike – 1924), the films of Italian Neo-realism (De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves – 1948, Visconti’s Rocco and his Brothers – 1960) or American humanism such as John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Barring a few exceptions like the films of Aki Kaurismaki (Ariel, 1988) the general purport is that the lives of the working class, not being exciting in themselves, must be examined out of a sense of duty because art cannot shun its social obligations. A filmmaker to consistently get ‘entertainment’ out of working class situations was Chaplin but the humor in the films tend to depend more on his...
- 4/7/2011
- by MK Raghvendra
- DearCinema.com
The king of Italian comedy leapt to his death last month. At least he avoided seeing Berlusconi survive the no-confidence vote
I don't know what awed us more: the way he chose to end his life or the corpus of films he left behind. I was in Turin, attending the Torino film festival, when the news struck us like lightning. The wires read: November 29, at 10pm, Mario Monicelli, 95, threw himself out of the window of his hospital room in Rome. Monicelli, the king of Italian comedy, the last of the greats, director of more than 60 films, many of them classics of the silver screen. Comedy in the noblest meaning of the term: Monicelli used laughter to denounce moral hypocrisy, social injustice, and historical untruths.
It's hard not to think of Primo Levi or Gilles Deleuze, who chose to end their lives in the same dramatic, violent and flamboyant manner. Monicelli...
I don't know what awed us more: the way he chose to end his life or the corpus of films he left behind. I was in Turin, attending the Torino film festival, when the news struck us like lightning. The wires read: November 29, at 10pm, Mario Monicelli, 95, threw himself out of the window of his hospital room in Rome. Monicelli, the king of Italian comedy, the last of the greats, director of more than 60 films, many of them classics of the silver screen. Comedy in the noblest meaning of the term: Monicelli used laughter to denounce moral hypocrisy, social injustice, and historical untruths.
It's hard not to think of Primo Levi or Gilles Deleuze, who chose to end their lives in the same dramatic, violent and flamboyant manner. Monicelli...
- 12/18/2010
- by Agnès Poirier
- The Guardian - Film News
Spider-Man, as the song goes, does whatever a spider can. Apparently spiders can make the most expensive show in Broadway history. After months of delays and a few flirtations with outright cancellation, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," a $65 million production directed by Julie Taymor ("Frida") and featuring songs by U2's Bono and The Edge, had its public debut on Sunday. The evening was not without its share of technical hiccups. But the show is off and swinging now.
Even its creators would acknowledge that Spider-Man is an unusual choice of source material. During a 60 Minutes report on the show, Taymor said the is-this-a-good-idea? factor was the primary reason she wanted to make it. She's certainly not the first person to see Broadway potential in an property that seems, at least on paper, better suited to other mediums. To wit, these five other notable examples whose theatrical destinies were -- sorry,...
Even its creators would acknowledge that Spider-Man is an unusual choice of source material. During a 60 Minutes report on the show, Taymor said the is-this-a-good-idea? factor was the primary reason she wanted to make it. She's certainly not the first person to see Broadway potential in an property that seems, at least on paper, better suited to other mediums. To wit, these five other notable examples whose theatrical destinies were -- sorry,...
- 12/1/2010
- by Matt Singer
- ifc.com
Post-war Italian cinema legend Mario Monicelli has died after jumping out of a hospital window in Rome.
The 95-year-old director has been described as the "father of Italian comedy," directing evergreen films such as Amici Mei (My Dear Friends) and I Soliti Ignoti (Persons Unknown). Monicelli has been honored with several awards and nominated for Oscars four times.
He started his career as a director in 1949 and won the Golden Lion for his film The Great War at the Venice Film Festival in 1959.
He was reportedly diagnosed with prostate cancer and was receiving treatment at Rome's San Giovanni Hospital, where he was admitted just a few days ago.
The 95-year-old director has been described as the "father of Italian comedy," directing evergreen films such as Amici Mei (My Dear Friends) and I Soliti Ignoti (Persons Unknown). Monicelli has been honored with several awards and nominated for Oscars four times.
He started his career as a director in 1949 and won the Golden Lion for his film The Great War at the Venice Film Festival in 1959.
He was reportedly diagnosed with prostate cancer and was receiving treatment at Rome's San Giovanni Hospital, where he was admitted just a few days ago.
- 12/1/2010
- icelebz.com
Post-war Italian cinema legend Mario Monicelli has died after jumping out of a hospital window in Rome.
The 95-year-old director has been described as the "father of Italian comedy," directing evergreen films such as Amici Mei (My Dear Friends) and I Soliti Ignoti (Persons Unknown). Monicelli has been honored with several awards and nominated for Oscars four times.
He started his career as a director in 1949 and won the Golden Lion for his film The Great War at the Venice Film Festival in 1959.
He was reportedly diagnosed with prostate cancer and was receiving treatment at Rome's San Giovanni Hospital, where he was admitted just a few days ago.
The 95-year-old director has been described as the "father of Italian comedy," directing evergreen films such as Amici Mei (My Dear Friends) and I Soliti Ignoti (Persons Unknown). Monicelli has been honored with several awards and nominated for Oscars four times.
He started his career as a director in 1949 and won the Golden Lion for his film The Great War at the Venice Film Festival in 1959.
He was reportedly diagnosed with prostate cancer and was receiving treatment at Rome's San Giovanni Hospital, where he was admitted just a few days ago.
- 12/1/2010
- icelebz.com
Italian film director and screenwriter who established a new school of social-realist comedy
The Italian film director Mario Monicelli has died aged 95, after jumping out of a hospital window in Rome. Monicelli directed more than 60 films, most of which he co-wrote. He was best known for I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal On Madonna Street, 1958), which was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film. It was remade by Louis Malle as Crackers (1984) and turned into a Broadway musical, Big Deal, by Bob Fosse in 1986. Monicelli's original is one of the most internationally admired Italian comedies of the past 60 years.
Born in Viareggio, Tuscany, Monicelli was the son of a journalist, Tomaso Monicelli, who founded one of the earliest Italian film magazines. Tomaso killed himself in 1946. Mario studied at the universities of Milan and Pisa and took an early interest in films. With the future publisher Alberto Mondadori, he collaborated...
The Italian film director Mario Monicelli has died aged 95, after jumping out of a hospital window in Rome. Monicelli directed more than 60 films, most of which he co-wrote. He was best known for I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal On Madonna Street, 1958), which was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film. It was remade by Louis Malle as Crackers (1984) and turned into a Broadway musical, Big Deal, by Bob Fosse in 1986. Monicelli's original is one of the most internationally admired Italian comedies of the past 60 years.
Born in Viareggio, Tuscany, Monicelli was the son of a journalist, Tomaso Monicelli, who founded one of the earliest Italian film magazines. Tomaso killed himself in 1946. Mario studied at the universities of Milan and Pisa and took an early interest in films. With the future publisher Alberto Mondadori, he collaborated...
- 11/30/2010
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
Ninety-five-year-old film-maker, who was suffering from terminal prostate cancer, leapt from hospital window, reports say
The four-time Oscar-nominated film-maker Mario Monicelli has died at the age of 95 after leaping to his death from a hospital window, according to reports.
Known as one of the masters of the Commedia all'Italiana ("Italian-style comedy") for movies such as 1975's My Friends (Amici Miei) and 1958's Big Deal on Madonna Street (also known as Persons Unknown, or I Soliti Ignoti), Monicelli had been suffering with terminal prostate cancer. He was admitted to the San Giovanni hospital in Rome just a few days ago, according to Italy's Ansa news agency.
Born in 1915 in Viareggio in Tuscany, Monicelli directed 70 films, making his debut in 1935. His other movies include The Great War (La Grande Guerra) from 1959, which won him the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival, as well as an Oscar nomination. Big Deal on Madonna Street...
The four-time Oscar-nominated film-maker Mario Monicelli has died at the age of 95 after leaping to his death from a hospital window, according to reports.
Known as one of the masters of the Commedia all'Italiana ("Italian-style comedy") for movies such as 1975's My Friends (Amici Miei) and 1958's Big Deal on Madonna Street (also known as Persons Unknown, or I Soliti Ignoti), Monicelli had been suffering with terminal prostate cancer. He was admitted to the San Giovanni hospital in Rome just a few days ago, according to Italy's Ansa news agency.
Born in 1915 in Viareggio in Tuscany, Monicelli directed 70 films, making his debut in 1935. His other movies include The Great War (La Grande Guerra) from 1959, which won him the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival, as well as an Oscar nomination. Big Deal on Madonna Street...
- 11/30/2010
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
Marcello Mastroianni, Renato Salvatori, Vittorio Gassman, Big Deal on Madonna Street (top); Vittorio Gassman, Alberto Sordi, The Great War (middle); Anna Magnani, Totò, The Passionate Thief (bottom) Mario Monicelli, the (co)writer-director of Italian cinema classics such as I soliti ignoti / Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958), La grande guerra / The Great War (1959), and I compagni / The Organizer (1963), leapt to his death from a fifth-story hospital window in Rome. Monicelli, who had been suffering from prostate cancer, was 95. Though not nearly as internationally known as, say, Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, or Franco Zeffirelli, Monicelli was perhaps the best portraitist of Italian sociopolitical mores during the second half of the 20th century. For instance, one of Monicelli's earliest efforts (co-directed with Steno aka Stefano Vanzina), Vita da cani / A Dog's Life (1950), chronicled the travails of a provincial theater troupe in post-World War II Italy. Aldo [...]...
- 11/30/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Italian director Mario Monicelli, 95, jumped to his death from a Rome hospital window on Monday, according to a Reuters report citing Italian media.
Monicelli directed such classics as "I Soliti Ignoti," ("Big Deal on Madonna Street"), "The Great War," "For Love and Gold," and the "My Friends" series with Ugo Tognazzi and Philippe Noiret. He made about 70 films and wrote nearly all the screenplays himself.
...
Monicelli directed such classics as "I Soliti Ignoti," ("Big Deal on Madonna Street"), "The Great War," "For Love and Gold," and the "My Friends" series with Ugo Tognazzi and Philippe Noiret. He made about 70 films and wrote nearly all the screenplays himself.
...
- 11/30/2010
- Moving Pictures Magazine
Mario Monicelli, 95, who directed some of postwar Italy's most famous films and launched the careers of some of the country's greatest actors, jumped to his death from a Rome hospital window on Monday, Italian media said. Monicelli directed such classics as "I Soliti Ignoti," (Big Deal on Madonna Street), "The Great War," "For Love and Gold," and the "My Friends" series with Ugo Tognazzi and Philippe Noiret. The reports said he jumped from the fourth floor of Rome's San Giovanni hospital, where he was being treated for terminal prostate cancer. Read more...
- 11/30/2010
- The Wrap
Italian screenwriter who worked with directors such as Visconti and Zeffirelli
The Italian screenwriter Suso Cecchi d'Amico, who has died aged 96, collaborated on the scripts of more than 100 films, including Vittorio De Sica's Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, 1948), William Wyler's Roman Holiday (1953), Mario Monicelli's I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958) and Francesco Rosi's Salvatore Giuliano (1962). She also worked with Michelangelo Antonioni on Le Amiche (The Girlfriends, 1955) and Franco Zeffirelli on Jesus of Nazareth (1977), but she was best known for her creative contribution to the films of Luchino Visconti, including Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963).
She was born Giovanna Cecchi in Rome to a Tuscan painter, Leonetta Pieraccini, and the literary critic Emilio Cecchi, a major figure in 20th-century Italian letters. For a few years in the early 1930s, before the Cinecittà studios were built in Rome, her father had been entrusted by Mussolini's government with...
The Italian screenwriter Suso Cecchi d'Amico, who has died aged 96, collaborated on the scripts of more than 100 films, including Vittorio De Sica's Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thieves, 1948), William Wyler's Roman Holiday (1953), Mario Monicelli's I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958) and Francesco Rosi's Salvatore Giuliano (1962). She also worked with Michelangelo Antonioni on Le Amiche (The Girlfriends, 1955) and Franco Zeffirelli on Jesus of Nazareth (1977), but she was best known for her creative contribution to the films of Luchino Visconti, including Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963).
She was born Giovanna Cecchi in Rome to a Tuscan painter, Leonetta Pieraccini, and the literary critic Emilio Cecchi, a major figure in 20th-century Italian letters. For a few years in the early 1930s, before the Cinecittà studios were built in Rome, her father had been entrusted by Mussolini's government with...
- 8/1/2010
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
Cesare Pavese's 1949 short novel, Among Women Only, is a queasy first-person narrative about memory and loss and social hierarchies and futility. I call it queasy because its narrator, Clelia, a fashionista supervising the opening of a shop in her native Turin, where she's returning to from Rome after an absence of nearly twenty years, is a thoroughly unpleasant character, rather bad company; she's clearly torn between aspiring to be an arriviste and just letting loose with the most scornful and pointlessly pointed contempt for everyone around her. "I understand how people talk shop around their professions," she grouses early in the work. "but there's nobody like painters, all those people you hear arguing in the cheaper restaurants. I could understand if they talked about brushes, colors, turpentine—the things they use—but no, these people make it difficult on purpose, and sometimes no one knows what certain words mean,...
- 6/16/2010
- MUBI
tuesday top ten returns! It's for the list-maker in me and the list-lover in you
The Cannes film festival wrapped this weekend (previous posts) and the most recent Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, The Secret in Their Eyes is still in the midst of a successful Us run. That Oscar winning Argentinian film came to us from director Juan Jose Campanella. It's his second film to be honored by the Academy (Son of the Bride was nominated ten years back). The Academy voters obviously like Campanella and in some ways he's a Hollywood guy. When he's not directing Argentinian Oscar hopefuls he spends time making Us television with episodes of Law & Order, House and 30 Rock under his belt.
So let's talk foreign-language auteurs. Who does Oscar love most?
[The film titles discussed in this article will link to Netflix pages -- if available -- should you be curious to see the films]
Best Director winners Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) and Milos Forman
(Amadeus and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
Please Note:...
The Cannes film festival wrapped this weekend (previous posts) and the most recent Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, The Secret in Their Eyes is still in the midst of a successful Us run. That Oscar winning Argentinian film came to us from director Juan Jose Campanella. It's his second film to be honored by the Academy (Son of the Bride was nominated ten years back). The Academy voters obviously like Campanella and in some ways he's a Hollywood guy. When he's not directing Argentinian Oscar hopefuls he spends time making Us television with episodes of Law & Order, House and 30 Rock under his belt.
So let's talk foreign-language auteurs. Who does Oscar love most?
[The film titles discussed in this article will link to Netflix pages -- if available -- should you be curious to see the films]
Best Director winners Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) and Milos Forman
(Amadeus and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)
Please Note:...
- 5/31/2010
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
One of Italy's leading screenwriters, he worked on 140 films
One of Italy's most respected and prolific screenwriters, Furio Scarpelli, who has died aged 90, worked on the scripts of about 140 films, sometimes without a credit, and received three shared Oscar nominations, for I Compagni (The Organiser, 1963), Casanova '70 (1965) and Il Postino (1994). Scarpelli enjoyed a lengthy writing partnership, from 1949 until 1985, with Agenore Incrocci, also known as Age. The pair collaborated on the 1958 film I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street), about a team of makeshift thieves, which owed much of its success to the brilliant comic characterisations. The film, starring Vittorio Gassman and Marcello Mastroianni, helped to launch the genre of commedia all'italiana ("comedy Italian-style").
Scarpelli was born in Rome. His Neapolitan father, Filiberto, was a satirical writer who founded a humorous magazine, Il Travaso delle Idee. Furio began his own career as a cartoonist. It was after the second world war,...
One of Italy's most respected and prolific screenwriters, Furio Scarpelli, who has died aged 90, worked on the scripts of about 140 films, sometimes without a credit, and received three shared Oscar nominations, for I Compagni (The Organiser, 1963), Casanova '70 (1965) and Il Postino (1994). Scarpelli enjoyed a lengthy writing partnership, from 1949 until 1985, with Agenore Incrocci, also known as Age. The pair collaborated on the 1958 film I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street), about a team of makeshift thieves, which owed much of its success to the brilliant comic characterisations. The film, starring Vittorio Gassman and Marcello Mastroianni, helped to launch the genre of commedia all'italiana ("comedy Italian-style").
Scarpelli was born in Rome. His Neapolitan father, Filiberto, was a satirical writer who founded a humorous magazine, Il Travaso delle Idee. Furio began his own career as a cartoonist. It was after the second world war,...
- 5/17/2010
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.