Jean-Pierre Melville’s tale of an emotionless killer is distilled to a narrative minimum. Alain Delon stars as Jef Costello, an imperturbable, ultra- slick hit man who follows a strict personal code. When a contract goes bad, he’s caught between irreconcilable compulsions. Following this Zen-like assassin through the mean streets of Paris never seems to get old.
Le samouraï
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 306
1967 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 105 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date November 14, 2017 / 39.95
Starring Alain Delon, Francois Périer, Nathalie Delon, Cathy Rosier, Jacques Leroy.
Cinematography Henri Decaë
Production Designer Francois de Lamothe
Film Editor Monique Bonnot, Yo Maurette
Original Music Francois de Roubaix
Written by Jean-Pierre Melville, Georges Pellegrin from a novel by Joan McLeod
Produced by Raymond Borderie, Eugène Lépicier
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Le samouraï has survived the Quentin Tarantino years Looking better than ever, and with its reputation intact, which is not a minor...
Le samouraï
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 306
1967 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 105 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date November 14, 2017 / 39.95
Starring Alain Delon, Francois Périer, Nathalie Delon, Cathy Rosier, Jacques Leroy.
Cinematography Henri Decaë
Production Designer Francois de Lamothe
Film Editor Monique Bonnot, Yo Maurette
Original Music Francois de Roubaix
Written by Jean-Pierre Melville, Georges Pellegrin from a novel by Joan McLeod
Produced by Raymond Borderie, Eugène Lépicier
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Le samouraï has survived the Quentin Tarantino years Looking better than ever, and with its reputation intact, which is not a minor...
- 11/11/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Dustin Hoffman, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey … as the list of harassment allegations in Hollywood grows, can we any longer separate cinema from the morality of its makers?
The 1949 film The Third Man casts Orson Welles in the role of smirking Harry Lime, a black-market racketeer who sees himself as an artist. War-torn Vienna is his canvas; its desperate people his oils. He needs a climate of fear and darkness in order to paint his masterpiece. “In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance,” Lime explains. “In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
The Third Man was scripted by Graham Greene, but its most famous speech was improvised on the spot. Welles would later say he’d pilfered it from “an old Hungarian...
The 1949 film The Third Man casts Orson Welles in the role of smirking Harry Lime, a black-market racketeer who sees himself as an artist. War-torn Vienna is his canvas; its desperate people his oils. He needs a climate of fear and darkness in order to paint his masterpiece. “In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance,” Lime explains. “In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
The Third Man was scripted by Graham Greene, but its most famous speech was improvised on the spot. Welles would later say he’d pilfered it from “an old Hungarian...
- 11/10/2017
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
Molly Ringwald opened up about the numerous times she's contended with the pervasive culture of sexual harassment in Hollywood in an essay for The New Yorker titled, "All the Other Harvey Weinsteins." The piece arrives amidst the ongoing Harvey Weinstein scandal and as numerous women begin to detail their own experiences with sexual harassment and assault in the film and television industry.
Ringwald called the Weinstein scandal "a thread that has tangled its way through Hollywood, connecting women, mostly actresses, in a depressingly common way. We all seem to have a Harvey story,...
Ringwald called the Weinstein scandal "a thread that has tangled its way through Hollywood, connecting women, mostly actresses, in a depressingly common way. We all seem to have a Harvey story,...
- 10/18/2017
- Rollingstone.com
There appear to be no rules governing tricky politics in movies — Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel about terrorism in French-held Vietnam completely reverses the author’s message. Does a conspiracy theory about a movie still carry any weight, when our daily political life now plays like one giant conspiracy?
The Quiet American
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1958 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 122 min. / Street Date June 13, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Audie Murphy, Michael Redgrave, Claude Dauphin, Giorgia Moll,
Bruce Cabot, Fred Sadoff, Kerima, Richard Loo.
Cinematography: Robert Krasker
Film Editor: William Hornbeck
Original Music: Mario Nascimbene
Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz from a novel by Graham Greene
Produced and Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Fans of author Graham Greene know him for his political sophistication and his adherence to Catholic themes; he’s found holy values in a razor-wielding Spiv in Brighton Rock and...
The Quiet American
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1958 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 122 min. / Street Date June 13, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Audie Murphy, Michael Redgrave, Claude Dauphin, Giorgia Moll,
Bruce Cabot, Fred Sadoff, Kerima, Richard Loo.
Cinematography: Robert Krasker
Film Editor: William Hornbeck
Original Music: Mario Nascimbene
Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz from a novel by Graham Greene
Produced and Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Fans of author Graham Greene know him for his political sophistication and his adherence to Catholic themes; he’s found holy values in a razor-wielding Spiv in Brighton Rock and...
- 7/18/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Simon Brew Jun 15, 2017
Brendan Fraser seemed on the verge of being a major movie star in the late 1990s. But it never came to be. We look at why…
I remember going in to watch 1994’s Airheads at the cinema, at the time tempted to do so more by the name of Michael Lehmann on the end credits than Adam Sandler and Brendan Fraser above the title. Steve Buscemi’s presence helped too, of course. But Lehmann had, after all, come to the project off the back of the unfairly maligned Hudson Hawk, and also, this is the man who gave the world Heathers. Can’t grumble with that.
I’d not seen Brendan Fraser on the big screen before, although even by this stage, he’d earned some currency. Encino Man – California Man in the UK – had overcome savage reviews to prove a decent hit. School Ties, that I...
Brendan Fraser seemed on the verge of being a major movie star in the late 1990s. But it never came to be. We look at why…
I remember going in to watch 1994’s Airheads at the cinema, at the time tempted to do so more by the name of Michael Lehmann on the end credits than Adam Sandler and Brendan Fraser above the title. Steve Buscemi’s presence helped too, of course. But Lehmann had, after all, come to the project off the back of the unfairly maligned Hudson Hawk, and also, this is the man who gave the world Heathers. Can’t grumble with that.
I’d not seen Brendan Fraser on the big screen before, although even by this stage, he’d earned some currency. Encino Man – California Man in the UK – had overcome savage reviews to prove a decent hit. School Ties, that I...
- 6/11/2017
- Den of Geek
Given the (justly) hallowed place that Carol Reed’s 1949 thriller The Third Man occupies in the hearts and minds of most cineastes, I’ve always been a little mystified by the comparative obscurity of his subsequent collaboration with screenwriter Graham Greene, the delightful satire Our Man in Havana (1959). I can only assume that the bleak, wintry setting of postwar Vienna that gives The Third Man its haunting effects also gives it a slight edge in the critical consciousness over Havana’s sunny, tropical effervescence. Yet in Reed and Greene’s skilled hands, the breezy charm of Havana just before the revolution only […]...
- 5/17/2017
- by Jim Hemphill
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Author: Zehra Phelan
“You’re were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off” is and will always be Michael Caine’s most iconic line of all time, uttered in the 1969 British Caper The Italian Job. With a career spanning a hefty 64 years between 1953 and 2017, Caine hits our screens yet again this week starring opposite Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin in Going in Style, a remake of the 1979 heist comedy directed by Zach Braff. It tells the story of a trio of retirees who plan to rob a bank after their pensions are cancelled, proving he isn’t quite ready to hang up his acting shoes to start drawing his own pension.
At the tender age of 84 the man previously known as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, now known as Sir Michael Caine after being knighted by the queen in 2000, has starred in a staggering 125 films in his career to date. His...
“You’re were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off” is and will always be Michael Caine’s most iconic line of all time, uttered in the 1969 British Caper The Italian Job. With a career spanning a hefty 64 years between 1953 and 2017, Caine hits our screens yet again this week starring opposite Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin in Going in Style, a remake of the 1979 heist comedy directed by Zach Braff. It tells the story of a trio of retirees who plan to rob a bank after their pensions are cancelled, proving he isn’t quite ready to hang up his acting shoes to start drawing his own pension.
At the tender age of 84 the man previously known as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, now known as Sir Michael Caine after being knighted by the queen in 2000, has starred in a staggering 125 films in his career to date. His...
- 4/5/2017
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Chaplin writer to adapt novel for Wild Tales and Mad To Be Normal producers.
Bad Penny Productions has picked up rights to Graham Greene’s last published novel The Captain And The Enemy, which is being adapted for the big screen by screenwriter and novelist William Boyd (Chaplin).
The novel tells the story of a young boy named Victor Baxter taken away from his boarding school by a stranger to live in London. The mysterious stranger is simply known as “the Captain”.
In London Victor companions a sweet but withdrawn woman named Liza, serving as her conduit to the outside world. When Victor reaches manhood, he finally learns the secrets of the Captain.
The thriller includes smuggling, jewel theft and international espionage and culminates in a dramatic showdown in Panama.
In addition to Bad Penny’s Phin Glynn (Mad To Be Normal), other producers are Victor Glynn (That Good Night) and Axel Kuschevatzky (Wild Tales).
The film will...
Bad Penny Productions has picked up rights to Graham Greene’s last published novel The Captain And The Enemy, which is being adapted for the big screen by screenwriter and novelist William Boyd (Chaplin).
The novel tells the story of a young boy named Victor Baxter taken away from his boarding school by a stranger to live in London. The mysterious stranger is simply known as “the Captain”.
In London Victor companions a sweet but withdrawn woman named Liza, serving as her conduit to the outside world. When Victor reaches manhood, he finally learns the secrets of the Captain.
The thriller includes smuggling, jewel theft and international espionage and culminates in a dramatic showdown in Panama.
In addition to Bad Penny’s Phin Glynn (Mad To Be Normal), other producers are Victor Glynn (That Good Night) and Axel Kuschevatzky (Wild Tales).
The film will...
- 3/29/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
At one point over the course of this haunting and difficult film, the lead character is reading the Graham Greene novel, The Quiet American. She highlights a passage from the novel that is the lynchpin to understanding the unanswerable questions left after the experience of watching the film. “Time has its revenges, but revenge seems so often sour. Wouldn’t we all do better not trying to understand, accepting the fact that no human being will ever understand another, not a wife with a husband, nor a parent a child?" One of the primary function of movies is to act as an empathy machine, a vehicle to allow us to understand and live in the skin of someone who we are not, or a situation so far...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 3/23/2017
- Screen Anarchy
There’s nothing more fun than getting to watch classic movies the way they were intended–on the big screen!
Now, I understand plenty of people don’t want to go to a theater, spend a fortune on tickets, popcorn, and a drink just to see the glow of cell phones and hear people rudely talking while someone kicks your seat from behind, but that’s not the experience you’ll get at Landmark theaters affordable ‘Crime & Noir’ film series. St. Louis movie buffs are in for a treat as Landmark’s The Tivoli Theater will return with it’s ‘Classics on the Loop’ every Wednesday beginning April 5th at 7pm. This season, the Tivoli will screen, on their big screen (which seats 320 btw), eight crime and noir masterpiece that need to be seen in a theater with an audience. Admission is only $7.
One benefits of the big screen is...
Now, I understand plenty of people don’t want to go to a theater, spend a fortune on tickets, popcorn, and a drink just to see the glow of cell phones and hear people rudely talking while someone kicks your seat from behind, but that’s not the experience you’ll get at Landmark theaters affordable ‘Crime & Noir’ film series. St. Louis movie buffs are in for a treat as Landmark’s The Tivoli Theater will return with it’s ‘Classics on the Loop’ every Wednesday beginning April 5th at 7pm. This season, the Tivoli will screen, on their big screen (which seats 320 btw), eight crime and noir masterpiece that need to be seen in a theater with an audience. Admission is only $7.
One benefits of the big screen is...
- 3/22/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
It’s Obi-Wan versus Fidel! Well, not really. The pre-Bond espionage genre lights up with cool intrigues and comic absurdities, as a Brit vacuum salesman in Havana is recruited to spy for Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The filmmakers and stars are all top caliber, and the location is legendary: Castro’s Cuba, immediately after the revolution.
Our Man in Havana
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1959 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 107 min. / Street Date March 14, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Alec Guinness, Burl Ives, Maureen O’Hara, Ernie Kovacs, Noël Coward, Ralph Richardson, Jo Morrow, Gregoire Aslan.
Cinematography: Oswald Morris
Music Score: Frank and Laurence Deniz
Art Direction: John Box
Film Editor: Bert Bates
Written by Graham Greene from his novel
Produced and Directed by Carol Reed
One of the best pre-James Bond spy pictures is this brilliant, yet lumpy adventure with an historically unique setting — it was filmed in Castro’s Cuba,...
Our Man in Havana
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1959 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 107 min. / Street Date March 14, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Alec Guinness, Burl Ives, Maureen O’Hara, Ernie Kovacs, Noël Coward, Ralph Richardson, Jo Morrow, Gregoire Aslan.
Cinematography: Oswald Morris
Music Score: Frank and Laurence Deniz
Art Direction: John Box
Film Editor: Bert Bates
Written by Graham Greene from his novel
Produced and Directed by Carol Reed
One of the best pre-James Bond spy pictures is this brilliant, yet lumpy adventure with an historically unique setting — it was filmed in Castro’s Cuba,...
- 3/18/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Ronald Bergan’s fine obituary of Michèle Morgan shows how, like so many other of Europe’s creative people, her life was fractured by fascism and war in the 1930s and 1940s.
Her performance in The Fallen Idol (1948) throws clear light on this. With the writer Graham Greene and the director Carol Reed at the top of their form, this little masterpiece is set in the embassy of a French-speaking nation in postwar London. Morgan plays a typist in love with the embassy’s English butler, Baines, superbly played by Ralph Richardson.
Continue reading...
Her performance in The Fallen Idol (1948) throws clear light on this. With the writer Graham Greene and the director Carol Reed at the top of their form, this little masterpiece is set in the embassy of a French-speaking nation in postwar London. Morgan plays a typist in love with the embassy’s English butler, Baines, superbly played by Ralph Richardson.
Continue reading...
- 12/30/2016
- by Patrick Renshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
At one point over the course of this haunting and difficult film, the lead character is reading the Graham Greene novel, The Quiet American. She highlights a passage from the novel that is the lynchpin to understanding the unanswerable questions left after the experience of watching the film. “Time has its revenges, but revenge seems so often sour. Wouldn’t we all do better not trying to understand, accepting the fact that no human being will ever understand another, not a wife with a husband, nor a parent a child?" One of the primary function of movies is to act as an empathy machine, a vehicle to allow us to understand and live in the skin of someone who we are not, or a situation so far...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 7/22/2016
- Screen Anarchy
Most British crime films of the '40s and '50s have been slow crossing the pond, but Olive Films has a winner here, a gloss on Yank gangster pix from an earlier era. Just clear of prison, a tough criminal vows to punish the gang that abandoned him, and carries it out a ruthless revenge. But I think it was a mistake for him to involve that dance hall girl... Appointment with Crime Blu-ray Olive Films 1946 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 91 min. / Street Date June 21, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98 Starring William Hartnell, Herbert Lom, Joyce Howard, Robert Beatty, Raymond Lovell, Alan Wheatley. Cinematography Gerald Moss, James Wilson Film Editor Monica Kimick Original Music George Melachrino Produced by Louis H. Jackson Written and Directed by John Harlow
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Ask today's American film fan about old British crime films, and he'll probably not be able to...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Ask today's American film fan about old British crime films, and he'll probably not be able to...
- 6/21/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
To mark the release of The Fallen Idol on 16th November, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on DVD. Painstakingly restored to its former glory, The Fallen Idol is the critically acclaimed first collaboration between Oscar-Winning director Carol Reed and writer and novelist Graham Greene who, following the success of the film, would
The post Win The Fallen Idol on DVD appeared first on HeyUGuys.
The post Win The Fallen Idol on DVD appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 11/23/2015
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
To all cinephiles! This one is for you!
What a surprise was in store for us when we went to see “We Weren’t Just Bicycle Thieves. Neorealism” on its opening night of its qualifying run for Oscar submission in the documentary category.
The footage!
It took two and a half years to clear it all! The best scenes of Neorealistic cinema illustrate points on how Neorealism changed the lexicon and language of film in the same way that the Renaissance changed the visual language of art with linear perspective and its humanistic point of view.
The commentary!
Speaking about the influence of the Italian post-war Neorealism upon their filmmaking choices are Bertolucci, the Taviani Brothers, Scorsese, Olmi, Umberto Eco, Gabriel Garcia Marquez… the only reason Antonioni and Fellini did not speak was because they were no longer living when the movie was made. The interviews were not “talking heads”; they were conversations in which the great directors expressed their connections with Neorealism as they spoke to Carlo Lizzani.
Carlo Lizzani, the narrator and host of this documentary is an elegant 91 year old man who worked as scriptwriter, assistant director to every Neorealistic director and director in his own right. He starred in movies 1939-1954.
I loved him dancing in "Bitter Rice" (which he cowrote) with the women workers. That was the first Neorealistic movie I saw, dubbed on TV, when I was about eight. It was so puzzling to me, seeing this woman in a rice field with her skirt hiked up in a very provocative way, calling to someone with her words not matching her lips.
I really did not understand what sort of movie I was seeing… Similar to the first time I saw Chantal Akerman’s "Jane Dielman" which was rather Neorealistic too, though a product of the early ‘70s.
The production value!
The room, a fascinating “study” filled with objects of Neorealistic movies where the Lizzani seemed to belong was actually a room built from scratch by production designer Maurizio di Clemente within the walls of the oldest film school in Italy, Centro Sperimentale de Cine. When Lizzani opened windows, they looked out upon landscapes of these great Neorealistic movies. The technology of today was used in service of high art. Opening windows itself was a Neorealistic device.
The book!
You will want to read it all and show it off on your coffee table. Interviews, philosophic discussions, pictures and detailed listings of all the Neorealistic movies are splendidly displayed.
The education!
My view of cinema — both post war Italian cinema and today’s cinema shifted into an informed appreciation of how much Neorealism changed our vision of what a film could be.
Neorealism came to fruition with the rebirth of Italy after the war and lasted to 1954. Actually as Carlo Lizzani explains, it began in 1939 “with the first rumblings of an anti-fascist rebellion… as well as among many intellectuals and cineastes, increasingly unanimous in their refusal of so-called “White Telephone” cinema.”
“Before Neorealism, films were called ‘Bianchi Telefono’ after the white telephones that Hollywood movies showed in the so-called ‘White Telephone’ cinema for the way they featured Hollywood-style living rooms where that status symbol was invariably set center stage. It may have been a typical object in certain Hollywood mansions or Middle-European villa, but hardly in the average Italian home,” says Lizzani.
The interview!
Gianni Bozzacchi, the film’s director, writer and producer is a Renaissance man and his stories are funny, deeply moving and extremely interesting! This is someone you want to talk to for hours.
Watching this labor of love was an experience I will always treasure.
Rarely do we see a film about the art of film…Todd McCarthy’s "Visions of Light" comes to mind but others fade into PBS TV memories. This is a cinematic, highly technological and artistic feat. The Dp was Fabio Olmi the son of Ermanno Olmi.
After the screening, Bozzacchi stayed for a Q+A and the next day I continued to question him in the home of producer Jay Kanter where he was staying. After two and a half hours, I still wanted more. But the issue of condensing it all to a blog was weighing on me.
“Everything was planned and laid out in great detail, scripted and planned to the second so that filming 91 year old Lizanni for two hours a day took exactly 8 days to complete.”
Bozzacchi had previously made movies and in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He worked in Los Angeles with Greg Bautzer, who, for nearly 50 years, was one of the premier entertainment attorneys in Hollywood and with Kirk Kerkorian who needs no introduction. He wrote, directed and produced “I Love N.Y.” which was sold internationally by Walter Manley. It presold widely including to Australia where it played six weeks. But for the U.S. release, Manley edited it, and Bozzacchi moved away from it and took the DGA pseudonym, the credited name Alan Smithee.
Why did you leave filmmaking for so long?
I still remember that film, starring Christopher Plummer, Virna Lisi, Scott Baio, Jennifer O’Neill, but that was my last until “Neorealism”.
In 1986 I saw the industry was changing and I chose to step out in order to watch it as an outsider. What was ‘Show Business” was becoming a 'Business Show’. Marketing led to creating a show which led to creating a sales industry. “
“I decided to change direction and do only what I really wanted to do. I took ten years developing a big project ‘Oh Brave New World: The Renaissance’ for TV. It is now in pre-production. I thought of the Neorealism project and of The Enzo Ferrari story for which I now have a deal with Tribeca and Robert De Niro.
What did you do before you were a filmmaker?
I quit school at 13. From 1966 to 1974, at 20 I entered the jet set and became a photographer.
Elizabeth Taylor was shooting ‘The Comedians’ in Africa by Graham Greene. In Dahomy (today it’s Benin) they rebuilt part of Haiti. In the photo agency I worked no one wanted to go there, so I went. I knew Elizabeth Taylor’s face very well so I photographed her with light; no retouching was needed. After seeing a photo I took of her, Richard Burton said to me, ‘You want to join our family? Elizabeth needs you.’ I only spoke Roman, no English. I worked with her for 14 years and her two kids were my assistants. I also worked on 162 films as a special photographer, reading the scripts and shooting scenes for magazine layouts, working with “the making of the film” format.
It was when I stopped as a photographer in ‘75 that I began to think of producing films like the cult film “ China 9, Liberty 37” directed by Monte Hellman and starring Sam Peckinpah, Warren Oates and Fabio Testi and I wrote a book ExpoXed Memory about my life.
There is a relationship of all my projects to Neorealism, and of Neorealism to the Renaissance. All our projects are ready to go.
What are you doing in L.A.?
We have formed a new company with producer Jay Kanter and other partners who love film rather than the business of film. “We Weren’t Just Bicycle Thieves: Neorealismo” is the first to come out of the gate.
“The Listener” is the next project I will direct. It is based on the semi-autobiographical book, Operation Appia Way, by the Italian politician Giulio Andreotti. Andreotti served as Prime Minister of Italy seven terms since the restoration of democracy in 1946.
Yes he was the subject of Paolo Sorrentino’s film “Il Divo”. The book is about phone tapping, abuse of power and violations of personal privacy as is so often employed in politic, spying, etc. Andreotti had studied to be a priest but became a politician and this is about the birth of wire tapping which took place in the Roman catacombs and tapped the phones of Pope Pius Xii in conversations with Churchill, Churchill and the King of Italy, Mussolini and Hitler, Roosevelt and the Pope. The scenarios alternate between New York and Rome today and flashbacks to past times.
The production coordinator of “Neorealismo”, Julia Eleanora Rei, also has a project on Eleanora Duse and Gabriel D’Annunzio. Known as ‘Duse’, this Italian actress is known for her words of wit and wisdom, ‘The weaker partner in a marriage is the one who loves the most’ and ‘When we grow old, there can only be one regret – not to have given enough of ourselves’. She is also known for her long romantic involvement with the poet and writer, the controversial Gabriele D’Annunzio. They are now targeting a star for the film, although, says Bozzacchi, ‘Today the script is the star’.
What films are most important to you?
Those shown in this documentary, especially "Open City" where the scene of shooting down Anna Magnani still makes me feel angry.
Every week the Neorealistic filmmakers met in a café or restaurant. They did not have lots of money, had only one camera and not much film. But they created a way to tell a story very realistically, hiding the camera and shooting the people as they are.
Cary Grant pleaded De Sica to star in ‘The Bicycle Thief’, but he would have disrupted the Neorealist aspect; he was too recognizable. In the scene where three men stop the thief , other citizens joined in thinking it was real. If they saw it was Cary Grant, the scene never could have happened. The little boy in the film, played by Enzo Staiola, was scared the mob would turn on him.”
It was surprising to see Enzo Staiola in conversation during the movie. He said that ‘De Sica invented this whole story about how he made me cry. When I looked at him in surprise, he said: ‘Don’t worry, it’s just cinema…you’ll understand later’.
They also changed the way to shoot in sequence, called ‘piano sequenza’. Before a film was done in steps, with a storyboard, with cuts, three camera povs. Actors and the camera depended on the director. Now the camera follows the actor as he or she moves. This went from Rossellini to Fellini who always used the system; but Fellini, who shows a new reborn Italy, did not want direct sound. Fellini directs saying, ‘pick up drink’ or ‘turn right’ or ‘look left’ and then afterward he would add the sound. He showed Italy out of war time in ‘La Dolce Vita’.
What happened after ‘Neorealism’?
Pontecorvo was born in the time of Neorealism and he brought it to Algiers (‘Battle of Algiers’). He was going to make a doc there but then decided on fiction. He wrote notes on his hand.
Who were the French, German and U.S. adherents to Neorealism?
Truffaut and Melville, Wim Wenders with ‘American Friend’ and ‘Paris, Texas’, Coppola with ‘Apocalypse Now’. Cassavetes was a producer of Neorealism; he took it to his era. Scorsese did with ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Mean Streets’.
What do we see about Neorealism today?
If you really love movies, with all of today’s technology, you must bring in realism. With the new technology there will be a new wave of new realism. New filmmakers are very straight. Honesty and realism on the screen will come out. We’re at the sea floor now, coming back. Tell me a story that I can feel and see emotion…that is the legacy of Neorealism.
The final scene was great ...
There was a great sense of collaboration on this film.
What made that so related to Neorealism?
Neorealism also had the full participation of everyone. Directors heard and listened to the community. Clint Eastwood does this too. He would be great directing the Ferrari movie…depending on the script of course.
I love you story about the dog being an actor who allowed for transitions and covered discontinuities in film.
What about catering Italian style?
Take a look at the film's trailer Here.
What a surprise was in store for us when we went to see “We Weren’t Just Bicycle Thieves. Neorealism” on its opening night of its qualifying run for Oscar submission in the documentary category.
The footage!
It took two and a half years to clear it all! The best scenes of Neorealistic cinema illustrate points on how Neorealism changed the lexicon and language of film in the same way that the Renaissance changed the visual language of art with linear perspective and its humanistic point of view.
The commentary!
Speaking about the influence of the Italian post-war Neorealism upon their filmmaking choices are Bertolucci, the Taviani Brothers, Scorsese, Olmi, Umberto Eco, Gabriel Garcia Marquez… the only reason Antonioni and Fellini did not speak was because they were no longer living when the movie was made. The interviews were not “talking heads”; they were conversations in which the great directors expressed their connections with Neorealism as they spoke to Carlo Lizzani.
Carlo Lizzani, the narrator and host of this documentary is an elegant 91 year old man who worked as scriptwriter, assistant director to every Neorealistic director and director in his own right. He starred in movies 1939-1954.
I loved him dancing in "Bitter Rice" (which he cowrote) with the women workers. That was the first Neorealistic movie I saw, dubbed on TV, when I was about eight. It was so puzzling to me, seeing this woman in a rice field with her skirt hiked up in a very provocative way, calling to someone with her words not matching her lips.
I really did not understand what sort of movie I was seeing… Similar to the first time I saw Chantal Akerman’s "Jane Dielman" which was rather Neorealistic too, though a product of the early ‘70s.
The production value!
The room, a fascinating “study” filled with objects of Neorealistic movies where the Lizzani seemed to belong was actually a room built from scratch by production designer Maurizio di Clemente within the walls of the oldest film school in Italy, Centro Sperimentale de Cine. When Lizzani opened windows, they looked out upon landscapes of these great Neorealistic movies. The technology of today was used in service of high art. Opening windows itself was a Neorealistic device.
The book!
You will want to read it all and show it off on your coffee table. Interviews, philosophic discussions, pictures and detailed listings of all the Neorealistic movies are splendidly displayed.
The education!
My view of cinema — both post war Italian cinema and today’s cinema shifted into an informed appreciation of how much Neorealism changed our vision of what a film could be.
Neorealism came to fruition with the rebirth of Italy after the war and lasted to 1954. Actually as Carlo Lizzani explains, it began in 1939 “with the first rumblings of an anti-fascist rebellion… as well as among many intellectuals and cineastes, increasingly unanimous in their refusal of so-called “White Telephone” cinema.”
“Before Neorealism, films were called ‘Bianchi Telefono’ after the white telephones that Hollywood movies showed in the so-called ‘White Telephone’ cinema for the way they featured Hollywood-style living rooms where that status symbol was invariably set center stage. It may have been a typical object in certain Hollywood mansions or Middle-European villa, but hardly in the average Italian home,” says Lizzani.
The interview!
Gianni Bozzacchi, the film’s director, writer and producer is a Renaissance man and his stories are funny, deeply moving and extremely interesting! This is someone you want to talk to for hours.
Watching this labor of love was an experience I will always treasure.
Rarely do we see a film about the art of film…Todd McCarthy’s "Visions of Light" comes to mind but others fade into PBS TV memories. This is a cinematic, highly technological and artistic feat. The Dp was Fabio Olmi the son of Ermanno Olmi.
After the screening, Bozzacchi stayed for a Q+A and the next day I continued to question him in the home of producer Jay Kanter where he was staying. After two and a half hours, I still wanted more. But the issue of condensing it all to a blog was weighing on me.
“Everything was planned and laid out in great detail, scripted and planned to the second so that filming 91 year old Lizanni for two hours a day took exactly 8 days to complete.”
Bozzacchi had previously made movies and in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He worked in Los Angeles with Greg Bautzer, who, for nearly 50 years, was one of the premier entertainment attorneys in Hollywood and with Kirk Kerkorian who needs no introduction. He wrote, directed and produced “I Love N.Y.” which was sold internationally by Walter Manley. It presold widely including to Australia where it played six weeks. But for the U.S. release, Manley edited it, and Bozzacchi moved away from it and took the DGA pseudonym, the credited name Alan Smithee.
Why did you leave filmmaking for so long?
I still remember that film, starring Christopher Plummer, Virna Lisi, Scott Baio, Jennifer O’Neill, but that was my last until “Neorealism”.
In 1986 I saw the industry was changing and I chose to step out in order to watch it as an outsider. What was ‘Show Business” was becoming a 'Business Show’. Marketing led to creating a show which led to creating a sales industry. “
“I decided to change direction and do only what I really wanted to do. I took ten years developing a big project ‘Oh Brave New World: The Renaissance’ for TV. It is now in pre-production. I thought of the Neorealism project and of The Enzo Ferrari story for which I now have a deal with Tribeca and Robert De Niro.
What did you do before you were a filmmaker?
I quit school at 13. From 1966 to 1974, at 20 I entered the jet set and became a photographer.
Elizabeth Taylor was shooting ‘The Comedians’ in Africa by Graham Greene. In Dahomy (today it’s Benin) they rebuilt part of Haiti. In the photo agency I worked no one wanted to go there, so I went. I knew Elizabeth Taylor’s face very well so I photographed her with light; no retouching was needed. After seeing a photo I took of her, Richard Burton said to me, ‘You want to join our family? Elizabeth needs you.’ I only spoke Roman, no English. I worked with her for 14 years and her two kids were my assistants. I also worked on 162 films as a special photographer, reading the scripts and shooting scenes for magazine layouts, working with “the making of the film” format.
It was when I stopped as a photographer in ‘75 that I began to think of producing films like the cult film “ China 9, Liberty 37” directed by Monte Hellman and starring Sam Peckinpah, Warren Oates and Fabio Testi and I wrote a book ExpoXed Memory about my life.
There is a relationship of all my projects to Neorealism, and of Neorealism to the Renaissance. All our projects are ready to go.
What are you doing in L.A.?
We have formed a new company with producer Jay Kanter and other partners who love film rather than the business of film. “We Weren’t Just Bicycle Thieves: Neorealismo” is the first to come out of the gate.
“The Listener” is the next project I will direct. It is based on the semi-autobiographical book, Operation Appia Way, by the Italian politician Giulio Andreotti. Andreotti served as Prime Minister of Italy seven terms since the restoration of democracy in 1946.
Yes he was the subject of Paolo Sorrentino’s film “Il Divo”. The book is about phone tapping, abuse of power and violations of personal privacy as is so often employed in politic, spying, etc. Andreotti had studied to be a priest but became a politician and this is about the birth of wire tapping which took place in the Roman catacombs and tapped the phones of Pope Pius Xii in conversations with Churchill, Churchill and the King of Italy, Mussolini and Hitler, Roosevelt and the Pope. The scenarios alternate between New York and Rome today and flashbacks to past times.
The production coordinator of “Neorealismo”, Julia Eleanora Rei, also has a project on Eleanora Duse and Gabriel D’Annunzio. Known as ‘Duse’, this Italian actress is known for her words of wit and wisdom, ‘The weaker partner in a marriage is the one who loves the most’ and ‘When we grow old, there can only be one regret – not to have given enough of ourselves’. She is also known for her long romantic involvement with the poet and writer, the controversial Gabriele D’Annunzio. They are now targeting a star for the film, although, says Bozzacchi, ‘Today the script is the star’.
What films are most important to you?
Those shown in this documentary, especially "Open City" where the scene of shooting down Anna Magnani still makes me feel angry.
Every week the Neorealistic filmmakers met in a café or restaurant. They did not have lots of money, had only one camera and not much film. But they created a way to tell a story very realistically, hiding the camera and shooting the people as they are.
Cary Grant pleaded De Sica to star in ‘The Bicycle Thief’, but he would have disrupted the Neorealist aspect; he was too recognizable. In the scene where three men stop the thief , other citizens joined in thinking it was real. If they saw it was Cary Grant, the scene never could have happened. The little boy in the film, played by Enzo Staiola, was scared the mob would turn on him.”
It was surprising to see Enzo Staiola in conversation during the movie. He said that ‘De Sica invented this whole story about how he made me cry. When I looked at him in surprise, he said: ‘Don’t worry, it’s just cinema…you’ll understand later’.
They also changed the way to shoot in sequence, called ‘piano sequenza’. Before a film was done in steps, with a storyboard, with cuts, three camera povs. Actors and the camera depended on the director. Now the camera follows the actor as he or she moves. This went from Rossellini to Fellini who always used the system; but Fellini, who shows a new reborn Italy, did not want direct sound. Fellini directs saying, ‘pick up drink’ or ‘turn right’ or ‘look left’ and then afterward he would add the sound. He showed Italy out of war time in ‘La Dolce Vita’.
What happened after ‘Neorealism’?
Pontecorvo was born in the time of Neorealism and he brought it to Algiers (‘Battle of Algiers’). He was going to make a doc there but then decided on fiction. He wrote notes on his hand.
Who were the French, German and U.S. adherents to Neorealism?
Truffaut and Melville, Wim Wenders with ‘American Friend’ and ‘Paris, Texas’, Coppola with ‘Apocalypse Now’. Cassavetes was a producer of Neorealism; he took it to his era. Scorsese did with ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Mean Streets’.
What do we see about Neorealism today?
If you really love movies, with all of today’s technology, you must bring in realism. With the new technology there will be a new wave of new realism. New filmmakers are very straight. Honesty and realism on the screen will come out. We’re at the sea floor now, coming back. Tell me a story that I can feel and see emotion…that is the legacy of Neorealism.
The final scene was great ...
There was a great sense of collaboration on this film.
What made that so related to Neorealism?
Neorealism also had the full participation of everyone. Directors heard and listened to the community. Clint Eastwood does this too. He would be great directing the Ferrari movie…depending on the script of course.
I love you story about the dog being an actor who allowed for transitions and covered discontinuities in film.
What about catering Italian style?
Take a look at the film's trailer Here.
- 10/21/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The 59Th BFI London Film Festival Announces Full 2015 Programme
You can peruse the programme at your leisure here.
The programme for the 59th BFI London Film Festival in partnership launched today, with Festival Director Clare Stewart presenting this year’s rich and diverse selection of films and events. BFI London Film Festival is Britain’s leading film event and one of the world’s oldest film festivals. It introduces the finest new British and international films to an expanding London and UK-wide audience. The Festival provides an essential platform for films seeking global success; and promotes the careers of British and international filmmakers through its industry and awards programmes. With this year’s industry programme stronger than ever, offering international filmmakers and leaders a programme of insightful events covering every area of the film industry Lff positions London as the world’s leading creative city.
The Festival will screen a...
You can peruse the programme at your leisure here.
The programme for the 59th BFI London Film Festival in partnership launched today, with Festival Director Clare Stewart presenting this year’s rich and diverse selection of films and events. BFI London Film Festival is Britain’s leading film event and one of the world’s oldest film festivals. It introduces the finest new British and international films to an expanding London and UK-wide audience. The Festival provides an essential platform for films seeking global success; and promotes the careers of British and international filmmakers through its industry and awards programmes. With this year’s industry programme stronger than ever, offering international filmmakers and leaders a programme of insightful events covering every area of the film industry Lff positions London as the world’s leading creative city.
The Festival will screen a...
- 9/1/2015
- by John
- SoundOnSight
★★★★★ No cinematic genre can capture the inky morality of pernicious scavengers feeding on the carcass of post-war Europe like film noir. And no other noir manages it with quite the pervasive world-weariness and melancholy of The Third Man (1949). Beautifully penned by Graham Greene for Carol Reed's direction, it is one of cinema's true masterpieces: a labyrinthine search through the rubble of a defeated and desiccated Vienna; the tale of a wide-eyed American, exposed for the first time to the harsh, cruel realities of carving a bitter existence in the husk of a bombed-out continent. All the while, Reed and his cinematographer, Robert Krasker, craft an expressionistic landscape unlike any other.
- 7/21/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
New York-based distributor Rialto Pictures will release Carol Reed’s Film Noir masterpiece The Third Man in a major 4K restoration – the first ever for the 1949 mega-classic.
The new restoration has its world premiere this month in the “Cannes Classics” section of the Cannes Film Festival, with U.S. openings at New York’s Film Forum on June 26 (2-week run) and L.A.’s Nuart on July 3. Engagements in San Francisco, Washington, DC, Seattle, Philadelphia and other major markets will follow.
A rare collaboration of legendary producers Alexander Korda and David O. Selznick, The Third Man was Reed’s second teaming with novelist/screenwriter Graham Greene. An instant critical and commercial sensation, it won the Palme D’Or at Cannes, the British Film Academy’s Best British Film award, and an Academy Award for Robert Krasker’s expressionist, now iconic b&w cinematography, and was also Oscar-nominated for Best Director.
The new restoration has its world premiere this month in the “Cannes Classics” section of the Cannes Film Festival, with U.S. openings at New York’s Film Forum on June 26 (2-week run) and L.A.’s Nuart on July 3. Engagements in San Francisco, Washington, DC, Seattle, Philadelphia and other major markets will follow.
A rare collaboration of legendary producers Alexander Korda and David O. Selznick, The Third Man was Reed’s second teaming with novelist/screenwriter Graham Greene. An instant critical and commercial sensation, it won the Palme D’Or at Cannes, the British Film Academy’s Best British Film award, and an Academy Award for Robert Krasker’s expressionist, now iconic b&w cinematography, and was also Oscar-nominated for Best Director.
- 5/6/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Round-up: Screen Media Films has acquired Us rights to the film starring Jason Schwartzman. In other news, Arc has acquired Freedom, Kino Lorber will release Patch Town and Rialto has set a release for its restored version of The Third Man.
7 Chinese Brothers (pictured) premiered at SXSW and will go out day-and-date on theatrical and digital platforms in August.
Bob Byington wrote and directed the film about an alcoholic who works at a car maintenance store and tries to keep his life together in order to win over his boss.
Olympia Dukakis, Stephen Root, Tunde Adebimpe and Eleanore Pienta also star.
Seth Needle of Screen Media brokered the deal with Zac Bright of Preferred Content and Wme Global on behalf of the filmmakers.
Arc Entertainment has acquired Us rights to Freedom starring Cuba Gooding Jr and has set a June 5 theatrical and digital day-and-date release. Peter Cousens directed the family drama about the connection between a slave...
7 Chinese Brothers (pictured) premiered at SXSW and will go out day-and-date on theatrical and digital platforms in August.
Bob Byington wrote and directed the film about an alcoholic who works at a car maintenance store and tries to keep his life together in order to win over his boss.
Olympia Dukakis, Stephen Root, Tunde Adebimpe and Eleanore Pienta also star.
Seth Needle of Screen Media brokered the deal with Zac Bright of Preferred Content and Wme Global on behalf of the filmmakers.
Arc Entertainment has acquired Us rights to Freedom starring Cuba Gooding Jr and has set a June 5 theatrical and digital day-and-date release. Peter Cousens directed the family drama about the connection between a slave...
- 5/5/2015
- ScreenDaily
What is it that makes an artwork important? Relevance over time is one answer. This past summer in New York City, both the Museum of Modern Art and Film Forum ran a month-long series of Film Noir screenings. And this December of 2014, the Brooklyn Academy of Music ran a "Sunshine Noir" series of Film Noir shot in Los Angeles. Three revivals in one year speak to the continued pertinence of this genre: Film Noir is timeless. On the surface, Noir is stylized and sexy, but its hidden undercurrent illuminates something about our deeper vulnerabilities.
Most Film Noir is set in the seedy underbelly of a big city, like New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago. Shot in black and white, the blinking lights and cigarette smoke simmer in the darkness of night. These urban settings create a moody atmosphere for morally shady situations in the North American city. But, in 1949, one...
Most Film Noir is set in the seedy underbelly of a big city, like New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago. Shot in black and white, the blinking lights and cigarette smoke simmer in the darkness of night. These urban settings create a moody atmosphere for morally shady situations in the North American city. But, in 1949, one...
- 4/14/2015
- by Michelle Mackey
- www.culturecatch.com
Having previously brought Graham Greene’s 1938 novel Brighton Rock to life, Rowan Joffé is no stranger to book-to-film adaptations. He’s chosen a more contemporary work to bring to the big screen this time round in Sj Watson’s bestseller Before I Go To Sleep. Just as in the novel, the film focuses on an amnesiac who wakes up every day with no memory.
We were lucky enough to chat with the writer/director ahead of the film’s UK release, and in addition to divulging what his first movie memory was Joffé tells us about the challenges of adapting the novel into a screenplay and what other books he’d like to see get the big screen treatment. Have a watch below.
Before I Go To Sleep is in UK cinemas now.
The post The HeyUGuys Interview: Director Rowan Joffé on Before I Go To Sleep appeared first on HeyUGuys.
We were lucky enough to chat with the writer/director ahead of the film’s UK release, and in addition to divulging what his first movie memory was Joffé tells us about the challenges of adapting the novel into a screenplay and what other books he’d like to see get the big screen treatment. Have a watch below.
Before I Go To Sleep is in UK cinemas now.
The post The HeyUGuys Interview: Director Rowan Joffé on Before I Go To Sleep appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 9/5/2014
- by Amon Warmann
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Director and actor Richard Attenborough has died at the age of 90. An acclaimed performer who seamlessly segued from working in front of the camera to behind it, Attenborough earned two Oscars for his illuminating biopic Gandhi, for Best Picture and Best Director at the 1983 ceremony.
That victory came after a long and fruitful career in cinema for Attenborough, which began with an uncredited role as a deserting sailor in 1942 pic In Which We Serve. The British actor’s breakthrough role came five years later, in John Boulting’s adaptation of the Graham Greene novel Brighton Rock. From there, Attenborough’s star continued to climb. He would go on to work prolifically in British cinema, appearing in many comedies including Private’s Progress and I’m All Right Jack. Attenborough also succeeded on the stage, leading the West End production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap for a time.
The actor...
That victory came after a long and fruitful career in cinema for Attenborough, which began with an uncredited role as a deserting sailor in 1942 pic In Which We Serve. The British actor’s breakthrough role came five years later, in John Boulting’s adaptation of the Graham Greene novel Brighton Rock. From there, Attenborough’s star continued to climb. He would go on to work prolifically in British cinema, appearing in many comedies including Private’s Progress and I’m All Right Jack. Attenborough also succeeded on the stage, leading the West End production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap for a time.
The actor...
- 8/25/2014
- by Isaac Feldberg
- We Got This Covered
Acclaimed actor and Oscar-winning director Richard Attenborough, whose film career on both sides of the camera spanned 60 years, has died. He was 90. The actor's son, Michael Attenborough, told the BBC that his father died Sunday. He had been in poor health for some time. Prime Minister David Cameron issued a statement calling Attenborough "one of the greats of cinema." "His acting in Brighton Rock was brilliant, his directing of Gandhi was stunning," Cameron said. Attenborough won an Academy Award for Best Director with Gandhi in 1982, only one of many highlights of a distinguished career as actor and director. With his abundant snow-white hair and beard,...
- 8/24/2014
- by Associated Press
- PEOPLE.com
Acctor and Oscar-winning director Richard Attenborough, whose film career on both sides of the camera spanned 60 years, has died. He was 90. The actor's son, Michael Attenborough, told the BBC that his father died Sunday. He had been in poor health for some time. Prime Minister David Cameron issued a statement calling Attenborough "one of the greats of cinema." "His acting in Brighton Rock was brilliant, his directing of Gandhi was stunning," Cameron said. Attenborough won an Academy Award for Best Director with Gandhi in 1982, only one of many highlights of a distinguished career as actor and director. With his abundant snow-white hair and beard,...
- 8/24/2014
- by Associated Press
- PEOPLE.com
Following the sudden, tragic suicide of comedian Robin Williams, the hits just keep on coming with news from THR that legendary leading lady Lauren Bacall, frequent co-star and real-life wife of Humphrey Bogart, has passed away at 89 years old. The sultry icon died yesterday morning after suffering a stroke in her home in New York City. Bacall is one of the last actresses still living from Hollywood's golden years, having starred in many classic films. Bacall's romance and career go hand-in-hand as she met Bogart before her first movie, Howard Hawks' To Have and Have Not in 1944, when she was 19, and Bogart was 44. Following her first film, she moved on to Graham Greene's Confidential Agent, before reuniting with Bogart again for the classic The Big Sleep, based on Raymond Chandler's novel of the same name. They continued to work together for two more films in a row with Dark Passage,...
- 8/13/2014
- by Ethan Anderton
- firstshowing.net
Writer/director Rowan Joffe has chosen a distinctly different sort of literary adaptation to follow 2010’s Graham Greene-based Brighton Rock. Before I Go To Sleep is based on the bestselling mystery potboiler by first-time author S.J. Watson, and reunites Nicole Kidman in on-screen matrimony with her Railway Man husband Colin Firth. Their marriage is under rather a different strain this time...Kidman stars as the amnesiac Christine, who must solve a dark riddle despite (with unavoidable shades of Memento) forgetting her progress every 24 hours. She's understandably reliant on Firth's help with her frustrating life, until she discovers some terrifying new information throwing everything she thinks she knows into question. "It's classic noir," Joffe promised Empire a few months ago. "They remind me of a Hitchcock pairing: a tall, dark handsome lead and a beautiful blonde playing psychological cat and mouse!"Mark Strong and Anne-Marie Duff co-star in the film,...
- 7/2/2014
- EmpireOnline
Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene
Sometime in the late 1960s (1969 to be exact), when Philip Roth was ripping it up with raw liver, Graham Greene -- lauded, praised, lionized - kicked back and created one of his greatest "entertainments," Travels with My Aunt. He has confessed in interviews that this was his most pleasurable writing experience, and all I can say, as a reader, it certainly delivers on the pleasure principal. Interestingly, Greene's Aunt Augusta calls to mind that other great literary free-wheeling aunt of mid-century, Auntie Mame. But Augusta's not merely an eccentric globe-hopper. Aged yet spry, her relations are deep, dark, and strange -- as is her relationship with the narrator, surely the most milquetoasty, recently retired, dahlia-cultivating, bachelor bank manager in literature.
To say this fellow's up for a life-altering journey is like saying Romanee-Conti is a decent wine with pasta. An understatement. In short order,...
Sometime in the late 1960s (1969 to be exact), when Philip Roth was ripping it up with raw liver, Graham Greene -- lauded, praised, lionized - kicked back and created one of his greatest "entertainments," Travels with My Aunt. He has confessed in interviews that this was his most pleasurable writing experience, and all I can say, as a reader, it certainly delivers on the pleasure principal. Interestingly, Greene's Aunt Augusta calls to mind that other great literary free-wheeling aunt of mid-century, Auntie Mame. But Augusta's not merely an eccentric globe-hopper. Aged yet spry, her relations are deep, dark, and strange -- as is her relationship with the narrator, surely the most milquetoasty, recently retired, dahlia-cultivating, bachelor bank manager in literature.
To say this fellow's up for a life-altering journey is like saying Romanee-Conti is a decent wine with pasta. An understatement. In short order,...
- 4/15/2014
- by Ken Krimstein
- www.culturecatch.com
Feature Aliya Whiteley 3 Apr 2014 - 07:22
Tend to think of Richard Attenborough as a kindly old man? Aliya digs into his early career to find some far nastier roles...
British cinema has always liked its angry young men: Richard Burton, Albert Finney, Laurence Harvey and others all played the 1950s and 60s social animal, raging against the class system and the staid attitudes of post-war Britain.
But they weren’t the first angry young man on the screen. Maybe that crown could be claimed by an unlikely actor – Richard Attenborough. Attenborough is best known now as a director and producer, for films such as Gandhi, Chaplin and Shadowlands. When he gets thought of as an actor, it’s often as a kindly old man with a white beard. Misguided, sometimes, as when he played John Hammond, the owner of Jurassic Park, but not downright nasty. A lot of his earlier...
Tend to think of Richard Attenborough as a kindly old man? Aliya digs into his early career to find some far nastier roles...
British cinema has always liked its angry young men: Richard Burton, Albert Finney, Laurence Harvey and others all played the 1950s and 60s social animal, raging against the class system and the staid attitudes of post-war Britain.
But they weren’t the first angry young man on the screen. Maybe that crown could be claimed by an unlikely actor – Richard Attenborough. Attenborough is best known now as a director and producer, for films such as Gandhi, Chaplin and Shadowlands. When he gets thought of as an actor, it’s often as a kindly old man with a white beard. Misguided, sometimes, as when he played John Hammond, the owner of Jurassic Park, but not downright nasty. A lot of his earlier...
- 4/1/2014
- by sarahd
- Den of Geek
Her films enchanted strife-hit Us audiences, and unlike so many child stars to come, she made a diplomatic transition to adulthood
• Shirley Temple obituary
• Shirley Temple: a career in clips
In the grim years of the Depression and the poverty-stricken 1930s, America took to its heart a lovable, curly-haired little girl who looked every bit as vulnerable as they felt, but who with the help of her pals and tender good-hearted grownups would put her best foot forward and surely win through in the end. This was Shirley Temple, who in that decade became one of the biggest stars in the world — her career and attractions shrewdly nurtured by the formidable 20th Century Fox studio chief Darryl F Zanuck, for whom Temple became a singing-and-dancing, ringleted cash calf.
She also achieved fame as a striking, almost unique example of how a child star graduates gracefully from the juvenile-lead status...
• Shirley Temple obituary
• Shirley Temple: a career in clips
In the grim years of the Depression and the poverty-stricken 1930s, America took to its heart a lovable, curly-haired little girl who looked every bit as vulnerable as they felt, but who with the help of her pals and tender good-hearted grownups would put her best foot forward and surely win through in the end. This was Shirley Temple, who in that decade became one of the biggest stars in the world — her career and attractions shrewdly nurtured by the formidable 20th Century Fox studio chief Darryl F Zanuck, for whom Temple became a singing-and-dancing, ringleted cash calf.
She also achieved fame as a striking, almost unique example of how a child star graduates gracefully from the juvenile-lead status...
- 2/12/2014
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Shirley Temple Black, the one-time child star whose precocious acting ability, cheery demeanor and innocent face made her one of the biggest draws of the 1930s, died on Monday night at her home in California. She was 85.
From the age of six to ten Shirley Temple was once one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. While the rest of the nation was mired in the Great Depression Shirley Temple sang and danced her way through it in films such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Little Miss Marker, Heidi and The Little Princess.
Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928 in Santa Monica, California, the third and youngest child (and only girl) of George Francis Temple, a bank teller, and Gertrude Krieger, a supremely willful stage mother (Temple dedicated her autobiography to her). Her parents noticed an innate sense of rhythm and extroverted presence as early as eight months in Shirley. She was put in acting classes by the age of three and was starring in a series of cloying shorts in 1932 and ’33, as well as assaying bit parts in larger films.
It was her performance of “Baby Takes a Bow” in 1934’s Stand Up and Cheer, a film that debuted in May, that thrust her into prominence. She was obviously a natural in front of the camera with a wide range of talent. She could sing. She could dance. She could act. Fox signed her on and, by the end of the same year, which also held the hits Little Miss Marker and Bright Eyes (where she famously sang “On the Good Ship Lollipop”) and several other roles, Shirley Temple was a star. A mere nine months after Stand Up and Cheer hit screens, in February of 1935, she received a special “Juvenile Award” at the Oscars “in grateful recognition of her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment during the year 1934.”
For the next few years the public couldn’t get enough of her. Exhibitors named her the top box-office attraction of 1935 (when she sang “Animal Crackers” in Curly Top) - 1938. A non-alcoholic drink was named after her (a mixture of ginger ale and grenadine) and a cottage industry sprang up around her likeness including dolls, coloring books, and dress lines. She tapped alongside Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, in The Littlest Rebel, starred in John Ford’s Wee Willie Winkie and several Allan Dwan films, Heidi and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. (Graham Greene’s review of Winkie, where he accused Temple of being an adult impersonating a child, and where he impugned the motives for older men’s attraction to her, caused such an uproar that Night and Day, the magazine in which the review was published, shortly thereafter was bankrupted and folded.)
Temple was the natural pick to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz but Fox wouldn’t loan its star out so Judy Garland got the role. It was a turning point in both their careers.
As she matured, Hollywood and the audience, now veterans of World War II, and seemingly unable to reconcile the fact that the cherubic star had become a comely young woman, looked elsewhere. Temple was no longer the compliant child but a willful ingénue. After two flops she canceled her contract with Fox and moved over to MGM but fared no better there.
At 17 she wed fellow actor John Agar but the marriage fell apart five years later. Temple, now divorced with a child, lost her interest in movie-making. The audience too moved on. She became a cautionary tale in many circles, an example of the loose morals and bad ends destined for Hollywood types. Her talent agency, MCA, unceremoniously dropped her and Temple’s meteoric career was over. She wasn’t yet 21.
Later life included several quickly-canceled variety shows but she attained a second act as a public figure and politician, even running for office in the vacant Republican seat in her congressional district. In 1968 President Richard Nixon appointed her as the US representative at the United Nations and she became an ambassador to Ghana from 1974-1976. She later also held the post of US Chief of protocol and ambassador to Czechoslovakia (appointed by President George H.W. Bush).
Shortly after her divorce from Agar Shirley Temple met and married Charles Black, a TV executive. They were married for 55 years, until his death, and had two children together.
From the age of six to ten Shirley Temple was once one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. While the rest of the nation was mired in the Great Depression Shirley Temple sang and danced her way through it in films such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Little Miss Marker, Heidi and The Little Princess.
Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928 in Santa Monica, California, the third and youngest child (and only girl) of George Francis Temple, a bank teller, and Gertrude Krieger, a supremely willful stage mother (Temple dedicated her autobiography to her). Her parents noticed an innate sense of rhythm and extroverted presence as early as eight months in Shirley. She was put in acting classes by the age of three and was starring in a series of cloying shorts in 1932 and ’33, as well as assaying bit parts in larger films.
It was her performance of “Baby Takes a Bow” in 1934’s Stand Up and Cheer, a film that debuted in May, that thrust her into prominence. She was obviously a natural in front of the camera with a wide range of talent. She could sing. She could dance. She could act. Fox signed her on and, by the end of the same year, which also held the hits Little Miss Marker and Bright Eyes (where she famously sang “On the Good Ship Lollipop”) and several other roles, Shirley Temple was a star. A mere nine months after Stand Up and Cheer hit screens, in February of 1935, she received a special “Juvenile Award” at the Oscars “in grateful recognition of her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment during the year 1934.”
For the next few years the public couldn’t get enough of her. Exhibitors named her the top box-office attraction of 1935 (when she sang “Animal Crackers” in Curly Top) - 1938. A non-alcoholic drink was named after her (a mixture of ginger ale and grenadine) and a cottage industry sprang up around her likeness including dolls, coloring books, and dress lines. She tapped alongside Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, in The Littlest Rebel, starred in John Ford’s Wee Willie Winkie and several Allan Dwan films, Heidi and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. (Graham Greene’s review of Winkie, where he accused Temple of being an adult impersonating a child, and where he impugned the motives for older men’s attraction to her, caused such an uproar that Night and Day, the magazine in which the review was published, shortly thereafter was bankrupted and folded.)
Temple was the natural pick to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz but Fox wouldn’t loan its star out so Judy Garland got the role. It was a turning point in both their careers.
As she matured, Hollywood and the audience, now veterans of World War II, and seemingly unable to reconcile the fact that the cherubic star had become a comely young woman, looked elsewhere. Temple was no longer the compliant child but a willful ingénue. After two flops she canceled her contract with Fox and moved over to MGM but fared no better there.
At 17 she wed fellow actor John Agar but the marriage fell apart five years later. Temple, now divorced with a child, lost her interest in movie-making. The audience too moved on. She became a cautionary tale in many circles, an example of the loose morals and bad ends destined for Hollywood types. Her talent agency, MCA, unceremoniously dropped her and Temple’s meteoric career was over. She wasn’t yet 21.
Later life included several quickly-canceled variety shows but she attained a second act as a public figure and politician, even running for office in the vacant Republican seat in her congressional district. In 1968 President Richard Nixon appointed her as the US representative at the United Nations and she became an ambassador to Ghana from 1974-1976. She later also held the post of US Chief of protocol and ambassador to Czechoslovakia (appointed by President George H.W. Bush).
Shortly after her divorce from Agar Shirley Temple met and married Charles Black, a TV executive. They were married for 55 years, until his death, and had two children together.
- 2/11/2014
- by Keith Simanton
- IMDb News
Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 12 Dec 2013 - 05:49
The year of Baggins, Potter and Spider-Man also had a wealth of lesser-known movies. Here’s our pick of 2002's underappreciated films...
At the top of the box office tree, 2002 was dominated by fantasy and special effects. Peter Jackson's The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers made almost a billion dollars all by itself, with Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets taking second place and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man not too far behind.
In many ways, 2002 set the tempo for the Hollywood blockbuster landscape, which has changed relatively little in the decade since. A quick look at 2013‘s top 10, for example, reveals a markedly similar mix of superhero movies, with Iron Man 3 still ruling the roost at the time of writing, followed by effects-heavy action flicks and family-friendly animated features.
As usual in these lists, we're looking...
The year of Baggins, Potter and Spider-Man also had a wealth of lesser-known movies. Here’s our pick of 2002's underappreciated films...
At the top of the box office tree, 2002 was dominated by fantasy and special effects. Peter Jackson's The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers made almost a billion dollars all by itself, with Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets taking second place and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man not too far behind.
In many ways, 2002 set the tempo for the Hollywood blockbuster landscape, which has changed relatively little in the decade since. A quick look at 2013‘s top 10, for example, reveals a markedly similar mix of superhero movies, with Iron Man 3 still ruling the roost at the time of writing, followed by effects-heavy action flicks and family-friendly animated features.
As usual in these lists, we're looking...
- 12/11/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
The history of Tinseltown is littered with allegations of espionage, as the revelations about the successful producer have reminded us. Welcome to the world of 'thespionage'
The history of Hollywood is littered with spies. So it should come as no surprise that the producer Arnon Milchan began his working life as an Israeli secret agent and arms dealer. The billionaire behind Fight Club, Pretty Woman and Heat confirmed rumours of his shady past in an interview broadcast on Israeli television on Monday. At one point, we learned, he ran 30 companies worldwide on behalf of the Israeli government.
He joins a long line of Hollywood power-brokers who have dabbled in the spying game. In the early 1950s, the head of foreign and domestic censorship at Paramount was a CIA employee named Luigi Luraschi. Among Luraschi's many covert triumphs was the insertion of "well-dressed" respectable "negroes" into Us movies, to undermine Soviet...
The history of Hollywood is littered with spies. So it should come as no surprise that the producer Arnon Milchan began his working life as an Israeli secret agent and arms dealer. The billionaire behind Fight Club, Pretty Woman and Heat confirmed rumours of his shady past in an interview broadcast on Israeli television on Monday. At one point, we learned, he ran 30 companies worldwide on behalf of the Israeli government.
He joins a long line of Hollywood power-brokers who have dabbled in the spying game. In the early 1950s, the head of foreign and domestic censorship at Paramount was a CIA employee named Luigi Luraschi. Among Luraschi's many covert triumphs was the insertion of "well-dressed" respectable "negroes" into Us movies, to undermine Soviet...
- 11/28/2013
- by Tom Meltzer
- The Guardian - Film News
Books and films have been joined at the hip ever since the earliest days of cinema, and adaptations of novels have regularly provided audiences with the classier end of the film spectrum. Here, the Guardian and Observer's critics pick the 10 best
• Top 10 family movies
• Top 10 war movies
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• Top 10 documentaries
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. Planet of the Apes
Although the source novel, La Planète des Singes, was written by Frenchman Pierre Boule and originally reached its futureshock climax in Paris, this enduring sci-fi fantasy is profoundly American, putting Charlton Heston's steel-jawed patriotism to incredible use. It also holds up surprisingly well as a jarring allegory for the population's fears over escalating cold war tensions.
Beginning with a spaceship crash-landing on an unknown planet after years of cryogenic sleep, Franklin J Schaffner's film soon gets into gear as Heston's upstanding...
• Top 10 family movies
• Top 10 war movies
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• Top 10 documentaries
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. Planet of the Apes
Although the source novel, La Planète des Singes, was written by Frenchman Pierre Boule and originally reached its futureshock climax in Paris, this enduring sci-fi fantasy is profoundly American, putting Charlton Heston's steel-jawed patriotism to incredible use. It also holds up surprisingly well as a jarring allegory for the population's fears over escalating cold war tensions.
Beginning with a spaceship crash-landing on an unknown planet after years of cryogenic sleep, Franklin J Schaffner's film soon gets into gear as Heston's upstanding...
- 11/15/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
(1945-53, StudioCanal, PG)
A public school boy from the professional middle-class, the ruggedly handsome Trevor Howard (1913-88) was the first new British star to emerge after the second world war, usually playing middle-class professionals – doctors, lawyers, military men, colonial officials. He was, however, Oscar-nominated as Paul Morel's hard-drinking, working-class father in Sons and Lovers (1960).
His movie career lasted more than 40 years, but his most memorable star parts came early on. Five of these are in this excellent box set, starting with his decent doctor caught up in a chaste but passionate affair with housewife Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter (1945), a classic example of British understatement, and the first of his three films with David Lean. This is followed by his cynical intelligence officer pursuing black marketeer Harry Lime through the sewers of postwar Vienna in the Carol Reed-Graham Greene masterpiece The Third Man (1949).
In the third film,...
A public school boy from the professional middle-class, the ruggedly handsome Trevor Howard (1913-88) was the first new British star to emerge after the second world war, usually playing middle-class professionals – doctors, lawyers, military men, colonial officials. He was, however, Oscar-nominated as Paul Morel's hard-drinking, working-class father in Sons and Lovers (1960).
His movie career lasted more than 40 years, but his most memorable star parts came early on. Five of these are in this excellent box set, starting with his decent doctor caught up in a chaste but passionate affair with housewife Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter (1945), a classic example of British understatement, and the first of his three films with David Lean. This is followed by his cynical intelligence officer pursuing black marketeer Harry Lime through the sewers of postwar Vienna in the Carol Reed-Graham Greene masterpiece The Third Man (1949).
In the third film,...
- 10/5/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
All you ever wanted to know about Bond – his earliest memory, his most treasured possession, his most unappealing habit. Don't miss William Boyd's interview with 007
James Bond was born in 1924. His father was Andrew Bond, a Scottish engineer who worked for the Vickers armament firm, and his mother, Monique, was Swiss, née Delacroix. Bond was initially educated abroad and became fluent in German and French. His parents, however, died in a tragic climbing accident when Bond was 11 years old. He was sent to Eton, and spent only two terms there before being expelled. The rest of his secondary education took place in Scotland, at Fettes College, Edinburgh, his father's old school. Bond left school at the age of 17 in 1941, and, lying about his age, joined a branch of what would become the Ministry of Defence. He ended the war with the rank of commander in the Special Branch of...
James Bond was born in 1924. His father was Andrew Bond, a Scottish engineer who worked for the Vickers armament firm, and his mother, Monique, was Swiss, née Delacroix. Bond was initially educated abroad and became fluent in German and French. His parents, however, died in a tragic climbing accident when Bond was 11 years old. He was sent to Eton, and spent only two terms there before being expelled. The rest of his secondary education took place in Scotland, at Fettes College, Edinburgh, his father's old school. Bond left school at the age of 17 in 1941, and, lying about his age, joined a branch of what would become the Ministry of Defence. He ended the war with the rank of commander in the Special Branch of...
- 9/28/2013
- by William Boyd
- The Guardian - Film News
Feature Aliya Whiteley 26 Sep 2013 - 07:13
An acting great British of the post-war era, Trevor Howard's the subject of a new movie box set. Aliya looks at its five classic films...
It's difficult to describe Trevor Howard. I could start by saying he was a great leading man of British post-war cinema, but that leaves out his supporting turns in films like The Third Man, and his character performances, such as Captain Bligh in Mutiny On The Bounty (1962), or Sir Henry At Rawlinson End (1980). He could be called an upper-class gentleman, but in Sons And Lovers (1960) he played a Nottinghamshire miner perfectly.
I could talk about how he wasn't traditionally handsome, but the look in his eyes when he falls passionately for Celia Johnson (Brief Encounter) contains a male beauty that continues to define cinematic love today. Or maybe I could mention how perfectly he inhabited the role of...
An acting great British of the post-war era, Trevor Howard's the subject of a new movie box set. Aliya looks at its five classic films...
It's difficult to describe Trevor Howard. I could start by saying he was a great leading man of British post-war cinema, but that leaves out his supporting turns in films like The Third Man, and his character performances, such as Captain Bligh in Mutiny On The Bounty (1962), or Sir Henry At Rawlinson End (1980). He could be called an upper-class gentleman, but in Sons And Lovers (1960) he played a Nottinghamshire miner perfectly.
I could talk about how he wasn't traditionally handsome, but the look in his eyes when he falls passionately for Celia Johnson (Brief Encounter) contains a male beauty that continues to define cinematic love today. Or maybe I could mention how perfectly he inhabited the role of...
- 9/25/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
To mark the release of the Trevor Howard Box Set on 23rd September. We’ve been given three copies to give away. The box set contains numerous classic movies including Brief Encounter, The Third Man (Special Edition), Odette, Outcast of the Islands and Heart of the Matter.
The inimitable, gravelly voiced Trevor Howard was one of Britain’s finest character actors, and an important figure in post-war British cinema. With a career spanning over 40 years, on both stage and screen, Howard starred in some of the finest films in cinematic history. A celebrated actor within the industry he was Oscar, Bafta, Golden Globe and Emmy nominated many times for his work, winning twice.
This collection brings together some of his finest work, with five of the very best films from his illustrious career. The much loved classic Brief Encounter, directed by Noël Coward, was the film that launched his career,...
The inimitable, gravelly voiced Trevor Howard was one of Britain’s finest character actors, and an important figure in post-war British cinema. With a career spanning over 40 years, on both stage and screen, Howard starred in some of the finest films in cinematic history. A celebrated actor within the industry he was Oscar, Bafta, Golden Globe and Emmy nominated many times for his work, winning twice.
This collection brings together some of his finest work, with five of the very best films from his illustrious career. The much loved classic Brief Encounter, directed by Noël Coward, was the film that launched his career,...
- 9/13/2013
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
After 50 years as the Observer's film critic, Philip French is retiring. Here he talks about his life and career and answers questions from readers and film-makers including Mike Leigh and Ken Loach
It says a lot about Philip French that after 50 years as the Observer's film critic – five decades in which he has watched more than 2,500 movies, written six books on the subject and received an OBE for his services to film – he is nervous enough about this interview to have researched his answers in advance.
When I arrive at his house in Tufnell Park, north London, I find French poring over a thick reference book at the kitchen table. A cup of coffee is left to cool as he thumbs through the relevant footnotes, anxious to get the facts absolutely right. He will turn 80 in a couple of weeks and says that he occasionally struggles to remember names of directors or actors.
It says a lot about Philip French that after 50 years as the Observer's film critic – five decades in which he has watched more than 2,500 movies, written six books on the subject and received an OBE for his services to film – he is nervous enough about this interview to have researched his answers in advance.
When I arrive at his house in Tufnell Park, north London, I find French poring over a thick reference book at the kitchen table. A cup of coffee is left to cool as he thumbs through the relevant footnotes, anxious to get the facts absolutely right. He will turn 80 in a couple of weeks and says that he occasionally struggles to remember names of directors or actors.
- 8/24/2013
- by Elizabeth Day
- The Guardian - Film News
Director's sharp criticism of Hollywood stars emerges following publication of previously unpublished recordings
He is one of cinema's giants, but Orson Welles looked down on many of his fellow actors and directors, viciously denigrating some of the biggest names of his day, previously unpublished private conversations reveal.
Laurence Olivier was "stupid", Spencer Tracy "hateful" and Charlie Chaplin "arrogant", and he could not even bear to look at Bette Davis. James Stewart was a "bad actor", Joan Fontaine had "two expressions, and that's it", and Norma Shearer was "one of the most minimally talented ladies to appear on the silver screen".
His criticisms have emerged from long-lost tapes in which he chatted unguardedly to a friend, never expecting them to be made public. He died suddenly in 1985 before he could edit them into a planned autobiography, and the tapes have been in the friend's garage until now.
As an actor, director,...
He is one of cinema's giants, but Orson Welles looked down on many of his fellow actors and directors, viciously denigrating some of the biggest names of his day, previously unpublished private conversations reveal.
Laurence Olivier was "stupid", Spencer Tracy "hateful" and Charlie Chaplin "arrogant", and he could not even bear to look at Bette Davis. James Stewart was a "bad actor", Joan Fontaine had "two expressions, and that's it", and Norma Shearer was "one of the most minimally talented ladies to appear on the silver screen".
His criticisms have emerged from long-lost tapes in which he chatted unguardedly to a friend, never expecting them to be made public. He died suddenly in 1985 before he could edit them into a planned autobiography, and the tapes have been in the friend's garage until now.
As an actor, director,...
- 6/29/2013
- by Dalya Alberge
- The Guardian - Film News
Dangerous Edge: A Life of Graham Greene is a comprehensive look at the life and work of British author Graham Greene. While he is best known for his novels The Third Man, The Quiet American, and The End of the Affair, he also worked in British counter-intelligence for a time and spoke out against the United States government's misguided attempts at nation-building. As a writer and a public figure, he has a complicated but important legacy as a man who fought for the underdog and fought to survive his severe depression as thoughts of suicide plagued him his entire life. PBS has produced an excellent documentary that covers all these aspects of his life while still staying focused and informative.
Read more...
Read more...
- 6/20/2013
- by Rachel Kolb
- JustPressPlay.net
Feature Aliya Whiteley 20 Jun 2013 - 10:11
The films of post-war Britain are fascinating; Aliya picks 10 of the best British thrillers from the 1940s
The 1940s was a heck of a decade for the British. We started it at war with Nazi Germany, with the threat of Ira collaboration with the enemy looming large. By the end of it we had seen Independence achieved by India, lived through strikes and rationing, and held the fourteenth Olympic Games in London at a time of great austerity. The welfare state was under formation, and in the space of ten years we had become a very different country.
The British film industry reflected those changes, particularly in the thrillers that were made. The lines between good and evil, safety and danger, were the stuff of entertainment that tapped into the concerns of the public. It was a period of vivid, ambitious, and surprising films.
The films of post-war Britain are fascinating; Aliya picks 10 of the best British thrillers from the 1940s
The 1940s was a heck of a decade for the British. We started it at war with Nazi Germany, with the threat of Ira collaboration with the enemy looming large. By the end of it we had seen Independence achieved by India, lived through strikes and rationing, and held the fourteenth Olympic Games in London at a time of great austerity. The welfare state was under formation, and in the space of ten years we had become a very different country.
The British film industry reflected those changes, particularly in the thrillers that were made. The lines between good and evil, safety and danger, were the stuff of entertainment that tapped into the concerns of the public. It was a period of vivid, ambitious, and surprising films.
- 6/18/2013
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
For the fans of this wonderful man, which I proudly count myself as one; 26 May 2013 marks the centenary of horror legend Peter Cushing. One of the most versatile actors to grace the big screen, Cushing never gave a single bad performance throughout his 50-year career. A dedicated perfectionist, who believed in giving nothing less than his best effort, Cushing’s 100% commitment always lifted a bad film. The movie may fail him but he would never fail his public.
Cushing began his acting career in repertory theatre and with his legendary one-way ticket to Hollywood, made his film debut in 1939. After a couple of productive years in the States, he worked his way back to England following the outbreak of World War 2. Marrying actress Helen Beck, he worked on stage but struggled to find good roles until he became a member of the RSC under Laurence Oliver. As British TV’s first big star,...
Cushing began his acting career in repertory theatre and with his legendary one-way ticket to Hollywood, made his film debut in 1939. After a couple of productive years in the States, he worked his way back to England following the outbreak of World War 2. Marrying actress Helen Beck, he worked on stage but struggled to find good roles until he became a member of the RSC under Laurence Oliver. As British TV’s first big star,...
- 5/28/2013
- Shadowlocked
Ministry of Fear is a film that wouldn't work if not for insanity. The arc of the drama would be too haphazard, the explanations too unsatisfying, and the actions of its villains (to say nothing of its hero) too wildly irrational. But this is Europe in 1944, and irrationality is the order of the day. It's in the drone of planes overhead, the casual talk of blackout time, and the suspicious glances on the street. Because the world waiting for Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) when he gets out of the mental hospital has gone just as mad as him.
A wartime thriller from Fritz Lang (let's call it a noir), Ministry of Fear is generally regarded as one of the German director's more obscure American films, a status that will hopefully shift now that it has been released, and thus quasi-canonized, by the Criterion Collection. On the face of it, this...
A wartime thriller from Fritz Lang (let's call it a noir), Ministry of Fear is generally regarded as one of the German director's more obscure American films, a status that will hopefully shift now that it has been released, and thus quasi-canonized, by the Criterion Collection. On the face of it, this...
- 5/7/2013
- by Duncan Gray
- MUBI
His first column appeared in April 1963 and he would become the doyen of UK film critics. Having announced he will soon file his last column, he talks about meeting Chaplin, and Hollywood's greatest canine actors
Philip French's international reputation as a film critic is unrivalled. As recently as February, after a career with the Observer that began in 1963, an American film journal rated him as Britain's "greatest living movie analyst". But at the end of August he is to file his last column as this newspaper's film critic. After an illustrious half century, French, who was honoured with an OBE in January, has decided to step down following his 80th birthday the same month.
In his first column for the Observer, he bemoaned the lack of British films offering a believable picture of criminathe underworld. He noted "the tired vignettes of sub-Runyon characters" in The Small World of Sammy Lee starring Anthony Newley.
Philip French's international reputation as a film critic is unrivalled. As recently as February, after a career with the Observer that began in 1963, an American film journal rated him as Britain's "greatest living movie analyst". But at the end of August he is to file his last column as this newspaper's film critic. After an illustrious half century, French, who was honoured with an OBE in January, has decided to step down following his 80th birthday the same month.
In his first column for the Observer, he bemoaned the lack of British films offering a believable picture of criminathe underworld. He noted "the tired vignettes of sub-Runyon characters" in The Small World of Sammy Lee starring Anthony Newley.
- 5/4/2013
- by Vanessa Thorpe
- The Guardian - Film News
LPs are arguably the music aficionado's format of choice – but what are the best movie moments featuring those hypnotic black discs?
This week's Clip joint is by James Arden, a writer and filmmaker who divides his time between London and York. Visit his website or follow him on twitter @jnarden. If you've got an idea for a future Clip joint, drop an email to adam.boult@guardian.co.uk.
The image of the needle on the spinning record, and the accompanying crackling sound, offers a unique visual and auditory opportunity for filmmakers to explore. It can build tension, create dreamy atmospheres, conjure memories or just look cool. Let's also not forget those unbeatable giant record sleeves. This week on Clip joint, we're looking for your best clips about vinyl.
Brighton Rock
In John Boulting's 1947 adaptation of Graham Greene's 1938 novel, Richard Attenborough stars as Pinkie, a psychopathic young gangster in Brighton.
This week's Clip joint is by James Arden, a writer and filmmaker who divides his time between London and York. Visit his website or follow him on twitter @jnarden. If you've got an idea for a future Clip joint, drop an email to adam.boult@guardian.co.uk.
The image of the needle on the spinning record, and the accompanying crackling sound, offers a unique visual and auditory opportunity for filmmakers to explore. It can build tension, create dreamy atmospheres, conjure memories or just look cool. Let's also not forget those unbeatable giant record sleeves. This week on Clip joint, we're looking for your best clips about vinyl.
Brighton Rock
In John Boulting's 1947 adaptation of Graham Greene's 1938 novel, Richard Attenborough stars as Pinkie, a psychopathic young gangster in Brighton.
- 5/2/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Best known for playing bubbly, outgoing, Chihuahua-loving Elle Woods in Legally Blonde, actress and producer Reese Witherspoon is one of America's most successful blondes. She has won a collection of gongs, including an Oscar and BAFTA in 2005 for her performance as June Carter Cash in Walk The Line, and stars in new coming-of-age film Mud.
More recently however, the actress has come under the spotlight for her 'il-Legal' behaviour. Witherspoon was arrested earlier this month for apparent disorderly conduct when her husband was stopped by Us officials on suspicion of drink-driving.
Standing up to officers, Witherspoon allegedly shouted that old Hollywood chestnut: "Do you know my name?", a trademark phrase of Tinseltown for the likes of fellow celebs Paris Hilton and, just last week, Tara Reid.
In an attempt to improve her tarnished reputation, here are ten fun facts about the star:
1. Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon was born in New Orleans,...
More recently however, the actress has come under the spotlight for her 'il-Legal' behaviour. Witherspoon was arrested earlier this month for apparent disorderly conduct when her husband was stopped by Us officials on suspicion of drink-driving.
Standing up to officers, Witherspoon allegedly shouted that old Hollywood chestnut: "Do you know my name?", a trademark phrase of Tinseltown for the likes of fellow celebs Paris Hilton and, just last week, Tara Reid.
In an attempt to improve her tarnished reputation, here are ten fun facts about the star:
1. Laura Jean Reese Witherspoon was born in New Orleans,...
- 4/24/2013
- Digital Spy
Chicago – Slight on special features and not as instantly recognizable as some recent inductions into the Criterion Collection like “On the Waterfront” or “Badlands,” Fritz Lang’s “Ministry of Fear” could easily slip under the radar even for people who know and love the thriller. Lang is one of the most interesting filmmakers of his era, as he found ways to inject his seemingly traditional work with much-more-complex themes. Working in Hollywood during World War II, Lang made thrillers that were more than just thrillers. “Ministry of Fear” is one of his best.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
While it’s an entertaining thriller with top-notch production values and a surprisingly great performance from Ray Milland, part of the problem with the legacy of “Ministry of Fear” is the films with which it is easy to compare. Carol Reed’s “The Third Man” would touch on some of the same themes and is a vastly superior film,...
Rating: 3.5/5.0
While it’s an entertaining thriller with top-notch production values and a surprisingly great performance from Ray Milland, part of the problem with the legacy of “Ministry of Fear” is the films with which it is easy to compare. Carol Reed’s “The Third Man” would touch on some of the same themes and is a vastly superior film,...
- 3/25/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
And Then There Was… Badlands
By Raymond Benson
Terrence Malick fans will rejoice for the newly restored (and director approved, I might add—so apparently he’s not as reclusive as he’s been made out to be), marvelous release of the auteur’s first, and very low-budget, feature film. It was originally screened at festivals in 1973, and released to the public in early ’74. No punches pulled here—Badlands is a masterpiece, and its arrival immediately garnered a fan following for the enigmatic director who has made only five films in so many decades. But as producer Edward Pressman says in the exclusive video interview that The Criterion Collection included as one of several good extras, Badlands was not a success on its first release. Reviews were mixed—as would be the case for any Malick film—and the public didn’t go see it. Pressman also had to fight...
By Raymond Benson
Terrence Malick fans will rejoice for the newly restored (and director approved, I might add—so apparently he’s not as reclusive as he’s been made out to be), marvelous release of the auteur’s first, and very low-budget, feature film. It was originally screened at festivals in 1973, and released to the public in early ’74. No punches pulled here—Badlands is a masterpiece, and its arrival immediately garnered a fan following for the enigmatic director who has made only five films in so many decades. But as producer Edward Pressman says in the exclusive video interview that The Criterion Collection included as one of several good extras, Badlands was not a success on its first release. Reviews were mixed—as would be the case for any Malick film—and the public didn’t go see it. Pressman also had to fight...
- 3/21/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Fritz Lang aficionados can rejoice this month with Criterion’s release of his 1944 title, Ministry of Fear, the first time it sees a DVD transfer. Long regarded as a minor entry in Lang’s prestigious filmography, the last of a successive trio of anti-Nazi themed films from the German émigré is finally available for rediscovery. Though it may never escape its current status in the pantheon of its director’s legacy, it certainly stands out as an oddly constructed creature, a fussy war time noir whose sinister narrative is occluded by a stagnant paranoia that stirs the proceedings into a twisty nightmare.
Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) has just been released from Embridge Asylum in England while World War II rages on. He’s been put away for two years and insistently plans on traveling directly to London, even though it’s being bombed continuously. On the way there, he innocently stops at a village fair,...
Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) has just been released from Embridge Asylum in England while World War II rages on. He’s been put away for two years and insistently plans on traveling directly to London, even though it’s being bombed continuously. On the way there, he innocently stops at a village fair,...
- 3/19/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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