Exclusive: Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired Northern American rights for Joachim A. Lang’s historical drama Goebbels and The Führer (aka Führer and Seducer) for a fall 2024 theatrical and digital release.
Beta Cinema, which launched sales on the feature at the EFM and brokered the North America deal, has also posted new deals for France (Condor Entertainment), Hungary (Ads), Bulgaria (Beta Film) and Greece (Tfg).
As previously announced, the film has also sold to Spain (A Contracorriente), Scandinavia (Mis Label), Japan (At Entertainment) and Australia & New Zealand (Moving Story Entertainment). Wild Bunch will release the film in German-speaking territories on July 11.
The drama follows the rise and fall of Joseph Goebbels in the final seven years as Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda.
While Hitler is at the height of his power, Goebbels is the creator of the pictures of the flag-waving crowds and antisemitic films “Jud Süß” and “Der ewige Jude...
Beta Cinema, which launched sales on the feature at the EFM and brokered the North America deal, has also posted new deals for France (Condor Entertainment), Hungary (Ads), Bulgaria (Beta Film) and Greece (Tfg).
As previously announced, the film has also sold to Spain (A Contracorriente), Scandinavia (Mis Label), Japan (At Entertainment) and Australia & New Zealand (Moving Story Entertainment). Wild Bunch will release the film in German-speaking territories on July 11.
The drama follows the rise and fall of Joseph Goebbels in the final seven years as Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda.
While Hitler is at the height of his power, Goebbels is the creator of the pictures of the flag-waving crowds and antisemitic films “Jud Süß” and “Der ewige Jude...
- 5/15/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
The most notorious unmade Stanley Kubrick project is probably his "Napoleon," a massive biopic that the director infamously researched for years. In 2012, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art hosted a Kubrick exhibit, and guests were permitted to see Kubrick's filing cabinet where he stored thousands of hand-written notecards, each one detailing a single day in Napoleon Bonaparte's life. Kubrick worked on "Napoleon" in the 1970s, and claimed he wanted Jack Nicholson to play the part. Kubrick wrote a screenplay, secured filming locations in Romania, and was all ready to go. The 1970 film "Waterloo" bombed, however, and the then-recent film version of "War and Peace" threatened to flood the market with too much Napoleon. A lot of Kubrick's "Napoleon" research went into the production of 1975's "Barry Lyndon."
Kubrick's unrealized projects are plentiful. Audiences may also know all about Kubrick's plans to make "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" near the end of his life,...
Kubrick's unrealized projects are plentiful. Audiences may also know all about Kubrick's plans to make "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" near the end of his life,...
- 5/14/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Beta Cinema has revealed further sales on its Berlinale and Europe Film Market lineup, including “500 Miles,” “Führer and Seducer,” “Hammarskjöld,” “The Light” and “From Hilde, With Love.”
After a first deal on the upcoming Bill Nighy-roadmovie “500 Miles” with True Brit Ent. for U.K. was announced during the market, Beta Cinema has confirmed further territories have picked up the dramedy: Australia and New Zealand (Kismet), Middle East (Front Row), Italy (Maestro Distribution), Benelux (September Film), Greece (Feelgood) and former Yugoslavia (Discovery). Aardwolf Films picked up worldwide airline rights. BAFTA-winner Morgan Matthews will direct from a script by Malcolm Campbell, based on the novel “Charlie and Me” by Mark Lowery later in 2024. Roman Griffin Davis will star next to Nighy.
The market premiere for “Führer and Seducer” led to new deals with Condor Entertainment for France, Beta Film for Bulgaria and Tfg for Greece. Deals with Spain (A...
After a first deal on the upcoming Bill Nighy-roadmovie “500 Miles” with True Brit Ent. for U.K. was announced during the market, Beta Cinema has confirmed further territories have picked up the dramedy: Australia and New Zealand (Kismet), Middle East (Front Row), Italy (Maestro Distribution), Benelux (September Film), Greece (Feelgood) and former Yugoslavia (Discovery). Aardwolf Films picked up worldwide airline rights. BAFTA-winner Morgan Matthews will direct from a script by Malcolm Campbell, based on the novel “Charlie and Me” by Mark Lowery later in 2024. Roman Griffin Davis will star next to Nighy.
The market premiere for “Führer and Seducer” led to new deals with Condor Entertainment for France, Beta Film for Bulgaria and Tfg for Greece. Deals with Spain (A...
- 3/4/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Picturehouse Entertiainment has picked up From Hilde, With Love, the new drama from German director Andreas Dresen (Stopped on Track) for the U.K. and Ireland, adding to a swath of European deals for the title, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last month.
Liv Lisa Fries (Babylon Berlin) stars in the 1940s-set drama as Hilde Coppi, a member of a left-wing anti-Nazi resistance cell. Beta, which is handling international sales for the movie, previously announced deals for From Hilde, With Love with Haut et Court in France, Teodora in Italy, Angel Film across Scandinavia, September Film for Benelux and Outsider for Portugal, among other deals. Palace Film will release From Hilde, With Love in Australia and New Zealand. Pandora Film Verleih is handling the German release and will bow the movie in German-speaking territories this October.
Beta also announced a series of deals for its upcoming Bill Nighy road movie 500 Miles,...
Liv Lisa Fries (Babylon Berlin) stars in the 1940s-set drama as Hilde Coppi, a member of a left-wing anti-Nazi resistance cell. Beta, which is handling international sales for the movie, previously announced deals for From Hilde, With Love with Haut et Court in France, Teodora in Italy, Angel Film across Scandinavia, September Film for Benelux and Outsider for Portugal, among other deals. Palace Film will release From Hilde, With Love in Australia and New Zealand. Pandora Film Verleih is handling the German release and will bow the movie in German-speaking territories this October.
Beta also announced a series of deals for its upcoming Bill Nighy road movie 500 Miles,...
- 3/4/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Morgan Matthews‘ upcoming road movie 500 Miles, starring Academy Award nominee Bill Nighy and buzzy teen actor Roman Griffin Davis, has sold to multiple territories for Beta Cinema, following its launch at the Berlinale’s European Film Market (EFM) last month.
The film has been acquired for Australia & New Zealand (Kismet), Middle East (Front Row), Italy (Maestro Distribution), Benelux (September Film), Greece (Feelgood), former Yugoslavia (Discovery) and Airlines (Aardwolf Films). As previously announced it was acquired by True Brit Entertainment for the U.K.
Beta Cinema has also achieved a handful of pre-sales for Tom Tykwer’s return to cinema The Light, which also debuted at the market, to Benelux (September Film), Greece (Tfg) and former Yugoslavia (Discovery).
As previously announced, the drama about a contemporary family put to an unexpectedly wild emotional test by their Syrian housekeeper, will be released by X Verleih in Germany and Arp Sélection in France.
The film has been acquired for Australia & New Zealand (Kismet), Middle East (Front Row), Italy (Maestro Distribution), Benelux (September Film), Greece (Feelgood), former Yugoslavia (Discovery) and Airlines (Aardwolf Films). As previously announced it was acquired by True Brit Entertainment for the U.K.
Beta Cinema has also achieved a handful of pre-sales for Tom Tykwer’s return to cinema The Light, which also debuted at the market, to Benelux (September Film), Greece (Tfg) and former Yugoslavia (Discovery).
As previously announced, the drama about a contemporary family put to an unexpectedly wild emotional test by their Syrian housekeeper, will be released by X Verleih in Germany and Arp Sélection in France.
- 3/4/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
“You get me?” barks Career Drill Sergeant Zim (Clancy Brown). The young, beautiful, and vapid recruits giving him their full attention answer in kind: “Sir yes sir!” Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien) and his fellow roughnecks might get Zim, but most people do not. Since its first theatrical run through today, viewers misread, misunderstand, and, frankly, misattribute Starship Troopers time and again, failing to see the cutting satire at work.
The most recent example comes from author Isaac Young, who took to Twitter to critique the film’s approach to satire. Young argued that director Paul Verhoeven failed to make fun of the Terran Federation because the attractive heroes, clean cities, and technologically advanced schools look nicer than the ugly bugs they fight.
Why the first Starship Troopers movie failed as a parody, a thread:
Watching the movie, it was clear the director was aiming for a campy, over-the-top depiction of the Terran Federation.
The most recent example comes from author Isaac Young, who took to Twitter to critique the film’s approach to satire. Young argued that director Paul Verhoeven failed to make fun of the Terran Federation because the attractive heroes, clean cities, and technologically advanced schools look nicer than the ugly bugs they fight.
Why the first Starship Troopers movie failed as a parody, a thread:
Watching the movie, it was clear the director was aiming for a campy, over-the-top depiction of the Terran Federation.
- 2/28/2024
- by Joe George
- Den of Geek
Germany’s Beta Cinema has racked up multiple territory deals for its Joseph Goebbels biopic Führer and Seducer ahead of the film’s premiere at the European Film Market in Berlin later this week. Beta signed all-rights territorial deals with Spain (A Contracorriente), Portugal (Films4You), Scandinavia (Mis Label), Benelux (Dutch Film Works), Czech Republic (Donart Film), former Yugoslavia (Discovery) Japan (At Entertainment) and Australia & New Zealand (Moving Story Entertainment) for the feature. Wild Bunch will release the film in the German-speaking territories.
Directed by filmmaker/writer/historian Joachim A. Lang, who helmed 2018’s Mack The Knife — Brecht’s Threepenny Film with Lars Eidinger, Führer and Seducer stars Robert Stadlober as Goebbels, Austrian actor Fritz Karl (Sisi) as Adolf Hitler and Franziska Weisz (The Swarm) as Goebbels’ wife Magda. Stadlober also stars in Josef Hader’s Panorama title Andrea Gets A Divorce, which will have its world premiere at the Berlinale this year.
Directed by filmmaker/writer/historian Joachim A. Lang, who helmed 2018’s Mack The Knife — Brecht’s Threepenny Film with Lars Eidinger, Führer and Seducer stars Robert Stadlober as Goebbels, Austrian actor Fritz Karl (Sisi) as Adolf Hitler and Franziska Weisz (The Swarm) as Goebbels’ wife Magda. Stadlober also stars in Josef Hader’s Panorama title Andrea Gets A Divorce, which will have its world premiere at the Berlinale this year.
- 2/12/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Beta Cinema has unveiled a raft of key territory pre-sales for Joachim A. Lang’s Joseph Goebbels biopic Führer and Seducer ahead of its market premiere at the EFM this week.
The company has sealed deals to Spain (A Contracorriente), Portugal (Films4You), Scandinavia (Mis Label), Benelux (Dutch Film Works), Czech Republic (Donart Film), former Yugoslavia (Discovery) Japan (At Entertainment) and Australia & New Zealand (Moving Story Entertainment).
Wild Bunch will release the film in German-speaking territories.
Führer and Seducer follows Goebbels in his last seven years at Adolf Hitler’s side, as his Minister of Propaganda.
While Hitler is at the height of his power, Goebbels is the creator of the pictures of the flag-waving crowds and anti-Semitic films “Jud Süß” and “Der ewige Jude”, priming the German people for the mass murder of the Jews.
The drama follows Goebbels as he then attempts to whip up continued support for...
The company has sealed deals to Spain (A Contracorriente), Portugal (Films4You), Scandinavia (Mis Label), Benelux (Dutch Film Works), Czech Republic (Donart Film), former Yugoslavia (Discovery) Japan (At Entertainment) and Australia & New Zealand (Moving Story Entertainment).
Wild Bunch will release the film in German-speaking territories.
Führer and Seducer follows Goebbels in his last seven years at Adolf Hitler’s side, as his Minister of Propaganda.
While Hitler is at the height of his power, Goebbels is the creator of the pictures of the flag-waving crowds and anti-Semitic films “Jud Süß” and “Der ewige Jude”, priming the German people for the mass murder of the Jews.
The drama follows Goebbels as he then attempts to whip up continued support for...
- 2/12/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Early in the documentary Pictures of Ghosts, writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho cuts to a television interview with his late mother, Joselice Jucá, a historian and a key figure in the film. The interviewer asks why she’s chosen an oral history as the medium for a project on Brazilian abolitionist leader Joaquim Nabuco. As she explains her process, Mendonça Filho’s voice enters to note that “it may seem like I’m discussing methodology, but I’m talking about love.” The filmmaker seems to have taken his mother’s emotional investment in her subject matter to heart, as the methodology in Pictures of Ghosts—a historical document of his hometown of Recife, with a particular focus on its movie theaters—is ultimately in service of the filmmaker’s own personal relationship to the people, places, and images that he captures.
It’s hardly the first time that Mendonça Filho’s...
It’s hardly the first time that Mendonça Filho’s...
- 10/8/2023
- by Brad Hanford
- Slant Magazine
A federal judge dismissed Donald Trump’s $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN, litigation centered on references made by on-air figures to “the Big Lie,” or the former president’s unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.
Trump had argued in his lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, that the references to the phrase were defamatory as they created a “false and incendiary association” between him and Adolf Hitler.
U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal wrote that CNN’s references to the term “the Big Lie” were matters of opinion, not fact.
The judge wrote, “Trump complains that CNN described his election challenges as ‘the Big Lie.’ Trump argues that ‘the Big Lie’ is a phrase attributed to Joseph Goebbels and that CNN’s use of the phrase wrongly links Trump with the Hitler regime in the public eye. This is a stacking of inferences that cannot support a finding of falsehood.
Trump had argued in his lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, that the references to the phrase were defamatory as they created a “false and incendiary association” between him and Adolf Hitler.
U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal wrote that CNN’s references to the term “the Big Lie” were matters of opinion, not fact.
The judge wrote, “Trump complains that CNN described his election challenges as ‘the Big Lie.’ Trump argues that ‘the Big Lie’ is a phrase attributed to Joseph Goebbels and that CNN’s use of the phrase wrongly links Trump with the Hitler regime in the public eye. This is a stacking of inferences that cannot support a finding of falsehood.
- 7/29/2023
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
Ach der lieber! German Expressionism fans everywhere are in sorrow as Sam Esmail’s seven-years-in-the-making passion project, a series adaptation of Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” has been shelved, Deadline confirms.
The series, from Universal Cable Productions (UCP), had been prepping for production in Australia and was expected to be the biggest TV series ever shot there. It was going to stream on Apple TV+, which had given it a full series order last year. “Push costs and uncertainty related to the ongoing strike led to this difficult decision,” a UCP told Deadline.
“Metropolis” is just the latest casualty of the ongoing WGA strike: the third seasons of “P-Valley” and “Yellowjackets” have been indefinitely delayed, as has the Disney+ show “Daredevil: Born Again” and Season 2 of “Severance.”
Esmail has had a flurry of new shows in recent years: Just since 2020 there’s been USA’s “Briarpatch,” Starz’s “Gaslit,” and Peacock’s “Angelyne” and “The Resort.
The series, from Universal Cable Productions (UCP), had been prepping for production in Australia and was expected to be the biggest TV series ever shot there. It was going to stream on Apple TV+, which had given it a full series order last year. “Push costs and uncertainty related to the ongoing strike led to this difficult decision,” a UCP told Deadline.
“Metropolis” is just the latest casualty of the ongoing WGA strike: the third seasons of “P-Valley” and “Yellowjackets” have been indefinitely delayed, as has the Disney+ show “Daredevil: Born Again” and Season 2 of “Severance.”
Esmail has had a flurry of new shows in recent years: Just since 2020 there’s been USA’s “Briarpatch,” Starz’s “Gaslit,” and Peacock’s “Angelyne” and “The Resort.
- 6/19/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
German cinema is in Cannes with new works by Wim Wenders and films that explore Nazi propaganda, gender identity, economic crisis, romance, betrayal and fast cars.
In addition to domestic films, a dozen German co-productions are screening in this year’s Cannes Film Festival lineup, including major works from the likes of Wes Anderson, Aki Kaurismäki and Jessica Hausner.
Wenders is in Cannes with “Perfect Days,” which is vying for the Palme d’Or, and the documentary “Anselm” in Special Screenings.
“Perfect Days” tells the story of a Tokyo janitor (Kôji Yakusho) who seems very content with his simple life, structured routines and passion for music, books and photography. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past. The Japanese-German co-production is sold by the Match Factory.
“Anselm” explores the work of artist Anselm Kiefer, shedding light on his life, inspirations and creative process. Shot in 3D,...
In addition to domestic films, a dozen German co-productions are screening in this year’s Cannes Film Festival lineup, including major works from the likes of Wes Anderson, Aki Kaurismäki and Jessica Hausner.
Wenders is in Cannes with “Perfect Days,” which is vying for the Palme d’Or, and the documentary “Anselm” in Special Screenings.
“Perfect Days” tells the story of a Tokyo janitor (Kôji Yakusho) who seems very content with his simple life, structured routines and passion for music, books and photography. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past. The Japanese-German co-production is sold by the Match Factory.
“Anselm” explores the work of artist Anselm Kiefer, shedding light on his life, inspirations and creative process. Shot in 3D,...
- 5/19/2023
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Though this blog platform is usually reserved for writing about movies, Howard Rodman’s novel is totally filmic and he himself has served as President of the Writers Guild of American, so that is close enough. Moreover after spending a total of two years in Berlin in the past three years and going into my next six months here, this ode to Berlin is particularly pleasing to me. This novel is a fictional account of Fritz Lang’s last year in Berlin, in 1933. Not a very good year. He is estranged from his wife — long time collaborator on his best films, M, Metropolis, Doctor Mabuse… Though they still share living quarters, she is having an affair with an American. He is hurt within and is also suffering from a toothache adding to the interior pain in the life of this great German director, son of a Jewish mother who converted the Catholicism and raised him strictly as a Catholic. Taking place in Weimar Berlin, we see the fashion, the glitz, the clubs, the cars, the interior decoration, and as alluded to before, the interior life of Fritz as he watches his friends and colleagues leaving Germany for U.S. and France, and in the case of Bertolt Brecht, his wife Helen Weigel and their son, for Hungary. The kicker is midway in when Fritz Lcang invites his wife Thea to the UFA screening room where Harold Nebenthal and Edward Ulmer, just back from, and about to return to Hollywood, are together and discover that, because of new Jewish laws, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse’s theatrical release at the UFA Palast has been replaced by Wounded Germany This blog is quite expressionistic, beginning with my quoting off the flyleaf of the book cover here as Howard speaks best for himself. Berlin, the last day of February, 1933. The Reichstag lies in smoldering ruins. A new world is about to spring from its ashes. For German filmmakers, there is a choice. To stay, work with the new order, a government which truly believes in the power of film; or to leave, without looking back. Destiny Express is the story of Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou. Together, they made some of the greatest films of all time. M, Metropolis, Doctor Mabuse. Married more than a decade, Lang and von Harbou are the most intimate of friends, the closest of enemies. Now, as day after day is torn from the calendar, they watch, as if paralyzed, as one by one. Bert Brecht, Max Ophuls, Billy Wilder take the next train out. Fritz Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou in their Berlin apartment, in 1923 or 1924 (which is, when the script for Metropolis was prepared). The photograph is from a series about this famous couple. Public Domain. At once exhaustively researched and wildly imagined, Destiny Express follows Lang, von Harbou, a host of real and fictional others — American cafe Surrealist Sam Harrison, novelist-turned-minister-of-culture Joseph Goebbels, Mercedes-racing champ Otto Merz, film star Rudolf Klein-Rogge, a pair of not-so-secret police — as their paths converge, intertwine, separate across the grid of Berlin, from the artificial daylight of the UFA soundstage to the artificial night of Berlin’s most exclusive clubs. Both protagonists have separate personal agendas they are following and they try not to get into each other’s way. As we watch the action, the inner life we witness of Fritz Lang as he weighs his options, thinks about his wife — his love and yet his nemesis — thinks about leaving, wishes they could be together, plays the tough guy; and in the end goes his way as she goes hers; these are the keynotes of the novel. Howard Rodman writes with a flair for visuals and for being able to show us the interior of the minds of creatives as if they were the outward reality. He is also able to reveal inward thoughts which run on separate tracks at the same time. This talent is what gives the novel a special edge. Add the expressionistic elongation of shadows, the sounds of heels clicking on the pavements, as in: On Konigstrasse her heels struck the cobbles with a high, flinty click which came back to her in syncopation from the building frontage. the silent river running through Berlin, cars, clubs, cafes, UFA Studios, Prussian apartments, paintings by Otto Dix…a dynamic Berlin, known in a nostalgic way, comes to life Cars: At once the blacktop rejoined Konigstrasse, and Lang slid the Lancea adeptly into the stream of traffic… Howard reminded me he had not been in Berlin when he wrote this making it all the more extraordinary… Shadows: Midway between two lamps Thea cast shadows of equal length before and behind. The shadow in front of her elongated, became more vague, as she approached the next lamp. The echo seemed to come back fractionally later than she’d been anticipating, and she stopped, to see if there were another set of footsteps dogging her own, but there were not. Thoughts running parallel to each other: And finally, as Lang leaves Berlin on the train, “There were fewer tracks. The lines were branching out, each with its specific destination…Then there was just one set of tracks, the one the train was reeling out behnd it. The glow of the train’s rear lights, a dense crimson, did not penetrate to where the rails converged. by raising his eyes a bit, Lang could feel them coming together, as he left all behind. Howard A. Rodman Howard A. Rodman is a screenwriter, novelist, and educator. He was President of Writers Guild of America West 2015–2017; is professor and former chair of the writing division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts; an artistic director of the Sundance Institute Screenwriting Labs; a member of the executive committee of the Writers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; and a fellow of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities. His films include Savage Grace, starring Julianne Moore, — official selection Cannes Film Festival in 2007 — and August with Josh Hartnett, Rip Torn, and David Bowie. Son of Howard Rodman and Dorothy Rodman. Stepson of Norma Connolly. Brother of Adam Rodman. Howard A. Rodman has been married to Mary Beth Heffernan since June 25, 2017. He was previously married to Anne Friedberg (24 June 1990–9 October 2009) ( her death) with whom he had one child. · President, Writers Guild of America West, 2015–2017. · Named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) by the Republic of France, 2013. · Inducted into FinalDraft’s Screenwriters Hall of Fame, 2018. Writer (6 credits) 2008 August (written by) 2007 Savage Grace (screenplay) 2000 Takedown (screenplay) 2000 Joe Gould’s Secret (screenplay) 1997 The Hunger (TV Series) (screenplay — 1 episode — which he also directed!), - The Swords (1997) … (screenplay) 1993–1995 Fallen Angels (TV Series) (teleplay — 3 episodes) - The Professional Man (1995) … (teleplay) - The Frightening Frammis (1993) … (teleplay) - The Quiet Room (1993) … (teleplay) As a writer, Howard has had plenty to live up to as his father’s bio, written by Howard himself attests: Howard Rodman, Sr. was an American writer and story editor of such critically acclaimed series such as Naked City (1958) and Route 66 (1960). A Brooklyn native, the son of immigrant parents, Rodman began his career in the 1950s writing for such noted anthology series as Studio One, Alcoa Theater, and Goodyear Theater. He contributed to Have Gun — Will Travel (1957) and was an associate producer on Peyton Place (1964). In the subsequent decades he won a trio of Writer’s Guild awards for his scripts for Naked City: Today the Man Who Kills Ants Is Coming (1962), Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre: The Game with Glass Pieces (1964), and for the NBC/Universal Television drama, The Neon Ceiling (1971). As a feature writer, he scripted the Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward racing film, Winning (1969), and co-wrote three iconic feature films for director Don Siegel: Madigan (1968), Coogan’s Bluff (1968), and Charley Varrick (1973). Rodman also wrote the teleplay adaptation of Martin Caidin’s novel, ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’, essentially creating the television version of the character as well as supplying the format for the subsequent series. Dissatisfied with the final product he removed his name and substituted his pseudonym Henri Simoun, a frequent practice. Rodman was once quoted as saying, “The script isn’t finished until the name comes off”. Rodman also created the David Janssen private eye series Harry O (1973). In 1976, he was presented with the Writers Guild’s Laurel Award for lifetime achievement in television. His final project was the made-for-tv movie Scandal Sheet (1985), starring Burt Lancaster. He died of complications following heart surgery in Los Angeles at age 65. He was survived by his second wife, actress Norma Connolly, and his children: Howard A. Rodman (a writer), Adam Rodman (a writer), Phillip Rodman, and Tiahna Skye. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Howard A. Rodman #Berlin #Movies #Book Review #Nazis #Cinema...
- 3/5/2023
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
The power of an important story told with passion and unflinching clarity always transcends the bonds of time. This explains the durability of Shakespeare’s plays when they land in the right hands, and it explains Edward Berger’s adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s fierce anti-war novel, “All Quite on the Western Front,” which is nominated for the best picture Oscar.
Nearly a century ago, director Lewis Milestone triumphed in one of the first Oscar competitions with his Universal Pictures version of the 1928 tome, filmed, remarkably, completely in and around its Hollywood Studio home.
Today, “Front” is registering with voters who are seeing the horrors of war in Europe live and in color as it sadly unfolds again with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
When Milestone filmed his “Front,” WWI was a decade behind the voters, who had just roared through the 1920s and hadn’t yet confronted the...
Nearly a century ago, director Lewis Milestone triumphed in one of the first Oscar competitions with his Universal Pictures version of the 1928 tome, filmed, remarkably, completely in and around its Hollywood Studio home.
Today, “Front” is registering with voters who are seeing the horrors of war in Europe live and in color as it sadly unfolds again with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
When Milestone filmed his “Front,” WWI was a decade behind the voters, who had just roared through the 1920s and hadn’t yet confronted the...
- 2/28/2023
- by Steven Gaydos
- Variety Film + TV
On November 20, 1945, in Nuremberg, Germany, once prime real estate for torchlit Nazi pageantry, currently reduced to ruins by Allied bombing, the International Military Tribunal, an unprecedented experiment in transnational jurisprudence, convened in the city’s Palace of Justice, one of the few buildings left standing. The four victorious powers — the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union — had hauled the loser, Nazi Germany, before four judges and a global jury to be held accountable for violating a series of recently devised additions to the criminal code — crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, criminal conspiracy, and war crimes.
Twenty-one Nazi leaders were in the dock, defendants whose names most Americans had become familiar with in the years since 1933. The accused included Reich Marshall Herman Göring, Hitler’s brutal second in command; Joachim von Ribbentrop, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who in August 1939 negotiated the pact with the Soviet Union that ignited the conflagration; Rudolf Hess,...
Twenty-one Nazi leaders were in the dock, defendants whose names most Americans had become familiar with in the years since 1933. The accused included Reich Marshall Herman Göring, Hitler’s brutal second in command; Joachim von Ribbentrop, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who in August 1939 negotiated the pact with the Soviet Union that ignited the conflagration; Rudolf Hess,...
- 2/4/2023
- by Thomas Doherty
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Brazil’s newly elected President, Inácio Lula da Silva, has said his government will re-establish the country’s Ministry of Culture after it was disbanded by his right-wing predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, in 2019.
In a series of widescale pledges published on his first day in office, Lula said his government will reopen the ministry “with the ambition to resume more intensely the policies of incentive and access to cultural goods” that he said was “interrupted by obscurantism in recent years.”
“A democratic cultural policy cannot fear criticism or elect favorites,” he said.
Lula, who is serving his third term in office, added: “May all the flowers sprout and all the fruits of our creativity be harvested, may everyone enjoy it without censorship or discrimination.”
Estamos refundando o Ministério da Cultura, com a ambição de retomar mais intensamente as políticas de incentivo e de acesso aos bens culturais, interrompidas pelo obscurantismo nos últimos anos.
In a series of widescale pledges published on his first day in office, Lula said his government will reopen the ministry “with the ambition to resume more intensely the policies of incentive and access to cultural goods” that he said was “interrupted by obscurantism in recent years.”
“A democratic cultural policy cannot fear criticism or elect favorites,” he said.
Lula, who is serving his third term in office, added: “May all the flowers sprout and all the fruits of our creativity be harvested, may everyone enjoy it without censorship or discrimination.”
Estamos refundando o Ministério da Cultura, com a ambição de retomar mais intensamente as políticas de incentivo e de acesso aos bens culturais, interrompidas pelo obscurantismo nos últimos anos.
- 1/3/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
The new All Quiet on the Western Front, Germany’s Oscar submission for best international feature film, is an adaptation of the 1929 World War I novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque. That best-seller, based on Remarque’s experiences in the German Army, moved 3 million copies in 22 languages in its first two years in print and remains one of the great works about the trauma of war.
It and its 1930 sequel, The Road Back, were banned and burned in Nazi Germany. In the U.S., All Quiet on the Western Front was adapted for the screen in 1930, produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. — son of Universal Studios founder Carl Laemmle — and directed by Lewis Milestone, who the following year would helm the landmark media satire The Front Page. Made in the days of pre-Code Hollywood, before censorship guidelines were enforced, All Quiet...
The new All Quiet on the Western Front, Germany’s Oscar submission for best international feature film, is an adaptation of the 1929 World War I novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque. That best-seller, based on Remarque’s experiences in the German Army, moved 3 million copies in 22 languages in its first two years in print and remains one of the great works about the trauma of war.
It and its 1930 sequel, The Road Back, were banned and burned in Nazi Germany. In the U.S., All Quiet on the Western Front was adapted for the screen in 1930, produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. — son of Universal Studios founder Carl Laemmle — and directed by Lewis Milestone, who the following year would helm the landmark media satire The Front Page. Made in the days of pre-Code Hollywood, before censorship guidelines were enforced, All Quiet...
- 12/12/2022
- by Seth Abramovitch
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Click here to read the full article.
Two years after shocking revelations about the secret Nazi past of Berlin International Film Festival founder Alfred Bauer, the Berlinale will publish the findings of an independent study on Bauer the festival commissioned with the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ).
The Berlinale will also hold a public panel discussion on the study and its revelations Nov. 2 in Berlin.
Bauer helped found the Berlin festival, one of the world’s top-tier film events, and was director of the Berlinale from 1951 to 1976. But in 2020, just ahead of the Berlinale’s 70th anniversary, German newspaper Die Zeit published revelations about Bauer that indicated he had lied about his deep involvement in Nazi film propaganda.
As part of the Reichsfilmintendanz, the division set up by Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels to promote the Nazis’ racist and anti-Semitic agenda, Bauer approved such films as Veit Harlan...
Two years after shocking revelations about the secret Nazi past of Berlin International Film Festival founder Alfred Bauer, the Berlinale will publish the findings of an independent study on Bauer the festival commissioned with the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ).
The Berlinale will also hold a public panel discussion on the study and its revelations Nov. 2 in Berlin.
Bauer helped found the Berlin festival, one of the world’s top-tier film events, and was director of the Berlinale from 1951 to 1976. But in 2020, just ahead of the Berlinale’s 70th anniversary, German newspaper Die Zeit published revelations about Bauer that indicated he had lied about his deep involvement in Nazi film propaganda.
As part of the Reichsfilmintendanz, the division set up by Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels to promote the Nazis’ racist and anti-Semitic agenda, Bauer approved such films as Veit Harlan...
- 10/21/2022
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
While Kanye West has long had a tempestuous relationship with social media, recent days have seen him unleash a barrage of misleading and particularly offensive statements, some of them deleted by Twitter and Instagram. His most disturbing ideas, however, are finding an eager audience on TikTok.
At the root at the rapper’s latest controversy is his decision to ally with right-wing influencer Candace Owens in calling the Black Lives Matter movement a scam. The pair wore “White Lives Matter” shirts at Ye’s latest fashion show in Paris, provoking criticism from music mogul Diddy,...
At the root at the rapper’s latest controversy is his decision to ally with right-wing influencer Candace Owens in calling the Black Lives Matter movement a scam. The pair wore “White Lives Matter” shirts at Ye’s latest fashion show in Paris, provoking criticism from music mogul Diddy,...
- 10/17/2022
- by Miles Klee
- Rollingstone.com
Click here to read the full article.
Armageddon Time is James Gray’s eighth feature and by far his most personal — right down to the sets, built to exacting specifications based on family photos he provided to the production design team. Born and raised in Queens to a family of Holocaust survivors (his grandfather changed the family surname from Greiszerstein when he arrived in the U.S.), Gray attended USC, where he channeled an early passion for painting into making films — five of which have been up for the Palme d’Or at Cannes. The writer-director, 53, recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss the bittersweet memories unlocked in Armageddon Time.
Your last film, Ad Astra, was an austere, meditative film. This one is quite different.
Ad Astra was a difficult movie on a logistical level and for other reasons and seemed to go on forever. I wanted to...
Armageddon Time is James Gray’s eighth feature and by far his most personal — right down to the sets, built to exacting specifications based on family photos he provided to the production design team. Born and raised in Queens to a family of Holocaust survivors (his grandfather changed the family surname from Greiszerstein when he arrived in the U.S.), Gray attended USC, where he channeled an early passion for painting into making films — five of which have been up for the Palme d’Or at Cannes. The writer-director, 53, recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss the bittersweet memories unlocked in Armageddon Time.
Your last film, Ad Astra, was an austere, meditative film. This one is quite different.
Ad Astra was a difficult movie on a logistical level and for other reasons and seemed to go on forever. I wanted to...
- 9/28/2022
- by Seth Abramovitch
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This article contains major spoilers for "Don't Worry Darling."
The release of Olivia Wilde's "Don't Worry Darling" has been overshadowed by rumors of on-set affairs and rivalries, like something out of the gossip rags during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Florence Pugh carries the film as Alice, a 1950s housewife living with her husband played by a dead-eyed Harry Styles in the utopian desert community Victory. After the death and disappearance of her friend Margaret, she begins to worry that there is something sinister beneath her perfect and glamorous life.
The script unfolds in a puzzling twist that dulls the impact of its critique on gender roles. Wilde has a greater command over her mesmerizing visuals. Working with cinematographer Matthew Libatique (who photographed the visually similar "Black Swan"), "Don't Worry Darling" juxtaposes a slick suburban landscape with Alice's psychedelic hallucinations in images that seem inspired by many classic films.
The release of Olivia Wilde's "Don't Worry Darling" has been overshadowed by rumors of on-set affairs and rivalries, like something out of the gossip rags during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Florence Pugh carries the film as Alice, a 1950s housewife living with her husband played by a dead-eyed Harry Styles in the utopian desert community Victory. After the death and disappearance of her friend Margaret, she begins to worry that there is something sinister beneath her perfect and glamorous life.
The script unfolds in a puzzling twist that dulls the impact of its critique on gender roles. Wilde has a greater command over her mesmerizing visuals. Working with cinematographer Matthew Libatique (who photographed the visually similar "Black Swan"), "Don't Worry Darling" juxtaposes a slick suburban landscape with Alice's psychedelic hallucinations in images that seem inspired by many classic films.
- 9/28/2022
- by Caroline Madden
- Slash Film
Schindler's Ark, the factory where German Nazi Party member, industrialist, and profiteer Oskar Schindler sheltered 1,200 Jews from extermination, is quietly falling into ruin. Situated around 30 miles north of Brno in the Czech Republic, the historic buildings nestle beside a bend in the Svitava river, arranged around a small square less than 50 meters across. Schindler's office, where he spent most nights so he could keep an eye on the guards, sits next to the SS barracks, which, in turn, neighbors the Jewish quarters.
I spent a day there helping a filmmaker friend capture some footage of an event celebrating the tentative return of textile production to the site, for the first time since it was seized by the Nazis at the beginning of World War II. The owners, the Jewish Loew-Beer family, fled to England for safety. Now over 80 years later, one of their descendants, Daniel Loew-Beer, plans to restore the...
I spent a day there helping a filmmaker friend capture some footage of an event celebrating the tentative return of textile production to the site, for the first time since it was seized by the Nazis at the beginning of World War II. The owners, the Jewish Loew-Beer family, fled to England for safety. Now over 80 years later, one of their descendants, Daniel Loew-Beer, plans to restore the...
- 9/18/2022
- by Lee Adams
- Slash Film
Click here to read the full article.
“Out Jews!” howled Josef Goebbels. “A dirty film made in America!” The Nazi propagandist was on his feet in the front row of the balcony at Berlin’s ornate Mozartsaal, frothing at the motion picture screen. Behind Goebbels, dozens of brown shirted thugs joined in the jeering — and released white mice and set off stink bombs. Women screamed and stood on their seats. Moviegoers bolted for the exits; several patrons, taken for Jews, were beaten up. The house lights went up, the theater was cleared, and the show was shut down. [*]
The date was December 5, 1930, and the American-made film was All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Universal Pictures’ epic version of German novelist Erich Maria Remarque’s antiwar best seller. Eight years shy of a century later, the Germans have gotten around to making their own version — a Netflix production, directed by Edward Berger,...
“Out Jews!” howled Josef Goebbels. “A dirty film made in America!” The Nazi propagandist was on his feet in the front row of the balcony at Berlin’s ornate Mozartsaal, frothing at the motion picture screen. Behind Goebbels, dozens of brown shirted thugs joined in the jeering — and released white mice and set off stink bombs. Women screamed and stood on their seats. Moviegoers bolted for the exits; several patrons, taken for Jews, were beaten up. The house lights went up, the theater was cleared, and the show was shut down. [*]
The date was December 5, 1930, and the American-made film was All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Universal Pictures’ epic version of German novelist Erich Maria Remarque’s antiwar best seller. Eight years shy of a century later, the Germans have gotten around to making their own version — a Netflix production, directed by Edward Berger,...
- 9/13/2022
- by Thomas Doherty
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Bertram “Bert” Fields, the larger-than-life entertainment lawyer whose roster of star clients and studios spoke to a penchant for doling out legal threats with a rhetorical flourish, along with a capacity for winning lucrative settlements, has died at his Malibu home, his rep confirmed to Variety. He was 93.
Fields thrived on the notion that he never lost a trial, and even if the Perry Mason-like reputation wasn’t exactly true, he was a relentless litigator who defined some of the industry’s most heralded cases of the 1980s and ’90s, with clients that included Warren Beatty, Tom Cruise, the Beatles, Edward G. Robinson, Michael Jackson, Rupert Murdoch and, at one time or another, just about all of the major studios.
Cruise said in a statement, “Bert Fields was a gentleman; an extraordinary human being. He had a powerful intellect, a keen wit, and charm that made one enjoy every minute of his company.
Fields thrived on the notion that he never lost a trial, and even if the Perry Mason-like reputation wasn’t exactly true, he was a relentless litigator who defined some of the industry’s most heralded cases of the 1980s and ’90s, with clients that included Warren Beatty, Tom Cruise, the Beatles, Edward G. Robinson, Michael Jackson, Rupert Murdoch and, at one time or another, just about all of the major studios.
Cruise said in a statement, “Bert Fields was a gentleman; an extraordinary human being. He had a powerful intellect, a keen wit, and charm that made one enjoy every minute of his company.
- 8/8/2022
- by Ted Johnson
- Variety Film + TV
This meticulous docu-drama is still the best show about the Titanic, the awesome disaster that has never lost its grip on the imagination. Roy Ward Baker leads an enormous cast of Brit character actors through 2.5 hours of true-life terror in the icy Atlantic — Kenneth More, Honor Blackman, David McCallum, Laurence Naismith, Anthony Bushell. No stupid subplots and no insulting anachronisms, just an awful sinking death trap and 1600 passengers facing the freezing water. [Imprint] brings some new extras to the mix, too.
A Night to Remember
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] #135
1958 / B&w / 1:66 enhanced widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / Available from / 39.95
Starring: Kenneth More, Honor Blackman, David McCallum, Laurence Naismith, Anthony Bushell, Alec McCowen, John Cairney, Michael Goodliffe, Ronald Allen, John Merivale, Jill Dixon, Kenneth Griffith, Frank Lawton, Tucker McGuire, Ralph Michael, George Rose, Joseph Tomelty, Jack Watling, Michael Bryant, Bee Duffel, Thomas Heathcote, Andrew Keir, Jeremy Bulloch, Desmond Llewelyn, Derren Nesbitt, Beth Rogan,...
A Night to Remember
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] #135
1958 / B&w / 1:66 enhanced widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / Available from / 39.95
Starring: Kenneth More, Honor Blackman, David McCallum, Laurence Naismith, Anthony Bushell, Alec McCowen, John Cairney, Michael Goodliffe, Ronald Allen, John Merivale, Jill Dixon, Kenneth Griffith, Frank Lawton, Tucker McGuire, Ralph Michael, George Rose, Joseph Tomelty, Jack Watling, Michael Bryant, Bee Duffel, Thomas Heathcote, Andrew Keir, Jeremy Bulloch, Desmond Llewelyn, Derren Nesbitt, Beth Rogan,...
- 7/12/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Jeremy Strong talks parallels with ‘Succession’.
Artists must “pose questions, illustrate and shine a light” instead of providing answers, according to Armageddon Time director James Gray today in Cannes.
Speaking at the press conference for his Competition title, Gray said: “I actually have no idea how to solve issues of inequality, of class. You have to just put it out in front of the audience and hope that they can make connections for themselves. Joseph Goebbels thought he had an answer; I don’t feel that’s what our job is as creative people.”
Armageddon Time is a personal film...
Artists must “pose questions, illustrate and shine a light” instead of providing answers, according to Armageddon Time director James Gray today in Cannes.
Speaking at the press conference for his Competition title, Gray said: “I actually have no idea how to solve issues of inequality, of class. You have to just put it out in front of the audience and hope that they can make connections for themselves. Joseph Goebbels thought he had an answer; I don’t feel that’s what our job is as creative people.”
Armageddon Time is a personal film...
- 5/20/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Warning: contains spoilers for Peaky Blinders season 6 episode 2 ‘Black Shirt’
At the end of every Peaky Blinders episode comes the expected fiction disclaimer declaring that its names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. The usual next line about “any resemblance to persons living or dead” being purely coincidental isn’t included, for the obvious reason that several of the show’s characters don’t just bear a resemblance to persons living or dead, they’re unequivocally them. Charlie Chaplin, Oswald Mosley, Winston Churchill… The latest is Lady Diana Mitford, played by Amber Anderson.
Peaky Blinders season six is currently taking place in early 1934, when the real Diana was 24 years old. She was one of seven Mitford siblings including six sisters whose lives were endlessly reported by the contemporary press due to romantic scandals, a range of...
At the end of every Peaky Blinders episode comes the expected fiction disclaimer declaring that its names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. The usual next line about “any resemblance to persons living or dead” being purely coincidental isn’t included, for the obvious reason that several of the show’s characters don’t just bear a resemblance to persons living or dead, they’re unequivocally them. Charlie Chaplin, Oswald Mosley, Winston Churchill… The latest is Lady Diana Mitford, played by Amber Anderson.
Peaky Blinders season six is currently taking place in early 1934, when the real Diana was 24 years old. She was one of seven Mitford siblings including six sisters whose lives were endlessly reported by the contemporary press due to romantic scandals, a range of...
- 3/6/2022
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
Watching Written on the Wind was my first introduction to the famous auteur of the melodramatic, Douglas Sirk. The 2K Blu-ray restoration is out now via the Criterion Collection. Sirk was a German filmmaker who fled the country when he was approached by the notorious Joseph Goebbels (Nazi war criminal and the German Minister of Propaganda) to make the films that Leni Riefenstahl ended up working on. There’s more to that story that’s both sad and tawdry; check it out if you have interest in this strange intersection with world history and cinema. Sirk became known for exploring the kind of daily ugly realities that bubbled beneath a bright, polished veneer, a gauntlet later picked up by fellow...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/28/2022
- Screen Anarchy
Patriot Purge, Tucker Carlson’s new three-part series, is propaganda built around Donald Trump’s Big Lie of a stolen 2020 election and buttressed by a bizarro world, alt-right and alt-reality retelling of the January 6th insurrection. But Carlson’s message being profoundly dishonest doesn’t stop it from being profoundly dangerous: both because it contains kernels of tough truths the country has been scared to face, and because it follows a classic template of propaganda that has brought down democracies before.
The conceit of Patriot Purge is that the real...
The conceit of Patriot Purge is that the real...
- 11/2/2021
- by Jason Stanley
- Rollingstone.com
Two friends try to prevent a war in Munich: The Edge Of War, a thought-provoking Netflix period drama premiering at the BFI London Film Festival.
We first meet Hugh Legat (George MacKay) and Paul Hartman (Jannis Niewöhner) in 1932 when they are carefree students at Oxford University, swilling champagne and rolling around in the grass at a drunken party. Cut to London, six years later, and the mood is grim: Adolf Hitler is preparing to invade Czechoslovakia and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Jeremy Irons) is trying to find a peaceful solution. Hugh is now a civil servant, and has the ear of the Pm.
Meanwhile, Paul is a diplomat in his home of Germany, and comes into possession of important documents that could help the British government. As the two prepare for a clandestine meeting in Munich during the emergency conference, flashbacks fill us in on more of their past, and the tension mounts.
We first meet Hugh Legat (George MacKay) and Paul Hartman (Jannis Niewöhner) in 1932 when they are carefree students at Oxford University, swilling champagne and rolling around in the grass at a drunken party. Cut to London, six years later, and the mood is grim: Adolf Hitler is preparing to invade Czechoslovakia and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Jeremy Irons) is trying to find a peaceful solution. Hugh is now a civil servant, and has the ear of the Pm.
Meanwhile, Paul is a diplomat in his home of Germany, and comes into possession of important documents that could help the British government. As the two prepare for a clandestine meeting in Munich during the emergency conference, flashbacks fill us in on more of their past, and the tension mounts.
- 10/14/2021
- by Anna Smith
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s not a critic’s place to say (or to know) if “American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally” only exists because producer and star Meadow Williams — eager to jumpstart an unremarkable career that might have reached its high point with a small part in the Mel Gibson Hulu movie “Boss Level” — used some of the $800 million fortune she controversially inherited from her much older and very dead vitamin tycoon husband to buy herself a starring role in a biopic so chintzy that it seems like even Al “I’ll do literally anything as long as my hair gets to look like a dead bird” Pacino had to get Bowfingered into being in it.
All a critic can say is that no other explanation would seem to account for the unnatural lifelessness of this film about the first woman ever convicted for treason against the United States. No other...
All a critic can say is that no other explanation would seem to account for the unnatural lifelessness of this film about the first woman ever convicted for treason against the United States. No other...
- 5/28/2021
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Movie History 101 will soon be in the Summer Session at the local multiplex (or for those still “in-home learning” streaming online). And just where does the course, begin? What better backdrop than the last World War, number II if you’re taking notes. However, this week’s lesson plan, feature film actually, doesn’t concern any major battles, or big military milestones. This is a story about the use of propaganda, though its use goes back far before the printed word. But in WWII, this weapon of persuasion hit the airwaves, the radio airwaves to be precise. Last year, Da 5 Bloods included flashbacks to the broadcasts of Hanoi Hannah, a sultry voice that was usually laughed off by the GIs. Twenty or so years before her, there was Tokyo Rose, going out through WWII’s war in the Pacific. Less well known was the siren of the war in Europe,...
- 5/27/2021
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The words most associated with it are “never forget.” But with the Holocaust’s disappearance from too many curriculums — some 60% of young Americans are said to either not know what it was, or they think there were “only” 2 million murdered — forget forgetting. Let’s get back to remembering, on April 8, specifically, we have Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The timing merges with our country’s disturbing divisions. Some of the rioters storming the Capitol sported messages like “Camp Auschwitz” and “six million weren’t enough.” And then there’s that QAnon thing about Jewish space lasers. Museums (such as Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation) and synagogues, of course, will be recalling those lost. The Shoah has now taken oral histories to a new level with its Dimensions in Testimony. Multiple cameras, 3D, and holograms allow visitors to press a button of choice and ask a survivor what daily life was like in a camp.
The timing merges with our country’s disturbing divisions. Some of the rioters storming the Capitol sported messages like “Camp Auschwitz” and “six million weren’t enough.” And then there’s that QAnon thing about Jewish space lasers. Museums (such as Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation) and synagogues, of course, will be recalling those lost. The Shoah has now taken oral histories to a new level with its Dimensions in Testimony. Multiple cameras, 3D, and holograms allow visitors to press a button of choice and ask a survivor what daily life was like in a camp.
- 3/31/2021
- by Michele Willens
- The Wrap
San Francisco, Jan 28 (Ians) The independent Oversight Board on Thursday announced to overturn four of Facebooks decisions to remove posts for violating policies on hate speech, violence and other issues.
Facebook said that it will abide by the decisions, the first by the Oversight Board, and has already restored the content in three of the cases.
"We restored the breast cancer awareness post last year, as it did not violate our policies and was removed in error," Monika Bickert, Vice President, Content Policy at Facebook, said in a statement.
The Oversight Board, a group of 20 journalists, politicians and judges from around the world, was formed last year.
"In the five case decisions published today, the Board overturned four of Facebook's decisions, upheld one and issued nine policy recommendations to the company," the board said in a separate statement.
After careful deliberation, the board overturned Facebook's decision to remove a post...
Facebook said that it will abide by the decisions, the first by the Oversight Board, and has already restored the content in three of the cases.
"We restored the breast cancer awareness post last year, as it did not violate our policies and was removed in error," Monika Bickert, Vice President, Content Policy at Facebook, said in a statement.
The Oversight Board, a group of 20 journalists, politicians and judges from around the world, was formed last year.
"In the five case decisions published today, the Board overturned four of Facebook's decisions, upheld one and issued nine policy recommendations to the company," the board said in a separate statement.
After careful deliberation, the board overturned Facebook's decision to remove a post...
- 1/28/2021
- by IANS
- GlamSham
Screenwriter-playwright Christopher Hampton, who won an Oscar for “Dangerous Liaisons” and was Oscar nominated for “Atonement,” has penned a screen version of his one-woman play “A German Life,” about the life of Brunhilde Pomsel, the infamous secretary of Nazi Joseph Goebbels. Maggie Smith is set to reprise the role she played to great acclaim at The Bridge Theatre in London’s West End, with leading stage and opera helmer Jonathan Kent to make his feature film debut.
“A German Life” is based on a series of interviews that Pomsel gave when she was 103. The plan was to take the play to Broadway, which was curtailed by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
“What with Covid, Maggie decided that she didn’t really want to go back and do it again on stage, which was a great shame because it meant that an enormous number of people hadn’t seen it and her great performance,...
“A German Life” is based on a series of interviews that Pomsel gave when she was 103. The plan was to take the play to Broadway, which was curtailed by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
“What with Covid, Maggie decided that she didn’t really want to go back and do it again on stage, which was a great shame because it meant that an enormous number of people hadn’t seen it and her great performance,...
- 11/30/2020
- by Kaleem Aftab
- Variety Film + TV
Rabbit holes have been on Daniel Lombroso’s mind during the last four years. Perhaps they’ve been there longer since his awareness of the alt-right predates his work on the new documentary White Noise. Yet ever since a fateful day in 2016, when he pointed a camera at a band of young white American men offering up their arms in a Nazi salute, he’s thoroughly explored one of the darkest rabbit holes in 21st century Western culture—and he’s shined a light on how so many got there, only to spread more hate out of it.
A perfect example comes midway through White Noise. Using what Lombroso cites as a strong tool for any cinema vérité documentarian, the montage, he tracks how one of the movie’s primary subjects, alt-right personality Mike Cernovich, spent the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign tweeting across the internet an erroneous smear about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
A perfect example comes midway through White Noise. Using what Lombroso cites as a strong tool for any cinema vérité documentarian, the montage, he tracks how one of the movie’s primary subjects, alt-right personality Mike Cernovich, spent the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign tweeting across the internet an erroneous smear about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
- 10/26/2020
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
The following contains spoilers for The boys season 2 finale.
The Boys’ second season has featured everything from some long-awaited superhero faceoffs and multiple exploding heads to literal Nazis and almost everything in between. The season 2 finale “What I Know” wraps up a surprising amount of plot in a single installment, as Stormfront finally gets her comeuppance, Butcher and Becca attempt to rescue a kidnapped Ryan, and Starlight finally gets the evidence that could bring down Vought. That none of these plots turn out the way most of us expected shouldn’t be surprising at this point, and yet…
Here’s a rundown of how everything wrapped up – or didn’t – and what we think it all might mean for The Boys season 3.
Stormfront’s Past is Exposed
The finale is another great example of the deft way The Boys has used Stormfront’s character to illustrate the insidious nature of...
The Boys’ second season has featured everything from some long-awaited superhero faceoffs and multiple exploding heads to literal Nazis and almost everything in between. The season 2 finale “What I Know” wraps up a surprising amount of plot in a single installment, as Stormfront finally gets her comeuppance, Butcher and Becca attempt to rescue a kidnapped Ryan, and Starlight finally gets the evidence that could bring down Vought. That none of these plots turn out the way most of us expected shouldn’t be surprising at this point, and yet…
Here’s a rundown of how everything wrapped up – or didn’t – and what we think it all might mean for The Boys season 3.
Stormfront’s Past is Exposed
The finale is another great example of the deft way The Boys has used Stormfront’s character to illustrate the insidious nature of...
- 10/9/2020
- by Lacy Baugher
- Den of Geek
Just before the 2020 Berlin Film Festival kicked off in February, the German newspaper Zeit published a report linking founding Berlinale director Alfred Bauer to the Nazi party. The revelation prompted the festival to suspend its Alfred Bauer Silver Bear, an annual award named in the director’s honor that was given to a film that “opens new perspectives on cinematic art.” The festival also commissioned a historical probe to investigate Bauer’s Nazi past, findings from which were released this week and which confirm that Bauer played a major role in the Nazi’s propaganda machine and made systematic attempts to cover up his association with the Nazi party.
The findings confirm Bauer served as an advisor to the Reichsfilmintendanz, the organization behind Nazi film policy. The Reichsfilmintendanz was created by Joseph Goebbels. Bauer began advising for the Reichsfilmintendanz in the early 1940s and stayed within the German film industry...
The findings confirm Bauer served as an advisor to the Reichsfilmintendanz, the organization behind Nazi film policy. The Reichsfilmintendanz was created by Joseph Goebbels. Bauer began advising for the Reichsfilmintendanz in the early 1940s and stayed within the German film industry...
- 9/30/2020
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Study confirms late director “contributed to the functioning, stabilisation and legitimation of the Nazi regime”.
The Berlin Film Festival has confirmed that founding director Alfred Bauer “contributed to the functioning, stabilisation and legitimation of the Nazi regime”, following an investigation into the late executive.
The Berlinale commissioned the report following allegations by German newspaper Die Zeit that Bauer had been “a high-ranking functionary in the Nazi film bureaucracy” during the Third Reich and subsequently renamed the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize ahead of its 70th edition in February.
The new study, compiled by the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History, confirms...
The Berlin Film Festival has confirmed that founding director Alfred Bauer “contributed to the functioning, stabilisation and legitimation of the Nazi regime”, following an investigation into the late executive.
The Berlinale commissioned the report following allegations by German newspaper Die Zeit that Bauer had been “a high-ranking functionary in the Nazi film bureaucracy” during the Third Reich and subsequently renamed the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize ahead of its 70th edition in February.
The new study, compiled by the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History, confirms...
- 9/30/2020
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
A historical probe commissioned by the Berlin Film Festival to investigate the Nazi past of founding director Alfred Bauer has confirmed that his role in the Third Reich’s propaganda body was more significant than previously known. The study also revealed that Bauer had systematically covered up his role in the Nazi bureaucracy after 1945.
The seven-month investigation was carried out by the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ) following the publication of a bombshell article in German newspaper Zeit on the eve of the festival’s 70th edition in February.
Based on documents at the German Federal Film Archive, the Zeit article revealed that Bauer had been a high-ranking Nazi during WWII and prompted the Berlin Film Festival to swiftly suspend one of its major prizes which was named after him.
The study confirmed that Bauer played a key role in the Reichsfilmintendanz, the steering body of National Socialist film policy,...
The seven-month investigation was carried out by the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ) following the publication of a bombshell article in German newspaper Zeit on the eve of the festival’s 70th edition in February.
Based on documents at the German Federal Film Archive, the Zeit article revealed that Bauer had been a high-ranking Nazi during WWII and prompted the Berlin Film Festival to swiftly suspend one of its major prizes which was named after him.
The study confirmed that Bauer played a key role in the Reichsfilmintendanz, the steering body of National Socialist film policy,...
- 9/30/2020
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The Berlin Film Festival has published research showing that its founding director Alfred Bauer contributed to the “functioning, stabilisation and legitimation” of the Nazi regime in Germany.
Bauer’s name was stripped from the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize in February after German newspaper Die Zeit published a story alleging that he held a previously unknown “high-ranking position in the Nazi film bureaucracy.”
Berlinale commissioned the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History to investigate the allegations, culminating in a research paper by Pd Dr. Tobias Hof published today. Hof found that Bauer was an advisor to the Reichsfilmintendant, a Joseph Goebbels-created propaganda institution that controlled film production in the Nazi regime.
Summarising the findings, Berlinale said: “Alfred Bauer must have been aware of the important role of the Reichsfilmintendanz in the propaganda apparatus of the Nazi regime. His employment in the Reichsfilmintendanz contributed to the functioning, stabilisation and legitimation of the Nazi regime.
Bauer’s name was stripped from the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize in February after German newspaper Die Zeit published a story alleging that he held a previously unknown “high-ranking position in the Nazi film bureaucracy.”
Berlinale commissioned the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History to investigate the allegations, culminating in a research paper by Pd Dr. Tobias Hof published today. Hof found that Bauer was an advisor to the Reichsfilmintendant, a Joseph Goebbels-created propaganda institution that controlled film production in the Nazi regime.
Summarising the findings, Berlinale said: “Alfred Bauer must have been aware of the important role of the Reichsfilmintendanz in the propaganda apparatus of the Nazi regime. His employment in the Reichsfilmintendanz contributed to the functioning, stabilisation and legitimation of the Nazi regime.
- 9/30/2020
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
A new WWII-set thriller is in the pipeline. Burial has now assembled its cast and is targeting a late-2020 production start date in Estonia. The Virtues actress Niamh Algar has joined the project as its lead, and it’s been confirmed that Tom Felton (Harry Potter), Diana Rigg (Game of Thrones), Tom Glynn-Carney (Dunkirk) and Ian Hart (The Last Kingdom) will star alongside her.
Deadline has a Burial plot synopsis for us:
“Set in the last days of WWII, writer-director Ben Parker’s (The Chamber) sophomore feature will tell the fictional story of a small band of Russian soldiers led by female intelligence officer Brana Vasilyeva (Algar), who are tasked with trafficking Hitler’s discovered remains back to Stalin in Moscow.
“En route, the unit is attacked by murderous German ‘Wehrwolf’ partisans and picked off one-by-one. Vasilyeva and her fellow survivors must make a last stand to ensure their ‘cargo...
Deadline has a Burial plot synopsis for us:
“Set in the last days of WWII, writer-director Ben Parker’s (The Chamber) sophomore feature will tell the fictional story of a small band of Russian soldiers led by female intelligence officer Brana Vasilyeva (Algar), who are tasked with trafficking Hitler’s discovered remains back to Stalin in Moscow.
“En route, the unit is attacked by murderous German ‘Wehrwolf’ partisans and picked off one-by-one. Vasilyeva and her fellow survivors must make a last stand to ensure their ‘cargo...
- 6/16/2020
- by Kirsten Howard
- Den of Geek
“Killer Writer”
By Raymond Benson
The likely apocryphal story Fritz Lang told folks was that in 1933, after enjoying a successful career with German silent films and a couple of talkies, he was invited to a meeting with Joseph Goebbels. The job offer was to be in charge of the Nazis’ propaganda filmmaking. Lang, a Jew, nodded enthusiastically, went straight to the train station without going home to pack a bag, and fled the country. He left behind his wife (who was a member of the Nazi party), spent some time in France, and then came to Hollywood. The rest, as they say, is history.
Lang worked in all genres but specialized in crime pictures (some of the best examples of film noir). Most of his work in any of the genres are dark, pessimistic, and have a bite. His 1950 noir, House by the River, which was based on a novel by A.
By Raymond Benson
The likely apocryphal story Fritz Lang told folks was that in 1933, after enjoying a successful career with German silent films and a couple of talkies, he was invited to a meeting with Joseph Goebbels. The job offer was to be in charge of the Nazis’ propaganda filmmaking. Lang, a Jew, nodded enthusiastically, went straight to the train station without going home to pack a bag, and fled the country. He left behind his wife (who was a member of the Nazi party), spent some time in France, and then came to Hollywood. The rest, as they say, is history.
Lang worked in all genres but specialized in crime pictures (some of the best examples of film noir). Most of his work in any of the genres are dark, pessimistic, and have a bite. His 1950 noir, House by the River, which was based on a novel by A.
- 4/4/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
In light of recent revelations that Berlinale founding director Alfred Bauer was once an active, high-ranking Nazi, the film festival has suspended his namesake prize, the Alfred Bauer Silver Bear. A report in German newspaper Die Zeit last week detailed Bauer’s ties to Joseph Goebbels, the infamous Reich Minister of Nazi Propaganda who set up Reich Film Office in 1942 to control the moviemaking industry and use it as a pipeline for information from the party. The report details how Bauer appeared to be a key member of this operation in the 1940s, and prior to, had been a member of the Nazis’ pre-war paramilitary arm.
“We welcome the research and its publication in Die Zeit and will seize the opportunity to begin a deeper research on the festival history with the support of external experts,” the festival wrote on Facebook. “The interpretation of these sources suggests that [Bauer] had held...
“We welcome the research and its publication in Die Zeit and will seize the opportunity to begin a deeper research on the festival history with the support of external experts,” the festival wrote on Facebook. “The interpretation of these sources suggests that [Bauer] had held...
- 2/3/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The Berlin Film Festival turns 70 this year, but plans for the anniversary celebration have been overshadowed by revelations that Alfred Bauer, Berlin's first festival director, had deep ties to the Nazis.
An article in German newspaper Die Zeit cites new sources allegedly showing that Bauer was a member of the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler and that he was intimately involved with the Reichsfilmintendanz, the organization set up by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels to coordinate the Nazis' cinematic indoctrination efforts. Bauer, the report claims, was also a "devoted" member of the Sa, the Nazi Party's original paramilitary wing....
An article in German newspaper Die Zeit cites new sources allegedly showing that Bauer was a member of the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler and that he was intimately involved with the Reichsfilmintendanz, the organization set up by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels to coordinate the Nazis' cinematic indoctrination efforts. Bauer, the report claims, was also a "devoted" member of the Sa, the Nazi Party's original paramilitary wing....
- 1/30/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Berlin Film Festival turns 70 this year, but plans for the anniversary celebration have been overshadowed by revelations that Alfred Bauer, Berlin's first festival director, had deep ties to the Nazis.
An article in German newspaper Die Zeit cites new sources allegedly showing that Bauer was a member of the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler and that he was intimately involved with the Reichsfilmintendanz, the organization set up by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels to coordinate the Nazis' cinematic indoctrination efforts. Bauer, the report claims, was also a "devoted" member of the Sa, the Nazi Party's original paramilitary wing....
An article in German newspaper Die Zeit cites new sources allegedly showing that Bauer was a member of the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler and that he was intimately involved with the Reichsfilmintendanz, the organization set up by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels to coordinate the Nazis' cinematic indoctrination efforts. Bauer, the report claims, was also a "devoted" member of the Sa, the Nazi Party's original paramilitary wing....
- 1/30/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The first five directors talked with festival director Bero Beyer and programmer Muge Demir.
”They can cut the flowers, but spring will always come,” was the defiant response to increasing nationalism and reduced state funding, from a press conference with five directors participating in the Tiger Competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr).
The directors were discussing a speech by then Brazilian culture minister Roberto Alvim last week, that borrowed heavily from one made in 1933 by Nazi minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels, in which Alvim said Brazilian art must be “heroic and national… it will be deeply committed to the urgent aspirations of our people,...
”They can cut the flowers, but spring will always come,” was the defiant response to increasing nationalism and reduced state funding, from a press conference with five directors participating in the Tiger Competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr).
The directors were discussing a speech by then Brazilian culture minister Roberto Alvim last week, that borrowed heavily from one made in 1933 by Nazi minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels, in which Alvim said Brazilian art must be “heroic and national… it will be deeply committed to the urgent aspirations of our people,...
- 1/27/2020
- by 1101321¦Ben Dalton¦26¦
- ScreenDaily
Brazil’s Culture Secretary Has Been Fired After Quoting Joseph Goebbels in a Chilling Speech That Sparked Immediate OutrageRoberto Alvim had pledged to create a “cultural war machine” against progressive ideas.Zachary Small, January 17, 2020, as published in Artnet.
The culture secretary of Brazil has been fired after releasing a video on Thursday announcing a multimillion-dollar investment in culture — by quoting Joseph Goebbels and playing one of Hitler’s favorite songs.
A few minutes into the speech, secretary of culture Roberto Alvim said, “The Brazilian art of the next decade will be heroic and it will be national, it’ll be endowed with great capacity for emotional involvement and deeply committed to the urgent aspirations of our people, or it will be nothing.”
The line is a slightly modified version of a Goebbels quote most likely taken from a biography of the Nazi propaganda minister by Peter Longerich, which was published...
The culture secretary of Brazil has been fired after releasing a video on Thursday announcing a multimillion-dollar investment in culture — by quoting Joseph Goebbels and playing one of Hitler’s favorite songs.
A few minutes into the speech, secretary of culture Roberto Alvim said, “The Brazilian art of the next decade will be heroic and it will be national, it’ll be endowed with great capacity for emotional involvement and deeply committed to the urgent aspirations of our people, or it will be nothing.”
The line is a slightly modified version of a Goebbels quote most likely taken from a biography of the Nazi propaganda minister by Peter Longerich, which was published...
- 1/23/2020
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Madrid — Gustavo and Tiago Mello’s São Paulo-based Boutique Filmes, producers of early Netflix Original overseas breakout “3%,” is teaming with high-end drama powerhouse The Mediapro Studio to produce “To Kill a Queen.”
International sales rights on the series will be handled by The Mediapro Studio Distribution.
From an original idea by Martin Halac, at Mediapro U.S.,”To Kill a Queen” was created by Valentina Castelo Branco and Aurélio Aragão. It is produced by Boutique partner-producer Gustavo Mello and Ran Tellem, The Mediapro Studio head of international content development.
The series sees Boutique mine what has proved a fruitful production line of politically resonant, futurist dystopian thrillers, such as “3%,” now with Season 4 in preparation, and another Netflix Original, “Omniscient,” which bows on Jan. 29.
“To Kill a Queen” is set in near-future moralistic Brazil in 2025.
Diana, a former legendary beauty pageant star, needs to leave her life as a free-wheeling spirit...
International sales rights on the series will be handled by The Mediapro Studio Distribution.
From an original idea by Martin Halac, at Mediapro U.S.,”To Kill a Queen” was created by Valentina Castelo Branco and Aurélio Aragão. It is produced by Boutique partner-producer Gustavo Mello and Ran Tellem, The Mediapro Studio head of international content development.
The series sees Boutique mine what has proved a fruitful production line of politically resonant, futurist dystopian thrillers, such as “3%,” now with Season 4 in preparation, and another Netflix Original, “Omniscient,” which bows on Jan. 29.
“To Kill a Queen” is set in near-future moralistic Brazil in 2025.
Diana, a former legendary beauty pageant star, needs to leave her life as a free-wheeling spirit...
- 1/20/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
“Jojo Rabbit” dares to be a slice of Third Reich hipster whimsy about an awkward lad and budding 10-year-old Hitler youth (Roman Griffin Davis), whose faithful imaginary companion is none other than a rather buffoonish iteration of Der Fuhrer himself. As played by the dark satire’s half-Jewish writer/director Taika Waititi in khaki pantaloons and askew mini-mustache, this demented dictator starts out as a goofy father substitute who encourages Jojo to be a good Nazi as he struggles to learn such skills as killing rabbits and throwing a grenade – an act that ends rather badly. But by the end, this alt-world Adolf grows resentful that his reign in the real life has come to an end while Jojo literally gives the hateful being the heave-ho and banishes him from his life forever.
See‘Jojo Rabbit’ is a strong contender in 11 Oscar categories
Film fans and history buffs know all...
See‘Jojo Rabbit’ is a strong contender in 11 Oscar categories
Film fans and history buffs know all...
- 10/21/2019
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.