Herman “Hy” Levine, a 48-year veteran of the film industry who rose through the marketing ranks at Universal and Disney, died Dec. 27 in Rockville, Md. after suffering from pancreatic cancer. He was 87.
Levine was an executive Disney from 1986 to 1998, rising to the rank of Vice President of Co-Op Advertising at the time when the studio began stepping up its movie output under CEO Michael Eisner after a particularly fallow period in the early 1980s. In his position, Levine was responsible for print and outdoor advertising on all Disney features, including those that fell under the Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures banners.
Among the films Levine helped launch were such animated megahits as “The Lion King,” “Aladdin” and “The Little Mermaid” as well as live-action titles such as “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” and “Beaches.” Levine worked closely with then film marketing chief Bob Levin as...
Levine was an executive Disney from 1986 to 1998, rising to the rank of Vice President of Co-Op Advertising at the time when the studio began stepping up its movie output under CEO Michael Eisner after a particularly fallow period in the early 1980s. In his position, Levine was responsible for print and outdoor advertising on all Disney features, including those that fell under the Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures banners.
Among the films Levine helped launch were such animated megahits as “The Lion King,” “Aladdin” and “The Little Mermaid” as well as live-action titles such as “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” and “Beaches.” Levine worked closely with then film marketing chief Bob Levin as...
- 1/2/2024
- by Cynthia Littleton
- Variety Film + TV
Herman (Hy) Levine, who had a nearly 50-year career in the film industry and worked with Lew Wasserman, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dick Cook, and many other prominent executives, has died at 87.
Levine died Dec. 27 in Rockville, MD, following a short battle with pancreatic cancer, according to his son, Stuart Levine, who is the VP editorial and media relations at NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.
Levine was at Disney from 1986-1998 and rose to VP of co-op advertising at the time when the studio was accelerating its film output after a particularly fallow period. In his position, Levine was responsible for the print and outdoor advertising for all the Disney features, which also fell under the Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures banner.
Among the many films where Levine played a vital role in their success were The Lion King, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Down and Out in Beverly Hills and Beaches.
Levine died Dec. 27 in Rockville, MD, following a short battle with pancreatic cancer, according to his son, Stuart Levine, who is the VP editorial and media relations at NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.
Levine was at Disney from 1986-1998 and rose to VP of co-op advertising at the time when the studio was accelerating its film output after a particularly fallow period. In his position, Levine was responsible for the print and outdoor advertising for all the Disney features, which also fell under the Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures banner.
Among the many films where Levine played a vital role in their success were The Lion King, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Down and Out in Beverly Hills and Beaches.
- 1/2/2024
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Lawrence Turman, the principled Oscar-nominated producer of The Graduate who was behind other films including The Great White Hope, Pretty Poison, American History X and the last movie Judy Garland ever made, has died. He was 96.
Turman died Saturday at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, his family announced.
A former agent, he and producer David Foster began a 20-year partnership in 1974, and the first film to come out of the Turman Foster Co. was Stuart Rosenberg’s The Drowning Pool (1975), starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
They went their separate ways in 1991 when Turman left to begin an association heading the esteemed Peter Stark Producing Program at USC that lasted until his retirement in 2021.
However, Turman wasn’t done producing, and in 1996 he and John Morrissey launched the Turman-Morrissey Co., which made the Jamie Foxx-starring Booty Call (1997); Tony Kaye’s American History X...
Turman died Saturday at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, his family announced.
A former agent, he and producer David Foster began a 20-year partnership in 1974, and the first film to come out of the Turman Foster Co. was Stuart Rosenberg’s The Drowning Pool (1975), starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
They went their separate ways in 1991 when Turman left to begin an association heading the esteemed Peter Stark Producing Program at USC that lasted until his retirement in 2021.
However, Turman wasn’t done producing, and in 1996 he and John Morrissey launched the Turman-Morrissey Co., which made the Jamie Foxx-starring Booty Call (1997); Tony Kaye’s American History X...
- 7/3/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Great Italian Films of the 1970sThere was a certain type of great art film which was being made from 1968 through the 1970s which can never be approximated. Active and engaged filmmakers were consciously wakening out of the post-war amnesia and taking a perversely erotically charged political stand against the hypocrisy of the previous generation.
Italy was the hotbed of this examination of fascism coming out of World War II. Luchino Visconti’s The Damned (1969), Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s infamous Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975). Even the American musical, via Bob Fosse’s adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories, Cabaret (1972) hinted at what the Italians went after with their full force of creative muscle.
Take Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974), set in Vienna in 1957, the film centers on the sadomasochistic relationship between a former Nazi concentration camp officer (Dirk Bogarde) and one of his inmates (Charlotte Rampling). Their sadomasochistic love is their only happiness and it paralyzes the former Nazis who have been reintegrated into polite society.
Universally reviled by U.S.’s top critics, Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times called it “as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering”. Vincent Canby, prominent critic for The New York Times, called it “romantic pornography” and “a piece of junk”. Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker, “Many of us can’t take more than a few hard-core porno movies, because the absence of any human esteem makes them depressing rather than sexy; The Night Porteroffers the same dehumanized view and is brazen enough to use the Second World War as an excuse.”
Susan Sontag’s essay Fascinating Facism for New York Review of Books (February 6, 1975) stated, “If the message of fascism has been neutralized by an aesthetic view of life, its trappings have been sexualized. This eroticization of fascism can be remarked in such enthralling and devout manifestations as Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask and Sun and Steel, and in films like Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising and, more recently and far less interestingly, in Visconti’s The Damned and Cavani’s The Night Porter.”
However, its value was recognized by the executive producer Joseph E. Levine who quoted them on the posters of the U.S. theatrical release through his company Avco Embassy.
In a brilliant essay of the film by Kat Ellinger I quote:
Filmmakers were suddenly touching the untouchable, and it made certain people incredibly uncomfortable.”
Unlike Naziploitation, The Night Porter does nothing to cartoonise the Nazi officers that dominate the narrative. It isn’t a case of good versus evil, or that sadism is presented as a form of lasivious softcore pornography. Neither is the film a deliberate political treatise like the art films of Bertolucci, Visconti, or Pasolini. Its biggest transgression is that it humanises one of its main characters, Max (Dirk Bogarde), a former Nazi officer with a penchant for sadism, when he finds his ‘little girl’ again in the postwar period; a former concentration camp inmate Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) with whom he undertook a sadistic affair while she was incarcerated. On reuniting it is clear that their loved never died, so they continue, even though they know it will eventually contribute to their downfall and consequent death. Love in this realm is desperately profane, disgusting, something that should never be. And because of this it remains infinitely fascinating and uniquely humanistic.
Related in spirit was Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris (1972), using sex to express the death of love and male causality, its own furor when it hit American cinemas still continues to court controversy; and Luchino Visconti’s The Innocent (1976), based upon the novel by the decadent writer Gabriele D’Annunzio, expressing the same but in a totally antithetical environment of the aristocracy. Bertolluci’s The Conformist(1970) twisted the repressed homosexual of its title into a sadomasochistic fascist.
One could say, as did Gabriel Jenkinson, “the dynamics of conformity present in the modern consumerist capitalist system result in repression, which in turn manifests as violent sadomasochism — and …if one does not actively rebel against this system, one is complicit in its proliferation.”
Parenthetically on the other side of the earth, in Japan, In the Realm of the Senses (1976) by Nagisa Ôshima about a woman whose affair with her master leads to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship also came out of Oshima’s early involvement with the student protest movement in Kyoto in ‘68 and out of his concern with the contradictions and tensions of postwar Japanese society in which he exposed contemporary Japanese materialism, while also examining what it means to be Japanese in the face of rapid industrialization and Westernization.
In 2020 Vincent Canby might have revisited The Night Porter and seen it in a different light. His 2020 review of Visconti’s last film, L’innocente (The Innocent), completed in 1976 shortly before his death was “among the most beautiful and severely disciplined films he has ever made.” It was also brazenly sadistic and sexy to a point that today would be labeled pornographic, and today could not be conceived of, much less made, diving, as it does, into sex, abortion, male domination and violence.
According to The World, public radio’s longest-running daily global news program, a co-production of Prx and Wgbh, in 2012:
British scientists have finally confirmed what women worldwide have been suspecting for centuries. It’s not religious principles that start wars. It’s not even civilization’s thirst for oil. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the penis.
According to a study published this week in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society publication, the male sex drive is the cause of most conflicts in the world, from soccer hooliganism to religious wars, not to mention family disputes over the toilet seat being left up.
According to this story in The Telegraph, the scientists call it the “male warrior instinct” and claim men are programmed to be aggressive toward outsiders. It apparently used to be a handy instinct, back when you had to kill other suitors in order to gain more access to mates, but nowadays, this only works in some countries and a few US cities. For the rest of us, this unreformed sex drive only means ever-increasing defense budgets.
The magnitude of this discovery is so great, it’s difficult to estimate the potential ramifications.
At only eight inches on average (or that’s what we have been told), it’s smaller in size than most other controversial discoveries, yet — just like the atom — it has catastrophic consequences if in the hands of the wrong people.
And so these filmmakers show us the pathological drive of the unleashed male libido.
But times are different in the 21st century. These films could never be approximated by our Tik Tok generation where porn has created a quick witty and essentially violent vibrato of sexuality. These films of the late ‘60s and ‘70s took the libido at its rawest and showed its drive as an expression of political evil in very different types of stories.
And it might be worth noting that of all these films, the most reviled was written and directed by a woman and in most of the films, it is, in fact, a woman who proves the stronger of the two sexes and disarms the man. What remains viscerally true to this day is that that missile shaped 8 inch organ needs to be beaten into a plowshare.
SexFascismMoviesItalyInternational Film...
Italy was the hotbed of this examination of fascism coming out of World War II. Luchino Visconti’s The Damned (1969), Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s infamous Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975). Even the American musical, via Bob Fosse’s adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories, Cabaret (1972) hinted at what the Italians went after with their full force of creative muscle.
Take Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974), set in Vienna in 1957, the film centers on the sadomasochistic relationship between a former Nazi concentration camp officer (Dirk Bogarde) and one of his inmates (Charlotte Rampling). Their sadomasochistic love is their only happiness and it paralyzes the former Nazis who have been reintegrated into polite society.
Universally reviled by U.S.’s top critics, Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times called it “as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering”. Vincent Canby, prominent critic for The New York Times, called it “romantic pornography” and “a piece of junk”. Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker, “Many of us can’t take more than a few hard-core porno movies, because the absence of any human esteem makes them depressing rather than sexy; The Night Porteroffers the same dehumanized view and is brazen enough to use the Second World War as an excuse.”
Susan Sontag’s essay Fascinating Facism for New York Review of Books (February 6, 1975) stated, “If the message of fascism has been neutralized by an aesthetic view of life, its trappings have been sexualized. This eroticization of fascism can be remarked in such enthralling and devout manifestations as Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask and Sun and Steel, and in films like Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising and, more recently and far less interestingly, in Visconti’s The Damned and Cavani’s The Night Porter.”
However, its value was recognized by the executive producer Joseph E. Levine who quoted them on the posters of the U.S. theatrical release through his company Avco Embassy.
In a brilliant essay of the film by Kat Ellinger I quote:
Filmmakers were suddenly touching the untouchable, and it made certain people incredibly uncomfortable.”
Unlike Naziploitation, The Night Porter does nothing to cartoonise the Nazi officers that dominate the narrative. It isn’t a case of good versus evil, or that sadism is presented as a form of lasivious softcore pornography. Neither is the film a deliberate political treatise like the art films of Bertolucci, Visconti, or Pasolini. Its biggest transgression is that it humanises one of its main characters, Max (Dirk Bogarde), a former Nazi officer with a penchant for sadism, when he finds his ‘little girl’ again in the postwar period; a former concentration camp inmate Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) with whom he undertook a sadistic affair while she was incarcerated. On reuniting it is clear that their loved never died, so they continue, even though they know it will eventually contribute to their downfall and consequent death. Love in this realm is desperately profane, disgusting, something that should never be. And because of this it remains infinitely fascinating and uniquely humanistic.
Related in spirit was Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris (1972), using sex to express the death of love and male causality, its own furor when it hit American cinemas still continues to court controversy; and Luchino Visconti’s The Innocent (1976), based upon the novel by the decadent writer Gabriele D’Annunzio, expressing the same but in a totally antithetical environment of the aristocracy. Bertolluci’s The Conformist(1970) twisted the repressed homosexual of its title into a sadomasochistic fascist.
One could say, as did Gabriel Jenkinson, “the dynamics of conformity present in the modern consumerist capitalist system result in repression, which in turn manifests as violent sadomasochism — and …if one does not actively rebel against this system, one is complicit in its proliferation.”
Parenthetically on the other side of the earth, in Japan, In the Realm of the Senses (1976) by Nagisa Ôshima about a woman whose affair with her master leads to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship also came out of Oshima’s early involvement with the student protest movement in Kyoto in ‘68 and out of his concern with the contradictions and tensions of postwar Japanese society in which he exposed contemporary Japanese materialism, while also examining what it means to be Japanese in the face of rapid industrialization and Westernization.
In 2020 Vincent Canby might have revisited The Night Porter and seen it in a different light. His 2020 review of Visconti’s last film, L’innocente (The Innocent), completed in 1976 shortly before his death was “among the most beautiful and severely disciplined films he has ever made.” It was also brazenly sadistic and sexy to a point that today would be labeled pornographic, and today could not be conceived of, much less made, diving, as it does, into sex, abortion, male domination and violence.
According to The World, public radio’s longest-running daily global news program, a co-production of Prx and Wgbh, in 2012:
British scientists have finally confirmed what women worldwide have been suspecting for centuries. It’s not religious principles that start wars. It’s not even civilization’s thirst for oil. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the penis.
According to a study published this week in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society publication, the male sex drive is the cause of most conflicts in the world, from soccer hooliganism to religious wars, not to mention family disputes over the toilet seat being left up.
According to this story in The Telegraph, the scientists call it the “male warrior instinct” and claim men are programmed to be aggressive toward outsiders. It apparently used to be a handy instinct, back when you had to kill other suitors in order to gain more access to mates, but nowadays, this only works in some countries and a few US cities. For the rest of us, this unreformed sex drive only means ever-increasing defense budgets.
The magnitude of this discovery is so great, it’s difficult to estimate the potential ramifications.
At only eight inches on average (or that’s what we have been told), it’s smaller in size than most other controversial discoveries, yet — just like the atom — it has catastrophic consequences if in the hands of the wrong people.
And so these filmmakers show us the pathological drive of the unleashed male libido.
But times are different in the 21st century. These films could never be approximated by our Tik Tok generation where porn has created a quick witty and essentially violent vibrato of sexuality. These films of the late ‘60s and ‘70s took the libido at its rawest and showed its drive as an expression of political evil in very different types of stories.
And it might be worth noting that of all these films, the most reviled was written and directed by a woman and in most of the films, it is, in fact, a woman who proves the stronger of the two sexes and disarms the man. What remains viscerally true to this day is that that missile shaped 8 inch organ needs to be beaten into a plowshare.
SexFascismMoviesItalyInternational Film...
- 2/11/2023
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
In the year 2000, author Leonard B. Stern published a hilarious book called "A Martian Wouldn't Say That!!," a compilation of studio notes written by executives. The book is a litany of absurd demands and strange requests that perhaps made sense in a broader boardroom discussion, but which became complete nonsense when written down and handed to an actual screenwriter. The title comes from a note a studio head gave to the writers of the 1960s sitcom "My Favorite Martian," claiming that dialogue needed to be changed due to its lack of Martian authenticity. Seeing as no Earthling has met a Martian (so far as we know), surely the writers would be granted a sliver of artistic license. Other gems from the book include nonsensical comments like, "Re: 'The Fred Astaire Special' — too much dancing" and "Can you make the rabbi less Jewish?"
All filmmakers working with studio oversight will receive some kind of note,...
All filmmakers working with studio oversight will receive some kind of note,...
- 11/26/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Bert I. Gordon’s career groove of shrinking and bloating various animals and people bottoms out in this trashy drive-in groaner: it’s colorful but nigh-unwatchable. The exploitation target is sci-fi and the teen musical, with incompatible helpings of pre-teen ‘cutes’ and girlie show jiggle for the raincoat crowd. The show apparently did well, but I heard mostly about resentful walkouts. Gordon’s early films have far more charm; this one mostly shows contempt for his audience. For fans that think there’s Camp value here, the Blu-ray transfer is sensationally good, as is the reproduction of Jack Nitzsche’s rock music score. The only thing to call this movie is Poor, but how can that be when I find so much to say about it?
Village of the Giants
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1965 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 81 min. / Street Date February 22, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Tommy Kirk, Johnny Crawford,...
Village of the Giants
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1965 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 81 min. / Street Date February 22, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Tommy Kirk, Johnny Crawford,...
- 2/22/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Bobby Zarem, the famed entertainment industry publicist who represented stars such as Cher and Diana Ross, died Sunday in Savannah, Ga., according to the New York Times. He was 84.
Zarem’s colleague Bill Augustin confirmed to the New York Times that he died of complications related to lung cancer.
Zarem was born in Savannah in 1936. He grew up there, then attended Yale University before moving to New York City. After a short stint working on Wall Street, he moved into the entertainment industry. Zarem was first hired by Columbia Artists Management and discovered his affinity for publicity while working for producer Joseph E. Levine. His PR career bloomed at Rogers & Cowan, a firm he joined in 1969, where he developed a client base that included Dustin Hoffman. In 1974, he founded Zarem Inc. Zarem jumpstarted the careers of several now-a-listers. Along with Cher, Ross and Hoffman, his clientele included stars like Alan Alda,...
Zarem’s colleague Bill Augustin confirmed to the New York Times that he died of complications related to lung cancer.
Zarem was born in Savannah in 1936. He grew up there, then attended Yale University before moving to New York City. After a short stint working on Wall Street, he moved into the entertainment industry. Zarem was first hired by Columbia Artists Management and discovered his affinity for publicity while working for producer Joseph E. Levine. His PR career bloomed at Rogers & Cowan, a firm he joined in 1969, where he developed a client base that included Dustin Hoffman. In 1974, he founded Zarem Inc. Zarem jumpstarted the careers of several now-a-listers. Along with Cher, Ross and Hoffman, his clientele included stars like Alan Alda,...
- 9/26/2021
- by Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
By Fred Blosser
In “Stiletto,” a 1969 release from Joseph E. Levine’s Avco Embassy Pictures, Cesare Cardinali (Alex Cord) enjoys a jet-setting lifestyle rivaling and maybe even surpassing those of his real-life contemporaries in the “Playboy” era. He resides in a lavish Midtown Manhattan penthouse, hobnobs with movie stars and minor European royalty at red-carpet parties, races cars on the international circuit, and romances two beautiful girlfriends. But he’s increasingly uneasy about what he has to do to keep the money coming. On the books, he earns his millions through a lucrative importing business. In reality, he’s on the Mafia’s payroll through his patron, crime boss Ettore Matteo (Joseph Wiseman). Whenever a particularly important murder contract is ordered, Cesare is called in to do the job. His specialized tool is a medieval stiletto, and although he’s good at what he does,...
By Fred Blosser
In “Stiletto,” a 1969 release from Joseph E. Levine’s Avco Embassy Pictures, Cesare Cardinali (Alex Cord) enjoys a jet-setting lifestyle rivaling and maybe even surpassing those of his real-life contemporaries in the “Playboy” era. He resides in a lavish Midtown Manhattan penthouse, hobnobs with movie stars and minor European royalty at red-carpet parties, races cars on the international circuit, and romances two beautiful girlfriends. But he’s increasingly uneasy about what he has to do to keep the money coming. On the books, he earns his millions through a lucrative importing business. In reality, he’s on the Mafia’s payroll through his patron, crime boss Ettore Matteo (Joseph Wiseman). Whenever a particularly important murder contract is ordered, Cesare is called in to do the job. His specialized tool is a medieval stiletto, and although he’s good at what he does,...
- 3/17/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
No, it’s not the story of the 18th President of the United States. Kirk Douglas must have been a big hit in Rome, starring in one of the first and best of the Italo epic ‘classics,’ before the musclemen cornered the market. Homer’s tale of the husband who took ten years to come back from Troy is given real star power, a splendid production and best of all, an intelligent script. This disc looks a lot better than the ragged earlier DVD, plus it offers a superior Italian language soundtrack. And don’t forget Gary Teetzel’s recommendation: as an adaptation of The Odyssey, it’s right up there with O Brother Where Art Thou!
Ulysses
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1954 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 94 104 117 min. / Street Date November 17, 2020 / Ulisse / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Silvana Mangano, Anthony Quinn, Rossana Podestà, Jacques Dumesnil, Daniel Ivernel, Sylvie, Franco Interlenghi,...
Ulysses
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1954 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 94 104 117 min. / Street Date November 17, 2020 / Ulisse / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Silvana Mangano, Anthony Quinn, Rossana Podestà, Jacques Dumesnil, Daniel Ivernel, Sylvie, Franco Interlenghi,...
- 11/21/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It’s lurid, it’s soapy, it’s forbidden: where does the line form? Joseph E. Levine made hay from Harold Robbins’ best seller, with prose that The New York Times said belonged more properly “on the walls of a public lavatory.” So why is the picture so much fun? When the performances are good they’re very good, and when they’re bad they’re almost better. Plus there’s a who’s who game to be played: If George Peppard is Howard Hughes and Carroll Baker is Jean Harlow, who exactly is Robert Cummings? I think this is the first time on Blu for this title, and playback-wise it’s A-ok for Region A.
The Carpetbaggers
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 9 (Australia)
1964 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 150 min. / Street Date August 26, 2020 / Available at [Imprint] 34.95
Starring: George Peppard, Alan Ladd, Robert Cummings, Martha Hyer, Elizabeth Ashley, Martin Balsam, Lew Ayres, Carroll Baker, Ralph Taeger, Archie Moore,...
The Carpetbaggers
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 9 (Australia)
1964 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 150 min. / Street Date August 26, 2020 / Available at [Imprint] 34.95
Starring: George Peppard, Alan Ladd, Robert Cummings, Martha Hyer, Elizabeth Ashley, Martin Balsam, Lew Ayres, Carroll Baker, Ralph Taeger, Archie Moore,...
- 9/19/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
They swim, they play, and they talk. They love George C. Scott and call him ‘pa.’ Mike Nichols’ paranoid sci-fi classic combines Lassie Go Home and The Manchurian Candidate. It works up a good guys versus bad guys conspiracy storyline — until the message arrives that what the adorable dolphins Fa and Bee really need, along with the rest of the natural planet, is for us greedy, murderous humans to just Go Away. Buck Henry’s screenplay overcomes aquatic clichés and cutesy animal traditions to come up with a crowd-pleasing winner.
The Day of the Dolphin
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1973 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date February 18, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Paul Sorvino, Fritz Weaver, Jon Korkes, Edward Herrmann, John Dehner, Severn Darden, Elizabeth Wilson.
Cinematography: William A. Fraker
Film Editor: Sam O’Steen
Production Designer: Richard Sylbert
Original Music: Georges Delerue
Written by Buck...
The Day of the Dolphin
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1973 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date February 18, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: George C. Scott, Trish Van Devere, Paul Sorvino, Fritz Weaver, Jon Korkes, Edward Herrmann, John Dehner, Severn Darden, Elizabeth Wilson.
Cinematography: William A. Fraker
Film Editor: Sam O’Steen
Production Designer: Richard Sylbert
Original Music: Georges Delerue
Written by Buck...
- 3/28/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It’s Tab Hunter as you’ve never seen him before! Antonio Margheriti’s limp but colorful Arabian Nights adventure romance is a real head-scratcher — it’s an entirely generic kiddie show, filmed on nice locations, and devoid of style or flash. Some of the sub-Bava effects are clever, but the only ‘magic’ element is the decision to re-voice Tab with an off-the-shelf dubbing artist… it’s as if Hunter has been sucked into a ‘scimitar & sandal’ episode of The Twilight Zone.
The Golden Arrow
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date May 28, 2019 / L’arciere delle mille e una notte / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Tab Hunter, Rossana Podestà, Umberto Melnati, Mario Feliciani, Dominique Boschero, Renato Baldini, Giustino Durano, Franco Scandurra, Gloria Milland.
Cinematography: G´bor Pogány
Film Editor: Mario Serandrei
Art Direction: Flavio Mogherini
Original Music: Mario Nascimbene
Written by Giorgio Arlorio, Augusto Frassinetti, Giorgio Prosperi,...
The Golden Arrow
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1962 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date May 28, 2019 / L’arciere delle mille e una notte / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Tab Hunter, Rossana Podestà, Umberto Melnati, Mario Feliciani, Dominique Boschero, Renato Baldini, Giustino Durano, Franco Scandurra, Gloria Milland.
Cinematography: G´bor Pogány
Film Editor: Mario Serandrei
Art Direction: Flavio Mogherini
Original Music: Mario Nascimbene
Written by Giorgio Arlorio, Augusto Frassinetti, Giorgio Prosperi,...
- 6/25/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Saucy Jack has long been meat for the horror mill; my first experience with him was Time after Time (1979), where he time traveled to the future and found he was just another serial killer. But in 1888 he was the first, logging around five prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London; big numbers for the day and the fact that the case was never solved has turned the Ripper’s exploits into its own cottage industry. As for Jack’s indelible horror image, that starts proper with Jack the Ripper (1959), an effective and grisly independent British shocker brought back to life in a cracking new Blu-ray release from Severin Films.
Released in the U.K. in May of ’58 by Regal Films International, Jack the Ripper was picked up by producer Joseph E. Levine (Magic) and distributed by Paramount stateside in early ’59; some alterations were made for the U.S. release, including...
Released in the U.K. in May of ’58 by Regal Films International, Jack the Ripper was picked up by producer Joseph E. Levine (Magic) and distributed by Paramount stateside in early ’59; some alterations were made for the U.S. release, including...
- 2/6/2019
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
Jack the Ripper
Blu ray
Severin Films
1959 / 1.33:1 – 1:66:1 / 84 Min. / Street Date – January 29, 2019
Starring Lee Patterson, Eddie Byrne
Cinematography by Robert Baker, Monty Berman
Directed by Robert Baker, Monty Berman
Jack the Ripper arrived in America with the kind of fanfare usually reserved for visiting royalty. Thanks to Joseph E. Levine’s million dollar promotional blitz the British shocker rode a wave of irresistible ballyhoo including a soundtrack LP and a typically salacious Monarch paperback that promised a walk on the wild side for adventurous ticket buyers.
Jack was the talk of the schoolyard but once the movie hit theaters it disappeared as quickly as its namesake. Since 1960 the elusive thriller has dipped in and out of sight like the Loch Ness monster until recently surfacing on a new Blu ray from Severin Films – viewers can be forgiven for thinking it should have stayed at the bottom of the lake.
Blu ray
Severin Films
1959 / 1.33:1 – 1:66:1 / 84 Min. / Street Date – January 29, 2019
Starring Lee Patterson, Eddie Byrne
Cinematography by Robert Baker, Monty Berman
Directed by Robert Baker, Monty Berman
Jack the Ripper arrived in America with the kind of fanfare usually reserved for visiting royalty. Thanks to Joseph E. Levine’s million dollar promotional blitz the British shocker rode a wave of irresistible ballyhoo including a soundtrack LP and a typically salacious Monarch paperback that promised a walk on the wild side for adventurous ticket buyers.
Jack was the talk of the schoolyard but once the movie hit theaters it disappeared as quickly as its namesake. Since 1960 the elusive thriller has dipped in and out of sight like the Loch Ness monster until recently surfacing on a new Blu ray from Severin Films – viewers can be forgiven for thinking it should have stayed at the bottom of the lake.
- 2/2/2019
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
On June 25, 1963, Federico Fellini's 8½, described at the time as a "provocative film for art house trade," made its way to theaters stateside. The film picked up two Oscars at the 36th annual Academy Awards ceremony, including best foreign language film. The Hollywood Reporter's original review is below.
8½ is a grim fable of modern man, a true art picture and one that is likely to be limited in its general appeal but strong in the special houses where audiences want this sort of cerebral cinema.
Joseph E. Levine, whose Embassy Pictures ...
8½ is a grim fable of modern man, a true art picture and one that is likely to be limited in its general appeal but strong in the special houses where audiences want this sort of cerebral cinema.
Joseph E. Levine, whose Embassy Pictures ...
- 6/26/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
On June 25, 1963, Federico Fellini's 8½, described at the time as a "provocative film for art house trade," made its way to theaters stateside. The film picked up two Oscars at the 36th annual Academy Awards ceremony, including best foreign language film. The Hollywood Reporter's original review is below.
8½ is a grim fable of modern man, a true art picture and one that is likely to be limited in its general appeal but strong in the special houses where audiences want this sort of cerebral cinema.
Joseph E. Levine, whose Embassy Pictures ...
8½ is a grim fable of modern man, a true art picture and one that is likely to be limited in its general appeal but strong in the special houses where audiences want this sort of cerebral cinema.
Joseph E. Levine, whose Embassy Pictures ...
- 6/26/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Arthur Manson, a veteran film executive whose career in marketing and distribution encompassed numerous Oscar-winning films, died May 14 at his home in Riverdale, N.Y. He was 90.
Manson worked on the marketing campaigns for “Walking Tall,” “Platoon,” “JFK,” “Hotel Rwanda,” “All the President’s Men,” “A Star Is Born,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “Cinema Paradiso,” “The Great Santini,” “Angela’s Ashes,” “The Cider House Rules,” and “Slumdog Millionaire.”
Manson was an adviser to Oliver Stone, Scott Rudin, Miramax, the Weinstein Company, Joseph E. Levine, and Stanley Kubrick. He worked for MGM, Samuel Goldwyn Productions, Stanley Kramer Productions, Columbia Pictures, Dino De Laurentiis, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros.
Born in Brooklyn, he was a graduate of City College of New York and followed his brother Alan into the entertainment business as “advance agent” for Laurence Olivier’s movie “Henry V” in 1948.
Manson was responsible for the worldwide rollout of Stanley Warner’s ultra-wide-screen Cinerama films.
Manson worked on the marketing campaigns for “Walking Tall,” “Platoon,” “JFK,” “Hotel Rwanda,” “All the President’s Men,” “A Star Is Born,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “Cinema Paradiso,” “The Great Santini,” “Angela’s Ashes,” “The Cider House Rules,” and “Slumdog Millionaire.”
Manson was an adviser to Oliver Stone, Scott Rudin, Miramax, the Weinstein Company, Joseph E. Levine, and Stanley Kubrick. He worked for MGM, Samuel Goldwyn Productions, Stanley Kramer Productions, Columbia Pictures, Dino De Laurentiis, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros.
Born in Brooklyn, he was a graduate of City College of New York and followed his brother Alan into the entertainment business as “advance agent” for Laurence Olivier’s movie “Henry V” in 1948.
Manson was responsible for the worldwide rollout of Stanley Warner’s ultra-wide-screen Cinerama films.
- 5/18/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
‘The Producers’ Turns 50: Mel Brooks Explains Why His Subversive Comedy Is Still Relevant — TCM Fest
Without “The Producers,” there might never have been “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” and “Spaceballs.” And yet Mel Brooks’ movie debut (which earned him the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay) was the most original work of his career, combining subversive humor with a tender bromance between Zero Mostel’s Max Bialystock and Gene Wilder’s Leo Bloom. This was no genre bender, but it was a cultural assault on fascism and complacency, and it was ahead of its time in elevating the Lgbt artistic community.
In honor of its 50th anniversary, “The Producers” opens the TCM Classic Film Festival Thursday night at the Chinese Theater IMAX in Hollywood with a digital 4k restoration courtesy by Studiocanal. For the 91-year-old Brooks, the cult favorite-turned comedy classic was a miracle that launched his celebrated film career as writer-director.
“It was very simple: You can make more money with a flop than with a hit,...
In honor of its 50th anniversary, “The Producers” opens the TCM Classic Film Festival Thursday night at the Chinese Theater IMAX in Hollywood with a digital 4k restoration courtesy by Studiocanal. For the 91-year-old Brooks, the cult favorite-turned comedy classic was a miracle that launched his celebrated film career as writer-director.
“It was very simple: You can make more money with a flop than with a hit,...
- 4/25/2018
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Mubi's retrospective For Ever Godard is showing from November 12, 2017 - January 16, 2018 in the United States.Jean-Luc Godard is a difficult filmmaker to pin down because while his thematic concerns as an artist have remained more or less consistent over the last seven decades, his form is ever-shifting. His filmography is impossible to view in a vacuum, as his work strives to reflect on the constantly evolving cinema culture that surrounds it: Godard always works with the newest filmmaking technologies available, and his films have become increasingly abstracted and opaque as the wider culture of moving images has become increasingly fragmented. Rather than working to maintain an illusion of diegetic truth, Godard’s work as always foreground its status as a manufactured product—of technology, of an industry, of on-set conditions and of an individual’s imagination. Mubi’S Godard retrospective exemplifies the depth and range of Godard’s career as...
- 11/19/2017
- MUBI
Jonathan Demme, dead of cancer at 73. It's hard to take in those words.
Or to stop feeling the gut punch of his loss. High praise will flow, deservedly, about Demme's virtuosity as a filmmaker; about the Oscars he won for The Silence of the Lambs; about his concert films, from Stop Making Sense to Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids, that brought audiences closer than ever before to the sweaty intimacy and creative pulse of music. His influence is everywhere. Paul Thomas Anderson was once asked for a list of the...
Or to stop feeling the gut punch of his loss. High praise will flow, deservedly, about Demme's virtuosity as a filmmaker; about the Oscars he won for The Silence of the Lambs; about his concert films, from Stop Making Sense to Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids, that brought audiences closer than ever before to the sweaty intimacy and creative pulse of music. His influence is everywhere. Paul Thomas Anderson was once asked for a list of the...
- 4/26/2017
- Rollingstone.com
Director and documentarian Mark Hartley scores both a film history and comedy success with this ‘wild, untold’ account of the 1980s film studio that was both revered and despised by everyone who had contact with it. The ‘cast list’ of interviewees is encyclopedic, everybody has a strong opinion, and some of them don’t need four-letter words to describe their experience!
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
On a double bill with
Machete Maidens Unleashed!
Blu-ray
Umbrella Entertainment (Au, all-region
2014 / Color / 1:77 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date April 4, 2017 / Available from Umbrella Entertainment / 34.99
Starring: Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus, Al Ruban, Alain Jakubowicz, Albert Pyun, Alex Winter, Allen DeBevoise, Avi Lerner, Barbet Schroeder, Bo Derek, Boaz Davidson, Cassandra Peterson, Catherine Mary Stewart, Charles Matthau, Christopher C. Dewey, Christopher Pearce, Cynthia Hargrave, Dan Wolman, Daniel Loewenthal, David Del Valle, David Paulsen, David Sheehan, David Womark, Diane Franklin, Dolph Lundgren, Edward R. Pressman,...
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
On a double bill with
Machete Maidens Unleashed!
Blu-ray
Umbrella Entertainment (Au, all-region
2014 / Color / 1:77 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date April 4, 2017 / Available from Umbrella Entertainment / 34.99
Starring: Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus, Al Ruban, Alain Jakubowicz, Albert Pyun, Alex Winter, Allen DeBevoise, Avi Lerner, Barbet Schroeder, Bo Derek, Boaz Davidson, Cassandra Peterson, Catherine Mary Stewart, Charles Matthau, Christopher C. Dewey, Christopher Pearce, Cynthia Hargrave, Dan Wolman, Daniel Loewenthal, David Del Valle, David Paulsen, David Sheehan, David Womark, Diane Franklin, Dolph Lundgren, Edward R. Pressman,...
- 4/8/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The world of film-related books has been dominated by Star Wars for the last two years, and that’s not a bad thing. With insightful authors like Pablo Hidalgo and gorgeous efforts like Star Wars: Galactic Maps, there has never been a better time to be force-crazed. This month is no exception, but you’ll also find new releases about Hitchcock, the Marx Brothers, and even two involving X-Files prequels. Let’s start with a book that took on new relevance just weeks after its release.
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher (Blue Rider Press)
Carrie Fisher’s The Princess Diarist, a hilarious and touching look at her life as Star Wars icon Princess Leia, was a must-read even before the sudden, shocking passing of its author in December. It is even more poignant now. While the book earned pre-release buzz over its revelation of an on-set affair with Harrison Ford,...
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher (Blue Rider Press)
Carrie Fisher’s The Princess Diarist, a hilarious and touching look at her life as Star Wars icon Princess Leia, was a must-read even before the sudden, shocking passing of its author in December. It is even more poignant now. While the book earned pre-release buzz over its revelation of an on-set affair with Harrison Ford,...
- 2/13/2017
- by Christopher Schobert
- The Film Stage
It’s the eyes, isn’t it? Wide like saucers and twice as deep, they’re impenetrable. And the wooden leer of the wide open maw betrays them, separate and with its own agenda. Of course I’m referring to ventriloquist dummies, and the eerie spell they cast upon the viewer. The horror viewer, specifically; we’ll seek out anything that gives us a sense of unease. Which brings us to Richard Attenborough’s Magic (1978), a wryly creepy tale of encroaching madness and showbiz folly. (Aren’t they the same thing?)
Produced by 20th Century Fox and Joseph E. Levine (Carnal Knowledge) and released by 20th Century, Magic opened in November of ’78 in the U.S. and rolled out to the rest of the world in early ’79. Grossing nearly $24 million U.S. against a $7 million budget with positive reviews to boot, Magic was an unqualified success – with one of the...
Produced by 20th Century Fox and Joseph E. Levine (Carnal Knowledge) and released by 20th Century, Magic opened in November of ’78 in the U.S. and rolled out to the rest of the world in early ’79. Grossing nearly $24 million U.S. against a $7 million budget with positive reviews to boot, Magic was an unqualified success – with one of the...
- 5/14/2016
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
What can you say to such success? Mike Nichols and Buck Henry's sex satire defined 'the generation gap' for the sixties. Dustin Hoffman sprang forward from obscurity and Katharine Ross was the object of California desire. Anne Bancroft's Mrs. Robinson freed the image of the 'complicated woman' from the clutches of the Production Code Stone Age. The broad comedy scores with every joke, and there's a truth beneath all the odd things that ought not to work. The Graduate Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 800 1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 106 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 23, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross, William Daniels, Murray Hamilton, Elizabeth Wilson, Buck Henry, Brian Avery, Walter Brooke, Norman Fell, Alice Ghostley, Marion Lorne, Eddra Gale, Richard Dreyfuss, Mike Farrell, Elisabeth Fraser, Donald F. Glut, Elaine May, Lainie Miller, Ben Murphy. Cinematography Robert Surtees Film Editor Sam O'Steen Production Design Richard Sylbert...
- 2/27/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
We’re back with another news round-up. This time around we have a casting update on the Matt Smith-starring Patient Zero, special features details for Shout! Factory’s 4-disc Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD box set, and news on The Jetsons in-development animated feature film.
Deadline reveals that Stanley Tucci is lined up to play the head villain in Patient Zero, the upcoming horror-thriller from Screen Gems. Tucci will play “a deliciously evil role: a professor who becomes infected, and highly violent. He becomes determined to crash the lab that’s working on a cure and thwart the search for Patient Zero.” Matt Smith (Doctor Who) and Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones) star and Stefan Ruzowitzky (Deadfall) directs off a script by Mike Le (Dark Summer).
“In Patient Zero, an unprecedented global pandemic of a super strain of rabies has resulted in the evolution of a new species driven by violence.
Deadline reveals that Stanley Tucci is lined up to play the head villain in Patient Zero, the upcoming horror-thriller from Screen Gems. Tucci will play “a deliciously evil role: a professor who becomes infected, and highly violent. He becomes determined to crash the lab that’s working on a cure and thwart the search for Patient Zero.” Matt Smith (Doctor Who) and Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones) star and Stefan Ruzowitzky (Deadfall) directs off a script by Mike Le (Dark Summer).
“In Patient Zero, an unprecedented global pandemic of a super strain of rabies has resulted in the evolution of a new species driven by violence.
- 1/24/2015
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
On Dec. 18, 1967, The Hollywood Reporter reviewed a film that further catapulted the career of Mike Nichols and Dustin Hoffman and became an enduring classic. Read the original review of The Graduate below, originally headlined "'Graduate' Will Benefit From Word-of-Mouth Plugs." The Mike Nichols-Lawrence Turnman production of Charles Webb's The Graduate, a Joseph E. Levine presentation for Embassy pictures release, is a brutally funny look at contemporary youth, encrusted with status symbols and guilt for gilt rejecting the weights of privilege to rail against the tides of society they would rather reject than succumb to,
read more...
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- 11/20/2014
- by THR Staff
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
On Dec. 21, 1967, Mike Nichols unveiled The Graduate in New York, launching the career of Dustin Hoffman. The film was nominated for seven Oscars at the 40th Academy Awards, and won one in the directing category. The Hollywood Reporter's original review of the film is below:
The Mike Nichols-Lawrence Turnman production of Charles Webb's The Graduate, a Joseph E. Levine presentation for Embassy pictures release, is a brutally funny look at contemporary youth, encrusted with status symbols and guilt for gilt rejecting the weights of privilege to rail against the tides of society they would rather reject ...
The Mike Nichols-Lawrence Turnman production of Charles Webb's The Graduate, a Joseph E. Levine presentation for Embassy pictures release, is a brutally funny look at contemporary youth, encrusted with status symbols and guilt for gilt rejecting the weights of privilege to rail against the tides of society they would rather reject ...
- 11/20/2014
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
On Dec. 21, 1967, Mike Nichols unveiled The Graduate in New York, launching the career of Dustin Hoffman. The film was nominated for seven Oscars at the 40th Academy Awards, and won one in the directing category. The Hollywood Reporter's original review of the film is below:
The Mike Nichols-Lawrence Turnman production of Charles Webb's The Graduate, a Joseph E. Levine presentation for Embassy pictures release, is a brutally funny look at contemporary youth, encrusted with status symbols and guilt for gilt rejecting the weights of privilege to rail against the tides of society they would rather reject ...
The Mike Nichols-Lawrence Turnman production of Charles Webb's The Graduate, a Joseph E. Levine presentation for Embassy pictures release, is a brutally funny look at contemporary youth, encrusted with status symbols and guilt for gilt rejecting the weights of privilege to rail against the tides of society they would rather reject ...
- 11/20/2014
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
By Todd Garbarini
Swamp Thing (1982) is a peculiar entry in the Wes Craven canon. For a director who cut his teeth in porn (most directors began their careers as editors in this field in the early 1970s) and directed such fare as The Last House on the Left (1972) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977), Swamp Thing is a much gentler film. One of the few PG-rated entries to his credit, it was made just a few years prior to his very own A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), the movie that turned the horror film industry on its ear with the introduction of Fred Krueger and which spawned one of the most successful franchises in the genre.
Released on Friday, February 19, 1982 by the late Joseph E. Levine’s long-defunct Embassy Pictures, Swamp Thing is a film version of the DC Comic that was created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. Set in...
Swamp Thing (1982) is a peculiar entry in the Wes Craven canon. For a director who cut his teeth in porn (most directors began their careers as editors in this field in the early 1970s) and directed such fare as The Last House on the Left (1972) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977), Swamp Thing is a much gentler film. One of the few PG-rated entries to his credit, it was made just a few years prior to his very own A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), the movie that turned the horror film industry on its ear with the introduction of Fred Krueger and which spawned one of the most successful franchises in the genre.
Released on Friday, February 19, 1982 by the late Joseph E. Levine’s long-defunct Embassy Pictures, Swamp Thing is a film version of the DC Comic that was created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. Set in...
- 7/19/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
In celebration of its recent film preservation efforts, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will launch the first-ever .Film-to-Film. Festival, which will run September 27 through September 29, in the Academy.s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills and the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. A year ago the Academy Film Archive launched an ambitious effort called .Project Film-to-Film,. aimed at preserving as many films on film as possible over a two-year period. The initiative.s main goal is to take advantage of the current, but threatened, availability of film stock to create new prints of a diverse range of motion pictures, encompassing the whole history of the art form.
More than 390 new prints have already been created from the best available film elements, covering significant narrative features and documentaries, as well as experimental, animated and short film titles. The wide variety of titles range from .Navajo,. the only film...
More than 390 new prints have already been created from the best available film elements, covering significant narrative features and documentaries, as well as experimental, animated and short film titles. The wide variety of titles range from .Navajo,. the only film...
- 9/19/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Faces Review Pt.1. [Photo: Gena Rowlands as the prostitute Jeannie.] Faces' drama failed to move me not because of either the film's plot, however predictable at times, or conventional set of characters. Faces' chief handicap is director-writer John Cassavetes, who apparently was too enamored of his own anti-Hollywood brilliance to let a mere story and a handful of distraught human beings get in the way of his stock-in-trade cinematic tricks. These include the use of a handheld camera that helps make the barely discernible action even murkier, and an overabundance of closeups. True, the film is called Faces, but unlike Ingmar Bergman, whose closeups (usually) transport us into the inner core of his actors, Cassavetes only presents us with talking heads. And do those heads talk. What they actually talk about is anyone's guess, since much of the dialogue is inaudible, but the sections that are intelligible are best described by one line in the movie: "Blah,...
- 1/27/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
By Raymond Benson
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The original 1954 Japanese Kaiju (it means “strange beast”) film, Gojira, is not only a classic monster movie, it’s one of those significant game-changers that is important to pop culture and cinema history. Gojira, known as “Godzilla” in the west, was the first of an onslaught of “strange beasts,” spawning a Kaiju franchise that is still popular today. In fact, Hollywood is remaking Gojira as a reboot at the time of this writing.
The ’54 film, directed by Ishiro Honda and produced by Toho Studios (it’s ironic that it was being made at the same time as Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai from the same studio), was little seen in the West until recent DVD releases appeared. Instead, for over fifty years we’ve had Godzilla, King of the Monsters, an abominably bastardized, re-edited import of Gojira. Joseph E. Levine...
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
The original 1954 Japanese Kaiju (it means “strange beast”) film, Gojira, is not only a classic monster movie, it’s one of those significant game-changers that is important to pop culture and cinema history. Gojira, known as “Godzilla” in the west, was the first of an onslaught of “strange beasts,” spawning a Kaiju franchise that is still popular today. In fact, Hollywood is remaking Gojira as a reboot at the time of this writing.
The ’54 film, directed by Ishiro Honda and produced by Toho Studios (it’s ironic that it was being made at the same time as Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai from the same studio), was little seen in the West until recent DVD releases appeared. Instead, for over fifty years we’ve had Godzilla, King of the Monsters, an abominably bastardized, re-edited import of Gojira. Joseph E. Levine...
- 1/12/2012
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Cinema Retro columnist Tom Lisanti's new book Dueling Harlows: Race to the Silver Screen has just been released. Here is the press release:
Dueling Harlows: Race to the Silver Screen is the fascinating backstory of the competition to get two rival film biographies both titled Harlow into theaters first that quickly turned into one of the nastiest, dirtiest feuds that Hollywood ever witnessed
In 1965, in a rare occurrence not seen before or since, two motion pictures with the same title about the same subject opened within weeks of each other.
Carol Lynley was Jean Harlow in Bill Sargent’s Harlow a quickie B&W independent production filmed in Electronovision. Carroll Baker was Jean Harlow in Joseph E. Levine’s Harlow a big budget color extravaganza from Paramount Pictures. Both endeavored to tell the story of the legendary thirties blonde bombshell’s passionate love life and her meteoric rise from bit...
Dueling Harlows: Race to the Silver Screen is the fascinating backstory of the competition to get two rival film biographies both titled Harlow into theaters first that quickly turned into one of the nastiest, dirtiest feuds that Hollywood ever witnessed
In 1965, in a rare occurrence not seen before or since, two motion pictures with the same title about the same subject opened within weeks of each other.
Carol Lynley was Jean Harlow in Bill Sargent’s Harlow a quickie B&W independent production filmed in Electronovision. Carroll Baker was Jean Harlow in Joseph E. Levine’s Harlow a big budget color extravaganza from Paramount Pictures. Both endeavored to tell the story of the legendary thirties blonde bombshell’s passionate love life and her meteoric rise from bit...
- 11/6/2011
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
“You finally made it, Frankie! Oscar night! And here you sit, on top of a glass mountain called success. You’re one of the chosen five, and the whole town’s holding its breath to see who won it! It’s been quite a climb, hasn’t it, Frankie? Down at the bottom, scuffling for dimes in those smokers, all the way to the top. Magic Hollywood!” This ripe narration opens the 1966 movie The Oscar, a cynical look at how an Oscar nomination goes to the head of its nominee and the lengths an unscrupulous man will go to win the coveted gold statuette. With an undeserved reputation as one of the lousiest Show-biz soap operas from the 60’s, The Oscar portrays Hollywood as a cesspool where you sell your soul and it’s certainly amusing for its campy dialog and sleazy situations. Sure, The Oscar is brainless tinseltown trash full of shameless clichés,...
- 12/9/2009
- by Tom
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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