My DVD of Just Like a Woman (1967), pre-ordered months earlier and delayed because it was in the same order as The Devils (1971), arrived two days after its director, Robert Fuest, died. Come to think of it, I think Ken Russell was still alive when I ordered The Devils. An obituary double feature.
Above: Career best performance. Career worst hair.
I was very keen to see Just Like a Woman, Fuest’s first feature, even though I wasn’t expecting it to be particularly good. I had an idea it was a swinging London sex comedy, not the kind of material he was associated with. For that, you’d have to look at his art-deco grand guignol comedies The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and its sequel from the following year, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, and also at his pop-art masterpiece, The Final Programme (1973). Michael Moorcock, original author of the novel that one derived from,...
Above: Career best performance. Career worst hair.
I was very keen to see Just Like a Woman, Fuest’s first feature, even though I wasn’t expecting it to be particularly good. I had an idea it was a swinging London sex comedy, not the kind of material he was associated with. For that, you’d have to look at his art-deco grand guignol comedies The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and its sequel from the following year, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, and also at his pop-art masterpiece, The Final Programme (1973). Michael Moorcock, original author of the novel that one derived from,...
- 4/12/2012
- MUBI
On 21 March 2012, the British horror cinema lost of one of its most interesting and distinctive talents, director Robert Fuest. Although his association with the genre was very brief, he achieved cult status for directing two very popular slices of classic English Gothic, The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971) and Dr Phibes Rises Again (1972).
A former set designer with a unique visual flare, Fuest represented a group of innovative and original film-makers that formed an important part of the horror genre of the late sixties and early seventies. These luminaries included Roman Polanski, Michael Reeves, Peter Sasdy, Daniel Haller and Curtis Harrington. Fuest came on the scene much later on, and like his colleagues before him, never quite fulfilled his early promise. Its fair to say Fuest never had much of a chance. The horror genre of the late sixties was beginning to lose direction, both artistically and commercially, and by the mid seventies,...
A former set designer with a unique visual flare, Fuest represented a group of innovative and original film-makers that formed an important part of the horror genre of the late sixties and early seventies. These luminaries included Roman Polanski, Michael Reeves, Peter Sasdy, Daniel Haller and Curtis Harrington. Fuest came on the scene much later on, and like his colleagues before him, never quite fulfilled his early promise. Its fair to say Fuest never had much of a chance. The horror genre of the late sixties was beginning to lose direction, both artistically and commercially, and by the mid seventies,...
- 4/11/2012
- Shadowlocked
Director who blended sophistication and sickness in the horror film The Abominable Dr Phibes
With its mix of pop art, sophisticated humour, pulp science fiction and English eccentricity, the television series The Avengers was among the most influential and significant products of "swinging London" in the 1960s. Robert Fuest, who has died aged 84, cut his teeth on the series under the aegis of the writer-producer Brian Clemens, initially as a production designer when the show was produced "as live" in the studio in black and white and co-starred Honor Blackman with Patrick MacNee, then as director when the series had moved on to colour, film and Linda Thorson.
As designer and director, Fuest learned how to achieve style on a budget – making a great deal of the show's famously minimalist aesthetic – and he carried this over into his best-known works as a film director, the two Dr Phibes horror movies of the early 1970s,...
With its mix of pop art, sophisticated humour, pulp science fiction and English eccentricity, the television series The Avengers was among the most influential and significant products of "swinging London" in the 1960s. Robert Fuest, who has died aged 84, cut his teeth on the series under the aegis of the writer-producer Brian Clemens, initially as a production designer when the show was produced "as live" in the studio in black and white and co-starred Honor Blackman with Patrick MacNee, then as director when the series had moved on to colour, film and Linda Thorson.
As designer and director, Fuest learned how to achieve style on a budget – making a great deal of the show's famously minimalist aesthetic – and he carried this over into his best-known works as a film director, the two Dr Phibes horror movies of the early 1970s,...
- 3/27/2012
- by Kim Newman
- The Guardian - Film News
The New Yorker put cultural figures from across the spectrum in the hot seat this past weekend for their whirlwind festival, playing to intimate crowds from Friday through Sunday. Guests ranged from Steve Martin and Jonathan Franzen to St. Vincent and the "Arrested Development" cast reunion. The Huffington Post attended a smattering of events and compiled the tidbits that inspired us, and more frequently, made us laugh. Read on for the best moments from the festival.
Gazelle Emami/The Huffington Post
The 'Arrested Development' Reunion
It's not surprising that "Arrested Development" was originally meant to be a heavily improvised show. The cast's sharp tongues began flying early into the talk, moderated by Nancy Franklin, TV critic for The New Yorker. The entire cast was present Sunday -- Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, David Cross, Portia de Rossi, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, creator Mitchell Hurwitz,...
Gazelle Emami/The Huffington Post
The 'Arrested Development' Reunion
It's not surprising that "Arrested Development" was originally meant to be a heavily improvised show. The cast's sharp tongues began flying early into the talk, moderated by Nancy Franklin, TV critic for The New Yorker. The entire cast was present Sunday -- Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, David Cross, Portia de Rossi, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, creator Mitchell Hurwitz,...
- 10/3/2011
- by Gazelle Emami
- Huffington Post
The actor who made his name in Bronson talks about the punishing physical regime for his new cage-fighting role in Warrior, being typecast as a thug – and making it in Hollywood
The bed has been removed from the Soho hotel room where rising British film star Tom Hardy and I are to meet, leaving a vast carpeted brawling area. We could, I think as I await his arrival, mix it up like Oliver Reed and Alan Bates did in Women in Love, or as Hardy and his screen brother Joel Edgerton do at the denouement of his unremittingly butch new mixed martial arts film Warrior.
Hardy jogs into the room flanked by minders as if he's entering a boxing arena. How about sorting things out mano a mano, I suggest? It could make both our careers. He could get the slightly bonkers rep Christian Bale has had ever since he...
The bed has been removed from the Soho hotel room where rising British film star Tom Hardy and I are to meet, leaving a vast carpeted brawling area. We could, I think as I await his arrival, mix it up like Oliver Reed and Alan Bates did in Women in Love, or as Hardy and his screen brother Joel Edgerton do at the denouement of his unremittingly butch new mixed martial arts film Warrior.
Hardy jogs into the room flanked by minders as if he's entering a boxing arena. How about sorting things out mano a mano, I suggest? It could make both our careers. He could get the slightly bonkers rep Christian Bale has had ever since he...
- 9/12/2011
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
Monthly Movie Preview – September 2011
Summer is over. Superheroes tried to crush our spirits with their stupid movies and refusal to die. A whole bunch of crazy stuff happened, actually, but we made it out. And what’s that I smell? Award season? Too early to think about it … or is it?
Aside from letting folk like Malick do his “thang” in May, September marks when movies on whole put their game faces back on. Not only is it the month in which important festivals like Toronto and Venice go down, but it’s also the time to get serious, in whatever way possible. Aside from Shark Night 3D and Abduction, but you get the hint.
September’s going to give us inspiring movies about fighters, someone’s going to get cancer, and there might even be an “incredible true story” about baseball waiting for us with Moneyball. Hold on now,...
Summer is over. Superheroes tried to crush our spirits with their stupid movies and refusal to die. A whole bunch of crazy stuff happened, actually, but we made it out. And what’s that I smell? Award season? Too early to think about it … or is it?
Aside from letting folk like Malick do his “thang” in May, September marks when movies on whole put their game faces back on. Not only is it the month in which important festivals like Toronto and Venice go down, but it’s also the time to get serious, in whatever way possible. Aside from Shark Night 3D and Abduction, but you get the hint.
September’s going to give us inspiring movies about fighters, someone’s going to get cancer, and there might even be an “incredible true story” about baseball waiting for us with Moneyball. Hold on now,...
- 9/1/2011
- by Nick Allen
- The Scorecard Review
The author of The History Boys and The Habit of Art has written a sexy new short story. Alan Bennett tells Simon Hattenstone how he lost his literary inhibitions
Alan Bennett is finally losing his inhibitions. At 76, the great British playwright has decided it's time to give himself free rein. Take blowjobs, for example. For 50-odd years, fellatio had no place in his work, but how times change.
He quotes his hugely successful play, The History Boys, when the pupil Dakin gets a little too intimate with his teacher Irwin. "Dakin asks Irwin out for a drink and Irwin says: 'No, I can't do it,' then Dakin says, I can't remember the words exactly, but he says: 'Would there be any circumstances in which you'd suck me off?' Now I could have never conceivably written that line 15 years ago, but then again, if I had, it wouldn't have...
Alan Bennett is finally losing his inhibitions. At 76, the great British playwright has decided it's time to give himself free rein. Take blowjobs, for example. For 50-odd years, fellatio had no place in his work, but how times change.
He quotes his hugely successful play, The History Boys, when the pupil Dakin gets a little too intimate with his teacher Irwin. "Dakin asks Irwin out for a drink and Irwin says: 'No, I can't do it,' then Dakin says, I can't remember the words exactly, but he says: 'Would there be any circumstances in which you'd suck me off?' Now I could have never conceivably written that line 15 years ago, but then again, if I had, it wouldn't have...
- 11/23/2010
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
Timothy Dalton will guest-star in a multi-episode arc on the NBC's action-comedy "Chuck." Dalton will be playing a mysterious stranger who has a history with Chuck's (series star Zachary Levi) mom, played by Linda Hamilton ( Terminator , Terminator 2: Judgment Day ). This marks Dalton's first series appearance on American television since he guest-starred on "Charlie's Angels" in 1979. Dalton is perhaps best known for his portrayal of James Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill . He can next be seen in The Tourist opposite Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. His other film credits include Hot Fuzz , The Beautician and the Beast , The Rocketeer , Flash Gordon , Wuthering Heights , Cromwell and The Lion in Winter . Dalton recently added his...
- 8/26/2010
- Comingsoon.net
Timothy Dalton and Steven Berkoff have joined the cast of Sony.s romantic spy thriller "The Tourist," starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp.According to Variety, the cast also includes Paul Bettany and Rufus Sewell.Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck is directing from a script by Julian Fellowes & Christopher McQuarrie and Jeffrey Nachmanoff. Graham King is producing through his Gk Films production company.The film is currently shooting on location in Venice and centers on a broken hearted American tourist visiting Italy who pursues a romance with a mysterious woman who crosses his path. They are then caught in a web of intrigue and danger.Dalton's credits include "The Lion In Winter," "Wuthering Heights" and a brief stint as James Bond in "The Living Daylights"...
- 3/25/2010
- by Adnan Tezer
- Monsters and Critics
Seventy years later and 1939 is still hailed as a benchmark year for Hollywood cinema. Celebrating that fact, this evening The Castro Theatre launches its 18-film tribute to 1939, including such classics as Son of Frankenstein and The Man They Could Not Hang, At the Circus and You Can’t Cheat An Honest Man, They Made Me A Criminal and Each Dawn I Die, The Women and Ninotchka, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Destry Rides Again, Wuthering Heights and Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Tarzan Finds A Son and Another Thin Man, Gunga Din and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, wrapping up with Golden Boy and Only Angels Have Wings.
If you prefer your home entertainment system to a movie palace, at least 10 of those titles are likewise included in Turner Classic Movies’ 39-film tribute “1939—70th Anniversary of Hollywood’s Greatest Year.” Each Thursday night through the month of July, TCM will shoot off 1939’s most celebrated fireworks,...
If you prefer your home entertainment system to a movie palace, at least 10 of those titles are likewise included in Turner Classic Movies’ 39-film tribute “1939—70th Anniversary of Hollywood’s Greatest Year.” Each Thursday night through the month of July, TCM will shoot off 1939’s most celebrated fireworks,...
- 7/1/2009
- by Michael Guillen
- Screen Anarchy
Filed under: Action, Casting, RumorMonger, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Distribution, Family Films, Newsstand, Harry Potter, Remakes and Sequels
It's a lonely day in the neighborhood ....
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: I'm not sure whether Warner Bros. was prepared for the ridiculous fanboy (and girl) backlash that came with pushing the film's release date back several months to the middle of July, 2009, though it looks like they've re-grouped, dusted themselves off and are preparing to get that marketing machine up and running again. Following a statement from Warners chief Alan Horn (included after the jump) comes word from our friends at Bloghogwarts that Warner Bros. has sent in a new trailer (marked at a minute and a half) to the BBFC for approval. Could this be the studio's version of make-up sex? (PG rated make-up sex, of course.) Only time will tell ...
Inglorious Bastards: These days, when it comes...
It's a lonely day in the neighborhood ....
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: I'm not sure whether Warner Bros. was prepared for the ridiculous fanboy (and girl) backlash that came with pushing the film's release date back several months to the middle of July, 2009, though it looks like they've re-grouped, dusted themselves off and are preparing to get that marketing machine up and running again. Following a statement from Warners chief Alan Horn (included after the jump) comes word from our friends at Bloghogwarts that Warner Bros. has sent in a new trailer (marked at a minute and a half) to the BBFC for approval. Could this be the studio's version of make-up sex? (PG rated make-up sex, of course.) Only time will tell ...
Inglorious Bastards: These days, when it comes...
- 8/21/2008
- by Erik Davis
- Cinematical
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