There are obscure treasures and there are holy grails. Of the latter, none is more mythic than the original 131-minute cut of Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons, believed by many to be lost somewhere in Brazil. All others arguably belong to Erich von Stroheim. Born in Vienna in 1885 into a Jewish household, von Stroheim is mostly remembered for playing evil Germans in films like Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion. Cinephiles, though, know him as the unluckiest auteur in the history of cinema.
Intended to run anywhere between six and 10 hours, many of von Stroheim’s films, from Greed to the Gloria Swanson vehicle Queen Kelly, were severely bastardized by studio heads upon their release. In this context, the iris shot that opens 1922’s Foolish Wives feels especially poignant. This is no ordinary “fade into” effect, but an entrancing reinforcement of the sinister, insular, and constrictive nature of the film’s milieu.
Intended to run anywhere between six and 10 hours, many of von Stroheim’s films, from Greed to the Gloria Swanson vehicle Queen Kelly, were severely bastardized by studio heads upon their release. In this context, the iris shot that opens 1922’s Foolish Wives feels especially poignant. This is no ordinary “fade into” effect, but an entrancing reinforcement of the sinister, insular, and constrictive nature of the film’s milieu.
- 6/27/2023
- by Ed Gonzalez
- Slant Magazine
Comscore has named board member Bill Livek as its chief executive officer, replacing the interim CEO Dale Fuller. It also reported lower third-quarter revenue, but its net loss that was far less than Q3 last year.
The CEO move comes as the show business data-measurement corporation is facing headwinds. It has seen several high-profile exec departures in recent months, lost more than 85% of its share value since late March and recently settled an SEC fraud claim by agreeing to pay a $5 million fine. ComScore blamed that problem on its former CEO Serge Matta.
“This was a transformative quarter for Comscore,” Fuller said. “During my tenure as interim chief executive officer, we significantly reduced our core operating costs, right-sized our organizational structure, and executed on a strategy that we believe will allow us to achieve breakeven operating cashflow by the end of the year.”
Revenue for the third quarter was $94.3 million,...
The CEO move comes as the show business data-measurement corporation is facing headwinds. It has seen several high-profile exec departures in recent months, lost more than 85% of its share value since late March and recently settled an SEC fraud claim by agreeing to pay a $5 million fine. ComScore blamed that problem on its former CEO Serge Matta.
“This was a transformative quarter for Comscore,” Fuller said. “During my tenure as interim chief executive officer, we significantly reduced our core operating costs, right-sized our organizational structure, and executed on a strategy that we believe will allow us to achieve breakeven operating cashflow by the end of the year.”
Revenue for the third quarter was $94.3 million,...
- 11/6/2019
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
'Ben-Hur' 2016 with Jack Huston: Chariot race to the death. 'Ben-Hur' 2016 trailer: 'Gladiator' meets 'Fast Seven' meets 'Star Wars' meets… Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer have released the trailer for their 2016 Ben-Hur remake (or reboot or readaptation) – a.k.a. Fast and Furious A.D., as one wag called it in an online comment. Instead of grandiose spectacle featuring at its core a “human” story with Christian overtones, this chariot-and-sandals epic is being sold as Gladiator meets Fast Seven meets Spartacus: Blood and Sand meets Star Wars – with Morgan Freeman's Sheik Ilderim as the Roman Empire's dreadlocked version of Alec Guinness' Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi. Say what you will, the trailer-makers sure know their target audience. And that's not the same crowd that would go check out what's usually referred to in the U.S. media as “faith” (i.e., Christian) movies. One assumes that particular audience segment will be getting...
- 3/18/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Ramon Novarro and Greta Garbo in ‘Mata Hari’: The wrath of the censors (See previous post: "Ramon Novarro in One of the Best Silent Movies.") George Fitzmaurice’s romantic spy melodrama Mata Hari (1931) was well received by critics and enthusiastically embraced by moviegoers. The Greta Garbo / Ramon Novarro combo — the first time Novarro took second billing since becoming a star — turned Mata Hari into a major worldwide blockbuster, with $2.22 million in worldwide rentals. The film became Garbo’s biggest international success to date, and Novarro’s highest-grossing picture after Ben-Hur. (Photo: Ramon Novarro and Greta Garbo in Mata Hari.) Among MGM’s 1932 releases — Mata Hari opened on December 31, 1931 — only W.S. Van Dyke’s Tarzan, the Ape Man, featuring Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan, and Edmund Goulding’s all-star Best Picture Academy Award winner Grand Hotel (also with Garbo, in addition to Joan Crawford, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, and...
- 8/9/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Canadian (photo: Thomas Meighan in The Canadian) Thomas Meighan is The Star of William Beaudine’s The Canadian (1926), which screened at the 2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The credits feature his name far above everyone else’s. The basic story of The Canadian, scenario by Arthur Stringer from the 1913 W. Somerset Maugham play The Land of Promise, is similar in theme to Victor Sjöström’s later film The Wind (1928), but without the wind tempest and the murder. Instead, The Canadian concentrates on characterizations. After her rich aunt dies, stuffy, uptight Nora (Mona Palma) travels from London to a wheat farm owned by her brother (Wyndham Standing) in Calgary. She looks down with disdain at the simple, rustic life he lives in the country, with his wife, Gertie (Dale Fuller), and farm hands — especially the independent-minded Frank Taylor (Thomas Meighan). The Canadian starts out as an unpredictable and engaging tale.
- 6/4/2013
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
Greed (1924) Direction: Erich von Stroheim Screenplay: Erich von Stroheim, June Mathis; from Frank Norris' novel McTeague Cast: Gibson Gowland, ZaSu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Dale Fuller, Chester Conklin, Sylvia Ashton Gibson Gowland, Jean Hersholt in Erich von Stroheim's Greed Erich von Stroheim's masterpiece and one of the best silent films ever made, Greed remains a powerful indictment against the deadly sin of the title. Based on Frank Norris' novel McTeague, Greed revolves around the misdeeds of a California dentist (Gibson Gowland), his miserly wife (comedienne ZaSu Pitts magisterially cast against type), and her former lover (Jean Hersholt), all of whom sacrifice everything — and I mean everything — to the almighty god of dollar bills. Stroheim's initial cut had 47 reels, which the director wanted to release as two films. Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg's Metro-Goldwyn (and its parent company, Loews, Inc.), which inherited the out-of-control project from...
- 10/16/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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