The key to the success of Rod Serling's original run of "The Twilight Zone" (and its enduring popularity) was ingenuity in all aspects of production. Obviously, the writing was almost always top-notch, with episodes boasting wildly clever premises from genre masters like Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, and George Clayton Johnson. Though the budgets were modest, directors employed all manner of trickery and inventive makeup effects to dazzle and/or terrify viewers. Meanwhile, the strange tales conjured by Serling's stable of scribes required fully committed performances from actors both established and new to the scene. They had to roll with the weirdness.
On certain occasions, however, Serling and his collaborators couldn't resort to special effects to transport their audience. Sometimes, they had to shell out some dough and wow 'em with the real thing. And sometimes this forced the director to scramble a good deal more than usual. Such was...
On certain occasions, however, Serling and his collaborators couldn't resort to special effects to transport their audience. Sometimes, they had to shell out some dough and wow 'em with the real thing. And sometimes this forced the director to scramble a good deal more than usual. Such was...
- 11/19/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Look into the series Criterion Channel have programmed for August and this lineup is revealed as (in scientific terms) quite something. “Hollywood Chinese” proves an especially deep bench, spanning “cinema’s first hundred years to explore the ways in which the Chinese people have been imagined in American feature films” and bringing with it the likes of Cronenberg’s M. Butterfly, Cimino’s Year of the Dragon, Griffith’s Broken Blossoms, and Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet—among 20-or-so others. A three-film Marguerite Duras series brings one of the greatest films ever (India Song) and two lesser-screened experiments; films featuring Yaphet Kotto include Blue Collar, Across 110th Street, and Midnight Run; and lest we ignore a Myrna Loy retro that goes no later than 1949.
Criterion editions include The Asphalt Jungle, Husbands, Rouge, and Sweet Smell of Success; streaming premieres for Loznitsa’s Donbass, Béla Tarr’s watershed Damnation, and...
Criterion editions include The Asphalt Jungle, Husbands, Rouge, and Sweet Smell of Success; streaming premieres for Loznitsa’s Donbass, Béla Tarr’s watershed Damnation, and...
- 7/25/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The Criterion Channel’s July lineup is an across-the-board display of strengths, ranging as it does from very specific programming cues to actor retrospectives and hardly ignoring the strength of Criterion Editions. Surely much fun’s to be had with “In the Ring,” a decade-spanning, 16-film curation of boxing pictures—Raging Bull and Fat City, of course, with some you forget are boxing movies (Rocco and His Brothers) and others you’ve likely never seen at all (count me excited for King Vidor’s The Champ). “Noir in Color” brilliantly upends common conception of a drama (and gives you excuse to see Nicholas Ray’s Party Girl); Setsuko Hara films are gathered into a handy collection; and Blake Edwards gets six.
On the Criterion Editions front they’ve gone all out: the Before trilogy, Alex Cox’s Walker, Leave Her to Heaven, Shaft, Destry Rides Again, Raging Bull, Hedwig and the Angry Inch,...
On the Criterion Editions front they’ve gone all out: the Before trilogy, Alex Cox’s Walker, Leave Her to Heaven, Shaft, Destry Rides Again, Raging Bull, Hedwig and the Angry Inch,...
- 6/21/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Plenty of media stories about Jeymes Samuel’s “The Harder They Fall” have played up the Western’s all-Black cast, with many describing the Netflix film as a “corrective” to the popular Hollywood image of an all-white Old West. But a cursory Google search will offer that this credit has been attributed to a number of other titles that came long before Samuel and even the oldest members of his all-star cast were even born.
The Western film genre is unique to a specific period and place and is, as such, instantly recognizable. The cinema helped immortalize the cowboy, rendering him, in many ways, inseparable from its cultural tradition. The cinema has also immortalized the cowboy as a white man, erasing the Black Americans who made up one-fourth of the wranglers and riders of the American frontier.
While some are quick to groan at every instance of colorblind casting, those...
The Western film genre is unique to a specific period and place and is, as such, instantly recognizable. The cinema helped immortalize the cowboy, rendering him, in many ways, inseparable from its cultural tradition. The cinema has also immortalized the cowboy as a white man, erasing the Black Americans who made up one-fourth of the wranglers and riders of the American frontier.
While some are quick to groan at every instance of colorblind casting, those...
- 3/2/2022
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
This commentary on the life and legacy of Sidney Poitier was first published in the 2006 BAFTA/LA Cunard Britannia Awards, as part of the organization’s lifetime achievement award tribute to the trailblazing star, who died Jan. 6 at the age of 94.
Is Sidney Poitier the most important actor in American history?
One could quickly defend that question affirmatively simply with a newsreel of clips showing heroes like Martin Luther King Jr., from Birmingham to the March on Washington, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks; Olympians Tommy Smith and John Carlos with their fists in the 1968 Mexico City air; rabid segregationists Bull Connor, Lester Maddox and George Wallace; the sit-ins and the accompanying firehoses and attacking police dogs; the segregated public spaces, the high-profile Ku Klux Klan marches and their low-profile lynchings.
To any American film fan who lived through the Civil Rights revolution of the 1950s and ’60s,...
Is Sidney Poitier the most important actor in American history?
One could quickly defend that question affirmatively simply with a newsreel of clips showing heroes like Martin Luther King Jr., from Birmingham to the March on Washington, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks; Olympians Tommy Smith and John Carlos with their fists in the 1968 Mexico City air; rabid segregationists Bull Connor, Lester Maddox and George Wallace; the sit-ins and the accompanying firehoses and attacking police dogs; the segregated public spaces, the high-profile Ku Klux Klan marches and their low-profile lynchings.
To any American film fan who lived through the Civil Rights revolution of the 1950s and ’60s,...
- 1/9/2022
- by Steven Gaydos
- Variety Film + TV
“While the events of this story are fictional…These. People. Existed.” Thus begins Jeymes Samuel’s western “The Harder They Fall,” currently streaming on Netflix. The period picture is populated with 19th century Black icons including Nat Love (Jonathan Majors), a former enslaved cowboy, Mary Fields (Zazie Beetz), the first Black star-route mail carrier in the U.S., and Rufus Black (Idris Elba), the head of the ruthless multi-racial gang of bank robbers.
“The Harder They Fall” is the first major Western led by a Black cast since Mario Van Peebles 1993 “Posse.” The director, though, told the L.A. Times that “The Harder They Fall” shouldn’t be described as simply a “Black” Western. “It’s just a story about these people in their own world, just like ‘Rio Bravo” is a story about John Wayne and Dean Martin in their own world,” Samuel said. “These aren’t white Westerns or white movies,...
“The Harder They Fall” is the first major Western led by a Black cast since Mario Van Peebles 1993 “Posse.” The director, though, told the L.A. Times that “The Harder They Fall” shouldn’t be described as simply a “Black” Western. “It’s just a story about these people in their own world, just like ‘Rio Bravo” is a story about John Wayne and Dean Martin in their own world,” Samuel said. “These aren’t white Westerns or white movies,...
- 11/8/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Munich-based Koch Films has struck a deal with Studiocanal Germany to take over the distributor’s entire sales and logistics activities for all physical home entertainment activities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Studiocanal’s extensive portfolio comprises new releases, series and classic catalog titles such as Francis Ford Coppola’s newly restored 1983 teen drama “The Outsiders” and David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” as well as works by the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch and Margarethe von Trotta.
The agreement pools Studiocanal and Koch Films’ strengths and bolsters their market position in the home entertainment sector over the long term, the companies said.
Studiocanal’s Arthaus label includes such recently restored films as Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”; Ousmane Sembène’s 1968 Senegalese classic “Mandabi”; and Richard Kelly’s “Donnie Darko” as well as German titles like Reinhard Hauff’s 1975 drama “The Brutalization of Franz Blum,” featuring Jürgen Prochnow...
Studiocanal’s extensive portfolio comprises new releases, series and classic catalog titles such as Francis Ford Coppola’s newly restored 1983 teen drama “The Outsiders” and David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” as well as works by the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch and Margarethe von Trotta.
The agreement pools Studiocanal and Koch Films’ strengths and bolsters their market position in the home entertainment sector over the long term, the companies said.
Studiocanal’s Arthaus label includes such recently restored films as Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”; Ousmane Sembène’s 1968 Senegalese classic “Mandabi”; and Richard Kelly’s “Donnie Darko” as well as German titles like Reinhard Hauff’s 1975 drama “The Brutalization of Franz Blum,” featuring Jürgen Prochnow...
- 10/8/2021
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Closing out a year in which we’ve needed The Criterion Channel more than ever, they’ve now announced their impressive December lineup. Topping the highlights is a trio of Terrence Malick films––Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The New World––along with interviews featuring actors Richard Gere, Sissy Spacek, and Martin Sheen; production designer Jack Fisk; costume designer Jacqueline West; cinematographers Haskell Wexler and John Bailey; and more.
Also in the lineup is an Afrofuturism series, featuring an introduction by programmer Ashley Clark, with work by Lizzie Borden, Shirley Clarke, Souleymane Cissé, John Akomfrah, Terence Nance, and more. There’s also Mariano Llinás’s 14-hour epic La flor, Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, plus retrospectives dedicated to Mae West, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, and more.
Check out the lineup below and return every Friday for our weekly streaming picks.
Also in the lineup is an Afrofuturism series, featuring an introduction by programmer Ashley Clark, with work by Lizzie Borden, Shirley Clarke, Souleymane Cissé, John Akomfrah, Terence Nance, and more. There’s also Mariano Llinás’s 14-hour epic La flor, Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, plus retrospectives dedicated to Mae West, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, and more.
Check out the lineup below and return every Friday for our weekly streaming picks.
- 11/24/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
If you’re looking to dive into the best of independent and foreign filmmaking, The Criterion Channel has announced their August 2020 lineup. The impressive slate includes retrospectives dedicated to Mia Hansen-Løve, Bill Gunn, Stephen Cone, Terry Gilliam, Wim Wenders, Alain Delon, Bill Plympton, Les Blank, and more.
In terms of new releases, they also have Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau, the fascinating documentary John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, the Kenyan LGBTQ drama Rafiki, and more. There’s also a series on Australian New Wave with films by Gillian Armstrong, Bruce Beresford, David Gulpilil, and Peter Weir, as well as one on bad vacations with Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated, Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, and more.
See the lineup below and explore more on their platform. One can also see our weekly streaming picks here.
25 Ways to Quit Smoking, Bill Plympton, 1989
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Roy Rowland,...
In terms of new releases, they also have Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Bacurau, the fascinating documentary John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, the Kenyan LGBTQ drama Rafiki, and more. There’s also a series on Australian New Wave with films by Gillian Armstrong, Bruce Beresford, David Gulpilil, and Peter Weir, as well as one on bad vacations with Joanna Hogg’s Unrelated, Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, and more.
See the lineup below and explore more on their platform. One can also see our weekly streaming picks here.
25 Ways to Quit Smoking, Bill Plympton, 1989
The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Roy Rowland,...
- 7/24/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
A group of young, scrappy and brilliant writers penned some of the most accomplished dramas presented live during the Golden Age of TV in the 1950s. Writers such as Paddy Chayefsky, J.P. Miller (“The Days of Wine and Roses”), Reginald Rose (“Twelve Angry Men”), Tad Mosel (“The Haven”), James Costigan (“Little Moon of Alban”) and Horton Foote.
But the most influential and best-known of these writers was Rod Serling, who became a superstar as not only creator and writer but host of the landmark 1959-1964 CBS sci-fi/fantasy anthology series “The Twilight Zone,” for which he won two Emmys for his writing. “The Twilight Zone” and even his less successful 1970-73 NBC anthology series “Night Gallery” has overshadowed his earlier work for which he won three Emmys for his writing.
Among his earliest work was the 1953 “Kraft Television Theatre” presentation “A Long Time Till Dawn,” which gave a 22-year-old James Dean...
But the most influential and best-known of these writers was Rod Serling, who became a superstar as not only creator and writer but host of the landmark 1959-1964 CBS sci-fi/fantasy anthology series “The Twilight Zone,” for which he won two Emmys for his writing. “The Twilight Zone” and even his less successful 1970-73 NBC anthology series “Night Gallery” has overshadowed his earlier work for which he won three Emmys for his writing.
Among his earliest work was the 1953 “Kraft Television Theatre” presentation “A Long Time Till Dawn,” which gave a 22-year-old James Dean...
- 6/4/2020
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Blake Edwards. Courtesy of Paramount.“[Blake] Edwards has become a stylistic influence in the cinema,” Andrew Sarris would write of the filmmaker in 1968, “And his personality and script dominate Ralph Nelson’s Soldier in the Rain the way Lubitsch’s personality once dominated Cukor’s One Hour With You.” Sarris would dub himself an “Edwardian”in his support of the film director and the inclusion of Edwards in his foundational book, The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968, still remains the most serious scholarship on him. Edwards’ distinction in the book included him in “The Far Side of Paradise,” the category that “falls short of Pantheon,” the highest distinction. Edwards would be categorized alongside the likes of Capra, Cukor, Minnelli, Preminger, and Fuller—strong company, but characterized as such for Sarris because there is fragmentation or disruption within their careers. This high distinction by Sarris would have the great film critic come...
- 10/18/2019
- MUBI
On Oct. 1, 1963, United Artists hosted the New York premiere of Lilies of the Field, starring Sidney Poitier and Lilia Skala. The film was nominated for five Oscars at the 36th Academy Awards, winning one for best actor for Poitier. The Hollywood Reporter's original review is below.
Lilies of the Field is a funny, sentimental, charming and uplifting film, in which intelligence, imagination and energy are proved again to be beyond the price of any super-budget. The United Artists release, produced and directed by Ralph Nelson, could be termed the sleeper of the year if it had not already ...
Lilies of the Field is a funny, sentimental, charming and uplifting film, in which intelligence, imagination and energy are proved again to be beyond the price of any super-budget. The United Artists release, produced and directed by Ralph Nelson, could be termed the sleeper of the year if it had not already ...
- 10/1/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
On Oct. 1, 1963, United Artists hosted the New York premiere of Lilies of the Field, starring Sidney Poitier and Lilia Skala. The film was nominated for five Oscars at the 36th Academy Awards, winning one for best actor for Poitier. The Hollywood Reporter's original review is below.
Lilies of the Field is a funny, sentimental, charming and uplifting film, in which intelligence, imagination and energy are proved again to be beyond the price of any super-budget. The United Artists release, produced and directed by Ralph Nelson, could be termed the sleeper of the year if it had not already ...
Lilies of the Field is a funny, sentimental, charming and uplifting film, in which intelligence, imagination and energy are proved again to be beyond the price of any super-budget. The United Artists release, produced and directed by Ralph Nelson, could be termed the sleeper of the year if it had not already ...
- 10/1/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
By Fred Blosser
72 544x376 Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
Sergio Leone’s “Giù La Testa,” later retitled not once but twice for American release, opened in Italy in October 1971 to great expectations by the director’s fans. According to the preeminent Leone expert Sir Christopher Frayling, in an informative audio commentary included in a new Blu-ray edition of the film from Kino Lorber Studio Classics under its second U.S. title, “A Fistful of Dynamite,” the Italian phrase meant something like “keep your head down.” In other words, in times of social convulsion like the bloody 1913 Mexican revolution portrayed in the movie, save yourself unnecessary grief and keep as low a profile as you can. Toshiro Mifune’s wandering samurai in “Yojimbo” offered similar advice: “A quiet life eating rice is best.” In Leone’s film, James Coburn and Rod Steiger starred as mismatched partners -- a fugitive...
72 544x376 Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
Sergio Leone’s “Giù La Testa,” later retitled not once but twice for American release, opened in Italy in October 1971 to great expectations by the director’s fans. According to the preeminent Leone expert Sir Christopher Frayling, in an informative audio commentary included in a new Blu-ray edition of the film from Kino Lorber Studio Classics under its second U.S. title, “A Fistful of Dynamite,” the Italian phrase meant something like “keep your head down.” In other words, in times of social convulsion like the bloody 1913 Mexican revolution portrayed in the movie, save yourself unnecessary grief and keep as low a profile as you can. Toshiro Mifune’s wandering samurai in “Yojimbo” offered similar advice: “A quiet life eating rice is best.” In Leone’s film, James Coburn and Rod Steiger starred as mismatched partners -- a fugitive...
- 4/22/2018
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
By Lee Pfeiffer
Cary Grant was one of the few actors to defy the effects of aging. The older he got, the more popular his films became. By the late 1950s Grant had become uncomfortable making movies because he realized audiences only wanted to see him as a romantic lead and he felt self-conscious about studio insistence that he be seen on screen romancing female leads who were often decades younger than him. Nonetheless, Grant kept forestalling his frequent vows to retire from acting. He had taken much more control over his career by forming his own production company and the result were some of the biggest hits of his career ("Operation Petticoat", "That Touch of Mink", "Charade"). Grant's primary motivation for not retiring was his desire- or rather, obsession- with winning an Oscar. Alfred Hitchcock had advised him that the best way to do so was to get away...
Cary Grant was one of the few actors to defy the effects of aging. The older he got, the more popular his films became. By the late 1950s Grant had become uncomfortable making movies because he realized audiences only wanted to see him as a romantic lead and he felt self-conscious about studio insistence that he be seen on screen romancing female leads who were often decades younger than him. Nonetheless, Grant kept forestalling his frequent vows to retire from acting. He had taken much more control over his career by forming his own production company and the result were some of the biggest hits of his career ("Operation Petticoat", "That Touch of Mink", "Charade"). Grant's primary motivation for not retiring was his desire- or rather, obsession- with winning an Oscar. Alfred Hitchcock had advised him that the best way to do so was to get away...
- 12/26/2017
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
What are two individualistic, highly motivated movie stars supposed to do when faced with an unimaginative studio system eager to misuse their talents? Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen collaborate with a great writer, director and producer for an urban romance with an eye on the sexual double standard. It’s a hybrid production: a gritty drama that’s also a calculated career move.
Love with the Proper Stranger
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1963 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 100 min. / Street Date September 19, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Natalie Wood, Steve McQueen, Edie Adams, Tom Bosley, Herschel Bernardi, Harvey Lembeck, Agusta Ciolli, Nina Varela, Marilyn Chris, Richard Dysart, Arlene Golonka, Tony Mordente, Nobu McCarthy, Richard Mulligan, Vic Tayback, Dyanne Thorne, Val Avery.
Cinematography: Milton Krasner
Film Editor: Aaron Stell
Original Music: Elmer Bernstein
Written by Arnold Schulman
Produced by Alan J. Pakula
Directed by Robert Mulligan
1963’s Love with the Proper Stranger is...
Love with the Proper Stranger
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1963 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 100 min. / Street Date September 19, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Natalie Wood, Steve McQueen, Edie Adams, Tom Bosley, Herschel Bernardi, Harvey Lembeck, Agusta Ciolli, Nina Varela, Marilyn Chris, Richard Dysart, Arlene Golonka, Tony Mordente, Nobu McCarthy, Richard Mulligan, Vic Tayback, Dyanne Thorne, Val Avery.
Cinematography: Milton Krasner
Film Editor: Aaron Stell
Original Music: Elmer Bernstein
Written by Arnold Schulman
Produced by Alan J. Pakula
Directed by Robert Mulligan
1963’s Love with the Proper Stranger is...
- 9/9/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
on this day in history as it relates to showbiz
30 BC Cleopatra commits suicide, allegedly by purposeful snake bite. I don't remember that scene in Liz Taylor's Cleopatra but it might have been at the four hour mark and t'was possibly asleep
How to honor this day: play with someone's snake. In the absence of a suitable one, wink at someone as saucily as Liz
← 1915 "Of Human Bondage" by W Somerset Maugham published. 19 years later it becomes a movie and marks Bette Davis's ascent to superstar actress
How to honor this day: Let it all out like Bette in that performance that's pure...
30 BC Cleopatra commits suicide, allegedly by purposeful snake bite. I don't remember that scene in Liz Taylor's Cleopatra but it might have been at the four hour mark and t'was possibly asleep
How to honor this day: play with someone's snake. In the absence of a suitable one, wink at someone as saucily as Liz
← 1915 "Of Human Bondage" by W Somerset Maugham published. 19 years later it becomes a movie and marks Bette Davis's ascent to superstar actress
How to honor this day: Let it all out like Bette in that performance that's pure...
- 8/12/2017
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
'Under the Volcano' screening: John Huston's 'quality' comeback featuring daring Albert Finney tour de force As part of its John Huston film series, the UCLA Film & Television Archive will be presenting the 1984 drama Under the Volcano, starring Albert Finney, Jacqueline Bisset, and Anthony Andrews, on July 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Billy Wilder Theater in the Los Angeles suburb of Westwood. Jacqueline Bisset is expected to be in attendance. Huston was 77, and suffering from emphysema for several years, when he returned to Mexico – the setting of both The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Night of the Iguana – to direct 28-year-old newcomer Guy Gallo's adaptation of English poet and novelist Malcolm Lowry's 1947 semi-autobiographical novel Under the Volcano, which until then had reportedly defied the screenwriting abilities of numerous professionals. Appropriately set on the Day of the Dead – 1938 – in the fictitious Mexican town of Quauhnahuac (the fact that it sounds like Cuernavaca...
- 7/21/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The 1930s – more films about women, more films about working life. And often the two overlapped. You watch a film made today, it’s brutally clear that the people who made it rarely have to be anywhere In the ‘30s, at the height of the studio system, the entire creative force behind a picture worked 9-5 on the studio lot, just like anyone else. They had a workplace. And while many made a great deal more money than the characters they were depicting, they knew what it was to hold a job. That mindset, that constant awareness of money and office work and routine, bleeds into the pictures of the period.
Take a film like Rafter Romance, which played at TCM Classic Film Festival Friday morning. Ginger Rogers and Norman Foster star as two broke strangers living in the same apartment building (and they say people knew their neighbors back...
Take a film like Rafter Romance, which played at TCM Classic Film Festival Friday morning. Ginger Rogers and Norman Foster star as two broke strangers living in the same apartment building (and they say people knew their neighbors back...
- 4/12/2017
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
This is definitely the time of year when film critic types (I’m sure you know who I mean) spend an inordinate amount of time leading up to awards season—and it all leads up to awards season, don’t it?—compiling lists and trying to convince anyone who will listen that it was a shitty year at the movies for anyone who liked something other than what they saw and liked. And ‘tis the season, or at least ‘thas (?) been in the recent past, for that most beloved of academic parlor games, bemoaning the death of cinema, which, if the sackcloth-and-ashes-clad among us are to be believed, is an increasingly detached and irrelevant art form in the process of being smothered under the wet, steaming blanket of American blockbuster-it is. And it’s going all malnourished from the siphoning off of all the talent back to TV, which, as everyone knows,...
- 1/9/2016
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Ann-Margret movies: From sex kitten to two-time Oscar nominee. Ann-Margret: 'Carnal Knowledge' and 'Tommy' proved that 'sex symbol' was a remarkable actress Ann-Margret, the '60s star who went from sex kitten to respected actress and two-time Oscar nominee, is Turner Classic Movies' star today, Aug. 13, '15. As part of its “Summer Under the Stars” series, TCM is showing this evening the movies that earned Ann-Margret her Academy Award nods: Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge (1971) and Ken Russell's Tommy (1975). Written by Jules Feiffer, and starring Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel, the downbeat – some have found it misogynistic; others have praised it for presenting American men as chauvinistic pigs – Carnal Knowledge is one of the precursors of “adult Hollywood moviemaking,” a rare species that, propelled by the success of disparate arthouse fare such as Vilgot Sjöman's I Am Curious (Yellow) and Costa-Gavras' Z, briefly flourished from...
- 8/14/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Michael Caine young. Michael Caine movies: From Irwin Allen bombs to Woody Allen classic It's hard to believe that Michael Caine has been around making movies for nearly six decades. No wonder he's had time to appear – in roles big and small and tiny – in more than 120 films, ranging from unwatchable stuff like the Sylvester Stallone soccer flick Victory and Michael Ritchie's adventure flick The Island to Brian G. Hutton's X, Y and Zee, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Sleuth (a duel of wits and acting styles with Laurence Olivier), and Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men. (See TCM's Michael Caine movie schedule further below.) Throughout his long, long career, Caine has played heroes and villains and everything in between. Sometimes, in his worst vehicles, he has floundered along with everybody else. At other times, he was the best element in otherwise disappointing fare, e.g., Philip Kaufman's Quills.
- 8/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Bahamas International Film Festival (Biff) has announced that Academy Award® winner and renowned global icon Sir Sidney Poitier has agreed to the naming of the prestigious Career Achievement Award at the Bahamas International Film Festival the “Sir Sidney Poitier Tribute Award.” Biff founder and executive director Leslie Vanderpool made the announcement.
“There is no person on Earth who is better suited to have the Career Achievement Award be named after him,” Vanderpool said. “Poitier is one of the finest actors for generations and is, simply put, an icon and a legend.” The American Film Institute named him among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time.
Poitier stretched his reach within the industry on film and on stage acting in productions such as "A Raisin in the Sun" (1959) and "Lysistrata." For his film role in "The Defiant Ones," Poitier was the first male actor of African descent to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award in 1958. A few years later in 1964, Poitier was the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor in a riveting and memorable performance as Homer Smith in Ralph Nelson’s "Lilies of The Field."
Thirty-eight years after receiving the Best Actor award, Poitier received an honorary tribute from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being. In 2009, Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America’s highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.
A global legend, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1968 and highly respected author, director and “actor’s actor,” with more than fifty films and television shows to his credit, Poitier has starred in some of Hollywood’s most important and biggest films and earned critics’ praise for several commanding performances. Poitier’s reputation solidified with leading roles in mainstream films: "No Way Out" (1950), "Blackboard Jungle" (1955), "The Bedford Incident" and "A Patch Of Blue" (1965). The most successful films that catapulted Poitier’s career in 1967 where, "To Sir with Love," "Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner" and "In the Heat of the Night."
Directing was not far away from his achievements having a directorial debut with the western "Buck and the Preacher" soon followed by "Uptown Saturday Night," "Let’s Do It Again," "A Piece Of The Action," "Stir Crazy," "Hanky Panky," "Fast Forward’ and ‘Ghost Dad."
From 1995 to 2003, Poitier served as a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company. Proud to represent The Bahamas, Sir Sidney was the Bahamian Ambassador to Japan, a position held from 2002 to 2007, while being the Ambassador of The Bahamas to Unesco.
What makes this addition so momentous is that he is a Bahamian who believes in building future generations of filmmakers while honoring the actors and actresses who broke ground, furthermore, upholding their careers with poise. Sir Sidney possesses a true love and appreciation for the people of The Bahamas.
One of the Bahamas International Film Festival’s missions is to ensure youth in The Bahamas have the opportunity to remember Sir Sidney while celebrating the achievements of others within the film industry.
“Leslie Vanderpool’s efforts have been extraordinary in making it possible for The Bahamas to have not only a film festival, but to also attract some of the great film artists and filmmakers from around the world. People like Johnny Depp, Nicolas Cage, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Glover, Alan Arkin, Sir Sean Connery, Sophie Okonedo, Lee Daniels, Lenny Kravitz and my own daughter Sydney Tamiia Poitier, who have found, to their great surprise, that the Bahamas is moving swiftly toward a bona fide motion picture community--all of which have been structured by the imaginative young Bahamians who have committed themselves to The Bahamas having a film community of its own,” Poitier said.
Adding to his many achievements, Poitier has published four best sellers "This Life," "The Measure of A Man," "Life Beyond Measure: Letters to my Great-Grand Daughter" and "Montaro Caine." Additionally, he has many talents having recorded an album with the composer Fred Katz called ‘Poitier Meets Plato’ reciting passages from Plato’s writings.
Family is most important for Sir Sidney, He and his wife Joanna Shimkus, a Canadian-born former actress of Lithuanian and Irish descent have two daughters Anika and Sydney Tamiia Poitier. Poitier has four daughters Beverly, Pamela, Sherri and Gina from a previous marriage. In addition to his six daughters, Poitier has eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Leslie Vanderpool and Sydney T. Poitier will be instrumental in overseeing the granting of the Sir Sidney Poitier Tribute Awards.
“There is no person on Earth who is better suited to have the Career Achievement Award be named after him,” Vanderpool said. “Poitier is one of the finest actors for generations and is, simply put, an icon and a legend.” The American Film Institute named him among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time.
Poitier stretched his reach within the industry on film and on stage acting in productions such as "A Raisin in the Sun" (1959) and "Lysistrata." For his film role in "The Defiant Ones," Poitier was the first male actor of African descent to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award in 1958. A few years later in 1964, Poitier was the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor in a riveting and memorable performance as Homer Smith in Ralph Nelson’s "Lilies of The Field."
Thirty-eight years after receiving the Best Actor award, Poitier received an honorary tribute from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being. In 2009, Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America’s highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.
A global legend, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1968 and highly respected author, director and “actor’s actor,” with more than fifty films and television shows to his credit, Poitier has starred in some of Hollywood’s most important and biggest films and earned critics’ praise for several commanding performances. Poitier’s reputation solidified with leading roles in mainstream films: "No Way Out" (1950), "Blackboard Jungle" (1955), "The Bedford Incident" and "A Patch Of Blue" (1965). The most successful films that catapulted Poitier’s career in 1967 where, "To Sir with Love," "Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner" and "In the Heat of the Night."
Directing was not far away from his achievements having a directorial debut with the western "Buck and the Preacher" soon followed by "Uptown Saturday Night," "Let’s Do It Again," "A Piece Of The Action," "Stir Crazy," "Hanky Panky," "Fast Forward’ and ‘Ghost Dad."
From 1995 to 2003, Poitier served as a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company. Proud to represent The Bahamas, Sir Sidney was the Bahamian Ambassador to Japan, a position held from 2002 to 2007, while being the Ambassador of The Bahamas to Unesco.
What makes this addition so momentous is that he is a Bahamian who believes in building future generations of filmmakers while honoring the actors and actresses who broke ground, furthermore, upholding their careers with poise. Sir Sidney possesses a true love and appreciation for the people of The Bahamas.
One of the Bahamas International Film Festival’s missions is to ensure youth in The Bahamas have the opportunity to remember Sir Sidney while celebrating the achievements of others within the film industry.
“Leslie Vanderpool’s efforts have been extraordinary in making it possible for The Bahamas to have not only a film festival, but to also attract some of the great film artists and filmmakers from around the world. People like Johnny Depp, Nicolas Cage, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Glover, Alan Arkin, Sir Sean Connery, Sophie Okonedo, Lee Daniels, Lenny Kravitz and my own daughter Sydney Tamiia Poitier, who have found, to their great surprise, that the Bahamas is moving swiftly toward a bona fide motion picture community--all of which have been structured by the imaginative young Bahamians who have committed themselves to The Bahamas having a film community of its own,” Poitier said.
Adding to his many achievements, Poitier has published four best sellers "This Life," "The Measure of A Man," "Life Beyond Measure: Letters to my Great-Grand Daughter" and "Montaro Caine." Additionally, he has many talents having recorded an album with the composer Fred Katz called ‘Poitier Meets Plato’ reciting passages from Plato’s writings.
Family is most important for Sir Sidney, He and his wife Joanna Shimkus, a Canadian-born former actress of Lithuanian and Irish descent have two daughters Anika and Sydney Tamiia Poitier. Poitier has four daughters Beverly, Pamela, Sherri and Gina from a previous marriage. In addition to his six daughters, Poitier has eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Leslie Vanderpool and Sydney T. Poitier will be instrumental in overseeing the granting of the Sir Sidney Poitier Tribute Awards.
- 7/12/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Ron Moody as Fagin in 'Oliver!' based on Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' Ron Moody as Fagin in Dickens musical 'Oliver!': Box office and critical hit (See previous post: "Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' Actor, Academy Award Nominee Dead at 91.") Although British made, Oliver! turned out to be an elephantine release along the lines of – exclamation point or no – Gypsy, Star!, Hello Dolly!, and other Hollywood mega-musicals from the mid'-50s to the early '70s.[1] But however bloated and conventional the final result, and a cast whose best-known name was that of director Carol Reed's nephew, Oliver Reed, Oliver! found countless fans.[2] The mostly British production became a huge financial and critical success in the U.S. at a time when star-studded mega-musicals had become perilous – at times downright disastrous – ventures.[3] Upon the American release of Oliver! in Dec. 1968, frequently acerbic The...
- 6/19/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
By Lee Pfeiffer
One of the most rewarding byproducts of reviewing movies for a living is that you will often encounter some prominent gem that somehow managed to escape your attention previously. In certain cases, it's arguable that a film might well be more appreciated many years later than it was during its initial release. Such a case pertains to the 1965 crime drama Once a Thief. Directed by the under-rated Ralph Nelson, the film successfully invokes the mood and atmosphere of the classic black-and-white film noir crime thrillers of the 1940s and 1950s. Although this movie was widely credited as being Alain Delon's first starring role in an English language production, he was among the all-star cast seen the previous year in the big budget Hollywood production of The Yellow Rolls Royce. It is accurate to say, however, that Once a Thief afforded him his first opportunity to be...
One of the most rewarding byproducts of reviewing movies for a living is that you will often encounter some prominent gem that somehow managed to escape your attention previously. In certain cases, it's arguable that a film might well be more appreciated many years later than it was during its initial release. Such a case pertains to the 1965 crime drama Once a Thief. Directed by the under-rated Ralph Nelson, the film successfully invokes the mood and atmosphere of the classic black-and-white film noir crime thrillers of the 1940s and 1950s. Although this movie was widely credited as being Alain Delon's first starring role in an English language production, he was among the all-star cast seen the previous year in the big budget Hollywood production of The Yellow Rolls Royce. It is accurate to say, however, that Once a Thief afforded him his first opportunity to be...
- 5/31/2015
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
It's Martin Luther King Jr day here in the USA - which means, TV programming highlights on the "black experience" in America, amongst other kinds of celebrations. While flipping through TV channels this morning, I had to stop on TCM (Turner Classic Movies), thanks to an image of Jim Brown, in a sheriff's hat, in the drivers seat of an oldie of some sort. Not immediately certain of what the film was, I of course looked it up - Ralph Nelson's 1970 crime drama "...tick...tick...tick...," which starred Brown as an African American man elected sheriff of a racially-divided rural county in Mississippi. Elected thanks to a healthy turnout of black voters, he finds himself, as...
- 1/19/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Loretta Young films as TCM celebrates her 102nd birthday (photo: Loretta Young ca. 1935) Loretta Young would have turned 102 years old today. Turner Classic Movies is celebrating the birthday of the Salt Lake City-born, Academy Award-winning actress today, January 6, 2015, with no less than ten Loretta Young films, most of them released by Warner Bros. in the early '30s. Young, who began her film career in a bit part in the 1927 Colleen Moore star vehicle Her Wild Oat, remained a Warners contract player from the late '20s up until 1933. (See also: "Loretta Young Movies.") Now, ten Loretta Young films on one day may sound like a lot, but one should remember that most Warner Bros. -- in fact, most Hollywood -- releases of the late '20s and early '30s were either B Movies or programmers. The latter were relatively short (usually 60 to 75 minutes) feature films starring A (or B+) performers,...
- 1/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
First of all let me say that I just love movie posters from the 1960’s. Just look at the one above. Dynamic, exciting and it tells you exactly what the film is all about. And that was the standard back then.Unlike movie posters today which most of the time don’t tell you a damn thing except who’s in it. Like that poster for Transcendence with just Johnny Deep’s face on it. So what? What’s the film about? No clue. They thought just having Depp’s face on the poster was enough. No wonder that film is sinking fast at the box office.But I thanks for permitting me to vent for a second for what I wanted to discuss. The great news that Ralph Nelson’s terrific 1966 United Artists...
- 4/29/2014
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Blu-ray Release Date: May 13, 2014
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time
Nancy Kwan and Glenn Ford investigate an airplane disaster in Fate Is the Hunter.
In May, Fate Is the Hunter, the 1964 mystery drama film directed by Ralph Nelson about the drama revolving around an ill-fated commercial airline flight, makes its Blu-ray debut from Twilight Time.
From the 1961 best seller by aviation author Ernest K. Gann, Fate Is the Hunter details a horrific airplane crash and, in its aftermath, the desperate attempt to discover what brought plane, passengers, and crew to their fiery fate. Directed by Ralph Nelson, with striking black-and-white cinematography by Milton Krasner (All About Eve), Fate is a combination of disaster movie and mystery that interweaves the stories of a dogged investigator (Glenn Ford, 3:10 to Yuma)), the doomed pilot (Rod Taylor, The Time Machine), his bereaved girlfriend (Nancy Kwan, Flower Drum Song), and the tragedy’s sole survivor (Suzanne Pleshette,...
Price: Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Twilight Time
Nancy Kwan and Glenn Ford investigate an airplane disaster in Fate Is the Hunter.
In May, Fate Is the Hunter, the 1964 mystery drama film directed by Ralph Nelson about the drama revolving around an ill-fated commercial airline flight, makes its Blu-ray debut from Twilight Time.
From the 1961 best seller by aviation author Ernest K. Gann, Fate Is the Hunter details a horrific airplane crash and, in its aftermath, the desperate attempt to discover what brought plane, passengers, and crew to their fiery fate. Directed by Ralph Nelson, with striking black-and-white cinematography by Milton Krasner (All About Eve), Fate is a combination of disaster movie and mystery that interweaves the stories of a dogged investigator (Glenn Ford, 3:10 to Yuma)), the doomed pilot (Rod Taylor, The Time Machine), his bereaved girlfriend (Nancy Kwan, Flower Drum Song), and the tragedy’s sole survivor (Suzanne Pleshette,...
- 4/28/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Mickey Rooney was earliest surviving Best Actor Oscar nominee (photo: Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy in ‘Boys Town’) (See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Dead at 93: MGM’s Andy Hardy Series’ Hero and Judy Garland Frequent Co-Star Had Longest Film Career Ever?”) Mickey Rooney was the earliest surviving Best Actor Academy Award nominee — Babes in Arms, 1939; The Human Comedy, 1943 — and the last surviving male acting Oscar nominee of the 1930s. Rooney lost the Best Actor Oscar to two considerably more “prestigious” — albeit less popular — stars: Robert Donat for Sam Wood’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) and Paul Lukas for Herman Shumlin’s Watch on the Rhine (1943). Following Mickey Rooney’s death, there are only two acting Academy Award nominees from the ’30s still alive: two-time Best Actress winner Luise Rainer, 104 (for Robert Z. Leonard’s The Great Ziegfeld, 1936, and Sidney Franklin’s The Good Earth, 1937), and Best Supporting Actress nominee Olivia de Havilland,...
- 4/9/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
As we are full-on in the Lent season, our definitive list will focus on films about religion or some aspect of it. The #1 qualification to be on this list is to deliberately focus on religion, a religious figure, or have the presence of a religion/faith as an integral plot point. For example, most of Luis Bunuel’s films can be viewed as attacks on the church, but they aren’t literally about Christianity; therefore, they won’t be included. So, on this list, we’ll look at as many different faiths as possible (though, there are obviously a lot more movies about Christianity than any other religion). We’ll even dabble into cults and sects that don’t really exist. Final rule: no documentaries. We’re keeping this fictional.
courtesy of salon.com
50. Sound of My Voice (2011)
Directed by Zal Batmanglij
Sound of My Voice stars Brit Marling (also co-writer) as Maggie,...
courtesy of salon.com
50. Sound of My Voice (2011)
Directed by Zal Batmanglij
Sound of My Voice stars Brit Marling (also co-writer) as Maggie,...
- 3/24/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
February is Black History Month, and to help celebrate, The St. Louis Black Film Festival will be presenting a Tribute to the 86-year old Sidney Poitier at their Classic Black Film Festival. Lucky St. Louis movie buffs will have the opportunity to view eight vintage Sidney Poitier on the big screen. Every Thursday in February, The St. Louis Black Film Festival will be presenting two Poitier films at St Louis Cinemas Galleria (630 St Louis Galleria, Richmond Heights, Mo 63117)
The Sidney Poitier Tribute Film Festival kicks off this Thursday night (February 6th) with two Poitier classics; Lilies Of The Field and Guess Who’S Coming To Dinner
Lilies Of The Field (1963) is the story of Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier), an itinerant jack-of-all-trades, who stops to help a group of German nuns newly arrived in New Mexico. His cheerful generosity is disdained by the stern, demanding Mother Superior (Lilia Skala) until he...
The Sidney Poitier Tribute Film Festival kicks off this Thursday night (February 6th) with two Poitier classics; Lilies Of The Field and Guess Who’S Coming To Dinner
Lilies Of The Field (1963) is the story of Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier), an itinerant jack-of-all-trades, who stops to help a group of German nuns newly arrived in New Mexico. His cheerful generosity is disdained by the stern, demanding Mother Superior (Lilia Skala) until he...
- 2/3/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Marlon Brando in ‘A Dry White Season,’ James Earl Jones in ‘Cry the Beloved Country’: Apartheid movies (photo: Marlon Brando in ‘A Dry White Season’) (See previous post: “Nelson Mandela: Sidney Poitier and ‘Malcolm X’ Cameo Apperance.”) Besides the Nelson Mandela movies discussed in the previous two posts, South Africa’s apartheid has been portrayed in a number of films in the last few decades. Among the most notable ones are the following: Zoltan Korda’s Cry the Beloved Country (1951). Based on Alan Paton’s novel, this British-made film features Canada Lee and Charles Carson as two men struggling to deal with the disastrous consequences of apartheid. Ralph Nelson’s The Wilby Conspiracy (1975). Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine star as, respectively, an anti-apartheid South African activist and a British engineer on the run from South Africa’s secret police, headed by racist Nicol Williamson. Chris Menges’ A World Apart...
- 12/7/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Nelson Mandela on film and TV: From Sidney Poitier to Terrence Howard (photo: Sidney Poitier as Nelson Mandela in ‘Mandela and de Klerk’) (See previous post: "Nelson Mandela Movies: ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,’ ‘Invictus.’") As found on the IMDb, here are a handful of other narrative big-screen films featuring Nelson Mandela: Darrell Roodt’s Winnie Mandela (2011), with Jennifer Hudson in the title role and Terrence Howard as Nelson Mandela. Pete Travis’ Endgame (2009), with Clarke Peters’ Mandela as less a martyred saint than a skillful realpolitik negotiator. This political drama also features Chiwetel Ejiofor, William Hurt, Jonny Lee Miller, Mark Strong, and Derek Jacobi. Zola Maseko’s 1950s-set Drum (2004), in which Mandela is played — for a change — by a South African actor, Lindani Nkosi. As reported by Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, British filmmaker Peter Kosminsky (White Oleander, Wuthering Heights) "got into hot water a couple of years ago...
- 12/7/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Mickey Rooney movie schedule (Pt): TCM on August 13 See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Movies: Music and Murder.” Photo: Mickey Rooney ca. 1940. 3:00 Am Death On The Diamond (1934). Director: Edward Sedgwick. Cast: Robert Young, Madge Evans, Nat Pendleton, Mickey Rooney. Bw-71 mins. 4:15 Am A Midsummer Night’S Dream (1935). Director: Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. Cast: James Cagney, Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland, Ross Alexander, Anita Louise, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown, Victor Jory, Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, Jean Muir, Frank McHugh, Grant Mitchell, Hobart Cavanaugh, Dewey Robinson, Hugh Herbert, Arthur Treacher, Otis Harlan, Helen Westcott, Fred Sale, Billy Barty, Rags Ragland. Bw-143 mins. 6:45 Am A Family Affair (1936). Director: George B. Seitz. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lionel Barrymore, Cecilia Parker, Eric Linden. Bw-69 mins. 8:00 Am Boys Town (1938). Director: Norman Taurog. Cast: Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, Leslie Fenton, Gene Reynolds, Edward Norris, Addison Richards, Minor Watson, Jonathan Hale,...
- 8/13/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Mickey Rooney movies on TCM: Music and murder (photo: Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland ca. 1940) Mickey Rooney is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" star today, August 13, 2013. According to the IMDb, Mickey Rooney, who turns 93 next September 23, has been featured in more than 250 movies — in shorts and features, in Hollywood and international productions, in cameos and starring roles, in bit parts and second leads. You name it, Rooney has done it: comedies, dramas, thrillers, musicals, biopics, war movies, horse movies, horror movies. (Mickey Rooney: TCM movie schedule.) Mickey Rooney in a horror movie? Yes, in about a dozen of those. Scarier than World War Z, The Conjuring, The Exorcist, and Alien combined were A Family Affair (on TCM earlier today) and ensuing Andy Hardy movies. Creepy stuff. Nearly as frightening are Rooney’s musicals with Judy Garland, one of which TCM presented earlier this morning, Strike Up the Band (1940). Another,...
- 8/13/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Wasteland:
Television is a gold goose that lays scrambled eggs;
and it is futile and probably fatal to beat it for not laying caviar.
Lee Loevinger
When people argue over the quality of television programming, both sides — it’s addictive crap v. underappreciated populist art — seem to forget one of the essentials about commercial TV. By definition, it is not a public service. It is not commercial TV’s job to enlighten, inform, educate, elevate, inspire, or offer insight. Frankly, it’s not even commercial TV’s job to entertain. Bottom line: its purpose is simply to deliver as many sets of eyes to advertisers as possible. As it happens, it tends to do this by offering various forms of entertainment, and occasionally by offering content that does enlighten, inform, etc., but a cynic would make the point that if TV could do the same job televising fish aimlessly swimming around an aquarium,...
Television is a gold goose that lays scrambled eggs;
and it is futile and probably fatal to beat it for not laying caviar.
Lee Loevinger
When people argue over the quality of television programming, both sides — it’s addictive crap v. underappreciated populist art — seem to forget one of the essentials about commercial TV. By definition, it is not a public service. It is not commercial TV’s job to enlighten, inform, educate, elevate, inspire, or offer insight. Frankly, it’s not even commercial TV’s job to entertain. Bottom line: its purpose is simply to deliver as many sets of eyes to advertisers as possible. As it happens, it tends to do this by offering various forms of entertainment, and occasionally by offering content that does enlighten, inform, etc., but a cynic would make the point that if TV could do the same job televising fish aimlessly swimming around an aquarium,...
- 7/22/2013
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Our daily countdown of the 300 Greatest Films Ever Made continues. This is the fourth of 30, and it covers numbers 270-261.
270) The Incredibles (2004) Brad Bird USA Animated
269) Lilies Of The Fields (1963) Ralph Nelson USA
268) The Dark Knight (2008) Christopher Nolan USA
267) Donnie Darko (2001) Richard Kelly USA
266) Crash (2005) Paul Haggis USA
265) Superman: The Movie (1978) Richard Donner USA
264) Going My Way (1944) Leo McCarey USA
263) Mildred Pierce (1945) Michael Curtiz USA
262) Miracle On 34th Street (1947) George Seaton USA
261) Solaris (1972) Andrei Tarkovsky Russian
film cultureClassicslist300...
270) The Incredibles (2004) Brad Bird USA Animated
269) Lilies Of The Fields (1963) Ralph Nelson USA
268) The Dark Knight (2008) Christopher Nolan USA
267) Donnie Darko (2001) Richard Kelly USA
266) Crash (2005) Paul Haggis USA
265) Superman: The Movie (1978) Richard Donner USA
264) Going My Way (1944) Leo McCarey USA
263) Mildred Pierce (1945) Michael Curtiz USA
262) Miracle On 34th Street (1947) George Seaton USA
261) Solaris (1972) Andrei Tarkovsky Russian
film cultureClassicslist300...
- 1/5/2013
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (Rob Young)
- Cinelinx
Clu Gulager has spent the majority of his life acting. Although he was born in Oklahoma, he has spent the majority of his life in front of the camera. Recently, we sat down and had a conversation about his life times as a western and horror star. This is the fourth and final installment of that conversation. The first three parts can also be found on FEARnet.com.
What changed the way that you approached your acting?
Bette Davis, I'm mentioning names because these are familiar names. I had to work with Bette Davis one time because they fired the one guy and hired me very quickly. I had to fly down there in two hours to Dallas. I tried to learn the lines and I couldn't in that length of time. Bette Davis had done her close-up the day before so she was out on the tarmac of the airfield.
What changed the way that you approached your acting?
Bette Davis, I'm mentioning names because these are familiar names. I had to work with Bette Davis one time because they fired the one guy and hired me very quickly. I had to fly down there in two hours to Dallas. I tried to learn the lines and I couldn't in that length of time. Bette Davis had done her close-up the day before so she was out on the tarmac of the airfield.
- 11/7/2012
- by Del Howison
- FEARnet
The gray rolling seas thundered through the forest of pilings under the piers, sometimes cresting enough to send a geyser of wind-whipped froth up onto the decking. Other places, it poured through the gaps the wind and tide had eaten through the dunes and poured into the beach town streets. It pulled boats large and small from their moorings in the lagoon marinas and piled them like a child’s toys up on the land. Some in apartment buildings would tell of the cars in the ground level garage floating against each other bathtub playthings. But there was nothing childlike in the way it took entire houses, made seaside villages look like an extension of the ocean and not the land.
For the day and a half I watched Hurricane Sandy pound my home state of New Jersey – which was all the time I had before I lost my cable...
For the day and a half I watched Hurricane Sandy pound my home state of New Jersey – which was all the time I had before I lost my cable...
- 11/2/2012
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
Sophisticated and witty actor who triumphed on Broadway and won an Oscar
Celeste Holm, who has died aged 95, was the original Ado Annie in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's groundbreaking musical Oklahoma! which opened on Broadway in 1943. In I Cain't Say No, she sang: "I cain't be prissy and quaint / I ain't the type that can faint." Annie was a none-too-bright farm girl, but Holm was a smart, witty and sophisticated actor, whom everybody seemed to like. Many years later, during the interval of a Broadway show, she came out on stage and made a plea for her mental-health charity. It was done with such sincerity and passion that the audience could not fail to pay up.
On screen, Holm was the first woman to sing the Cole Porter song Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, sharing the delightful duet with Frank Sinatra in High Society (1956). Holm and Sinatra...
Celeste Holm, who has died aged 95, was the original Ado Annie in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein's groundbreaking musical Oklahoma! which opened on Broadway in 1943. In I Cain't Say No, she sang: "I cain't be prissy and quaint / I ain't the type that can faint." Annie was a none-too-bright farm girl, but Holm was a smart, witty and sophisticated actor, whom everybody seemed to like. Many years later, during the interval of a Broadway show, she came out on stage and made a plea for her mental-health charity. It was done with such sincerity and passion that the audience could not fail to pay up.
On screen, Holm was the first woman to sing the Cole Porter song Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, sharing the delightful duet with Frank Sinatra in High Society (1956). Holm and Sinatra...
- 7/16/2012
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Celeste Holm, who was best known for her Academy-Award-winning performance in the 1947 film Gentleman's Agreement, passed away on Sunday at the age of 95, according to the Associated Press.
The actress who rose to fame in 1943 after her critically acclaimed role in the Broadway production of Oklahoma! had been hospitalized two weeks ago with dehydration and wanted to spend her final days with her husband and other relatives in her New York apartment, where she passed away early Sunday morning.
"I think she wanted to be here, in her home, among her things, with people who loved her," Holm's great-niece Amy Phillips said.
In addition to receiving an Oscar for Gentleman's Agreement, Holms also received Oscar nominations for Come to the Stable (1949), in which she played a French nun, and All About Eve (1950), which was among the first 50 films to be preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry.
Beyond acting, the New York...
The actress who rose to fame in 1943 after her critically acclaimed role in the Broadway production of Oklahoma! had been hospitalized two weeks ago with dehydration and wanted to spend her final days with her husband and other relatives in her New York apartment, where she passed away early Sunday morning.
"I think she wanted to be here, in her home, among her things, with people who loved her," Holm's great-niece Amy Phillips said.
In addition to receiving an Oscar for Gentleman's Agreement, Holms also received Oscar nominations for Come to the Stable (1949), in which she played a French nun, and All About Eve (1950), which was among the first 50 films to be preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry.
Beyond acting, the New York...
- 7/16/2012
- Entertainment Tonight
New York — Celeste Holm, a versatile, bright-eyed blonde who soared to Broadway fame in "Oklahoma!" and won an Oscar in "Gentleman's Agreement" but whose last years were filled with financial difficulty and estrangement from her sons, died Sunday, a relative said. She was 95.
Holm had been hospitalized about two weeks ago with dehydration. She asked her husband on Friday to bring her home and spent her final days with her husband, Frank Basile, and other relatives and close friends by her side, said Amy Phillips, a great-niece of Holm's.
Holm died around 3:30 a.m. at her longtime apartment on Central Park West, located in the same building where Robert De Niro lives and where a fire broke out last month, Phillips said.
"I think she wanted to be here, in her home, among her things, with people who loved her," she said.
In a career that spanned more than half a century,...
Holm had been hospitalized about two weeks ago with dehydration. She asked her husband on Friday to bring her home and spent her final days with her husband, Frank Basile, and other relatives and close friends by her side, said Amy Phillips, a great-niece of Holm's.
Holm died around 3:30 a.m. at her longtime apartment on Central Park West, located in the same building where Robert De Niro lives and where a fire broke out last month, Phillips said.
"I think she wanted to be here, in her home, among her things, with people who loved her," she said.
In a career that spanned more than half a century,...
- 7/16/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
By Lee Pfeiffer
Released in an obvious attempt to capitalize on Norman Jewison's racially-charged 1967 Oscar winner In the Heat of the Night, MGM's 1969 suspense drama tick...tick...tick... attempts to emulate the smoldering tensions in a small southern town that permeated the earlier film. The MGM release is not on the caliber of the Jewison production but it is a consistently engrossing, well-acted drama that calls to mind just how relatively recently the civil rights battle had to be fought in the American South. By 1969, integration may have been the law of the land, but in fact, there were many places where attempting to implement the law would have been a death sentence. The story takes place in small Southern town where the only thing hotter than the broiling summer temperatures is the barely-concealed rage of the local population. Seems that while the apathy of white voters resulted...
Released in an obvious attempt to capitalize on Norman Jewison's racially-charged 1967 Oscar winner In the Heat of the Night, MGM's 1969 suspense drama tick...tick...tick... attempts to emulate the smoldering tensions in a small southern town that permeated the earlier film. The MGM release is not on the caliber of the Jewison production but it is a consistently engrossing, well-acted drama that calls to mind just how relatively recently the civil rights battle had to be fought in the American South. By 1969, integration may have been the law of the land, but in fact, there were many places where attempting to implement the law would have been a death sentence. The story takes place in small Southern town where the only thing hotter than the broiling summer temperatures is the barely-concealed rage of the local population. Seems that while the apathy of white voters resulted...
- 6/12/2012
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, Sidney Poitier Winning the Cecil B. DeMille Award for for his outstanding contribution to the entertainment field, actor Morgan Freeman poses with Presenters Helen Mirren and Sidney Poitier backstage in the press room with his Golden Globe Award at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA, on Sunday, January 15, 2012. Morgan Freeman won a Best Actor – Drama Golden Globe for Bruce Beresford's Driving Miss Daisy (1989), co-starring Jessica Tandy and Dan Aykroyd. Morgan Freeman also won a Best Supporting Actor for Clint Eastwood's boxing drama Million Dollar Baby (2004), co-starring Eastwood and Best Actress Oscar winner Hilary Swank. Helen Mirren won an Best Actress Oscar for Stephen Frears' The Queen (2006). Sidney Poitier won an Oscar for Ralph Nelson's Lilies of the Field (1963). Previous recipients of the Cecil B. DeMille Award include Cecil B. DeMille himself, in addition to Gregory Peck,...
- 1/19/2012
- by D. Zhea
- Alt Film Guide
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
By Tom Lisanti
Steve McQueen: The Actor and His Films by Andrew Antonaides and Mike Siegel from Dalton Watson Fine Books is one of the finest, most lavish movie books about a single actor that I have ever read. All of iconic superstar Steve McQueen’s films are equally discussed from his classics (The Blob, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Cincinnati Kid, The Sand Pebbles, Bullitt, The Thomas Crown Affair, Papillon), to his lesser known earlier movies (Never Love a Stranger, The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery)An Enemy of the People, The Hunter), to his misfires (The Honeymoon Machine, Soldier in the Rain, Baby the Rain Must Fall), to his TV series (Wanted: Dead or Alive). Most coffee table-type movie books that I have encountered are extravagantly- made, featuring glorious photographs, but containing very little substance. However, Steve McQueen...
By Tom Lisanti
Steve McQueen: The Actor and His Films by Andrew Antonaides and Mike Siegel from Dalton Watson Fine Books is one of the finest, most lavish movie books about a single actor that I have ever read. All of iconic superstar Steve McQueen’s films are equally discussed from his classics (The Blob, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, The Cincinnati Kid, The Sand Pebbles, Bullitt, The Thomas Crown Affair, Papillon), to his lesser known earlier movies (Never Love a Stranger, The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery)An Enemy of the People, The Hunter), to his misfires (The Honeymoon Machine, Soldier in the Rain, Baby the Rain Must Fall), to his TV series (Wanted: Dead or Alive). Most coffee table-type movie books that I have encountered are extravagantly- made, featuring glorious photographs, but containing very little substance. However, Steve McQueen...
- 12/22/2011
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
New York — President John F. Kennedy had just one critique when he saw photos of the actor set to play him in a World War II drama.
The year was 1963 and actor Cliff Robertson looked convincing in his costume for "Pt-109," the first film to portray a sitting president. Kennedy had favored Robertson for the role, but one detail was off.
Robertson's hair was parted on the wrong side.
The actor dutifully trained his locks to part on the left and won praise for a role he'd remain proud of throughout his life.
Robertson, who went on to win an Oscar for his portrayal of a mentally disabled man in "Charly", died of natural causes Saturday afternoon in Stony Brook, a day after his 88th birthday, according to Evelyn Christel, his secretary of 53 years.
Robertson never elevated into the top ranks of leading men, but he remained a popular actor...
The year was 1963 and actor Cliff Robertson looked convincing in his costume for "Pt-109," the first film to portray a sitting president. Kennedy had favored Robertson for the role, but one detail was off.
Robertson's hair was parted on the wrong side.
The actor dutifully trained his locks to part on the left and won praise for a role he'd remain proud of throughout his life.
Robertson, who went on to win an Oscar for his portrayal of a mentally disabled man in "Charly", died of natural causes Saturday afternoon in Stony Brook, a day after his 88th birthday, according to Evelyn Christel, his secretary of 53 years.
Robertson never elevated into the top ranks of leading men, but he remained a popular actor...
- 9/11/2011
- by AP
- Huffington Post
In recent years France has been among the front-runners in pushing the boundaries of modern horror. With such offerings as Frontier(s), Inside and High Tension, French filmmakers have been making us seriously squirm. It is with this reminder of the quality of their filmmaking that we at Dread Central bring you an announcement of the film list from the 17th Annual L'Etrange Festival, France's biggest horror film festival.
With over 70 films being screened and more than 17,000 attendees expected to descend on Paris, Le'Etrange Festival
Below we have the Complete listing of the festival's events:
From the Press Release
L’Étrange Festival – a unique event bringing filmgoers a fascinating roster of provocative and eye-opening films – is thrilled to announce the line-up for its 17th edition, September 2 – 11, 2011 in Paris, France.
The 2011 line-up continues the tradition of highlighting emerging talent, paying homage to independent-minded filmmakers and featuring a truly diverse program that includes cutting-edge works,...
With over 70 films being screened and more than 17,000 attendees expected to descend on Paris, Le'Etrange Festival
Below we have the Complete listing of the festival's events:
From the Press Release
L’Étrange Festival – a unique event bringing filmgoers a fascinating roster of provocative and eye-opening films – is thrilled to announce the line-up for its 17th edition, September 2 – 11, 2011 in Paris, France.
The 2011 line-up continues the tradition of highlighting emerging talent, paying homage to independent-minded filmmakers and featuring a truly diverse program that includes cutting-edge works,...
- 8/25/2011
- by Doctor Gash
- DreadCentral.com
When one thinks of Steve McQueen, the last thing that pops into that person’s mind is the iconic actor acting like a loveable oaf, opposite someone like Jackie Gleason. However, that’s exactly the case when it comes to the underrated gem of a comedy, Soldier In The Rain.
A 1963 film produced by Pink Panther helmer and comedy giant Blake Edwwards, Soldier stars Gleason and McQueen, and is based on the William Goldman novel of the same name. Helmed by Ralph Nelson (best known for films like Requiem For A Heavyweight, also starring Gleason), the film itself is arguably better known for being released during the same week as the assassination of John F. Kennedy, but it’s also an absolutely wonderful comedy, that still garners laugh after laugh to this day.
Seeing a proper DVD release thanks to the Warner Archive, Soldier in the Rain follows the friendship...
A 1963 film produced by Pink Panther helmer and comedy giant Blake Edwwards, Soldier stars Gleason and McQueen, and is based on the William Goldman novel of the same name. Helmed by Ralph Nelson (best known for films like Requiem For A Heavyweight, also starring Gleason), the film itself is arguably better known for being released during the same week as the assassination of John F. Kennedy, but it’s also an absolutely wonderful comedy, that still garners laugh after laugh to this day.
Seeing a proper DVD release thanks to the Warner Archive, Soldier in the Rain follows the friendship...
- 6/15/2011
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
By Bryan Buss
(February 2011)
The Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills is about as far removed from the small-town Ohio where the new D.J. Caruso-helmed sci-fi actioner “I Am Number Four” takes place, not least because, as far as one can surmise, there are no aliens among us. Then again, the actors are so inhumanly beautiful, there’s almost something supernatural about them.
Caruso, performers Alex Pettyfer, Dianna Agron, Callan McAuliffe and Teresa Palmer, and screenwriters Marti Noxon, Miles Millar and Alfred Gough have gathered on this summery January afternoon to discuss the themes and back story of the new DreamWorks flick about a teenage alien trying to blend in on Earth while being chased by predators intent on killing him. Pettyfer plays that alien, the titular Four, though that almost wasn’t the case.
Caruso, as exuberant as a boy with a new toy, explains that it was...
(February 2011)
The Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills is about as far removed from the small-town Ohio where the new D.J. Caruso-helmed sci-fi actioner “I Am Number Four” takes place, not least because, as far as one can surmise, there are no aliens among us. Then again, the actors are so inhumanly beautiful, there’s almost something supernatural about them.
Caruso, performers Alex Pettyfer, Dianna Agron, Callan McAuliffe and Teresa Palmer, and screenwriters Marti Noxon, Miles Millar and Alfred Gough have gathered on this summery January afternoon to discuss the themes and back story of the new DreamWorks flick about a teenage alien trying to blend in on Earth while being chased by predators intent on killing him. Pettyfer plays that alien, the titular Four, though that almost wasn’t the case.
Caruso, as exuberant as a boy with a new toy, explains that it was...
- 2/15/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
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