Here’s a film documentary that feels like a time-travel machine. But we’re not escaping into the past — the past is coming to us.
In “My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock,” film-besotted documentarian Mark Cousins hopscotches through the Master of Suspense’s body of work based on ideas and images, not your typical film-by-film chronological approach. He’s made hyperlinked connections throughout Hitchcock’s whole filmography (clips from almost every one of his films appear) to show that these works are not of the past: They remain eternally present tense.
To do that, Cousins presents us with a magnificent trick: making it seem as if Hitchcock is narrating the documentary and guiding you through his work and through the themes you might not otherwise notice. Impressionist Alistair McGowan portrays Hitch in the voiceover and has him down completely, from the sharp intake of breath to the almost-snort that precedes him...
In “My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock,” film-besotted documentarian Mark Cousins hopscotches through the Master of Suspense’s body of work based on ideas and images, not your typical film-by-film chronological approach. He’s made hyperlinked connections throughout Hitchcock’s whole filmography (clips from almost every one of his films appear) to show that these works are not of the past: They remain eternally present tense.
To do that, Cousins presents us with a magnificent trick: making it seem as if Hitchcock is narrating the documentary and guiding you through his work and through the themes you might not otherwise notice. Impressionist Alistair McGowan portrays Hitch in the voiceover and has him down completely, from the sharp intake of breath to the almost-snort that precedes him...
- 9/5/2022
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Take a refreshing plunge into classic French Poetic Realism — pre-noir drama with softer edges and a touch of romantic fatalism. A low-rent hotel on a barge canal is the gathering point for a cross-section of quasi- undesirables. Scandals and crimes aside, they’re a touching, human bunch, as performed to perfection by Louis Jouvet, Annabella, Arletty, Jane Marken, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Paulette Dubost and Bernard Blier. Marcel Carné’s show is also a beautiful production, with Alexandre Trauner designs that recreate ‘reality’ on an enormous scale.
Hôtel du Nord
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1139
1938 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 23, 2022 / 39.95
Starring: Annabella, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Louis Jouvet, Arletty, Paulette Dubost, Andrex, André Brunot, Henri Bosc, Marcel André, Bernard Blier, Jane Marken, François Périer, Dora Doll, Raymone.
Cinematography: Louis Née, Armand Thirard
Production Designer and Art Director: Alexandre Trauner
Film Editor: Marthe Gottie
Original Music: Maurice Jaubert
Written by Henri Jeanson,...
Hôtel du Nord
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1139
1938 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 23, 2022 / 39.95
Starring: Annabella, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Louis Jouvet, Arletty, Paulette Dubost, Andrex, André Brunot, Henri Bosc, Marcel André, Bernard Blier, Jane Marken, François Périer, Dora Doll, Raymone.
Cinematography: Louis Née, Armand Thirard
Production Designer and Art Director: Alexandre Trauner
Film Editor: Marthe Gottie
Original Music: Maurice Jaubert
Written by Henri Jeanson,...
- 8/23/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
As part of Kino Lorber’s resurrection of Jean Gabin classics once owned by Criterion, on top of bringing Port of Shadows to Blu-ray, the label also re-releases 1954’s Touchez Pas au Grisbi (aka Don’t Touch the Loot or Honor Among Thieves), a classic which revitalized the French icon’s film career. A crime saga which inspired Melville and Claude Sautet, Gabin stars as an aged gangster struggling to see his final heist to its conclusion, which happens to be the daring robbery of 96 kilos of gold bullion from the Orly airport.
The plan couldn’t be simpler—Gabin’s Max the Liar simply has to filter the kilos through his family contact, Uncle Oscar (Paul Oettly), who needs to melt the gold down so it’s untraceable.…...
The plan couldn’t be simpler—Gabin’s Max the Liar simply has to filter the kilos through his family contact, Uncle Oscar (Paul Oettly), who needs to melt the gold down so it’s untraceable.…...
- 8/13/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Kino Lorber pilfers another title from Criterion Collection with the re-release of Port of Shadows on Blu-ray. A seminal French film noir, the film’s troubled production was thanks in part to its source material, Pierre Mac Orlan’s controversial novel of the same name. Headlined by matinee idol Jean Gabin, who had already starred in Renoir’s The Lower Depths (1936) and Grand Illusion (1937), the film also marked the first major role for leading lady Michele Morgan, while Renoir’s other favored alum Michel Simon stars as the sinister villain.
A template for noir at its most fatalistic, Gabin stars as Jean, an army deserter who ends in Le Havre in hopes to secure passage to Venezuela.…...
A template for noir at its most fatalistic, Gabin stars as Jean, an army deserter who ends in Le Havre in hopes to secure passage to Venezuela.…...
- 8/13/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Two films by Marcel Carné are playing on Mubi in the United States as part of the series Marcel Carné, Arletty, Jean Gabin: Le jour se lève (1939), from June 7 - July 7, and Air of Paris (1954), from June 8 - July 8, 2017.Marcel Carné’s 1937 film Drôle de drame (Bizarre, Bizarre) feels anomalous when placed next to his classic dramas. Unlike the sincere emotion, heartbreak, and despair which characterize his poetic realist works, Drôle de drame is a lighthearted and rather frivolous comedy of manners. The film depicts a series of absurd events caused by a need to maintain appearances, following meek botanist Irwin Molyneux (Michel Simon) as he lives a double life, writing crime novels in secret. When his cousin, the bishop Bedford (Louis Jouvet), accuses Molyneux of having killed his wife, the married couple go into hiding rather than rectify the mistake. Molyneux emerges with his novelist persona in order...
- 6/8/2017
- MUBI
Fantasy books adaptation to chronicle exploits of mercenary unit in Tolkien-like world.
Im Global Television is developing The Black Company alongside Eliza Dushku’s Boston Diva Productions and David Goyer’s Phantom Four.
The show is based on Glen Cook’s 10-book action fantasy series, which Boston Diva optioned, along with the book Port Of Shadows to be published by Tor Books in 2018. Port Of Shadows takes place between books one and two of the series.
Goyer (pictured), whose previous television credits include Starz’s Da Vinci’s Demons and ABC’s Flash Forward, will serve as executive producer along with Kevin Turen under Im Global Television’s first-look deal.
Dushku, Ami Lourie and Nate Dushku will served as executive producers via Boston Diva along with Sam Maydew of Silver Lining Entertainment.
Dushku recently joined the CBS series Bull for a three-episode arc with an option to be promoted to series regular for season two. The actress...
Im Global Television is developing The Black Company alongside Eliza Dushku’s Boston Diva Productions and David Goyer’s Phantom Four.
The show is based on Glen Cook’s 10-book action fantasy series, which Boston Diva optioned, along with the book Port Of Shadows to be published by Tor Books in 2018. Port Of Shadows takes place between books one and two of the series.
Goyer (pictured), whose previous television credits include Starz’s Da Vinci’s Demons and ABC’s Flash Forward, will serve as executive producer along with Kevin Turen under Im Global Television’s first-look deal.
Dushku, Ami Lourie and Nate Dushku will served as executive producers via Boston Diva along with Sam Maydew of Silver Lining Entertainment.
Dushku recently joined the CBS series Bull for a three-episode arc with an option to be promoted to series regular for season two. The actress...
- 4/24/2017
- ScreenDaily
Im Global Television is developing The Black Company, based on Glen Cook's (Garrett P.I. series) fantasy books as a TV series, along with Eliza Dushku's Boston Diva Productions and David Goyer's Phantom Four, with Dushku set to star. Boston Diva Prods. optioned the ten-book epic action fantasy series, as well as the forthcoming book, Port of Shadows, which falls between Book 1 and 2 in the series and will be published by Tor Books in 2018. Dushku (Bull, Dollhouse, Buffy th…...
- 4/24/2017
- Deadline TV
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Metrograph
“The Singularity” has a packed weekend with the likes of Steven Spielberg, The Matrix, 2046 and more.
Carne’s Le Quai Des Brumes plays this Saturday.
IFC Center
A David Lynch retrospective has begun.
Tremors and Jurassic Park have midnight showings.
Film Forum
The Brit New Wave is underway, while A Hard Day’s Night screens on Sunday morning.
Metrograph
“The Singularity” has a packed weekend with the likes of Steven Spielberg, The Matrix, 2046 and more.
Carne’s Le Quai Des Brumes plays this Saturday.
IFC Center
A David Lynch retrospective has begun.
Tremors and Jurassic Park have midnight showings.
Film Forum
The Brit New Wave is underway, while A Hard Day’s Night screens on Sunday morning.
- 3/24/2017
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
French actor best known for her role in the 1930s film Le Quai des Brumes
One of the quintessential images of pre-war French cinema was the almond-eyed Michèle Morgan, dressed in trench coat and beret, trying to grab some happiness together with the doomed army deserter, Jean Gabin, in a sombre fogbound port in Le Quai des Brumes (Port of Shadows, 1938). “You have beautiful eyes, you know,” Gabin tells her. “Kiss me,” she replies.
It was the first film in which the distinctive melancholic “poetic realism” of the director Marcel Carné and the screenwriter Jacques Prévert expressed itself. The then 18-year-old Morgan had already been in pictures for three years, yet never again in her long career would she appear in a role so perfectly suited to her, that of the beautiful, mysterious waif, old beyond her years.
Continue reading...
One of the quintessential images of pre-war French cinema was the almond-eyed Michèle Morgan, dressed in trench coat and beret, trying to grab some happiness together with the doomed army deserter, Jean Gabin, in a sombre fogbound port in Le Quai des Brumes (Port of Shadows, 1938). “You have beautiful eyes, you know,” Gabin tells her. “Kiss me,” she replies.
It was the first film in which the distinctive melancholic “poetic realism” of the director Marcel Carné and the screenwriter Jacques Prévert expressed itself. The then 18-year-old Morgan had already been in pictures for three years, yet never again in her long career would she appear in a role so perfectly suited to her, that of the beautiful, mysterious waif, old beyond her years.
Continue reading...
- 12/21/2016
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Michèle Morgan, one of the greats of 20th century French film who starred in the lauded Port of Shadows, among many others, died today. The family announced her death, according to French media reports. She was 96. Morgan was a leading lady for three decades in both French cinema and American features. She was the inaugural winner of the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and in 1992 was given an Honorary César Award for her contributions to French…...
- 12/20/2016
- Deadline
The Retro Set a "loosely autobiographical review" of 20th Century Women
Variety there's a documentary coming about the men behind the classic "Curious George" books
The Guardian Dick Van Dyke, who is 91 years old, has confirmed that he has a part in Mary Poppins Returns playing the son of one of his two characters in the original (the ancient banker guy apparently rather than the chimney sweep)
Browbeat BAFTA makes a bold move, requiring some degree of diversity to be eligible for awards starting in 2019 (they offer several ways in which you can do that for those worried about artistic freedoms for filmmakers)
Towleroad a list of retailers you should shop at this Christmas since the anti-gay right wing is targeting them.
Decider the year in cinematic smoking
New Yorker their 16 most read stories this year
Coming Soon Legion, an X-Men spinoff TV series, gets a poster
Awards Daily Vancouver...
Variety there's a documentary coming about the men behind the classic "Curious George" books
The Guardian Dick Van Dyke, who is 91 years old, has confirmed that he has a part in Mary Poppins Returns playing the son of one of his two characters in the original (the ancient banker guy apparently rather than the chimney sweep)
Browbeat BAFTA makes a bold move, requiring some degree of diversity to be eligible for awards starting in 2019 (they offer several ways in which you can do that for those worried about artistic freedoms for filmmakers)
Towleroad a list of retailers you should shop at this Christmas since the anti-gay right wing is targeting them.
Decider the year in cinematic smoking
New Yorker their 16 most read stories this year
Coming Soon Legion, an X-Men spinoff TV series, gets a poster
Awards Daily Vancouver...
- 12/20/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Michele Morgan - in her heyday
The French actress Michèle Morgan, who was the unforgettable partner of Jean Gabin in Le Quai Des Brumes, died today in Paris at the age of 96.
Born Simone Renée Roussel on 29 February 1920, Michèle Morgan began her career in 1935 as an extra in La Vie Parisienne directed by Robert Siodmak, and in Mademoiselle Mozart by Yvan Noé, in which the title role was taken by Danielle Darrieux.
She decided to take her craft seriously, enlisting in the stage school Cours Simon where she learned the essentials of acting - and paid for her studies by continuing to take small roles in films.
Then in 1937 she made her mark in Gribouille by Marc Allégret and ascended to mythic status when (in Le Quai Des Brumes) Jean Gabin remarked “Tu as des beaux yeux, tu sais …” (“You know you have beautiful eyes …”) to which she replied: “Embrasse-moi.
The French actress Michèle Morgan, who was the unforgettable partner of Jean Gabin in Le Quai Des Brumes, died today in Paris at the age of 96.
Born Simone Renée Roussel on 29 February 1920, Michèle Morgan began her career in 1935 as an extra in La Vie Parisienne directed by Robert Siodmak, and in Mademoiselle Mozart by Yvan Noé, in which the title role was taken by Danielle Darrieux.
She decided to take her craft seriously, enlisting in the stage school Cours Simon where she learned the essentials of acting - and paid for her studies by continuing to take small roles in films.
Then in 1937 she made her mark in Gribouille by Marc Allégret and ascended to mythic status when (in Le Quai Des Brumes) Jean Gabin remarked “Tu as des beaux yeux, tu sais …” (“You know you have beautiful eyes …”) to which she replied: “Embrasse-moi.
- 12/20/2016
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Before its flame was extinguished, New York’s legendary Kim’s Video contributed further to the world of cinephilia by polling better-known customers about their favorite films. One of these customers happened to be Allen Ginsberg, a figure whose relative lack of experience in cinema certainly won’t stand as any sort of qualifier. Thanks to The Allen Ginsberg Project (via Open Culture), we can now get a wider — and, to our eyes, more immediately understandable — grasp of what made this generation-defining voice tick.
Two interests — French Poetic Realism and the work of (or at least work heavily relating to) his fellow Beat poets — announce themselves rather clearly, given the fact that they arguably occupy 90% of the final list. The sole “outsider” is Battleship Potemkin, a picture that, with fierce political intentions and poetic inclinations in its cutting, nevertheless makes perfect sense as a Ginsberg favorite. Some of these are...
Two interests — French Poetic Realism and the work of (or at least work heavily relating to) his fellow Beat poets — announce themselves rather clearly, given the fact that they arguably occupy 90% of the final list. The sole “outsider” is Battleship Potemkin, a picture that, with fierce political intentions and poetic inclinations in its cutting, nevertheless makes perfect sense as a Ginsberg favorite. Some of these are...
- 12/7/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Child actor Dickie Moore: 'Our Gang' member. Former child actor Dickie Moore dead at 89: Film career ranged from 'Our Gang' shorts to features opposite Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper 1930s child actor Dickie Moore, whose 100+ movie career ranged from Our Gang shorts to playing opposite the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck, and Gary Cooper, died in Connecticut on Sept. 7, '15 – five days before his 90th birthday. So far, news reports haven't specified the cause of death. According to a 2013 Boston Phoenix article about Moore's wife, MGM musical star Jane Powell, he had been “suffering from arthritis and bouts of dementia.” Dickie Moore movies At the behest of a persistent family friend, combined with the fact that his father was out of a job, Dickie Moore (born on Sept. 12, 1925, in Los Angeles) made his film debut as an infant in Alan Crosland's 1927 costume drama The Beloved Rogue,...
- 9/11/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Simone Simon in 'La Bête Humaine' 1938: Jean Renoir's film noir (photo: Jean Gabin and Simone Simon in 'La Bête Humaine') (See previous post: "'Cat People' 1942 Actress Simone Simon Remembered.") In the late 1930s, with her Hollywood career stalled while facing competition at 20th Century-Fox from another French import, Annabella (later Tyrone Power's wife), Simone Simon returned to France. Once there, she reestablished herself as an actress to be reckoned with in Jean Renoir's La Bête Humaine. An updated version of Émile Zola's 1890 novel, La Bête Humaine is enveloped in a dark, brooding atmosphere not uncommon in pre-World War II French films. Known for their "poetic realism," examples from that era include Renoir's own The Lower Depths (1936), Julien Duvivier's La Belle Équipe (1936) and Pépé le Moko (1937), and particularly Marcel Carné's Port of Shadows (1938) and Daybreak (1939).[11] This thematic and...
- 2/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Sean Penn: Honorary César goes Hollywood – again (photo: Sean Penn in '21 Grams') Sean Penn, 54, will receive the 2015 Honorary César (César d'Honneur), the French Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts has announced. That means the French Academy's powers-that-be are once again trying to make the Prix César ceremony relevant to the American media. Their tactic is to hand out the career award to a widely known and relatively young – i.e., media friendly – Hollywood celebrity. (Scroll down for more such examples.) In the words of the French Academy, Honorary César 2015 recipient Sean Penn is a "living legend" and "a stand-alone icon in American cinema." It has also hailed the two-time Best Actor Oscar winner as a "mythical actor, a politically active personality and an exceptional director." Penn will be honored at the César Awards ceremony on Feb. 20, 2015. Sean Penn movies Sean Penn movies range from the teen comedy...
- 1/28/2015
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
Translators introduction: This article by Mireille Latil Le Dantec, the first of two parts, was originally published in issue 40 of Cinématographe, September 1978. The previous issue of the magazine had included a dossier on "La qualité française" and a book of a never-shot script by Jean Grémillon (Le Printemps de la Liberté or The Spring of Freedom) had recently been published. The time was ripe for a re-evaluation of Grémillon's films and a resuscitation of his undervalued career. As this re-evaluation appears to still be happening nearly 40 years later—Grémillon's films have only recently seen DVD releases and a 35mm retrospective begins this week at Museum of the Moving Image in Queens—this article and its follow-up gives us an important view of a French perspective on Grémillon's work by a very perceptive critic doing the initial heavy-lifting in bringing the proper attention to the filmmaker's work.
Filmmaker maudit?...
Filmmaker maudit?...
- 11/30/2014
- by Ted Fendt
- MUBI
The world is all out of whack: multiple Dutch tilts are on display in Voyage sans espoir (1943), an unbelievably glossy poetic realist proto-noir from Christian-Jaque: the film actually begins with railway tracks viewed from the front of a speeding train, upside down, as the camera drunkenly rolls upright and titles come flying towards us, slapping flat across the frame like flies hitting a windshield.
The plot is convoluted but crisp—chance encounters tie together Jean Marais, fleeing his job at a bank to see life and settle in Argentina, with an escaped jailbird of psychopathic demeanor (Paul Bernard) and his girlfriend, the radiant Simone Renant. There's also a likably crooked ship's captain carrying a torch for Renant, a sinister ethnic-type sailor (Ky Duyen), and a pair of hard-drinking but eternally sober detectives who resemble nothing more than the Thompson Twins from Tintin. The French had a nifty way with...
The plot is convoluted but crisp—chance encounters tie together Jean Marais, fleeing his job at a bank to see life and settle in Argentina, with an escaped jailbird of psychopathic demeanor (Paul Bernard) and his girlfriend, the radiant Simone Renant. There's also a likably crooked ship's captain carrying a torch for Renant, a sinister ethnic-type sailor (Ky Duyen), and a pair of hard-drinking but eternally sober detectives who resemble nothing more than the Thompson Twins from Tintin. The French had a nifty way with...
- 3/6/2014
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Oscar winners Olivia de Havilland and Luise Rainer among movie stars of the 1930s still alive With the passing of Deanna Durbin this past April, only a handful of movie stars of the 1930s remain on Planet Earth. Below is a (I believe) full list of surviving Hollywood "movie stars of the 1930s," in addition to a handful of secondary players, chiefly those who achieved stardom in the ensuing decade. Note: There’s only one male performer on the list — and curiously, four of the five child actresses listed below were born in April. (Please scroll down to check out the list of Oscar winners at the 75th Academy Awards, held on March 23, 2003, as seen in the picture above. Click on the photo to enlarge it. © A.M.P.A.S.) Two-time Oscar winner and London resident Luise Rainer (The Great Ziegfeld, The Good Earth, The Great Waltz), 103 last January...
- 5/7/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
by Vadim Rizov
The misty streets of Le Havre are home to cloudy minds and spirits all round in Marcel Carné's 1938 Port of Shadows. (The film premieres today in a new Dcp restoration at NYC's Film Forum.) "There's no fog in here," bar owner Panama (Édouard Delmon) tells military deserter Jean (Jean Gabin) about his dilapidated shack. "It's always fair weather." Taking nighttime shelter, Jean meets Nelly (Michèle Morgan) in the back room. "One look at you, love at first sight," he'll tell her later. "Just like in the movies." A highly self-conscious film aware that well-trod conventions already exist for the progression of unlikely love affairs, Port of Shadows replaces the inevitability of romantic spark with the more banal inevitability of some "scum" or "swine" (Jean's most common words) coming along and screwing up anything nice in an already-difficult world.
Continued reading Film Of The Week: Port of Shadows...
The misty streets of Le Havre are home to cloudy minds and spirits all round in Marcel Carné's 1938 Port of Shadows. (The film premieres today in a new Dcp restoration at NYC's Film Forum.) "There's no fog in here," bar owner Panama (Édouard Delmon) tells military deserter Jean (Jean Gabin) about his dilapidated shack. "It's always fair weather." Taking nighttime shelter, Jean meets Nelly (Michèle Morgan) in the back room. "One look at you, love at first sight," he'll tell her later. "Just like in the movies." A highly self-conscious film aware that well-trod conventions already exist for the progression of unlikely love affairs, Port of Shadows replaces the inevitability of romantic spark with the more banal inevitability of some "scum" or "swine" (Jean's most common words) coming along and screwing up anything nice in an already-difficult world.
Continued reading Film Of The Week: Port of Shadows...
- 9/14/2012
- GreenCine Daily
StudioCanal embarks on the second round of its self-styled StudioCanal Collection which, it says here, brings together “the very best of cinema”. Of course, since this is the second round, one might be forgiven for being a tad cynical about the ‘very best’ claim. It’s like the old ads for “The Best Album in the World Ever … Volume 2”, a triumph of marketing over logic. What we have, instead, are films that are not the obvious usual suspects, but rarer and, in some cases, more interesting films.
Take, for example, Marcel Carne’s Le Quai Des Brumes – or Port of Shadows, if you prefer. Many pundits consider his later film, Les Enfants du Paradis to be his definitive statement on the Second World War since it is seditious and uncompromising and shot entirely under the noses of the Nazis. But that was the end of the War … Quai des Brumes...
Take, for example, Marcel Carne’s Le Quai Des Brumes – or Port of Shadows, if you prefer. Many pundits consider his later film, Les Enfants du Paradis to be his definitive statement on the Second World War since it is seditious and uncompromising and shot entirely under the noses of the Nazis. But that was the end of the War … Quai des Brumes...
- 9/10/2012
- by John Ashbrook
- Obsessed with Film
★★★★☆ The 2012 StudioCanal Collection brings together some of cinema's most iconic films, both past and present. The latest classics to make their way onto Blu-ray courtesy of the UK distributor's 5000-strong catalogue of titles come from Orson Welles, Luis Buñuel and Marcel Carné in the forms of The Trial (1962), That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) and Le Quai des Brumes (1938) - all released this Monday (10 September).
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 9/10/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Studiocanal are pleased to announce the release of their latest Studiocanal Collection that aims to revisit some of the most iconic films from Studiocanal’S back catalogue of over 5,000 titles.
Bringing together the very best of cinema, the Studiocanal Collection is a series of acclaimed and influential films on Blu-ray with unique special features and accompanying booklets, available in HD so as to present the best possible picture and sound quality. Discover or re-discover great classics, iconic contemporary works or adaptations from literary masterpieces.
The Trial and That Obscure Object Of Desire will also be available on DVD on September 10th. Quai Des Brumes is out on DVD now.
We have one copy of each Blu-ray to give away as a box set to our readers…
The Studio Canal Collection: The Trial (1962)
Available on Blu-ray: September 10th, 2012
Based on the influential Franz Kafka novel, The Trial is a paranoid masterpiece...
Bringing together the very best of cinema, the Studiocanal Collection is a series of acclaimed and influential films on Blu-ray with unique special features and accompanying booklets, available in HD so as to present the best possible picture and sound quality. Discover or re-discover great classics, iconic contemporary works or adaptations from literary masterpieces.
The Trial and That Obscure Object Of Desire will also be available on DVD on September 10th. Quai Des Brumes is out on DVD now.
We have one copy of each Blu-ray to give away as a box set to our readers…
The Studio Canal Collection: The Trial (1962)
Available on Blu-ray: September 10th, 2012
Based on the influential Franz Kafka novel, The Trial is a paranoid masterpiece...
- 8/13/2012
- by Matt Holmes
- Obsessed with Film
Port of Shadows
Directed by Marcel Carné
Written by Jacques Prévert
France, 1938
There’s a reason why it’s called ‘film noir’. Stylish, haunting, and lyrically cynical, the genre, however, has always been regarded as a staple in the American cinematic tradition. So why the French name?
Because before the likes of Hitchcock, Huston or Hawks popularized the movement in the 40’s and 50’s, there was a Frenchman named Marcel Carné, whom, along with writer by Jacques Prévert, adapted a novel by Pierre Dumarchais to create Port of Shadows (French: Le Quai des brumes).
Bursting with a style, atmosphere, thematic discontent, and a ‘poetic realism’ that were hitherto unknown, Port of Shadows was an undeniable game changer that revolutionized French filmmaking.
Dark, bleak, and more sinister than anything they’ve ever seen before, the French had, in Port of Shadows, a new genre on their hands. And they called it...
Directed by Marcel Carné
Written by Jacques Prévert
France, 1938
There’s a reason why it’s called ‘film noir’. Stylish, haunting, and lyrically cynical, the genre, however, has always been regarded as a staple in the American cinematic tradition. So why the French name?
Because before the likes of Hitchcock, Huston or Hawks popularized the movement in the 40’s and 50’s, there was a Frenchman named Marcel Carné, whom, along with writer by Jacques Prévert, adapted a novel by Pierre Dumarchais to create Port of Shadows (French: Le Quai des brumes).
Bursting with a style, atmosphere, thematic discontent, and a ‘poetic realism’ that were hitherto unknown, Port of Shadows was an undeniable game changer that revolutionized French filmmaking.
Dark, bleak, and more sinister than anything they’ve ever seen before, the French had, in Port of Shadows, a new genre on their hands. And they called it...
- 7/8/2012
- by Justin Li
- SoundOnSight
Starting July 13th and running through September 2nd, prepare yourself to be transported to a summer vacation in France. All you have to do is check in at Tiff Cinematheque (350 King Street West, Toronto).
The 41-film sabbatical will make take you to popular and renowned destinations that include Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le Fou (1965), Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour (1967), François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959), and Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion (1937).
We’ll even be making stops at more remote, recherché locations, such as Jean Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore (1973) and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows (1969).
Remember to pack lightly, re-schedule accordingly, and prepare for the ultimate staycation. Bon voyage!
Screenings include:
La Grand Illusion (1937)
Friday July 13 at 6:00 Pm
Sunday July 22 at 7:30 Pm
117 minutes
Heralded as “one of the fifty best films in the history of cinema” by Time Out Film Guide, Jean Renoir...
The 41-film sabbatical will make take you to popular and renowned destinations that include Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le Fou (1965), Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour (1967), François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959), and Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion (1937).
We’ll even be making stops at more remote, recherché locations, such as Jean Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore (1973) and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows (1969).
Remember to pack lightly, re-schedule accordingly, and prepare for the ultimate staycation. Bon voyage!
Screenings include:
La Grand Illusion (1937)
Friday July 13 at 6:00 Pm
Sunday July 22 at 7:30 Pm
117 minutes
Heralded as “one of the fifty best films in the history of cinema” by Time Out Film Guide, Jean Renoir...
- 7/2/2012
- by Justin Li
- SoundOnSight
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Sept. 18, 2012
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Jean-Louis Barrault stars in Marcel Carne's Children of Paradise.
Poetic realism reached sublime heights with Marcel Carné’s 1945 romantic drama Children of Paradise, which is widely considered one of the greatest French films of all time.
A classic depiction of 19th century Paris’s theatrical demimonde, Les enfants du paradis follows a mysterious woman (Arletty, The Pearls of the Crown’s) loved by four different men (all based on historical figures): an actor, a criminal, a count, and, most poignantly, a street mime (Jean-Louis Barrault, La ronde).
Directed with sensitivity and dramatic élan (during World War II, no less!) director Carné (Port of Shadows) and screenwriter Jacques Prévert (Le jour se lève) bring to life a world teeming with hucksters and aristocrats, thieves and courtesans, pimps and seers, and, of course, love and sorrow.
Released previously by Criterion in...
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Jean-Louis Barrault stars in Marcel Carne's Children of Paradise.
Poetic realism reached sublime heights with Marcel Carné’s 1945 romantic drama Children of Paradise, which is widely considered one of the greatest French films of all time.
A classic depiction of 19th century Paris’s theatrical demimonde, Les enfants du paradis follows a mysterious woman (Arletty, The Pearls of the Crown’s) loved by four different men (all based on historical figures): an actor, a criminal, a count, and, most poignantly, a street mime (Jean-Louis Barrault, La ronde).
Directed with sensitivity and dramatic élan (during World War II, no less!) director Carné (Port of Shadows) and screenwriter Jacques Prévert (Le jour se lève) bring to life a world teeming with hucksters and aristocrats, thieves and courtesans, pimps and seers, and, of course, love and sorrow.
Released previously by Criterion in...
- 6/25/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Catch up with the last seven days in the world of film
The big story
Yes, we know Hulk was last week's biggie, but you just can't keep Avengers Assemble, or whatever it's called, out of the news. For a few days last month, everyone was fixated on The Hunger Games' box office – but now Avengers has exposed it for the shrimp it is by recording the largest ever opening weekend in the Us.
Bizarrely, initial reports even underestimated its pulling power: the studio estimate was for $200.3m (becoming the first film to break $200m for its bow), but when the final figures came in it totalled $207.4m, flattening Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2's previous high water mark in the process.
In all honesty, Avengers Assemble was everywhere this week. Before, as fans got ready for the big lift off. During, when Sam Jackson (Nick Fury...
The big story
Yes, we know Hulk was last week's biggie, but you just can't keep Avengers Assemble, or whatever it's called, out of the news. For a few days last month, everyone was fixated on The Hunger Games' box office – but now Avengers has exposed it for the shrimp it is by recording the largest ever opening weekend in the Us.
Bizarrely, initial reports even underestimated its pulling power: the studio estimate was for $200.3m (becoming the first film to break $200m for its bow), but when the final figures came in it totalled $207.4m, flattening Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2's previous high water mark in the process.
In all honesty, Avengers Assemble was everywhere this week. Before, as fans got ready for the big lift off. During, when Sam Jackson (Nick Fury...
- 5/10/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
A BFI Southbank season of films starring the great Jean Gabin has put a new print of this 1938 masterpiece of poetic realism back on to the big screen at lucky cinemas around the country. Raymond Chandler said that Bogart could be tough without a gun, and Gabin was France's Bogart. He was at his best in the 1930s playing doomed, blue-collar losers, gangsters and military deserters (as in Le quai des brumes), most especially for Duvivier, Carné and Renoir. His postwar films were less good, though Becker's Touchez pas au Grisbi and Renoir's French Cancan are excellent, and he got to play Maigret three times as well as the French president, and to co-star with Bardot in one of her better films, En cas de malheur.
DramaWorld cinemaCrimeRomancePhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject...
DramaWorld cinemaCrimeRomancePhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject...
- 5/5/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
As part of the BFI’s season dedicated to French acting maestro Jean Gabin, Marcel Carné’s hugely influential film noir Port of Shadows is re-released at the Southbank this week. Three-quarters of a century since its inception, the film remains a high-point of the genre, and was an important precursor for the post-war American noirs that followed.
Pre-war French disillusionment is rife in Carné’s brooding, sparse film; the fog of war, as it is put, and the angst of killing, has been a heavy burden on Jean (Gabin), an army deserter who hitches a ride to Le Havre with the hope of starting a new life. Here he meets Nelly (Michèle Morgan), a 17-year old girl caught in the midst of criminals and degenerates, and looking to escape it; Jean might just be her ticket.
When viewed today, Gabin’s Jean might remind us...
As part of the BFI’s season dedicated to French acting maestro Jean Gabin, Marcel Carné’s hugely influential film noir Port of Shadows is re-released at the Southbank this week. Three-quarters of a century since its inception, the film remains a high-point of the genre, and was an important precursor for the post-war American noirs that followed.
Pre-war French disillusionment is rife in Carné’s brooding, sparse film; the fog of war, as it is put, and the angst of killing, has been a heavy burden on Jean (Gabin), an army deserter who hitches a ride to Le Havre with the hope of starting a new life. Here he meets Nelly (Michèle Morgan), a 17-year old girl caught in the midst of criminals and degenerates, and looking to escape it; Jean might just be her ticket.
When viewed today, Gabin’s Jean might remind us...
- 5/5/2012
- by Shaun Munro
- Obsessed with Film
Acre After Acre, Mile After Mile, London
If you've had the feeling in recent years that British cinema has become a story of steadily eroding national identity, then here's where you need to be looking. The season's subtitle – Tradition, Memory & Journey In British Folk Cinema – tells you what you need to know: that there's a solid, albeit underfunded, core of film-makers still out there looking for the soul of Britain, and many of them crop up here. Like Chris Petit, who this Thursday accompanies his seminal late-70s road trip Radio On. Or Andrew Kötting and Iain Sinclair, who'll be previewing their pedalo-powered journey to the Olympics later. Or, fresh to their ranks, Ben Rivers, here with his Scottish wilderness film Two Years At Sea. Look out too for more commercial fare such as The Long Good Friday and The Elephant Man.
Sugar House Studios, E15, Thu to 28 Jun
Jean Gabin,...
If you've had the feeling in recent years that British cinema has become a story of steadily eroding national identity, then here's where you need to be looking. The season's subtitle – Tradition, Memory & Journey In British Folk Cinema – tells you what you need to know: that there's a solid, albeit underfunded, core of film-makers still out there looking for the soul of Britain, and many of them crop up here. Like Chris Petit, who this Thursday accompanies his seminal late-70s road trip Radio On. Or Andrew Kötting and Iain Sinclair, who'll be previewing their pedalo-powered journey to the Olympics later. Or, fresh to their ranks, Ben Rivers, here with his Scottish wilderness film Two Years At Sea. Look out too for more commercial fare such as The Long Good Friday and The Elephant Man.
Sugar House Studios, E15, Thu to 28 Jun
Jean Gabin,...
- 5/4/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
They outraged the authorities on release. But the two films, made before and during the second world war, are now considered classics – and will be re-released this month. Our critics consider their impact
Ryan Gilbey on Le Quai des Brumes
It's easy now to call Marcel Carné's Le Quai des Brumes a masterpiece. When the film was released in 1938, such a view was more contentious. In the wake of the collapse of France's Popular Front government, the film was seen as exacerbating the mood of despair creeping into the left. Jean Renoir labelled it "counter-revolutionary". The Motion Picture Herald concluded: "One will be sorry that such art and talents have been used for such a trite and sordid story, which includes not a decent or healthy character." The Vichy government denounced it as "immoral, depressing and detrimental to young people", and declared that if the war was lost, Le Quai des Brumes...
Ryan Gilbey on Le Quai des Brumes
It's easy now to call Marcel Carné's Le Quai des Brumes a masterpiece. When the film was released in 1938, such a view was more contentious. In the wake of the collapse of France's Popular Front government, the film was seen as exacerbating the mood of despair creeping into the left. Jean Renoir labelled it "counter-revolutionary". The Motion Picture Herald concluded: "One will be sorry that such art and talents have been used for such a trite and sordid story, which includes not a decent or healthy character." The Vichy government denounced it as "immoral, depressing and detrimental to young people", and declared that if the war was lost, Le Quai des Brumes...
- 5/3/2012
- by Ryan Gilbey, Philip Oltermann
- The Guardian - Film News
Catch up with the last seven days in the world of film
The big story
In case you hadn't noticed, the Avengers movie was released
last Friday. Leaving aside the bellyaching about its retitling for the
UK, one thing most people agree on is that the chunky green fella, otherwise known as the Hulk, steals the show. Hence the chorus of delight, ecstasy and merriment (especially among those who manufacture those amazing non-split trousers) when Marvel announced they had signed actor Mark Ruffalo to a six-movie deal.
Even allowing for two Avengers sequels and a prequel, that still leaves room for a potential three standalone Hulk movies. And that certainly had Stuart Heritage slavering.
As Stuart points out, Marvel have previously tried and (largely) failed to insert Hulk into the public consciousness as a single lead character. (Students of the Peter Bradshaw One-Star Review really ought to take a look...
The big story
In case you hadn't noticed, the Avengers movie was released
last Friday. Leaving aside the bellyaching about its retitling for the
UK, one thing most people agree on is that the chunky green fella, otherwise known as the Hulk, steals the show. Hence the chorus of delight, ecstasy and merriment (especially among those who manufacture those amazing non-split trousers) when Marvel announced they had signed actor Mark Ruffalo to a six-movie deal.
Even allowing for two Avengers sequels and a prequel, that still leaves room for a potential three standalone Hulk movies. And that certainly had Stuart Heritage slavering.
As Stuart points out, Marvel have previously tried and (largely) failed to insert Hulk into the public consciousness as a single lead character. (Students of the Peter Bradshaw One-Star Review really ought to take a look...
- 5/3/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★☆ Arguably the jewel in the crown of the BFI's recently launched Jean Gabin: Working Class Hero to Godfather season, a new StudioCanal/Cinémathèque français restoration of Marcel Carné's noirish 1938 film Le Quai des Brumes reaches selected cinemas this week, showcasing the talents of not only its director but also its iconic 34-year-old leading man, already at this point in time France's most bankable screen actor.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 5/3/2012
- by CineVue
- CineVue
Damsels In Distress (12A)
(Whit Stillman, 2011, Us) Greta Gerwig, Analeigh Tipton, Adam Brody, Ryan Metcalf, Megalyn Echikunwoke. 99 mins
Stillman casts a wry eye across the college campus, and settles on Gerwig's clique of preppy girls who confuse charity with condescension. The result is distinctively articulate, witty, gently surreal and hilariously sarcastic. But as well as parodying these misguided teens, Stillman clearly has great sympathy for them. It's good to have him back.
Avengers Assemble (12A)
(Joss Whedon, 2012, Us) Samuel L Jackson, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson. 142 mins
Considering the lack of leeway Whedon had with this superhero juggernaut, he pulls off a remarkable feat, keeping all the plates spinning with as much irony as he can get away with. It descends into a numbing effects orgy, but it's fast and fun along the way.
Albert Nobbs (15)
(Rodrigo García, 2011, UK/Ire) Glenn Close, Mia Wasikowska. 113 mins
Close's committed performance anchors this...
(Whit Stillman, 2011, Us) Greta Gerwig, Analeigh Tipton, Adam Brody, Ryan Metcalf, Megalyn Echikunwoke. 99 mins
Stillman casts a wry eye across the college campus, and settles on Gerwig's clique of preppy girls who confuse charity with condescension. The result is distinctively articulate, witty, gently surreal and hilariously sarcastic. But as well as parodying these misguided teens, Stillman clearly has great sympathy for them. It's good to have him back.
Avengers Assemble (12A)
(Joss Whedon, 2012, Us) Samuel L Jackson, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson. 142 mins
Considering the lack of leeway Whedon had with this superhero juggernaut, he pulls off a remarkable feat, keeping all the plates spinning with as much irony as he can get away with. It descends into a numbing effects orgy, but it's fast and fun along the way.
Albert Nobbs (15)
(Rodrigo García, 2011, UK/Ire) Glenn Close, Mia Wasikowska. 113 mins
Close's committed performance anchors this...
- 4/27/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
There are multiple Fausts. Ever-multiplying, in fact, as if to outbreed all other fictional characters. The good doctor is unusual: Marlowe and Goethe's plays are both classics, and then there's Mann's novel; at least fifteen operas... In movies, Murnau rules supreme, but I like William Dieterle's The Devil and Daniel Webster just as much. René Clair's La beauté du diable is one of his best films, with Michel Simon and Gérard Philipe trading places as tempter and tempted, both utterly charming in their quite distinct ways. Sokurov just made another, well liked here at the Notebook. But for sheer visual rapture, Claude Autant-Lara's 1955 version Marguerite de la nuit takes the Technicolor cake and runs cackling all the way to perdition.
Based on a novel by author/songwriter Pierre Mac Orlan, who also provided source books for Le quai des brumes for Carné and La bandera for Duvivier,...
Based on a novel by author/songwriter Pierre Mac Orlan, who also provided source books for Le quai des brumes for Carné and La bandera for Duvivier,...
- 2/23/2012
- MUBI
The 49th New York Film Festival has announced their main slate which takes place September 30th thru October 16th at Lincoln Center. The closing night selection is Alexander Payne’s The Descendants which joins the gala screenings of opening night’s Roman Polanski’s Carnage, David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, and the Almodóvar/Banderas reunion The Skin I Live In. Check out the lineup below along with a synopsis of each film:
Opening Night Gala Selection
Carnage
Director: Roman Polanski
Country: France/Germany/Poland
Centerpiece Gala Selection
My Week With Marilyn
Director: Simon Curtis
Country: UK
Special Gala Presentations
A Dangerous Method
Director: David Cronenberg
Country: UK/Canada/Germany
The Skin I Live In
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Country: Spain
Closing Night Gala Selection
The Descendants
Director: Alexander Payne
Country: USA
Main Slate Selection
4:44: Last Day On Earth
Director: Abel Ferrara
Country: USA
The Artist
Director: Michel Hazanavicius...
Opening Night Gala Selection
Carnage
Director: Roman Polanski
Country: France/Germany/Poland
Centerpiece Gala Selection
My Week With Marilyn
Director: Simon Curtis
Country: UK
Special Gala Presentations
A Dangerous Method
Director: David Cronenberg
Country: UK/Canada/Germany
The Skin I Live In
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Country: Spain
Closing Night Gala Selection
The Descendants
Director: Alexander Payne
Country: USA
Main Slate Selection
4:44: Last Day On Earth
Director: Abel Ferrara
Country: USA
The Artist
Director: Michel Hazanavicius...
- 8/19/2011
- by Christopher Clemente
- SoundOnSight
Press Release:
New York, August 17, 2011 -The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that Alexander Payne.s The Descendants will be the Closing Night Gala selection for the 49th New York Film Festival (September 30-October 16). Nyff.s main slate of 27 feature films was also announced as well as a return to the festival stage of audience favorite, On Cinema (previously titled The Cinema Inside Me), featuring an in-depth, illustrated conversation with Alexander Payne.
The 2011 edition of Nyff will also feature a unique blend of programming to complement the main-slate of films, including: the Masterworks programs, additional titles added to the previously announced Ben-hur, Nicholas Ray.s We Can.T Go Home Again and Velvet Bullets and Steel Kisses: Celebrating the Nikkatsu Centennial, as well as Views from the Avant-Garde, and several special event screenings, all of which will be announced in more detail shortly.
.In many of the films in this year.s Festival,...
New York, August 17, 2011 -The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that Alexander Payne.s The Descendants will be the Closing Night Gala selection for the 49th New York Film Festival (September 30-October 16). Nyff.s main slate of 27 feature films was also announced as well as a return to the festival stage of audience favorite, On Cinema (previously titled The Cinema Inside Me), featuring an in-depth, illustrated conversation with Alexander Payne.
The 2011 edition of Nyff will also feature a unique blend of programming to complement the main-slate of films, including: the Masterworks programs, additional titles added to the previously announced Ben-hur, Nicholas Ray.s We Can.T Go Home Again and Velvet Bullets and Steel Kisses: Celebrating the Nikkatsu Centennial, as well as Views from the Avant-Garde, and several special event screenings, all of which will be announced in more detail shortly.
.In many of the films in this year.s Festival,...
- 8/17/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The New York Film Festival have officially announced their main slate, including the closing night film. The latter will be Alexander Payne‘s The Descendants starring George Clooney, which will also bow at Toronto. Their line-up includes a lot of Cannes holdovers including new films from the Dardenne brothers, Lars von Trier, Wim Wenders, Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Joseph Cedar, as well as buzzed-about hits like The Artist, Le Havre, Once Upon a Time in Antatolia and Miss Bala. Out of the new films, we’ll be getting Martin Scorsese‘s George Harrison doc, Steve McQueen‘s Hunger follow-up Shame, as well as Abel Ferrara and Béla Tarr and Agnes Hranitzky films. I was also glad to see Sean Durkin‘s utterly excellent Martha Marcy May Marlene as part of the slate. Check out the full line-up below.
4:44: Last Day On Earth
Abel Ferrara, 2011, USA, 82min
How...
4:44: Last Day On Earth
Abel Ferrara, 2011, USA, 82min
How...
- 8/17/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
As most readers of this site have probably heard by now, the late and great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman unexpectedly stirred up chatter on the web when doubts were cast on the circumstances of his birth. Recently released DNA tests apparently show that he was given birth by Hedvig Sjöberg, a different woman than the mother who raised him, Karin Bergman, about whom her son Ingmar has written extensively and who served as a major source of inspiration for the films he made over the course of a lifetime. This article is the most extensive (and presumably fact-based) summary of the controversy, and my purpose here is not to engage in any extended speculation or gossip about what the allegations mean or how it changes our assessment of Bergman’s work.
But given the significance of Bergman’s childhood and family life as it directly informed some of his most important films,...
But given the significance of Bergman’s childhood and family life as it directly informed some of his most important films,...
- 5/30/2011
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
Of all the great directors France has produced since the Lumière brothers put light to celluloid, the greatest may be Jean Renoir, son of the painter Pierre-August and director of two movies considered by many critics among the best ever made: “La Grande Illusion” in 1937 and “The Rules of the Game” two years later. The latter has appeared in the Sight & Sound Top Ten poll (voted by critics and directors) every decade since 1952; it is worth noting however that the movie was slated upon its release, and even banned in France by the government.
Similarly when Boudu Saved From Drowning, one of his first sound movies – from 1932 – was finally released in America in 1967 it was met generally with bafflement and condescension (one of the few voices of praise was Pauline Kael’s). And like “Rules of the Game” it is now, correctly, regarded as a classic.
The title character is a tramp,...
Similarly when Boudu Saved From Drowning, one of his first sound movies – from 1932 – was finally released in America in 1967 it was met generally with bafflement and condescension (one of the few voices of praise was Pauline Kael’s). And like “Rules of the Game” it is now, correctly, regarded as a classic.
The title character is a tramp,...
- 4/4/2011
- by Adam Whyte
- Obsessed with Film
When it comes to ranking my favorite months of the year, there are none that I enjoy bidding good riddance to more than February. Sure, it’s a short month that signifies events I look forward to, but February’s passing means that better times (i.e. the end of winter) is soon on its way. But early March typically doesn’t offer much to confirm my impression (maybe more like wishful thinking) that spring is in the air, and this weekend here at my home in West Michigan very much fit that pattern as a slab of dull grey mediocrity hung low overhead, drizzling a sullen slushy mix of rain and snow that’s been giving my basement sump pump a pretty thorough workout over the past several days. Such mundane, pedestrian observations of my personal life may seem irrelevant to a movie review, but the conditions I described...
- 3/7/2011
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
Above: Alexandre Trauner's sketch for Canal Saint-Martin and Hotel (second building from right).
Besides classical Hollywood, one of the other periods of film history in which studio production design has been so highly noted is the French poetic realist cinema of the 1930s. That period was the peak of creativity and influence of set designers in French film industry since the magical two-dimensional background paintings of Georges Méliès. The achievements of the era saw the making and consolidation of the reputations of designers in France, and growing critical and public interest in the nature of film design. Collaborations between director René Clair and art director Lazare Meerson had been widely seen in Europe and in even North America, where factory’s sets from À nous la liberté (1931) became a source of inspiration for Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936).
Among the architects of poetic realist cinema, one of the most skillful,...
Besides classical Hollywood, one of the other periods of film history in which studio production design has been so highly noted is the French poetic realist cinema of the 1930s. That period was the peak of creativity and influence of set designers in French film industry since the magical two-dimensional background paintings of Georges Méliès. The achievements of the era saw the making and consolidation of the reputations of designers in France, and growing critical and public interest in the nature of film design. Collaborations between director René Clair and art director Lazare Meerson had been widely seen in Europe and in even North America, where factory’s sets from À nous la liberté (1931) became a source of inspiration for Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936).
Among the architects of poetic realist cinema, one of the most skillful,...
- 10/10/2010
- MUBI
TV5MONDE USA bring the U.S. audience programming that includes new and classic French-language films, documentaries, event coverage and international news shows. In June, TV5MONDE will feature the work of Catherine Deneuve, Jean Gabin, Elodie Bouchez, Pierre Fresnay and more. Additionally, TV5MONDE sponsors many Us events including upcoming Film Festivals such as the San Francisco International Film Festival, City of Lights City of Angeles Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, Greenwich Film Festival and more. June 2010 Quai des Brumes (Port of Shadows) Premieres Tuesday, June 1 8:30p.m. Est / 5:30p.m. Pst Award-winning director, Marcel Carné.s style of poetic-realism set the tone for the film-noir genre to inhabit America a few years after it was made. After leaving...
- 5/22/2010
- by April MacIntyre
- Monsters and Critics
This being the week of the Oscars, Hollywood's annual celebration of film and film-watching, Pinkos turns the spotlight on the best clips on the communal magic of moviegoing
We all have our own little ritual, our own private ceremony, when we go the cinema. Some always head for that regular aisle seat on the left, others give musty toes a clandestine airing, yet more still will succumb to the lure of the corn that pops.
Only then can we slip easily into the cosy, velvety chairs (well, in some cases …) and let the magic of the light on screen entrance us. This week, Oscars week, all eyes are turned to the people watching in the auditorium. So, in celebration of our turn in the limelight, and with due genuflection to Chacun son Cinéma, that great portmanteau movie celebrating cinemagoing, I present my five top clips showing filmgoing rites in different lights.
We all have our own little ritual, our own private ceremony, when we go the cinema. Some always head for that regular aisle seat on the left, others give musty toes a clandestine airing, yet more still will succumb to the lure of the corn that pops.
Only then can we slip easily into the cosy, velvety chairs (well, in some cases …) and let the magic of the light on screen entrance us. This week, Oscars week, all eyes are turned to the people watching in the auditorium. So, in celebration of our turn in the limelight, and with due genuflection to Chacun son Cinéma, that great portmanteau movie celebrating cinemagoing, I present my five top clips showing filmgoing rites in different lights.
- 3/3/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
The woes of rights have made a lot of fandom particularly challenging, whether it's seeing your beloved television shows never make DVD due to music rights, ultimate editions never getting released due split studio rights (Fire Walk with Me!), or Criterion titles disappear from the shelves.
Criterion has announced that they're about to lose the rights to 23 excellent titles from StudioCanal at the end of March. "The titles are going to Lionsgate, and we don't know when they may be rereleased. As ever, we will continue to try to relicense the films so that they can rejoin the collection sometime in the future." The titles are: Alphaville, Carlos Saura's Flamenco Trilogy, Le corbeau, Coup de torchon, Diary of a Country Priest, The Fallen Idol, Forbidden Games, Gervaise, Grand Illusion, Le jour se leve, Last Holiday, Mayerling, The Orphic Trilogy, Peeping Tom, Pierrot le fou, Port of Shadows, Quai des Orfevres,...
Criterion has announced that they're about to lose the rights to 23 excellent titles from StudioCanal at the end of March. "The titles are going to Lionsgate, and we don't know when they may be rereleased. As ever, we will continue to try to relicense the films so that they can rejoin the collection sometime in the future." The titles are: Alphaville, Carlos Saura's Flamenco Trilogy, Le corbeau, Coup de torchon, Diary of a Country Priest, The Fallen Idol, Forbidden Games, Gervaise, Grand Illusion, Le jour se leve, Last Holiday, Mayerling, The Orphic Trilogy, Peeping Tom, Pierrot le fou, Port of Shadows, Quai des Orfevres,...
- 2/3/2010
- by Monika Bartyzel
- Cinematical
Get 'em while you can! Today, the Criterion Collection announced that a number of their titles will soon be going the way of the dodo. Sort of. At the end of March 2010, the rights to over 20 titles in Criterion's catalog will lapse and will end up, presumably, in Lionsgate's hands. Titles on the list include Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion (spine #1!!!), Marcel Carné's Port Of Shadows and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom...
- 2/2/2010
- 24framespersecond.net
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