Brothers Leonard, Adolph, Julius, Milton, and Herbert Marx were born into a performing family. Their mother, Meine Shoenberg (known on stage as Minnie Palmer) was already the daughter of a ventriloquist and a professional yodeler, and their uncle was Al Shean of the comedy duo Gallagher and Shean, well known on the vaudeville circuit. Minnie Palmer encouraged her sons to perform; they had natural gifts for music and comedy, and would serve as their manager. Julius, the first to perform, made his stage debut in 1905. Leonard, Adolph, Julius, Milton, and Herbert would eventually adopt the stage names Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo, and Zeppo, respectively, and the Marx Bros. would swiftly become one of the premiere comedy acts of their generation.
To this day, no comedian hasn't been influenced by the Marx Bros. Chico's charming conman, Harpo's innocent cartoon, and Groucho's wisecracking Lothario are seared into the pop consciousness in perpetuity,...
To this day, no comedian hasn't been influenced by the Marx Bros. Chico's charming conman, Harpo's innocent cartoon, and Groucho's wisecracking Lothario are seared into the pop consciousness in perpetuity,...
- 7/16/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
There is, a critic will argue, a great deal of value in finding and discussing the worst films of the year. All the films released in a given epoch are a reflection of the trends and ideas that produced them, and scoring the bottom of the barrel for the worst filmmaking, the worst ideas, and the most misguided thinking will provide a valuable analysis of where we are as a society. Worst-of lists are important and vital and should be written with enthusiasm. They also let critics blow off steam a little bit; we don't have the luxury to skip bad movies or avoid talking about the ones we hate. It's our job.
The Golden Raspberries, or the Razzies for short, however, lost sight of that value a while back. The annual Razzies announcement is usually a snarky affair that only serves to pick on the year's least popular blockbusters,...
The Golden Raspberries, or the Razzies for short, however, lost sight of that value a while back. The annual Razzies announcement is usually a snarky affair that only serves to pick on the year's least popular blockbusters,...
- 2/15/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game has been part of the film canon for so long that it’s valuable to remind audiences how gloriously alive and just plain fun it is. Low comedy walks hand and hand with tragedy and beauty throughout the film, which is frothy one minute, nearly apocalyptic the next—and so you’re never fully allowed to gather your bearings. It has a tone that could be symbolized by the escalating merry-go-round that prominently plays into the climax of Strangers on a Train—up and down, all around and seemingly totally out of control. The film, as Paul Schrader says in this Criterion edition’s liner notes, represents all of cinema’s possibilities in 106 minutes.
That controlled chaos is partially driven by anger and despair. Renoir often said that the film was a response to his frustrations with the bourgeoisie at a time...
That controlled chaos is partially driven by anger and despair. Renoir often said that the film was a response to his frustrations with the bourgeoisie at a time...
- 7/5/2023
- by Chuck Bowen
- Slant Magazine
Most artists, if they’re lucky, invent one thing. But Kenneth Anger, who was a filmmaker, an author, a debauched aristocratic scenester and, to the day of his death at 96, a figure of puckish mystery, invented several things, each one of them epic.
In “Fireworks,” his transcendent 14-minute avant-garde film of 1947, Anger invented the very consciousness and imagery of gay liberation — not the desire to be liberated (which was buried in the hearts of gay people everywhere), but the rapturous visual reverie of what that liberation might look like, what it would feel like, why it seemed so forbidden, and why it needed to be. In “Scorpio Rising,” his homoerotic demon-biker/Top-40-orgy blast from the underground, Anger invented MTV, invented what Martin Scorsese did in “Mean Streets” and David Lynch did in “Blue Velvet,” invented a way to express how music and reality talk to each other.
In “Hollywood Babylon,...
In “Fireworks,” his transcendent 14-minute avant-garde film of 1947, Anger invented the very consciousness and imagery of gay liberation — not the desire to be liberated (which was buried in the hearts of gay people everywhere), but the rapturous visual reverie of what that liberation might look like, what it would feel like, why it seemed so forbidden, and why it needed to be. In “Scorpio Rising,” his homoerotic demon-biker/Top-40-orgy blast from the underground, Anger invented MTV, invented what Martin Scorsese did in “Mean Streets” and David Lynch did in “Blue Velvet,” invented a way to express how music and reality talk to each other.
In “Hollywood Babylon,...
- 5/27/2023
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Jean Renoir was a prolific filmmaker who left an indelible mark on cinema.
As a director, he blended realism and fantasy in groundbreaking films such as Grand Illusion, La Grande Illusion. Throughout his career, he continued to explore the possibilities of film and cinematography. His films are filled with complex characters and settings that often blur the line between our reality and fiction.
Renoir’s films were critically acclaimed, and his influence on cinema can still be seen today. Many filmmakers have been inspired by his unique vision and style. His wisdom is timeless, and he continues to inspire new generations of filmmakers.
In this article, we look at the life and work of Jean Renoir through the wisdom of his films. We invite you to explore how Renoir’s films challenge us to think differently about our world and how we perceive it.
Jean Renoir’s Early Life and...
As a director, he blended realism and fantasy in groundbreaking films such as Grand Illusion, La Grande Illusion. Throughout his career, he continued to explore the possibilities of film and cinematography. His films are filled with complex characters and settings that often blur the line between our reality and fiction.
Renoir’s films were critically acclaimed, and his influence on cinema can still be seen today. Many filmmakers have been inspired by his unique vision and style. His wisdom is timeless, and he continues to inspire new generations of filmmakers.
In this article, we look at the life and work of Jean Renoir through the wisdom of his films. We invite you to explore how Renoir’s films challenge us to think differently about our world and how we perceive it.
Jean Renoir’s Early Life and...
- 3/27/2023
- by Movies Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Magazine - Movies
Following word of an incredible Pasolini boxset, the Criterion Collection have unveiled their larger June lineup. The 4K rollout continues apace, and for some reason Terry Gilliam now has the most releases––following The Fisher King and Baron Munchausen, his George Harrison-produced Time Bandits arrives in a well-stacked edition. Much as I might question more and more super-hi-def releases for this of all filmmakers, one must remember: everybody has their reasons. And it’s arguably a suitable compensation, for ourselves and film history at larger, that this same month brings an upgrade for The Rules of the Game.
Barry Jenkins joins the collection with his debut feature Medicine for Melancholy, whose lifespan––small SXSW premiere in 2008, minor theatrical release 12 months later, years of relative obscurity, and now a Criterion––we can only consider aspirational. But maybe my favorite movie arriving in June––even greater than Renoir––is Joseph Losey’s absurdly entertaining,...
Barry Jenkins joins the collection with his debut feature Medicine for Melancholy, whose lifespan––small SXSW premiere in 2008, minor theatrical release 12 months later, years of relative obscurity, and now a Criterion––we can only consider aspirational. But maybe my favorite movie arriving in June––even greater than Renoir––is Joseph Losey’s absurdly entertaining,...
- 3/15/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
A tent full of celebrities and movie executives in a beautiful setting gave hope for filmmaking this weekend. No, not the Indie Spirits — this was another tent, 1,300 miles away.
The Texas Film Awards took place March 3 on Willie Nelson’s famous Luck, Texas ranch, outside Austin. Under its canopy, open to the crisp Hill Country air, Jonathan Majors, Margo Martindale, John and Janet Pierson, and Mike De Luca were inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame by presenters including Luke Wilson, “Justified” creator Graham Yost, and Kevin Smith. It was a remarkable evening that defied the Red State vs. Blue State tropes that dominate cultural discourse — even as politics makes Texas filmmaking more challenging.
Earlier that day at the Film Awards press conference, DeLuca praised the state as a source of “new voices, underrepresented voices, new stories to tell, because LA can be a very bubble community. That’s...
The Texas Film Awards took place March 3 on Willie Nelson’s famous Luck, Texas ranch, outside Austin. Under its canopy, open to the crisp Hill Country air, Jonathan Majors, Margo Martindale, John and Janet Pierson, and Mike De Luca were inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame by presenters including Luke Wilson, “Justified” creator Graham Yost, and Kevin Smith. It was a remarkable evening that defied the Red State vs. Blue State tropes that dominate cultural discourse — even as politics makes Texas filmmaking more challenging.
Earlier that day at the Film Awards press conference, DeLuca praised the state as a source of “new voices, underrepresented voices, new stories to tell, because LA can be a very bubble community. That’s...
- 3/6/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
While we’ve known the results of Jeanne Dielman Tops Sight and Sound‘s 2022 Greatest Films of All-Time List”>Sight & Sound’s once-in-a-decade greatest films of all-time poll for a few months now, the recent release of the individual ballots has given data-crunching cinephiles a new opportunity to dive deeper. We have Letterboxd lists detailing all 4,400+ films that received at least one vote and another expanding the directors poll, spreadsheets calculating every entry, and now a list ranking how many votes individual directors received for their films.
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below,...
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below,...
- 3/5/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Click here to read the full article.
Jane Rosenthal wasn’t mincing words about the slow growth of women’s representation behind the camera in Hollywood: “The statistics are bleak,” she said Sept. 20 at the Through Her Lens luncheon, presented by Chanel at New York’s Locanda Verde restaurant in the Greenwich Hotel. “The numbers have hardly budged over the years, despite assumed progress.”
Indeed, even as conversations about women-helmed projects have heightened in recent years, Rosenthal pointed to industry figures gathered since 1998, noting that the percentage of women directors, writers, producers and cinematographers since then had only increased by four percent. “More than two decades and an increase of only 4 percent? You’ve gotta be kidding me,” added Rosenthal, the CEO and co-founder of Tribeca Enterprises, host of the annual Tribeca Film Festival, set for June 7-18 in 2023.
If she sounded frustrated, the reason was partly to illustrate why...
Jane Rosenthal wasn’t mincing words about the slow growth of women’s representation behind the camera in Hollywood: “The statistics are bleak,” she said Sept. 20 at the Through Her Lens luncheon, presented by Chanel at New York’s Locanda Verde restaurant in the Greenwich Hotel. “The numbers have hardly budged over the years, despite assumed progress.”
Indeed, even as conversations about women-helmed projects have heightened in recent years, Rosenthal pointed to industry figures gathered since 1998, noting that the percentage of women directors, writers, producers and cinematographers since then had only increased by four percent. “More than two decades and an increase of only 4 percent? You’ve gotta be kidding me,” added Rosenthal, the CEO and co-founder of Tribeca Enterprises, host of the annual Tribeca Film Festival, set for June 7-18 in 2023.
If she sounded frustrated, the reason was partly to illustrate why...
- 9/21/2022
- by Laurie Brookins
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
There ought to be an obscure, multisyllabic German word for the very specific feeling of pride one can take in discovering cinema through one of the medium's more highly regarded classics. There are those among us who had something of a cinematic awakening while watching an indelible classic such as, say, "Citizen Kane," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Persona," "The Rules of the Game," or "The General." Conversely, there ought to be a similar term for the mixture of pride and embarrassment one feels when their cinematic awakening is instigated by something obscure or unknown. "2001" may be a great piece of cinema. But surely someone in the world fell in love with movies the first time they saw Tony Richardson's 1961 film "A Taste of Honey," or Russell Mulcahy's "Highlander 2: The Quickening."
Actor Ben Kingsley, to offer a brief introduction, is undoubtedly one of the best actors of his generation...
Actor Ben Kingsley, to offer a brief introduction, is undoubtedly one of the best actors of his generation...
- 9/19/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Exclusive: Universal International Studios’ SVP/Head of UK Creative Thomas Daley is leaving the company after two years, we’ve learned.
The much-liked exec, who is also a film and theater director, has been with the international content arm of Universal Studios Group since July 2020.
A Universal International Studios rep confirmed his exit and added no further changes are following at the London-based operation, which houses the likes of Downton Abbey producer Carnival Films. It’s understood he departs on good terms and his next move is currently unknown.
As part of Universal International Studios’ senior leadership team, Daley worked closely with Carnival and other labels such as Heyday Television, Working Title, Matchbox Pictures and Lark. His role also included developing TV series throughout Europe, assessing first-look and acquisitions opportunities, leading and managing the UK development and creative team and working on financial production models.
He also oversaw Universal International...
The much-liked exec, who is also a film and theater director, has been with the international content arm of Universal Studios Group since July 2020.
A Universal International Studios rep confirmed his exit and added no further changes are following at the London-based operation, which houses the likes of Downton Abbey producer Carnival Films. It’s understood he departs on good terms and his next move is currently unknown.
As part of Universal International Studios’ senior leadership team, Daley worked closely with Carnival and other labels such as Heyday Television, Working Title, Matchbox Pictures and Lark. His role also included developing TV series throughout Europe, assessing first-look and acquisitions opportunities, leading and managing the UK development and creative team and working on financial production models.
He also oversaw Universal International...
- 6/8/2022
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
If someone ever asked me to suggest a movie that captures the inner workings of the Malayali psyche, this would be it. The need to have a good time, is common across the world. And in Kerala, travel and booze are integral to this. But never did I imagine that “Ozhivudivasathe kali” (English translation – An off-day game) could encapsulate what Kerala is, so elegantly unlike any other.
Five friends decide to have a good time on election day which is a holiday declared by the state government to facilitate voting. The group has representation from different sections of society. Thirumeni (Girish Nair), Dharman (Nishtar Sait), Dasan (Baiju Netto), Vinayan (Pradeep Kumar) and Asokan (Arun Nair), though bound by the exhilarating prospect of booze, keep their prejudices and allegiances very close to their hearts. They go to a secluded guest house surrounded by natural vegetation. Geetha (Abhija Sivakala) who attends to...
Five friends decide to have a good time on election day which is a holiday declared by the state government to facilitate voting. The group has representation from different sections of society. Thirumeni (Girish Nair), Dharman (Nishtar Sait), Dasan (Baiju Netto), Vinayan (Pradeep Kumar) and Asokan (Arun Nair), though bound by the exhilarating prospect of booze, keep their prejudices and allegiances very close to their hearts. They go to a secluded guest house surrounded by natural vegetation. Geetha (Abhija Sivakala) who attends to...
- 9/15/2021
- by Arun Krishnan
- AsianMoviePulse
First-person documentaries immersed in family archives can at times feel claustrophobic, even when they achieve great dramatic ends. Fortunately, Alice Diop’s nonfiction feature, We, is quite the opposite. Like a thread unspooling, Diop delicately, with generosity, repeatedly links her family’s immigration from Senegal and subsequent life in France to the stories of strangers. Not all are immigrants; some are French-born but live far from their places of birth, or their lives have been marked by that other significant, often hidden displacement—of belonging to a lower class. In this sense, Diop uses cinema to expand what the American philosopher Martha Nussbaum calls one’s immediate circle of concern.Diop begins her film commenting in the voiceover on how little footage she has of her mother: 18 minutes, in which her mother appears “only fleetingly.” Diop shows a sample of these brief ordinary moments, such as when her mother is...
- 3/4/2021
- MUBI
New York Film Festival closing-night selection “French Exit” is that rare gem of 2020: a high-profile new movie that nobody has seen. Released by Sony Pictures Classics, it is a close collaboration between two old friends, author-turned-screenwriter Patrick DeWitt and director Azazel Jacobs (“The Lovers”). The director lured Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges to star in this comedy confection, adapted by DeWitt from his novel about a once-wealthy widow who leans on her handsome 20-something son for support. When she decamps to Paris with wads of cash after selling off all her worldly goods, it’s understood that her son will accompany her, leaving behind his one-time fiancee (Imogen Poots).
“What’s special about the film,” said NYFF head programmer Dennis Lim at Friday’s virtual press conference, “was its unusual, unpredictable tone. It’s surreal and dark and deadpan, and also heartfelt, as some changes happen moment to moment.
“What’s special about the film,” said NYFF head programmer Dennis Lim at Friday’s virtual press conference, “was its unusual, unpredictable tone. It’s surreal and dark and deadpan, and also heartfelt, as some changes happen moment to moment.
- 10/9/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
New York Film Festival closing-night selection “French Exit” is that rare gem of 2020: a high-profile new movie that nobody has seen. Released by Sony Pictures Classics, it is a close collaboration between two old friends, author-turned-screenwriter Patrick DeWitt and director Azazel Jacobs (“The Lovers”). The director lured Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges to star in this comedy confection, adapted by DeWitt from his novel about a once-wealthy widow who leans on her handsome 20-something son for support. When she decamps to Paris with wads of cash after selling off all her worldly goods, it’s understood that her son will accompany her, leaving behind his one-time fiancee (Imogen Poots).
“What’s special about the film,” said NYFF head programmer Dennis Lim at Friday’s virtual press conference, “was its unusual, unpredictable tone. It’s surreal and dark and deadpan, and also heartfelt, as some changes happen moment to moment.
“What’s special about the film,” said NYFF head programmer Dennis Lim at Friday’s virtual press conference, “was its unusual, unpredictable tone. It’s surreal and dark and deadpan, and also heartfelt, as some changes happen moment to moment.
- 10/9/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Mubi's double bill Renoir, Beginnings and Endings is showing September 15 - October 15, 2020 in the United States.Above: NanaJean Renoir, one of the greatest French filmmakers, if not the greatest, was a passionate raconteur. Not only did he write his expansionist memoir, My Life and My Films (1974), and rendered some of his life in prose in his late novels, but, according to his biographer, Pascal Merigeau, he also had a prodigious talent for molding fact into myth.Renoir’s dramatic story begins with his second feature, Nana (1927). Renoir adapted the tale about a striving actress from Émile Zola’s novel, to launch the career of his wife, Catherine Hessling. Hessling dreamed of Hollywood, as eventually did Renoir. Some ten years later, he moved to Los Angeles, where he lived till his death, in 1979. The film’s Nana plays hussies but dreams of a tragic role. When a theater director humiliates her,...
- 9/11/2020
- MUBI
Lyon — The 11th Lumière Festival in Lyon, France, opened on Saturday with a celebration of its 10-year anniversary, a tribute to past Lumière Award recipients, and rousing standing ovations for Frances McDormand and Donald Sutherland, who are among the high-profile actors and filmmakers being feted this year.
Dedicated to heritage cinema, the festival was established in 2009 by Thierry Frémaux and Bertrand Tavernier, the Institut Lumière’s respective director and president.
Looking back at its decade-long history, the ceremony, held in Lyon’s cavernous Halle Tony Garnier concert hall, presented clips of all Lumière Award recipients, beginning with Clint Eastwood, who was the first person to receive the prize, followed by Miloš Forman, Gérard Depardieu, Ken Loach, Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodóvar, Martin Scorsese, Catherine Deneuve, Wong Kar-wai and Jane Fonda.
Praising Fonda for her activism, Frémaux informed the audience of the actress’ arrest on Friday outside the U.S. Capitol, eliciting...
Dedicated to heritage cinema, the festival was established in 2009 by Thierry Frémaux and Bertrand Tavernier, the Institut Lumière’s respective director and president.
Looking back at its decade-long history, the ceremony, held in Lyon’s cavernous Halle Tony Garnier concert hall, presented clips of all Lumière Award recipients, beginning with Clint Eastwood, who was the first person to receive the prize, followed by Miloš Forman, Gérard Depardieu, Ken Loach, Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodóvar, Martin Scorsese, Catherine Deneuve, Wong Kar-wai and Jane Fonda.
Praising Fonda for her activism, Frémaux informed the audience of the actress’ arrest on Friday outside the U.S. Capitol, eliciting...
- 10/13/2019
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
CNN premiered the first episode in Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman’s six-part summer series “The Movies” Sunday night, 84 minutes devoted to the 1980s. Subsequent installments cover the 90s and post-2000 and then turn back to the 70s, 60s, and the bulk of core film history — 1930-1950 — crammed into the finale. Silent film, it seems, was not worth a mention.
First of all, this series is not targeted at erudite cinephiles who know their film history. Any self-respecting TCM watcher is too sophisticated for this breezy look at “The Movies.” Clearly the producers are trying to draw younger audiences who might be vaguely familiar with some of the movies here, from Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.” to Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull.” (Both directors are on hand to comment.) Snobby old Hollywood lovers sometimes forget that for today’s 18-year-old film fan devouring classic films made before they were born,...
First of all, this series is not targeted at erudite cinephiles who know their film history. Any self-respecting TCM watcher is too sophisticated for this breezy look at “The Movies.” Clearly the producers are trying to draw younger audiences who might be vaguely familiar with some of the movies here, from Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.” to Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull.” (Both directors are on hand to comment.) Snobby old Hollywood lovers sometimes forget that for today’s 18-year-old film fan devouring classic films made before they were born,...
- 7/10/2019
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
Criterion Collection president Peter Becker knew FilmStruck’s death was imminent, weeks in advance of news reports late last October. And long before industry luminaries ranging from Martin Scorsese to Bill Hader sent up flares to save the Turner Classic Movies streaming platform, Becker and his peers had a contingency plan to save FilmStruck’s Criterion Channel.
“Our question wasn’t, ‘What other big service are we turning to?’” said Becker in an interview from Criterion’s Park Avenue offices. “Our first question was, ‘Is it time to start our own channel?’”
By mid-November, the company announced plans for a freestanding streaming service that would launch in spring 2019. The Criterion Channel, now available to subscribers on nearly every major platform for $10.99 a month or $99.99 a year, hit that deadline with ease. When the Criterion Channel went live April 8, it meant that 1,634 films from one of the world’s most-revered film...
“Our question wasn’t, ‘What other big service are we turning to?’” said Becker in an interview from Criterion’s Park Avenue offices. “Our first question was, ‘Is it time to start our own channel?’”
By mid-November, the company announced plans for a freestanding streaming service that would launch in spring 2019. The Criterion Channel, now available to subscribers on nearly every major platform for $10.99 a month or $99.99 a year, hit that deadline with ease. When the Criterion Channel went live April 8, it meant that 1,634 films from one of the world’s most-revered film...
- 4/8/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
“
"Altman’S Downton Upstairs Abbey Downstairs”
By Raymond Benson
The magnificent Robert Altman whodunnit, Gosford Park, has received a top-class Blu-ray restoration and re-issue from Arrow Academy, and it is a gem.
Originally released in 2001, Gosford Park took its cue from the immensely popular BBC television series, Upstairs, Downstairs—about the dramas that exist in a stately British manor between the “upstairs” folk—the wealthy upper-class family that owns the property, and the “downstairs” people—the servants and staff who run the household. Throw in a dash of Agatha Christie, and a heaping helping of Robert Altman’s ensemble improvisatory magic, and you have the director’s only full-fledged British production. Interestingly, the screenwriter, Julian Fellowes (who won the Oscar for Original Screenplay) went on to create and write the next immensely popular BBC television series, Downton Abbey, which resembles Gosford Park in many ways.
Film historians will certainly recognize...
"Altman’S Downton Upstairs Abbey Downstairs”
By Raymond Benson
The magnificent Robert Altman whodunnit, Gosford Park, has received a top-class Blu-ray restoration and re-issue from Arrow Academy, and it is a gem.
Originally released in 2001, Gosford Park took its cue from the immensely popular BBC television series, Upstairs, Downstairs—about the dramas that exist in a stately British manor between the “upstairs” folk—the wealthy upper-class family that owns the property, and the “downstairs” people—the servants and staff who run the household. Throw in a dash of Agatha Christie, and a heaping helping of Robert Altman’s ensemble improvisatory magic, and you have the director’s only full-fledged British production. Interestingly, the screenwriter, Julian Fellowes (who won the Oscar for Original Screenplay) went on to create and write the next immensely popular BBC television series, Downton Abbey, which resembles Gosford Park in many ways.
Film historians will certainly recognize...
- 2/1/2019
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday.
This week’s question: In honor of “Widows,” what is the greatest ensemble cast ever assembled in a movie?
Emily Sears (@emily_dawn), Birth.Movies.Death.
On March 24, 1984, five high school students entered Saturday morning detention and taught us to never judge a book by its cover. Over the course of one day, the young ensemble cast of “The Breakfast Club” tear down the walls between their disparate characters by dismantling the stereotypes of the American teenager. Collaborating with writer-director John Hughes, Anthony Michael Hall, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, and Judd Nelson contributed to the authenticity of characters that are still relevant and resonating more than three decades later. Hughes may have conceived his own idea of the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess, and the criminal on the page,...
This week’s question: In honor of “Widows,” what is the greatest ensemble cast ever assembled in a movie?
Emily Sears (@emily_dawn), Birth.Movies.Death.
On March 24, 1984, five high school students entered Saturday morning detention and taught us to never judge a book by its cover. Over the course of one day, the young ensemble cast of “The Breakfast Club” tear down the walls between their disparate characters by dismantling the stereotypes of the American teenager. Collaborating with writer-director John Hughes, Anthony Michael Hall, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, and Judd Nelson contributed to the authenticity of characters that are still relevant and resonating more than three decades later. Hughes may have conceived his own idea of the brain, the athlete, the basket case, the princess, and the criminal on the page,...
- 11/12/2018
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The BBC Culture annual critics’ poll has become one of the most anticipated film lists over the last three years. After asking critics to weigh in on the best American films (“Citizen Kane” topped the list), the best films of the 21st century (“Mulholland Drive” in first), and the best comedy movies (“Some Like It Hot” crowned the best), the BBC Culture has turned this year to the 100 greatest achievements in foreign-language film.
This year’s list was curated from top 10 lists from 209 film critics across 43 countries, including IndieWire’s own Kate Erbland and Christian Blauvelt. BBC Culture awarded 10 points to each critics’ first-ranked film, 9 for the second-ranked, and so on down to one. The finalized top 100 list was curated based on this point system.
Sitting on the top of the BBC Culture list is Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai.” The film’s breathtaking scope and intimate character work has...
This year’s list was curated from top 10 lists from 209 film critics across 43 countries, including IndieWire’s own Kate Erbland and Christian Blauvelt. BBC Culture awarded 10 points to each critics’ first-ranked film, 9 for the second-ranked, and so on down to one. The finalized top 100 list was curated based on this point system.
Sitting on the top of the BBC Culture list is Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai.” The film’s breathtaking scope and intimate character work has...
- 10/30/2018
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Atsuko Hirayanagi on Oh Lucy! executive producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay: "I started warning people. Because I don't want them to feel betrayed." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Atsuko Hirayanagi's wanderlust-y debut feature Oh Lucy!, co-written with Boris Frumin and based on her short film, stars Shinobu Terajima (Kôji Wakamatsu's Caterpillar) with Josh Hartnett (John Logan's Penny Dreadful), Kaho Minami (Zhuangzhuang Tian's The Go Master), Shioli Kutsuna (Masatoshi Kurakata's Neko Atsume House), and Kôji Yakusho (Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel).
Executive produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay with terrific work by costume designer Masae Miyamoto (Abbas Kiarostami's Like Someone In Love), Oh Lucy!, which had its world premiere at last year's Cannes Film Festival and received the Sundance Institute Nhk award in 2016, takes us on an unexpected road trip which made me recall a line from Jean Renoir's The Rules Of The Game (La...
Atsuko Hirayanagi's wanderlust-y debut feature Oh Lucy!, co-written with Boris Frumin and based on her short film, stars Shinobu Terajima (Kôji Wakamatsu's Caterpillar) with Josh Hartnett (John Logan's Penny Dreadful), Kaho Minami (Zhuangzhuang Tian's The Go Master), Shioli Kutsuna (Masatoshi Kurakata's Neko Atsume House), and Kôji Yakusho (Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel).
Executive produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay with terrific work by costume designer Masae Miyamoto (Abbas Kiarostami's Like Someone In Love), Oh Lucy!, which had its world premiere at last year's Cannes Film Festival and received the Sundance Institute Nhk award in 2016, takes us on an unexpected road trip which made me recall a line from Jean Renoir's The Rules Of The Game (La...
- 3/10/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Tenth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series continues this weekend. — The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the mid-1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema. This year’s fest kicked off last weekend with a screening of Bertrand Tavernier’s acclaimed documentary My Journey Through French Cinema.
There are two more events for the Tenth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival happening this weekend:
Saturday, March 9th at 7:30pm – Casque D’Or. Ticket information can be found Here
Jacques Becker lovingly evokes the belle epoque Parisian demimonde in this classic tale of doomed romance — the French equivalent of the legend of Frankie and Johnny. When gangster’s moll Marie (Simone Signoret) falls for reformed criminal Manda (Serge Reggiani...
There are two more events for the Tenth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival happening this weekend:
Saturday, March 9th at 7:30pm – Casque D’Or. Ticket information can be found Here
Jacques Becker lovingly evokes the belle epoque Parisian demimonde in this classic tale of doomed romance — the French equivalent of the legend of Frankie and Johnny. When gangster’s moll Marie (Simone Signoret) falls for reformed criminal Manda (Serge Reggiani...
- 3/6/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
In the late 1970s, an associate professor in the Philosophy department at Johns Hopkins (thesis title: "The Nature of the Natural Numbers") began publishing essays on Hollywood movies. George M. Wilson wasn't the first person to undergo this shift in specialism. At the start of the decade, Stanley Cavell had published The World Viewed, a series of "reflections on the ontology of film." But Cavell had always been concerned with how works of art enable us to think through philosophical themes such as knowledge and meaning, and he held a chair, at Harvard, in Aesthetics. Wilson differed in that he brought a range of analytic gifts to an ongoing revolution: the close reading of American cinema, conceived as part of the "auteur" policy of Truffaut and other writers at Cahiers du cinéma in the 1950s, and concertedly developed in the following decades by critics in England such as V. F.
- 12/11/2017
- MUBI
Welcome to a pair of vintage mysteries with George Simenon’s popular Inspector Jules Maigret, a gumshoe who gets the tough cases. Top kick French actor Jean Gabin is the cop who keeps cool, until it’s time to rattle a recalcitrant suspect. In two separate cases, he tracks a serial killer in the heart of Paris, and travels to his hometown to unearth a murder conspiracy.
Maigret Sets a Trap
and
Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case
Blu-ray (separate releases)
Kino Classics
1958, 1959 / B&W /1:37 flat; 1:66 widescreen / 118, 101 min. / Street Date December 5, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber: Trap, St. Fiacre / 29.95 ea.
Starring: Jean Gabin, Annie Girardot, Jean Desailly, Olivier Hussenot, Lucienne Bogaert, Paulette Dubost, Lino Ventura, Dominique Page / Jean Gabin, Michel Auclair, Valentine Tessier, Michel Vitold, Camille Guérini, Gabrielle Fontan, Micheline Luccioni, Jacques Marin, Paul Frankeur, Robert Hirsch.
Cinematography: Louis Page
Film Editor: Henri Taverna
Original Music: Paul Misraki...
Maigret Sets a Trap
and
Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case
Blu-ray (separate releases)
Kino Classics
1958, 1959 / B&W /1:37 flat; 1:66 widescreen / 118, 101 min. / Street Date December 5, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber: Trap, St. Fiacre / 29.95 ea.
Starring: Jean Gabin, Annie Girardot, Jean Desailly, Olivier Hussenot, Lucienne Bogaert, Paulette Dubost, Lino Ventura, Dominique Page / Jean Gabin, Michel Auclair, Valentine Tessier, Michel Vitold, Camille Guérini, Gabrielle Fontan, Micheline Luccioni, Jacques Marin, Paul Frankeur, Robert Hirsch.
Cinematography: Louis Page
Film Editor: Henri Taverna
Original Music: Paul Misraki...
- 12/9/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
In an award season dominated by biopics and politics, “Battle of the Sexes” serves the first volley with its deep dive into the sexual revolution and the women’s movement of the ’70s. When tennis star Billie Jean King (“La La Land” Oscar-winner Emma Stone) beat blowhard Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) at the Houston Astrodome in 1973, she not only struck a blow for equality and respect, but also gained the confidence to pursue her sexual identity as a lesbian. Therefore, the sports/biopic directed by the husband and wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (“Little Miss Sunshine”) captures a game-changing moment that resonates today in Trump’s America.
And in visualizing the era, Oscar-winning cinematographer Linus Sandgren (“La La Land”) went at it without a whiff of nostalgia. “Basically, Jon and Val wanted to make a film like it was made in the ’70s on real locations in a contemporary fashion,...
And in visualizing the era, Oscar-winning cinematographer Linus Sandgren (“La La Land”) went at it without a whiff of nostalgia. “Basically, Jon and Val wanted to make a film like it was made in the ’70s on real locations in a contemporary fashion,...
- 9/28/2017
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
The history of the Muriel Awards stretches aaaalllll the way back to 2006, which means that this coming season will be a special anniversary, marking 10 years of observing the annual quality and achievement of the year in film. (If you don’t know about the Muriels, you can check up on that history here.) The voting group, of which I am a proud member, having participated since Year One, has also made its personal nod to film history by always having incorporated 10, 25 and 50-year anniversary awards, saluting what is agreed upon by ballot to be the best films from those anniversaries during each annual voting process.
But more recently, in 2013, Muriels founders Paul Clark and Steven Carlson decided to expand the Muriels purview and further acknowledge the great achievements in international film by instituting The Muriels Hall of Fame. Each year a new group of films of varying number would be voted upon and,...
But more recently, in 2013, Muriels founders Paul Clark and Steven Carlson decided to expand the Muriels purview and further acknowledge the great achievements in international film by instituting The Muriels Hall of Fame. Each year a new group of films of varying number would be voted upon and,...
- 8/19/2017
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Grand Illusion (1937) is showing July 27 - August 26, 2017 in the United States as part of the retrospective Jean Renoir.Considering Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion today in no small part involves an awareness of status and stature, the most prominent (or maybe just the most intimidating) aspect of which surely being the cherished status the film continues to enjoy in the canon of film history. To this day, it remains a singular achievement, not only as one of Renoir's foundational masterpieces, but also as a film of its time whose contents have remained timeless. Released in 1937 to great acclaim, it bid farewell to one era of European history and warfare as another, far darker one was about to begin; thus, more than the grimly comical The Rules of the Game (made and released two years closer to the brink...
- 7/27/2017
- MUBI
Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This August will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.
To sign up for a free two-week trial here.
Tuesday, August 1
Tuesday’s Short + Feature: These Boots and Mystery Train
Music is at the heart of this program, which pairs a zany music video by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki with a tune-filled career highlight from American independent-film pioneer Jim Jarmusch. In the 1993 These Boots, Kaurismäki’s band of pompadoured “Finnish Elvis” rockers, the Leningrad Cowboys, cover a Nancy Sinatra classic in their signature deadpan style. It’s the perfect prelude to Jarmusch’s 1989 Mystery Train, a homage to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the musical legacy of Memphis, featuring appearances by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer.
To sign up for a free two-week trial here.
Tuesday, August 1
Tuesday’s Short + Feature: These Boots and Mystery Train
Music is at the heart of this program, which pairs a zany music video by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki with a tune-filled career highlight from American independent-film pioneer Jim Jarmusch. In the 1993 These Boots, Kaurismäki’s band of pompadoured “Finnish Elvis” rockers, the Leningrad Cowboys, cover a Nancy Sinatra classic in their signature deadpan style. It’s the perfect prelude to Jarmusch’s 1989 Mystery Train, a homage to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the musical legacy of Memphis, featuring appearances by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer.
- 7/24/2017
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday.
This week’s question: “The Book of Henry” has been assailed by critics. But let’s look beyond this particular reviled new release. What’s the worst movie you’ve ever reviewed?
Alissa Wilkinson (@alissamarie), Vox
It’s unfortunately not even a contest: “God’s Not Dead 2,” which I reviewed for Flavorwire and then wrote about it further for Thrillist. (The first movie is actually far worse, but I didn’t review it.) They’re actually not the worst-made movies I’ve seen, but as a Christian and a film critic, I find them so actively offensive and cynical that it’s somehow even more depressing. I didn’t derive any joy from the process, but it felt important that I write about it.
Kristy Puchko (@KristyPuchko), Pajiba/Cbr.com...
This week’s question: “The Book of Henry” has been assailed by critics. But let’s look beyond this particular reviled new release. What’s the worst movie you’ve ever reviewed?
Alissa Wilkinson (@alissamarie), Vox
It’s unfortunately not even a contest: “God’s Not Dead 2,” which I reviewed for Flavorwire and then wrote about it further for Thrillist. (The first movie is actually far worse, but I didn’t review it.) They’re actually not the worst-made movies I’ve seen, but as a Christian and a film critic, I find them so actively offensive and cynical that it’s somehow even more depressing. I didn’t derive any joy from the process, but it felt important that I write about it.
Kristy Puchko (@KristyPuchko), Pajiba/Cbr.com...
- 6/19/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
I unofficially titled my review of The 100 Season 4 Episode 10 "The Bunker Games" because, well, that was exactly what it was – The 100's very own version of the Hunger Games.
But if anything, the conclave's stakes were much higher than the organized slaughter of the beloved Ya series. After all, humanity's very existence was on the line.
And it got bloody, quick.
View Slideshow: The 100 Photos from "Die All, Die Merrily"
The rules of the game were pretty straightforward (never mind the fact that holding this silly conclave days before the apocalypse was illogical and a pretty huge waste of time).
Each of the 13 warriors (one from each clan) wore their clan's sigil on a dog tag around their neck. One by one, they killed each other, with the victor collecting every other clan's dog tag. That victor's clan got to use the bunker and survive the apocalypse.
This conclave was...
But if anything, the conclave's stakes were much higher than the organized slaughter of the beloved Ya series. After all, humanity's very existence was on the line.
And it got bloody, quick.
View Slideshow: The 100 Photos from "Die All, Die Merrily"
The rules of the game were pretty straightforward (never mind the fact that holding this silly conclave days before the apocalypse was illogical and a pretty huge waste of time).
Each of the 13 warriors (one from each clan) wore their clan's sigil on a dog tag around their neck. One by one, they killed each other, with the victor collecting every other clan's dog tag. That victor's clan got to use the bunker and survive the apocalypse.
This conclave was...
- 5/4/2017
- by Caralynn Lippo
- TVfanatic
The latest installment in the filmmaker's series of journal-films combining iPhone footage and sounds and images from movies. A diary penned with cinema.Journal (6.6.16 - 1.10.17)feat. additional footage from Masha Tupitsyn and Isiah MedinaMy journal-film series (of which this is the third installment) came to be as a means of resolving the points of convergence and departure amongst the environments I occupy and those which I encounter in cinema. I like to view these films as a method of managing the images that take up my thoughts and memories into a new continuity, one in which the distinction between images seen on-screen and those personally experienced is no longer absolute. In dissolving this partition, these films provide a vector for the animation conceptual concerns through cinema - montage fulfilling that which language can only formally describe and vice versa. The following essay outlines some of the concerns this film attempts...
- 3/20/2017
- MUBI
It’s just a few weeks until this year’s Oscars, which means the Hollywood machine is running out of steam to provide “new angles” on various awards season campaigns and Oscar bloggers are trying to squeeze traffic out of last-minute prediction shifts. It’s fitting, then, that around this time every year we get a rather substantial update of one of the most comprehensive polls on the greatest films of all-time, not simply the November/December releases with the biggest marketing budget come Academy Awards time.
That’s right, They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They? has now published their 2017 edition of 1,000 Greatest Films, culled together from an exhaustive list of major publications and critics. Still topped by Citizen Kane, I often find the most interesting portion to be those films that have most moved around, for better or worse, especially those with newfound critical admiration. This year, Terrence Malick...
That’s right, They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They? has now published their 2017 edition of 1,000 Greatest Films, culled together from an exhaustive list of major publications and critics. Still topped by Citizen Kane, I often find the most interesting portion to be those films that have most moved around, for better or worse, especially those with newfound critical admiration. This year, Terrence Malick...
- 2/13/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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
Three Spielberg pictures screen this weekend, while Rohmer is highlighted with Pauline at the Beach and Full Moon in Paris on Friday.
A Rocky-Creed mini-series run on Friday and Saturday.
The Rules of the Game shows this Sunday.
Japan Society
One of David Bowie‘s greatest performances is on display in Nagisa Oshima‘s Merry Christmas,...
Metrograph
Three Spielberg pictures screen this weekend, while Rohmer is highlighted with Pauline at the Beach and Full Moon in Paris on Friday.
A Rocky-Creed mini-series run on Friday and Saturday.
The Rules of the Game shows this Sunday.
Japan Society
One of David Bowie‘s greatest performances is on display in Nagisa Oshima‘s Merry Christmas,...
- 1/13/2017
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Isabelle Huppert is a fearless, committed, talented actress who takes genuine risks with many of the projects she selects, and it is for precisely this reason that her stellar track record hardly prevents me from being taken off-guard with what she can do. In Paul Verhoeven’s simply-titled Elle, she plays a rape victim trying to move on with her life. But her entire life is a grotesque cartoon – her father’s in prison for slaughtering his neighborhood decades ago (and for which she is routinely, publicly humiliated), her mother’s trying to live as though she’s in her twenties (with a bank account to buy boyfriends that suit her), her neighbors are a married couple consisting of a Jesus freak and an alluring gentleman, she’s having an affair with her best friend and business partner’s husband, and her video game company is behind schedule and over...
- 11/11/2016
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
Bertrand Tavernier with Anne-Katrin Titze: "Josef von Sternberg's Macao. Dubbed in Vietnamese and I have never been able to watch the film again ..." Photo: Sophie Gluck
The day before the opening of the 54th New York Film Festival, I met with Bertrand Tavernier for an in-depth conversation on his documentary My Journey Through French Cinema (Voyage À Travers Le Cinéma Français) that spanned fashion from Mila Parély wearing Coco Chanel's ocelot coat in Jean Renoir's La Règle Du Jeu, the daring of Mireille Balin's deep décolleté in Jean Delannoy's Macao, L'Enfer Du Jeu, to Jean Paul Gaultier's reaction to Jacques Becker's Falbalas.
Bertrand Tavernier: "Also, it's learning about myself. How I discovered those films."
Also, Robert Mitchum in Vietnamese, never having to see Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo again, Yves Montand and the birth of Autumn Leaves, Ernst Lubitsch interactions between Lino Ventura...
The day before the opening of the 54th New York Film Festival, I met with Bertrand Tavernier for an in-depth conversation on his documentary My Journey Through French Cinema (Voyage À Travers Le Cinéma Français) that spanned fashion from Mila Parély wearing Coco Chanel's ocelot coat in Jean Renoir's La Règle Du Jeu, the daring of Mireille Balin's deep décolleté in Jean Delannoy's Macao, L'Enfer Du Jeu, to Jean Paul Gaultier's reaction to Jacques Becker's Falbalas.
Bertrand Tavernier: "Also, it's learning about myself. How I discovered those films."
Also, Robert Mitchum in Vietnamese, never having to see Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo again, Yves Montand and the birth of Autumn Leaves, Ernst Lubitsch interactions between Lino Ventura...
- 9/30/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Maybe this took place after one of Jimmy Kimmel's fasting days because Kimmel was more than ready to eat whatever was placed in front of him. The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host appeared on The Late Late Show Thursday and played a game of "Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts" with host James Corden. The rules of the game are simple: answer the question asked or eat the food on the table. But there's a catch: the food isn't your average meal! Corden and Kimmel had to a choice of jellyfish, chicken feet, ghost pepper hot sauce, bull penis, 1,000-year-old egg, fish smoothie, pig blood curd and balut. Feeling pretty daring, Kimmel grabbed the pig blood curd and ate it before Corden could ask him a...
- 9/16/2016
- E! Online
Beneath the neon haze of its teenage fantasia and the throbbing obviousness of its platitudes about the perils of social media, “Nerve” highlights some ugly truths about the economy of anonymous spectacle. This is a film that knows what people really want to see when they think that nobody is watching them. Blisteringly cool one moment and ridiculously silly the next (much like its high school heroine), this punchy and propulsive late summer surprise is able to capture the way we live now because it displays such a vivid understanding of the reasons why we live that way.
Based on Jeanne Ryan’s 2012 novel of the same name and helmed by “Catfish” directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, “Nerve” will have a shelf-life of approximately 12 minutes (the technology it depicts has been revolutionized at least once since the movie wrapped production), but it sure is fun while it lasts.
The...
Based on Jeanne Ryan’s 2012 novel of the same name and helmed by “Catfish” directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, “Nerve” will have a shelf-life of approximately 12 minutes (the technology it depicts has been revolutionized at least once since the movie wrapped production), but it sure is fun while it lasts.
The...
- 7/26/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
45 Years (Andrew Haigh)
Andrew Haigh’s third feature as a director, 45 Years, is an excellent companion piece to its 2011 predecessor, Weekend. The latter examined the inception of a potential relationship between two men over the course of a weekend, whereas its successor considers the opposite extreme. Again sticking to a tight timeframe, the film chronicles the six days leading up to a couple’s 45th wedding anniversary.
45 Years (Andrew Haigh)
Andrew Haigh’s third feature as a director, 45 Years, is an excellent companion piece to its 2011 predecessor, Weekend. The latter examined the inception of a potential relationship between two men over the course of a weekend, whereas its successor considers the opposite extreme. Again sticking to a tight timeframe, the film chronicles the six days leading up to a couple’s 45th wedding anniversary.
- 6/17/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Every week we dive into the cream of the crop when it comes to home releases, including Blu-ray and DVDs, as well as recommended deals of the week. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best (or most interesting) films one can take home. Note that if you’re looking to support the site, every purchase you make through the links below helps us and is greatly appreciated.
10 Cloverfield Lane (Dan Trachtenberg)
Forget the Cloverfield connection. The actors who were in this film didn’t even know what the title was until moments before the first trailer dropped. Producer J.J. Abrams used that branding as part of the wrapping for its promotional mystery box, but the movie stands perfectly alone from 2008’s found-footage monster picture. Hell, 10 Cloverfield Lane perhaps doesn’t even take place within the same fictional universe as that film — although a friend asked if it’s secretly a Super 8 sequel, and, honestly, you could think of it as one without contradicting anything in either movie. Whether the Cloverfield name fills you with wariness or enthusiasm, it would be unwise to burden Dan Trachtenberg‘s film with such prejudices. – Dan S. (full review)
45 Years (Andrew Haigh)
Andrew Haigh’s third feature as a director, 45 Years, is an excellent companion piece to its 2011 predecessor, Weekend. The latter examined the inception of a potential relationship between two men over the course of a weekend, whereas its successor considers the opposite extreme. Again sticking to a tight timeframe, the film chronicles the six days leading up to a couple’s 45th wedding anniversary. Though highly accomplished, Weekend nevertheless suffered from a tendency towards commenting on itself as a gay issues film, which at times overrode the otherwise compelling realism. Despite treating material arguably even more underrepresented in cinema – senior relationships – Haigh avoids this same self-reflexive pitfall in 45 Years, pulling off an incisive and emotionally ensnaring tour de force. – Giovanni M.C. (full review)
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Alexander Hall)
A sophisticated supernatural Hollywood comedy whose influence continues to be felt, Here Comes Mr. Jordan stars the eminently versatile Robert Montgomery as a working-class boxer and amateur aviator whose plane crashes in a freak accident. He finds himself in heaven but is told, by a wry angel named Mr. Jordan (Claude Rains), that his death was a clerical error, and that he can return to Earth by entering the body of a corrupt (and about-to-be-murdered) financier—whose soul could use a transplant. Nominated for seven Oscars (it won two) and the inspiration for a sequel with Rita Hayworth and two remakes, Alexander Hall’s effervescent Here Comes Mr. Jordan is comic perfection. – Criterion.com
La Chienne (Jean Renoir)
Jean Renoir’s ruthless love triangle tale, his second sound film, is a true precursor to his brilliantly bitter The Rules of the Game, displaying all of the filmmaker’s visual genius and fully imbued with his profound humanity. Michel Simon cuts a tragic figure as an unhappily married cashier and amateur painter who becomes so smitten with a prostitute that he refuses to see the obvious: that she and her pimp boyfriend are taking advantage of him. Renoir’s elegant compositions and camera movements carry this twisting narrative—a stinging commentary on class and sexual divisions—to an unforgettably ironic conclusion. – Criterion.com
Also Arriving This Week
Eddie the Eagle (review)
Hello, My Name is Doris (review)
Get a Job (review)
Gold
Recommended Deals of the Week
Top Deal: A selection of Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg Blu-rays are under $10 this week.
All the President’s Men (Blu-ray) – $7.79
The American (Blu-ray) – $6.68
Amelie (Blu-ray) – $8.99
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Beginners (Blu-ray) – $6.11
Bone Tomahawk (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Brothers Bloom (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Casino (Blu-ray) – $9.49
The Conformist (Blu-ray) – $14.49
Cloud Atlas (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Crimson Peak (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Dear White People (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Deer Hunter (Blu-ray) – $10.61
Eastern Promises (Blu-ray) – $8.57
Ex Machina (Blu-ray) – $8.00
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Blu-ray) – $5.99
The Guest (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Hail, Caesar! (Blu-ray) – $12.99
Heat (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Holy Motors (Blu-ray) – $10.59
The Informant! (Blu-ray) – $8.07
Inglorious Basterds (Blu-ray) – $4.99
Interstellar (Blu-ray) – $5.00
The Iron Giant (Blu-ray pre-order) – $9.99
Jaws (Blu-ray) – $7.88
John Wick (Blu-ray) – $8.00
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Blu-ray) – $9.69
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (Blu-ray) – $9.89
The Lady From Shanghai (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Looper (Blu-ray) – $7.88
Lost In Translation (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Macbeth (Blu-ray) – $11.99
Mad Max: Fury Road (Blu-ray) – $10.00
Magic Mike Xxl (Blu-ray) – $11.99
Magnolia (Blu-ray) – $9.19
The Man Who Wasn’t There (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Margaret (Blu-ray) – $9.49
Martha Marcy May Marlene (Blu-ray) – $6.99
The Master (Blu-ray) – $12.69
Michael Clayton (Blu-ray) – $7.98
Nebraska (Blu-ray) – $9.35
Never Let Me Go (Blu-ray) – $7.99
No Country For Old Men (Blu-ray) – $5.99
Non-Stop (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Obvious Child (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Pan’s Labyrinth (Blu-ray) – $7.99
ParaNorman (Blu-ray) – $7.98
Pariah (Blu-ray) – $9.98
Persepolis (Blu-ray) – $5.79
Prisoners (Blu-ray) – $10.49
Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $8.48
Raging Bull: 30th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray) – $10.19
Re-Animator (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Rio Bravo (Blu-ray) – $5.99
Road to Perdition (Blu-ray) – $8.99
The Searchers / Wild Bunch / How the West Was Won (Blu-ray) – $10.36
Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Blu-ray) – $5.88
Short Term 12 (Blu-ray) – $9.89
Shutter Island (Blu-ray) – $6.79
A Separation (Blu-ray) – $6.80
A Serious Man (Blu-ray) – $7.22
A Single Man (Blu-ray) – $6.00
The Social Network (Blu-ray) – $9.96
Spotlight (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Steve Jobs (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Straight Outta Compton (Blu-ray) – $10.00
Synecdoche, NY (Blu-ray) – $6.89
There Will Be Blood (Blu-ray) – $8.20
They Came Together (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Tree of Life (Blu-ray) – $6.99
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Blu-ray) – $5.52
Volver (Blu-ray) – $5.95
Where the Wild Things Are (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Whiplash (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Witch (Blu-ray) – $14.96
The Wrestler (Blu-ray) – $7.00
See all Blu-ray deals.
What are you picking up this week?...
10 Cloverfield Lane (Dan Trachtenberg)
Forget the Cloverfield connection. The actors who were in this film didn’t even know what the title was until moments before the first trailer dropped. Producer J.J. Abrams used that branding as part of the wrapping for its promotional mystery box, but the movie stands perfectly alone from 2008’s found-footage monster picture. Hell, 10 Cloverfield Lane perhaps doesn’t even take place within the same fictional universe as that film — although a friend asked if it’s secretly a Super 8 sequel, and, honestly, you could think of it as one without contradicting anything in either movie. Whether the Cloverfield name fills you with wariness or enthusiasm, it would be unwise to burden Dan Trachtenberg‘s film with such prejudices. – Dan S. (full review)
45 Years (Andrew Haigh)
Andrew Haigh’s third feature as a director, 45 Years, is an excellent companion piece to its 2011 predecessor, Weekend. The latter examined the inception of a potential relationship between two men over the course of a weekend, whereas its successor considers the opposite extreme. Again sticking to a tight timeframe, the film chronicles the six days leading up to a couple’s 45th wedding anniversary. Though highly accomplished, Weekend nevertheless suffered from a tendency towards commenting on itself as a gay issues film, which at times overrode the otherwise compelling realism. Despite treating material arguably even more underrepresented in cinema – senior relationships – Haigh avoids this same self-reflexive pitfall in 45 Years, pulling off an incisive and emotionally ensnaring tour de force. – Giovanni M.C. (full review)
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Alexander Hall)
A sophisticated supernatural Hollywood comedy whose influence continues to be felt, Here Comes Mr. Jordan stars the eminently versatile Robert Montgomery as a working-class boxer and amateur aviator whose plane crashes in a freak accident. He finds himself in heaven but is told, by a wry angel named Mr. Jordan (Claude Rains), that his death was a clerical error, and that he can return to Earth by entering the body of a corrupt (and about-to-be-murdered) financier—whose soul could use a transplant. Nominated for seven Oscars (it won two) and the inspiration for a sequel with Rita Hayworth and two remakes, Alexander Hall’s effervescent Here Comes Mr. Jordan is comic perfection. – Criterion.com
La Chienne (Jean Renoir)
Jean Renoir’s ruthless love triangle tale, his second sound film, is a true precursor to his brilliantly bitter The Rules of the Game, displaying all of the filmmaker’s visual genius and fully imbued with his profound humanity. Michel Simon cuts a tragic figure as an unhappily married cashier and amateur painter who becomes so smitten with a prostitute that he refuses to see the obvious: that she and her pimp boyfriend are taking advantage of him. Renoir’s elegant compositions and camera movements carry this twisting narrative—a stinging commentary on class and sexual divisions—to an unforgettably ironic conclusion. – Criterion.com
Also Arriving This Week
Eddie the Eagle (review)
Hello, My Name is Doris (review)
Get a Job (review)
Gold
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See all Blu-ray deals.
What are you picking up this week?...
- 6/14/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
“The Streetwalker And The Sucker”
By Raymond Benson
Fans of Fritz Lang’s film noir of 1945, Scarlet Street, may do well to take a look at this little French gem from 1931. Lang’s film was a Hollywood remake of La Chienne, which was based on a novel by Georges de La Fouchardière (it was also adapted into a stage play by André Mouëzy-Éon). More significantly, La Chienne was the second—and first feature length—sound film by the great Jean Renoir.
Renoir had done well in the silent era, but the invention of talkies presented the filmmaker with a larger palette of tools with which to craft some of his greatest works. Beginning with La Chienne, Renoir became France’s premiere director, a position he held for a decade.
La Chienne translates as “The Bitch,” and viewers may question which woman in the picture the title is referring to—the lead, Lulu, a beautiful blonde “street woman” (a con artist and often a prostitute), who serves as the femme fatale of the story (and wonderfully played by Janie Marèze)... or the wife of our protagonist, such a shrew of a woman that there’s no wonder why we sympathize with the poor schmuck, Maurice (portrayed by the brilliant Michel Simon), a banker and part-time painter who does everything he can to get away from his marriage and set up Lulu as his mistress. Of course, Lulu is really being played by her lover and pimp, the nasty Andre (played by real-life Parisian gangster Georges Flamant, who was also an amateur actor). Maurice is merely the mark, the sucker who is seduced by lust and led to his ruin.
Unlike Scarlet Street, La Chienne is more melodrama than film noir. Renoir handles the material well without making it overwrought, and he succeeds in developing fine character studies of the three leads. Those familiar with the director’s later masterpieces such as Grand Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939) will find this early work fascinating. Renoir’s signature mise-en-scène is easily identifiable, even in its baby steps. Also impressive are the street scenes shot on location—this was the real Paris of 1931, displayed in glorious black and white.
Michel Simon, like Renoir, was one of France’s biggest film artists. Originally Swiss, Simon made French silent films and later had a long run as an actor in talkies. He has a distinctive Bassett Hound face, perfect for betraying first the joy and then the pain Lulu puts him through. According to Renoir scholar Christopher Faulkner, who talks about the movie in one of the disk’s supplements, apparently Simon fell in love with the actress playing Lulu off-screen. But, like in the film, Janie Marèze was seeing Flamant, and this relationship was encouraged by Renoir. Not long after production was completed, Marèze was killed in an automobile accident with Flamant at the wheel. At the funeral, Simon allegedly threatened Renoir with a gun, but he must have calmed down, for Simon starred in a subsequent Renoir feature, the excellent Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932; incidentally, this was remade in Hollywood in 1986 as Down and Out in Beverly Hills).
The Criterion Collection’s release features a new, restored 4K digital transfer that looks so pristine and sharp you might think the film was made last week. There’s an uncompressed monaural soundtrack and a new English subtitles translation. Supplements include an introduction to the film by Renoir himself, shot in 1961; the aforementioned interview with Faulkner on the movie; a sparkling new restoration of Renoir’s first sound film, the short On purge bébé (also 1931), a comic bauble based on a one-act play by Georges Feydeau and also starring Michel Simon; and a ninety-five minute 1967 French TV program featuring a conversation between Renoir and Simon. An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau adorns the booklet.
A fine, notable release, and a must for lovers of European cinema.
Click Here To Order From Amazon...
By Raymond Benson
Fans of Fritz Lang’s film noir of 1945, Scarlet Street, may do well to take a look at this little French gem from 1931. Lang’s film was a Hollywood remake of La Chienne, which was based on a novel by Georges de La Fouchardière (it was also adapted into a stage play by André Mouëzy-Éon). More significantly, La Chienne was the second—and first feature length—sound film by the great Jean Renoir.
Renoir had done well in the silent era, but the invention of talkies presented the filmmaker with a larger palette of tools with which to craft some of his greatest works. Beginning with La Chienne, Renoir became France’s premiere director, a position he held for a decade.
La Chienne translates as “The Bitch,” and viewers may question which woman in the picture the title is referring to—the lead, Lulu, a beautiful blonde “street woman” (a con artist and often a prostitute), who serves as the femme fatale of the story (and wonderfully played by Janie Marèze)... or the wife of our protagonist, such a shrew of a woman that there’s no wonder why we sympathize with the poor schmuck, Maurice (portrayed by the brilliant Michel Simon), a banker and part-time painter who does everything he can to get away from his marriage and set up Lulu as his mistress. Of course, Lulu is really being played by her lover and pimp, the nasty Andre (played by real-life Parisian gangster Georges Flamant, who was also an amateur actor). Maurice is merely the mark, the sucker who is seduced by lust and led to his ruin.
Unlike Scarlet Street, La Chienne is more melodrama than film noir. Renoir handles the material well without making it overwrought, and he succeeds in developing fine character studies of the three leads. Those familiar with the director’s later masterpieces such as Grand Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939) will find this early work fascinating. Renoir’s signature mise-en-scène is easily identifiable, even in its baby steps. Also impressive are the street scenes shot on location—this was the real Paris of 1931, displayed in glorious black and white.
Michel Simon, like Renoir, was one of France’s biggest film artists. Originally Swiss, Simon made French silent films and later had a long run as an actor in talkies. He has a distinctive Bassett Hound face, perfect for betraying first the joy and then the pain Lulu puts him through. According to Renoir scholar Christopher Faulkner, who talks about the movie in one of the disk’s supplements, apparently Simon fell in love with the actress playing Lulu off-screen. But, like in the film, Janie Marèze was seeing Flamant, and this relationship was encouraged by Renoir. Not long after production was completed, Marèze was killed in an automobile accident with Flamant at the wheel. At the funeral, Simon allegedly threatened Renoir with a gun, but he must have calmed down, for Simon starred in a subsequent Renoir feature, the excellent Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932; incidentally, this was remade in Hollywood in 1986 as Down and Out in Beverly Hills).
The Criterion Collection’s release features a new, restored 4K digital transfer that looks so pristine and sharp you might think the film was made last week. There’s an uncompressed monaural soundtrack and a new English subtitles translation. Supplements include an introduction to the film by Renoir himself, shot in 1961; the aforementioned interview with Faulkner on the movie; a sparkling new restoration of Renoir’s first sound film, the short On purge bébé (also 1931), a comic bauble based on a one-act play by Georges Feydeau and also starring Michel Simon; and a ninety-five minute 1967 French TV program featuring a conversation between Renoir and Simon. An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau adorns the booklet.
A fine, notable release, and a must for lovers of European cinema.
Click Here To Order From Amazon...
- 6/12/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Mubi is partnering with the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen to exclusively bring you films directly from their International Competition section, currently in-progress in Germany.The festival is one of our favorites, a true showcase for outstanding short films. Founded in the 1950s, making it one of the oldest running festivals of its kind, it was the site of the 1962 "Oberhausen Manifesto," a battle cry for the creation of a new German cinema that presaged the arrival of Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. But the festival's focus is not just on Germany, but the world, and we're pleased to bring some of this year's best selections to our audience. These are the four films chosen by our curators, available on Mubi this month in over 250 countries around the globe.Elegance (Virpi Suutari, Finland), 6 MayThe "elegance" of the title refers not to the style of this Finnish documentary,...
- 5/5/2016
- MUBI
Very few people can pull off wearing a navy blue pinstripe suit paired with a dark lined open-neck shirt. Yet not everyone is Peter Greenaway. The veteran British director, an intriguing, eloquent and eminently likeable subject, has been based in Amsterdam for the last twenty years. In a conversation as eclectic as his latest film, Eisenstein in Guanajuato, he spoke with CineVue's Matt Anderson about his admiration for the cinema of Sergei Eisenstein, intertextuality, film as propaganda, nudity and Donald Duck.
Matt Anderson: What is your earliest recollection of watching an Eisenstein film? Peter Greenaway: I was 15 - we're talking 1957. At the bottom end of Leytonstone there was a little grubby cinema called The State and it became our sort of Mecca. When you're a 15 year old adolescent you're very, very keen to see a naked woman and the chances are you're not going to see it in English cinema,...
Matt Anderson: What is your earliest recollection of watching an Eisenstein film? Peter Greenaway: I was 15 - we're talking 1957. At the bottom end of Leytonstone there was a little grubby cinema called The State and it became our sort of Mecca. When you're a 15 year old adolescent you're very, very keen to see a naked woman and the chances are you're not going to see it in English cinema,...
- 4/20/2016
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Photo by Sophie BeeIn the display window of a used record store, you can see covers for albums that don’t exist. They bear titles like Flaming Creatures or Heaven and Earth Magic, familiar to aficionados of experimental film, alongside lurid designs by local artist Tom Carey. This exhibit can mean only one thing: the film festival has come to Ann Arbor. Just down the block is the Michigan Theater, which has been operating since 1928. For one week every spring, its spacious main auditorium and cozy screening room host an intimidating array of avant-garde programming. The selections are eclectic in subject matter, submitted from all over the world, and interspersed with recently restored prints of older works. This practice means that no presentation is predictable. The only constant that carries across the festival is the artists’ collective push against the traditional boundaries of their medium.An example of this ethos...
- 4/8/2016
- by Alice Stoehr
- MUBI
United States Of Love, Rams and Mustang will feature at the eighth edition of the festival; regional premiere of Mirjana Karanovic’s A Good Wife.Scroll down for full line-up
The eighth Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will open with a screening of Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which will compete as part of the event’s European Film Competition.
Tomasz Wasilewski’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning United States Of Love will also compete in the strand, as will Grímur Hákonarson’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang.
Completing the line-up is Juris Kursietis’ Modris, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 Km, and Swiss 10-part Sci-Fi anthology Heimtaland. The films will compete for the festival’s Golden Goddess prize for best European film.
The Honey and Blood competition, which showcases Balkan titles, will this year feature nine films including Danis Tanovic’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo - which will close the festival with Tanovic...
The eighth Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will open with a screening of Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which will compete as part of the event’s European Film Competition.
Tomasz Wasilewski’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning United States Of Love will also compete in the strand, as will Grímur Hákonarson’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang.
Completing the line-up is Juris Kursietis’ Modris, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 Km, and Swiss 10-part Sci-Fi anthology Heimtaland. The films will compete for the festival’s Golden Goddess prize for best European film.
The Honey and Blood competition, which showcases Balkan titles, will this year feature nine films including Danis Tanovic’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo - which will close the festival with Tanovic...
- 4/7/2016
- ScreenDaily
United States Of Love, Rams and Mustang will feature at the eighth edition of the festival; regional premiere of Mirjana Karanovic’s A Good Wife.Scroll down for full line-up
The eighth Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will open with a screening of Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which will compete as part of the event’s European Film Competition.
Tomasz Wasilewski’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning United States Of Love will also compete in the strand, as will Grímur Hákonarson’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang.
Completing the line-up is Juris Kursietis’ Modris, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 Km, and Swiss 10-part Sci-Fi anthology Heimtaland. The films will compete for the festival’s Golden Goddess prize for best European film.
The Honey and Blood competition, which showcases Balkan titles, will this year feature nine films including Danis Tanovic’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo and the regional premiere of Mirjana Karanović...
The eighth Prishtina International Film Festival (April 22-29) will open with a screening of Jonas Carpignano’s Mediterranea, which will compete as part of the event’s European Film Competition.
Tomasz Wasilewski’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning United States Of Love will also compete in the strand, as will Grímur Hákonarson’s Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning Rams and Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated Mustang.
Completing the line-up is Juris Kursietis’ Modris, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10,000 Km, and Swiss 10-part Sci-Fi anthology Heimtaland. The films will compete for the festival’s Golden Goddess prize for best European film.
The Honey and Blood competition, which showcases Balkan titles, will this year feature nine films including Danis Tanovic’s Silver Berlin Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo and the regional premiere of Mirjana Karanović...
- 4/7/2016
- ScreenDaily
Xavier Giannoli: "The importance of Billy Wilder for me was tenderness and cruelty." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
My conversation with the Marguerite director ranged from Erik Satie's food habits, Salieri in Milos Forman's Amadeus, tribute to Jean Renoir's The Rules Of The Game, John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King, Erich von Stroheim in Sunset Boulevard, Robert Redford in Sydney Pollack's Out Of Africa and Karen Blixen, Meryl Streep in Stephen Frears' Florence Foster Jenkins, Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose, Danny Kaye and the Carnegie Deli, Charlie Chaplin, Tristan Tzara to Margaret Dumont and the Marx Brothers.
Catherine Frot as Marguerite: "It's the story of a woman who needs love."
When I brought up Michael Shannon and Jeff Nichols' latest film, Midnight Special (after Shotgun Stories and Take Shelter and Mud), Xavier Giannoli said that in Paris there are posters...
My conversation with the Marguerite director ranged from Erik Satie's food habits, Salieri in Milos Forman's Amadeus, tribute to Jean Renoir's The Rules Of The Game, John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King, Erich von Stroheim in Sunset Boulevard, Robert Redford in Sydney Pollack's Out Of Africa and Karen Blixen, Meryl Streep in Stephen Frears' Florence Foster Jenkins, Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose, Danny Kaye and the Carnegie Deli, Charlie Chaplin, Tristan Tzara to Margaret Dumont and the Marx Brothers.
Catherine Frot as Marguerite: "It's the story of a woman who needs love."
When I brought up Michael Shannon and Jeff Nichols' latest film, Midnight Special (after Shotgun Stories and Take Shelter and Mud), Xavier Giannoli said that in Paris there are posters...
- 3/12/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
1. Swordsman in the Twilight (1967)
Director: Chung Chang-Hwa
Cast: Nam Goong-Won, Yoon Jeong-Hee, Heo Jang-Kang
Best known for helming the Shaw Brothers film King Boxer (1972) a.k.a. Five Fingers of Death, which stands as one of the best cult films among Hong Kong martial art films, Director Chung pioneered in the genre of action films in Korean cinema. The film stepped into the spotlight at the Biff (Busan International Film Festival) in 2003.
In the reign of the king Sukjong, the new queen, Jang Hui-Bin ascends the throne. Oh Ki-Ryong, an ally of Jang, tyrannizes those who remain sympathetic to the old queen, Min. A lone swordsman, Kim Tae-Won appears and gets rid of the allies of Jang with a certain vengeance. He gradually unfolds his story in flashbacks.
2. The General’s Son (1990)
Director: Im Kwon-Taek
Cast: Park Sang‑Min, Shin Hyun‑Joon, Lee Il‑Jae
The first installment,...
Director: Chung Chang-Hwa
Cast: Nam Goong-Won, Yoon Jeong-Hee, Heo Jang-Kang
Best known for helming the Shaw Brothers film King Boxer (1972) a.k.a. Five Fingers of Death, which stands as one of the best cult films among Hong Kong martial art films, Director Chung pioneered in the genre of action films in Korean cinema. The film stepped into the spotlight at the Biff (Busan International Film Festival) in 2003.
In the reign of the king Sukjong, the new queen, Jang Hui-Bin ascends the throne. Oh Ki-Ryong, an ally of Jang, tyrannizes those who remain sympathetic to the old queen, Min. A lone swordsman, Kim Tae-Won appears and gets rid of the allies of Jang with a certain vengeance. He gradually unfolds his story in flashbacks.
2. The General’s Son (1990)
Director: Im Kwon-Taek
Cast: Park Sang‑Min, Shin Hyun‑Joon, Lee Il‑Jae
The first installment,...
- 3/5/2016
- by Lady Jane
- AsianMoviePulse
The Eighth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-produced by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the early 1990s, offering a comprehensive overview of French cinema.
The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations, and we’re especially pleased to present Jacques Rivette’s long-unavailable epic Out 1: Spectre Additional restoration highlights include Jean-Luc Godard’s A Married Woman and Max Ophüls’ too-little-seen From Mayerling To Sarajevo. Both Ophüls’ film and Louis Malle’s Elevator To The Gallows – with a jazz score by St. Louis-area native Miles Davis — screen from 35mm prints. All films will screen at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (47- E. Lockwood)
Music fans will further delight in the Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra’s accompaniment and original score for Carl Th. Dreyer’s...
The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations, and we’re especially pleased to present Jacques Rivette’s long-unavailable epic Out 1: Spectre Additional restoration highlights include Jean-Luc Godard’s A Married Woman and Max Ophüls’ too-little-seen From Mayerling To Sarajevo. Both Ophüls’ film and Louis Malle’s Elevator To The Gallows – with a jazz score by St. Louis-area native Miles Davis — screen from 35mm prints. All films will screen at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (47- E. Lockwood)
Music fans will further delight in the Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra’s accompaniment and original score for Carl Th. Dreyer’s...
- 2/16/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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