Tom Blyth is set to follow in the footsteps of Gary Cooper, Rock Hudson and George Hamilton to star in Michael Winterbottom’s new adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel A Farewell to Arms.
Fremantle, Winterbottom’s production company Revolution Films and Passenger are joining forces on the production.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and Billy the Kid star Blyth will play volunteer ambulance driver Frederic Henry, who is wounded and falls in love with his nurse in Italy during World War One.
Published in 1929, A Farewell To Arms is inspired by Hemingway’s own experiences as a volunteer ambulance driver with the Italian Army on the Isonzo Front.
Considered one of the greatest war novels of the twentieth century, it established Hemingway as a household name.
The novel has previously been...
Fremantle, Winterbottom’s production company Revolution Films and Passenger are joining forces on the production.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes and Billy the Kid star Blyth will play volunteer ambulance driver Frederic Henry, who is wounded and falls in love with his nurse in Italy during World War One.
Published in 1929, A Farewell To Arms is inspired by Hemingway’s own experiences as a volunteer ambulance driver with the Italian Army on the Isonzo Front.
Considered one of the greatest war novels of the twentieth century, it established Hemingway as a household name.
The novel has previously been...
- 12/7/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Few American filmmakers of the last 40 years await a major rediscovery like Hal Hartley, whose traces in modern movies are either too-minor or entirely unknown. Thus it’s cause for celebration that the Criterion Channel are soon launching a major retrospective: 13 features (which constitutes all but My America) and 17 shorts, a sui generis style and persistent vision running across 30 years. Expect your Halloween party to be aswim in Henry Fool costumes.
Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies offer chills and thrills of a different sort
Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains,...
Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies offer chills and thrills of a different sort
Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains,...
- 8/21/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
A couple months after spotlighting the world’s greatest actress, the Criterion Channel have taken a logical next step towards America’s greatest actress. May (or: next week) will bring an eleven-film celebration of Jennifer Jason Leigh, highlights including Verhoeven’s Flesh + Blood, Miami Blues, Alan Rudolph’s Mrs. Parker, her directorial debut The Anniversary Party, and Synecdoche, New York, and a special introduction from Leigh. Another actor’s showcase localizes directorial collaborations: Jimmy Stewart’s time with Anthony Mann, an eight-title series boasting the likes of Winchester ’73 and The Man from Laramie. Two more: a survey of ’80s Asian-American cinema (Chan Is Missing being the best-known) and 14 movies by Seijun Suzuki.
That would be enough for one month (or two), but No Bears and Cette maison will have their streaming premieres, while Criterion Editions offers the Infernal Affairs trilogy (plus its packed set), Days of Heaven, and the aforementioned Chan Is Missing.
That would be enough for one month (or two), but No Bears and Cette maison will have their streaming premieres, while Criterion Editions offers the Infernal Affairs trilogy (plus its packed set), Days of Heaven, and the aforementioned Chan Is Missing.
- 4/20/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Hollywood legend holds that during the filming of Charles Vidor's film noir classic "Gilda," Rita Hayworth slapped co-star Glenn Ford so hard that she broke two of his teeth. This is obviously not an ideal situation. Stage and screen combat is an important discipline, one that allows actors to feign violence without actually, you know, dislodging dental work. There is another level, however, but this is typically indulged in action films. Think Sylvester Stallone getting hit so hard in the chest by Dolph Lundgren while shooting the climactic boxing match in "Rocky IV" that his heart swelled to a dangerous degree, forcing him to be flown from Vancouver at low altitude to a hospital in Santa Monica, California.
Accidents will happen. Egos, also, will run amok. Get two actors in a charged scene where they're desperate to ramp the stakes up to an Oscar-clip level, and the situation could...
Accidents will happen. Egos, also, will run amok. Get two actors in a charged scene where they're desperate to ramp the stakes up to an Oscar-clip level, and the situation could...
- 9/8/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
The holidays are upon us, so whether you looking for film-related gifts or simply want to pick up some of the finest the year had to offer in the category for yourself, we have a gift guide for you. Including must-have books on filmmaking, the best from the Criterion Collection, Kino Lorber, and more home-video picks, subscriptions, magazines, music, and more, dive in below.
4K & Blu-ray Box Sets
There’s no better gift for a cinephile than a beautiful Blu-ray box set. Leading the pack in this regard is a collection that actually arrived much earlier this year: World of Wong Kar-wai, the long-awaited Criterion release that features the Hong Kong master’s most celebrated works, along with the first U.S. release of his short The Hand. Another must-own trio of sets from Criterion: Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films, featuring four bold films from the late director, The...
4K & Blu-ray Box Sets
There’s no better gift for a cinephile than a beautiful Blu-ray box set. Leading the pack in this regard is a collection that actually arrived much earlier this year: World of Wong Kar-wai, the long-awaited Criterion release that features the Hong Kong master’s most celebrated works, along with the first U.S. release of his short The Hand. Another must-own trio of sets from Criterion: Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films, featuring four bold films from the late director, The...
- 11/29/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
October’s here and it’s time to get spooked. After last year’s superb “’70s Horror” lineup, the Criterion Channel commemorates October with a couple series: “Universal Horror,” which does what it says on the tin (with special notice to the Spanish-language Dracula), and “Home Invasion,” which runs the gamut from Romero to Oshima with Polanski and Haneke in the mix. Lest we disregard the programming of Cindy Sherman’s one feature, Office Killer, and Jennifer’s Body, whose lifespan has gone from gimmick to forgotten to Criterion Channel. And if you want to stretch ideas of genre just a hair, their “True Crime” selection gets at darker shades of human nature.
It’s not all chills and thrills, mind. October also boasts a Kirk Douglas repertoire, movies by Doris Wishman and Wayne Wang, plus Manoel de Oliveira’s rarely screened Porto of My Childhood. And Edgar Wright gets the “Adventures in Moviegoing” treatment,...
It’s not all chills and thrills, mind. October also boasts a Kirk Douglas repertoire, movies by Doris Wishman and Wayne Wang, plus Manoel de Oliveira’s rarely screened Porto of My Childhood. And Edgar Wright gets the “Adventures in Moviegoing” treatment,...
- 9/24/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
A review for a movie not on video disc. CineSavant bears down hard on a now-obscure UK thriller that proves a crossroads for several key themes of modern terror: Nazis, bacteriological warfare and paranoid conspiracies. ‘007’– associated writer Jack Whittingham scripted a tale that connects old-school espionage to visionary super-crimes against humanity, the thriller genre of ‘The Unthinkable.’ Who’s the threat? An innocuous little doctor with a horrendous secret background and a somewhat preposterous ability to go undetected as he kills to assume and protect a new identity. The techno-chiller was released in 1948 yet seems screamingly relevant now.
Counterblast
Blu-ray
Savant Revival Screening Review
1948 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 98, 90 min. / The Devil’s Plot / Not On Home Video
Starring: Robert Beatty, Mervyn Johns, Nova Pilbeam, Margaretta Scott, Sybille Binder, Marie Lohr, Karel Stepanek, Alan Wheatley, Gladys Henson, John Salew, Anthony Eustrel, Peter Madden, Archie Duncan, Olive Sloane.
Cinematography: Moray Grant, James Wilson...
Counterblast
Blu-ray
Savant Revival Screening Review
1948 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 98, 90 min. / The Devil’s Plot / Not On Home Video
Starring: Robert Beatty, Mervyn Johns, Nova Pilbeam, Margaretta Scott, Sybille Binder, Marie Lohr, Karel Stepanek, Alan Wheatley, Gladys Henson, John Salew, Anthony Eustrel, Peter Madden, Archie Duncan, Olive Sloane.
Cinematography: Moray Grant, James Wilson...
- 8/3/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Criterion Channel’s July 2021 Lineup Includes Wong Kar Wai, Neo-Noir, Art-House Animation & More
The July lineup at The Criterion Channel has been revealed, most notably featuring the new Wong Kar Wai restorations from the recent box set release, including As Tears Go By, Days of Being Wild, Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love, 2046, and his shorts Hua yang de nian hua and The Hand.
Also among the lineup is a series on neo-noir with Body Double, Manhunter, Thief, The Last Seduction, Cutter’s Way, Brick, Night Moves, The Long Goodbye, Chinatown, and more. The channel will also feature a spotlight on art-house animation with work by Marcell Jankovics, Satoshi Kon, Ari Folman, Don Hertzfeldt, Karel Zeman, and more.
With Jodie Mack’s delightful The Grand Bizarre, the landmark doc Hoop Dreams, Orson Welles’ take on Othello, the recent Oscar entries Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time and You Will Die at Twenty, and much more,...
Also among the lineup is a series on neo-noir with Body Double, Manhunter, Thief, The Last Seduction, Cutter’s Way, Brick, Night Moves, The Long Goodbye, Chinatown, and more. The channel will also feature a spotlight on art-house animation with work by Marcell Jankovics, Satoshi Kon, Ari Folman, Don Hertzfeldt, Karel Zeman, and more.
With Jodie Mack’s delightful The Grand Bizarre, the landmark doc Hoop Dreams, Orson Welles’ take on Othello, the recent Oscar entries Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time and You Will Die at Twenty, and much more,...
- 6/24/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Despite the proliferation of streaming services, it’s becoming increasingly clear that any cinephile only needs subscriptions to a few to survive. Among the top of our list are The Criterion Channel and Mubi and now they’ve each unveiled their stellar April line-ups.
Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.
At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...
Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.
At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...
- 3/26/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The November 2020 lineup for The Criterion Channel has been unveiled, toplined by a Claire Denis retrospective, including the brand-new restoration of Beau travail, along with Chocolat, No Fear, No Die, Nenette and Boni, Towards Mathilde, 35 Shots of Rum, and White Material.
There will also be a series celebrating 30 years of The Film Foundation, featuring a new interview with Martin Scorsese by Ari Aster, as well as a number of their most essential restorations, including films by Jia Zhangke, Ritwik Ghatak, Luchino Visconti, Shirley Clarke, Med Hondo, and more.
There’s also David Lynch’s new restoration of The Elephant Man, retrospectives dedicated to Ngozi Onwurah, Nadav Lapid, and Terence Nance, a new edition of the series Queersighted titled Queer Fear, featuring a new conversation between series programmer Michael Koresky and filmmaker and critic Farihah Zaman, and much more.
See the lineup below and learn more on the official site.
There will also be a series celebrating 30 years of The Film Foundation, featuring a new interview with Martin Scorsese by Ari Aster, as well as a number of their most essential restorations, including films by Jia Zhangke, Ritwik Ghatak, Luchino Visconti, Shirley Clarke, Med Hondo, and more.
There’s also David Lynch’s new restoration of The Elephant Man, retrospectives dedicated to Ngozi Onwurah, Nadav Lapid, and Terence Nance, a new edition of the series Queersighted titled Queer Fear, featuring a new conversation between series programmer Michael Koresky and filmmaker and critic Farihah Zaman, and much more.
See the lineup below and learn more on the official site.
- 10/27/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.
Braguino (Clément Cogitore)
Le Cinéma Club excels in presentation—opening their clean website every Friday reveals a free, new, conveniently sized film playing alongside original written content—but more important is their reach: time and again they’re screening unavailable, underseen, sometimes thought-missing work by auteurs established and upcoming alike. Their current program concerns recent documentaries—starting today is French filmmaker Clément Cogitore’s Braguino, which surveys two rival families in images merging you-are-there immediacy with stunning high-definition clarity. At 49 minutes the experience is ideal for your dense quarantine lineup. – Nick N.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
Columbia Noir
To celebrate their one-year anniversary, The...
Braguino (Clément Cogitore)
Le Cinéma Club excels in presentation—opening their clean website every Friday reveals a free, new, conveniently sized film playing alongside original written content—but more important is their reach: time and again they’re screening unavailable, underseen, sometimes thought-missing work by auteurs established and upcoming alike. Their current program concerns recent documentaries—starting today is French filmmaker Clément Cogitore’s Braguino, which surveys two rival families in images merging you-are-there immediacy with stunning high-definition clarity. At 49 minutes the experience is ideal for your dense quarantine lineup. – Nick N.
Where to Stream: Le Cinéma Club
Columbia Noir
To celebrate their one-year anniversary, The...
- 4/10/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
This remake of a pre-Code classic adds amazing European locations, glorious Technicolor and entire armies on the move, yet doesn’t improve on the original. Producer David O. Selznick secured Rock Hudson to play opposite Jennifer Jones, but the chemistry is lacking. Why did the man spend twenty years trying to top Gone With the Wind?
A Farewell to Arms
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 152 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jennifer Jones, Rock Hudson, Vittorio De Sica, Mercedes McCambridge, Elaine Stritch.
Cinematography: Oswald Morris, Piero Portalupi
Production Designer: Alfred Junge
Art Direction: Mario Garbuglia
Film Editors: John M. Foley, Gerard J. Wilson
Original Music: Mario Nascimbene
Written by Ben Hecht from a play by Laurence Stallings from a novel by Ernest Hemingway
Produced by David O. Selznick
Directed by Charles Vidor
What happens when a major Hollywood producer thinks he has all the answers?...
A Farewell to Arms
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 152 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jennifer Jones, Rock Hudson, Vittorio De Sica, Mercedes McCambridge, Elaine Stritch.
Cinematography: Oswald Morris, Piero Portalupi
Production Designer: Alfred Junge
Art Direction: Mario Garbuglia
Film Editors: John M. Foley, Gerard J. Wilson
Original Music: Mario Nascimbene
Written by Ben Hecht from a play by Laurence Stallings from a novel by Ernest Hemingway
Produced by David O. Selznick
Directed by Charles Vidor
What happens when a major Hollywood producer thinks he has all the answers?...
- 4/29/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Eureka! Entertainment has announced that Charles Vidor's Cover Girl, starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly, together with Fred Zinnerman's Oscar-winning A Man for all Seasons, will be joining the Masters of Cinema series in February. The British home video label also announced the release of Gus Van Sant's Finding Forrester, the late vehicle for Sean Connery. A ravishing 1940s musical that cemented Rita Hayworth's position as a Hollywood screen goddess, while proving a big-time break for dancing legend Gene Kelly, Cover Girl tells the story of a nightclub showgirl (Hayworth) who gets a shot at the big time, but wrestles with putting her career over her relationship with her former boss (Kelly). Eurkea's gorgeous dual-format release arrives on 13 February. Winner of 6 Academy Awards including Best...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 11/23/2016
- Screen Anarchy
MGM's show is a surprising powerhouse musical bio about the personality clash between an ambitious singer and the powerful enabler who wants her in his bed. Doris Day and James Cagney are at their best in an only slightly compromised telling of the real-life showbiz relationship of 'twenties star Ruth Etting and the domineering mobster Martin Snyder. Love Me or Leave Me Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 122 min. / Street Date September 13, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Keith, Tom Tully, Harry Bellaver, Richard Gaines, Peter Leeds, Claude Stroud, Audrey Wilder, John Harding. Cinematography Arthur E. Arling Art Direction Urie McCleary, Cedric Gibbons Film Editor Ralph Winters Original Music Nicholas Brodszky, Percy Faith, George E. Stoll Written by Daniel Fuchs and Isobel Lennart Produced by Joe Pasternak Directed by Charles Vidor
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
MGM's early CinemaScope musical bio holds up extremely well,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
MGM's early CinemaScope musical bio holds up extremely well,...
- 8/20/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
★★★★★ 'There never was a woman like Gilda', proclaimed the poster for Charles Vidor's classic 1946 film noir, and indeed, the mark that Rita Hayworth's character left on cinema is indelible. The woman who once sent the inmates of Shawshank State Penitentiary wild with desire has undeniable erotic appeal, but her definition as the archetypal femme fatale belies not only her legitimacy as a rounded character, but also as an empowered narrative agent with a range of complex and often contradictory motivations. Indeed, Hayworth's famous observation that men 'wanted to go to bed with Gilda, but woke up with Rita', is never truer than in the film itself.
- 6/27/2016
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Merle Oberon movies: Mysterious star of British and American cinema. Merle Oberon on TCM: Donning men's clothes in 'A Song to Remember,' fighting hiccups in 'That Uncertain Feeling' Merle Oberon is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month of March 2016. The good news: the exquisite (and mysterious) Oberon, whose ancestry has been a matter of conjecture for decades, makes any movie worth a look. The bad news: TCM isn't offering any Oberon premieres despite the fact that a number of the actress' films – e.g., Temptation, Night in Paradise, Pardon My French, Interval – can be tough to find. This evening, March 18, TCM will be showing six Merle Oberon movies released during the first half of the 1940s. Never a top box office draw in the United States, Oberon was an important international star all the same, having worked with many of the top actors and filmmakers of the studio era.
- 3/19/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
This adult film noir masterpiece showcases the most glamorous pin-up dream girl of the 1940s. Rita Hayworth, a young Glenn Ford and a sinister George Macready form a sophisticated, poisonous love triangle. Criminal intrigues and killer striptease fill out the bill. Gilda Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 795 1946 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 110 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 19, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia, Steven Geray, Joe Sawyer, Gerald Mohr, Ludwig Donath, Argentina Brunetti, Eduardo Ciannelli, Ruth Roman. Cinematography Rudolph Maté Film Editor Charles Nelson Music underscore Hugo Friedhofer Written by Marion Parsonnet, Jo Eisinger, E.A. Ellington Produced by Virginia Van Upp Directed by Charles Vidor
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Some of the best 'movie' times I remember were seeing classic pictures cold, with no knowledge beforehand. Back at film school they'd show us things we'd never heard of, often in prints of incredible good quality.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Some of the best 'movie' times I remember were seeing classic pictures cold, with no knowledge beforehand. Back at film school they'd show us things we'd never heard of, often in prints of incredible good quality.
- 1/30/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
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.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl (Marielle Heller)
Writer-director Marie Heller paints an accurate, honest, and vibrant portrait of her young protagonist, Minnie (Bel Powley), in The Diary of a Teenage Girl. With the use of some beautiful hand-drawn animation, an enlightening and funny narration, and Powley’s versatile performance, this is about as intimate as a subjective picture gets. We experience the world as this young girl does. What’s exciting for Minnie feels truly exciting, and...
The Diary of a Teenage Girl (Marielle Heller)
Writer-director Marie Heller paints an accurate, honest, and vibrant portrait of her young protagonist, Minnie (Bel Powley), in The Diary of a Teenage Girl. With the use of some beautiful hand-drawn animation, an enlightening and funny narration, and Powley’s versatile performance, this is about as intimate as a subjective picture gets. We experience the world as this young girl does. What’s exciting for Minnie feels truly exciting, and...
- 1/19/2016
- by TFS Staff
- The Film Stage
Many things have been written by plenty of film historians and critics on the essential film Gilda, the 1946 classic directed by Charles Vidor. Is it a drama or does it rest solely in the genre of film noir? Was Rita Hayworth's Gilda an example of a femme fatale or was she a pawn being used by the two men in her life, Ballin (George Macready) and Johnny (Glenn Ford) as they further their intense personal and working lives?Does it matter? The new Criterion Collection blu-ray will serve audiences who side with any of the above arguments. The fact is, Gilda is one of the more important films to come out of the 1940s. Like many films of that era, it skirted with disaster when it...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 1/14/2016
- Screen Anarchy
Above: Italian 4-foglio for The Joker is Wild (Charles Vidor, USA, 1957). Art by Enzo Nistri.Frank Sinatra, arguably the most important entertainer of the 20th century, was born 100 years ago today. I’ve become a little obsessed with him over the past week after watching Alex Gibney’s terrific 2-part, 4-hour HBO portrait Sinatra: All or Nothing at All. This of course got me thinking about Frank in movie posters, and I realized that I could barely come up with images of Sinatra posters in my head. While his best album covers are indelible and iconic, his movie posters tend to be less so. Scrolling through his filmography I realized that part of the problem is that his greatest films—On the Town, From Here to Eternity, Guys and Dolls, Some Came Running, Ocean’s 11—were almost always ensemble films in which Sinatra was never the standalone star, and so...
- 12/12/2015
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Above: Italian 4-foglio for The Joker is Wild (Charles Vidor, USA, 1957). Art by Enzo Nistri.Frank Sinatra, arguably the most important entertainer of the 20th century, was born 100 years ago today. I’ve become a little obsessed with him over the past week after watching Alex Gibney’s terrific 2-part, 4-hour HBO portrait Sinatra: All or Nothing at All. This of course got me thinking about Frank in movie posters, and I realized that I could barely come up with images of Sinatra posters in my head. While his best album covers are indelible and iconic, his movie posters tend to be less so. Scrolling through his filmography I realized that part of the problem is that his greatest films—On the Town, From Here to Eternity, Guys and Dolls, Some Came Running, Ocean’s 11—were almost always ensemble films in which Sinatra was never the standalone star, and so...
- 12/12/2015
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, The Naked Prey remains the only film directed by Cornel Wilde to be widely available, a situation that based on this example, is a lamentable state of affairs indeed. An incredibly physical actor, who was at least as proficient an athlete, Wilde found himself regularly typecast in classically heroic roles after moving to Hollywood. He had been offered a place on the Us Olympic fencing team in 1936, but turned it down to pursue his acting career. In 1940, Wilde played Tybalt in Laurence Olivier's New York stage production of Romeo & Juliet, for which he also choreographed the sword fights. Then in 1945 he was cast as composer Frederic Chopin opposite his acting hero Paul Muni in Charles Vidor's A...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 10/26/2015
- Screen Anarchy
The Criterion Collection will begin the new year by welcoming the Coen Brothers into the fold. Inside Llewyn Davis dove into the less glamorous side of the folk music scene, and showcased a sterling performance by Oscar Isaac. The Criterion home video version features an audio commentary by writers Robert Christgau, David Hajdu, and Sean Wilentz. In a new extra Gullermo del Toro sits down with the Coens to talk about their career. Both Lady Snowblood movies are included in The Complete Lady Snowblood; both are new 2K digital restorations. Wim Wenders' terrific The American Friend will also receive the Criterion treatment. I wrote about the movie here. January will also see the release of Giuseppe De Santis' neorealist Bitter Rice and Charles Vidor's spectacular...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 10/19/2015
- Screen Anarchy
Gary Cooper movies on TCM: Cooper at his best and at his weakest Gary Cooper is Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” star today, Aug. 30, '15. Unfortunately, TCM isn't showing any Cooper movie premiere – despite the fact that most of his Paramount movies of the '20s and '30s remain unavailable. This evening's features are Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Sergeant York (1941), and Love in the Afternoon (1957). Mr. Deeds Goes to Town solidified Gary Cooper's stardom and helped to make Jean Arthur Columbia's top female star. The film is a tad overlong and, like every Frank Capra movie, it's also highly sentimental. What saves it from the Hell of Good Intentions is the acting of the two leads – Cooper and Arthur are both excellent – and of several supporting players. Directed by Howard Hawks, the jingoistic, pro-war Sergeant York was a huge box office hit, eventually earning Academy Award nominations in several categories,...
- 8/30/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Teresa Wright-Samuel Goldwyn association comes to a nasty end (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt': Alfred Hitchcock Heroine in His Favorite Film.") Whether or not because she was aware that Enchantment wasn't going to be the hit she needed – or perhaps some other disagreement with Samuel Goldwyn or personal issue with husband Niven Busch – Teresa Wright, claiming illness, refused to go to New York City to promote the film. (Top image: Teresa Wright in a publicity shot for The Men.) Goldwyn had previously announced that Wright, whose contract still had another four and half years to run, was to star in a film version of J.D. Salinger's 1948 short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut." Instead, he unceremoniously – and quite publicly – fired her.[1] The Goldwyn organization issued a statement, explaining that besides refusing the assignment to travel to New York to help generate pre-opening publicity for Enchantment,...
- 3/11/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Martha Stewart: Actress / Singer in Fox movies apparently not dead despite two-year-old reports to the contrary (Photo: Martha Stewart and Perry Como in 'Doll Face') According to various online reports, including Variety's, actress and singer Martha Stewart, a pretty blonde featured in supporting roles in a handful of 20th Century Fox movies of the '40s, died at age 89 of "natural causes" in Northeast Harbor, Maine, on February 25, 2012. Needless to say, that was not the same Martha Stewart hawking "delicious foods" and whatever else on American television. But quite possibly, the Martha Stewart who died in February 2012 -- if any -- was not the Martha Stewart of old Fox movies either. And that's why I'm republishing this (former) obit, originally posted more than two and a half years ago: March 11, 2012. Earlier today, a commenter wrote to Alt Film Guide, claiming that the Martha Stewart featured in Doll Face, I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now,...
- 11/11/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
‘Grace of Monaco’ U.S. March release canceled as biopic starring Nicole Kidman as Grace Kelly to open 2014 Cannes Film Festival (photo: Nicole Kidman as Grace Kelly in ‘Grace of Monaco’) Directed by Olivier Dahan, and starring Nicole Kidman as Oscar-winning Hollywood actress-turned-European princess Grace Kelly, Grace of Monaco was to have been a (possibly) strong Oscar 2014 contender — at least in the Best Actress category. After all, Dahan had guided 2007 Best Actress Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose; Nicole Kidman is a respected actress with one Academy Award win (for Stephen Daldry’s The Hours) and two nominations (Moulin Rouge!, Rabbit Hole); and, last but certainly not least, Grace of Monaco was to have been released in North America by the Oscar-savvy The Weinstein Company. However, Harvey Weinstein was reportedly unhappy with Olivier Dahan’s final cut, and demanded that Grace of Monaco be reedited.
- 1/28/2014
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
‘Gilda,’ ‘Pulp Fiction’: 2013 National Film Registry movies (photo: Rita Hayworth in ‘Gilda’) See previous post: “‘Mary Poppins’ in National Film Registry: Good Timing for Disney’s ‘Saving Mr. Banks.’” Billy Woodberry’s UCLA thesis film Bless Their Little Hearts (1984). Stanton Kaye’s Brandy in the Wilderness (1969). The Film Group’s Cicero March (1966), about a Civil Rights march in an all-white Chicago suburb. Norbert A. Myles’ Daughter of Dawn (1920), with Hunting Horse, Oscar Yellow Wolf, Esther Labarre. Bill Morrison’s Decasia (2002), featuring decomposing archival footage. Alfred E. Green’s Ella Cinders (1926), with Colleen Moore, Lloyd Hughes, Vera Lewis. Fred M. Wilcox’s Forbidden Planet (1956), with Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens, Jack Kelly, Robby the Robot. Charles Vidor’s Gilda (1946), with Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready. John and Faith Hubley’s Oscar-winning animated short The Hole (1962). Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), with Best Actor Oscar winner Maximilian Schell,...
- 12/20/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Doris Day movies: TCM’s ‘Summer Under the Stars 2013′ lineup continues (photo: Doris Day in ‘Calamity Jane’ publicity shot) Doris Day, who turned 89 last April 3, is Turner Classic Movies’ 2013 “Summer Under the Stars” star on Friday, August 2. (Doris Day, by the way, still looks great. Check out "Doris Day Today.") Doris Day movies, of course, are frequently shown on TCM. Why? Well, TCM is owned by the megaconglomerate Time Warner, which also happens to own (among myriad other things) the Warner Bros. film library, which includes not only the Doris Day movies made at Warners from 1948 to 1955, but also Day’s MGM films as well (and the overwhelming majority of MGM releases up to 1986). My point: Don’t expect any Doris Day movie rarity on Friday — in fact, I don’t think such a thing exists. Doris Day is ‘Calamity Jane’ If you haven’t watched David Butler’s musical...
- 8/1/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Louise Brooks in Prix de Beauté: 2013 San Francisco Silent Film Festival Louise Brooks will kick off the 2013 San Francisco Silent Film Festival. At 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 17, the Sfsff will screen Augusto Genina’s Prix de Beauté aka Beauty Prize at the Castro Theater. Released in 1930 — when talkies had already become established in much of the moviemaking world — the French-made Prix de Beauté came out in both sound and silent versions, a widely common practice in those days as many theaters had yet to get wired for sound. Needless to say, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival’s Prix de Beauté print is the silent version, recently restored by the Cineteca di Bologna. (Photo: Louise Brooks in Prix de Beauté.) Prix de Beauté, which marked the last time Louise Brooks starred in a feature film, tells the story of a typist who enters a beauty contest — much to her...
- 7/17/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Cover Girl
Directed by Charles Vidor
Written by Virginia Van Upp
Starring Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly, and Lee Bowman
USA, 107 min.
At the beginning of Charles Vidor’s Cover Girl, Vanity Magazine holds a contest to find an unknown, fresh-faced model to place on the cover. Wanting to jump start her career, nightclub dancer, Rusty Parker (Rita Hayworth) attends a casting call. Vanity editor John Coudair (Otto Kruger) eventually makes Rusty his next model, when he discovers that her grandmother (who bears an extraordinary resemblance to Rusty) is the singer he used to love. Rusty’s career seems set. The only problem is Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly), Rusty’s boss and boyfriend, who worries that famous Rusty will leave him for someone better.
Cover Girl is a mid-level musical with some memorable song and dance numbers (“Put Me To The Test” and “Cover Girl”). More interesting than the film’s...
Directed by Charles Vidor
Written by Virginia Van Upp
Starring Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly, and Lee Bowman
USA, 107 min.
At the beginning of Charles Vidor’s Cover Girl, Vanity Magazine holds a contest to find an unknown, fresh-faced model to place on the cover. Wanting to jump start her career, nightclub dancer, Rusty Parker (Rita Hayworth) attends a casting call. Vanity editor John Coudair (Otto Kruger) eventually makes Rusty his next model, when he discovers that her grandmother (who bears an extraordinary resemblance to Rusty) is the singer he used to love. Rusty’s career seems set. The only problem is Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly), Rusty’s boss and boyfriend, who worries that famous Rusty will leave him for someone better.
Cover Girl is a mid-level musical with some memorable song and dance numbers (“Put Me To The Test” and “Cover Girl”). More interesting than the film’s...
- 7/5/2013
- by Karen Bacellar
- SoundOnSight
Most recent film appearances, plus concert and television work Please check out our previous post: "Montiel La Violetera and Pedro Almodóvar Icon." Her last star vehicle of note was Juan Antonio Bardem's Varietés (1971), a melodrama about an aging actress who continues to dream of becoming a bona fide star. [Please scroll down to listen to Montiel's husky rendition of "Amado mío."] The forty-something hopeful eventually gets her chance at stardom, but it all turns out to be a flash in the pan. By then, following a whole array of formulaic romantic musical melodramas, Montiel's box-office allure had waned rather radically. She turned down roles in Spain's cine del destape -- post-Franco softcore comedies -- which eventually meant the demise of her movie career. Her last official star vehicle was Pedro Lazaga's comedy Cinco almohadas para una noche ("Five Cushions for One Night," 1974) -- though she would be seen in Eduardo Manzanos Brochero's That's Entertainment-like compilation feature Canciones de nuestra...
- 4/10/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Author Slide to discuss the history of Hollywood extras at historical Lasky-DeMille Barn Film historian Anthony Slide, author of dozens of books on Hollywood history, will be discussing his most recent work, Hollywood Unknowns: A History of Extras, Bit Players and Stand-Ins, at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10, at the Hollywood Heritage Museum, located at a Hollywood historical landmark: the Lasky-DeMille Barn, right across the street from the Hollywood Bowl. (Check out: "The History of Hollywood Extras, Bit Players and Stand-Ins: Interview with Author and Film Historian Anthony Slide.") Pictured Above are Olivia de Havilland and her The Charge of the Light Brigade stand-in, Ann Robinson, circa 1936. As per the Barn's press release, "Mr. Slide will discuss the lives and work of extras, including the harsh conditions, sexual harassment, scandals and tragedies." Besides, he'll also talk about Central Casting and the Hollywood Studio Club, the residence of a number of up-and-coming actresses,...
- 4/4/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Dead at 99: Opera star and Crosby's ex-girlfriend in 1944 Best Picture Oscar winner Risë Stevens, the Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano that moviegoers remember as Nelson Eddy's romantic partner in Roy Del Ruth's 1941 musical The Chocolate Soldier and as Bing Crosby's ex-girlfriend in Leo McCarey's 1944 Oscar-winning blockbuster Going My Way, died on Wednesday, March 20, at her Manhattan home. The former singer was 99 years old. (Pictured above: Stevens in her most famous operatic role, that of Bizet's anti-heroine Carmen.) Born in The Bronx, New York City, Stevens sang at the Metropolitan from 1938 to 1961; among her most popular roles were Dalila in Camille Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila, Mignon in Ambroise Thomas' opera of the same name, and most notable of all, the lead in Bizet's Carmen. After leaving the stage, she became an arts administrator with the Met and president of the Mannes College of Music.
- 3/22/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Kidman as Kelly: A sure thing for the 86th Academy Awards Best Actress roster? Could Nicole Kidman earn a Best Actress Academy Award nomination early next year for playing 1954 Oscar winner Grace Kelly in Grace of Monaco? Is it to soon to start with Oscar 2014 predictions? Hardly. After all, bear in mind that The Weinstein Company has already bought the North American rights to the Olivier Dahan-directed Grace of Monaco, which, according to reports, will possibly be released some time around Christmas 2013. Also, let's not forget that Kidman has already received no less than three Academy Award nods in the last decade, winning the golden statuette a decade ago for Stephen Daldry's three-part drama The Hours. (Pictured above: Grace of Monaco's star Nicole Kidman as Hollywood star turned princess Grace Kelly. Please scroll down to check out another cool Kidman as Kelly photo below.) Oh, but wait a...
- 2/28/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Rita Hayworth, Gilda Rita Hayworth is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Evening. TCM will be presenting the quintessential Hayworth in Gilda at 5 p.m. Pt. That'll be followed by the quintessential anti-Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai, plus Fire Down Below, The Happy Thieves, The Lady in Question, and Affair in Trinidad. If you haven't watched Gilda (1946), you must. Charles Vidor's dark melodrama oozes romance, lust, desire, intrigue — and Nazis, too. All that set in a Hollywood-made Buenos Aires, where Hayworth's Gilda is married to George Macready's forbidding casino boss, but loves the youthful Glenn Ford's Johnny, who loves Gilda and has a deep, huh, respect for her husband, who, for his part, also happens to be, huh, deeply attached to Ford. As a son. Hayworth moves her body beautifully while singing "Put the Blame on Mame" and "Amado Mio," but the voice coming out of...
- 4/8/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi in Oscar nominee (but not DGA nominee) David Lean's Summertime DGA Awards vs. Academy Awards 1948-1952: Odd Men Out George Cukor, John Huston, Vincente Minnelli 1953 DGA (12) Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Above and Beyond Walter Lang, Call Me Madam Daniel Mann, Come Back, Little Sheba Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Julius Caesar Henry Koster, The Robe Jean Negulesco, Titanic George Sidney, Young Bess DGA/AMPAS George Stevens, Shane Charles Walters, Lili Billy Wilder, Stalag 17 William Wyler, Roman Holiday Fred Zinnemann, From Here to Eternity 1954 DGA (16) Edward Dmytryk, The Caine Mutiny Alfred Hitchcock, Dial M for Murder Robert Wise, Executive Suite Anthony Mann, The Glenn Miller Story Samuel Fuller, Hell and High Water Henry King, King of Khyber Rifles Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Knock on Wood Don Siegel, Riot in Cell Block 11 Stanley Donen, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers George Cukor, A Star Is Born Jean Negulesco,...
- 1/10/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Jeanne Crain, A Letter to Three Wives DGA Awards vs. Academy Awards Pt.2: Foreign, Small, Controversial Movies Have Better Luck at the Oscars Since pre-1970 Directors Guild Award finalists often consisted of more than five directors, it was impossible to get an exact match for the DGA's and the Academy's lists of nominees. In the list below, the years before 1970 include DGA finalists (DGA) who didn't receive an Academy Award nod and, if applicable, those Academy Award-nominated directors (AMPAS) not found in the — usually much lengthier — DGA list. The label "DGA/AMPAS" means the directors in question received nominations for both the DGA Award and the Academy Award. The DGA Awards vs. Academy Awards list below goes from 1948 (the DGA Awards' first year) to 1952. Follow-up posts will cover the ensuing decades. The number in parentheses next to "DGA" indicates that year's number of DGA finalists if other than five.
- 1/10/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Andrew Embiricos, grandson of Rita Hayworth and Prince Aly Khan, was found dead of an apparent suicide at his West 17th Street apartment in Chelsea, New York City, on Sunday, Dec. 4. Embiricos was 25. Andrew Ali Aga Khan Embiricos was the son of economist and shipping heir Basil Embiricos and Princess Yasmin Aga Khan. He was also the nephew of Prince Karim, Aga Khan IV. As such, Embiricos was purportedly a direct descendant of the prophet Mohammed. His body, lying face up in bed with a bag over his head, was found Sunday evening by a friend, Aaron Edwards, who then called 911. An autopsy is to be performed. Because the handsome Embiricos had appeared in amateur gay sex video clips on X-Tube, New York and gay tabloids have gone on to claim that his death wasn't actually suicide, but an experimentation with autoerotic asphyxiation gone wrong. Those are the same sensational...
- 12/7/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Doris Day may have been — once again — absurdly bypassed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Board of Governors, but at least she'll be getting some much deserved recognition from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca). Day, 87, has been named the recipient of the L.A. Critics' Career Achievement Award of 2011 — or 2012, as the ceremony will take place early next year. (This year's winners will be announced on December 11.) The first Lafca award winners were announced in 1975. The annual Career Achievement Award was instituted the following year. Since then, a mere four women have been recognized for their contributions to the motion picture industry: actresses Barbara Stanwyck (1981) and Myrna Loy (1983), editor Dede Allen (1999), and now Doris Day. Male recipients — sometimes two per year — range from auteur John Cassavetes to comedian/auteur Jerry Lewis, from producer John Calley to silent-era pioneer Allan Dwan, from animator Chuck Jones to filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.
- 10/30/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Doris Day, Duffy Doris Day, 87, and Duffy in a new photo to be used by Sony Music to promote Day's upcoming record "My Heart," the legendary actress-singer's 29th album and her first after a seventeen-year hiatus. "My Heart" is to be released in the United Kingdom on Sept. 5. It'll be available on CD and digital-download formats. "It was brought to my attention that the recordings were in storage and Sony was interested in releasing them," Day explained. "So I listened to them and at first had some misgivings, but after they were re-mastered, I liked them and hoped my fans would too." Day added that "these are the tunes that reflect my love of animals and my love for my son." The album features the track "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries," produced by Day's son Terry Melcher, who died of cancer in 2004. Doris Day, who began her film...
- 8/31/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Bette Davis, Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Three on a Match Ann Dvorak on TCM Part I: Scarface, I Was An American Spy Another cool Ann Dvorak performance is her drug addict in Mervyn LeRoy's Three on a Match (1932), which features a great cast that includes Warren William, Joan Blondell, and a pre-stardom Bette Davis. Never, ever light three cigarettes using the same match, or you'll end up like Ann Dvorak, delivering a harrowing performance without getting an Academy Award nomination for your efforts. As Three on a Match's young Ann Dvorak, future Oscar nominee Anne Shirley is billed as Dawn O'Day. (And for those who believe that remakes is something new: Three on a Mach was remade a mere six years later as Broadway Musketeers: John Farrow directed; Ann Sheridan, Marie Wilson, and Margaret Lindsay starred.) I've never watched David Miller's family drama Our Very Own...
- 8/8/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Buenos Aires, 1944: the setting of one of cinemas steamiest and most scintillating love triangles. Re-released for a limited time only at the BFI Southbank, Charles Vidor’s 1946 iconic film noir is a daring but flawed piece that established Rita Hayworth as a femme fatale to be reckoned with.
Glenn Ford plays Johnny Farrell, a seasoned hustler who has been kicked out of every town, city and state where he can roll a dice, toss a coin or play a hand. He finds himself in Argentina, back to his old tricks, back in black and back in trouble – held at knifepoint. Fortunately for Farrell, the sinister and savvy tycoon Ballin Mundson (George Macready) stumbles upon him and saves his life. A professional partnership quickly develops into a friendship as Ballin puts Farrell to work in his casino. The golden rule their relationship is built on is...
Buenos Aires, 1944: the setting of one of cinemas steamiest and most scintillating love triangles. Re-released for a limited time only at the BFI Southbank, Charles Vidor’s 1946 iconic film noir is a daring but flawed piece that established Rita Hayworth as a femme fatale to be reckoned with.
Glenn Ford plays Johnny Farrell, a seasoned hustler who has been kicked out of every town, city and state where he can roll a dice, toss a coin or play a hand. He finds himself in Argentina, back to his old tricks, back in black and back in trouble – held at knifepoint. Fortunately for Farrell, the sinister and savvy tycoon Ballin Mundson (George Macready) stumbles upon him and saves his life. A professional partnership quickly develops into a friendship as Ballin puts Farrell to work in his casino. The golden rule their relationship is built on is...
- 7/25/2011
- by Adam Rayner
- Obsessed with Film
Beginners (15)
(Mike Mills, 2010, Us) Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent. 105 mins
Mills doesn't iron out the hipster-auteur quirks here – a subtitled dog, freeform photomontages, felt-tip illustrations – but he puts them to the service of an authentic drama. McGregor is an La loner whose widowed father (Plummer) came out as gay and enjoyed a few hedonistic years before his death. Not your standard indie baggage, this warm, smartly told story deals with it sincerely, and gets the sweet/sad balance just about right.
Horrible Bosses (15)
(Seth Gordon, 2011, Us) Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis. 98 mins
Clearly aiming for the post-Hangover fratcom market, this sees three guys' plan to off their bosses go awry from the outset, with occasionally amusing, but often crude consequences. Colourful big-name cameos gloss over some political dodginess.
The Big Picture (15)
(Eric Lartigau, 2010, Fra) Romain Duris, Marina Foïs, Niels Arestrup. 115 mins
Duris proves his leading man capabilities amply...
(Mike Mills, 2010, Us) Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Mélanie Laurent. 105 mins
Mills doesn't iron out the hipster-auteur quirks here – a subtitled dog, freeform photomontages, felt-tip illustrations – but he puts them to the service of an authentic drama. McGregor is an La loner whose widowed father (Plummer) came out as gay and enjoyed a few hedonistic years before his death. Not your standard indie baggage, this warm, smartly told story deals with it sincerely, and gets the sweet/sad balance just about right.
Horrible Bosses (15)
(Seth Gordon, 2011, Us) Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis. 98 mins
Clearly aiming for the post-Hangover fratcom market, this sees three guys' plan to off their bosses go awry from the outset, with occasionally amusing, but often crude consequences. Colourful big-name cameos gloss over some political dodginess.
The Big Picture (15)
(Eric Lartigau, 2010, Fra) Romain Duris, Marina Foïs, Niels Arestrup. 115 mins
Duris proves his leading man capabilities amply...
- 7/22/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The Rita Hayworth noir, more than 60 years on, looks more than ever like the dark flipside of Casablanca, writes Peter Bradshaw
A hardbitten American expatriate who turns out to have had some history with the beautiful woman who's just made an entrance. A nightclub. A crooked casino. Sinister Germans who act as if they own the joint. A getaway by plane … More than ever, Charles Vidor's classic melo-noir Gilda from 1946 looks like the crazy evil twin of Michael Curtiz's Casablanca. But Gilda has a streak of irrational panic and hysteria alien to Bergman and Bogart. Glenn Ford plays Johnny, a wastrel who fetches up in a quaintly imagined Buenos Aires just before the end of the war. A perennial card-sharp and gambling cheat, he gets a poacher-turned-gamekeeper job in a casino, as indispensable assistant to its hardfaced owner Mundson (George Macready) who has just got married to the head-spinningly beautiful and mercurial Gilda,...
A hardbitten American expatriate who turns out to have had some history with the beautiful woman who's just made an entrance. A nightclub. A crooked casino. Sinister Germans who act as if they own the joint. A getaway by plane … More than ever, Charles Vidor's classic melo-noir Gilda from 1946 looks like the crazy evil twin of Michael Curtiz's Casablanca. But Gilda has a streak of irrational panic and hysteria alien to Bergman and Bogart. Glenn Ford plays Johnny, a wastrel who fetches up in a quaintly imagined Buenos Aires just before the end of the war. A perennial card-sharp and gambling cheat, he gets a poacher-turned-gamekeeper job in a casino, as indispensable assistant to its hardfaced owner Mundson (George Macready) who has just got married to the head-spinningly beautiful and mercurial Gilda,...
- 7/21/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The Rita Hayworth noir, more than 60 years on, looks more than ever like the dark flipside of Casablanca, writes Peter Bradshaw
A hardbitten American expatriate who turns out to have had some history with the beautiful woman who's just made an entrance. A nightclub. A crooked casino. Sinister Germans who act as if they own the joint. A getaway by plane … More than ever, Charles Vidor's classic melo-noir Gilda from 1946 looks like the crazy evil twin of Michael Curtiz's Casablanca. But Gilda has a streak of irrational panic and hysteria alien to Bergman and Bogart. Glenn Ford plays Johnny, a wastrel who fetches up in a quaintly imagined Buenos Aires just before the end of the war. A perennial card-sharp and gambling cheat, he gets a poacher-turned-gamekeeper job in a casino, as indispensable assistant to its hardfaced owner Mundson (George Macready) who has just got married to the head-spinningly beautiful and mercurial Gilda,...
A hardbitten American expatriate who turns out to have had some history with the beautiful woman who's just made an entrance. A nightclub. A crooked casino. Sinister Germans who act as if they own the joint. A getaway by plane … More than ever, Charles Vidor's classic melo-noir Gilda from 1946 looks like the crazy evil twin of Michael Curtiz's Casablanca. But Gilda has a streak of irrational panic and hysteria alien to Bergman and Bogart. Glenn Ford plays Johnny, a wastrel who fetches up in a quaintly imagined Buenos Aires just before the end of the war. A perennial card-sharp and gambling cheat, he gets a poacher-turned-gamekeeper job in a casino, as indispensable assistant to its hardfaced owner Mundson (George Macready) who has just got married to the head-spinningly beautiful and mercurial Gilda,...
- 7/21/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Evergreen noir thriller is the reason your parents' generation say they preferred it when actors kept their clothes on
In Charles Vidor's evergreen 1946 oddity Gilda – a studio-bound noir thriller that often feels more like an underlit musical comedy – the imperishable, impossible and irreplaceable Rita Hayworth reaches out across nearly seven decades of vanished time to prove that she still, with one extended little finger and a blunderbuss double-entendre, has the power to knock every man in the audience flat on his ass. "If I'd been a ranch," she coos at one point, "they'd have had to call me The Bar-Nothing."
Its plot is entirely McGuffinish and perfunctory, a loony mix of Casablanca, Sadie Thompson (a role Hayworth would play in the 50s) and Notorious. Think Buenos Aires, runaway Nazis, giant dice in the opening shot and musical numbers – all grafted on to a three-way melodrama of outrageous sexual provocation...
In Charles Vidor's evergreen 1946 oddity Gilda – a studio-bound noir thriller that often feels more like an underlit musical comedy – the imperishable, impossible and irreplaceable Rita Hayworth reaches out across nearly seven decades of vanished time to prove that she still, with one extended little finger and a blunderbuss double-entendre, has the power to knock every man in the audience flat on his ass. "If I'd been a ranch," she coos at one point, "they'd have had to call me The Bar-Nothing."
Its plot is entirely McGuffinish and perfunctory, a loony mix of Casablanca, Sadie Thompson (a role Hayworth would play in the 50s) and Notorious. Think Buenos Aires, runaway Nazis, giant dice in the opening shot and musical numbers – all grafted on to a three-way melodrama of outrageous sexual provocation...
- 7/18/2011
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
Rock Hudson Andrew Davies and Andre Shafer's Rock Hudson: Dark and Handsome Stranger was screened in the 2010 Berlin Film Festival's Panorama sidebar. [Rock Hudson documentary synopsis.] Universal star Rock Hudson, one of the top box-office attractions in the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s, died of AIDS complications in his Beverly Hills home in 1985. Hudson, who was gay, lived a closeted life; he was briefly married to his agent's secretary and reportedly managed to broker a deal with scandal sheet Confidential when the gossip rag threatened to expose him. Among Hudson's best-known vehicles are Douglas Sirk's Magnificent Obsession (1954) and All That Heaven Allows (1955), both co-starring Jane Wyman; George Stevens' Giant (1956), in which Hudson's co-stars were Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean, and for which he received his only Best Actor Academy Award nomination; Charles Vidor's poorly received but highly popular A Farewell to Arms (1957), with Jennifer Jones; Robert Mulligan's...
- 6/26/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
"A downbeat homage to bright-lights showbiz dramas, an epic orchestration that indulges in stubbornly obsessive riffs, Martin Scorsese's New York, New York (1977) seems to value awkwardness and indecision above all else," writes Dan Callahan for Alt Screen, and much of what follows is pretty rough medicine for those of us who love this film. "Coming off the success of Taxi Driver (1976), Scorsese secured a big budget and MGM sound stages for what was meant to be his tribute to and deconstruction of classic Hollywood musicals, but the tribute got lost somewhere in the deconstruction." The movie "plays out like some errant crossbreeding of Charles Vidor's Love Me or Leave Me (1955) and John Cassavetes's Minnie and Moskowitz (1971)."
It's screening as part of Hollywood Musicals of the 1970s and 1980s, Part 1: The 1970s, a series opening tomorrow at Anthology Film Archives and running through June 26. In his overview for the L,...
It's screening as part of Hollywood Musicals of the 1970s and 1980s, Part 1: The 1970s, a series opening tomorrow at Anthology Film Archives and running through June 26. In his overview for the L,...
- 6/16/2011
- MUBI
MovieMaker is sad to report that another star of the silver screen has passed away. Last Sunday veteran actor Farley Granger died of natural causes at the age of 85. Mm pays tribute to this talented actor and admirable man. Farley Granger is most recognized for his appearances in Rope and Strangers on a Train, both directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In addition to Hitchcock, Granger worked with renowned directors Luchino Visconti, Charles Vidor, Vincente Minnelli and Nicholas Ray.
- 3/30/2011
- MovieMaker.com
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