During a three-hour discussion on a recent episode of “The Empire Film Podcast,” Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino revealed the existence of their makeshift quarantine movie club over the last 9 months. As Wright explained, “It’s nice. We’ve kept in touch in a sort of way that cinephiles do. It’s been one of the very few blessings of this [pandemic], the chance to disappear down a rabbit hole with the hours indoors that we have.” Tarantino added, “Edgar is more social than I am. It’s a big deal that I’ve been talking to him these past 9 months.”
A bulk of the film club was curated by none other than Martin Scorsese, who sent Wright a recommendation list of nearly 50 British films that Scorsese considers personal favorites. In the five months Wright spent in lockdown before resuming production on “Last Night in Soho” — and before he received the...
A bulk of the film club was curated by none other than Martin Scorsese, who sent Wright a recommendation list of nearly 50 British films that Scorsese considers personal favorites. In the five months Wright spent in lockdown before resuming production on “Last Night in Soho” — and before he received the...
- 2/8/2021
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Where Were You in ’42? If you were little Johnnie Boorman in 1940, you might have been squatting in a dank bomb shelter with your Mum and sisters, waiting out an air raid alert. Writer-director Boorman’s personal memory is what for some kids was a glorious time when working-class Brits endured adverse conditions: it’s warm & fuzzy affectionate and frequently hilarious, with a keen eye toward slightly bawdy family humor.
Hope and Glory
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1987 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 113 min. / Street Date April 24, 2018 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95
Starring: Sebastian Rice Edwards, Geraldine Muir, Sarah Miles, David Hayman, Sammi Davis, Derrick O’Connor, Susan Wooldridge, Jean-Marc Barr, Ian Bannen, Annie Leon, Jill Baker, Amelda Brown, Katrine Boorman.
Cinematography: Philippe Rousselot
Film Editor: Ian Crafford
Production design: Anthony Pratt
Original Music: Peter Martin
Written, Produced and Directed by John Boorman
John Boorman has directed arty war movies, arty gangster movies and arty art movies,...
Hope and Glory
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1987 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 113 min. / Street Date April 24, 2018 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95
Starring: Sebastian Rice Edwards, Geraldine Muir, Sarah Miles, David Hayman, Sammi Davis, Derrick O’Connor, Susan Wooldridge, Jean-Marc Barr, Ian Bannen, Annie Leon, Jill Baker, Amelda Brown, Katrine Boorman.
Cinematography: Philippe Rousselot
Film Editor: Ian Crafford
Production design: Anthony Pratt
Original Music: Peter Martin
Written, Produced and Directed by John Boorman
John Boorman has directed arty war movies, arty gangster movies and arty art movies,...
- 4/24/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. David Lean's Breaking the Sound Barrier (1952) is playing October 14 - November 13, 2017 on Mubi in the United States.John (J.R.) Ridgefield is a man possessed. The wealthy and influential aircraft industrialist is consumed by his desire to manufacture a plane capable of penetrating the inscrutable sound barrier. This supersonic obsession is a blessing and a curse for the Ridgefield family, providing their ample fortune and triggering largely latent rifts in their ancestral relations. It’s an opposition at the heart and soul of David Lean’s 1952 film The Sound Barrier, a post-war endorsement of British ingenuity and determination, and an emotional, blazing depiction of sacrifice and scientific achievement. The opening of The Sound Barrier (also known as Sound Barrier and Breaking the Sound Barrier), spotlights Philip Peel (John Justin), one of the film’s principal test pilots. In just under two minutes,...
- 10/18/2017
- MUBI
The second feature animation from the When the Wind Blows author tells the charming story of his parents’ marriage
Raymond Briggs’s graphic-novel tribute to his parents Ethel and Ernest, and their long, happy marriage has been lovingly turned into a feature animation that exactly reproduces the detail and the simplicity of his hand-drawn style. It is gentle and charming, with an unbearably moving ending, though I confess I’m not sure what to think about its essentially placid quality. Brenda Blethyn and Jim Broadbent are the voices: a little old for the characters in their 1920s youth, but perhaps people looked and behaved a bit older in those days.
Ethel was a lady’s maid, Ernest a cheeky milkman who liked the look of the new Labour party. They had just one child, Raymond, having bought a terraced south London house in 1930. (Let’s see a young couple buy the same house today.
Raymond Briggs’s graphic-novel tribute to his parents Ethel and Ernest, and their long, happy marriage has been lovingly turned into a feature animation that exactly reproduces the detail and the simplicity of his hand-drawn style. It is gentle and charming, with an unbearably moving ending, though I confess I’m not sure what to think about its essentially placid quality. Brenda Blethyn and Jim Broadbent are the voices: a little old for the characters in their 1920s youth, but perhaps people looked and behaved a bit older in those days.
Ethel was a lady’s maid, Ernest a cheeky milkman who liked the look of the new Labour party. They had just one child, Raymond, having bought a terraced south London house in 1930. (Let’s see a young couple buy the same house today.
- 10/27/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
'Saint Joan': Constance Cummings as the George Bernard Shaw heroine. Constance Cummings on stage: From sex-change farce and Emma Bovary to Juliet and 'Saint Joan' (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Frank Capra, Mae West and Columbia Lawsuit.”) In the mid-1930s, Constance Cummings landed the title roles in two of husband Benn W. Levy's stage adaptations: Levy and Hubert Griffith's Young Madame Conti (1936), starring Cummings as a demimondaine who falls in love with a villainous character. She ends up killing him – or does she? Adapted from Bruno Frank's German-language original, Young Madame Conti was presented on both sides of the Atlantic; on Broadway, it had a brief run in spring 1937 at the Music Box Theatre. Based on the Gustave Flaubert novel, the Theatre Guild-produced Madame Bovary (1937) was staged in late fall at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. Referring to the London production of Young Madame Conti, The...
- 11/10/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
In a novel effort to stress that film noir wasn’t a film movement specifically an output solely produced for American audiences, Kino Lorber releases a five disc set of obscure noir examples released in the UK. Spanning a near ten year period from 1943 to 1952, the titles displayed here do seem to chart a progression in tone, at least resulting in parallels with American counterparts. Though a couple of the selections here aren’t very noteworthy, either as artifacts of British noir or items worthy of reappraisal, it does contain items of considerable interest, including rare titles from forgotten or underrated auteurs like Ronald Neame, Roy Ward Baker, and Ralph Thomas.
They Met in the Dark
The earliest title in this collection is a 1943 title from Karel Lamac, They Met in the Dark, a pseudo-comedy noir that barely meets the criteria. Based on a novel by Anthony Gilbert (whose novel...
They Met in the Dark
The earliest title in this collection is a 1943 title from Karel Lamac, They Met in the Dark, a pseudo-comedy noir that barely meets the criteria. Based on a novel by Anthony Gilbert (whose novel...
- 8/24/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Robert Mitchum ca. late 1940s. Robert Mitchum movies 'The Yakuza,' 'Ryan's Daughter' on TCM Today, Aug. 12, '15, Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” series is highlighting the career of Robert Mitchum. Two of the films being shown this evening are The Yakuza and Ryan's Daughter. The former is one of the disappointingly few TCM premieres this month. (See TCM's Robert Mitchum movie schedule further below.) Despite his film noir background, Robert Mitchum was a somewhat unusual choice to star in The Yakuza (1975), a crime thriller set in the Japanese underworld. Ryan's Daughter or no, Mitchum hadn't been a box office draw in quite some time; in the mid-'70s, one would have expected a Warner Bros. release directed by Sydney Pollack – who had recently handled the likes of Jane Fonda, Barbra Streisand, and Robert Redford – to star someone like Jack Nicholson or Al Pacino or Dustin Hoffman.
- 8/13/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Best British movies of all time? (Image: a young Michael Caine in 'Get Carter') Ten years ago, Get Carter, starring Michael Caine as a dangerous-looking London gangster (see photo above), was selected as the United Kingdom's very best movie of all time according to 25 British film critics polled by Total Film magazine. To say that Mike Hodges' 1971 thriller was a surprising choice would be an understatement. I mean, not a David Lean epic or an early Alfred Hitchcock thriller? What a difference ten years make. On Total Film's 2014 list, published last May, Get Carter was no. 44 among the magazine's Top 50 best British movies of all time. How could that be? Well, first of all, people would be very naive if they took such lists seriously, whether we're talking Total Film, the British Film Institute, or, to keep things British, Sight & Sound magazine. Second, whereas Total Film's 2004 list was the result of a 25-critic consensus,...
- 10/12/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Alec Guinness movies: Pre-’Star Wars’ Guinness runs the gamut from Dickens’ Fagin to Japanese businessman romancing Rosalind Russell Alec Guinness is Turner Classic Movies’ “Summer Under the Stars” star on Saturday, August 3, 2013. The bad news: No Alec Guinness TCM premieres or lesser-known Guinness movies, e.g., A Run for Your Money, Last Holiday, Malta Story, The Prisoner, Star Wars (kidding). The good news: Alec Guinness movies are always welcome, even when the movies themselves are unworthy of his talents — and there were quite a few of those — or when Guinness forces his characters to fit his persona (instead of the other way around), so that we’re watching Alec Guinness play Alec Guinness playing some role or other, instead of, for instance, a Japanese businessman who happens to be both Star Trek‘s George Takei’s father and Rosalind Russell’s platonic paramour. (TCM schedule: Alec Guiness movies.) (Photo: Alec Guinness ca.
- 8/3/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
DVD Playhouse—April 2012
By Allen Gardner
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Warner Bros.) An eleven year-old boy (newcomer Thomas Horn, in an incredible debut) discovers a mysterious key amongst the possessions of his late father (Tom Hanks) who perished in 9/11. Determined to find the lock it matches, the boy embarks on a Picaresque odyssey across New York City. Director Stephen Daldry and screenwriter Eric Roth have fashioned a film both grand and intimate, beautifully-adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, thought by most who read it to be unfilmable. Fine support from Jeffrey Wright, Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Viola Davis and the great Max von Sydow. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 5.1 surround.
Battle Royale: The Complete Collection (Anchor Bay) Adapted from Koushun Takami’s polarizing novel (compared by champions and detractors alike as a 21st century version of A Clockwork Orange) and set in a futuristic Japan,...
By Allen Gardner
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Warner Bros.) An eleven year-old boy (newcomer Thomas Horn, in an incredible debut) discovers a mysterious key amongst the possessions of his late father (Tom Hanks) who perished in 9/11. Determined to find the lock it matches, the boy embarks on a Picaresque odyssey across New York City. Director Stephen Daldry and screenwriter Eric Roth have fashioned a film both grand and intimate, beautifully-adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, thought by most who read it to be unfilmable. Fine support from Jeffrey Wright, Sandra Bullock, John Goodman, Viola Davis and the great Max von Sydow. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 5.1 surround.
Battle Royale: The Complete Collection (Anchor Bay) Adapted from Koushun Takami’s polarizing novel (compared by champions and detractors alike as a 21st century version of A Clockwork Orange) and set in a futuristic Japan,...
- 4/13/2012
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
This week I don't have anything specific to feature, but I did watch David Lean's Blithe Spirit and This Happy Breed, two films in Criterion's recent David Lean Directs Noel Coward box set, but I still have In Which We Serve to watch before I can review the set. I also started watching Rainer Werner Fassbinder's World On a Wire, but still have about two-and-a-half hours left to watch in the 212-minute feature. Then, over the weekend I caught parts of The Matrix Reloaded on television and that's about it. Sorry I don't have more to share, but hopefully you can add a few thoughts to the conversation. Anyone catch Titanic in 3-D? I was actually going to try (and still might tonight) but Easter weekend festivities got in the way.
- 4/8/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Chicago – For fans less familiar with the four films in the new Criterion box set — “David Lean Directs Noel Coward” — one might be easily forgiven for assuming that the four films are very similar. Let’s be honest. “Tim Burton Directs Johnny Depp” and “Martin Scorsese Directs Robert De Niro” would have some definite thematic commonality. Perhaps that’s why it’s So remarkable how different each of the four films in this set ended up. They are each of a different genre and, therefore, serve as an amazing history lesson into how one of our most beloved filmmakers began his career by experimenting with genre and form. And he did so with an amazing creative partner. These are the building blocks for what David Lean would do over the rest of his career. And they’re presented with Criterion level transfers and fascinating extras. This is the best HD...
- 4/4/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
David Lean Directs Noel Coward (Criterion Collection)
In Which We Serve, This Happy Breed, Blithe Spirit, Brief Encounter In this bunch I have only seen Brief Encounter and I loved it. It's a film I would include in a recommended session alongside Before Sunset although Before Sunset is a superior film in my mind. As for the others, I am looking forward to giving them a watch and will be doing so shortly. I tried to find some time yesterday to begin watching This Happy Breed, but the clock was working against me.
Corman's World I wouldn't necessarily say this is a must buy, but it is without a doubt a must rent if only for the Jack Nicholson portion alone. To see cool guy Nicholson break down and start crying while talking about Corman is all I think I really need to say about this film to get you to watch it.
In Which We Serve, This Happy Breed, Blithe Spirit, Brief Encounter In this bunch I have only seen Brief Encounter and I loved it. It's a film I would include in a recommended session alongside Before Sunset although Before Sunset is a superior film in my mind. As for the others, I am looking forward to giving them a watch and will be doing so shortly. I tried to find some time yesterday to begin watching This Happy Breed, but the clock was working against me.
Corman's World I wouldn't necessarily say this is a must buy, but it is without a doubt a must rent if only for the Jack Nicholson portion alone. To see cool guy Nicholson break down and start crying while talking about Corman is all I think I really need to say about this film to get you to watch it.
- 3/27/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The week's biggest release is not a new flick straight from the theater desperate to recoup some profits, but a collector's edition of one of the greatest movies of all time. Whether you're DVD or Blu-ray, streaming or rental, we've got the breakdown on all the home entertainment releases for the week -- as well as a special exclusive look at the "Casablanca" 70th anniversary Blu-ray box set. Moviefone's New Release Pick of the Week "Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel" What's It About? "Corman's World" offers a comprehensive look at the king of Hollywood B-movies, Roger Corman; the documentary features interviews with everyone from Jack Nicholson to Martin Scorsese ruminating on the filmmaker's long and notorious career. See It Because: It's an amazingly entertaining exploration of one of the most fascinating corners of film history. While the highbrow merits of Corman's movies are practically non-existent, his prolific and...
- 3/27/2012
- by Eric Larnick
- Moviefone
On Blu-ray and DVD
4-Disk Box Set
By Raymond Benson
Any fan of British cinema must celebrate Criterion’s deluxe packaging of David Lean’s first four films as a director. These collaborations with writer, performer, and “personality” Noël Coward are exemplary examples of the fine work made by the Two Cities Unit production house, which was formed during the Second World War. In each case, the films are presented in beautiful new high-definition digital transfers from the 2008 BFI National Archive’s restorations. And, as this is a review for Cinema Retro, the readers of which include many 007 fans, it must be pointed out that there is indeed a connection between the films (three of them, anyway) and Bond. Actress Celia Johnson was Ian Fleming’s sister-in-law (her husband was Ian’s older brother, Peter Fleming), and her daughters Kate Grimond and Lucy Fleming are currently on the Board of...
4-Disk Box Set
By Raymond Benson
Any fan of British cinema must celebrate Criterion’s deluxe packaging of David Lean’s first four films as a director. These collaborations with writer, performer, and “personality” Noël Coward are exemplary examples of the fine work made by the Two Cities Unit production house, which was formed during the Second World War. In each case, the films are presented in beautiful new high-definition digital transfers from the 2008 BFI National Archive’s restorations. And, as this is a review for Cinema Retro, the readers of which include many 007 fans, it must be pointed out that there is indeed a connection between the films (three of them, anyway) and Bond. Actress Celia Johnson was Ian Fleming’s sister-in-law (her husband was Ian’s older brother, Peter Fleming), and her daughters Kate Grimond and Lucy Fleming are currently on the Board of...
- 3/25/2012
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: March 27, 2012
Price: DVD $79.95, Blu-ray $99.95
Studio: Criterion
Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson embark on a Brief Encounter.
In the 1940s, playwright Noël Coward (Design for Living) and filmmaker David Lean (Doctor Zhivago) worked together in one of cinema’s greatest writer-director collaborations, celebrated in the four-film Blu-ray and DVD collection David Lean Directs Noël Coward.
Beginning with the 1942 wartime military drama movie In Which We Serve, Coward and Lean embarked on a series of literate, socially engaged and undeniably entertaining movies that ranged from domestic epic (This Happy Breed) to whimsical comedy (Blithe Spirit) to poignant romance (Brief Encounter).
Here’s a brief run-down on each of the classic British films in the David Lean Directs Noël Coward DVD and Blu-ray collection, all of which created a lasting testament to Coward’s legacy and introduced Lean’s talents to the world:
In Which We Serve (1942)
This action...
Price: DVD $79.95, Blu-ray $99.95
Studio: Criterion
Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson embark on a Brief Encounter.
In the 1940s, playwright Noël Coward (Design for Living) and filmmaker David Lean (Doctor Zhivago) worked together in one of cinema’s greatest writer-director collaborations, celebrated in the four-film Blu-ray and DVD collection David Lean Directs Noël Coward.
Beginning with the 1942 wartime military drama movie In Which We Serve, Coward and Lean embarked on a series of literate, socially engaged and undeniably entertaining movies that ranged from domestic epic (This Happy Breed) to whimsical comedy (Blithe Spirit) to poignant romance (Brief Encounter).
Here’s a brief run-down on each of the classic British films in the David Lean Directs Noël Coward DVD and Blu-ray collection, all of which created a lasting testament to Coward’s legacy and introduced Lean’s talents to the world:
In Which We Serve (1942)
This action...
- 12/16/2011
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
A bike fest on the Belfast Waterfront, the Turner Prize exhibition at the Baltic, a film festival on Jersey and hip-hop at Sadler's Wells – here's our pick of cultural events in the coming months
August
Comedy
Camden Fringe London
With an eye for the experimental and the strange, this festival spreads out over venues across the borough, with theatre, stand-up, improv and shadow puppets from the likes of comediennes Morris & Vyse and puppet company Pangolin's Teatime.
1-28 August, camdenfringe.com, tickets from £5
Theatre and dance
Five Truths at the V&A, London
Multi-screen installation brings together five interpretations of Ophelia's madness in Hamlet. Five Truths explores the differences in approach of five of the most influential European theatre directors, including Bertold Brecht and Peter Brook, and how they might have imagined the scene, in a film created by National Theatre associate director Katie Mitchell.
• Until 29 August, vam.ac.uk, admission free
Peter Hall Company,...
August
Comedy
Camden Fringe London
With an eye for the experimental and the strange, this festival spreads out over venues across the borough, with theatre, stand-up, improv and shadow puppets from the likes of comediennes Morris & Vyse and puppet company Pangolin's Teatime.
1-28 August, camdenfringe.com, tickets from £5
Theatre and dance
Five Truths at the V&A, London
Multi-screen installation brings together five interpretations of Ophelia's madness in Hamlet. Five Truths explores the differences in approach of five of the most influential European theatre directors, including Bertold Brecht and Peter Brook, and how they might have imagined the scene, in a film created by National Theatre associate director Katie Mitchell.
• Until 29 August, vam.ac.uk, admission free
Peter Hall Company,...
- 8/5/2011
- by Dale Berning
- The Guardian - Film News
Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Lawrence of Arabia Turner Classic Movies' "Race and Hollywood: Arab Images on Film" continues this evening with four movies about European powers and their difficult relationship with "the Arab races": Lawrence of Arabia, Lion of the Desert, The Four Feathers, and Young Winston. In David Lean's sprawling Lawrence of Arabia, Peter O'Toole is a much taller version of T. E. Lawrence, the Englishman who fought alongside Arabs at the time of World War I. Lawrence of Arabia won a total of seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director; it's also considered by many one of the greatest movies ever made. Personally, I find Lawrence of Arabia great-looking but much too long: 227 minutes. Also, at times I couldn't quite figure out what Lean's and screenwriter Robert Bolt's political take was; I'm not sure if their vision is just too muddled and wishy-washy, or...
- 7/13/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
David Lean, 1945
In how many other countries would a poll pick Brief Encounter as the best movie romance of all time? Even in Britain, I wonder how many people born since, say, 1975 would rate it so highly. But for a generation that remembers when the trains ran on time and station buffets were as tidy and inviting as the one in this movie, Brief Encounter is etched in nostalgia for an era when trapped middle-class lives contemplated adultery but set the disturbing thought aside. On the face of it, it would seem that Britain has changed; but is it possible that the David Lean-Noël Coward film is still the model for repressed feelings as an English ideal? We are accustomed to attributing films to directors, but it's only proper to regard Coward as an equal author of this movie. He wrote the script, taking it from his own one-act play,...
In how many other countries would a poll pick Brief Encounter as the best movie romance of all time? Even in Britain, I wonder how many people born since, say, 1975 would rate it so highly. But for a generation that remembers when the trains ran on time and station buffets were as tidy and inviting as the one in this movie, Brief Encounter is etched in nostalgia for an era when trapped middle-class lives contemplated adultery but set the disturbing thought aside. On the face of it, it would seem that Britain has changed; but is it possible that the David Lean-Noël Coward film is still the model for repressed feelings as an English ideal? We are accustomed to attributing films to directors, but it's only proper to regard Coward as an equal author of this movie. He wrote the script, taking it from his own one-act play,...
- 10/16/2010
- by David Thomson
- The Guardian - Film News
David Lean, 1945
In how many other countries would a poll pick Brief Encounter as the best movie romance of all time? Even in Britain, I wonder how many people born since, say, 1975 would rate it so highly. But for a generation that remembers when the trains ran on time and station buffets were as tidy and inviting as the one in this movie, Brief Encounter is etched in nostalgia for an era when trapped middle-class lives contemplated adultery but set the disturbing thought aside. On the face of it, it would seem that Britain has changed; but is it possible that the David Lean-Noël Coward film is still the model for repressed feelings as an English ideal? We are accustomed to attributing films to directors, but it's only proper to regard Coward as an equal author of this movie. He wrote the script, taking it from his own one-act play,...
In how many other countries would a poll pick Brief Encounter as the best movie romance of all time? Even in Britain, I wonder how many people born since, say, 1975 would rate it so highly. But for a generation that remembers when the trains ran on time and station buffets were as tidy and inviting as the one in this movie, Brief Encounter is etched in nostalgia for an era when trapped middle-class lives contemplated adultery but set the disturbing thought aside. On the face of it, it would seem that Britain has changed; but is it possible that the David Lean-Noël Coward film is still the model for repressed feelings as an English ideal? We are accustomed to attributing films to directors, but it's only proper to regard Coward as an equal author of this movie. He wrote the script, taking it from his own one-act play,...
- 10/16/2010
- by David Thomson
- The Guardian - Film News
Producer, director and cinematographer of many well-loved British film classics, including Oliver Twist, Tunes of Glory and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The producer, director, writer and cinematographer Ronald Neame, who has died aged 99, played an important role in British cinema for more than half a century. The critic Matthew Sweet once called him "a living embodiment of cinema, a sort of one-man world heritage site". Neame was assistant director to Alfred Hitchcock on Blackmail (1929), the first British talkie; he was the cinematographer on In Which We Serve (1942), Noël Coward's moving tribute to the Royal Navy during the second world war; he co-produced and co-wrote David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945) and Great Expectations (1946); and he directed Alec Guinness in two of his best roles, in The Horse's Mouth (1958) and Tunes of Glory (1960). As if this wasn't enough, Neame also conquered Hollywoo d with one of the first and most successful disaster movies,...
The producer, director, writer and cinematographer Ronald Neame, who has died aged 99, played an important role in British cinema for more than half a century. The critic Matthew Sweet once called him "a living embodiment of cinema, a sort of one-man world heritage site". Neame was assistant director to Alfred Hitchcock on Blackmail (1929), the first British talkie; he was the cinematographer on In Which We Serve (1942), Noël Coward's moving tribute to the Royal Navy during the second world war; he co-produced and co-wrote David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945) and Great Expectations (1946); and he directed Alec Guinness in two of his best roles, in The Horse's Mouth (1958) and Tunes of Glory (1960). As if this wasn't enough, Neame also conquered Hollywoo d with one of the first and most successful disaster movies,...
- 6/20/2010
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
British filmmaker Ronald Neame, whose career dates back to serving as assistant cameraman on the first feature film made with sound in Great Britain, Alfred Hitchcock's "Blackmail," has died, according to reports. He was 99.
No details were available.
His directing credits ranged from "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) to "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1969), for which Maggie Smith won the Oscar for best actress.
As a producer, Neame was involved with three British classics: "Brief Encounter" (1945), "Great Expectations" (1946) and "Oliver Twist" (1948). "Brief Encounter" and "Great Expectations" were the fruition of a production partnership called Cineguild that Neame had formed with David Lean and Anthony Havelock-Allan.
As a screenwriter, Neame earned Oscar nominations for the screenplays of "Brief," adapted from a Noel Coward play, and "Expectations," from Charles Dickens' novel. He shared those distinctions with Lean and Havelock-Allan.
Cineguild broke up in 1947 with a fall-out between Neame and Lean when...
No details were available.
His directing credits ranged from "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) to "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1969), for which Maggie Smith won the Oscar for best actress.
As a producer, Neame was involved with three British classics: "Brief Encounter" (1945), "Great Expectations" (1946) and "Oliver Twist" (1948). "Brief Encounter" and "Great Expectations" were the fruition of a production partnership called Cineguild that Neame had formed with David Lean and Anthony Havelock-Allan.
As a screenwriter, Neame earned Oscar nominations for the screenplays of "Brief," adapted from a Noel Coward play, and "Expectations," from Charles Dickens' novel. He shared those distinctions with Lean and Havelock-Allan.
Cineguild broke up in 1947 with a fall-out between Neame and Lean when...
- 6/18/2010
- by By Duane Byrge
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
DVD Links: DVD News | Release Dates | New Dvds | Reviews | RSS Feed
Bronson Bronson made my Top 25 of 2009 coming in at #7 and it's a film I find immensely watchable and rewatchable. While a few people disagreed with my "A" review, they all loved Tom Hardy in the lead role. Be sure to check this one out. A Serious Man The Coen brothers' latest film also made my Top 25 of 2009 coming in at #25 and I also just recently reviewed the Blu-ray edition. My opinion says buy it, but you may want to give my review a read if you are on the fence. The Time Traveler's Wife I actually don't mind this movie all that much. When it comes to schmaltzy melodramas some can be overbearing and some can actually work... for the most part this one falls into the latter category. This one drew some negativity for the rather creepy idea...
Bronson Bronson made my Top 25 of 2009 coming in at #7 and it's a film I find immensely watchable and rewatchable. While a few people disagreed with my "A" review, they all loved Tom Hardy in the lead role. Be sure to check this one out. A Serious Man The Coen brothers' latest film also made my Top 25 of 2009 coming in at #25 and I also just recently reviewed the Blu-ray edition. My opinion says buy it, but you may want to give my review a read if you are on the fence. The Time Traveler's Wife I actually don't mind this movie all that much. When it comes to schmaltzy melodramas some can be overbearing and some can actually work... for the most part this one falls into the latter category. This one drew some negativity for the rather creepy idea...
- 2/9/2010
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
David Lean is best known for his epic late-period historical dramas exploring the psychological contradictions of outsized figures, like Lawrence Of Arabia, The Bridge On The River Kwai, and Doctor Zhivago. But his directorial career began with eminently British literary adaptations filmed on a smaller scale—Noël Coward’s This Happy Breed, Brief Encounter,and Blithe Spirit; Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and Great Expectations; and an adaptation of Harold Brighouse’s perennially popular theatrical comedy Hobson’s Choice. Released in 1954, Hobson’s Choice is the last of Lean’s black-and-white films; the following year, he directed Summertime (also ...
- 2/25/2009
- avclub.com
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