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Vanessa Redgrave with Madeleine Potter in Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s adaptation of Henry James’s The Bostonians, directed by James Ivory

Stephen Soucy’s Merchant Ivory (co-written with Jon Hart) takes us into the extraordinary world of the creative quartet of producer Ismail Merchant, filmmaker James Ivory, screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and composer Richard Robbins through film clips and on-camera interviews with Ivory and Robbins, actors Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter,...

One of the greatest filmmaking partnerships to grace the industry is getting its deserved due in a new documentary. Directed by Stephen Soucy and featuring Dame Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Hugh Grant, Vanessa Redgrave, Rupert Graves, and James Wilby, Merchant Ivory explores the collaboration of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and their primary associates, writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins. For those not familiar, Merchant Ivory Productions was responsible for the likes of A Room with a View, Howards End, The Remains of the Day, Maurice, and The Bostonians. Following a festival tour, the first trailer has now arrived from Cohen Media Group ahead of an August 30 release.

Here’s the synopsis: “Merchant Ivory (2023) is the first definitive feature documentary to lend new and compelling perspectives on the partnership, both professional and personal, of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and their primary associates, writer Ruth...

The film collaborations of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory were so successful that “Merchant Ivory” became synonymous not just with the name of their production company but an entire style, if not genre, of filmmaking: Well-mounted period dramas of sophistication, taste, and erudition that come across today as light-years more refined than “Downton Abbey” or other costume dramas created in the wake of their popularity.

Stephen Soucy pays tribute to this remarkable collaboration and what made the films of Merchant Ivory so distinctive and unreplicatable in his new documentary of the same name, “Merchant Ivory,” the trailer for which IndieWire is exclusively debuting below. The documentary appeared at Doc NYC 2023 and was an official selection of the Palm Springs International Film Festival and Sarasota Film Festival earlier this year. It features commentary from Emma Thompson, Vanessa Redgrave, and others, including Ivory himself, now 96 years old, and the oldest Oscar winner ever,...

Cohen Media Group will give “Merchant Ivory,” a documentary about the professional and personal partnership of director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant and their production company — Merchant Ivory Productions — a theatrical release on Aug. 30 in select markets, including New York and Los Angeles, before expanding to theaters nationwide in September. The film will will debut at the Quad Cinema in Manhattan at at various theaters in Los Angeles, including Laemmle’s Royal.

Directed by Stephen Soucy, “Merchant Ivory” chronicles the pair’s road to success and how their company became synonymous with nuanced literary adaptations in the 1980s and 1990s, making an indelible impact on film culture. The company’s output of more than 40 productions over nearly 50 years includes Academy Award-winning films “A Room With a View” and “Howards End,” as well “The Remains of the Day,” “Mr. & Mrs. Bridge” and “Maurice.”

The doc is split into chapters with sections devoted to Merchant,...

Directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story recounts and examines the incredibly compelling, tragic, redemptive story of actor and activist Christopher Reeve. He was made famous playing the superhero Superman in Richard Donner/Richard Lester/Sidney J. Furie’s quartet of films in the ’70s and ’80s. In 1995, Reeve was paralyzed from the neck down after being thrown from a horse during a competition. That terrible accident eventually sparked the creation of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, a non-profit whose goal is to cure spinal-cord injury and improve the quality of life for those with paralysis.

It’s hard to write criticism of films like these. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is an important movie about an important subject, supported by those closest to him––in this case, Reeve’s grown-up children Matthew, Alexandra, and Will. Bonhôte and Ettedgui are accomplished documentarians (see their...

Vanessa Redgrave is the Oscar, Emmy and Tony award-winning actress who has starred in dozens of films over several decades, but how many of those titles are classics? Let’s take a look back at 15 of her greatest movies, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1937, Redgrave was almost destined to become a performer: her parents were Sir Michael Redgrave and Lady Redgrave (Rachel Kempson), her siblings were Lynn Redgrave and Corin Redgrave, her daughters are Joely Richardson and the late Natasha Richardson, and her son-in-law is Liam Neeson. So when it comes to the Redgraves, acting definitely runs in the family.

Redgrave earned her first Oscar nomination in 1966: Best Actress for “Morgan! A Suitable Case for Treatment.” She won 11 years later as Best Supporting Actress for “Julia” (1977) and competed four more times.

Unfortunately, her Oscar victory is best remembered for her controversial acceptance speech than for the performance itself:...

Palm Springs International Film Festival programmers have set this year’s lineup.

The desert festival, which runs Jan. 4 to 15, will open with the U.S. premiere of Thea Sharrock’s Wicked Little Letters on Jan. 5. Based on a 1920s English scandal, the film follows neighbors Edith Swan and Rose Gooding in the seaside town of Littlehampton. One day, a series of obscene letters begin to target Edith and others as suspicions fall on Rose. As the situation escalates, Rose risks losing her freedom and custody of her daughter. Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Anjana Vasan, Malachi Kirby, Eileen Atkins and Timothy Spall star in the film.

Though the opening screening happens on Jan. 5, the festival really kicks off the night before with the Film Awards, a starry ceremony that will shine a spotlight on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor Things star Emma Stone, Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy,...

Vanessa Redgrave To Be Feted At European Film Awards

Vanessa Redgrave will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 36th European Film Awards this December. Across six decades, the actress has ratcheted up more than 150 film and TV credits. Having first achieved fame as Rosalind in a 1961 a televized Royal Shakespeare Company performance of As You Like It, she broke out in cinema in Karel Reisz’s 1966 comedy Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment. Redgrave won Best Actress in Cannes for the role and was also Bafta and Oscar nominated. Other key early credits include Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up, Reisz’s Isadora, Charles Jarrott’s Mary, Queen Of Scots, for which she won a Special David at the Italian David di Donatello Awards; Fred Zinnemann’s Julia, for which she won an Oscar and James Ivory’s The Bostonians and Howards End and James Gray’s Little Odessa.

Award

British actor Vanessa Redgrave will receive the European Lifetime Achievement award for her outstanding body of work at the European Film Awards.

Hailing from an illustrious family of actors, Redgrave’s first lead in “Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment” (1966), by Karel Reisz, won her best actress at Cannes and scored BAFTA and Oscar nominations. She returned to Cannes in the following year as Jane, the mysterious woman in the park in “Blow Up” by Michelangelo Antonioni.

More Oscar nominations followed – in 1969 for her performance as Isadora Duncan in “Isadora” by Reisz, which again won her best actress at Cannes, and in 1972 for “Mary, Queen of Scots, by Charles Jarrott – which won her a special David at Italy’s David di Donatello Awards. Her performance in Fred Zinnemann’s “Julia” (1978) won her an Oscar, and she scored further nominations for James Ivory’s “The Bostonians” (1985) and “Howards End” (1993). In...

Award will be presented at European Film Awards in Berlin on December 9.

The European Film Academy is to present Dame Vanessa Redgrave with its European Lifetime Achievement Award at the 36th European Film Awards in Berlin on December 9.

Redgrave’s first lead film role was in Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966) by Karel Reisz which won her the best actress award in Cannes saw her nominated both the BAFTAs and the Oscars.

Redgrave returned to Cannes the following year as Jane, the mysterious woman in the park in Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni.

She won best actress again at...

Oscar-winning actress and longtime activist Vanessa Redgrave will be honored this year with the European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Redgrave will receive the honor at the 36th European Film Awards in Berlin on Dec. 9.

An acting icon who has deftly straddled theater, film and television in a career that has spanned more than six decades, Redgrave first made her name on the stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, before breaking into film work in 1966 with Karel Reisz’ Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment. The role, which won her the best actress prize in Cannes, launched her international career. A multitude of acting prizes have followed since including another best actress prize in Cannes, two Emmys, a Tony, two Golden Globes and two BAFTAs.

She has been nominated for an Academy Award six times — for performances in Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (1966), Isadora (1968), Mary, Queen of Scots...

Director James Ivory became an art house favorite thanks to a series of lofty literary adaptations produced by his partner Ismail Merchant. He shows no signs of slowing down in his twilight years. In fact, he recently become the oldest Oscar winner in history for penning the script to “Call Me by Your Name” (2017).

Although the majority of his work takes place overseas, Ivory was born in Berkeley, CA, in 1928. After cutting his teeth as a documentarian, he kicked off a professional and romantic relationship with Merchant, and together they formed the production company Merchant Ivory. Together, with screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala serving as the third member of their team, they produced a series of acclaimed films based on the works of E. M. Forster, Henry James, Kazuo Ishiguro and other seemingly unadaptable sources.

They struck Oscar gold with a trio of films that earned nominations for Best Picture, Best Director,...

Barbara Bryne, a British actress who worked in stage, television, and film during a decades-long career, died Tuesday at age 94. Her death was confirmed by the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, but no cause was given.

Bryne’s best-known stage roles were in the original Broadway productions of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George and Into the Woods. She played mothers in both shows.

“Barbara was a cherished member of the Guthrie family,” theater reps said in a statement, “and we’re grateful she shared her artistry with us for so many seasons. Her legacy will live on at the Guthrie and in our hearts forever.”

Bryne was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in 1982 for her off-off-Broadway performance as Kath in a revival of the Joe Orton-written Entertaining Mr. Sloane.

Her theater resume includes a revival of Noël Coward’s Hay Fever, working with Mandy Patinkin...

Barbara Bryne, the British actress who portrayed mothers in the original Broadway productions of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park With George and Into the Woods, has died. She was 94.

Bryne’s death Tuesday was announced by the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. The first of her more than 60 plays there was Arsenic and Old Lace in 1970, and she performed in 20-plus productions from 1998-2013, including a memorable turn in 1999 as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest.

“Barbara was a cherished member of the Guthrie family,” theater reps said in a statement, “and we’re grateful she shared her artistry with us for so many seasons. Her legacy will live on at the Guthrie and in our hearts forever.”

The delightful Bryne was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in 1982 for her off-off-Broadway performance as Kath in a revival of the Joe Orton-written Entertaining Mr. Sloane. Three years later,...

Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including a Béla Tarr double bill, with new 4K restorations of Damnation and Sátántangó, Léa Mysius’ The Five Devils, Radu Jude’s short The Potemkinists, and Kira Kovalenko’s Unclenching the Fists.

They will also present a series on past Cannes Film Festival selections with films by Abderrahmane Sissako, Alice Rohrwacher, Djibril Diop Mambéty, Jeremy Saulnier, and more. Ana Vaz’s The Age of Stone and most recent work It is Night in America will arrive on the service, plus a Merchant Ivory series.

Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.

May 1 – Blind Spot, directed by Claudia von Alemann | What Sets Us Free? German Feminist Cinema

May 2 – Heat and Dust, directed by James Ivory | Gilded Passions: Films by Merchant Ivory

May 3 – Damnation, directed by Béla Tarr | Béla Tarr: A Double Bill

May 4 – The Bostonians, directed by...

The films in contention for the 2023 Best Costume Design Oscar are “Babylon,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Elvis,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” and “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris.” Our current odds show “Elvis” (10/3) to be the frontrunner, followed in order by “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (37/10), “Babylon” (9/2), “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (9/2), and “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” (9/2).

Jenny Beavan’s nomination for “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” is her 12th and could result in her fourth win, as she previously bagged trophies for “A Room with a View” (1987), “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2016), and “Cruella” (2022). She would be only the fifth costumer to achieve as many victories, after Edith Head, Irene Sharaff, Milena Canonero, and Colleen Atwood. Her other eight bids came for “The Bostonians” (1985), “Maurice” (1988), “Howards End” (1993), “The Remains of the Day” (1994), “Sense and Sensibility” (1996), “Anna and the King” (2000), “Gosford Park” (2002), and “The King’s Speech” (2011).

Catherine Martin (“Elvis”) is seeking...

Actors John Wayne and Christopher Reeve had something in common when it came to being notable movie stars with a big presence. They both stood well over six feet tall, but they had signature acting styles that allowed them to command the screen in other ways. Wayne once told fellow legendary actor Cary Grant what he really thought about Reeve and his future in Hollywood.

John Wayne and Christopher Reeve both attended the 1979 Academy Awards L-r: John Wayne and Christopher Reeve | Images/Getty Images and Saxon/Images/Getty Images

Wayne attended the Academy Awards multiple times, and he even earned two nominations and a win. He was first nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role for 1949’s Sands of Iwo Jima. Wayne’s second nomination was for something else entirely: Best Picture for 1960’s The Alamo, which he directed himself. His final nomination was for 1969’s True Grit, which...

“I really, really am completely thrilled that we have been noticed,” remarks Jenny Beavan about her Oscar nomination for the costume design for “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris.” The film, a delightful tale in which a working-class London widow (Leslie Manville) pursues her dream of owning a House of Dior haute couture dress, proved a unique challenge for the costumer, who had to furnish the designer gowns “on a modest budget, in covid, in a city I didn’t know with a crew I never met before, in Hungarian.” As a result, she expresses how she feels “incredibly proud” of the work and is thrilled to share this acknowledgement with her crew. Watch our exclusive video interview above.

“Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” is based on the 1958 novel by Paul Gallico. Beavan is no stranger to literary adaptations, having previously worked on a host of Merchant Ivory films based on novels,...

The films in contention for the 2022 Best Costume Design Oscar are “Cruella,” “Cyrano,” “Dune,” “Nightmare Alley,” and “West Side Story.” Our current odds show “Cruella” (16/5) to be the frontrunner, followed in order by “Dune” (39/10), “West Side Story” (4/1), “Nightmare Alley” (9/2), and “Cyrano” (9/2).

Jenny Beavan’s nomination for “Cruella” is her 11th and could result in her third win, as she previously bagged trophies for “A Room with a View” (1987) and “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2016). She would be the 11th costumer to achieve as many victories and already ranks as the eighth most-nominated one. Her other eight bids came for “The Bostonians” (1985), “Maurice” (1988), “Howards End” (1993), “The Remains of the Day” (1994), “Sense and Sensibility” (1996), “Anna and the King” (2000), “Gosford Park” (2002), and “The King’s Speech” (2011). The first five films for which she was nominated were all directed by James Ivory.

Jacqueline Durran (“Cyrano”) has also won twice for her work in “Anna Karenina” (2013) and...

“Traveller,” the first major screen credit of “The Crying Games’” Neil Jordan, Canadian Denis Coté’s debut feature “Drifting States” and Arturo Ripstein’s “The Place Without Limits,” a 1977 Mexican LGBTQ movie, are three titles featured in the inaugural lineup of the Locarno Film Festival’s Heritage Online section.

Another, 1954 Egyptian transgender comedy “Miss Hanafi,” underscores the wealth of discoveries offered by Heritage Online, a digital database and screening room collating details of classic film catalogs from all over the world, facilitating the work of buyers, especially VOD platforms in search of rights holders to heritage titles.

Heritage Online fully launches on Saturday with the distribution to its subscribers of a newsletter in which companies detail their offer on the website, plus a panel on heritage film distribution.

Aimed at “establishing a loop between the heritage industry and streaming platforms” by clarifying rights ownership, the site launches with film-by-film details...

James Ivory celebrates his 91st birthday on June 7, 2019. The director, who became an art house favorite thanks to a series of lofty literary adaptations produced by his partner Ismail Merchant, shows no signs of slowing down in his twilight years. In fact, he recently become the oldest Oscar winner in history for penning the script to “Call Me by Your Name” (2017). In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Although the majority of his work takes place overseas, Ivory was born in Berkeley, CA, in 1928. After cutting his teeth as a documentarian, he kicked off a professional and romantic relationship with Merchant, and together they formed the production company Merchant Ivory. Together, with screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala serving as the third member of their team, they produced a series of acclaimed films based on the works of E.

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Film Society of Lincoln Center

Before Transit, one of this and next year’s best films, the largest-ever Us retro of Christian Petzold gets underway.

Metrograph

Six lesser-seen Spike Lee pictures are given a platform.

A Bresson-Buñuel double plays on Saturday.

Metropolitan and Midnight Cowboy screen.

Quad Cinema

James Ivory’s The Bostonians, about which we interviewed him,...

James Ivory began the year by winning his first Oscar for Call Me By Your Name and closes it out with the restored re-release of his 1984 film, The Bostonians, adapted from Henry James’ novel.

Academy Award-winning actresses Vanessa Redgrave, Jessica Tandy, and Linda Hunt star as abolitionists turned suffragettes in post-Civil War Boston. Strident yet genteel Olive Chancellor (Redgrave) is a women’s activist in a tug-of-war with conservative southern lawyer, Basil Ransome (Christopher Reeve), for her protegee Verena Tarrant (Madeleine Potter). Merchant Ivory’s production explores the suffragettes’ philosophical and interpersonal struggles within their movement.

We spoke with Ivory about Basil Ransome’s politics and if they’ve found a home in 21st century America. The writer-director also talks about male actors’ desire to cry on camera, the different kind of feminists in the film, and what he really thinks about making a sequel to Call Me By Your Name.

James Ivory is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers working today. His filmography spans decades, and he’s probably best known for his Oscar-nominated work in films like “A Room with a View,” “Howards End,” and “The Remains of the Day.” And recently, as a writer, he won an Academy Award for his screenplay for “Call Me By Your Name.” However, later this month, one of his more underrated features, “The Bostonians,” is getting a special release and a brand-new restoration.

Continue reading ‘The Bostonians’ Exclusive Trailer: James Ivory’s Oscar-Nominated Classic Returns With A New 4K Restoration at The Playlist.

Lyon, France – Attending the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon for the first time this week, Charles S. Cohen, chairman and CEO of Cohen Media Group, praised the event and its International Classic Film Market (Mifc).

A producer and distributor of independent and arthouse films and the biggest distributor of French films in the U.S., Cohen Media Group also releases restored and re-mastered editions of classic films through its Cohen Film Collection, which includes the Merchant Ivory library and the Buster Keaton catalog.

In town for the Festival premiere of his documentary, “The Great Buster,” directed by Peter Bogdanovich, Cohen described the market as “specialized and highly focused, which is really appealing to me because it allows me to focus on what we take great pride in, acquiring and licensing these wonderful film assets that are really the DNA of Cohen Media.”

The company partnered with the Festival this year...

Much like the Best Actress category, the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the 1970s went to some true living legends. This decade included the youngest acting winner in history, the shortest performance to win an Oscar in history, and the start for a woman who would go on to become the all-time nomination leader. So which Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner of the 1970s is your favorite? Look back on each and vote in our poll below.

Helen Hayes, “Airport” (1970)— Hayes won her second Oscar thanks to her role in “Airport” as Ada Quonsett, an older woman who makes a habit of being a stowaway on airplanes. She previously won an Oscar in Best Actress for “The Sin of Madelon Claudet” (1931). Hayes became the first woman to “Egot,” winning the grand slam of major awards: the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.

SEEJessica Lange (‘Tootsie’) named top Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner of 1980s,...

Christopher Reeve: 'Superman' and his movies (photo: Christopher Reeve in 'Superman' 1978) Christopher Reeve, Superman in four movies from 1978 to 1987, died ten years ago today. In 1995, while taking part in a cross-country horse race in Culpeper, Virginia, Reeve was thrown off his horse, hitting his head on the top rail of a jump; the near-fatal accident left him paralyzed from the neck down. He ultimately succumbed to heart failure at age 52 on October 10, 2004. Long before he was cast as Superman aka Clark Kent, the Manhattan-born (as Christopher D'Olier Reeve on September 25, 1952), Cornell University and Juillard School for Drama alumnus was an ambitious young actor whose theatrical apprenticeship included, while still a teenager, some time as an observer at London's Old Vic and Paris' Comédie Française. At age 23, he landed his first Broadway role in a production of Enid Bagnold's A Matter of Gravity, starring Katharine Hepburn.

Oscar Predictions 2014 Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence and/or Scarlett Johansson to make Oscar history? (photo: Jennifer Lawrence in ‘American Hustle’) The 2014 Academy Awards’ Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor races seemed quite fuzzy at first. The picture became clearer following the announcement of the SAG Award nominations: now, there are three or four top contenders in each category; these performers will probably — or rather, in a couple of cases, surely — be shortlisted for this year’s Academy Awards. (See also: "Oscar Predictions 2014 Best Actress: Meryl Streep Possibly to Break Another Record," "Oscar Predictions 2014 Best Actor: Robert Redford Possible Near-Record," and "Oscar Predictions 2014: Best Picture, Best Director.") Yet, there’s quite a bit of room for a couple of upsets. In other words, pay close attention to our list of runners-up for Best Supporting Actress. In fact, even one of the "long shot" actresses might manage to squeeze in; admittedly,...

Chicago – The story of “What Maisie Knew” may be unusual, but the reflection of the subject matter fits perfectly within the patterns of contemporary family culture. Directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel create a scenerio in which a custody battle for a little girl named Maisie becomes more about the parent’s egos than her care.

“What Maisie Knew” is amazingly based on a novel by Henry James (“The Turn of the Screw,” “The Bostonians”) written in 1897. Two screenwriters adapted the story into contemporary times 18 years ago, and the co-directors McGehee and Siegel brought it up to date in the post technological age. They worked with a stellar cast, including Julianne Moore, Steve Coogan and Alexander Skarsgard, plus a child actor named Onata Aprile, who brings Maisie to life with heartbreaking sensitivity.

Julianne Moore and Onata Aprile in ‘What Maisie Knew’

Photo credit: Millennium Entertainment

Scott McGehee and David Siegel...

Novelist and screenwriter known for her work on Merchant Ivory films, including A Room with a View and Heat and Dust

The writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who has died aged 85, achieved her greatest fame late in life, and for work she had once dismissed as a hobby – listing "writing film scripts" as a recreation in Who's Who. Her original screenplays and adaptations of literary classics for the film producer Ismail Merchant and the director James Ivory were met with box-office and critical success. The trio met in 1961, and almost immediately became collaborators, as well as close and lifelong friends.

Soon after Merchant and Ivory themselves met (in New York), Merchant proposed that they make a film of Jhabvala's early novel The Householder (1960). The pair then went to Delhi and asked her to sell them the book and write a screenplay of it in eight days flat. Over the next five decades,...

Political Animals, USA Network’s upcoming series by Greg Berlanti, has invited Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave to play an openly lesbian Supreme Court Justice. Political Animals stars three-time Oscar nominee Sigourney Weaver as Elaine Barrish, who, like Hilary Clinton, is a former American First Lady turned Secretary of State. Now, how did an openly lesbian judge join the Supreme Court of the early 21st-century United States, a country where most Republican politicians (and their millions of supporters) continue to take a strong stance against gay rights? Or is Political Animals set in 2030 or whereabouts? And will Vanessa Redgrave’s lesbian Supreme Court Justice vote on the constitutionality of anti-marriage equality (aka "anti-gay marriage") laws in states such as Arizona and North Carolina? Stay tuned. In addition to Sigourney Weaver and Vanessa Redgrave, who won a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her titular performance in Fred Zinnemann’s Julia (and...

There is one Academy Awards category in which Britain always seems to be well represented: costume design

In a relatively quiet year for British cinema at the Oscars, the nation can still turn to that reliable standby, the best costume design award, for a little welling-up of patriotic pride. Four out of the last five winners have been British, and two of them – Sandy Powell and Michael O'Connor – are in the running this time. O'Connor is up for Jane Eyre, but the smart money is on Powell, for her work on Martin Scorsese's early-cinema fantasy Hugo.

Not only does Hugo have serious momentum as the leading nominated film with 11 mentions in total, but Powell, 51, has some claim to be the doyenne of international costume design: Hugo is her 10th Oscar nomination in a record that stretches back to Orlando in 1992. She has won three times: with Shakespeare in Love...

Jessica Chastain, The Help 2012 Oscar Predictions – Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Albert Brooks, Kenneth Branagh, Nick Nolte, Viggo Mortensen The list of potential Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominees is nearly as long as the list of female cast members in Tate Taylor's socially conscious comedy-drama The Help. In fact, several The Help actresses are either likely or possible Oscar contenders. Much like in the Best Supporting Actor category, in which only Christopher Plummer is a true shoo-in for his role in Mike Mills' Beginners, the only shoo-in in the Best Supporting Actress category is The Help's Octavia Spencer, winner of a Golden Globe, and a SAG Award and BAFTA nominee. Now, how could North American critics' fave Jessica Chastain not be a shoo-in? Well, Chastain is a near shoo-in. Though not a strong probability, it's certainly possible that she won't get enough first/second place votes...

Pictured: Vanessa Redgrave in a scene from Isadora, 1968. Courtesy of A.M.P.A.S

Beverly Hills, CA . The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will celebrate the career of Oscar®-winner Vanessa Redgrave with its first-ever European tribute to an actor, on Sunday, November 13, in London. The event, hosted by David Hare, will include special guests Meryl Streep, Ralph Fiennes, Joely Richardson, James Earl Jones and Eileen Atkins. Past Academy President Sid Ganis will introduce the evening.

The salute will explore Redgrave’s dramatic range and exquisite skill. Hare has created three film sequences, each with its own narrative, showing the depth and array of characters that Redgrave has inhabited.

A member of the distinguished Redgrave acting family, Vanessa rose to prominence in 1961, playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Since then, she has made dozens of stage appearances and has appeared in more than 70 films.

Vanessa Redgrave Academy Salute: From Pariah to Honoree [Photo: Vanessa Redgrave, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Natasha Richardson, as ballerina Isadora Duncan in Isadora.] Later on, at the behest of producer Daniel Melnick (Straw Dogs, Making Love) screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (The Goddess, Network) prefaced his announcement of the Best Screenwriting Oscar with the following (also via Inside Oscar): Before I get on to the writing awards, there's a little matter I'd like to tidy up … at least if I expect to live with myself tomorrow morning. I would like to say, personal opinion, of course, that I'm sick and tired of people exploiting the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own personal propaganda. I would like to suggest to Miss Redgrave that her winning an Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation and a simple "Thank you" would have sufficed. Chayefsky's use of the Academy Awards to make that particular political statement — that no political statements should...

Vanessa Redgrave The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will celebrate the career of Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave, one of the most distinguished performers of the second half of the 20th century, with its "first-ever European tribute to an actor." The Redgrave salute will take place on Sunday, November 13, in London. Hosted by two-time Oscar nominee David Hare (The Hours, The Reader), the event will feature special guests Meryl Streep, Ralph Fiennes, James Earl Jones, Eileen Atkins, and Redgrave's daughter Joely Richardson. Past Academy President Sid Ganis will introduce the evening. Who would have thought … Vanessa Redgrave, who has been reviled by many because of both her left-wing political stance and her support for the Palestinian cause. Back in March 1978, Redgrave used her Oscar victory (as Best Supporting Actress for Julia) to thank Academy members for voting for her despite pressure from "Zionist hoodlums." Some booed her speech and...

Hollywoodnews.com: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will celebrate the career of Oscar®-winner Vanessa Redgrave with its first-ever European tribute to an actor, on Sunday, November 13, in London. The event, hosted by David Hare, will include special guests Meryl Streep, Ralph Fiennes, Joely Richardson, James Earl Jones and Eileen Atkins. Past Academy President Sid Ganis will introduce the evening.

The salute will explore Redgrave’s dramatic range and exquisite skill. Hare has created three film sequences, each with its own narrative, showing the depth and array of characters that Redgrave has inhabited.

A member of the distinguished Redgrave acting family, Vanessa rose to prominence in 1961, playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Since then, she has made dozens of stage appearances and has appeared in more than 70 films. In addition to the Oscar she received for her supporting performance in “Julia” (1977), and her nominations for “Morgan!

Director James Ivory and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala have a new movie out, The City of Your Final Destination (10 screens), and, no that's not another sequel in the Final Destination horror series. It's about a young professor who is trying to write a biography of a dead author and must travel to Uruguay to get permission from the dead author's wife, brother and mistress. Like almost all the other Ivory films, it's based on a novel. That's just the first of many reasons I have been fighting against Ivory for years.

Ivory and Jhabvala and producer Ismail Merchant, who died in 2005, first teamed up on The Householder (1963), and their partnership continued until The White Countess (2005); the only difference was that The Householder had been based on Jhabvala's own novel, rather than someone else's. At some point in the 1980s, the trio's films came into fashion, coinciding with the first years of the blockbuster era.

London -- British screen doyenne Vanessa Redgrave is to receive the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Fellowship, the organization said Thursday.

Redgrave is scheduled to pick up the plaudit during this year's Orange British Academy Film Awards, dished out by BAFTA on Feb. 21.

The annual Fellowship award is the highest accolade given to an individual in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film.

Previous Fellows include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Julie Christie, John Barry, Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench. Last year's recipient was Terry Gilliam.

BAFTA chairman David Parfitt said: "She [Redgrave] is a hugely talented and respected actress who has served as an inspiration to the British film industry."

Added Redgrave: "Looking through the list of past recipients shows what a wonderful accolade this is, and the fact that Alfred Hitchcock was the very first recipient makes it even more special,...

May Flowers, weeknights @ 11:00

Kathleen Turner as Joan Wilder. She's a hopeless... no, a hopeful romantic. What a slam dunk star turn that was. And how galling that Romancing the Stone didn't net her an Oscar nomination. It was deglam and glam in one package. Plus it was super fun and Oscar should remember to have fun more often. Fun movies sometimes have more staying power than dutiful prestige pics. Not all the time but why eliminate them because they aren't serious? Screwball comedies were as far from serious as it gets and Oscar didn't hate those.

The Oscar Nominees that year were four previous winners and one breakthrough performer (Judy Davis)

Judy Davis, A Passage to IndiaSally Field, Places in the Heart (winner)

Jessica Lange, CountryVanessa Redgrave, The Bostonians

Sissy Spacek, The River

If I had been giving out my awards back then, the Best Actress list would not have been 60% farm wives.

Producer Ismail Merchant, who, along with James Ivory, brought such acclaimed literary adaptations as A Room with a View and Howards End to the screen, died Wednesday in London; he was 68. Reports on Merchant's death cited that he had been ill for some time and had undergone surgery for abdominal ulcers, and passed away at a London hospital surrounded by family and friends. Born in Bombay and educated both there and in New York, Merchant studied film at USC and early in his career produced and directed a number of acclaimed shorts. His film work brought him to the attention of New York's Asia Society, which commissioned him to make a documentary about Delhi. In India, he met American director James Ivory, and in 1961 the two embarked on a career together (both personally and professionally) that would result in more than 40 films; the first was The Householder (1963), based on the novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who, as their longtime screenwriter, was effectively the third "partner" in Merchant-Ivory Films. Initially, Merchant-Ivory was formed with the charter of making English-language films in India for international release, and their films reflected the conflicts between Indian and British culture. In the early '70s, they tentatively explored new territory . specifically 1920s Hollywood . with The Wild Party, but wouldn't find success outside of India-based films until 1979's The Europeans, based on the Henry James novel, which marked their first major literary adaptation. Small but acclaimed films followed, including Jane Austen in Manhattan and Heat and Dust, but Merchant-Ivory made a name for itself in the mid-'80s with two Oscar-nominated films: 1984's The Bostonians, featuring an Academy Award-nominated performance by Vanessa Redgrave, and their breakout hit, 1985's A Room With a View, the sublime adaptation of E.M. Forster's novel. The film made a star of a young ingénue named Helena Bonham Carter, established Merchant-Ivory as the highbrow literary filmmakers, and received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture (it won three). Taking on Forster again, Merchant-Ivory made the groundbreaking gay-themed drama Maurice in 1987 before unsuccessfully trying on modern-day Manhattan in Slaves of New York. After that film, Merchant-Ivory returned to classic literary adaptations including Mr. and Mrs. Bridge and two back-to-back Best Picture nominees, Howards End (eight Oscar nominations and three wins, including Best Actress for Emma Thompson) and The Remains of the Day (also eight nominations). Merchant's remaining films, from Jefferson in Paris (1995) to Le Divorce (2003) were relatively well-received, but never achieved the heights of his previous films. No further details regarding Merchant's death were forthcoming, and a statement was expected to be released later in the day. --Prepared by IMDb staff...