Elizabeth MacRae, a beloved actress renowned for her roles in General Hospital and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., passed away at the age of 88, as reported by Deadline. Her death marks the end of a remarkable career that spanned over 25 years, encompassing a wide range of television series, films, and stage performances. Early Career and Breakthrough After graduating, Elizabeth MacRae pursued her passion for acting, auditioning for Otto Preminger’s production of Saint Joan in 1956. Despite not securing a part, MacRae’s determination did not wane. She moved to New York City, where she honed her craft under the guidance of...
- 5/29/2024
- by Steve Delikson
- TVovermind.com
Elizabeth MacRae, who played girlfriends of Gomer Pyle and Festus Haggen on television and a woman who seduces Gene Hackman’s surveillance expert in The Conversation, has died. She was 88.
MacRae died Monday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she was raised, her family announced.
MacRae showed up as Lou-Ann Poovie on 15 episodes of the CBS comedy Gomer Pyle: Usmc during its final three seasons (1966-69). She was signed to work just one episode, “Love’s Old Sweet Song,” on the Jim Nabors starrer but impressed producers enough to stick around for more.
Earlier, she portrayed April Clomley, the girlfriend of deputy marshal Festus (Ken Curtis), on CBS’ Gunsmoke on four installments from 1962-64.
In The Conversation (1974), written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, MacRae played Meredith, who dances with Hackman’s Harry Caul in his apartment, sleeps with him and then swipes one of his audiotapes. The actress was among...
MacRae died Monday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she was raised, her family announced.
MacRae showed up as Lou-Ann Poovie on 15 episodes of the CBS comedy Gomer Pyle: Usmc during its final three seasons (1966-69). She was signed to work just one episode, “Love’s Old Sweet Song,” on the Jim Nabors starrer but impressed producers enough to stick around for more.
Earlier, she portrayed April Clomley, the girlfriend of deputy marshal Festus (Ken Curtis), on CBS’ Gunsmoke on four installments from 1962-64.
In The Conversation (1974), written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, MacRae played Meredith, who dances with Hackman’s Harry Caul in his apartment, sleeps with him and then swipes one of his audiotapes. The actress was among...
- 5/29/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Elizabeth MacRae, known for her recurring roles in General Hospital and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., has died. She was 88.
MacRae died on May 27 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she grew up.
After graduating, MacRae pursued a career in acting and auditioned for Otto Preminger’s production of Saint Joan in 1956. Although she didn’t land a role, she continued to pursue acting. She moved to New York City where she studied with Uta Hagen at the Herbert Berghof Studio and gained experience in off-Broadway productions.
MacRae landed her first television role playing a witness in the courtroom series The Verdict Is Yours. Over a career that spanned 25 years, MacRae would be featured in television shows like Route 66, Surfside 6, Rendezvous, The Fugitive, Judd for the Defense, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, I Dream of Jeannie, The Andy Griffith Show, and many more.
One of her most prominent roles was in Gomer Pyle,...
MacRae died on May 27 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where she grew up.
After graduating, MacRae pursued a career in acting and auditioned for Otto Preminger’s production of Saint Joan in 1956. Although she didn’t land a role, she continued to pursue acting. She moved to New York City where she studied with Uta Hagen at the Herbert Berghof Studio and gained experience in off-Broadway productions.
MacRae landed her first television role playing a witness in the courtroom series The Verdict Is Yours. Over a career that spanned 25 years, MacRae would be featured in television shows like Route 66, Surfside 6, Rendezvous, The Fugitive, Judd for the Defense, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, I Dream of Jeannie, The Andy Griffith Show, and many more.
One of her most prominent roles was in Gomer Pyle,...
- 5/29/2024
- by Armando Tinoco
- Deadline Film + TV
When photo archivist Michael Ochs brokered a deal to offload his sprawling collection of 20th century iconography to Getty Images in 2007, neither seller nor buyer knew absolutely everything that was included in the transaction. Ochs had a decades-long reputation as the ultimate source of rock ‘n’ roll imagery, but his collection, at the time of its sale, included 3 million vintage prints, proof sheets and negatives. Many hadn’t been seen in decades, and others, presumably, never at all — particularly some shots of Old Hollywood, obtained in countless acquisitions over the decades that built up the Michael Ochs Archive.
“The Earl Leaf collection alone was over 100,000 negatives,” Ochs says of the late beatnik photographer, who shot many unknowns (Marilyn Monroe, Clint Eastwood) before they blew up and Leaf went on to become the house photographer for The Beach Boys.
Getty has scanned, edited, captioned and digitized nearly 400,000 images from the collection since the acquisition,...
“The Earl Leaf collection alone was over 100,000 negatives,” Ochs says of the late beatnik photographer, who shot many unknowns (Marilyn Monroe, Clint Eastwood) before they blew up and Leaf went on to become the house photographer for The Beach Boys.
Getty has scanned, edited, captioned and digitized nearly 400,000 images from the collection since the acquisition,...
- 4/30/2024
- by Mikey O'Connell
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
If Criterion24/7 hasn’t completely colonized your attention every time you open the Channel––this is to say: if you’re stronger than me––their May lineup may be of interest. First and foremost I’m happy to see a Michael Roemer triple-feature: his superlative Nothing But a Man, arriving in a Criterion Edition, and the recently rediscovered The Plot Against Harry and Vengeance is Mine, three distinct features that suggest a long-lost voice of American movies. Meanwhile, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Antiwar Trilogy four by Sara Driver, and a wide collection from Ayoka Chenzira fill out the auteurist sets.
Series-wise, a highlight of 1999 goes beyond the well-established canon with films like Trick and Bye Bye Africa, while of course including Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann, Scorsese, and Claire Denis. Films starring Shirley Maclaine, a study of 1960s paranoia, and Columbia’s “golden era” (read: 1950-1961) are curated; meanwhile, The Breaking Ice,...
Series-wise, a highlight of 1999 goes beyond the well-established canon with films like Trick and Bye Bye Africa, while of course including Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann, Scorsese, and Claire Denis. Films starring Shirley Maclaine, a study of 1960s paranoia, and Columbia’s “golden era” (read: 1950-1961) are curated; meanwhile, The Breaking Ice,...
- 4/17/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Even after 32 years since the release of Bruce Timm’s Batman: The Animated Series, the four seasoned show still seems like a quality watch. Worthy of celebration and binge-watching, the 1992 series brought in dark visuals, compelling stories, and incredible characters that impressed fans, once and for all. But among all the profound things that the show did, Timm indefinitely created a better version of one Batman villain.
Batman: The Animated Series creator Bruce Timm. | Credit: Gage Skidmore – Wikimedia Commons
Yes, we’re talking about Mr. Freeze who previously appeared in Adam West’s 1966 show Batman. Played by three different actors in West’s three seasoned show, the villainous character was unfortunately turned into a joke, which was later perfected by Bruce Timm in his Batman: The Animated Series. Voiced by the late actor Michael Ansara, Mr. Freeze in Timm’s series eventually got his deserving respect as an iconic villain.
Batman: The Animated Series creator Bruce Timm. | Credit: Gage Skidmore – Wikimedia Commons
Yes, we’re talking about Mr. Freeze who previously appeared in Adam West’s 1966 show Batman. Played by three different actors in West’s three seasoned show, the villainous character was unfortunately turned into a joke, which was later perfected by Bruce Timm in his Batman: The Animated Series. Voiced by the late actor Michael Ansara, Mr. Freeze in Timm’s series eventually got his deserving respect as an iconic villain.
- 4/10/2024
- by Krittika Mukherjee
- FandomWire
Cinephiles will have plenty to celebrate this April with the next slate of additions to the Criterion Channel. The boutique distributor, which recently announced its June 2024 Blu-ray releases, has unveiled its new streaming lineup highlighted by an eclectic mix of classic films and modern arthouse hits.
Students of Hollywood history will be treated to the “Peak Noir: 1950” collection, which features 17 noir films from the landmark film year from directors including Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston.
New Hollywood maverick William Friedkin will also be celebrated when five of his most beloved movies, including “Sorcerer” and “The Exorcist,” come to the channel in April.
Criterion will offer the streaming premiere of Wim Wenders’ 3D art documentary “Anselm,” which will be accompanied by the “Wim Wenders’ Adventures in Moviegoing” collection, which sees the director curating a selection of films from around the world that have influenced his careers.
Contemporary cinema is also well represented,...
Students of Hollywood history will be treated to the “Peak Noir: 1950” collection, which features 17 noir films from the landmark film year from directors including Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston.
New Hollywood maverick William Friedkin will also be celebrated when five of his most beloved movies, including “Sorcerer” and “The Exorcist,” come to the channel in April.
Criterion will offer the streaming premiere of Wim Wenders’ 3D art documentary “Anselm,” which will be accompanied by the “Wim Wenders’ Adventures in Moviegoing” collection, which sees the director curating a selection of films from around the world that have influenced his careers.
Contemporary cinema is also well represented,...
- 3/18/2024
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
April’s an uncommonly strong auteurist month for the Criterion Channel, who will highlight a number of directors––many of whom aren’t often grouped together. Just after we screened House of Tolerance at the Roxy Cinema, Criterion are showing it and Nocturama for a two-film Bertrand Bonello retrospective, starting just four days before The Beast opens. Larger and rarer (but just as French) is the complete Jean Eustache series Janus toured last year. Meanwhile, five William Friedkin films and work from Makoto Shinkai, Lizzie Borden, and Rosine Mbakam are given a highlight.
One of my very favorite films, Comrades: Almost a Love Story plays in a series I’ve been trying to program for years: “Hong Kong in New York,” boasting the magnificent Full Moon in New York, Farewell China, and An Autumn’s Tale. Wim Wenders gets his “Adventures in Moviegoing”; After Hours, Personal Shopper, and Werckmeister Harmonies fill...
One of my very favorite films, Comrades: Almost a Love Story plays in a series I’ve been trying to program for years: “Hong Kong in New York,” boasting the magnificent Full Moon in New York, Farewell China, and An Autumn’s Tale. Wim Wenders gets his “Adventures in Moviegoing”; After Hours, Personal Shopper, and Werckmeister Harmonies fill...
- 3/18/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSGoodbye, Dragon Inn.It’s getting harder to go to the movies. IndieWire surveys the state of cinemagoing in the US region by region as multiplexes continue to shutter. From downtown Detroit, the closest first-run theater is now in Canada.More than 500 pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged a sit-in at MoMA on Saturday, protesting the museum trustees’ alleged investments in weapons used by the Israeli military in Gaza. The museum closed its doors to the public and rescheduled planned programming.After confirming that three sitting representatives of the far-right AfD party had been invited to tomorrow night’s Berlinale opening ceremony, amid public outcry, the festival has now disinvited them.REMEMBERINGRocky II.The tributes to Carl Weathers continue to roll in after his death last week at the...
- 2/28/2024
- MUBI
One may resist celebrity culture, but most people have at least a few actors from pop culture history that mean something to them, whether they're from the silver screen or the flickering box.
Actors know how to spark our emotions and suspend our disbelief. They embody our favorite stories and the visions of our favorite filmmakers. The stars of film and television have the privilege of immortalizing themselves in certain times and places. But it is not just themselves that they immortalize. In their best projects, they capture many complexities of emotion and culture that are relevant to millions. Steve McQueen and his Mustang in "Bullet," Warren Beatty and his freewheeling libido in "Shampoo," Anthony Hopkins and his empathetic presidential turn in "Nixon" -- for better or worse, actors color our memories of the past in both trivial and important ways.
It can be wistful, therefore, when an old favorite passes,...
Actors know how to spark our emotions and suspend our disbelief. They embody our favorite stories and the visions of our favorite filmmakers. The stars of film and television have the privilege of immortalizing themselves in certain times and places. But it is not just themselves that they immortalize. In their best projects, they capture many complexities of emotion and culture that are relevant to millions. Steve McQueen and his Mustang in "Bullet," Warren Beatty and his freewheeling libido in "Shampoo," Anthony Hopkins and his empathetic presidential turn in "Nixon" -- for better or worse, actors color our memories of the past in both trivial and important ways.
It can be wistful, therefore, when an old favorite passes,...
- 2/11/2024
- by Jack Hawkins
- Slash Film
Don Murray, who rose to fame co-starring with Marilyn Monroe in 1956’s Bus Stop and enjoyed a prolific career that stretched into the 21st Century with Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017, has died. He was 94.
His death was announced by his son Christopher to The New York Times. No additional details were provided.
Murray was Oscar-nominated for his debut performance as Beauregard “Beau” Decker, the lovestruck cowboy who falls for Monroe’s saloon singer Cherie in Joshua Logan’s Bus Stop, an adaptation of the William Inge play.
A conscientious objector during the Korean War who fulfilled his service obligation by working in German and Italian refugee camps, Murray became known for building an acting career in what were once called “message” movies, films with socially responsible themes. In Fred Zinnemann’s A Hatful of Rain (1957), he played a morphine-addicted war veteran, and in 1962 starred as a closeted (and blackmailed...
His death was announced by his son Christopher to The New York Times. No additional details were provided.
Murray was Oscar-nominated for his debut performance as Beauregard “Beau” Decker, the lovestruck cowboy who falls for Monroe’s saloon singer Cherie in Joshua Logan’s Bus Stop, an adaptation of the William Inge play.
A conscientious objector during the Korean War who fulfilled his service obligation by working in German and Italian refugee camps, Murray became known for building an acting career in what were once called “message” movies, films with socially responsible themes. In Fred Zinnemann’s A Hatful of Rain (1957), he played a morphine-addicted war veteran, and in 1962 starred as a closeted (and blackmailed...
- 2/2/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Don Murray, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance opposite Marilyn Monroe in the 1956 film adaptation of William Inge’s play “Bus Stop,” has died. He was 94.
His son Christopher confirmed his death to the New York Times.
In the 2017 reboot of “Twin Peaks,” he played Bushnell Mullins, the chief executive of Lucky 7 Insurance.
Murray also starred in the fourth entry in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise, “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes”; played Brooke Shield’s father in “Endless Love”; and recurred on prime-time soap “Knots Landing” as Sid Fairgate.
Reviewing “Bus Stop,” directed by Joshua Logan, the New York Times said: “With a wondrous new actor named Don Murray playing the stupid, stubborn poke and with the clutter of broncos, blondes and busters beautifully tangled, Mr. Logan has a booming comedy going before he gets to the romance. A great deal is owed to Mr.
His son Christopher confirmed his death to the New York Times.
In the 2017 reboot of “Twin Peaks,” he played Bushnell Mullins, the chief executive of Lucky 7 Insurance.
Murray also starred in the fourth entry in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise, “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes”; played Brooke Shield’s father in “Endless Love”; and recurred on prime-time soap “Knots Landing” as Sid Fairgate.
Reviewing “Bus Stop,” directed by Joshua Logan, the New York Times said: “With a wondrous new actor named Don Murray playing the stupid, stubborn poke and with the clutter of broncos, blondes and busters beautifully tangled, Mr. Logan has a booming comedy going before he gets to the romance. A great deal is owed to Mr.
- 2/2/2024
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
Don Murray, the venturesome actor who earned an Oscar nomination for playing a rodeo cowboy smitten by Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop, then spurned Hollywood’s attempts to mold him, has died. He was 94.
Murray’s son Christopher announced his dad’s death to The New York Times without providing details.
The actor was also known for the interesting parts he went after in such serious films as A Hatful of Rain (1957), The Hoodlum Priest (1961) and Advise & Consent (1962).
Fresh off a starring role in a 1955 Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth, Murray was sought by director Joshua Logan to portray Bo Decker, the naive Montana man who falls for the chanteuse Chérie (Monroe), in Bus Stop (1956). It was his first movie, and he was 26 at the time.
“No one could have been less equipped for the job,” he once said. “I was a New...
Murray’s son Christopher announced his dad’s death to The New York Times without providing details.
The actor was also known for the interesting parts he went after in such serious films as A Hatful of Rain (1957), The Hoodlum Priest (1961) and Advise & Consent (1962).
Fresh off a starring role in a 1955 Broadway revival of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth, Murray was sought by director Joshua Logan to portray Bo Decker, the naive Montana man who falls for the chanteuse Chérie (Monroe), in Bus Stop (1956). It was his first movie, and he was 26 at the time.
“No one could have been less equipped for the job,” he once said. “I was a New...
- 2/2/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Le chinoise.Most serious writing about Jean-Luc Godard tends to be both high-flown and forbidding, rather like the films it’s discussing. Translations from French to English or vice versa can make things even dicier. But according to the literary scholar Fredric Jameson, who contributes an enthusiastic preface and afterword, Reading with Jean-Luc Godard—a compendium of 109 three-page essays by 50 writers from a dozen countries, announced as the first in a series—launches “a new form” and “a new genre.”The brevity of each entry tends to confirm Jameson’s claim. The book can be described as an audience-friendly volume designed to occupy the same space between academia and journalism staked out by Notebook while proposing routes into Godard’s work provided by his eclectic reading—a batch of writers ranged alphabetically and intellectually from Louis Aragon, Robert Ardrey, Hannah Arendt, and Honoré de Balzac to François Truffaut, Paul Valéry,...
- 1/30/2024
- MUBI
What makes a great courtroom thriller? A mesmerizing and clever plot that draws viewers in immediately. Three-dimensional characters that keep you guessing if they are the guilty party and twists and turns that leave audiences gasping and gob smacked.
Justine Triet’s dazzling French thriller “Anatomy of a Fall” has all the qualities and then some that make it a classic of the genre. Since winning the Palme D’or last May, “Anatomy of a Fall” has continued its winning ways receiving several critics’ honors, as well as two Golden Globes, a Critics Choice honor and seven BAFTA nominations including best film, best director, screenplay and best actress for Sandra Huller’s powerhouse performance. One can’t forget that Messi, the border collie ,who plays the family pet Snoop, received the Palm Dog at Cannes.
Huller plays a bisexual woman with a troubled marriage and a young blind son. When...
Justine Triet’s dazzling French thriller “Anatomy of a Fall” has all the qualities and then some that make it a classic of the genre. Since winning the Palme D’or last May, “Anatomy of a Fall” has continued its winning ways receiving several critics’ honors, as well as two Golden Globes, a Critics Choice honor and seven BAFTA nominations including best film, best director, screenplay and best actress for Sandra Huller’s powerhouse performance. One can’t forget that Messi, the border collie ,who plays the family pet Snoop, received the Palm Dog at Cannes.
Huller plays a bisexual woman with a troubled marriage and a young blind son. When...
- 1/18/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
"Batman & Robin" is an infamous movie, in no small part thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger's turn as the villainous Mr. Freeze. Was the casting of such a big-name star a mandate from Warner Bros? Nope! Director Joel Schumacher personally chose Arnold for the part. Reading Akiva Goldsman's script for the film, Schumacher found the dialogue for Mr. Freeze, intended to be "Shakespearean," to instead be "hysterical. In my head, I was reading Freeze's dialogue as Schwarzenegger."
So, Schumacher called up Arnold and asked him to play the part. As Schwarzenegger recounts in "The Making of 'Batman & Robin' | Behind The Scenes."
"Joel Schumacher came to me and said that he would like me to play Mr. Freeze. 'I would not direct the movie, because I only can do this movie if you play Mr. Freeze.' So, what are you gonna do? I mean, screw up a whole movie?...
So, Schumacher called up Arnold and asked him to play the part. As Schwarzenegger recounts in "The Making of 'Batman & Robin' | Behind The Scenes."
"Joel Schumacher came to me and said that he would like me to play Mr. Freeze. 'I would not direct the movie, because I only can do this movie if you play Mr. Freeze.' So, what are you gonna do? I mean, screw up a whole movie?...
- 12/24/2023
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
Warning: This article discusses the ending of “Anatomy of a Fall.”
“Anatomy of a Fall,” the new French mystery film, takes its title directly from “Anatomy of a Murder,” Otto Preminger’s 1959 courtroom drama starring Jimmy Stewart. Director Justine Triet saw the Preminger classic about a decade ago and kept the film in her mind as she was developing her own modern tale of intrigue, secrets, and marriage on trial.
And similar to the 1959 movie, “Anatomy of a Fall” does come to a conclusion, in a way, at least in the courtroom. A verdict is delivered. The Palme d’Or winner at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the film ends with the character of Sandra (Sandra Hüller) being acquitted for the murder of her husband. At the movie’s start, he dies off-screen after plunging from a balcony at the chalet where they live with their son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner...
“Anatomy of a Fall,” the new French mystery film, takes its title directly from “Anatomy of a Murder,” Otto Preminger’s 1959 courtroom drama starring Jimmy Stewart. Director Justine Triet saw the Preminger classic about a decade ago and kept the film in her mind as she was developing her own modern tale of intrigue, secrets, and marriage on trial.
And similar to the 1959 movie, “Anatomy of a Fall” does come to a conclusion, in a way, at least in the courtroom. A verdict is delivered. The Palme d’Or winner at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the film ends with the character of Sandra (Sandra Hüller) being acquitted for the murder of her husband. At the movie’s start, he dies off-screen after plunging from a balcony at the chalet where they live with their son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner...
- 11/1/2023
- by Joe McGovern
- The Wrap
Witness for the Prosecution: Triet Beguiles with Knotty Crime Procedural
Justine Triet reunites with several of her Sibyl (2019) collaborators on her best film to date, Anatomy of a Fall, including Arthur Harari as her co-writer and lead star Sandra Hüller, the latter giving an exceptional performance as a woman accused of her husband’s murder. Its title an homage to the 1958 bestseller by Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker (published under the pseudonym Robert Travers), adapted in 1959 by Otto Preminger, Triet balances an exceptional amount of information and moving figures as a prologue to a frustrating courtroom procedural.…...
Justine Triet reunites with several of her Sibyl (2019) collaborators on her best film to date, Anatomy of a Fall, including Arthur Harari as her co-writer and lead star Sandra Hüller, the latter giving an exceptional performance as a woman accused of her husband’s murder. Its title an homage to the 1958 bestseller by Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker (published under the pseudonym Robert Travers), adapted in 1959 by Otto Preminger, Triet balances an exceptional amount of information and moving figures as a prologue to a frustrating courtroom procedural.…...
- 10/13/2023
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
These last few years the Criterion Channel have made October viewing much easier to prioritize, and in the spirit of their ’70s and ’80s horror series we’ve graduated to––you guessed it––”’90s Horror.” A couple of obvious classics stand with cult favorites and more unknown entities (When a Stranger Calls Back and Def By Temptation are new to me). Three more series continue the trend: “Technothrillers” does what it says on the tin, courtesy the likes of eXistenZ and Demonlover; “Art-House Horror” is precisely the kind of place to host Cure, Suspiria, Onibaba; and “Pre-Code Horror” is a black-and-white dream. Phantom of the Paradise, Unfriended, and John Brahm’s The Lodger are added elsewhere.
James Gray is the latest with an “Adventures in Moviegoing” series populated by deep cuts and straight classics. Stonewalling and restorations of Trouble Every Day and The Devil, Probably make streaming debuts, while Flesh for Frankenstein,...
James Gray is the latest with an “Adventures in Moviegoing” series populated by deep cuts and straight classics. Stonewalling and restorations of Trouble Every Day and The Devil, Probably make streaming debuts, while Flesh for Frankenstein,...
- 9/28/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The murder-mystery renaissance really is in full effect right now. The likes of Only Murders In The Building, Poker Face, and Apple TV’s The Afterparty have been making armchair detectives of us all on the telly side of things, but it’s the big screen sleuthing boom that’s had genre fans flocking to the multiplexes with their magnifying glasses and (presumably) deerstalkers most recently. With whodunnits as wildly varied as Park Chan-wook’s sensual Decision To Leave, the superbly silly See How They Run, Rian Johnson_ – which leans hard into the ‘D’ of DC Comics – on offer, it’s not exactly hard to see why, either.
Now, as we prepare to take enough champagne to fill the, erm, canals of Venice with us to see Kenneth Branagh_, we at Empire HQ have put our tan raincoats on and launched an investigation into the very best the genre has to offer.
Now, as we prepare to take enough champagne to fill the, erm, canals of Venice with us to see Kenneth Branagh_, we at Empire HQ have put our tan raincoats on and launched an investigation into the very best the genre has to offer.
- 9/15/2023
- by Jordan King, James White, Beth Webb, Sophie Butcher, Nick de Semlyen
- Empire - Movies
This post contains spoilers for "Futurama" season 11 episode 8.
On top of its hilarious main ensemble, "Futurama" is home to a stable of eccentric recurring characters, ones who could only exist in a science-fiction comedy like this. One of my favorites is Matcluck, better known as the Hyper-Chicken. Matcluck (voiced by Maurice Lamarche) is a human-sized, blue-feathered bird and the Planet Express crew's go-to attorney.
The Hyper-Chicken's most recent appearance was the latest "Futurama" episode, "Zapp Gets Canceled." After the eponymous starship captain is court-martialed, Matcluck both defends and prosecutes him (on behalf of plaintiff Kif Kroker). The lawyer eventually declares his own client guilty, and he's thereby sentenced to both rounds of sensitivity training and to wear a Scarlet C (for "canceled"). This pseudo-win is more of a victory than many other cases the Hyper-Chicken has tried in the past.
How did the "Futurama" writers come up with such an absurd character?...
On top of its hilarious main ensemble, "Futurama" is home to a stable of eccentric recurring characters, ones who could only exist in a science-fiction comedy like this. One of my favorites is Matcluck, better known as the Hyper-Chicken. Matcluck (voiced by Maurice Lamarche) is a human-sized, blue-feathered bird and the Planet Express crew's go-to attorney.
The Hyper-Chicken's most recent appearance was the latest "Futurama" episode, "Zapp Gets Canceled." After the eponymous starship captain is court-martialed, Matcluck both defends and prosecutes him (on behalf of plaintiff Kif Kroker). The lawyer eventually declares his own client guilty, and he's thereby sentenced to both rounds of sensitivity training and to wear a Scarlet C (for "canceled"). This pseudo-win is more of a victory than many other cases the Hyper-Chicken has tried in the past.
How did the "Futurama" writers come up with such an absurd character?...
- 9/11/2023
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
Inga Swenson, the two-time Tony-nominated singer and actress who as the dictatorial German cook Gretchen Kraus sparred with Robert Guillaume‘s character on the 1980s ABC sitcom Benson, has died. She was 90.
Swenson died Sunday night of natural causes in hospice care in Los Angeles, her son, Mark Harris, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Swenson also sparkled in two critically acclaimed 1962 films released seven weeks apart — as the mother of Helen Keller (Patty Duke) in Arthur Penn’s The Miracle Worker (1962) and as the wife of a U.S. senator with a dark secret (Don Murray) in Otto Preminger’s political thriller Advise & Consent (1962).
On the strength of those performances, the Nebraska native — no, she was not born in Germany — was cast in 1963 as the spinster Lizzy in 110 in the Shade, based on N. Richard Nash’s play The Rainmaker. She received a Tony nomination for best actress in a musical for that performance,...
Swenson died Sunday night of natural causes in hospice care in Los Angeles, her son, Mark Harris, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Swenson also sparkled in two critically acclaimed 1962 films released seven weeks apart — as the mother of Helen Keller (Patty Duke) in Arthur Penn’s The Miracle Worker (1962) and as the wife of a U.S. senator with a dark secret (Don Murray) in Otto Preminger’s political thriller Advise & Consent (1962).
On the strength of those performances, the Nebraska native — no, she was not born in Germany — was cast in 1963 as the spinster Lizzy in 110 in the Shade, based on N. Richard Nash’s play The Rainmaker. She received a Tony nomination for best actress in a musical for that performance,...
- 7/28/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
William Holden may have won his only Academy Award for Billy Wilder’s “Stalag 17,” but he wasn’t the first choice to play Sefton, the cynical sergeant who is a one-man black market at a German Pow camp. Originally, Charlton Heston was going to headline the film. Heston was red-hot at the time coming off his flashy starring role in Cecil B. DeMille’s Oscar winning 1952 circus epic “The Great Show on Earth.” But as Wilder and co-writer Edwin Blum were working on the script for the film, which premiered on July 1, 1953 in New York and two weeks later in Los Angeles, the character became darker and more disparaging; They realized Heston wasn’t right for the part
The AFI catalog noted that supposedly Wilder went to Kirk Douglas who had starred in Wilder’s 1951 “Ace in the Hole,” a masterpiece that flopped badly when released. After he turned...
The AFI catalog noted that supposedly Wilder went to Kirk Douglas who had starred in Wilder’s 1951 “Ace in the Hole,” a masterpiece that flopped badly when released. After he turned...
- 7/3/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
BlackBerry (Matt Johnson)
In BlackBerry, the rise of a blue-chip tech company sets the stage for the dissolution of a longstanding friendship. Sound familiar? Just wait ‘til you hear the score. Directed by Matt Johnson, it tells the true story of Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin, software engineers who founded the company Rim in the mid-80s and later invented a cellphone that could handle email. The film begins on the day when they meet Jim Basillie (Glenn Howerton), a Rottweiler who, alongside Lazaridis’ genius, turned Rim’s invention (only later christened BlackBerry) into the world’s most ubiquitous mobile device––at least for a time. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Hole in the Fence (Joaquín del Paso...
BlackBerry (Matt Johnson)
In BlackBerry, the rise of a blue-chip tech company sets the stage for the dissolution of a longstanding friendship. Sound familiar? Just wait ‘til you hear the score. Directed by Matt Johnson, it tells the true story of Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin, software engineers who founded the company Rim in the mid-80s and later invented a cellphone that could handle email. The film begins on the day when they meet Jim Basillie (Glenn Howerton), a Rottweiler who, alongside Lazaridis’ genius, turned Rim’s invention (only later christened BlackBerry) into the world’s most ubiquitous mobile device––at least for a time. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream: VOD
The Hole in the Fence (Joaquín del Paso...
- 6/2/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
(Welcome to Did They Get It Right?, a series where we look at Oscars categories from yesteryear and examine whether the Academy's winners stand the test of time.)
When we think of great Hollywood directors, we think of names like John Ford, Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, and moving on up to the likes of Steven Spielberg. These are filmmakers who not only had strong artistic and creative instincts and abilities, but they also knew how to translate those skills into making films that appealed to gigantic mass audiences. They made the films that Hollywood always strives to make.
Unquestionably, another filmmaker who belongs on that list is Alfred Hitchcock, the so-dubbed "Master of Suspense." That moniker suits him perfectly, as he was able to craft some of the most tense pictures ever produced in Hollywood. He perfectly understood set-up and payoff. He knew how to ride the line between euphemism and explicitness,...
When we think of great Hollywood directors, we think of names like John Ford, Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, and moving on up to the likes of Steven Spielberg. These are filmmakers who not only had strong artistic and creative instincts and abilities, but they also knew how to translate those skills into making films that appealed to gigantic mass audiences. They made the films that Hollywood always strives to make.
Unquestionably, another filmmaker who belongs on that list is Alfred Hitchcock, the so-dubbed "Master of Suspense." That moniker suits him perfectly, as he was able to craft some of the most tense pictures ever produced in Hollywood. He perfectly understood set-up and payoff. He knew how to ride the line between euphemism and explicitness,...
- 5/28/2023
- by Mike Shutt
- Slash Film
George Maharis, who starred as the brooding Buz Murdock on Route 66 before he quit the acclaimed 1960s CBS drama after contracting hepatitis, has died. He was 94.
Maharis died Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, his longtime friend and caregiver Marc Bahan told The Hollywood Reporter.
Route 66, created by Stirling Silliphant and Herbert B. Leonard, featured the Hell’s Kitchen native Murdock and Martin Milner‘s Yale dropout Tod Stiles touring the highways of America in Tod’s Chevrolet Corvette, encountering adventure along the way.
The show “was really kind of a searching or what you may have seen hundreds of years ago where the people came over the mountains to go from one place to the other to find a better life, a place where they belonged, and they didn’t rely on anybody else to do it for them,” Maharis told The Seattle Times in 2008.
All 116 installments of...
Maharis died Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, his longtime friend and caregiver Marc Bahan told The Hollywood Reporter.
Route 66, created by Stirling Silliphant and Herbert B. Leonard, featured the Hell’s Kitchen native Murdock and Martin Milner‘s Yale dropout Tod Stiles touring the highways of America in Tod’s Chevrolet Corvette, encountering adventure along the way.
The show “was really kind of a searching or what you may have seen hundreds of years ago where the people came over the mountains to go from one place to the other to find a better life, a place where they belonged, and they didn’t rely on anybody else to do it for them,” Maharis told The Seattle Times in 2008.
All 116 installments of...
- 5/28/2023
- by Mike Barnes and Duane Byrge
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Just in time for Succession‘s end, let’s look at method acting. The Criterion Channel are highlighting the controversial practice in a 27-film series centered on Brando, Newman, Nicholson, and many other’s embodiment of “an intensely personal, internalized, and naturalistic approach to performance.” That series makes mention of Marilyn Monroe, who gets her own, 11-title highlight––the iconic commingling with deeper cuts.
Pride Month offers “Masc,” a consideration of “trans men, butch lesbians, and gender-nonconforming heroes” onscreen; the Michael Koresky-curated Queersighted returning with a study of the gay best friend; and the 20-film “LGBTQ+ Favorites.” Louis Garrel’s delightful The Innocent (about which I talked to him here), the director’s cut of Gregg Araki’s The Doom Generation, and Stanley Kwan’s hugely underseen Lan Yu make streaming premieres, while Araki’s Totally F***ed Up and Mysterious Skin also get a run. Criterion Editions include Five Easy Pieces,...
Pride Month offers “Masc,” a consideration of “trans men, butch lesbians, and gender-nonconforming heroes” onscreen; the Michael Koresky-curated Queersighted returning with a study of the gay best friend; and the 20-film “LGBTQ+ Favorites.” Louis Garrel’s delightful The Innocent (about which I talked to him here), the director’s cut of Gregg Araki’s The Doom Generation, and Stanley Kwan’s hugely underseen Lan Yu make streaming premieres, while Araki’s Totally F***ed Up and Mysterious Skin also get a run. Criterion Editions include Five Easy Pieces,...
- 5/22/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
This is probably an odd thing to say, but whenever watching a modern potboiler I find myself asking, “What would Bertrand Tavernier think?” The kind of French cineaste that found themselves most at home in the company of the disposable American crime film, the esteemed director could wax poetic on the most disreputable of pictures. If you squint during Hypnotic––a collaboration between Robert Rodriguez and Ben Affleck that’s likely been cooking since they first met at a 1997 Miramax holiday party––you can see faint traces of a classic noir like Otto Preminger’s Whirlpool, or something of such ilk.
Though pitched as somewhat of a Christopher Nolan-like mind-bender, this is a throwback of another stripe: to 2010, not 1948. Stripped of the comfortable Hollywood budget that would’ve greeted that pairing during their respective heydays, this initially seems like the pilot for a slightly more high-concept detective show before accounting...
Though pitched as somewhat of a Christopher Nolan-like mind-bender, this is a throwback of another stripe: to 2010, not 1948. Stripped of the comfortable Hollywood budget that would’ve greeted that pairing during their respective heydays, this initially seems like the pilot for a slightly more high-concept detective show before accounting...
- 5/12/2023
- by Ethan Vestby
- The Film Stage
Lost Chapter of Snow: Passion (1985).The opening shot of Shinji Sômai’s Lost Chapter of Snow: Passion (1985) is 14 minutes long, probing an oneiric palace of artifice. The camera surveys a miniaturized series of homes that represent different stages in the life of an orphan, marching from storybook mistreatment meted out by her foster family, to a questionable attachment to an unorthodox—though caring—father figure, who relieves the toil foisted upon her. The snow globe ambiance provides a sandbox for Sômai’s storied formalism, the camera and the set engaged in a symbiotic give-and-take, filling in blanks when one or the other is totally spent. Events occur at an unsteady clip; years are skipped over with little more than a panning motion. But then, this climate of impressionistic memory is ruptured: a smash cut reintroduces Iori (Yuki Saito), now a perilously carefree teenager, suspended over the all-too-real pavement as she...
- 5/5/2023
- MUBI
Singer, actor, and activist Harry Belafonte has passed away at the age of 96. Along with his rich, prolific musical career, Belafonte leaves behind an impressive legacy on screen. From one of his earliest roles in Otto Preminger's "Carmen Jones" to his last appearance in Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman," Belafonte left an unforgettable impression. The actor worked with talented filmmakers like Robert Altman, Robert Wise, Ava DuVernay, and Sidney Poitier, and appeared in Lee's 2006 look at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, "When The Levees Broke." But he and Lee would also work together one more time, in a role that the then-elderly Belafonte had to get approved by a doctor.
Belafonte's scene in "BlacKkKlansman" gives the darkly funny movie about a Black cop infiltrating the KKK a sense of gravity and history; in a nine-minute scene, Black students and activists sit rapt and engrossed around a seated Belafonte as he...
Belafonte's scene in "BlacKkKlansman" gives the darkly funny movie about a Black cop infiltrating the KKK a sense of gravity and history; in a nine-minute scene, Black students and activists sit rapt and engrossed around a seated Belafonte as he...
- 4/25/2023
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
The star with the gorgeous calypso voice was also a naturally passionate actor who appeared in heists, colonial confrontations – and even the last love triangle on Earth
In the middle of the 20th century, Harry Belafonte was at the dizzying high point of his stunning multi-hyphenate celebrity: this handsome, athletic, Caribbean-American star with a gorgeous calypso singing voice was at the top of his game in music, movies and politics. He was the million-selling artist whose easy and sensuous musical stylings and lighter-skinned image made him acceptable to white audiences. But this didn’t stop him having a fierce screen presence and an even fiercer commitment to civil rights. He was the friend and comrade of Paul Robeson and Martin Luther King Jr – and his crossover success, incidentally, never stopped him being subject to the ugliest kind of bigotry from racists who saw his fame as a kind of infiltration.
In the middle of the 20th century, Harry Belafonte was at the dizzying high point of his stunning multi-hyphenate celebrity: this handsome, athletic, Caribbean-American star with a gorgeous calypso singing voice was at the top of his game in music, movies and politics. He was the million-selling artist whose easy and sensuous musical stylings and lighter-skinned image made him acceptable to white audiences. But this didn’t stop him having a fierce screen presence and an even fiercer commitment to civil rights. He was the friend and comrade of Paul Robeson and Martin Luther King Jr – and his crossover success, incidentally, never stopped him being subject to the ugliest kind of bigotry from racists who saw his fame as a kind of infiltration.
- 4/25/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Harry Belafonte in Spike Lee's BlackKklansman
He was one of the first generation of black leading men in Hollywood, carving out a path for others to follow. He was also a wildly successful musician with an unforgettable style, and an important figure in the US Civil Rights movement. Now Harry Belafonte has passed away from congestive heart failure at the age of 96.
Born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrant parents, and moving between New York and Jamaica during his early years, he developed a passion for music and, having fallen in love with cinema, realised that he could use his talent as a singer to pay for acting lessons. Music took over as he enjoyed unexpected success, but he took on film roles where good opportunities presented themselves, working with Otto Preminger on Carmen Jones and Robert Rossen in Island In The Sun, where he caught the eye of co-star...
He was one of the first generation of black leading men in Hollywood, carving out a path for others to follow. He was also a wildly successful musician with an unforgettable style, and an important figure in the US Civil Rights movement. Now Harry Belafonte has passed away from congestive heart failure at the age of 96.
Born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrant parents, and moving between New York and Jamaica during his early years, he developed a passion for music and, having fallen in love with cinema, realised that he could use his talent as a singer to pay for acting lessons. Music took over as he enjoyed unexpected success, but he took on film roles where good opportunities presented themselves, working with Otto Preminger on Carmen Jones and Robert Rossen in Island In The Sun, where he caught the eye of co-star...
- 4/25/2023
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Singer, actor, producer and activist Harry Belafonte, who spawned a calypso craze in the U.S. with his music and blazed new trails for African-American performers, has died of congestive heart failure at his Manhattan home. He was 96.
An award-winning Broadway performer and a versatile recording and concert star of the ’50s, the lithe, handsome Belafonte became one of the first black leading men in Hollywood. He later branched into production work on theatrical films and telepics.
As his career stretched into the new millennium, his commitment to social causes never took a back seat to his professional work.
An intimate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he was an important voice in the ’60s civil rights movement, and he later embarked on charitable activities on behalf of underdeveloped African nations. He was an outspoken opponent of South Africa’s apartheid policies.
Belafonte was set to receive the Motion Picture...
An award-winning Broadway performer and a versatile recording and concert star of the ’50s, the lithe, handsome Belafonte became one of the first black leading men in Hollywood. He later branched into production work on theatrical films and telepics.
As his career stretched into the new millennium, his commitment to social causes never took a back seat to his professional work.
An intimate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he was an important voice in the ’60s civil rights movement, and he later embarked on charitable activities on behalf of underdeveloped African nations. He was an outspoken opponent of South Africa’s apartheid policies.
Belafonte was set to receive the Motion Picture...
- 4/25/2023
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
If nothing else, “Barry” Season 4 has cemented director Bill Hader’s status as somehow the heir to both Otto Preminger and Jacques Tati. Hader and cinematographer Carl Herse’s camera, like some unholy combination of “Playtime” and “Anatomy of a Murder,” continually embrace patient, wide takes in which horror and comedy unfold one after the other after the other, staying however long it needs to in order to catch the characters out.
The length of a moment and the slow arc of the camera can themselves justify a change in location or a transition, as in Barry’s flashes to his past and to the world he desires in Episode 2, “the bestest place on earth.” But as the camerawork of the show has adapted to Hader’s preference for giving the characters enough rope, so has every other aspect of “Barry” adapted.
For Season 4, this presented production designer Eric Schoonover...
The length of a moment and the slow arc of the camera can themselves justify a change in location or a transition, as in Barry’s flashes to his past and to the world he desires in Episode 2, “the bestest place on earth.” But as the camerawork of the show has adapted to Hader’s preference for giving the characters enough rope, so has every other aspect of “Barry” adapted.
For Season 4, this presented production designer Eric Schoonover...
- 4/22/2023
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
“Carmen” didn’t begin life as an opera: French Romantic writer Prosper Mérimée conceived this tale of Spanish passion and tragic jealousy in 1845, thirty years before his compatriot Georges Bizet brought it into its best-known, aria-rich form. But it’s a story that thrives on operatic delivery, hinging on emotions so large and loud they beg to be sung at the top of one’s lungs. That makes it the opera that filmmakers can’t leave alone, even as they tend to switch out the music: Its screen interpretations range from Otto Preminger’s Broadway-rooted “Carmen Jones” to Jean-Luc Godard’s daring, Beethoven-infused “First Name: Carmen” to Robert Townsend’s Beyoncé-starring “Carmen: A Hip-Hopera.” With the plainly titled “Carmen,” ballet star and first-time feature director Benjamin Millepied joins that club, mostly eschewing song in an attempt to conjure the material’s intensity through dance. He is only intermittently successful.
- 4/21/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Opera lovers flock to performances in order to be thrilled, aroused, overjoyed, moved to tears. Ditto disciples of dance, musical-theater fanatics, and — the worst, most masochistic, and unrepentant art-rush addicts of them all — moviegoers. Georges Bizet’s Carmen shocked audiences when it premiered in 1875 in Paris; eventually, his story of a Spanish soldier and a Roma traveler would become a staple of repertory companies and one of the best-known operas of all time. (Hum the opening notes of this, and at least one person will break into their best Beverly Sills impression.
- 4/19/2023
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Actors John Wayne and Kirk Douglas had their fair share of disagreements over the course of their careers. However, that didn’t stop them from working together a few times. They represented entirely different political ideologies, which caused many of their fans to believe that they must have hated one another. Douglas once spoke about the respect that he had for Wayne, which was reciprocated by the Western movie star.
John Wayne and Kirk Douglas were in 3 movies together L-r: John Wayne and Kirk Douglas | FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images
Wayne and Douglas starred in three movies over their long-running careers. The first was Otto Preminger’s In Harm’s Way, which hit theaters in 1965. The story takes place during World War II, following the lives of several naval officers in Hawaii after Pearl Harbor. One of them gets another opportunity to prove himself when he gets promoted to Rear Admiral.
John Wayne and Kirk Douglas were in 3 movies together L-r: John Wayne and Kirk Douglas | FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images
Wayne and Douglas starred in three movies over their long-running careers. The first was Otto Preminger’s In Harm’s Way, which hit theaters in 1965. The story takes place during World War II, following the lives of several naval officers in Hawaii after Pearl Harbor. One of them gets another opportunity to prove himself when he gets promoted to Rear Admiral.
- 4/10/2023
- by Jeff Nelson
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Oscar-winning writer Christopher Hampton is in talks to write a screenplay with French director Anne Fontaine about iconic feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Nelson Algren’s transatlantic affair.
The playwright and screenwriter, who has won Oscars for The Father (2021) and Dangerous Liaisons (1989) and was also nominated for Atonement (2008), revealed he was in the early stages of the project during a masterclass at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event on Monday.
“We had an initial discussion followed by a more detailed discussion a week ago. I really want to do it,” he told Deadline in an interview after the talk.
De Beauvoir and Algren met in Chicago in 1947 and immediately embarked on a passionate affair that endured for more than 20 years in spite of the complications of transatlantic travel and communication at the time.
Paris-based intellectual de Beauvoir was in the midst of completing her seminal...
The playwright and screenwriter, who has won Oscars for The Father (2021) and Dangerous Liaisons (1989) and was also nominated for Atonement (2008), revealed he was in the early stages of the project during a masterclass at the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event on Monday.
“We had an initial discussion followed by a more detailed discussion a week ago. I really want to do it,” he told Deadline in an interview after the talk.
De Beauvoir and Algren met in Chicago in 1947 and immediately embarked on a passionate affair that endured for more than 20 years in spite of the complications of transatlantic travel and communication at the time.
Paris-based intellectual de Beauvoir was in the midst of completing her seminal...
- 3/13/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Had Warner Bros. given Joel Schumacher an extra year to develop and shoot "Batman & Robin," it's reasonable to expect that he would've turned around another agreeably campy lark on par with "Batman Forever;" ergo, from the fans' perspective, it's probably a blessing that the studio rushed him from 1996's "A Time to Kill" straight into his second Dark Knight yarn. Had Schumacher been granted more time to refine the film with screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, he might've stuck with the franchise — which, spinning this alternate timeline forward, could've knocked George Clooney out of Steven Soderbergh's "Out of Sight" and obviated the need for Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins." A series-hobbling Bat-bomb is a more than acceptable tradeoff here.
There were, however, certain elements of "Batman & Robin" that were always going to fall flat, most notably the casting of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze. Had Warner Bros. been smart...
There were, however, certain elements of "Batman & Robin" that were always going to fall flat, most notably the casting of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze. Had Warner Bros. been smart...
- 2/28/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Joel Schumacher's 1997 film "Batman & Robin" is a large, clunky, over-designed nightmare. In his two-star review, Roger Ebert referred to the film as resembling "an art-deco garbage disposal," and there often appears to be a consensus that it remains, to this day, one of the worst comic book movies ever made. Director Schumacher has even gone on record apologizing to anyone who might have felt disappointed by his film.
"Batman & Robin," while following the same Batman continuity that began in 1989 with Tim Burton's "Batman," couldn't be farther from the original. Burton's film took visual cues from 1930s German expressionism film, and was shot using shadows and steam. "Batman & Robin" looks like a Las Vegas dance spectacular, rife with bright colors, swirling lights, and neon tubing. Even the film's central villain, Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger), has glittery silver skin, a glowing blue mouth, and a busy, light-up suit of armor.
"Batman & Robin," while following the same Batman continuity that began in 1989 with Tim Burton's "Batman," couldn't be farther from the original. Burton's film took visual cues from 1930s German expressionism film, and was shot using shadows and steam. "Batman & Robin" looks like a Las Vegas dance spectacular, rife with bright colors, swirling lights, and neon tubing. Even the film's central villain, Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger), has glittery silver skin, a glowing blue mouth, and a busy, light-up suit of armor.
- 2/20/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "A Simple Favor"
Where You Can Stream It: Prime Video
The Pitch: "A Simple Favor" poses a very (appropriately) simple question: what if Phillip Marlowe was a suburban single mom with a vlog? You'd get Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick), best friend to Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) who went missing after asking Stephanie for, you guessed it, a simple favor. In the aftermath of Emily's disappearance, Stephanie takes it upon herself to find her bestie, which leads her down a dark path littered with secrets, some of which are her own.
Emily Nelson works as a PR executive for a high-end fashion designer with an attitude, Dennis Nylon, and she knows how to handle him (and others like him). "You've gotta go right at 'em,...
The Movie: "A Simple Favor"
Where You Can Stream It: Prime Video
The Pitch: "A Simple Favor" poses a very (appropriately) simple question: what if Phillip Marlowe was a suburban single mom with a vlog? You'd get Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick), best friend to Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) who went missing after asking Stephanie for, you guessed it, a simple favor. In the aftermath of Emily's disappearance, Stephanie takes it upon herself to find her bestie, which leads her down a dark path littered with secrets, some of which are her own.
Emily Nelson works as a PR executive for a high-end fashion designer with an attitude, Dennis Nylon, and she knows how to handle him (and others like him). "You've gotta go right at 'em,...
- 2/19/2023
- by Ariel Fisher
- Slash Film
With the Academy Awards just a month away, it’s the perfect time to look at fun facts, trivia and tidbits for both this year and historically.
John Williams, who just turned 91, reaped his 53rd Oscar nomination for scoring Steven Spielberg’s movie memoir “The Fabelmans.” Three of his five Oscar wins are for Spielberg films. His first Oscar nomination was for Best Music for 1967’s “Valley of the Dolls” and his first win was for Best Music (scoring adaptation and original song score) for 1971’s “Fiddler on the Roof.” And what was the first film he scored? The long-forgotten 1958 Aip release 1958 “Daddy-o.”
In terms of nominations, Williams is second only to Walt Disney. During his 40-plus year film career, he received 26 Oscar — 22 of those were competitive — and a staggering 59 bids. At the 5th Oscars, he won an honorary Oscar for creating Mickey Mouse, while winning the Academy Award for...
John Williams, who just turned 91, reaped his 53rd Oscar nomination for scoring Steven Spielberg’s movie memoir “The Fabelmans.” Three of his five Oscar wins are for Spielberg films. His first Oscar nomination was for Best Music for 1967’s “Valley of the Dolls” and his first win was for Best Music (scoring adaptation and original song score) for 1971’s “Fiddler on the Roof.” And what was the first film he scored? The long-forgotten 1958 Aip release 1958 “Daddy-o.”
In terms of nominations, Williams is second only to Walt Disney. During his 40-plus year film career, he received 26 Oscar — 22 of those were competitive — and a staggering 59 bids. At the 5th Oscars, he won an honorary Oscar for creating Mickey Mouse, while winning the Academy Award for...
- 2/15/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
The legendary RZA joins hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss a few of his favorite movies.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Man With The Iron Fists (2012)
Cut Throat City (2020)
Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
Cooley High (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary
Car Wash (1976) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary
Grease (1978)
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary
Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020) – Dennis Cozzalio’s best of 2020
The Devil You Know (2022)
The Last American Virgin (1982)
The Beastmaster (1982)
Porky’s (1981)
Sixteen Candles (1984)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982) – Karyn Kusama’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Carmen Jones (1954)
An American In Paris (1951)
Singin’ In The Rain (1952) – John Landis’s trailer commentary
The Wizard Of Oz (1939) – John Badham’s trailer commentary
Is That Black Enough for You?!?...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Man With The Iron Fists (2012)
Cut Throat City (2020)
Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)
Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)
Cooley High (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary
Car Wash (1976) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary
Grease (1978)
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary
Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020) – Dennis Cozzalio’s best of 2020
The Devil You Know (2022)
The Last American Virgin (1982)
The Beastmaster (1982)
Porky’s (1981)
Sixteen Candles (1984)
The Breakfast Club (1985)
Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982) – Karyn Kusama’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Carmen Jones (1954)
An American In Paris (1951)
Singin’ In The Rain (1952) – John Landis’s trailer commentary
The Wizard Of Oz (1939) – John Badham’s trailer commentary
Is That Black Enough for You?!?...
- 2/14/2023
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Just last year, “West Side Story” became the first movie directed by Steven Spielberg to be nominated for and win the Golden Globe Award for Best Comedy/Musical. Since his “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1983), “Schindler’s List” (1994), and “Saving Private Ryan” (1999) had all previously prevailed in the corresponding drama category, he joined Billy Wilder as only the second person to helm four winners of either of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s two top film prizes. With Best Drama contender “The Fabelmans,” he now has a shot at surpassing Wilder and bettering his standing in the Golden Globes record book.
“The Fabelmans” received a total of five Golden Globe nominations this year, including ones for Michelle Williams’s lead acting and John Williams’s score. The remaining two bids constitute Spielberg’s second for writing (shared with Tony Kushner) and 14th for directing (he won in 1994 and 1999). The film is a thinly-veiled...
“The Fabelmans” received a total of five Golden Globe nominations this year, including ones for Michelle Williams’s lead acting and John Williams’s score. The remaining two bids constitute Spielberg’s second for writing (shared with Tony Kushner) and 14th for directing (he won in 1994 and 1999). The film is a thinly-veiled...
- 12/29/2022
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
It is fair to assume Criterion could plunder the world of licensed film to build an ultimate noir playlist; credit, then, for focusing sharp and nabbing deep cuts. The Criterion Channel’s November / Noirvember program will be headlined by “Fox Noir,” an eight-title program with Otto Preminger deep cut Fallen Angel, three by Henry Hathaway, Siodmak, Dassin, Kazan, and Robert Wise, and while retrospectives of Veronica Lake and John Garfield will bring some canon into the fold, I’m mostly thinking about that potential for discovery.
Following “Free Jazz,” Bob Hoskins, and Joyce Chopra programs, the other big series is a 30-year survey of Sony Pictures Classics: Sally Potter, Satoshi Kon, Panahi, Errol Morris, Almodóvar, Haneke, Mike Leigh, just a murderer’s row. Streaming premieres include 499 and A Night of Knowing Nothing, two recent epitomes of I Wish I Had Seen That; Criterion Editions comprise Cure, Brazil, Sullivan’s Travels,...
Following “Free Jazz,” Bob Hoskins, and Joyce Chopra programs, the other big series is a 30-year survey of Sony Pictures Classics: Sally Potter, Satoshi Kon, Panahi, Errol Morris, Almodóvar, Haneke, Mike Leigh, just a murderer’s row. Streaming premieres include 499 and A Night of Knowing Nothing, two recent epitomes of I Wish I Had Seen That; Criterion Editions comprise Cure, Brazil, Sullivan’s Travels,...
- 10/26/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Quintessential ’40s leading man Dana Andrews excels in perhaps his finest performance as another brutal cop who can’t control himself (shades of Robert Ryan and Kirk Douglas!) in Otto Preminger’s gripping, corrosive noir classic–the flip side of the sensitive cop Andrews played for him in Laura.
The post Where the Sidewalk Ends appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post Where the Sidewalk Ends appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 10/14/2022
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
Otto Preminger learned a lot from Hitchcock, publicity-wise. The autocratic Viennese director basically stars in this trailer for one of his biggest hits, based on a real murder case and shot on the actual locations in Michigan. Once again Preminger baited the censors with provocative material and got away with it, opening the doors to franker screen treatments.
The post Anatomy of a Murder appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post Anatomy of a Murder appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 10/12/2022
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
In today's political climate, you might argue that everything old is new again. Culture wars are stoking political chasms perhaps not this wide since the Cold War era. Today if you replace "wokeism" with communism, it looks a bit like the Post-World War II era known as the Red Scare. Back then people were so fearful of the spread of communism the U.S. government formed a House Un-American Activities Committee to monitor the activities of private citizens.
The committee's goal was to root out suspected communist sympathizers within the government and private institutions. Those suspected of supporting communism were often arrested or even deported. In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy, the public face of the House Un-American Activities Committee, took aim at Hollywood.
Why Hollywood? The Hollywood Reporter explained that around one-third of the nation's movie theaters closed during the Great Depression. The ripple effect left actors and studio workers out of work,...
The committee's goal was to root out suspected communist sympathizers within the government and private institutions. Those suspected of supporting communism were often arrested or even deported. In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy, the public face of the House Un-American Activities Committee, took aim at Hollywood.
Why Hollywood? The Hollywood Reporter explained that around one-third of the nation's movie theaters closed during the Great Depression. The ripple effect left actors and studio workers out of work,...
- 9/28/2022
- by Travis Yates
- Slash Film
“Carmen” is many things: a novella (by Prosper Mérimée) inspired by a Pushkin poem (“The Gypsies”); a classic Bizet opera inspired by that novella; an archetype wrought by said opera of the sexy, fearless and feared woman; and countless interpreted films, from Cecil B. DeMille’s silent saga to Otto Preminger’s adaptation of the all-Black musical to Carlos Saura’s flamenco masterpiece.
Now comes what French-born choreographer and first-time feature director Benjamin Millepied (he who choreographed “Black Swan”) is calling his “Carmen” from a parallel universe, an original modern-day drama with music and dance set on the U.S./Mexico border, with its same-named protagonist reimagined as a headstrong Mexican immigrant fleeing violence, seeking sanctuary, falling for an American Marine and — what else? — finding herself.
Mostly, though, Millepied’s debut — premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and featuring rising star Melissa Barrera (in the title role) and Irish actor...
Now comes what French-born choreographer and first-time feature director Benjamin Millepied (he who choreographed “Black Swan”) is calling his “Carmen” from a parallel universe, an original modern-day drama with music and dance set on the U.S./Mexico border, with its same-named protagonist reimagined as a headstrong Mexican immigrant fleeing violence, seeking sanctuary, falling for an American Marine and — what else? — finding herself.
Mostly, though, Millepied’s debut — premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and featuring rising star Melissa Barrera (in the title role) and Irish actor...
- 9/11/2022
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
Kirk Douglas had many things to be proud of in his life and career. He was a hugely successful movie star, producer and had a wonderful and multi-talented family, but the accomplishment he was most proud of might surprise you.
Douglas made a name for himself as a heroic tough guy on the silver screen, but it turns out he was a stand up guy in real life, too. When he got enough power within Hollywood he created his own production company called Bryna, named after his mother. He didn't do it as some ego stroking power move, he founded Bryna because he wanted to make more challenging pictures, like the anti-war film "Paths of Glory" and the now infamous epic "Spartacus," both directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Because he was a producer on "Spartacus" he was able to make one monumental decision that had an impact not just in his own industry,...
Douglas made a name for himself as a heroic tough guy on the silver screen, but it turns out he was a stand up guy in real life, too. When he got enough power within Hollywood he created his own production company called Bryna, named after his mother. He didn't do it as some ego stroking power move, he founded Bryna because he wanted to make more challenging pictures, like the anti-war film "Paths of Glory" and the now infamous epic "Spartacus," both directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Because he was a producer on "Spartacus" he was able to make one monumental decision that had an impact not just in his own industry,...
- 8/20/2022
- by Eric Vespe
- Slash Film
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