Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
In all honesty, the films of 2023 should take a backseat to the images we are seeing every day in Gaza, where journalists and average citizens have been recording and documenting a daily assault on their homes and livelihoods by the Idf. Whatever fakery we watched and enjoyed in the cinema this year should always be kept in perspective in importance with images that are real and actually happening right now. The Palestinians who have documented these important images have been targeted and killed with intent and purpose to silence what their photos and videos are showing and saying.
List of journalists who have been killed.
The below is of lesser note:
Best First Watches:
Angel’s Egg La belle noiseuse Centipede Horror Charley Varrick Coffy Crimson Gold...
In all honesty, the films of 2023 should take a backseat to the images we are seeing every day in Gaza, where journalists and average citizens have been recording and documenting a daily assault on their homes and livelihoods by the Idf. Whatever fakery we watched and enjoyed in the cinema this year should always be kept in perspective in importance with images that are real and actually happening right now. The Palestinians who have documented these important images have been targeted and killed with intent and purpose to silence what their photos and videos are showing and saying.
List of journalists who have been killed.
The below is of lesser note:
Best First Watches:
Angel’s Egg La belle noiseuse Centipede Horror Charley Varrick Coffy Crimson Gold...
- 1/3/2024
- by Soham Gadre
- The Film Stage
Among the myriad reasons we could call the Criterion Channel the single greatest streaming service is its leveling of cinematic snobbery. Where a new World Cinema Project restoration plays, so too does Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight. I think about this looking at November’s lineup and being happiest about two new additions: a nine-film Robert Bresson retro including L’argent and The Devil, Probably; and a one-film Hype Williams retro including Belly and only Belly, but bringing as a bonus the direct-to-video Belly 2: Millionaire Boyz Club. Until recently such curation seemed impossible.
November will also feature a 20-film noir series boasting the obvious and the not. Maybe the single tightest collection is “Women of the West,” with Johnny Guitar and The Beguiled and Rancho Notorious and The Furies only half of it. Lynch/Oz, Irradiated, and My Two Voices make streaming premieres; Drylongso gets a Criterion Edition; and joining...
November will also feature a 20-film noir series boasting the obvious and the not. Maybe the single tightest collection is “Women of the West,” with Johnny Guitar and The Beguiled and Rancho Notorious and The Furies only half of it. Lynch/Oz, Irradiated, and My Two Voices make streaming premieres; Drylongso gets a Criterion Edition; and joining...
- 10/24/2023
- by Nick Newman
- 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
John M. Stahl’s superior melodrama is a focus point for the study of African-Americans in Hollywood. Businesswoman Claudette Colbert a housekeeper Louise Beavers raise their daughters together for a story that expresses the racial divide in simple terms. Determined to pass for white, Beavers’ daughter Fredi Washington rejects her mother outright. The tale of motherly sacrifice is in some ways more honest than later ‘social justice’ films about race, yet it sticks closely to Hollywood’s segregationist rules.
Imitation of Life
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1167
1934 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 110 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 10, 2023 / 39.95
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Louise Beavers, Fredi Washington, Rochelle Hudson, Ned Sparks, Juanita Quigley, Alan Hale, Henry Armetta, Hattie McDaniel, Paul Porcasi, Teru Shimada, Madame Sul-Te-Wan, Jane Withers, Dorothy Black.
Cinematography: Merrit Gerstad
Costumes: Travis Banton
Art Director: Charles D. Hall
Film Editor: Philip Cahn, Maurice Wright
Original Music: Heinz Roemheld...
Imitation of Life
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1167
1934 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 110 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 10, 2023 / 39.95
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Louise Beavers, Fredi Washington, Rochelle Hudson, Ned Sparks, Juanita Quigley, Alan Hale, Henry Armetta, Hattie McDaniel, Paul Porcasi, Teru Shimada, Madame Sul-Te-Wan, Jane Withers, Dorothy Black.
Cinematography: Merrit Gerstad
Costumes: Travis Banton
Art Director: Charles D. Hall
Film Editor: Philip Cahn, Maurice Wright
Original Music: Heinz Roemheld...
- 1/17/2023
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Criterion Collection’s January 2023 Lineup: Bergman Island, Lars von Trier, Terry Gilliam & More
And lo a new year begins—or will in two-and-a-half months’ time, which still won’t stop Criterion from cracking the seal. 2023 (Christ) begins on a bang with Bergman Island, Mia Hansen-Løve’s greater-by-the-day study of filmmaking and life’s difficult middleground. Lars von Trier’s beguiling, beautiful Europe Trilogy comprising The Element of Crime, Epidemic, and Europa gets a much-needed upgrade: even as he remains one of the few arthouse superstars have these stayed underseen, a matter hopefully amended by Blu-ray resolution.
This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection adds to the canon of Criterion titles with punctuation, and fortunately we like the film quite a bit. Their 4K Uhd library expands, fittingly, with Terry Gilliam’s visually ornate The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, while John M. Stahl’s unfathomably heartbreaking Imitation of Life (which yours truly prefers to Sirk’s) comes to Blu-ray.
Find artwork below...
This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection adds to the canon of Criterion titles with punctuation, and fortunately we like the film quite a bit. Their 4K Uhd library expands, fittingly, with Terry Gilliam’s visually ornate The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, while John M. Stahl’s unfathomably heartbreaking Imitation of Life (which yours truly prefers to Sirk’s) comes to Blu-ray.
Find artwork below...
- 10/17/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The Criterion Channel’s July lineup is an across-the-board display of strengths, ranging as it does from very specific programming cues to actor retrospectives and hardly ignoring the strength of Criterion Editions. Surely much fun’s to be had with “In the Ring,” a decade-spanning, 16-film curation of boxing pictures—Raging Bull and Fat City, of course, with some you forget are boxing movies (Rocco and His Brothers) and others you’ve likely never seen at all (count me excited for King Vidor’s The Champ). “Noir in Color” brilliantly upends common conception of a drama (and gives you excuse to see Nicholas Ray’s Party Girl); Setsuko Hara films are gathered into a handy collection; and Blake Edwards gets six.
On the Criterion Editions front they’ve gone all out: the Before trilogy, Alex Cox’s Walker, Leave Her to Heaven, Shaft, Destry Rides Again, Raging Bull, Hedwig and the Angry Inch,...
On the Criterion Editions front they’ve gone all out: the Before trilogy, Alex Cox’s Walker, Leave Her to Heaven, Shaft, Destry Rides Again, Raging Bull, Hedwig and the Angry Inch,...
- 6/21/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Notebook is covering the Cannes Film Festival with an ongoing correspondence between critics Leonardo Goi and Lawrence Garcia, and editor Daniel Kasman.Stars at Noon.Dear Leo and Danny,Danny, I’m glad you brought up Three Thousand Years of Longing, a film whose conceptual explorations of myth and storytelling sustained my interest for quite some time. The fundamental question it raises—and which is studied by narratologists and students of comparative religion the world over—is whether there is a finite number of narrative patterns and character archetypes, whether there is a theoretically enumerable list of story structures which we simply repeat again and again. In Three Thousand Years, the basic idea, voiced by Tilda Swinton's academic, is whether it is possible to tell a story about wish-granting that is not a cautionary tale? In its exploration of this, the film played, for a time, a bit like...
- 5/27/2022
- MUBI
After a hiatus as theaters in New York City and beyond closed their doors during the pandemic, we’re delighted to announce the return of NYC Weekend Watch, our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. While many theaters are still focused on a selection of new releases, there’s a handful of worthwhile repertory screenings taking place.
IFC Center
Solaris screens for its 50th anniversary.
Metrograph
As a retro of melodrama master John M. Stahl gets underway, the six-film retrospective of Miklós Jancsó has its final weekend.
Museum of the Moving Image
Films by Paul Thomas Anderson, Sergei Eisenstein, and Ulrike Ottinger screen for “See It Big: Extravaganzas!“
Museum of Modern Art
“To Save and Project,” one of the most eye-opening series in any given year, has its final weekend as a pre-code series kicks off.
Film Forum
As a new 35mm print of The Conversation continues its run, a collection...
IFC Center
Solaris screens for its 50th anniversary.
Metrograph
As a retro of melodrama master John M. Stahl gets underway, the six-film retrospective of Miklós Jancsó has its final weekend.
Museum of the Moving Image
Films by Paul Thomas Anderson, Sergei Eisenstein, and Ulrike Ottinger screen for “See It Big: Extravaganzas!“
Museum of Modern Art
“To Save and Project,” one of the most eye-opening series in any given year, has its final weekend as a pre-code series kicks off.
Film Forum
As a new 35mm print of The Conversation continues its run, a collection...
- 2/3/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Revisiting last year's introduction when putting together 2021's favorites, it is with a shock to realize how little has changed in the wildly disrupted world of cinema under the shroud of the pandemic. The urge to copy-and-paste the whole shebang is quite tempting indeed.What can we say about this year, 2021? We got a little more used to long-term instability. Cinemas and festivals re-opened, only for some to close again. We, like many, ventured carefully out into the world to finally see films again with audiences, all kinds: nervous ones, uproarious ones, spartan ones, and delighted ones. It was an experience both anxious and joyous. We also doubled down on the challenges, but also the pleasures, of home viewing: of virtual cinemas and virtual festivals, of straight to streaming premieres, of trying to capture a social joy in semi-isolation by connecting with others over experiences shared and disparate.The long...
- 12/27/2021
- MUBI
Above: Easy LivingIn football, the American film industry found a setting to prattle its American platitudes—their -isms and -ivenesses that titivate the truth. By making a mill from America’s most popular sport, which was already riddled with truisms, Hollywood strove to insulate itself with lush banalities of American exceptionalism. They glommed to the mythology and readymade drama of the gridiron. Underdogs with long odds, inner crises, and familial strife—all seem to be absolved on the football field. Yet, as Don DeLillo writes in End Zone, the regnant work of fiction on football, “whatever complexities, whatever dark politics of the human mind, the heart—these are noted only within the chalked borders of the playing field. At times strange visions ripple across that turf; madness leaks out.” The tired tropes of the sport give way to something else, something unpolished but no less telling, all braced by...
- 2/4/2021
- MUBI
by Jason Adams
The surface of the lake is calm -- almost, but not quite, like a mirror. It's a clinical aquamarine color, not much different from Gene Tierney's own eyes. Not that we can see her eyes -- she's just put on her sunglasses. They too act as mirrors -- dark mirrors, reflecting darkness. Ellen Berent Harland (Tierney) watches as the annoying little "cripple" Danny (Darryl Hickman) breaks the sheen of the lake's surface, as if slipping through into some unseen Wonderland -- they say repeatedly the water is warm, so warm, so very warm, but it looks to us cold, ice cold, and indeed the actor Hickman got pneumonia from the filming of this, Leave Her to Heaven's most infamous scene.
But then that's a sense that suffuses all of John M. Stahl's 1945 technicolor Noir masterpiece -- the feeling that something that sounds warm and...
The surface of the lake is calm -- almost, but not quite, like a mirror. It's a clinical aquamarine color, not much different from Gene Tierney's own eyes. Not that we can see her eyes -- she's just put on her sunglasses. They too act as mirrors -- dark mirrors, reflecting darkness. Ellen Berent Harland (Tierney) watches as the annoying little "cripple" Danny (Darryl Hickman) breaks the sheen of the lake's surface, as if slipping through into some unseen Wonderland -- they say repeatedly the water is warm, so warm, so very warm, but it looks to us cold, ice cold, and indeed the actor Hickman got pneumonia from the filming of this, Leave Her to Heaven's most infamous scene.
But then that's a sense that suffuses all of John M. Stahl's 1945 technicolor Noir masterpiece -- the feeling that something that sounds warm and...
- 11/21/2020
- by JA
- FilmExperience
“I’ll never let you go,” Gene Tierney’s Ellen Berent coos to her husband/victim in the 1945 melodrama film-noir Leave Her to Heaven. It’s a sentiment first uttered at an intimate juncture where such words still seem somewhat innocent from her increasingly toxic personality. Indeed, at least in cinematic terms, she’s a character who hasn’t let go, an exotically charged Technicolor femme fatale whose deadly beauty is merely one part of a dangerous trifecta, as equally bad as her bark and her bite.
Directed by John M. Stahl, who would pass away only five years later at the age of 63, with several of his previous titles (such as ‘women’s pictures’ Magnificent Obsession and Imitation of Life) remade in the 1950s by Douglas Sirk, it remains both Stahl and Tierney’s vibrant stranglehold on iconicity, the power of which can never be usurped.…
Continue reading.
Directed by John M. Stahl, who would pass away only five years later at the age of 63, with several of his previous titles (such as ‘women’s pictures’ Magnificent Obsession and Imitation of Life) remade in the 1950s by Douglas Sirk, it remains both Stahl and Tierney’s vibrant stranglehold on iconicity, the power of which can never be usurped.…
Continue reading.
- 4/7/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Murder. Neglect. Jealousy. Oppression. Obsession. These themes collide in Leave Her to Heaven, the oddly sunny drama-turned-film noir directed by John M. Stahl from the book by Ben Ames Williams. I say "oddly sunny" because it's a deceptive opening: the leads, Gene Tierney as society goddess Ellen and Cornel Wilde as author Richard, meet on a train. She's reading his novel and they met there, then become more acquainted after a mutual lawyer friend introduces them at the same station --- and final ranch destination --- to which they travel. The film is a romance, until it's not. Soon after meeting, Ellen decides to break off her engagement to the very sharp attorney Russell (an excellent Vincent Price, who returns in a small but meaningful...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 3/20/2020
- Screen Anarchy
Freddie Mercury sang that Love Kills, and that’s apparently where Gene Tierney’s coming from in this bizarre domestic noir. Dream wife Tierney is cultured, rich, and drop-dead gorgeous, but hubby Cornell Wilde should have read the small print about her manic possessiveness. Beautiful people, beautiful scenery and Technicolor so bright that even Alfred Newman’s music score seems to be in color; John M. Stahl’s thriller stretches the definition of Film Noir.
Leave Her to Heaven
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1020
1945 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 110 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 24, 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price, Mary Philips, Ray Collins, Darryl Hickman.
Cinematography: Leon Shamroy
Film Editor: James B. Clark
Original Music: Alfred Newman
Written by Jo Swerling from the novel by Ben Ames Williams
Produced by William A. Bacher, Darryl F. Zanuck
Directed by John M. Stahl
How can a glossy...
Leave Her to Heaven
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1020
1945 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 110 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 24, 2020 / 39.95
Starring: Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price, Mary Philips, Ray Collins, Darryl Hickman.
Cinematography: Leon Shamroy
Film Editor: James B. Clark
Original Music: Alfred Newman
Written by Jo Swerling from the novel by Ben Ames Williams
Produced by William A. Bacher, Darryl F. Zanuck
Directed by John M. Stahl
How can a glossy...
- 3/14/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
What does your future look like? Does it look like Spike Lee's Bamboozled? In March 2020, the Criterion Collection will release a Blu-ray (and DVD) edition of Spike Lee's satire, first unleashed in October 2000. Criterion describes it as "a stinging indictment of mass entertainment at the turn of the twenty-first century that looks more damning with each passing year." Savion Glover, Tommy Davidson, Jada Pinkett Smith, Michael Rapaport, Mos Def, and Paul Mooney star; special features both old and new are included. The month's other new releases include John M. Stahl's Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Barbra Streisand's The Prince of Tides (1991), Mikhail Kalatozov's The Cranes Are Flying (1957), James Whale's Show Boat (1936) -- yes, after he made Bride of Frankenstein, Whale...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 12/17/2019
- Screen Anarchy
We’re not even at Christmas yet, but as far as Criterion is concerned, it’s time to start thinking about spring. And considering the highly-regarded library is adding films from Spike Lee, Barbara Streisand, John M. Stahl, James Whale, and more, we’re starting to wish it was March already.
Read More: Celine Sciamma’s ‘Portrait Of A Lady On Fire’ Is Already Being Added To The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection has recently announced its March 2020 additions to the library, and the films are led by Spike Lee’s racial satire, “Bamboozled,” which stars Damon Wayans, Jada Pinkett Smith, Savion Glover, Tommy Davidson, Michael Rapaport, and Mos Def.
Continue reading Spike Lee’s ‘Bamboozled’ & Barbara Streisand’s ‘The Prince Of Tides’ Lead Criterion’s March 2020 Offerings at The Playlist.
Read More: Celine Sciamma’s ‘Portrait Of A Lady On Fire’ Is Already Being Added To The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection has recently announced its March 2020 additions to the library, and the films are led by Spike Lee’s racial satire, “Bamboozled,” which stars Damon Wayans, Jada Pinkett Smith, Savion Glover, Tommy Davidson, Michael Rapaport, and Mos Def.
Continue reading Spike Lee’s ‘Bamboozled’ & Barbara Streisand’s ‘The Prince Of Tides’ Lead Criterion’s March 2020 Offerings at The Playlist.
- 12/17/2019
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders on filming Toni Morrison: "The camerawork that was done in Toni's home by the river, all of that was done by Mead Hunt." Photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
In the second instalment of my conversation with director/photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders he recalls memories of Tennessee Williams, Bette Davis, Orson Welles, and Ingmar Bergman, and relates an early Ernest Hemingway insight. We discuss Fran Lebowitz, Oprah Winfrey, Walter Mosley, and Russell Banks in Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am and his longtime cinematographer Graham Willoughby who became Morgan Neville's trusted Dp on.
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: "When she says 'I highly recommend that you have a friend that wins a Nobel Prize!' Classic Fran Lebowitz." Photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Timothy credits his editor Johanna Giebelhaus for the clip from John M. Stahl's Imitation of...
In the second instalment of my conversation with director/photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders he recalls memories of Tennessee Williams, Bette Davis, Orson Welles, and Ingmar Bergman, and relates an early Ernest Hemingway insight. We discuss Fran Lebowitz, Oprah Winfrey, Walter Mosley, and Russell Banks in Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am and his longtime cinematographer Graham Willoughby who became Morgan Neville's trusted Dp on.
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: "When she says 'I highly recommend that you have a friend that wins a Nobel Prize!' Classic Fran Lebowitz." Photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Timothy credits his editor Johanna Giebelhaus for the clip from John M. Stahl's Imitation of...
- 6/27/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
There remains a dearth of unappreciated titles from German émigré Douglas Sirk’s lengthy filmography, which basically includes anything outside of his seminal Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s—films would influence the output of more contemporary international auteurs, from Rainer Werner Fassbinder to Todd Haynes. Sirk is now best renowned for a quartet of iconic titles, including Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Written on the Wind (1956) and his final masterpiece, Imitation of Life (1959), itself a remake of an earlier 1934 Claudette Colbert film directed by John M. Stahl. While some of his English language noirs of the 1940s have been recuperated, such as the Lucille Ball headlined Lured (1947), his German period remains neglected, and perhaps more surprisingly, several other 1950s works which starred his plethora of regular players.…...
- 3/26/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Douglas Sirk took our heads off with this intense, thematically adult tale of love and obsession in a Depression-Era flying circus that’s the open air equivalent of the marathon dance craze — pilots die to thrill the crowd. The terrific-looking show provides career-best roles for some deserving actors: Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, Jack Carson and Robert Middleton … but the newly-minted star Rock Hudson seems miscast.
The Tarnished Angels
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1957 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date March 26, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, Jack Carson, Robert Middleton, Alan Reed, Alexander Lockwood, Chris Olsen, Robert J. Wilke, Troy Donahue.
Cinematography: Irving Glassberg
Film Editor: Russell F. Schoengarth
Original Music: Frank Skinner
Written by George Zuckerman from a novel by William Faulkner
Produced by Albert Zugsmith
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk made his name with big, glossy soap operas starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson,...
The Tarnished Angels
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1957 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date March 26, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, Jack Carson, Robert Middleton, Alan Reed, Alexander Lockwood, Chris Olsen, Robert J. Wilke, Troy Donahue.
Cinematography: Irving Glassberg
Film Editor: Russell F. Schoengarth
Original Music: Frank Skinner
Written by George Zuckerman from a novel by William Faulkner
Produced by Albert Zugsmith
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk made his name with big, glossy soap operas starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson,...
- 3/12/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The murky crimes of sordid characters come to the fore in the wide-open Nevada spaces… producer Hal Wallis’ Technicolor noir concentrates on the possessive and perverse competition for Lizabeth Scott’s luscious blonde — the mother that wants to corral her, the gangster who thinks she’s an escape and the local hunk who wears a badge. Robert Rossen’s edgy screenplay depicts its violent action on a psychological level.
Desert Fury
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1947 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 96 min. / Street Date Feb 26, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott, John Hodiak, Wendell Corey, Mary Astor, Kristine Miller, William Harrigan, James Flavin, Anna Camargo, Ray Teal.
Cinematography: Edward Cronjager, Charles Lang
Film Editor: Warren Low
Original Music: Miklos Rosza
Written by Robert Rossen from the novel by Ramona Stewart
Produced by Hal B. Wallis
Directed by Lewis Allen
As he was under contract to Hal Wallis, Burt Lancaster...
Desert Fury
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1947 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 96 min. / Street Date Feb 26, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott, John Hodiak, Wendell Corey, Mary Astor, Kristine Miller, William Harrigan, James Flavin, Anna Camargo, Ray Teal.
Cinematography: Edward Cronjager, Charles Lang
Film Editor: Warren Low
Original Music: Miklos Rosza
Written by Robert Rossen from the novel by Ramona Stewart
Produced by Hal B. Wallis
Directed by Lewis Allen
As he was under contract to Hal Wallis, Burt Lancaster...
- 1/22/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
For 11 years running, our end-of-the-year tradition on the Notebook has been to poll our roster of contributors to create fantasy double features of new and old films. But what about the curators behind Mubi itself? This year we begin what we hope to be a new tradition: publishing the favorite films of the year as chosen by our programming team: Daniel Kasman in the U.S., Anaïs Lebrun and Chiara Marañón in the U.K. We each have two lists: our top new films that premiered in 2018, and then a selection of revivals screened in cinemas.PREMIERESDaniel Kasman1. Blue (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand)2. The Image Book (Jean-Luc Godard, Switzerland)3. Support the Girls (Andrew Bujalski, USA)4. The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles, USA)5. The Waldheim Waltz (Ruth Beckermann, Austria)6. Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, USA)7. The Grand Bizarre (Jodie Mack, USA)8. The Red Shadow [director's cut]9. What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire?...
- 12/24/2018
- MUBI
The Library of Congress has announced the 25 films joining the National Film Registry in 2018. The most well-known titles in this year’s group include Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca,” Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park,” and James L. Brooks’ “Broadcast News.” Films that make the cut have been deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and will be preserved under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act.
“The National Film Registry turns 30 this year and for those three decades, we have been recognizing, celebrating, and preserving this distinctive medium,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “These cinematic treasures must be protected because they document our history, culture, hopes, and dreams.”
With the 25 new additions, the National Film Registry now has a total of 750 titles. “Brokeback Mountain,” released in 2005, is the most recently released film to be added to the Registry this year.
“The National Film Registry turns 30 this year and for those three decades, we have been recognizing, celebrating, and preserving this distinctive medium,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “These cinematic treasures must be protected because they document our history, culture, hopes, and dreams.”
With the 25 new additions, the National Film Registry now has a total of 750 titles. “Brokeback Mountain,” released in 2005, is the most recently released film to be added to the Registry this year.
- 12/12/2018
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
John M. Stahl's The Song of LifeFollowing the retrospective dedicated to the sound films of American director John M. Stahl (1886 – 1950) at Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna earlier this year, I decided to also attend for the first time Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, because the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, as it is known in English, was presenting a series of silent films from this master of melodrama. Best known for his Technicolor noir, Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Stahl's silent films have been long forgotten, but are now back in discussion after receiving much-deserved attention.The festival was a major discovery for me. It has only one cinema venue, with 35mm screenings from morning to night, and a packed and devoted audience full of appetite for discoveries and re-discoveries. Its wild cinephilic spirit and the unbeatable program composed of rarities and canonical classics prove that the Pordenone Silent Film Festival...
- 11/8/2018
- MUBI
One thing that distinguished this year's Il Cinema Ritrovato festival of rare, rediscovered or restored cinema from around the world was the air-conditioning. In previous years, the "cinephile's heaven" had seen people falling asleep at films they'd waited their whole lives to see, struck down by stifling midsummer heat. Now, even that beloved cinematic sweatbox the Jolly can cool its customers enough to mostly stave off somnolence, and if a hardboiled cinephage does pass out, it's more likely to be due to the unforgiving schedule of nine-to-midnight viewings.The doughty traveler can concentrate on seeing everything in one or two strands—retrospectives on the cinema of 1898 and 1918, the work of directors John M. Stahl, Marcello Pagliero, Luciano Emmer and Ylmaz Guney, the studio Fox, the countries China and Russia in the early thirties, and so on... or they can do as I did, sampling almost randomly from across the goodies on offer.
- 7/23/2018
- MUBI
<strong>TCM Classic Film Fest At The Tcl Chinese</strong> | <em>6925 Hollywood Blvd.</em>
There’s no single greater confluence of classic cinema in Los Angeles than the annual TCM Classic Film Festival, this year running from April 26-29 at a variety of venues centered around the Tcl Chinese multiplex in Hollywood. Although, like many events of its nature, the festival has transitioned largely to digital presentations (albeit digital restorations), there are still a dozen-plus film prints on offer at this year’s edition. Of those, titles range from Hollywood studio classics (John M. Stahl’s <em>Leave Her to Heaven</em>, Howard Hawks’<em> To Have ...</em>...
There’s no single greater confluence of classic cinema in Los Angeles than the annual TCM Classic Film Festival, this year running from April 26-29 at a variety of venues centered around the Tcl Chinese multiplex in Hollywood. Although, like many events of its nature, the festival has transitioned largely to digital presentations (albeit digital restorations), there are still a dozen-plus film prints on offer at this year’s edition. Of those, titles range from Hollywood studio classics (John M. Stahl’s <em>Leave Her to Heaven</em>, Howard Hawks’<em> To Have ...</em>...
TCM Classic Film Fest At The Tcl Chinese | 6925 Hollywood Blvd.
There’s no single greater confluence of classic cinema in Los Angeles than the annual TCM Classic Film Festival, this year running from April 26-29 at a variety of venues centered around the Tcl Chinese multiplex in Hollywood. Although, like many events of its nature, the festival has transitioned largely to digital presentations (albeit digital restorations), there are still a dozen-plus film prints on offer at this year’s edition. Of those, titles range from Hollywood studio classics (John M. Stahl’s Leave Her to Heaven, Howard Hawks’ To Have and...
There’s no single greater confluence of classic cinema in Los Angeles than the annual TCM Classic Film Festival, this year running from April 26-29 at a variety of venues centered around the Tcl Chinese multiplex in Hollywood. Although, like many events of its nature, the festival has transitioned largely to digital presentations (albeit digital restorations), there are still a dozen-plus film prints on offer at this year’s edition. Of those, titles range from Hollywood studio classics (John M. Stahl’s Leave Her to Heaven, Howard Hawks’ To Have and...
- 4/1/2018
- by Jordan Cronk
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Recently completing one of the longest shoots of his career with The Irishman, most other directors would consider that an accomplishment enough, but in between takes, Martin Scorsese somehow found time to construct a new curriculum as part of his “The Story of Movies” film course, produced with his company Film Foundation. This latest edition is “Portraits of America: Democracy on Film” and is free for students. However, if one would just like to follow along with their own personal screenings, the full list is available.
“We all need to make sense of what we’re seeing. For young people born into this world now, it’s absolutely crucial that they get guided,” Scorsese says (via IndieWire). “They have to learn how to sort the differences between art and pure commerce, between cinema and content, between the secrets of images that are individually crafted and the secrets of images that are mass-produced.
“We all need to make sense of what we’re seeing. For young people born into this world now, it’s absolutely crucial that they get guided,” Scorsese says (via IndieWire). “They have to learn how to sort the differences between art and pure commerce, between cinema and content, between the secrets of images that are individually crafted and the secrets of images that are mass-produced.
- 3/29/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Martin Scorsese and his nonprofit organization The Film Foundation have announced their brand-new film curriculum, “Portraits of America: Democracy on Film.” The curriculum is the latest addition to the group’s ongoing film course “The Story of Movies,” which aims to teach students how to read the language of film and place motion pictures in the context of history, art, and society. Both “Democracy on Film” and the course are completely free for schools and universities.
“Portraits of America: Democracy on Film” is broken down into eight different sections, all of which include in-depth looks at some of the most important American films ever made, from Chaplin to Ford, Coppola, Spielberg, and ultimately Scorsese himself. The program is presented in partnership with Afscme. Scorsese announced the curriculum at a March 27 press conference in New York City.
“We all need to make sense of what we’re seeing,” Scorsese explained. “For...
“Portraits of America: Democracy on Film” is broken down into eight different sections, all of which include in-depth looks at some of the most important American films ever made, from Chaplin to Ford, Coppola, Spielberg, and ultimately Scorsese himself. The program is presented in partnership with Afscme. Scorsese announced the curriculum at a March 27 press conference in New York City.
“We all need to make sense of what we’re seeing,” Scorsese explained. “For...
- 3/27/2018
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Meet the lusty Amber St. Clare, a 17th century social climber determined to sleep her way to respectability. Gorgeous Linda Darnell gets her biggest role in a lavishly appointed period epic; Otto Preminger hated the assignment but his direction and Darryl Zanuck’s production are excellent. And it has one of the all-time great Hollywood movie scores, by David Raksin.
Forever Amber
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1947 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 138 min. / Street Date December 19, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95
Starring: Linda Darnell, Cornel Wilde, Richard Greene, George Sanders, Glenn Langan, Richard Haydn, Jessica Tandy, Anne Revere, John Russell, Jane Ball, Robert Coote, Leo G. Carroll, Natalie Draper, Margaret Wycherly, Norma Varden.
Cinematography: Leon Shamroy
Art Direction: Lyle Wheeler
Visual Effects: Fred Sersen
Original Music: David Raksin
Written by Philip Dunne, Ring Lardner Jr. from the novel by Kathleen Winsor
Produced by William Perlberg
Directed by Otto Preminger
Three years ago,...
Forever Amber
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1947 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 138 min. / Street Date December 19, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95
Starring: Linda Darnell, Cornel Wilde, Richard Greene, George Sanders, Glenn Langan, Richard Haydn, Jessica Tandy, Anne Revere, John Russell, Jane Ball, Robert Coote, Leo G. Carroll, Natalie Draper, Margaret Wycherly, Norma Varden.
Cinematography: Leon Shamroy
Art Direction: Lyle Wheeler
Visual Effects: Fred Sersen
Original Music: David Raksin
Written by Philip Dunne, Ring Lardner Jr. from the novel by Kathleen Winsor
Produced by William Perlberg
Directed by Otto Preminger
Three years ago,...
- 12/30/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Keys of the Kingdom
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1944 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 137 min. / Street Date December 13, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Gregory Peck, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, Rose Stradner, Roddy McDowall, Edmund Gwenn, Cedric Hardwicke, Peggy Ann Garner, Jane Ball, James Gleason, Anne Revere
Cinematography: Arthur Miller
Art Direction: James Basevi, William Darling
Film Editor: James B. Clark
Original Music: Alfred Newman
Written by: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Nunnally Johnson from a novel by A.J. Cronin
Produced by: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Directed by John M. Stahl
The Twilight Time label has access to much of the Fox library, and draws from the vault what’s been fully restored and what’s not already claimed elsewhere. Accompanying their UA- sourced disc of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa is a 1944 Fox release from the writer-director-producer, a big studio production directed in this case by John M. Stahl. The Keys of the Kingdom...
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1944 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 137 min. / Street Date December 13, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Gregory Peck, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, Rose Stradner, Roddy McDowall, Edmund Gwenn, Cedric Hardwicke, Peggy Ann Garner, Jane Ball, James Gleason, Anne Revere
Cinematography: Arthur Miller
Art Direction: James Basevi, William Darling
Film Editor: James B. Clark
Original Music: Alfred Newman
Written by: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Nunnally Johnson from a novel by A.J. Cronin
Produced by: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Directed by John M. Stahl
The Twilight Time label has access to much of the Fox library, and draws from the vault what’s been fully restored and what’s not already claimed elsewhere. Accompanying their UA- sourced disc of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa is a 1944 Fox release from the writer-director-producer, a big studio production directed in this case by John M. Stahl. The Keys of the Kingdom...
- 1/10/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Since any New York cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Metrograph
It’s a very De Palma weekend, with Dressed to Kill showing this Friday, Scarface and Blow Out on Saturday, and The Fury this Sunday.
Looney Tunes: Back In Action screens on Saturday.
Underground New York filmmaker Beth B. is celebrated in a weekend-long retrospective.
A new 16mm print of Kapauku plays on Sunday.
BAMcinématek...
Metrograph
It’s a very De Palma weekend, with Dressed to Kill showing this Friday, Scarface and Blow Out on Saturday, and The Fury this Sunday.
Looney Tunes: Back In Action screens on Saturday.
Underground New York filmmaker Beth B. is celebrated in a weekend-long retrospective.
A new 16mm print of Kapauku plays on Sunday.
BAMcinématek...
- 6/10/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Since any New York 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.
Anthology Film Archive
Make it a Jean Cocteau weekend: The Blood of a Poet and Orpheus screen on Friday, the former also showing on Saturday and the latter on Sunday. Beauty and the Beast also shows on those days.
A Jia Zhangke retrospective comes to an end. If you’ve not yet seen Mountains May Depart,...
Anthology Film Archive
Make it a Jean Cocteau weekend: The Blood of a Poet and Orpheus screen on Friday, the former also showing on Saturday and the latter on Sunday. Beauty and the Beast also shows on those days.
A Jia Zhangke retrospective comes to an end. If you’ve not yet seen Mountains May Depart,...
- 5/27/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Film Society of Lincoln Center
The release of Carol (our coverage can be found here) brings “Todd Haynes: The Other Side of Dreams,” which will pair the director’s work with his personal favorites. Safe and Imitation of Life show on Friday; on Saturday, see “Todd Haynes: Rarities” — which brings Dottie Gets Spanked,...
Film Society of Lincoln Center
The release of Carol (our coverage can be found here) brings “Todd Haynes: The Other Side of Dreams,” which will pair the director’s work with his personal favorites. Safe and Imitation of Life show on Friday; on Saturday, see “Todd Haynes: Rarities” — which brings Dottie Gets Spanked,...
- 11/20/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Constance Cummings in 'Night After Night.' Constance Cummings: Working with Frank Capra and Mae West (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Actress Went from Harold Lloyd to Eugene O'Neill.”) Back at Columbia, Harry Cohn didn't do a very good job at making Constance Cummings feel important. By the end of 1932, Columbia and its sweet ingenue found themselves in court, fighting bitterly over stipulations in her contract. According to the actress and lawyer's daughter, Columbia had failed to notify her that they were picking up her option. Therefore, she was a free agent, able to offer her services wherever she pleased. Harry Cohn felt otherwise, claiming that his contract player had waived such a notice. The battle would spill over into 1933. On the positive side, in addition to Movie Crazy 1932 provided Cummings with three other notable Hollywood movies: Washington Merry-Go-Round, American Madness, and Night After Night. 'Washington Merry-Go-Round...
- 11/5/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Coleen Gray actress ca. 1950. Coleen Gray: Actress in early Stanley Kubrick film noir, destroyer of men in cult horror 'classic' Actress Coleen Gray, best known as the leading lady in Stanley Kubrick's film noir The Killing and – as far as B horror movie aficionados are concerned – for playing the title role in The Leech Woman, died at age 92 in Aug. 2015. This two-part article, which focuses on Gray's film career, is a revised and expanded version of the original post published at the time of her death. Born Doris Bernice Jensen on Oct. 23, 1922, in Staplehurst, Nebraska, at a young age she moved with her parents, strict Lutheran Danish farmers, to Minnesota. After getting a degree from St. Paul's Hamline University, she relocated to Southern California to be with her then fiancé, an army private. At first, she eked out a living as a waitress at a La Jolla hotel...
- 10/14/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Coleen Gray actress ca. 1950. Coleen Gray: Actress in early Stanley Kubrick film noir, destroyer of men in cult horror 'classic' Actress Coleen Gray, best known as the leading lady in Stanley Kubrick's film noir The Killing and – as far as B horror movie aficionados are concerned – for playing the title role in The Leech Woman, died at age 92 in Aug. 2015. This two-part article, which focuses on Gray's film career, is a revised and expanded version of the original post published at the time of her death. Born Doris Bernice Jensen on Oct. 23, 1922, in Staplehurst, Nebraska, at a young age she moved with her parents, strict Lutheran Danish farmers, to Minnesota. After getting a degree from St. Paul's Hamline University, she relocated to Southern California to be with her then fiancé, an army private. At first, she eked out a living as a waitress at a La Jolla hotel...
- 10/14/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
"The music seemed extraordinarily fresh and genuine still. It might grow old-fashioned, he told himself, but never old, surely, while there was any youth left in men. It was an expression of youth–that, and no more; with sweetness and foolishness, the lingering accent, the heavy stresses–the delicacy, too–belonging to that time."—"The Professor's House," Willa CatherHis last words, in a hospital four months later, are said to have been 'Mind your own business!' addressed to an enquirer after the state of his bowels. Friends got to the studio just before the wreckers' ball. Pictures, a profusion, piles of them, littered the floor: of 'a world that will never be seen except in pictures'"—"The Pound Era," Hugh Kenner***Heart Of FIREOften when I go to a movie, usually one made before 1960, I think about the opening scene of The Red Shoes, of Marius Goring and his...
- 10/2/2015
- by gina telaroli
- MUBI
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
Want to see great movies for free? This Friday, Lincoln Center brings Film Foundation-restored titles to you at no cost. Ford‘s Drums Along the Mohawk, Scorsese‘s The King of Comedy, John M. Stahl‘s Leave Her to Heaven, Fosse‘s All That Jazz, Donen‘s Two for the Road,...
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Want to see great movies for free? This Friday, Lincoln Center brings Film Foundation-restored titles to you at no cost. Ford‘s Drums Along the Mohawk, Scorsese‘s The King of Comedy, John M. Stahl‘s Leave Her to Heaven, Fosse‘s All That Jazz, Donen‘s Two for the Road,...
- 9/25/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Dear Danny,Generally (and melancholically) speaking, I’m in the process of wrapping up my Tiff experience. Literally speaking, however, I’m sitting before a flatscreen in the Bell Lightbox Theatre’s lobby, seeing Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton for the second time in a row. Brother Sicinski in his essential Wavelengths report has astutely written on this singular 30-minute whatsit by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson, though I couldn’t resist adding my own appreciative two cents. You’ve heard the story: Paul Gross aims to promote Canadian patriotism with his Afghanistan War would-be blockbuster Hyena Road, a project dismantled by Maddin in a remarkable, psychedelic behind-the-scenes documentary/demolition job. Presenting himself as broke, livid and roasting under the sweltering Jordanian sun, Maddin posits his role as “a Trojan horse inside a Trojan horse,” his hallucinatory camera turning the arid landscapes and squid-equipped actors of...
- 9/20/2015
- by Fernando F. Croce
- MUBI
Robert De Niro stars with Jerry Lewis in Martin Scorsese's The King Of Comedy Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Bob Fosse's All That Jazz starring Roy Scheider with Ann Reinking and Ben Vereen; John Ford's Drums Along The Mohawk starring Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert; John M. Stahl's Leave Her To Heaven with Gene Tierney and Cornel Wilde; Stanley Donen's Two For The Road with Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn; Elia Kazan's Wild River starring Montgomery Clift and Lee Remick; and Martin Scorsese's The King Of Comedy with Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis are the six free New York Film Festival Opening Day screenings.
Gene Tierney and Cornel Wilde in John M. Stahl's Leave Her To Heaven "shot in vibrantly beautiful Technicolor."
Robert Zemeckis’s The Walk in 3D, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Philippe Petit with Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon and Ben Schwartz,...
Bob Fosse's All That Jazz starring Roy Scheider with Ann Reinking and Ben Vereen; John Ford's Drums Along The Mohawk starring Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert; John M. Stahl's Leave Her To Heaven with Gene Tierney and Cornel Wilde; Stanley Donen's Two For The Road with Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn; Elia Kazan's Wild River starring Montgomery Clift and Lee Remick; and Martin Scorsese's The King Of Comedy with Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis are the six free New York Film Festival Opening Day screenings.
Gene Tierney and Cornel Wilde in John M. Stahl's Leave Her To Heaven "shot in vibrantly beautiful Technicolor."
Robert Zemeckis’s The Walk in 3D, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Philippe Petit with Ben Kingsley, Charlotte Le Bon and Ben Schwartz,...
- 9/20/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Joan Crawford Movie Star Joan Crawford movies on TCM: Underrated actress, top star in several of her greatest roles If there was ever a professional who was utterly, completely, wholeheartedly dedicated to her work, Joan Crawford was it. Ambitious, driven, talented, smart, obsessive, calculating, she had whatever it took – and more – to reach the top and stay there. Nearly four decades after her death, Crawford, the star to end all stars, remains one of the iconic performers of the 20th century. Deservedly so, once you choose to bypass the Mommie Dearest inanity and focus on her film work. From the get-go, she was a capable actress; look for the hard-to-find silents The Understanding Heart (1927) and The Taxi Dancer (1927), and check her out in the more easily accessible The Unknown (1927) and Our Dancing Daughters (1928). By the early '30s, Joan Crawford had become a first-rate film actress, far more naturalistic than...
- 8/10/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
'Father of the Bride': Steve Martin and Kimberly Williams. Top Five Father's Day Movies? From giant Gregory Peck to tyrant John Gielgud What would be the Top Five Father's Day movies ever made? Well, there have been countless films about fathers and/or featuring fathers of various sizes, shapes, and inclinations. In terms of quality, these range from the amusing – e.g., the 1950 version of Cheaper by the Dozen; the Oscar-nominated The Grandfather – to the nauseating – e.g., the 1950 version of Father of the Bride; its atrocious sequel, Father's Little Dividend. Although I'm unable to come up with the absolute Top Five Father's Day Movies – or rather, just plain Father Movies – ever made, below are the first five (actually six, including a remake) "quality" patriarch-centered films that come to mind. Now, the fathers portrayed in these films aren't all heroic, loving, and/or saintly paternal figures. Several are...
- 6/22/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
I keep waiting for a truly great film here in Cannes, an expectation and a hope for something really striking that is undoubtably a terrible attitude to take towards this festival and film in general. (Then again, a friend and Cannes regular, when I despondently shared these thoughts, told me that it is this hope that keeps her coming back, and that without it, indeed, why even go to the movies?) With this forlorn need haunting me by the fourth day, I was rightly chastised by the first of three films by the Portuguese director of Tabu, Miguel Gomes, in the Directors' Fortnight, a trilogy titled Arabian Nights. It is not a great film, but, abashed, I think it was the kind of film I needed, a lesson not to expect masterpieces, or perfection, but proof yet again that cinema is permeable, its beauties and faults can and should leak.
- 5/18/2015
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
The poster for Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Cemetery of Splendour, bound for Cannes.Great news for fans of Louis Ck the actor and the director: the comedian-auteur is gearing up to make a new feature film, titled I'm a Cop.Producer Bero Beyer has been appointed the new General and Artistic Director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam Above: A vintage nitrate release print of John M. Stahl's Leave Her to Heaven. The print screened at the first ever Nitrate Picture Show at the George Eastman House last weekend. You'll hear more about this wonderful festival soon on the Notebook.A new issue of Film Comment is out, with many articles available online.That's Stanley Kubrick, above, talking to Jeremy Bernstein in 1965.At Reverse Shot, Nick Pinkerton considers under-appreciated French New Waver Luc Moullet's A Girl Is a Gun.Author F.X. Feeney has not one but two videos celebrating...
- 5/6/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Imitation of Life
Written by William Hurlbut
Directed by John M. Stahl
USA, 1934
Written by Eleanore Griffin and Allan Scott
Directed by Douglas Sirk
USA, 1959
The debate about the necessity and worth of continual remakes rages on every year. Will the new version be as good as the original? Or even better? Should it have even been made to begin with? While we do seem to hear more about this recently, the concept of a remark is, of course, nothing new. Examples go back to the very dawn of cinema. What makes a remake particularly worthwhile, however, is when the films involved are dissimilar in certain aspects yet notably congruent in other areas: just enough to keep the basic premise or theme consistent, but varied enough to keep it up to date and original in one way or another. If both versions have their merits, a considerate comparison and contrast...
Written by William Hurlbut
Directed by John M. Stahl
USA, 1934
Written by Eleanore Griffin and Allan Scott
Directed by Douglas Sirk
USA, 1959
The debate about the necessity and worth of continual remakes rages on every year. Will the new version be as good as the original? Or even better? Should it have even been made to begin with? While we do seem to hear more about this recently, the concept of a remark is, of course, nothing new. Examples go back to the very dawn of cinema. What makes a remake particularly worthwhile, however, is when the films involved are dissimilar in certain aspects yet notably congruent in other areas: just enough to keep the basic premise or theme consistent, but varied enough to keep it up to date and original in one way or another. If both versions have their merits, a considerate comparison and contrast...
- 4/15/2015
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
By winning the Best Cinematography Oscar for a second year in a row, "Birdman" director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki has joined a truly elite club whose ranks haven't been breached in nearly two decades. Only four other cinematographers have won the prize in two consecutive years. The last time it happened was in 1994 and 1995, when John Toll won for Edward Zwick's "Legends of the Fall" and Mel Gibson's "Braveheart" respectively. Before that you have to go all the way back to the late '40s, when Winton Hoch won in 1948 (Victor Fleming's "Joan of Arc" with Ingrid Bergman) and 1949 (John Ford's western "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon"). Both victories came in the color category, as the Academy awarded prizes separately for black-and-white and color photography from 1939 to 1956. Leon Shamroy also won back-to-back color cinematography Oscars, for Henry King's 1944 Woodrow Wilson biopic "Wilson" and John M. Stahl...
- 2/23/2015
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Hitfix
Simone Simon in 'La Bête Humaine' 1938: Jean Renoir's film noir (photo: Jean Gabin and Simone Simon in 'La Bête Humaine') (See previous post: "'Cat People' 1942 Actress Simone Simon Remembered.") In the late 1930s, with her Hollywood career stalled while facing competition at 20th Century-Fox from another French import, Annabella (later Tyrone Power's wife), Simone Simon returned to France. Once there, she reestablished herself as an actress to be reckoned with in Jean Renoir's La Bête Humaine. An updated version of Émile Zola's 1890 novel, La Bête Humaine is enveloped in a dark, brooding atmosphere not uncommon in pre-World War II French films. Known for their "poetic realism," examples from that era include Renoir's own The Lower Depths (1936), Julien Duvivier's La Belle Équipe (1936) and Pépé le Moko (1937), and particularly Marcel Carné's Port of Shadows (1938) and Daybreak (1939).[11] This thematic and...
- 2/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Martha Stewart: Actress / Singer in Fox movies apparently not dead despite two-year-old reports to the contrary (Photo: Martha Stewart and Perry Como in 'Doll Face') According to various online reports, including Variety's, actress and singer Martha Stewart, a pretty blonde featured in supporting roles in a handful of 20th Century Fox movies of the '40s, died at age 89 of "natural causes" in Northeast Harbor, Maine, on February 25, 2012. Needless to say, that was not the same Martha Stewart hawking "delicious foods" and whatever else on American television. But quite possibly, the Martha Stewart who died in February 2012 -- if any -- was not the Martha Stewart of old Fox movies either. And that's why I'm republishing this (former) obit, originally posted more than two and a half years ago: March 11, 2012. Earlier today, a commenter wrote to Alt Film Guide, claiming that the Martha Stewart featured in Doll Face, I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now,...
- 11/11/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
In the spirit of October, this list will look at scary scenes, but not from the horror classics directed by Craven or Carpenter or even Hitchcock (I’m excluding him, though I argue most of his work isn’t exactly horror). These are from the films that aren’t really meant to scare you. At least, not at the visceral level that horror films do. These are the fifty definitive moments from non-horror films that still made an impact on the “frightening front.” From shocking to creepy to unsettlingly hair raising, these are moments that will stick in your mind long after watching the films, even if they are part of a very different narrative.
50. Toy Story 3 (2010)
Scene: Monkey Security
Video: http://youtu.be/x6QkcJjx-Vo
The third installment of the one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time is also one of the darkest children’s films ever made.
50. Toy Story 3 (2010)
Scene: Monkey Security
Video: http://youtu.be/x6QkcJjx-Vo
The third installment of the one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time is also one of the darkest children’s films ever made.
- 10/3/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
We're mourning the loss of Peter von Bagh along with countless others in the world cinema community. Many are sharing past articles on or by von Bagh. Here's Jonathan Rosenbaum's piece on the man, and his extraordinary film Helsinki, Forever:
"We’ve met at various times in Paris, London, New York, Southern California, Chicago, Helsinki, Sodankylä, and Bologna — and probably in other places as well, although these are the ones I currently remember. The first times were in Paris in the early 1970s, when he looked me up, and it must have been either in San Diego in 1977 or 1978 or in Santa Barbara between 1983 and 1987 that he convinced me to buy a multiregional Vcr. Most likely it was the latter, where I was mainly bored out of my wits apart from my pastime of taping movies from cable TV, and Peter maintained that if we started swapping films through the mail,...
"We’ve met at various times in Paris, London, New York, Southern California, Chicago, Helsinki, Sodankylä, and Bologna — and probably in other places as well, although these are the ones I currently remember. The first times were in Paris in the early 1970s, when he looked me up, and it must have been either in San Diego in 1977 or 1978 or in Santa Barbara between 1983 and 1987 that he convinced me to buy a multiregional Vcr. Most likely it was the latter, where I was mainly bored out of my wits apart from my pastime of taping movies from cable TV, and Peter maintained that if we started swapping films through the mail,...
- 9/25/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
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