Criterion lavishes a major upgrade to its older box set celebrating the first major rock concert event, the ‘California Dreamin’ idyll that some say marked the beginning of the Summer of Love. Get ready to hear and see some history-making performances from Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and The Who. Plus two more features and a bundle of ‘extra’ music sets . . . including Tiny Tim.
The Complete Monterey Pop Festival
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 167
1968 / Color / 1:33 flat / 79 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 12, 2017 / 69.95
Cinematography: James Desmond, Barry Feinstein, Richard Leacock, Albert Maysles, Roger Murphy, D.A. Pennebaker
Film Editor: Nina Schulman
Original Music: The Animals, The Association, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Byrds, Canned Heat, Country Joe and the Fish, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Al Kooper, Hugh Masekela, Jefferson Airplane, The Mamas and the Papas, Laura Nyro, Otis Redding, The Quicksilver Messenger Service,...
The Complete Monterey Pop Festival
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 167
1968 / Color / 1:33 flat / 79 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 12, 2017 / 69.95
Cinematography: James Desmond, Barry Feinstein, Richard Leacock, Albert Maysles, Roger Murphy, D.A. Pennebaker
Film Editor: Nina Schulman
Original Music: The Animals, The Association, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Byrds, Canned Heat, Country Joe and the Fish, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Al Kooper, Hugh Masekela, Jefferson Airplane, The Mamas and the Papas, Laura Nyro, Otis Redding, The Quicksilver Messenger Service,...
- 12/9/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“I believe the characters we read about on the page become more real than the men who stand beside us.”
As trite as this sentiment may seem at first glance, the latest film from director Pablo Larrain finds this focus on mythology and the building of myth in the public eye utterly thrilling. And so will anyone who watches Jackie.
Starring Natalie Portman in possibly a career-defining performance (Black Swan fans don’t find me on Twitter, I love the film as well), Jackie tells the story of a brief moment in the life of former first lady of these United States Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the lead up to and fall out from the assassination of her iconic husband. We don’t see her as a child, we don’t watch her near the end of her life, as with any good biopic this film simply focuses on one brief...
As trite as this sentiment may seem at first glance, the latest film from director Pablo Larrain finds this focus on mythology and the building of myth in the public eye utterly thrilling. And so will anyone who watches Jackie.
Starring Natalie Portman in possibly a career-defining performance (Black Swan fans don’t find me on Twitter, I love the film as well), Jackie tells the story of a brief moment in the life of former first lady of these United States Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the lead up to and fall out from the assassination of her iconic husband. We don’t see her as a child, we don’t watch her near the end of her life, as with any good biopic this film simply focuses on one brief...
- 12/2/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Every week, the CriticWire Survey asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday morning. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?” can be found at the end of this post.)
This week’s question: As you may be aware, America is fixing to elect a new President later this year. If you could cast your vote this November for any movie President (real or fictional), who would it be and why?
Christopher Campbell (@thefilmcynic), Nonfics/Film School Rejects
If I had to choose fictional, I’d go with Jackson Evans in “The Contender.” He comes off as so perfect that he’s clearly just a product of the movies. But I can choose someone real, so I go with the John F. Kennedy of “Primary” and “Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment” (and the Drew...
This week’s question: As you may be aware, America is fixing to elect a new President later this year. If you could cast your vote this November for any movie President (real or fictional), who would it be and why?
Christopher Campbell (@thefilmcynic), Nonfics/Film School Rejects
If I had to choose fictional, I’d go with Jackson Evans in “The Contender.” He comes off as so perfect that he’s clearly just a product of the movies. But I can choose someone real, so I go with the John F. Kennedy of “Primary” and “Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment” (and the Drew...
- 7/19/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Aaron is joined by Keith Enright for a discussion of politics, new and old, through the lens of The War Room (1993), the behind-the scenes 1992 Clinton campaign documentary. We go into depth about the backroom politics and how those are what defines the campaign, but are usually far from the public eye. We contrast the politics of today and yesterday by looking the current affairs and Robert Drew’s Primary.
About the film:
The 1992 presidential election was a triumph not only for Bill Clinton but also for the new breed of strategists who guided him to the White House—and changed the face of politics in the process. For this thrilling, behind-closed-doors account of that campaign, renowned cinema verité filmmakers Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker captured the brainstorming and bull sessions of Clinton’s crack team of consultants—especially James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, who became media stars in their...
About the film:
The 1992 presidential election was a triumph not only for Bill Clinton but also for the new breed of strategists who guided him to the White House—and changed the face of politics in the process. For this thrilling, behind-closed-doors account of that campaign, renowned cinema verité filmmakers Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker captured the brainstorming and bull sessions of Clinton’s crack team of consultants—especially James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, who became media stars in their...
- 5/31/2016
- by Aaron West
- CriterionCast
Robert Drew‘s name is attached to a team of filmmakers who made revolutionary changes to documentary in the early 1960s. But today he’s probably the least-appreciated member of Drew Associates and the Direct Cinema movement after Albert Maysles, D.A. Pennebaker, and Ricky Leacock. Part of that is because he never became as well-known a solo director as his colleagues. He didn’t go on to make more revered classics like the Maysles Brothers’ Salesman and Grey Gardens or Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back and The War Room, and he didn’t have the kind of film history-spanning career and influence that Leacock’s legacy entails. That’s why Criterion’s new set “The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew & Associates” is so important. Not that it totally isolates Drew from the others — he barely gets to stand out alone even in the new bonus-feature documentary Robert Drew in His Own Words — but it at least...
- 4/26/2016
- by Christopher Campbell
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Take a look at the roots of American campaign image consciousness, and the then-new techniques of cinéma vérité to bring a new 'reality' for film documentaries. Four groundbreaking films cover the Kennedy-Humphrey presidential primary, and put us in the Oval Office for a showdown against Alabama governor George Wallace. The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew & Associates Blu-ray Primary, Adventures on the New Frontier, Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment, Faces of November The Criterion Collection 808 1960 -1964 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 53, 52, 53, 12 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 26, 2016 / 39.95 Starring John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Robert Drew, Hubert H. Humphrey, McGeorge Bundy, John Kenneth Galbraith, Richard Goodwin, Albert Gore Sr., Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Pierre Salinger, Haile Selassie, John Steinbeck, George Wallace, Vivian Malone, Burke Marshall, Nicholas Katzenbach, John Dore, Jack Greenberg; Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy Jr., Caroline Kennedy, Peter Lawford. Cinematography Richard Leacock, Albert Maysles, D.A. Pennebaker,...
- 4/15/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“The President’S Reality Show”
By Raymond Benson
Robert Drew was a pioneer who changed the way we think about the documentary film. As first a writer/editor at Life Magazine in the 1950s, and then the head of a unit that produced short documentaries for Time Inc., Drew knew how to tell a story visually. When he formed his own company, Robert Drew & Associates, he was the guiding force for other talented (and later, more well-known) filmmakers such as D. A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back, Monterey Pop), Albert and David Maysles (Gimme Shelter), and Richard Leacock, among others. Together they invented a novel way to present a documentary film, something historians coined “direct cinema.”
Documentaries had previously been scripted, usually shot to order, and more often than not, were textbook dull. Drew and his colleagues developed the you-are-there style of following subjects around as they did their business,...
By Raymond Benson
Robert Drew was a pioneer who changed the way we think about the documentary film. As first a writer/editor at Life Magazine in the 1950s, and then the head of a unit that produced short documentaries for Time Inc., Drew knew how to tell a story visually. When he formed his own company, Robert Drew & Associates, he was the guiding force for other talented (and later, more well-known) filmmakers such as D. A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back, Monterey Pop), Albert and David Maysles (Gimme Shelter), and Richard Leacock, among others. Together they invented a novel way to present a documentary film, something historians coined “direct cinema.”
Documentaries had previously been scripted, usually shot to order, and more often than not, were textbook dull. Drew and his colleagues developed the you-are-there style of following subjects around as they did their business,...
- 4/9/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Unlike some other media outlets who are blasphemously drawing up “most anticipated” Sundance lists that come across as a simple rehash of the entire feature film line-up, over here, Nicholas Bell and I pare down this shared enthusiasm in what are individual must see top five lists. The catch: select five films from five sections. In the decade I’ve been coming down here, the U.S Dramatic Comp section was the sure-fire bet for treasures, the Premieres section offered heavyweights and misfires while you had to look elsewhere for the gems. Last year’s Next was where all the riches were at. James White, Entertainment, Tangerine , Nasty Baby, and the upcoming Take Me to the River reminded me why the Next section has become a robust category in itself but surprisingly it might be the Premieres program (half a dozen offerings I could easily see in Cannes) is poised to get the major attention.
- 1/21/2016
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Kino Lorber is proud to announce the acquisition of all North American rights to Les Blank & Gina Leibrecht‘s How To Smell A Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock In Normandy, a moving tribute by one cinema verité master to another.
Opening at New York’s Film Forum on Wednesday, August 12, 2015, How To Smell Of Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock In Normandy was co-directed by Les Blank and his longtime creative partner, Gina Leibrecht. How To Smell A Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock is the penultimate film directed by Les Blank, before he passed away on April 7, 2013.
During its theatrical run at Film Forum, How To Smell A Rose will be screened with the Leacock-Joyce Chopra classic, Happy Mother’S Day, on the 1963 birth of the Fischer quintuplets in Aberdeen, South Dakota. In further national theatrical engagements “Rose” will be presented with Les Blank’s now classic...
Opening at New York’s Film Forum on Wednesday, August 12, 2015, How To Smell Of Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock In Normandy was co-directed by Les Blank and his longtime creative partner, Gina Leibrecht. How To Smell A Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock is the penultimate film directed by Les Blank, before he passed away on April 7, 2013.
During its theatrical run at Film Forum, How To Smell A Rose will be screened with the Leacock-Joyce Chopra classic, Happy Mother’S Day, on the 1963 birth of the Fischer quintuplets in Aberdeen, South Dakota. In further national theatrical engagements “Rose” will be presented with Les Blank’s now classic...
- 7/22/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Read More: SXSW: Les Blank's Leon Russell Doc Gets a Proper Premiere and a Trippy New Poster Les Blank and longtime collaborator Gina Leibrecht's documentary "How to Smell a Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock in Normandy" has been acquired by Kino Lorber. The film paints a portrait of the British documentarian and his partner Valerie Lalonde while in France. It features clips of Leacock's films. One such film, "Primary," follows the 1960 Wisconsin Primary election between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. "Canary Bananas," also featured in the documentary, was made by Leacock at 14 years old on his father's Canary Island plantation. "How to Smell a Rose" will be screened at art house theaters and film festivals during the fall, followed by a VOD and home media release. Read More: Leon Russell Gets Reflective at 'A Poem is a Naked Person' NYC Opening...
- 7/22/2015
- by Kaeli Van Cott
- Indiewire
Back at the start of March, the world of film lost one of its most revered documentarians, Albert Maysles. He and his brother David made three of Sight & Sound’s Top 50 Documentaries of all time, and to pay tribute to the late director, Turner Classic Movies is tonight changing their schedule to air three of those films, along with one of his early shorts.
TCM’s Albert Maysles Memorial Tribute will air Grey Gardens, Salesman, Gimme Shelter, and Meet Marlon Brando, starting at 8 Pm Et tonight. We first reported on the series back in our film Week in Review. Here’s the schedule:
TCM Remembers Albert Maysles– Monday, March 23
8 Pm Grey Gardens (1976)
10:00 Pm Salesman (1968)
11:45 Pm Gimme Shelter (1970)
1:30 Am Meet Marlon Brando (1968)
Grey Gardens recently received a restoration via the Criterion Collection, while the controversial Gimme Shelter is an absolute must-see and pinnacle of music history, ranking along...
TCM’s Albert Maysles Memorial Tribute will air Grey Gardens, Salesman, Gimme Shelter, and Meet Marlon Brando, starting at 8 Pm Et tonight. We first reported on the series back in our film Week in Review. Here’s the schedule:
TCM Remembers Albert Maysles– Monday, March 23
8 Pm Grey Gardens (1976)
10:00 Pm Salesman (1968)
11:45 Pm Gimme Shelter (1970)
1:30 Am Meet Marlon Brando (1968)
Grey Gardens recently received a restoration via the Criterion Collection, while the controversial Gimme Shelter is an absolute must-see and pinnacle of music history, ranking along...
- 3/23/2015
- by Brian Welk
- SoundOnSight
Editor's note: Robert Drew passed away today at age ninety. We revisit a 2003 interview with the filmmaker. Wisconsin, 1960. An unlikely setting perhaps for one of the most crucial showdowns in the wide-open race for the presidency. The Democrats had to decide whom to nominate to run against Richard Nixon. John F. Kennedy realized that if he beat Hubert Humphrey in the Wisconsin primary (and if he could prove that a Catholic senator from New England could triumph over a Protestant senator from a neighboring state), he could also prove his national appeal. It's quite a story and Primary tells it like no documentary ever had before.>> - Jonathan Marlow...
- 7/31/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Editor's note: Robert Drew passed away today at age ninety. We revisit a 2003 interview with the filmmaker. Wisconsin, 1960. An unlikely setting perhaps for one of the most crucial showdowns in the wide-open race for the presidency. The Democrats had to decide whom to nominate to run against Richard Nixon. John F. Kennedy realized that if he beat Hubert Humphrey in the Wisconsin primary (and if he could prove that a Catholic senator from New England could triumph over a Protestant senator from a neighboring state), he could also prove his national appeal. It's quite a story and Primary tells it like no documentary ever had before.>> - Jonathan Marlow...
- 7/31/2014
- Keyframe
The documentary filmmaker who was called the “father of American cinema verite” died today at his home in Sharon, Conn. Robert Drew was 90. He was a Life magazine correspondent and editor when he formed Drew Associates in 1960 and hired a team of filmmakers that included then-unknowns D.A. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles and Ricky Leacock. Their first project was Primary, which followed handsome young senator John F. Kennedy as he campaigned in Wisconsin for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination. Starting with Primary, Drew’s films pioneered a new journalistically minded code of documentary creation, including not directing subjects or using set-up shots or […]...
- 7/31/2014
- Deadline
Sharon, Conn. (AP) – Robert Drew, a pioneer of the modern documentary, who, in Primary and other movies, mastered the intimate, spontaneous style known as cinema verite and schooled a generation of influential directors, including D.A. Pennebaker and Albert Maysles, has died at age 90. His son Thatcher Drew confirmed he died Wednesday morning at his home in Sharon, Conn. Starting in 1960 with Primary, Drew produced and sometimes directed a series of television documentaries that took advantage of such innovations as light and hand-held cameras that recorded both sound and pictures. With filmmakers newly unburdened, nonfiction movies no longer had to
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- 7/31/2014
- by The Associated Press
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Documentary filmmaker Robert Drew, widely regarded as "the father of American cinéma vérité," has died at the age of 90. As Vadim Rizov writes at Filmmaker, "It’s not oversimplifying to note that Drew’s Primary (covering the JFK-Hubert Humphrey faceoff in the 1960 Wisconsin primary) and Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (examining the administration’s standoff against segregationist George Wallace) are two of the key documents of the Kennedy presidency, whose levels of candor, access and good judgment about where to point the camera when remain startlingly fresh." » - David Hudson...
- 7/30/2014
- Keyframe
Documentary filmmaker Robert Drew, widely regarded as "the father of American cinéma vérité," has died at the age of 90. As Vadim Rizov writes at Filmmaker, "It’s not oversimplifying to note that Drew’s Primary (covering the JFK-Hubert Humphrey faceoff in the 1960 Wisconsin primary) and Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (examining the administration’s standoff against segregationist George Wallace) are two of the key documents of the Kennedy presidency, whose levels of candor, access and good judgment about where to point the camera when remain startlingly fresh." » - David Hudson...
- 7/30/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
A press release prepared by documentarian Robert Drew’s family announced his death today at age 90. Drew is remembered as a pioneer of cinéma vérité — now a term thrown around carelessly to denote just about any documentary assembled without talking heads or a narrator, which is a radical oversimplification of vérité’s possibilities. It’s not oversimplifying to note that Drew’s Primary (covering the JFK-Hubert Humphrey faceoff in the 1960 Wisconsin primary) and Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (examining the administration’s standoff against segregationist George Wallace) are two of the key documents of the Kennedy presidency, whose levels of candor, access […]...
- 7/30/2014
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
A press release prepared by documentarian Robert Drew’s family announced his death today at age 90. Drew is remembered as a pioneer of cinéma vérité — now a term thrown around carelessly to denote just about any documentary assembled without talking heads or a narrator, which is a radical oversimplification of vérité’s possibilities. It’s not oversimplifying to note that Drew’s Primary (covering the JFK-Hubert Humphrey faceoff in the 1960 Wisconsin primary) and Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (examining the administration’s standoff against segregationist George Wallace) are two of the key documents of the Kennedy presidency, whose levels of candor, access […]...
- 7/30/2014
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Albert Maysles: Gimme Some Truth
By
Alex Simon
I'm sick and tired of hearing things/From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics/All I want is the truth/Just gimme some truth/I've had enough of reading things/By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians/All I want is the truth/Just gimme some truth. – John Lennon
Albert and David Maysles are generally regarded as the fathers of the modern American documentary film. Beginning in the early 1960s, their pioneering work with contemporaries such as Robert Drew, Richard Leacock and D.A. Pennebaker helped launch the “Direct Cinema” movement, devoted to capturing real life as closely as possible, in all its unscripted reality. Today, filmmakers like Michael Moore, reality TV and every news magazine on the air and on the web can trace their linage back to the Maysles brothers.
Their three defining features: Salesman (1968), a sobering and often hilarious look at the lives...
By
Alex Simon
I'm sick and tired of hearing things/From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics/All I want is the truth/Just gimme some truth/I've had enough of reading things/By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians/All I want is the truth/Just gimme some truth. – John Lennon
Albert and David Maysles are generally regarded as the fathers of the modern American documentary film. Beginning in the early 1960s, their pioneering work with contemporaries such as Robert Drew, Richard Leacock and D.A. Pennebaker helped launch the “Direct Cinema” movement, devoted to capturing real life as closely as possible, in all its unscripted reality. Today, filmmakers like Michael Moore, reality TV and every news magazine on the air and on the web can trace their linage back to the Maysles brothers.
Their three defining features: Salesman (1968), a sobering and often hilarious look at the lives...
- 4/10/2014
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
On Nov. 22, America marks the 50th anniversary of the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy - and television is giving viewers plenty to think about.
"Nova: Cold Case JFK" (PBS, Wednesday, Nov. 13): With a nod to the enduring conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination, the science series enlists modern investigators with state-of-the-art forensic tools to see if they can do a better job sorting out the evidence than was done in the '60s.
"Secrets of the Dead: JFK: One Pm Central Standard Time" (PBS, Wednesday): CBS news footage chronicles the assassination minute by minute, including Walter Cronkite's emotional report of Kennedy's death.
"Letters to Jackie: Remembering President Kennedy" (TLC, Nov. 17): Actors including Laura Linney and John Krasinski bring to life some of the condolence letters written to Jacqueline Kennedy after her husband's death.
"Where Were You? The Day JFK Died Reported by Tom Brokaw" (NBC,...
"Nova: Cold Case JFK" (PBS, Wednesday, Nov. 13): With a nod to the enduring conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination, the science series enlists modern investigators with state-of-the-art forensic tools to see if they can do a better job sorting out the evidence than was done in the '60s.
"Secrets of the Dead: JFK: One Pm Central Standard Time" (PBS, Wednesday): CBS news footage chronicles the assassination minute by minute, including Walter Cronkite's emotional report of Kennedy's death.
"Letters to Jackie: Remembering President Kennedy" (TLC, Nov. 17): Actors including Laura Linney and John Krasinski bring to life some of the condolence letters written to Jacqueline Kennedy after her husband's death.
"Where Were You? The Day JFK Died Reported by Tom Brokaw" (NBC,...
- 11/13/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Nov. 22nd assassination of President John F. Kennedy with a primetime lineup on Thursday Nov. 21 featuring five powerful documentaries about Kennedy’s election, presidency and tragic death. Also included is a popular drama about Kennedy’s service during World War II.
TCM’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination will open with four works by documentary filmmaker Robert Drew, considered a pioneer of the cinéma verité. Drew’s use of new light-weight cameras traditional allowed him to capture reality as never before, leading to a filmmaking movement known as “direct cinema.” He utilized the new cameras for the first time while chronicling the election of John F. Kennedy in Primary (1960), airing at 8 p.m. (Et), which focuses on the 1960 Wisconsin Democratic Primary contest between Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey.
Primary will be followed by the...
TCM’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination will open with four works by documentary filmmaker Robert Drew, considered a pioneer of the cinéma verité. Drew’s use of new light-weight cameras traditional allowed him to capture reality as never before, leading to a filmmaking movement known as “direct cinema.” He utilized the new cameras for the first time while chronicling the election of John F. Kennedy in Primary (1960), airing at 8 p.m. (Et), which focuses on the 1960 Wisconsin Democratic Primary contest between Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey.
Primary will be followed by the...
- 10/8/2013
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Twenty years ago another recession was gripping America, documentarians were shooting on film, and D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus were immortalizing the election campaign of Bill Clinton. The renowned duo behind Kings of Pastry, Jimi Plays Monterey and many other films, is presenting The War Room at a 20th anniversary screening at Toronto’s Hot Docs Documentary Festival this week. “It was an idea we always wanted to do,” Hegedus told Filmmaker, “to see a man become President.” In 1960, Pennebaker gained valuable experience by co-editing and doing sound on the very first campaign doc, Primary by Robert Drew. Shot in …...
- 4/30/2013
- by Allan Tong
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
The new season of Mad Men kicks off this Sunday (read our review of the premiere here). As usual, the plot of the new season remains shrouded in mystery; the only photos that have surfaced so far show Don and Megan Draper lounging on a beach in Hawaii, which could mean that Mad Men is transforming into Mad Men: Hawaii, and the new season will be all about the Drapers’ wacky attempt to run a hotel in Maui. More likely, though, Mad Men’s sixth season will once again track the employees of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce as they...
- 4/6/2013
- by Darren Franich
- EW.com - PopWatch
As America anticipates the first general election Presidential debate of 2012 tonight, it’s clear that there’s one thing on everyone’s mind: what does The Criterion Collection have to say about American politics at the executive level? The Collection certainly has a multitude of world leader’s represented, from Idi Amin in Barbet Schroder’s General Idi Amin Dada (1974) to Ivan the Terrible in Sergei Eisenstein’s two-part masterpiece of the same name. But Criterion also has three of the best movies made about real and fictional 20th century American Presidents and Presidential candidates… #602: The War Room (1993) The cinema verite documentary more or less began in the field of Presidential politics with Robert Drew’s Primary (1960), a film that chronicled the Wisconsin Democratic primary battle between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. It was a fly-on-the-wall’s-eye-view of presidential politics, and revealed the exhausting process of campaigning between hands shaken and speeches given. More...
- 10/3/2012
- by Landon Palmer
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Looking the Part: Faux Docu Addresses Tea Party Politics with Everyday Issues
When it comes to the world of U.S politics, more specifically Republican Party candidacy, the state of Iowa could be considered the Hollywood in terms of star wattage. For the most part, all giving some of their career best performances, featuring the likes of Romney, Bachmann, Santorum, Perry and Gingrich, Grace Lee’s Janeane from Des Moines hypothetically situates a pressing issue that no politician appears to have a basic answer for and does so with ingenuity, guerrilla-styled indie-budgeted smarts and a panache performance from co-writer/lead actress Jane Edith Wilson.
Working from a narrative that seamlessly includes hot button topics that not only create a divide between Democrats and Republicans but the conservatives from the moderates found in the Republican party, co-written by Lee and the film’s protagonist, comparably similar to Frances McDormand’s Fargo...
When it comes to the world of U.S politics, more specifically Republican Party candidacy, the state of Iowa could be considered the Hollywood in terms of star wattage. For the most part, all giving some of their career best performances, featuring the likes of Romney, Bachmann, Santorum, Perry and Gingrich, Grace Lee’s Janeane from Des Moines hypothetically situates a pressing issue that no politician appears to have a basic answer for and does so with ingenuity, guerrilla-styled indie-budgeted smarts and a panache performance from co-writer/lead actress Jane Edith Wilson.
Working from a narrative that seamlessly includes hot button topics that not only create a divide between Democrats and Republicans but the conservatives from the moderates found in the Republican party, co-written by Lee and the film’s protagonist, comparably similar to Frances McDormand’s Fargo...
- 10/2/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Stuntman turned director Hal Needham, documentarian D.A. Pennebaker and director/producer George Stevens, Jr. will be feted with honorary Oscars at the Governors Awards on Dec. 1. And studio exec Jeffrey Katzenberg will receive the Hersholt humanitarian award then as well. This is the first time in the four-year history of these kudos that the academy's Board of Governors failed to fete any onscreen talent. Needham, who worked as a stunt man and then coordinator on hundreds of films before turning to directing a string of Burt Reynolds action comedies like "Smokey and the Bandit," was honored in 1986 with a Scientific and Engineering Award for the design and development of the Shotmaker Elite camera car and crane. Now retired at 81, he never contended for an Oscar. He follows in the footsteps of his mentor Yakima Cannutt, who was honored in 1966. Despite crafting such classic documentaries as "Primary," &q...
- 9/6/2012
- Gold Derby
Stuntman Hal Needham boasts in his autobiography that he “broke 56 bones, my back twice, punctured a lung and knocked out a few teeth.”
Those are the trophies from a life spent falling off horses, crashing cars, and plummeting from buildings for the sake of the movies. Now he can add a less painful one to the list — an honorary Academy Award.
Needham, 81, is one of four Hollywood figures selected late Wednesday to receive an honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the upcoming Governors Awards, joining documentarian D.A. Pennebaker, American Film Institute founder George Stevens,...
Those are the trophies from a life spent falling off horses, crashing cars, and plummeting from buildings for the sake of the movies. Now he can add a less painful one to the list — an honorary Academy Award.
Needham, 81, is one of four Hollywood figures selected late Wednesday to receive an honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the upcoming Governors Awards, joining documentarian D.A. Pennebaker, American Film Institute founder George Stevens,...
- 9/6/2012
- by Anthony Breznican
- EW - Inside Movies
Yesterday was all about the Cannes lineup, so we've got quite a bit of news to catch up with today. First and foremost, Cinema Scope has relaunched its site with a healthy selection of pieces from Issue 50, which cinephiles lucky enough to be holding a print copy have been talking about for weeks now. Editor Mark Peranson: "So to commemorate 50 issues, I came up with the silly (not stupid) idea of deciding on the best 50 filmmakers currently working under the age of 50 (or the top, or the greatest — I've spent far too much time pondering this silly adjective). I'm anticipating heaps of criticism for this in the blogosphere, but I hope this leads to a little discussion outside of the pages of this magazine, and provides a snapshot of where cinema finds itself today."
20 of those 50 pieces are online. You'll find, for example, Raya Martin on Carlos Reygadas (and...
20 of those 50 pieces are online. You'll find, for example, Raya Martin on Carlos Reygadas (and...
- 4/20/2012
- MUBI
Editor’s Note: Anne Drew, with husband Robert Drew, carried on the pioneering tradition that Robert and his team of cinema vérité legends had begun with the seminal Primary in 1960. Anne joined Drew Associates in 1967 and married Robert in 1970. What follows is an account, by Robert Drew, of Anne’s generous contributions to the documentary form, and of her richly rewarding life.
Anne Drew, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, died April 12 at her home in Sharon, Conn., after a long bout with lung cancer. As a central partner for more ...
Anne Drew, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, died April 12 at her home in Sharon, Conn., after a long bout with lung cancer. As a central partner for more ...
- 4/20/2012
- by bobdrew
- International Documentary Association
Anne Drew, who was a central partner in the production company Drew Associates with her husband Robert Drew ("Primary") and an early leader in the cinema verite movement has died at the age of 70. Here, her husband writes about the long legacy Ms. Drew leaves behind. -- Bryce J. Renninger Anne Drew, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, died April 12 at her home in Sharon, Conn., after a long bout with lung cancer. As a central partner for more than four decades in our documentary film company Drew Associates, Anne edited and produced cinema verite films on ballet, war, Duke Ellington, Indira Gandhi, and President John F. Kennedy, among others. Her work was broadcast on television and celebrated at film festivals worldwide. Anne was fearless in going after her stories. Filming in mobs in India, or being arrested by Noriega’s thugs in Panama, or facing armed militiamen in Montana, she produced...
- 4/19/2012
- by Robert Drew
- Indiewire
Chris Hegedus and Da Pennebaker's The War Room (1993), now out on DVD and Blu-ray from Criterion, "captures all the voyeuristic you-are-there immediacy of its Direct Cinema forebears, stretching as far back as 1960's Primary, on which Pennebaker served as editor," begins Bud Wilkins in Slant. "Yet it also signals a sea change in the filmmakers' involvement with behind-the-scenes politics, capturing the process just as quantum leaps in communication technology forever altered the ways campaigning gets done."
As if to emphasize that point, David Weigel, introducing his interview with Hegedus and Pennebaker for Slate (Nigel M Smith talks with them, too, for indieWIRE), writes: "They got lucky, and probably no one will ever get this lucky again."
"The real stroke of fortune," writes Louis Menand for Criterion, "was the discovery, within the chaos of the campaign, of a classic buddy story. In the unconventionally charming and disarming [senior strategist James] Carville and the telegenic and enigmatic adviser George Stephanopoulos,...
As if to emphasize that point, David Weigel, introducing his interview with Hegedus and Pennebaker for Slate (Nigel M Smith talks with them, too, for indieWIRE), writes: "They got lucky, and probably no one will ever get this lucky again."
"The real stroke of fortune," writes Louis Menand for Criterion, "was the discovery, within the chaos of the campaign, of a classic buddy story. In the unconventionally charming and disarming [senior strategist James] Carville and the telegenic and enigmatic adviser George Stephanopoulos,...
- 4/1/2012
- MUBI
Joyce McKinney, the focal point of Errol Morris' lens in Tabloid.
Errol Morris Digs The Dirt With Tabloid
By Alex Simon
When Errol Morris’ documentary The Thin Blue Line hit movie screens in 1988, it helped jump-start the rather tired genre back to life again. After a renaissance of the documentary film in the 1960s through the early ‘70s from the likes of The Maysles Brothers (Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens), D.A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back), and Robert Drew (Crisis, Primary), the documentary film seemed relegated to late night spots on local PBS affiliates, narrated by boozy British actors in the downslide of their careers. Morris’ tale of Randall Adams, a man not only wrongly jailed for murdering a Dallas cop in the late ‘70s, but convicted due to the testimony of the man who actually did it, was an intoxicating blend of first-person realism, film noir detective story, and very real moral outrage.
Errol Morris Digs The Dirt With Tabloid
By Alex Simon
When Errol Morris’ documentary The Thin Blue Line hit movie screens in 1988, it helped jump-start the rather tired genre back to life again. After a renaissance of the documentary film in the 1960s through the early ‘70s from the likes of The Maysles Brothers (Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens), D.A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back), and Robert Drew (Crisis, Primary), the documentary film seemed relegated to late night spots on local PBS affiliates, narrated by boozy British actors in the downslide of their careers. Morris’ tale of Randall Adams, a man not only wrongly jailed for murdering a Dallas cop in the late ‘70s, but convicted due to the testimony of the man who actually did it, was an intoxicating blend of first-person realism, film noir detective story, and very real moral outrage.
- 7/18/2011
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Robert Drew writes: Ronald Bergan's excellent obituary of the film-maker Richard Leacock (25 March) contained an odd error. It suggested that Leacock had crouched in the corner of the Oval Office (no corners) to photograph President John F Kennedy for the film Crisis, which I produced. In fact, Leacock never visited the White House. The pictures of JFK in the White House were taken by Da Pennebaker. The description of Leacock photographing Kennedy applied instead to a hotel room in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when Kennedy was a senator running for the presidency, for our film Primary.
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guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 4/18/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
Richard Leacock, 1921-2011
The noted filmmaker Richard Leacock, best known as one of the pioneers of the “cinema verite”-style of documentary filmmaking–a more direct, realistic approach to the form–died on March 23. He was 89-years-old.
Though he directed some 20-plus feature films and shorts (including 1984’s Lulu in Berlin, a documentary on actress Louise Brooks, and the popular 1963 short Happy Mother’s Day about a woman who gives birth to quintuplets), Leacock is best known to DiscDish as the cinematographer of some of finest documentaries of the 1960s and 1970s, many of which he collaborated on with such well-known colleagues as D.A. Pennebaker (The War Room) and Albert & David Maysles (Grey Gardens).
Here’s a group of fine documentaries wherein the late Mr. Leacock was behind the camera as the director of photography, snagging each and every shot that served the real-life story each movie was telling.
Primary,...
The noted filmmaker Richard Leacock, best known as one of the pioneers of the “cinema verite”-style of documentary filmmaking–a more direct, realistic approach to the form–died on March 23. He was 89-years-old.
Though he directed some 20-plus feature films and shorts (including 1984’s Lulu in Berlin, a documentary on actress Louise Brooks, and the popular 1963 short Happy Mother’s Day about a woman who gives birth to quintuplets), Leacock is best known to DiscDish as the cinematographer of some of finest documentaries of the 1960s and 1970s, many of which he collaborated on with such well-known colleagues as D.A. Pennebaker (The War Room) and Albert & David Maysles (Grey Gardens).
Here’s a group of fine documentaries wherein the late Mr. Leacock was behind the camera as the director of photography, snagging each and every shot that served the real-life story each movie was telling.
Primary,...
- 3/26/2011
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Fine film-maker whose subjects ranged from Kennedy to Hendrix
If you remember the 1960s, you may well remember the documentary films shot by Richard Leacock, notably Monterey Pop (1968). This concert film, made in the summer of 1967 at a music festival in California, featured the Animals, Canned Heat, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Mamas and the Papas, Jefferson Airplane, the Who and Ravi Shankar, among others. Leacock, who has died aged 89, was one of six cinematographers on the film – including its director, Da Pennebaker – and had already established himself as a leading figure in the "direct cinema" movement, the American version of cinéma vérité, which was characterised by filming events as they happen without interpretive editing or narration.
"I don't like being told things," Leacock said. "I like to observe." To this end, he was instrumental in perfecting a lightweight, handheld 16mm camera, synced to a quiet sound recorder,...
If you remember the 1960s, you may well remember the documentary films shot by Richard Leacock, notably Monterey Pop (1968). This concert film, made in the summer of 1967 at a music festival in California, featured the Animals, Canned Heat, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Mamas and the Papas, Jefferson Airplane, the Who and Ravi Shankar, among others. Leacock, who has died aged 89, was one of six cinematographers on the film – including its director, Da Pennebaker – and had already established himself as a leading figure in the "direct cinema" movement, the American version of cinéma vérité, which was characterised by filming events as they happen without interpretive editing or narration.
"I don't like being told things," Leacock said. "I like to observe." To this end, he was instrumental in perfecting a lightweight, handheld 16mm camera, synced to a quiet sound recorder,...
- 3/25/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Documentary pathfinder Richard Leacock (1921-2011) passed away yesterday at the ripe age of 89. Readers are probably more familiar with the two documentary movements he helped refine, Direct Cinema and Cinéma Vérité, than his work on the Direct Cinema doc Primary (1960). Produced by former Life magazine editor and correspondent Robert Drew, shot by Leacock and Albert Maysles (whose work with his brother David include Gimmie Shelter and Grey Gardens) and edited by D.A. Pennebaker (the rock documentarian who brought us Don't Look Back, Monterey Pop, and Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars), Primary chronicled the 1960 Wisconsin Democratic Primary between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. The joint forces of Drew, Maysles, Pennebaker, and Leacock on Primary, with the aid of mobile cameras, faster film stocks, and mobile sound equipment gave rise to the Direct Cinema movement.
Direct Cinema, often considered synonymous with Cinéma Vérité (they are very different, but that's...
Direct Cinema, often considered synonymous with Cinéma Vérité (they are very different, but that's...
- 3/24/2011
- by Drew Morton
Pioneering documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock has died at the age of 89.
The British cinematographer passed away at his home in Paris, France on Wednesday following months of ill health, according to his daughter Victoria Leacock Hoffman.
Leacock was an early pioneer of the unobtrusive Cinema Verite camera technique, which inspired famed filmmakers including Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut and is said to have paved the way for reality television.
Leacock's most famous work remains his 1960 documentary Primary, which covered the Wisconsin Primary election battle between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey as they vied for the Democrat party nomination for President of the United States.
Leacock is survived by his wife, Valerie Lalond, daughter Victoria, and a son, Robert Leacock.
The British cinematographer passed away at his home in Paris, France on Wednesday following months of ill health, according to his daughter Victoria Leacock Hoffman.
Leacock was an early pioneer of the unobtrusive Cinema Verite camera technique, which inspired famed filmmakers including Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut and is said to have paved the way for reality television.
Leacock's most famous work remains his 1960 documentary Primary, which covered the Wisconsin Primary election battle between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey as they vied for the Democrat party nomination for President of the United States.
Leacock is survived by his wife, Valerie Lalond, daughter Victoria, and a son, Robert Leacock.
- 3/24/2011
- WENN
"Richard 'Ricky' Leacock, the London-born filmmaker whose work with Robert Drew and D.A/ Pennebaker would revolutionize and come to define a generation's view of documentary film, has died in Paris at the age of 89." So begins Aj Schnack's excellent entry, drawing on Leacock's own recollections posted at his "exceptional" site and including a couple of clips. "Reports of Leacock's death began to circulate on Twitter several hours ago and the French film site Allocine.com confirmed Leacock's passing. The Paris-based documentary festival Cinéma du Réel, which opens today, is planning to dedicate a portion of the festival to Leacock."
"As cinematographer, producer, director, and editor, Richard Leacock has been an important contributor to the development of the documentary film, specifically in cinéma verité, now often called direct cinema," Lillian Schiff has written for Film Reference, noting that "the lightweight 16-millimeter camera, handheld and synced to a quiet recorder, allows...
"As cinematographer, producer, director, and editor, Richard Leacock has been an important contributor to the development of the documentary film, specifically in cinéma verité, now often called direct cinema," Lillian Schiff has written for Film Reference, noting that "the lightweight 16-millimeter camera, handheld and synced to a quiet recorder, allows...
- 3/23/2011
- MUBI
Watch the world premiere of the latest Bob Dylan music video, "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'," exclusively at IFC.com.
As if capturing a momentous period in Bob Dylan's career and crafting one of the best and earliest examples of a major cinematic movement -- cinema vérité -- with "Dont Look Back" weren't monumental achievements enough, D.A. Pennebaker began his seminal film with what would be recognized decades later as perhaps the first music video. Ironically, this opening sequence, set to Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues," is one of several instances in the film where Pennebaker strays from the tenets of vérité: in an overtly staged performance (which in fact was shot in alternate takes in two other locales) with Dylan playing to the camera, the singer/songwriter lets a series of placards do his lip-synching for him. In a wide-legged stance, boards with various lyrics and riffs on lyrics (written...
As if capturing a momentous period in Bob Dylan's career and crafting one of the best and earliest examples of a major cinematic movement -- cinema vérité -- with "Dont Look Back" weren't monumental achievements enough, D.A. Pennebaker began his seminal film with what would be recognized decades later as perhaps the first music video. Ironically, this opening sequence, set to Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues," is one of several instances in the film where Pennebaker strays from the tenets of vérité: in an overtly staged performance (which in fact was shot in alternate takes in two other locales) with Dylan playing to the camera, the singer/songwriter lets a series of placards do his lip-synching for him. In a wide-legged stance, boards with various lyrics and riffs on lyrics (written...
- 5/12/2009
- by Michelle Orange
- ifc.com
On Sunday at True/False, filmmaker/blogger Aj Schnack screened the first thirty minutes of Convention, his verite-style film documenting the 2008 Democratic National Convention with an eye on the Denver locals (politicians, city administrators, journalists, protesters) who were in the mix. Shot by Schnack in collaboration with nearly a dozen documentarians (including the Oscar-nominated directors Laura Poitras and Julia Reichert, and Daniel Junge, who directed the Oscar-shortlisted They Killed Sister Dorothy), the film's making-of process was almost as much of a serendipity-dependent feat of execution as the event captured on screen. As his, uh, primary inspiration, Schnack cites Robert Drew's Primary, a Direct Cinema landmark documenting the Wisconsin primary race between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. The first Ame ...
- 3/4/2009
- by Karina Longworth
- Spout
Frontrunnersby Steve Ramos, Writer Audiences are the winners in the high school election doc ‘Frontrunners’ Political junkies suffering withdrawal since the Nov. 4 elections will find satisfaction in “Frontrunners,” director Caroline Suh’s easygoing and enjoyable documentary about student union president elections at New York City’s prestigious Stuyvesant High School. Good-natured talk about exercising one’s right to vote and the true role of elected students replace the hardcore social messages found in many political documentaries. “Frontrunners” which debuted in New York earlier this fall before expanding to select cities, is affable instead of edgy, fun loving instead of controversial. Its bright-eyed teen candidates, as wonderfully diverse as America gets, boosts the film to something special. Like all good human-interest stories, the characters are what matter most in “Frontrunners.” In this case, any political messages are far less important. Four tickets start out in the school primaries, led by Mike Zaytsev,...
- 11/20/2008
- Upcoming-Movies.com
The epic battle between McCain and Obama will shape America's future. To prepare, we look at an eerily similar battle from America's past, the 1960 primaries between JFK and Hubert Humphry, as portrayed in Robert Drew's verité classic, Primary. Karina stays in for the weekend watching back-to-back movie marathons to settle an age-old debate: Who's better, Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire? Also, she shares her fantasy of seeing Olympic gymnastic ass-kicker Nastia Liukin star in a prison-break exploitation flick. It never hurts to dream... On a more serious note, we talk to director ...
- 8/22/2008
- by Kevin Buist
- Spout
By Stephen Saito
[For complete coverage of the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, check out Ifc's Tribeca page.]
If there's any truth to the idea that what's old can become new again, Robert Drew's "A President to Remember: In the Company of John F. Kennedy" is a prime example. Free of the pressure to film sound bites and be caught up in a campaign's spin room, Drew simply let the camera roll during the campaign and all-too-brief presidency of John F. Kennedy, creating an influential group of documentaries between 1960 and 1963: "Primary," "Adventures on the New Frontier," "Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment" and "Faces of November." With an assemblage of filmmakers and journalists from his days as an editor at Life magazine (including Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker and Albert Maysles) by his side, Drew pioneered the practice of cinéma vérité on what now seems like the least likely of subjects . the president. While Drew's four films on the Kennedy Administration have been long available on DVD,...
[For complete coverage of the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, check out Ifc's Tribeca page.]
If there's any truth to the idea that what's old can become new again, Robert Drew's "A President to Remember: In the Company of John F. Kennedy" is a prime example. Free of the pressure to film sound bites and be caught up in a campaign's spin room, Drew simply let the camera roll during the campaign and all-too-brief presidency of John F. Kennedy, creating an influential group of documentaries between 1960 and 1963: "Primary," "Adventures on the New Frontier," "Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment" and "Faces of November." With an assemblage of filmmakers and journalists from his days as an editor at Life magazine (including Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker and Albert Maysles) by his side, Drew pioneered the practice of cinéma vérité on what now seems like the least likely of subjects . the president. While Drew's four films on the Kennedy Administration have been long available on DVD,...
- 4/27/2008
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
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