Of all the cautionary lessons that horror imparts, one of the most common warns us never to mess with Mother Nature. Those who are careless or hostile to the environment often meet their demises when Earth retaliates violently in eco-horror movies.
Ecological horror movies explore humankind’s estranged, fractured relationship with the planet, and its characters often find themselves on the defense against nature’s wrath. In celebration of Earth Day, an annual event in support of environmental protection, we’re looking back at some of the best eco-horror movies that remind us to take care of our planet… or else.
Here are ten eco-horror movies to watch this Earth Day.
The Bay
This found footage movie sees a seaside town under siege from an unknown virulent threat. First comes a gnarly rash, then vomiting, then a violent, disturbing death. Eventually, researchers discover it’s a parasitic ocean isopod that...
Ecological horror movies explore humankind’s estranged, fractured relationship with the planet, and its characters often find themselves on the defense against nature’s wrath. In celebration of Earth Day, an annual event in support of environmental protection, we’re looking back at some of the best eco-horror movies that remind us to take care of our planet… or else.
Here are ten eco-horror movies to watch this Earth Day.
The Bay
This found footage movie sees a seaside town under siege from an unknown virulent threat. First comes a gnarly rash, then vomiting, then a violent, disturbing death. Eventually, researchers discover it’s a parasitic ocean isopod that...
- 4/22/2024
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
Cinephiles will have plenty to celebrate this April with the next slate of additions to the Criterion Channel. The boutique distributor, which recently announced its June 2024 Blu-ray releases, has unveiled its new streaming lineup highlighted by an eclectic mix of classic films and modern arthouse hits.
Students of Hollywood history will be treated to the “Peak Noir: 1950” collection, which features 17 noir films from the landmark film year from directors including Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston.
New Hollywood maverick William Friedkin will also be celebrated when five of his most beloved movies, including “Sorcerer” and “The Exorcist,” come to the channel in April.
Criterion will offer the streaming premiere of Wim Wenders’ 3D art documentary “Anselm,” which will be accompanied by the “Wim Wenders’ Adventures in Moviegoing” collection, which sees the director curating a selection of films from around the world that have influenced his careers.
Contemporary cinema is also well represented,...
Students of Hollywood history will be treated to the “Peak Noir: 1950” collection, which features 17 noir films from the landmark film year from directors including Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston.
New Hollywood maverick William Friedkin will also be celebrated when five of his most beloved movies, including “Sorcerer” and “The Exorcist,” come to the channel in April.
Criterion will offer the streaming premiere of Wim Wenders’ 3D art documentary “Anselm,” which will be accompanied by the “Wim Wenders’ Adventures in Moviegoing” collection, which sees the director curating a selection of films from around the world that have influenced his careers.
Contemporary cinema is also well represented,...
- 3/18/2024
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
April’s an uncommonly strong auteurist month for the Criterion Channel, who will highlight a number of directors––many of whom aren’t often grouped together. Just after we screened House of Tolerance at the Roxy Cinema, Criterion are showing it and Nocturama for a two-film Bertrand Bonello retrospective, starting just four days before The Beast opens. Larger and rarer (but just as French) is the complete Jean Eustache series Janus toured last year. Meanwhile, five William Friedkin films and work from Makoto Shinkai, Lizzie Borden, and Rosine Mbakam are given a highlight.
One of my very favorite films, Comrades: Almost a Love Story plays in a series I’ve been trying to program for years: “Hong Kong in New York,” boasting the magnificent Full Moon in New York, Farewell China, and An Autumn’s Tale. Wim Wenders gets his “Adventures in Moviegoing”; After Hours, Personal Shopper, and Werckmeister Harmonies fill...
One of my very favorite films, Comrades: Almost a Love Story plays in a series I’ve been trying to program for years: “Hong Kong in New York,” boasting the magnificent Full Moon in New York, Farewell China, and An Autumn’s Tale. Wim Wenders gets his “Adventures in Moviegoing”; After Hours, Personal Shopper, and Werckmeister Harmonies fill...
- 3/18/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Apologies for two re-releases in a row, however, this new key art for Christopher Nolan's Tenet is so, so good. This Saul Bass inspired free fall from design house B O N D is a country mile (forwards or backwards) ahead of the original poster. A clear homage to Vertigo, perhaps akin to the experience that many felt trying to make sense of Tenet's rather unique structure and style. Due to the massive box-office of Universal's Oppenheimer, Warner Brothers is capitalizing on the moment to bring Tenet back to the theatres for a week in large format engagements. This time, they got the one sheet right. Now the red and blue colour gradients echo the chamber that swaps forward and reverse time, as well as the two...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/16/2024
- Screen Anarchy
Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.
Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!
Ghost Face Figure from Mezco Toys
Ghost Face is slashing into Mezco Toyz’s One:12 Collective line. Due out in November, the 6.5″ action figure costs $95. Shipping is free with the code WINTER79.
The Scream slasher has over 28 points of articulation, a black robe with poseable hood and sleeves, four interchangeable heads, and eight interchangeable hands.
Other accessories include: butcher knife, hunting knife, hunting knife with blood effect, scythe, remote control, popcorn bowl, three attachable blood effects, and display base with adjustable post.
Phase IV 4K Uhd from Vinegar Syndrome
Phase IV crawls onto 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on March 26 via Vinegar Syndrome. The 1974 sci-fi horror cult classic has been newly restored in 4K from its...
Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!
Ghost Face Figure from Mezco Toys
Ghost Face is slashing into Mezco Toyz’s One:12 Collective line. Due out in November, the 6.5″ action figure costs $95. Shipping is free with the code WINTER79.
The Scream slasher has over 28 points of articulation, a black robe with poseable hood and sleeves, four interchangeable heads, and eight interchangeable hands.
Other accessories include: butcher knife, hunting knife, hunting knife with blood effect, scythe, remote control, popcorn bowl, three attachable blood effects, and display base with adjustable post.
Phase IV 4K Uhd from Vinegar Syndrome
Phase IV crawls onto 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on March 26 via Vinegar Syndrome. The 1974 sci-fi horror cult classic has been newly restored in 4K from its...
- 2/9/2024
- by Alex DiVincenzo
- bloody-disgusting.com
It’s easy for children to be feel apprehensive and overwhelmed by the world. (To be fair, it’s also easy for a lot of adults to feel apprehensive and overwhelmed by the world, which, you know — thank god for therapists!) You could do a lot worse than to show a fretful youngster Orion and the Dark, a Dreamworks/Netflix animated movie that mounts a full-frontal attack on the notion of fear as a default state of mind. Orion (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) is an 11-year-old who’s afraid of a lot of things: cancer,...
- 2/2/2024
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Taking a page out of the Pixar playbook and animating entities turned into characters, DreamWorks Animation’s latest feature Orion and the Dark recalls ‘toons like Inside Out and Elemental as it tells the story of a young kid and his encounters with his greatest fear, the Dark.
Fortunately for adults who will likely have to sit through this with their kids, Dwa was smart enough to hire Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman to take on the task of bringing Emma Yarlett’s book to the screen. Basically the premise is intact, but Kaufman has expanded this world into Pixar territory where instead of Inside Out’s gang of Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Anxiety and Disgust we get entities like Dark, Light, Insomnia, Quiet, Sleep, Unexplained Noises, and Dreams to help tell the tale of Orion, a kid full of neuroses and unchecked fears...
Fortunately for adults who will likely have to sit through this with their kids, Dwa was smart enough to hire Oscar winner Charlie Kaufman to take on the task of bringing Emma Yarlett’s book to the screen. Basically the premise is intact, but Kaufman has expanded this world into Pixar territory where instead of Inside Out’s gang of Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Anxiety and Disgust we get entities like Dark, Light, Insomnia, Quiet, Sleep, Unexplained Noises, and Dreams to help tell the tale of Orion, a kid full of neuroses and unchecked fears...
- 2/1/2024
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Orion And The DarkImage: DreamWorks Animation
The notion of an animated feature for children written by Charlie Kaufman, the anxiety-riddled scribe of metaphysical nesting-doll movies like Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, sounds about as unlikely as a G-rated Disney movie directed by David Lynch, or Nine Inch Nails frontman...
The notion of an animated feature for children written by Charlie Kaufman, the anxiety-riddled scribe of metaphysical nesting-doll movies like Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, sounds about as unlikely as a G-rated Disney movie directed by David Lynch, or Nine Inch Nails frontman...
- 1/30/2024
- by Luke Y. Thompson
- avclub.com
The best animated movies are entertaining enough for kids while providing rewarding diversions for older viewers. This Netflix premiere from DreamWorks Animation hits just that sweet spot. Hilariously and movingly tapping into typical childhood anxieties, it’s infused with ample wit of both the visual and verbal variety for adults, the latter courtesy of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) in his return to feature-length animation, nine years after Anomalisa. Much like the streamer’s recent Nimona, Orion and the Dark proves the sort of sophisticated animated project that outshines many recent big-screen toons.
Based on the illustrated children’s book by Emma Yarlett, the story revolves around Orion (Jacob Tremblay, Room), a fifth-grader with an inordinate number of fears that he dutifully chronicles in a vividly illustrated sketchbook.
Many of them are typical for an early adolescent, from being afraid to talk to a classmate...
Based on the illustrated children’s book by Emma Yarlett, the story revolves around Orion (Jacob Tremblay, Room), a fifth-grader with an inordinate number of fears that he dutifully chronicles in a vividly illustrated sketchbook.
Many of them are typical for an early adolescent, from being afraid to talk to a classmate...
- 1/29/2024
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
There are films you watched every time they pop up on TCM or streaming services. It’s like visiting an old friend. These movies put a smile on your face and a song in your heart. And one such film is “Charade,” which celebrates its 60th anniversary on Dec. 5. Deftly directed by Stanley Donen from a fun and thrilling Peter Stone screenplay, “Charade” stars Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn who exude a William Powell/Myrna Loy style chemistry that leaps off the screen. And let’s not forget that gorgeous Henry Mancini score, the romantic Oscar-nominated title tune “Charade,” with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and the pulsating Saul Bass title sequence.
I saw “Charade” when it was released, and I’ve probably seen it at least 15 more times. And each time seems like the first. Not many films have that kind of power. A 2010 Criterion Collection article by film historian...
I saw “Charade” when it was released, and I’ve probably seen it at least 15 more times. And each time seems like the first. Not many films have that kind of power. A 2010 Criterion Collection article by film historian...
- 12/6/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds has become such an acknowledged classic and even cultural touchstone that it is easy to forget how revolutionary it was upon its 1963 release. For the Master of Suspense himself, it was a departure in many ways from his previous work while still a testament to his craft and devotion to “pure cinema.” It all but single-handedly created, or at least redefined, an enduring horror subgenre—the animal attack film. Finally, in creating this subgenre, The Birds explores themes of humankind’s place in the world and the unpredictable power of nature. It is also a particularly meaningful film for me as it was my first Hitchcock film and was introduced to me by my grandmother, who was a great fan of classic cinema in general and Alfred Hitchcock in particular. I saw the film during a memorable stay at her home when I was around...
- 9/15/2023
- by Brian Keiper
- bloody-disgusting.com
Film Independent is currently in the middle of a Matching Campaign to raise support for the next 30 years of filmmaker support. All donations make before or on September 15 will be doubled—dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000. To celebrate the campaign, we’re re-posting a few of our most popular blogs.
Since the early 2000s, there’s been a disappointing trend in movies away from full-fledged opening title sequences. Whether because of the desire to jump straight into the action or the impulse to keep the audience focused on a film’s story (rather than its creators), elaborate, artful opening title sequences, once commonplace, have become increasingly rare—which is too bad.
Great opening title sequences do a whole lot more than just show the names and guild memberships of those behind-the-scenes folks who make it all happen. They can do the critical early-movie work of establishing a movie’s mood and texture,...
Since the early 2000s, there’s been a disappointing trend in movies away from full-fledged opening title sequences. Whether because of the desire to jump straight into the action or the impulse to keep the audience focused on a film’s story (rather than its creators), elaborate, artful opening title sequences, once commonplace, have become increasingly rare—which is too bad.
Great opening title sequences do a whole lot more than just show the names and guild memberships of those behind-the-scenes folks who make it all happen. They can do the critical early-movie work of establishing a movie’s mood and texture,...
- 8/30/2023
- by Film Independent
- Film Independent News & More
You can scarcely surf the great streaming ocean without happening on a serial killer documentary or series, a fact that probably says more about us than the entertainment industry. All options, however, are not created equal. For every few quick-and-dirty procedurals, you’ll find something with real style and personality — something like The Lady of Silence: The Mataviejitas Murders, a zesty doc that walks right up to the edge of dark comedy, peers over the cliff, and takes a cheeky plunge into something weird and wonderful. Director Maria José Cuevas...
- 7/27/2023
- by Chris Vognar
- Rollingstone.com
Tony Bennett accepted the boundaries of his universe.
In the last few decades of his life, the period of his greatest success, he never tried to do a Rick Rubin/Johnny Cash-style album of recent pop and rock hits tweaked to suit his voice. Instead, he transported the contemporary artists he worked with — Lady Gaga especially — to his preferred musical arena: the Great American Songbook classics of Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, and so many more. Without seeing the cover, you’d never even know his “MTV Unplugged” album was an “MTV Unplugged” album just by listening to it. His last studio album, “The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern,” speaks to his appreciation of the craft of songwriting embodied by the entire Great American Songbook era, and how a singer can work in dialogue with that songwriter even decades after their death to create meaning.
In the last few decades of his life, the period of his greatest success, he never tried to do a Rick Rubin/Johnny Cash-style album of recent pop and rock hits tweaked to suit his voice. Instead, he transported the contemporary artists he worked with — Lady Gaga especially — to his preferred musical arena: the Great American Songbook classics of Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, the Gershwins, Harold Arlen, and so many more. Without seeing the cover, you’d never even know his “MTV Unplugged” album was an “MTV Unplugged” album just by listening to it. His last studio album, “The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern,” speaks to his appreciation of the craft of songwriting embodied by the entire Great American Songbook era, and how a singer can work in dialogue with that songwriter even decades after their death to create meaning.
- 7/23/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Freshly announced and put up for pre-order this morning, Arrow Video presents The Psycho Collection on both Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD for a limited edition UK release.
The good news? 4K discs are inherently Region Free!
The Psycho Collection will release on September 25, 2023.
Presented together for the first time in the UK on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, featuring all new restorations of Psycho II, III and IV from the original camera negatives, Arrow Video invites you back inside the Bates Motel and wishes you a very pleasant stay.
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Limited Edition Contents
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (2160p) presentations of all four films New 4K restorations of Psycho II, Psycho III and Psycho IV from the original camera negatives Original lossless mono and 5.1 audio options for Psycho, stereo and 5.1 options for Psycho II and Psycho III, and stereo audio options for Psycho IV Optional English subtitles for...
The good news? 4K discs are inherently Region Free!
The Psycho Collection will release on September 25, 2023.
Presented together for the first time in the UK on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, featuring all new restorations of Psycho II, III and IV from the original camera negatives, Arrow Video invites you back inside the Bates Motel and wishes you a very pleasant stay.
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Limited Edition Contents
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (2160p) presentations of all four films New 4K restorations of Psycho II, Psycho III and Psycho IV from the original camera negatives Original lossless mono and 5.1 audio options for Psycho, stereo and 5.1 options for Psycho II and Psycho III, and stereo audio options for Psycho IV Optional English subtitles for...
- 6/30/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
The anxiety around A.I. is strong at the moment and that’s completely understandable given the way it can be seen to take existing art to generate something entirely new. It raises questions about what the future of being an artist means when there is software out there that can potentially, for argument’s sake, create original work. Director Patrick Hanser Aka the musical artist Bacará has created a music video for his latest single Cores (Colours) using A.I. software but rather than striving for an artificially created realism he uses it as a way to blend an amalgamation of classic styles, drawing from the work of everyone from Kandinsky to Picasso to create a kaleidoscopic smorgasbord of artistic sensibilities. Dn caught up with Hanser to discuss the creation of his video, the lengthy experimentation period he needed to work through, and his thoughts surrounding the future of art and A.
- 6/2/2023
- by James Maitre
- Directors Notes
With Martin Scorsese on the mind following the triumphant Cannes premiere of Killers of the Flower Moon, I’ve been looking to catch up on the last few unseen films from the master, which led to the uncovering of a delightful, expertly crafted homage to the Master of Suspense. Shortly after the Oscar-winning success of The Departed in 2007, the story goes like this: Scorsese came across remnants of The Key to Reserva, an unproduced script written by Alfred Hitchcock. He set out to direct his version of it in the precise style of the late director. However, there is a twist.
The script wasn’t real. The whole endeavor, which feels like an elaborate film school exercise, was actually a campaign paid for by the champagne company Freixenet. Shot by Harris Savides, with assistance from Ellen Kuras, and edited by Thelma Schoonmaker, the film stars Simon Baker along with a...
The script wasn’t real. The whole endeavor, which feels like an elaborate film school exercise, was actually a campaign paid for by the champagne company Freixenet. Shot by Harris Savides, with assistance from Ellen Kuras, and edited by Thelma Schoonmaker, the film stars Simon Baker along with a...
- 5/26/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Above: Spanish poster by José María Cruz Novillo for The Garden of Delights.When the great Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura died in February at the age of 90, I searched through his posters to find a suitable piece to post as a tribute and came across several very stylized, diagrammatic designs for his early ’70s films. They turned out to be the work of José María Cruz Novillo, an artist I surprisingly hadn't been aware of previously, but who, I have since found out, is a titan of Spanish graphic design.Above: José María Cruz Novillo (right) with his son Pepe in front of a wall of his film posters. Photo: Fernando Sánchez.Cruz Novillo, who is still working at the age of 86 (in partnership with his architect son Pepe), could rightfully be called the Saul Bass of Spain. Like Bass, he excels in both film marketing and logo design. Since...
- 5/5/2023
- MUBI
The Sundance Institute was founded in 1981 by Robert Redford and a host of other notable filmmakers, critics, and general enthusiasts of cinema. Redford, Robert Townsend, Saul Bass, Sydney Pollack, and 21 others co-founded the Institute as a means to distribute and celebrate independent films and small-budget filmmaking, the type often left out of widespread studio distribution deals. As detailed in a 2010 history in Time magazine, the Sundance Institute took the reins of the flagging United States Film Festival, injected it with cash, changed the focus of the fest to indie films, and changed its name to match the institute. The Sundance Film Festival has been an annual cinema event ever since, with thousands of people descending on Park City, Utah, every January to discover what might be a new and exciting voice in the business.
The institute, of course, took its name from Redford's character in George Roy Hill's 1969 biographical...
The institute, of course, took its name from Redford's character in George Roy Hill's 1969 biographical...
- 12/31/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
The first two Silent Night, Deadly Night films get all the glory — to the point where casual horror fans may be surprised to learn that three more installments were produced in the franchise. The 1984 original generated highly publicized controversy by showing its killer dressed as Santa Claus in advertisements, while the 1987 first sequel gained cult status for its over-the-top campiness and liberal reuse of clips from its predecessor.
The series was then relegated to straight-to-video territory with 1989’s Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out, 1990’s Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation, and 1991’s Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker. While the third installment continues the killer Santa plot, the storyline was abandoned for the latter two installments, which each tell an unrelated tale set during Christmastime.
Diverging from the franchise’s headline-making narrative may have been a death knell — look at how long it took viewers...
The series was then relegated to straight-to-video territory with 1989’s Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out, 1990’s Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation, and 1991’s Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker. While the third installment continues the killer Santa plot, the storyline was abandoned for the latter two installments, which each tell an unrelated tale set during Christmastime.
Diverging from the franchise’s headline-making narrative may have been a death knell — look at how long it took viewers...
- 12/22/2022
- by Alex DiVincenzo
- bloody-disgusting.com
Nothing sets a movie's mood like a good title sequence and one of the best to ever design them is Dan Perri. An apprentice of legendary graphic designer Saul Bass, Perri has been putting together title sequences since the 1970s. He's designed sequences as varied as the slow-motion, classically-scored opening of "Raging Bull," to the operatic text crawl of "Star Wars," to the terrifying teaser for "A Nightmare on Elm Street III."
Now, a collection of images from Perri's career are in residence at The Museum of the Moving Image in New York City. "Dan Perri and the Art of the Title Sequence" is organized by Barbara Miller & guest curator Lola Landekic and aims to spotlight and educate about 50 years of work in one single exhibit.
I had the privilege of speaking with Perri over Zoom about not just this exhibit, but his long and ongoing career working with all sorts of celebrated filmmakers.
Now, a collection of images from Perri's career are in residence at The Museum of the Moving Image in New York City. "Dan Perri and the Art of the Title Sequence" is organized by Barbara Miller & guest curator Lola Landekic and aims to spotlight and educate about 50 years of work in one single exhibit.
I had the privilege of speaking with Perri over Zoom about not just this exhibit, but his long and ongoing career working with all sorts of celebrated filmmakers.
- 11/22/2022
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
The first movie to directly confront McCarthyism! Or so said the editorials touting this ‘Long-Awaited Screen Event’ in which ‘Bette Davis Hits the Screen in a Cyclone of Dramatic Fury!’ The storm of the title was based on a real activist in Oklahoma who lost her job for promoting equal rights. Bette’s polite librarian is victimized by small-minded civic types; a subplot depicts the traumatic reaction of one of her patrons, a child expected to despise her as a traitor to the country. Daniel Taradash’s movie is an excellent starting point to discuss the thorny dramatic subgenre of liberal social issue movies.
Storm Center
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 155
1956 / B&w / 1:78 widescreen / 86 min. / Street Date September 30, 2022 / Available from / au 39.95
Starring:
Bette Davis, Brian Keith, Kim Hunter, Paul Kelly, Joe Mantell, Kevin Coughlin, Sallie Brophie, Howard Wierum, Curtis Cooksey, Michael Raffetto, Joseph Kearns, Edward Platt, Kathryn Grant, Howard Wendell, Malcolm Atterbury,...
Storm Center
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 155
1956 / B&w / 1:78 widescreen / 86 min. / Street Date September 30, 2022 / Available from / au 39.95
Starring:
Bette Davis, Brian Keith, Kim Hunter, Paul Kelly, Joe Mantell, Kevin Coughlin, Sallie Brophie, Howard Wierum, Curtis Cooksey, Michael Raffetto, Joseph Kearns, Edward Platt, Kathryn Grant, Howard Wendell, Malcolm Atterbury,...
- 11/12/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Movie magic is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot. These days, it's become synonymous with latex prosthetics and green screens, but long before computer graphics entered the game, master filmmakers were tricking our senses with editing magic. Early pioneers, like Georges Méliès, merely enjoyed all the new sleight of hand they could pull off by cutting and splicing film, while later greats like Hitchcock used editing to elevate horror and avoid censorship.
In the late '50s, Hollywood filmmakers were still under the thumb of censors, who followed the Hays Code, which was a set of rules that covered everything from costumes to content within a movie. Nudity, sexuality, and violence were big no-nos, which caused Hitchcock to get creative, and a bit rebellious while filming "Psycho." To meet the standards of The Motion Picture Production Code, Hitchcock pulled off some editing tricks that confused censors and frightened audiences.
In the late '50s, Hollywood filmmakers were still under the thumb of censors, who followed the Hays Code, which was a set of rules that covered everything from costumes to content within a movie. Nudity, sexuality, and violence were big no-nos, which caused Hitchcock to get creative, and a bit rebellious while filming "Psycho." To meet the standards of The Motion Picture Production Code, Hitchcock pulled off some editing tricks that confused censors and frightened audiences.
- 10/23/2022
- by Christian Gainey
- Slash Film
As we work into the second week of the New York Film Festival, the theatrical shift towards awards-season fare officially begins at your local multiplexes, a bunch of the highly touted titles from acclaimed directors that critics raved about all September making their way to the public. And with only Black Adam (October 21) readying to siphon off the mainstream populace, there’s potential for a lot of turnover to ensure everything gets its shot.
Carefully check out those posters on the wall to see what’s playing and what’s coming so as not to miss a potential nominee squeaking in last second for a week-long engagement. There are a few stunners below to distract you from the rest too. So don’t forget to stop staring at them in-person and eventually scan the rest.
Alone
I’m not going to lie: the poster for Piggy is a bit misleading.
Carefully check out those posters on the wall to see what’s playing and what’s coming so as not to miss a potential nominee squeaking in last second for a week-long engagement. There are a few stunners below to distract you from the rest too. So don’t forget to stop staring at them in-person and eventually scan the rest.
Alone
I’m not going to lie: the poster for Piggy is a bit misleading.
- 10/7/2022
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Click here to read the full article.
Michelle Yeoh, the veteran Malaysian actress who is currently generating Oscar buzz for her performance in this spring’s breakout A24 hit Everything Everywhere All at Once, will be conferred with a Doctorate of Fine Arts by the American Film Institute “for contributions of distinction to the art of the moving image,” The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The presentation of that honor to Yeoh, as well as a Doctorate of Communication Arts to AFI Trustee Emeritus Lawrence Herbert — the inventor of a variety of color systems who joined the AFI Board of Trustees in 1987 and served until 2017, and who made possible the 2020 establishment of the Lawrence Herbert Alumni Center on the AFI campus — will take place during the AFI Conservatory’s commencement ceremony celebrating the Class of 2022 on Saturday, August 13, 2022, at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
“Michelle Yeoh and Lawrence Herbert have...
Michelle Yeoh, the veteran Malaysian actress who is currently generating Oscar buzz for her performance in this spring’s breakout A24 hit Everything Everywhere All at Once, will be conferred with a Doctorate of Fine Arts by the American Film Institute “for contributions of distinction to the art of the moving image,” The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The presentation of that honor to Yeoh, as well as a Doctorate of Communication Arts to AFI Trustee Emeritus Lawrence Herbert — the inventor of a variety of color systems who joined the AFI Board of Trustees in 1987 and served until 2017, and who made possible the 2020 establishment of the Lawrence Herbert Alumni Center on the AFI campus — will take place during the AFI Conservatory’s commencement ceremony celebrating the Class of 2022 on Saturday, August 13, 2022, at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
“Michelle Yeoh and Lawrence Herbert have...
- 8/5/2022
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It took me about 1.5 new episodes of “The Flight Attendant” to remember exactly how stressful it is to watch “The Flight Attendant.” It had been long enough since its November 2020 premiere that my memory of the show had almost become a facsimile of its slick Saul Bass-ian credits, in which a tiny blonde flight attendant runs away from shady spies and enormous bunnies. I knew I loved Kaley Cuoco’s screwball energy, Michiel Huisman’s arched eyebrow, Michelle Gomez’s exasperated sigh, and the dueling pleasures of a skittish Rosie Perez and a ruthless Zosia Mamet. Diving into the second season, though, provides a forceful reminder of just how good this show is at getting you inside the head of someone constantly on the edge of a panic attack.
Cassie (Cuoco), of course, would vehemently deny this characterization. The season’s first two episodes, which premiere April 20 on HBO Max,...
Cassie (Cuoco), of course, would vehemently deny this characterization. The season’s first two episodes, which premiere April 20 on HBO Max,...
- 4/19/2022
- by Caroline Framke
- Variety Film + TV
It’s been over a year since audiences last saw Cassie Bowden (Emmy-nominated Kaley Cuoco), a flight attendant drawn into the world a world of murder and intrigue after waking up next to a dead man.
Based on the novel by Chris Bohjalian, “The Flight Attendant” wasn’t just a story about Cassie’s attempt to clear her name; she is the last person to have spent time with murder victim, Alex Sokolva (Michiel Huisman). It’s also a stark examination of addiction, as part of the reason Cassie is implicated in Alex’s murder has to do with her inability to remember anything that happened.
“The Flight Attendant” was one of the first original series created for HBO Max and its success translated into nine Primetime Emmy Awards, including nominations in Best Lead and Supporting Actress for Kaley Cuoco and Rosie Perez, respectively.
The series would win an Emmy...
Based on the novel by Chris Bohjalian, “The Flight Attendant” wasn’t just a story about Cassie’s attempt to clear her name; she is the last person to have spent time with murder victim, Alex Sokolva (Michiel Huisman). It’s also a stark examination of addiction, as part of the reason Cassie is implicated in Alex’s murder has to do with her inability to remember anything that happened.
“The Flight Attendant” was one of the first original series created for HBO Max and its success translated into nine Primetime Emmy Awards, including nominations in Best Lead and Supporting Actress for Kaley Cuoco and Rosie Perez, respectively.
The series would win an Emmy...
- 4/7/2022
- by Kristen Lopez
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Producer Sam Okun and his Sam Okun Productions banner have optioned worldwide film and TV remake and sequel rights to a pair of classic films directed and produced by three-time Oscar nominee Otto Preminger: 1959’s Anatomy of a Murder and 1962’s Advise & Consent.
The former courtroom drama based on Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker’s novel watched as an upstate Michigan lawyer defended a soldier who claimed he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. The drama starring James Stewart, Lee Remick and Ben Gazzara landed seven Academy Award nominations upon its release, including Best Picture, Screenplay and Actor.
Advise & Consent was a political thriller based on Allen Drury’s 1959 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, in which the polarizing search for a new Secretary of State had far-reaching consequences. Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Don Murray, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford,...
The former courtroom drama based on Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker’s novel watched as an upstate Michigan lawyer defended a soldier who claimed he killed an innkeeper due to temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. The drama starring James Stewart, Lee Remick and Ben Gazzara landed seven Academy Award nominations upon its release, including Best Picture, Screenplay and Actor.
Advise & Consent was a political thriller based on Allen Drury’s 1959 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, in which the polarizing search for a new Secretary of State had far-reaching consequences. Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Don Murray, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford,...
- 3/21/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
In case you missed it earlier in the week when the trailer dropped, here is the fire and brimstone key art for Robert Eggers' The Northman. Designed by studio AVPrint (who also did this year's wonderful hand-drawn one-sheet for Lamb and the Saul Bass inspired poster for The Outfit) it eschews the 'creepy animal' vibe of both of Eggers' previous teaser posters, and goes for cliff-edge epic, nearly in black and white except for the promise of fire. A lone warrior stands at the ready for a flotilla of ships. The perfect teaser image. The typesetting, in faux Old Norse style, has the good sense to stay out of the...
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- 12/24/2021
- Screen Anarchy
In recent years the movie poster has travelled far beyond its street level attention-grabbing origins. Yet, the modern Orange/Teal action shots or Photoshop Face Mountains are perfunctory adornments to a movie’s marketing onslaught, lacking the artistry and invention of what has come before. But not all movie posters are created equally.
An iconic image, such as a shark rising to meet a swimmer above it instantly brings Spielberg’s Jaws to mind. Likewise a simple glance at the posters for Vertigo, The Man with the Golden Arm or Anatomy of a Murder tell us it is the work of Saul Bass. These posters show the power of the art and the artist. Modern masters such as Drew Struzan and Olly Moss have wildly varied styles, but both have the same aim – to get you excited about watching the film. They are works of art in their own right.
An iconic image, such as a shark rising to meet a swimmer above it instantly brings Spielberg’s Jaws to mind. Likewise a simple glance at the posters for Vertigo, The Man with the Golden Arm or Anatomy of a Murder tell us it is the work of Saul Bass. These posters show the power of the art and the artist. Modern masters such as Drew Struzan and Olly Moss have wildly varied styles, but both have the same aim – to get you excited about watching the film. They are works of art in their own right.
- 11/25/2021
- by Jon Lyus
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
With Steven Spielberg’s remake almost out, the 1961 original still feels thrillingly contemporary, a tough act to follow
It’s the opening credits that do it right away. Following three eerie whistles over a black screen, West Side Story explodes into a full screen of poster-paint colour – shifting from orange to red to magenta to royal blue – as Leonard Bernstein’s four-minute overture brassily clatters into action. Over the colour, a stark design flourish: seemingly random brigades of parallel vertical black lines, only coalescing at the overture’s end into the tip of Manhattan, viewed from the air, cuing a vertiginous bird’s-eye montage of New York City in motion. That chipper yet chillingly disembodied whistle returns; by the time we finally see a human face, six coolly riveting minutes has passed.
This whole title sequence – from the graphics to the aerial photography – was visualised by Saul Bass, the distinctive...
It’s the opening credits that do it right away. Following three eerie whistles over a black screen, West Side Story explodes into a full screen of poster-paint colour – shifting from orange to red to magenta to royal blue – as Leonard Bernstein’s four-minute overture brassily clatters into action. Over the colour, a stark design flourish: seemingly random brigades of parallel vertical black lines, only coalescing at the overture’s end into the tip of Manhattan, viewed from the air, cuing a vertiginous bird’s-eye montage of New York City in motion. That chipper yet chillingly disembodied whistle returns; by the time we finally see a human face, six coolly riveting minutes has passed.
This whole title sequence – from the graphics to the aerial photography – was visualised by Saul Bass, the distinctive...
- 10/18/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- The Guardian - Film News
“The Flight Attendant” is full of traps.
There are literal traps, of course — this is the series that gave Michelle Gomez (here playing hardened killer Miranda Croft) a switchblade and let her loose on Bangkok, New York City, and Rome. But most of the drama takes place inside the head of protagonist Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco), exploring the trauma of waking up next to the newly murdered corpse of a one-night stand named Alex Sokolov (Michel Huisman), as well as the psychological baggage she’s been carrying around for years. This presented production designer Sara K White with a challenge, because while all that sounds good on paper, how do you represent it visually? How do you balance serious issues of grief and internalized trauma with the show’s dark but definitely comedic tone?
The answer lies with The Master of Suspense.
Nods to Hitchcock are all over “The Flight...
There are literal traps, of course — this is the series that gave Michelle Gomez (here playing hardened killer Miranda Croft) a switchblade and let her loose on Bangkok, New York City, and Rome. But most of the drama takes place inside the head of protagonist Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco), exploring the trauma of waking up next to the newly murdered corpse of a one-night stand named Alex Sokolov (Michel Huisman), as well as the psychological baggage she’s been carrying around for years. This presented production designer Sara K White with a challenge, because while all that sounds good on paper, how do you represent it visually? How do you balance serious issues of grief and internalized trauma with the show’s dark but definitely comedic tone?
The answer lies with The Master of Suspense.
Nods to Hitchcock are all over “The Flight...
- 6/25/2021
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
Time for a lesson in movie title design! One of the latest must-watch cinema video essay creations from the outstanding Portuguese filmmaker / editor Luís Azevedo is a two-part examination into the The Art of Movie Title Design. These focus specifically on two famed designers: the iconic Saul Bass, an American designer who created titles for filmmakers including Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese. And also Pablo Ferro, a young Cuban designer / editor who worked on many Stanley Kubrick movies as well. You definitely know the titles these two designed, but Luís also delves into their influences and techniques. This kind of breakdown of cinema history is remarkably fascinating, not only to learn how these films from the past were created, but to see how it has all evolved. Watch below. Thanks to Little White Lies for commissioning these essays. Description from YouTube for the first...
- 6/23/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
The Academy Museum store at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will feature merchandise designed by costume designers Arianne Phillips and Ruth E. Carter as well as a Lego Oscar statuette and a ruby slipper purse.
The retail space will be located in the lobby of the new Mid-Wilshire museum, which is set to open Sept 30. A jewelry line developed by “Black Panther” costume designer Ruth E. Carter and the film’s jewelry designer Douriean Fletcher will feature gold-glass mosaic tiles from the museum’s gold cylinder at the corner of Fairfax and Wilshire.
Phillips (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) is the creative director of a clothing collection inspired by “The Wizard of Oz,” which includes t-shirts designed by Arjun Bhasin (“Life of Pi”), Sharen Davis (“Dreamgirls”) and Sandy Powell (“The Favourite”). Jeremy Scott will also contribute “Wizard of Oz” clothing and accessories from Moschino, including a ruby slipper purse.
The retail space will be located in the lobby of the new Mid-Wilshire museum, which is set to open Sept 30. A jewelry line developed by “Black Panther” costume designer Ruth E. Carter and the film’s jewelry designer Douriean Fletcher will feature gold-glass mosaic tiles from the museum’s gold cylinder at the corner of Fairfax and Wilshire.
Phillips (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) is the creative director of a clothing collection inspired by “The Wizard of Oz,” which includes t-shirts designed by Arjun Bhasin (“Life of Pi”), Sharen Davis (“Dreamgirls”) and Sandy Powell (“The Favourite”). Jeremy Scott will also contribute “Wizard of Oz” clothing and accessories from Moschino, including a ruby slipper purse.
- 6/11/2021
- by Marc Malkin
- Variety Film + TV
In the documentary 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene multiple talking heads from Guillermo del Toro to Elijah Wood iterate how Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) was a game-changer: in terms of horror tropes, in terms of movie music, in terms of what could be shown on screen, in terms of how filmmakers could play with narrative expectations and so on. But maybe one of its boldest moves was to dictate when people could and should enter a movie theatre to watch a film. Peter Bogdanovich talks about attending the first press screening of Psycho: “As you went in Hitchcock’s voice was blaring on loudspeakers saying ‘Nobody will be allowed in after the picture starts and please don’t reveal the ending.’” From the dawn of cinema, up through the 1950s, audiences would apparently come and go as they pleased, often entering a film half way through. It seems...
- 4/23/2021
- MUBI
Film posters are often the first piece of movie iconography to draw us into a new world. They are symbols of a new adventure, a promise to eager film fans that something exciting is coming. Whether they are blu-tacked to bedroom walls or plastered hundreds of feet high in Leicester Square, these images have the power to enthral and entice.
The very best of these posters become emblems, the film that exist to promote emboldened by their imagery. Whether you love the minimalist symbolism of Saul Bass, or the warm, detailed glow of Drew Struzan, or more recently the master of negative space Olly Moss, these posters are works of art in their own right, the artists who create them legends in their own lifetimes.
On the 22nd of April fans around the world will have the chance to bid for their very own piece of film history, as Prop...
The very best of these posters become emblems, the film that exist to promote emboldened by their imagery. Whether you love the minimalist symbolism of Saul Bass, or the warm, detailed glow of Drew Struzan, or more recently the master of negative space Olly Moss, these posters are works of art in their own right, the artists who create them legends in their own lifetimes.
On the 22nd of April fans around the world will have the chance to bid for their very own piece of film history, as Prop...
- 4/14/2021
- by Jon Lyus
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Above: English-language festival poster for There Are Not Thirty-Six Ways of Showing a Man Getting on a Horse. Design by Marcelo Granero.So another nine months have gone by since I last did one of these round-ups. As I’ve been doing for many years, I have tallied up the most popular posters featured on my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram (previously Tumblr). The biggest surprise, not least to its designer, was the popularity of a festival poster for an experimental Argentinian film There Are Not Thirty-Six Ways of Showing a Man Getting on a Horse which has racked up some 2,335 likes to date and was the third most popular design I posted in the whole of 2020 (after the two Parasite posters that topped my last round-up). When I say it’s surprising it’s because film recognition tends to play a big part in the popularity of posts,...
- 3/5/2021
- MUBI
Yorgos Lanthimos's Nimic is exclusively showing on Mubi in the Luminaries series.Above: Vasilis Marmatakis’s poster for Nimic.Has there ever been a graphic designer more closely allied with a filmmaker than Vasilis Marmatakis is with Yorgos Lanthimos? Saul Bass and Otto Preminger are the team that most easily come to mind, but even then, though Preminger was a great supporter of and advocate for Bass’s work, I don’t feel that Bass’s designs quite express Preminger’s ethos in the same way that Marmatakis’s designs encapsulate the wonderful strangeness of Lanthimos’s work. Starting with Dogtooth in 2009, Marmatakis has created the windows to his friend’s worlds with a series of iconic posters that are among the very best of the past 20 years.Above: Vasilis Marmatakis’s posters for Yorgos Lanthimos’s films (clockwise from top left) Dogtooth (2009), The Lobster (2015), Alps (2011), The Favourite (2018) and...
- 11/28/2020
- MUBI
Above: Self-portrait sketch by Paul Crifo, circa 1970s.Paul Crifo, who passed away on September 22nd at the age of 98, was one of the great movie poster illustrators and art directors of the ’60s and ’70s, but he was also an unsung hero. Over the course of 40 years he illustrated and designed as many as 140 movie posters for Hollywood studios, but unlike peers such as Bob Peak or Robert McGinnis, Paul Crifo never became a marquee name.Crifo rarely signed his artwork. If you search his name on Heritage Auctions (as I did after reading his obituary in Variety last week) only one poster comes up: that for In The Heat of the Night (1967). Crifo could have remained nothing more than a footnote in movie poster history were it not for the efforts of his son Peter and his son’s friend Pete Handelman who have given us an invaluable...
- 10/22/2020
- MUBI
For Apple TV+ drama The Morning Show, Angus Wall and Hazel Baird designed a main title sequence that was at once visually abstract and thematically rich, speaking to the various challenging facets of life in the high-pressure world of morning news.
Created by Jay Carson and Kerry Ehrin, the series centers on a popular breakfast news program broadcast out of New York, which is rocked to its core when one of its longtime anchors is fired, due to accusations of sexual misconduct.
Set to Benjamin Clementine’s “Nemesis,” the show’s title sequence centers on spheres of different colors and sizes, interacting in a series of playful vignettes. For Wall and Baird, two of the creative directors behind Elastic—a design studio launched in 2008, which this year claimed four Emmy nominations out of seven for Outstanding Main Title Design—the challenge of The Morning Show was to make sure that...
Created by Jay Carson and Kerry Ehrin, the series centers on a popular breakfast news program broadcast out of New York, which is rocked to its core when one of its longtime anchors is fired, due to accusations of sexual misconduct.
Set to Benjamin Clementine’s “Nemesis,” the show’s title sequence centers on spheres of different colors and sizes, interacting in a series of playful vignettes. For Wall and Baird, two of the creative directors behind Elastic—a design studio launched in 2008, which this year claimed four Emmy nominations out of seven for Outstanding Main Title Design—the challenge of The Morning Show was to make sure that...
- 8/10/2020
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
The genre sales and distribution companies, such as XYZ and here, Neon, have been favouring bold (and surreal) pink and blue in their posters as of late, and there is still much water (and glitter) in the well. Take, for example, this striking key art for Amy Seimetz's She Dies Tomorrow as proof that not all Photoshop is bad, some is, in fact, exceptional. Were he alive today, I believe Saul Bass would nod in approval. In particular, I love the contour lines of Legion Creative Group's design here that act like a topological/psychedelic halo to the two states of mind of lead actress Kate Lyn Sheil. It reminds me of the poster to another psychological thriller from the independent film world, Cam. The title...
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- 7/10/2020
- Screen Anarchy
July was optimistically listed as the month when theaters were going to re-open this year despite every shred of scientific evidence proving that doing so would be a dangerous proposition. First came word that certain establishments weren’t going to mandate face masks. Then came the quick backtracking on such declaration due to an instantaneous backlash. And finally Warner Bros. and Disney pushed Tenet and Mulan further back after it became obvious multiple governors would keep theaters shuttered indefinitely.
Two studios are currently still hoping to release their titles this month anyway (more on them below), but don’t be surprised if that also doesn’t happen. Maybe they’ll drop at drive-ins and on VOD anyway or perhaps they’ll get rescheduled yet again. Only time will tell.
Either way, many intriguing titles remain on the docket thanks to streamers, VOD, and virtual cinemas nationwide. We’ve already talked about some,...
Two studios are currently still hoping to release their titles this month anyway (more on them below), but don’t be surprised if that also doesn’t happen. Maybe they’ll drop at drive-ins and on VOD anyway or perhaps they’ll get rescheduled yet again. Only time will tell.
Either way, many intriguing titles remain on the docket thanks to streamers, VOD, and virtual cinemas nationwide. We’ve already talked about some,...
- 7/2/2020
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Above: Alternative and official UK posters for Parasite. Designers: Andrew Bannister (left) and La Boca (right).It’s been far too long since I last did one of these round-ups: nine months to be exact. A lot has changed in the world over that time of course, the most pertinent to this column being that far fewer new posters have premiered recently, and that the distractions and stresses of our current situation have led to me posting less frequently than I usually do.But, as I’ve been doing for many years, I have tallied up the most popular posters featured on my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram (previously Tumblr) and by a long shot the most popular posts of the past nine months were for the two U.K. Parasite posters above. If it seems I’m giving these astonishing works short shrift by lumping them together here...
- 5/22/2020
- MUBI
The great Saul Bass—to my mind the greatest graphic designer of the 20th century—was born 100 years ago today, on May 8, 1920. In over a decade of writing about movie posters I’ve only really written about Bass once—in an article about the evolution of designs for Vertigo—which is surprising because he was undoubtedly the first poster designer I ever knew the name of, and of the six movie posters hanging in my apartment two are by Bass: those for Seconds and The Man With the Golden Arm. Saul Bass is just too well known, and has been written about so widely, that I never felt I had much to add to the discussion. And when Jennifer Bass and Pat Kirkham’s extraordinary Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design was published in 2011 there seemed little more left to say.But I can’t let this centenary pass unremarked.
- 5/21/2020
- MUBI
Continuing our series in which artists suggest self-isolation cinema, the man behind Darkplace on why pandemic-related movies require music documentary offset
The best arts and entertainment during self-isolation
Alas, I watch little TV and rarely stream. My lockdown viewing is largely DVD-based and commences with an immersion in pandemic-related cinema that is sufficiently removed from the current crisis yet close enough in theme to temper my brain between news updates. Foremost among these is Phase IV, an exceptional 1974 science-fiction horror from renowned graphic designer Saul Bass. I pair this with its thematic and technical predecessor, The Hellstrom Chronicle, a 1971 fake “scare doc” employing similar macrophotography of insects, blowing them up, I warn you now, to terrifying proportions. Then, a succession of Shōwa-era Godzilla films, followed by Robert Wise’s sombre 1971 adaptation of the Michael Crichton novel The Andromeda Strain. This, unfortunately, proves an eco-horror too far and I opt instead for escapist fare.
The best arts and entertainment during self-isolation
Alas, I watch little TV and rarely stream. My lockdown viewing is largely DVD-based and commences with an immersion in pandemic-related cinema that is sufficiently removed from the current crisis yet close enough in theme to temper my brain between news updates. Foremost among these is Phase IV, an exceptional 1974 science-fiction horror from renowned graphic designer Saul Bass. I pair this with its thematic and technical predecessor, The Hellstrom Chronicle, a 1971 fake “scare doc” employing similar macrophotography of insects, blowing them up, I warn you now, to terrifying proportions. Then, a succession of Shōwa-era Godzilla films, followed by Robert Wise’s sombre 1971 adaptation of the Michael Crichton novel The Andromeda Strain. This, unfortunately, proves an eco-horror too far and I opt instead for escapist fare.
- 4/8/2020
- by Matthew Holness
- The Guardian - Film News
Over half-a-century since its release, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey has astounded, confounded, and influenced generations of filmgoers, directors, and the world in general with its prescient depiction of the future. A new exhibition, Envisioning 2001: Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey, has now touched down in New York City at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens following its debut at Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum in Frankfurt am Main in 2018, and it’s an essential visit for those interested in getting am in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the making of a masterpiece.
Featuring original artifacts from international collections and from the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts London, as well as from the Museum’s own collection, the exhibition includes original costumes, notably a Dawn of Man ape suit and a space suit from the Clavius Base scenes, as well as concept sketches from Douglas Trumbull,...
Featuring original artifacts from international collections and from the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts London, as well as from the Museum’s own collection, the exhibition includes original costumes, notably a Dawn of Man ape suit and a space suit from the Clavius Base scenes, as well as concept sketches from Douglas Trumbull,...
- 1/15/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
1. The Last Black Man in San FranciscoNo surprises here if you’ve seen my Best of the Decade list, in which this design came in at #4. To be honest, I could almost have filled an entire top ten with Akiko Stehrenberger’s 2019 posters. In the last few weeks alone she has released a stunning alternative art print for Breathless, superb new posters for Honey Boy, Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator, and, most notably, a gorgeous minimalist optical illusion for Portrait of a Lady on Fire. But my favorite of the year still remains this miracle. As I said in my decade poll, “this was the second poster by Akiko that A24 released for The Last Black Man in San Francisco. The first was masterful and striking and beautifully painted, but the second one was next level...a conceptual piece that conveys both place (the impossibly steep streets of the titular city...
- 12/13/2019
- MUBI
Philip Gips, a graphic designer, advertising executive and creator of posters for hit films including Alien, Rosemary’s Baby and more, died Thursday in White Plains, NY. He was 88 and his death was announced by the Endeavor agency.
Gips was born in the Bronx on March 28, 1931. After graduating from the Cooper Union and the Yale School of Art and Architecture, he worked with some of the most influential artists of the era, including Saul Bass. In the early 1960s, he opened a Manhattan-based advertising firm with Lou Klein, then later partnered with Steve Frankfurt and created Frankfurt Gips Balkind, a highly successful venture that lasted until the early 1990s.
During his career, Gips was the principal art director and creative visionary on some of the most recognizable movie posters and corporate logos of the era, many of which remain cultural touchstones today. Among his best-known posters is the ad for...
Gips was born in the Bronx on March 28, 1931. After graduating from the Cooper Union and the Yale School of Art and Architecture, he worked with some of the most influential artists of the era, including Saul Bass. In the early 1960s, he opened a Manhattan-based advertising firm with Lou Klein, then later partnered with Steve Frankfurt and created Frankfurt Gips Balkind, a highly successful venture that lasted until the early 1990s.
During his career, Gips was the principal art director and creative visionary on some of the most recognizable movie posters and corporate logos of the era, many of which remain cultural touchstones today. Among his best-known posters is the ad for...
- 10/4/2019
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
By Doug Oswald
Jack Lemmon is cast against type with co-star Glenn Ford in “Cowboy,” a gritty western available on Blu-ray by Twilight Time. The movie has a rousing start with titles by Saul Bass accompanied by a title score composed by George Duning, setting the mood for this western directed by Delmer Daves. No stranger to westerns, Daves also directed Ford in “Jubal” and “3:10 to Yuma.” The drama in Daves’ westerns was atypical of the genre and unfolded in a more realistic way with no clearly defined hero or villain in an era where the western followed a typical story pattern with clearly defined depictions of heroism and masculinity. Daves was part of a change which redefined the western in the 50s and in some ways prepared us for the inside-out world of the spaghetti westerns to come in the 1960s.
Frank Harris (Lemmon) is a Chicago hotel...
Jack Lemmon is cast against type with co-star Glenn Ford in “Cowboy,” a gritty western available on Blu-ray by Twilight Time. The movie has a rousing start with titles by Saul Bass accompanied by a title score composed by George Duning, setting the mood for this western directed by Delmer Daves. No stranger to westerns, Daves also directed Ford in “Jubal” and “3:10 to Yuma.” The drama in Daves’ westerns was atypical of the genre and unfolded in a more realistic way with no clearly defined hero or villain in an era where the western followed a typical story pattern with clearly defined depictions of heroism and masculinity. Daves was part of a change which redefined the western in the 50s and in some ways prepared us for the inside-out world of the spaghetti westerns to come in the 1960s.
Frank Harris (Lemmon) is a Chicago hotel...
- 9/16/2019
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
“The Hangover” director Todd Phillips’ revisionist take on the beginnings of the titular Dceu villain, “Joker,” has finally world-premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and the first takes are all over the place. In his review, IndieWire critic David Ehrlich deemed the Joaquin Phoenix-starring thriller as “potentially toxic,” indebted to such incel origin stories as “Taxi Driver.”
However, Phillips’ film apparently lacks the nuance or sensitivity required of such a project in an age of rampant Reddit trollism — especially when it comes to superhero movies, which attract knives-out fanbases ready to go for the jugular (and probably in the comments section of this post). Reactions to the film bode a long season of uncomfortable discourse.
Praise is already being heaped on Phoenix’s hotly anticipated, unhinged turn as a homicidal narcissist, with “a hypnotic and inimitable performance [that] would feel completely new if it didn’t borrow so much from his past work,...
However, Phillips’ film apparently lacks the nuance or sensitivity required of such a project in an age of rampant Reddit trollism — especially when it comes to superhero movies, which attract knives-out fanbases ready to go for the jugular (and probably in the comments section of this post). Reactions to the film bode a long season of uncomfortable discourse.
Praise is already being heaped on Phoenix’s hotly anticipated, unhinged turn as a homicidal narcissist, with “a hypnotic and inimitable performance [that] would feel completely new if it didn’t borrow so much from his past work,...
- 8/31/2019
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
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