When Midnight Cowboy came out in 1969, Miami Herald critic John Huddy heralded its arrival with a string of superlatives: “Staggering, shattering, heartbreaking, hilarious, tragic, raw and absurd.”
Over the years, the ranks of its admirers has only grown, among them documentary filmmaker Nancy Buirski.
“I remember feeling that it was a really radical film,” recalls Buirski, who first saw Midnight Cowboy sometime after its original release. “It felt different from anything I had seen… It was like a gut punch.”
Director Nancy Buirski
Buirski’s documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, now playing in limited release in New York, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Detroit and other cities, digs into the loam that produced such a bleak yet beautiful flower of a film. Midnight Cowboy hit theaters the same year as Hello, Dolly! and Paint Your Wagon but unlike those celluloid larks, John Schlesinger’s film...
Over the years, the ranks of its admirers has only grown, among them documentary filmmaker Nancy Buirski.
“I remember feeling that it was a really radical film,” recalls Buirski, who first saw Midnight Cowboy sometime after its original release. “It felt different from anything I had seen… It was like a gut punch.”
Director Nancy Buirski
Buirski’s documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, now playing in limited release in New York, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Detroit and other cities, digs into the loam that produced such a bleak yet beautiful flower of a film. Midnight Cowboy hit theaters the same year as Hello, Dolly! and Paint Your Wagon but unlike those celluloid larks, John Schlesinger’s film...
- 6/30/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Desperate Souls, Dark City and The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy director Nancy Buirski on Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo: “They become appealing because of these wonderful performances by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman.”
Nancy Buirski’s masterpiece is much more than a documentary on John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy, screenplay by Waldo Salt, shot by Adam Holender, costumes by Ann Roth, and starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman with Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro, Jennifer Salt, and Bob Balaban. Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy, edited by Anthony Ripoli, features on-camera interviews shot by Rex Miller with Lucy Sante, Brian De Palma, Edmund White, Michael Childers, Charles Kaiser, Jim Hoberman, Ian Buruma, Voight, Vaccaro, Balaban, Holender, and Jennifer Salt.
Brenda Vaccaro with John Schlesinger: “Ann Roth saved my life,” says Vaccaro, “by putting me in that fur coat.”
The evocative, wide-ranging, and evermore timely documentary drops us...
Nancy Buirski’s masterpiece is much more than a documentary on John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy, screenplay by Waldo Salt, shot by Adam Holender, costumes by Ann Roth, and starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman with Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro, Jennifer Salt, and Bob Balaban. Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy, edited by Anthony Ripoli, features on-camera interviews shot by Rex Miller with Lucy Sante, Brian De Palma, Edmund White, Michael Childers, Charles Kaiser, Jim Hoberman, Ian Buruma, Voight, Vaccaro, Balaban, Holender, and Jennifer Salt.
Brenda Vaccaro with John Schlesinger: “Ann Roth saved my life,” says Vaccaro, “by putting me in that fur coat.”
The evocative, wide-ranging, and evermore timely documentary drops us...
- 6/26/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Exclusive: Mvd Entertainment Group has claimed North American rights to the darkly comedic thriller Wrong Reasons, marking the feature debut of writer-director Josh Roush. The film, executive produced by and featuring Kevin Smith, is slated for release on digital, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD on August 15.
Hailing from AntiCurrent Productions, Wrong Reasons watches as an ambiguously intentioned masked man (James Parks) kidnaps a drug addicted punk rock singer (Liv Roush) and triggers a police investigation headed by Detective Charles Dobson (Ralph Garman) as well as a media circus. The film also starring Teresa Ruiz, David Koechner, Daniel Roebuck, Smith and Keith Coogan boasts a punk rock soundtrack with music by Tim Armstrong, L7, Black Flag, The Wipers, Channel 3, William Elliott Whitmore, The Unseen, Bi-Product and more.
After world premiering at Smith’s first annual Smodcastle Film Festival in the fall of 2022, the Liv Roush-produced film...
Hailing from AntiCurrent Productions, Wrong Reasons watches as an ambiguously intentioned masked man (James Parks) kidnaps a drug addicted punk rock singer (Liv Roush) and triggers a police investigation headed by Detective Charles Dobson (Ralph Garman) as well as a media circus. The film also starring Teresa Ruiz, David Koechner, Daniel Roebuck, Smith and Keith Coogan boasts a punk rock soundtrack with music by Tim Armstrong, L7, Black Flag, The Wipers, Channel 3, William Elliott Whitmore, The Unseen, Bi-Product and more.
After world premiering at Smith’s first annual Smodcastle Film Festival in the fall of 2022, the Liv Roush-produced film...
- 4/21/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist Films have picked up North American rights to Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy — a new documentary on the making of the iconic John Schlesinger film, from acclaimed documentarian Nancy Buirski (The Loving Story).
Related Story 1091 Pictures Acquires Domestic Distribution Rights To Romantic Drama ‘Under My Skin’ Related Story Locarno Film Festival War Drama 'Tommy Guns' Gets North American Deal Related Story Ralph Fiennes' 'Four Quartets' Gets North American Distribution Deal Ahead Of Stateside Bow At Santa Barbara
Zeitgeist will open the film in North American theaters beginning at New York’s Film Forum in late June and take it nationwide from there, with a digital, educational and home video release on all major platforms via Kino Lorber to follow.
Inspired by Glen Frankel’s 2021 book Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation and the Making of a Dark Classic, Desperate...
Related Story 1091 Pictures Acquires Domestic Distribution Rights To Romantic Drama ‘Under My Skin’ Related Story Locarno Film Festival War Drama 'Tommy Guns' Gets North American Deal Related Story Ralph Fiennes' 'Four Quartets' Gets North American Distribution Deal Ahead Of Stateside Bow At Santa Barbara
Zeitgeist will open the film in North American theaters beginning at New York’s Film Forum in late June and take it nationwide from there, with a digital, educational and home video release on all major platforms via Kino Lorber to follow.
Inspired by Glen Frankel’s 2021 book Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation and the Making of a Dark Classic, Desperate...
- 3/22/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
New Delhi, March 16 (Ians) Patrick French, the biographer of Sir Vidia Naipaul and Francis Younghusband, and Dean of the School of Art and Sciences at Ahmedabad University, passed away on Thursday in London, leaving behind his wife Meru Gokhale and four children.
He was 57 and suffering from cancer.
Reacting to the shocking news, fellow writer and Indophile William Dalrymple tweeted: “Heartbroken to hear about the death of Patrick French, who I have loved and admired since we were both thirteen, and who was the Best Man at my wedding. He was funny & clever & charming, always full of enthusiasm & energy. He was also the greatest biographer of our generation.”
At the time of his death, French was writing a biography of British-Zimbabwean Nobel laureate Doris Lessing.
He first attracted the attention of the world with his authoritative account of the life and adventures of Sir Francis Younghusband, the British explorer and diplomatist who revealed,...
He was 57 and suffering from cancer.
Reacting to the shocking news, fellow writer and Indophile William Dalrymple tweeted: “Heartbroken to hear about the death of Patrick French, who I have loved and admired since we were both thirteen, and who was the Best Man at my wedding. He was funny & clever & charming, always full of enthusiasm & energy. He was also the greatest biographer of our generation.”
At the time of his death, French was writing a biography of British-Zimbabwean Nobel laureate Doris Lessing.
He first attracted the attention of the world with his authoritative account of the life and adventures of Sir Francis Younghusband, the British explorer and diplomatist who revealed,...
- 3/16/2023
- by News Bureau
- GlamSham
New Delhi, March 16 (Ians) Patrick French, the biographer of Sir Vidia Naipaul and Francis Younghusband, and Dean of the School of Art and Sciences at Ahmedabad University, passed away on Thursday in London, leaving behind his wife Meru Gokhale and four children.
He was 57 and suffering from cancer.
Reacting to the shocking news, fellow writer and Indophile William Dalrymple tweeted: “Heartbroken to hear about the death of Patrick French, who I have loved and admired since we were both thirteen, and who was the Best Man at my wedding. He was funny & clever & charming, always full of enthusiasm & energy. He was also the greatest biographer of our generation.”
At the time of his death, French was writing a biography of British-Zimbabwean Nobel laureate Doris Lessing.
He first attracted the attention of the world with his authoritative account of the life and adventures of Sir Francis Younghusband, the British explorer and diplomatist who revealed,...
He was 57 and suffering from cancer.
Reacting to the shocking news, fellow writer and Indophile William Dalrymple tweeted: “Heartbroken to hear about the death of Patrick French, who I have loved and admired since we were both thirteen, and who was the Best Man at my wedding. He was funny & clever & charming, always full of enthusiasm & energy. He was also the greatest biographer of our generation.”
At the time of his death, French was writing a biography of British-Zimbabwean Nobel laureate Doris Lessing.
He first attracted the attention of the world with his authoritative account of the life and adventures of Sir Francis Younghusband, the British explorer and diplomatist who revealed,...
- 3/16/2023
- by News Bureau
- GlamSham
Click here to read the full article.
A hot trend in publishing these days is to write an entire book about the making of one seminal movie. In the last few years there have been books about West Side Story (the 1961 Oscar winner, not the Spielberg remake), The Wild Bunch, Chinatown and The Godfather, to name a few. Glenn Frankel, who wrote earlier books about the making of High Noon and The Searchers, followed up last year with Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic. Now that book has in turn inspired a new documentary by Nancy Buirski, which is playing in both Venice and Tellurida.
Although a 101-minute movie will never have the breadth or depth of a 340-page book, Buirski’s film does have the advantage of providing revealing on-camera interviews with several of the movie’s principals, including actors Jon Voight,...
A hot trend in publishing these days is to write an entire book about the making of one seminal movie. In the last few years there have been books about West Side Story (the 1961 Oscar winner, not the Spielberg remake), The Wild Bunch, Chinatown and The Godfather, to name a few. Glenn Frankel, who wrote earlier books about the making of High Noon and The Searchers, followed up last year with Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic. Now that book has in turn inspired a new documentary by Nancy Buirski, which is playing in both Venice and Tellurida.
Although a 101-minute movie will never have the breadth or depth of a 340-page book, Buirski’s film does have the advantage of providing revealing on-camera interviews with several of the movie’s principals, including actors Jon Voight,...
- 9/2/2022
- by Stephen Farber
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber releases the film in select theaters on Friday, June 23.
Perhaps the most explicit and emotionally intense film of the New Hollywood era — and yet in its “Odd Couple” theme and wistful sensibility a profoundly Old Hollywood film, too — “Midnight Cowboy” remains littered with contradictions. Gay and tender, its representation of sex is vile. It’s nostalgic and hopeless; a celebration of the counter-culture and, seemingly, an indictment of its decadence. All that makes Nancy Buirski’s new documentary about its production and legacy more interesting.
Not that “Midnight Cowboy” isn’t already fruitful subject matter. James Leo Herlihy’s radical 1965 novel was picked up by British kitchen sink filmmaker John Schlesinger, who related to its themes of repressed homosexuality, loneliness, victimhood and how our identities are, in truth, whatever we want them to be.
Perhaps the most explicit and emotionally intense film of the New Hollywood era — and yet in its “Odd Couple” theme and wistful sensibility a profoundly Old Hollywood film, too — “Midnight Cowboy” remains littered with contradictions. Gay and tender, its representation of sex is vile. It’s nostalgic and hopeless; a celebration of the counter-culture and, seemingly, an indictment of its decadence. All that makes Nancy Buirski’s new documentary about its production and legacy more interesting.
Not that “Midnight Cowboy” isn’t already fruitful subject matter. James Leo Herlihy’s radical 1965 novel was picked up by British kitchen sink filmmaker John Schlesinger, who related to its themes of repressed homosexuality, loneliness, victimhood and how our identities are, in truth, whatever we want them to be.
- 9/1/2022
- by Adam Solomons
- Indiewire
The New York Review of Books former top editor is speaking out after being ousted from his job for publishing an essay by MeToo man Jian Ghomeshi.
In remarks to the Dutch magazine Vrij Nederland, Ian Buruma says he was the victim of a Twitter mob that punished him without due process.
“It is rather ironic: as editor of The New York Review of Books I published a theme issue about #MeToo-offenders who had not been convicted in a court of law but by social media. And now I myself am publicly pilloried,” he told the publication. “I have now myself been convicted on Twitter, without any due process.”
Also Read: New York Review of Books Editor Out After Publishing #MeToo Essay
Buruma did not respond to multiple requests for comment from TheWrap over the issue.
Things began to go south for Buruma after he published the piece by Ghomeshi “Reflections from a Hashtag.
In remarks to the Dutch magazine Vrij Nederland, Ian Buruma says he was the victim of a Twitter mob that punished him without due process.
“It is rather ironic: as editor of The New York Review of Books I published a theme issue about #MeToo-offenders who had not been convicted in a court of law but by social media. And now I myself am publicly pilloried,” he told the publication. “I have now myself been convicted on Twitter, without any due process.”
Also Read: New York Review of Books Editor Out After Publishing #MeToo Essay
Buruma did not respond to multiple requests for comment from TheWrap over the issue.
Things began to go south for Buruma after he published the piece by Ghomeshi “Reflections from a Hashtag.
- 9/21/2018
- by Jon Levine
- The Wrap
Ian Buruma, the top editor of The New York Review of Books, has left his post in the wake of his defense of publishing an essay by disgraced Canadian ex-radio host Jian Ghomeshi.
The exit follows a similar, widely criticized radio defense by the publisher of Harper’s magazine of a piece written by accused #MeToo perpetrator John Hockenberry.
The Ghomeshi piece is billed on the cover of the august periodical’s current issue, which explores the theme “The Fall of Men.” Headlined “Reflections From a Hashtag,” the essay aims to shed light on the fate of men who have been accused of misdeeds and the reputational price they pay in the #MeToo era. Ghomeshi is known for co-founding the Canadian public radio show Q, a Fresh Air-like program featuring interviews with a cross-section of cultural and political figures. It airs nightly in New York on Wnyc and on dozens of other U.
The exit follows a similar, widely criticized radio defense by the publisher of Harper’s magazine of a piece written by accused #MeToo perpetrator John Hockenberry.
The Ghomeshi piece is billed on the cover of the august periodical’s current issue, which explores the theme “The Fall of Men.” Headlined “Reflections From a Hashtag,” the essay aims to shed light on the fate of men who have been accused of misdeeds and the reputational price they pay in the #MeToo era. Ghomeshi is known for co-founding the Canadian public radio show Q, a Fresh Air-like program featuring interviews with a cross-section of cultural and political figures. It airs nightly in New York on Wnyc and on dozens of other U.
- 9/19/2018
- by Dade Hayes and Dawn C. Chmielewski
- Deadline Film + TV
New York Review of Books editor Ian Buruma exited his duties on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the company told TheWrap. Another individual familiar with the matter said the company was preparing to issue a statement.
The departure comes just days after Buruma published an essay from former Canadian radio personality Jian Ghomeshi, whose career imploded after he faced multiple accusations of sexual misconduct in 2014.
In the piece, “Reflections from a Hashtag” Ghomeshi broadly defended himself and noted that he had been acquitted of all criminal charges stemming from the accusations.
Also Read: Tomi Lahren Admits: I Kicked My Dog 5 Times During Live 'Fox & Friends' Appearance (Video)
“Several months later, after a very public trial, I was cleared on all counts. One of the charges was separated and later withdrawn with a peace bond–a pledge to be on good behavior for a year. There was no criminal trial,” he said.
The departure comes just days after Buruma published an essay from former Canadian radio personality Jian Ghomeshi, whose career imploded after he faced multiple accusations of sexual misconduct in 2014.
In the piece, “Reflections from a Hashtag” Ghomeshi broadly defended himself and noted that he had been acquitted of all criminal charges stemming from the accusations.
Also Read: Tomi Lahren Admits: I Kicked My Dog 5 Times During Live 'Fox & Friends' Appearance (Video)
“Several months later, after a very public trial, I was cleared on all counts. One of the charges was separated and later withdrawn with a peace bond–a pledge to be on good behavior for a year. There was no criminal trial,” he said.
- 9/19/2018
- by Jon Levine
- The Wrap
Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang Netflix Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B Director: Kevin Macdonald Written by: Kevin Macdonald Cast: Cai Guo-Qiang, Ian Buruma, Cai Wen-You, Cai Wenhao, Ben Davis, Jeffrey Deitch, Phil Grucci, Thomas Krens, Tatsumi Masatoshi, Orville Schell, Jennifer Wen Ma, Hong Hong Wu Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 9/22/16 Opens: October 14, 2016 China looks a lot different now from what I saw when I visited the world’s most populated country in 1975. At that time Shanghai was a dowdy city, one that would be considered a backwater when compared to the glittering premier cities of Europe. Its “Fifth Avenue” equivalent was dark, even [ Read More ]
The post Sky Ladder Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Sky Ladder Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 10/10/2016
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
It's important to not only view a film in the context of current societal norms, but when viewing older films it's just as important to think of them in the context of how it would have been perceived when it was originally released. This is easy enough when it comes to visual effects, but when it comes to societal norms and thematic material it's importance goes beyond what's visually believable. Released in 1971 on the heels of the unanticipated success of Midnight Cowboy, John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday centers on a trio of Londoners. Daniel Hirsh (Peter Finch) is a middle-aged, Jewish doctor, Alex (Glenda Jackson) is a thirty-something divorcee and between the two is Bob (Murray Head), a young artist who is sleeping with both of them. Bob isn't keeping his love affair secret from either Daniel or Alex, both of which do their best to understand while craving his attention and affection.
- 10/24/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Oct. 23, 2012
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Glenda Jackson stands between Peter Finch (l.) and Murray Head--or does she?--in Sunday Bloody Sunday.
British filmmaker John Schlesinger followed his Academy Award–winning 1969 film Midnight Cowboy with 1971’s Sunday Bloody Sunday, a sophisticated and highly personal drama about love and sex.
Sunday Bloody Sunday depicts the romantic lives of two Londoners—a middle-aged doctor (Peter Finch, Network) and a prickly thirty-something divorcée (Glenda Jackson, Women in Love) —who are sleeping with the same handsome young artist (Murray Head, TV’s Heartbeat).
Written by novelist and critic Penelope Gilliatt, the R-rated Sunday Bloody Sunday was considered to be quite a racy revelation way back when. Looking back on the film now, it’s definitely one of the 1970s’ most intelligent, multi-textured films about the complexities of romantic relationships.
The Criterion Blu-ray and DVD editions of the film contains...
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Glenda Jackson stands between Peter Finch (l.) and Murray Head--or does she?--in Sunday Bloody Sunday.
British filmmaker John Schlesinger followed his Academy Award–winning 1969 film Midnight Cowboy with 1971’s Sunday Bloody Sunday, a sophisticated and highly personal drama about love and sex.
Sunday Bloody Sunday depicts the romantic lives of two Londoners—a middle-aged doctor (Peter Finch, Network) and a prickly thirty-something divorcée (Glenda Jackson, Women in Love) —who are sleeping with the same handsome young artist (Murray Head, TV’s Heartbeat).
Written by novelist and critic Penelope Gilliatt, the R-rated Sunday Bloody Sunday was considered to be quite a racy revelation way back when. Looking back on the film now, it’s definitely one of the 1970s’ most intelligent, multi-textured films about the complexities of romantic relationships.
The Criterion Blu-ray and DVD editions of the film contains...
- 7/20/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Are Up in the Air, Avatar, The Hurt Locker and Precious really good films? Is it at all possible to see them at this point divorced from their hype? By sitting down to them, can they really make us forget everything we have ever heard about them? Fortunately, there is one filmmaker who can do that.
If you're lucky enough to live in London (or to be vacationing there in the next month), you will be able to see a nice selection of the films of Yasujiro Ozu, including extended runs of Tokyo Story (1953) and Late Autumn (1960), at the BFI. Most cinema buffs have at least heard of Tokyo Story, which is generally cited as one of the ten best films ever made, but once you dive deeper into Ozu's work, it's hard to understand why just that one film should be singled out; they're all great. Yet Ozu has always been a hard sell,...
If you're lucky enough to live in London (or to be vacationing there in the next month), you will be able to see a nice selection of the films of Yasujiro Ozu, including extended runs of Tokyo Story (1953) and Late Autumn (1960), at the BFI. Most cinema buffs have at least heard of Tokyo Story, which is generally cited as one of the ten best films ever made, but once you dive deeper into Ozu's work, it's hard to understand why just that one film should be singled out; they're all great. Yet Ozu has always been a hard sell,...
- 1/11/2010
- by Jeffrey M. Anderson
- Cinematical
Of the films made during Japan's cinematic golden age, those of Yasujiro Ozu are seen as most typically Japanese. But as studies in character and domestic life, they are universal, argues Ian Buruma, and they reveal beauty where we don't usually look for it
Akira Kurosawa made great samurai films. Kenji Mizoguchi filmed the lives of courtesans and geishas with the feel of classical Japanese painting. Yasujiro Ozu made films about middle-class families in Tokyo. Of these three masters of Japan's cinematic golden age, which lasted from the 1930s till the 1960s, Ozu is considered to be the most typically Japanese. So much so that Japanese producers refused at first to release his films abroad. Foreigners wouldn't understand. They might laugh at Japanese in business suits sipping green tea on tatami mat floors. They wouldn't get the subtlety of Japanese family relations. Ozu's style would surely strike action-loving westerners as boring and slow.
Akira Kurosawa made great samurai films. Kenji Mizoguchi filmed the lives of courtesans and geishas with the feel of classical Japanese painting. Yasujiro Ozu made films about middle-class families in Tokyo. Of these three masters of Japan's cinematic golden age, which lasted from the 1930s till the 1960s, Ozu is considered to be the most typically Japanese. So much so that Japanese producers refused at first to release his films abroad. Foreigners wouldn't understand. They might laugh at Japanese in business suits sipping green tea on tatami mat floors. They wouldn't get the subtlety of Japanese family relations. Ozu's style would surely strike action-loving westerners as boring and slow.
- 1/9/2010
- by Ian Buruma
- The Guardian - Film News
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