A central figure in French cinema, Bertrand Tavernier has an encyclopedic knowledge of the craft of filmmaking akin to the likes of Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. The sense of history he possesses is seen in both his narrative and documentary, the latter of which is perhaps best exemplified in his recent film My Journey Through French Cinema. Clocking in at 3.5 hours, that 2016 documentary has now received a follow-up expansion with an eight-part series and we’re pleased to debut the U.S. trailer.
Titled Journeys Through French Cinema, the director-writer-actor-producer explores the filmmakers that most influenced him, how the cinema of France changed when the country was German occupation, the unknown films and filmmakers he admires (with a focus on female directors), and much more. From better-known filmmakers such as Jacques Tati, Robert Bresson, and Jacques Demy to ones in need of (re)discovery such as Raymond Bernard, Maurice Turner,...
Titled Journeys Through French Cinema, the director-writer-actor-producer explores the filmmakers that most influenced him, how the cinema of France changed when the country was German occupation, the unknown films and filmmakers he admires (with a focus on female directors), and much more. From better-known filmmakers such as Jacques Tati, Robert Bresson, and Jacques Demy to ones in need of (re)discovery such as Raymond Bernard, Maurice Turner,...
- 12/27/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Welcome to a pair of vintage mysteries with George Simenon’s popular Inspector Jules Maigret, a gumshoe who gets the tough cases. Top kick French actor Jean Gabin is the cop who keeps cool, until it’s time to rattle a recalcitrant suspect. In two separate cases, he tracks a serial killer in the heart of Paris, and travels to his hometown to unearth a murder conspiracy.
Maigret Sets a Trap
and
Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case
Blu-ray (separate releases)
Kino Classics
1958, 1959 / B&W /1:37 flat; 1:66 widescreen / 118, 101 min. / Street Date December 5, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber: Trap, St. Fiacre / 29.95 ea.
Starring: Jean Gabin, Annie Girardot, Jean Desailly, Olivier Hussenot, Lucienne Bogaert, Paulette Dubost, Lino Ventura, Dominique Page / Jean Gabin, Michel Auclair, Valentine Tessier, Michel Vitold, Camille Guérini, Gabrielle Fontan, Micheline Luccioni, Jacques Marin, Paul Frankeur, Robert Hirsch.
Cinematography: Louis Page
Film Editor: Henri Taverna
Original Music: Paul Misraki...
Maigret Sets a Trap
and
Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case
Blu-ray (separate releases)
Kino Classics
1958, 1959 / B&W /1:37 flat; 1:66 widescreen / 118, 101 min. / Street Date December 5, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber: Trap, St. Fiacre / 29.95 ea.
Starring: Jean Gabin, Annie Girardot, Jean Desailly, Olivier Hussenot, Lucienne Bogaert, Paulette Dubost, Lino Ventura, Dominique Page / Jean Gabin, Michel Auclair, Valentine Tessier, Michel Vitold, Camille Guérini, Gabrielle Fontan, Micheline Luccioni, Jacques Marin, Paul Frankeur, Robert Hirsch.
Cinematography: Louis Page
Film Editor: Henri Taverna
Original Music: Paul Misraki...
- 12/9/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Michael Ballhaus, the German director of photography known for his mastery of camera movement and his partnerships with directors Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Martin Scorsese, has died. One of the most remarkable cinematographers of his generation, Ballhaus brought the expressive and fluid camera of the classic studio long take—exemplified by director Max Ophüls, a family friend—into the strange new world of lightweight dolly tracks, zoom lenses, and Steadicam, and in the process created some of the most iconic and breathtaking shots of the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. He was 81.
Born into a well-known family of stage actors, Ballhaus developed an early interest in photography, but didn’t catch the film bug until the age of 19, when he was invited to the set of Ophüls’ final masterpiece, Lola Montès. (He appears in the film as an extra.) The experience inspired him to become a cinematographer, and he ...
Born into a well-known family of stage actors, Ballhaus developed an early interest in photography, but didn’t catch the film bug until the age of 19, when he was invited to the set of Ophüls’ final masterpiece, Lola Montès. (He appears in the film as an extra.) The experience inspired him to become a cinematographer, and he ...
- 4/13/2017
- by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
- avclub.com
The Barefoot Contessa
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1954 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien, Marius Goring, Rossano Brazzi, Valentina Cortese, Elizabeth Sellars, Warren Stevens, Enzo Staiola, Mari Aldon, Bessie Love.
Cinematography: Jack Cardiff
Original Music: Mario Nascimbene
Written, Produced and Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
As a teenager, many of my first and strongest movie impressions came not from the movies, but from certain critics. I memorized Robin Wood’s analysis before getting a look at Hitchcock’s Psycho. Raymond Durgnat introduced me to Georges Franju and Luis Buñuel, and I first learned to appreciate a number of great movies including The Barefoot Contessa from Richard Corliss, a terrific critic who championed writers over director-auteurs.
The Barefoot Contessa is a classically structured story, in that it could work as a novel; it’s told from several points of view.
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1954 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien, Marius Goring, Rossano Brazzi, Valentina Cortese, Elizabeth Sellars, Warren Stevens, Enzo Staiola, Mari Aldon, Bessie Love.
Cinematography: Jack Cardiff
Original Music: Mario Nascimbene
Written, Produced and Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
As a teenager, many of my first and strongest movie impressions came not from the movies, but from certain critics. I memorized Robin Wood’s analysis before getting a look at Hitchcock’s Psycho. Raymond Durgnat introduced me to Georges Franju and Luis Buñuel, and I first learned to appreciate a number of great movies including The Barefoot Contessa from Richard Corliss, a terrific critic who championed writers over director-auteurs.
The Barefoot Contessa is a classically structured story, in that it could work as a novel; it’s told from several points of view.
- 1/6/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Mubi is showing Max Ophüls' Liebelei (1933) from November 9 - December 8, 2016 in most countries around the world.While the primary players in Max Ophüls’ 1933 film Liebelei may be introduced at the same opera house, seeing the same performance of Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio,” the real drama is produced away from the stage, though it is rarely any less histrionic. As secretive private passions and illicit romances are revealed, so softly and elegantly in what would become the presentational norm for Ophüls, a genuinely pure, ultimately heartbreaking, relationship emerges from the scandalous furor. When philandering German Lieutenant Fritz Lobheimer (Wolfgang Liebeneiner) meets and falls for Christine Weyring (Magda Schneider), the daughter of an opera musician, he is commendably quick to break off his essentially lustful involvement with the adulterous Baroness von Eggersdorff (Olga Tschechowa). Unlike Arthur Schnitzler’s source play (Schnitzler, who would also provide the foundation for Ophüls’ excellent 1950 film,...
- 11/29/2016
- MUBI
Since any New York cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Metrograph
You’ve read of Rainer Werner Fassbinder‘s ten favorite films — now you can see them. The German titan’s beloved titles are celebrated in a new series: Johnny Guitar screens this Friday; Saturday offers Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Night of the Hunter, and the rarely seen The Red Snowball Tree; on Sunday, one can...
Metrograph
You’ve read of Rainer Werner Fassbinder‘s ten favorite films — now you can see them. The German titan’s beloved titles are celebrated in a new series: Johnny Guitar screens this Friday; Saturday offers Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Night of the Hunter, and the rarely seen The Red Snowball Tree; on Sunday, one can...
- 4/22/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
What better way to reach episode fifty than to be joined by one of the most foremost and respected film critics and theorists of her generation, to discuss Max Ophuls’ La signora di tutti we are honored to have Laura Mulvey join us. We hope you enjoy!
From Masters of Cinema:
With the Nazi terror on the ascent, master filmmaker Max Ophuls fled to Italy in 1934 and made La signora di tutti [Everybody’s Lady] — an exuberant, desperate melodrama that, although arriving early in Ophuls’ body of work, ranks comfortably alongside Letter from an Unknown Woman, Madame de…, or Lola Montès in the hierarchy of the director’s achievements.
Isa Miranda, one of Italy’s greatest stars, plays the role of a star revisiting her life in flashback after a suicide attempt leaves her comatose. From the record revolving on a turntable in the picture’s opening moments, Ophuls sets into motion one...
From Masters of Cinema:
With the Nazi terror on the ascent, master filmmaker Max Ophuls fled to Italy in 1934 and made La signora di tutti [Everybody’s Lady] — an exuberant, desperate melodrama that, although arriving early in Ophuls’ body of work, ranks comfortably alongside Letter from an Unknown Woman, Madame de…, or Lola Montès in the hierarchy of the director’s achievements.
Isa Miranda, one of Italy’s greatest stars, plays the role of a star revisiting her life in flashback after a suicide attempt leaves her comatose. From the record revolving on a turntable in the picture’s opening moments, Ophuls sets into motion one...
- 3/24/2016
- by Tom Jennings
- CriterionCast
Each week, the fine folks at Fandor add a number of films to their Criterion Picks area, which will then be available to subscribers for the following twelve days. This week, the Criterion Picks focus on nine films where some of the most famous directors in the Criterion Collection first directed a feature in color.
Saturate yourself in the vivid stylings of some of our favorite directors, wielding a whole new spectrum of expression for the very first time.
Don’t have a Fandor subscription? They offer a free trial membership.
Dodes’ka-den, the Japanese Drama by Akira Kurosawa
The unforgettable Dodes’Ka-den was made at a tumultuous moment in Kurosawa’s life. And all of his hopes, fears and artistic passion are on fervent display in this, his gloriously shot first color film.
Equinox Flower, the Japanese Drama by Yasujirô Ozu
Later in his career, Yasujiro Ozu started becoming...
Saturate yourself in the vivid stylings of some of our favorite directors, wielding a whole new spectrum of expression for the very first time.
Don’t have a Fandor subscription? They offer a free trial membership.
Dodes’ka-den, the Japanese Drama by Akira Kurosawa
The unforgettable Dodes’Ka-den was made at a tumultuous moment in Kurosawa’s life. And all of his hopes, fears and artistic passion are on fervent display in this, his gloriously shot first color film.
Equinox Flower, the Japanese Drama by Yasujirô Ozu
Later in his career, Yasujiro Ozu started becoming...
- 1/26/2016
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Got your Summer film calendar planned yet? On Wednesday The Academy announced their May and June programs which will explore the past, present and especially the future of moviegoing, as the availability of a wide variety of platforms for viewing films alters the habits of today’s audiences.
“The New Audience: Moviegoing in a Connected World,” a live panel presentation on May 12, complements “This Is Widescreen,” an eight-week screening series beginning May 1 that illustrates one of the ways filmmakers more than a half-century ago responded to the competition of that era, television.
The New Audience: Moviegoing In A Connected World
Tuesday, May 12│7:30 P.M.│Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Beverly Hills
Moderator Krista Smith, Vanity Fair’s executive West Coast editor, will lead an onstage panel discussion of how filmmakers and studios seek to take advantage of the wide variety of viewing platforms available to contemporary audiences.
Scheduled guests include Walt...
“The New Audience: Moviegoing in a Connected World,” a live panel presentation on May 12, complements “This Is Widescreen,” an eight-week screening series beginning May 1 that illustrates one of the ways filmmakers more than a half-century ago responded to the competition of that era, television.
The New Audience: Moviegoing In A Connected World
Tuesday, May 12│7:30 P.M.│Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Beverly Hills
Moderator Krista Smith, Vanity Fair’s executive West Coast editor, will lead an onstage panel discussion of how filmmakers and studios seek to take advantage of the wide variety of viewing platforms available to contemporary audiences.
Scheduled guests include Walt...
- 4/23/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The title invokes tragedies already over and done: "From Mayerling to Sarajevo," a range of time spanning from the suicide of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria in Mayerling, a death that eventually made Archduke Franz Ferdinand the next heir to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, to the assassination of the Archduke in the Bosnian capital, precipitating the First World War.The title invokes a range of cities spanning countries. The director of From Mayerling to Sarajevo, a 1940 picture revived in a new print by The Film Desk and opening at New York’s Film Forum on March 27, is Max Ophüls, himself a roving vagabond auteur, born in Germany and making films not only there but in the Netherlands, Italy, Hollywood, and France, where this film was made on the precipice of the Second World War and the beginning of a new kind of German-speaking empire.The films of Max Ophüls survive beautiful and aphoristic,...
- 3/26/2015
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Caught
Directed by Max Ophüls
Written by Arthur Laurents
USA, 1949
Max Ophüls’ third feature in America, Caught, from 1949, is an evocative amalgam of a domesticated melodramatic tragedy and a dynamic film noir sensibility. The picture stars Barbara Bel Geddes as Leonora Eames, a studious adherent to charm school principles who dreams of becoming a glamorous model, or at least marrying a young, handsome millionaire. She gets the latter when she meets Smith Ohlrig (Robert Ryan), a wealthy “international something” who gives her the superficial materials she desires but little else. Their marriage is an arduous sham. He works late hours on unclear projects while she is left to dwell uselessly in their extravagant mansion. He’s cruel to her and careless. A way out of the stifling relationship comes in the form of a job as a doctor’s receptionist. Leonora leaves Ohlrig and moves into Manhattan, where she eventually...
Directed by Max Ophüls
Written by Arthur Laurents
USA, 1949
Max Ophüls’ third feature in America, Caught, from 1949, is an evocative amalgam of a domesticated melodramatic tragedy and a dynamic film noir sensibility. The picture stars Barbara Bel Geddes as Leonora Eames, a studious adherent to charm school principles who dreams of becoming a glamorous model, or at least marrying a young, handsome millionaire. She gets the latter when she meets Smith Ohlrig (Robert Ryan), a wealthy “international something” who gives her the superficial materials she desires but little else. Their marriage is an arduous sham. He works late hours on unclear projects while she is left to dwell uselessly in their extravagant mansion. He’s cruel to her and careless. A way out of the stifling relationship comes in the form of a job as a doctor’s receptionist. Leonora leaves Ohlrig and moves into Manhattan, where she eventually...
- 7/9/2014
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
Above: a first look at Willem Dafoe in Abel Ferrara's Pasolini. In Film Comment, Kent Jones has published an incredible piece entitled "Critical Condition", in which he examines our limited critical views on cinema:
"The point is not to claim that film criticism took a wrong turn in the Fifties and Sixties. The auteurist idea at its most basic (that movies are primarily the creation of one governing author behind the camera who thinks in images and sounds rather than words and sentences) is now the default setting in most considerations of moviemaking, and for that we should all be thankful. We’d be nowhere without auteurism, which boasts a proud history: the lovers of cinema didn’t just argue for its inclusion among the fine arts, but actually stood up, waved its flag, and proclaimed its glory without shame. In that sense, it stands as a truly remarkable...
"The point is not to claim that film criticism took a wrong turn in the Fifties and Sixties. The auteurist idea at its most basic (that movies are primarily the creation of one governing author behind the camera who thinks in images and sounds rather than words and sentences) is now the default setting in most considerations of moviemaking, and for that we should all be thankful. We’d be nowhere without auteurism, which boasts a proud history: the lovers of cinema didn’t just argue for its inclusion among the fine arts, but actually stood up, waved its flag, and proclaimed its glory without shame. In that sense, it stands as a truly remarkable...
- 3/12/2014
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
German filmmaker Max Ophüls directed such acclaimed titles as The Earrings of Madame de... and La Ronde, but his last film, Lola Montès, stands out from the rest. For one, it's the only Technicolor movie he made, with vibrant colors popping on the screen. Secondly, the flashback technique he chose to use in this film irked his production company so that they altered the cut shown to audiences in 1956. In recent years, a cut much closer to Ophüls' original vision has been restored and released to the public. Finally, Lola Montes has all the best qualities of an Ophüls film -- in CinemaScope.
This fictionalization of the life of historic figure Montes, an Irish dancer/courtesan who enchanted such men as Franz Liszt and King Ludwig I, has a ringmaster (Peter Ustinov, speaking French!) as a sort of narrator, with Ms. Montes (Martine Carol) walking a tightrope and performing death-defying...
This fictionalization of the life of historic figure Montes, an Irish dancer/courtesan who enchanted such men as Franz Liszt and King Ludwig I, has a ringmaster (Peter Ustinov, speaking French!) as a sort of narrator, with Ms. Montes (Martine Carol) walking a tightrope and performing death-defying...
- 6/26/2013
- by Elizabeth Stoddard
- Slackerwood
After numerous viewings I'm happy to call Max Ophüls's Madame de…, made in 1953 and re-released in a new print, flawless. Ophüls returned from his extended Hollywood exile (which had resulted in four postwar films) to direct four stylish French movies, all with period settings. Made between Le Plaisir, his Maupassant portmanteau picture, and his final film, Lola Montès, this penultimate masterpiece stars Danielle Darrieux as a wilful French countess in fin-de-siècle Paris who falls in love with an Italian diplomat (Vittorio De Sica). The witty plot follows a pair of earrings given her by the Count (Charles Boyer) that pass from hand to hand. It's full of characteristically graceful tracking shots, the editing is superb, and in her third consecutive Ophüls film Darrieux has never looked more entrancing.
DramaWorld cinemaPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this...
DramaWorld cinemaPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this...
- 2/17/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Joe Wright's Anna Karenina explores theatrical space, while his spectacular trains venture into uncharted territory with beautiful and troubling women on board. A little Max Ophüls' Lola Montès, a little Aleksandr Sokurov's Russian Ark, puppets, ships as beds, breathtaking Chanel jewels and very modern physicality, choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, merge in Wright's unafraid vision.
When I spoke with the director in New York last week about his formidable approach to Anna Karenina with a luminous Keira Knightley in the title role, he said that for him, "it's about being human. It's a deeply spiritual text." In my interview with Knightley, during which we looked into the symbolism of costume design, she revealed that when she first read Tolstoy's novel as a teenager, she was "getting very bored in the agricultural Levin bits [best friend of Anna's brother, sensitive landowner, and often...
When I spoke with the director in New York last week about his formidable approach to Anna Karenina with a luminous Keira Knightley in the title role, he said that for him, "it's about being human. It's a deeply spiritual text." In my interview with Knightley, during which we looked into the symbolism of costume design, she revealed that when she first read Tolstoy's novel as a teenager, she was "getting very bored in the agricultural Levin bits [best friend of Anna's brother, sensitive landowner, and often...
- 11/15/2012
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
By setting much of Tolstoy's masterpiece inside a theatre, Joe Wright both dazzles and distances the viewer
Tom Stoppard, a fluent and sensitive adaptor, has made a distinguished job of carving a workable screenplay from Tolstoy's 950-page novel, and Joe Wright has found a distinctive way of bringing it to the screen with Keira Knightley as Anna, Jude Law as her middle-aged, cuckolded husband, Karenin, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as her dashing lover, Count Vronsky. The last serious attempt to film Anna Karenina was by Bernard Rose in 1997, a lumbering work shot largely on Russian locations in the style of Dr Zhivago, with Sophie Marceau hopelessly inadequate as Anna, James Fox inexpressive as Karenin and Sean Bean virile in a rather unaristocratic way as Vronsky.
Having felt with some justification that he hadn't done justice to this towering masterpiece, Rose subsequently set about making innovative, low-budget versions of lesser Tolstoy fictions.
Tom Stoppard, a fluent and sensitive adaptor, has made a distinguished job of carving a workable screenplay from Tolstoy's 950-page novel, and Joe Wright has found a distinctive way of bringing it to the screen with Keira Knightley as Anna, Jude Law as her middle-aged, cuckolded husband, Karenin, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as her dashing lover, Count Vronsky. The last serious attempt to film Anna Karenina was by Bernard Rose in 1997, a lumbering work shot largely on Russian locations in the style of Dr Zhivago, with Sophie Marceau hopelessly inadequate as Anna, James Fox inexpressive as Karenin and Sean Bean virile in a rather unaristocratic way as Vronsky.
Having felt with some justification that he hadn't done justice to this towering masterpiece, Rose subsequently set about making innovative, low-budget versions of lesser Tolstoy fictions.
- 9/8/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Above, Andrew Sarris’ handwritten Top 10 List from 1962, the first year the poll was devised: Ugetsu Monogatari (1953), Lola Montès (1955), La Règle du jeu [The Rules of the Game] (1939), L’Atalante (1934), The Great Dictator (1940), The Magnificent Ambersons...
- 8/1/2012
- by Ryan Adams
- AwardsDaily.com
French actor best known for her role in Jean Renoir's 1939 masterpiece The Rules of the Game
Although Paulette Dubost, who has died aged 100, appeared in far more films than the number of years she lived, most cinemagoers know her best as Lisette, the coquettish chambermaid in Jean Renoir's La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game, 1939), one of cinema's masterpieces. Lisette, who attends the Marquis de la Chesnaye during a lavish weekend party at a country chateau, flirts dangerously with a poacher turned servant (Julian Carette), while her overly jealous gamekeeper husband (Gaston Modot) tries to catch them at it.
Dubost and Carette play a deliciously sly and comic cat-and-mouse game with the absurdly rigid Modot, especially during the after-dinner entertainment, a breathtaking sequence, described by the critic Richard Roud as something from "a Marx brothers film scripted by a Feydeau who suddenly acquired a tragic sense...
Although Paulette Dubost, who has died aged 100, appeared in far more films than the number of years she lived, most cinemagoers know her best as Lisette, the coquettish chambermaid in Jean Renoir's La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game, 1939), one of cinema's masterpieces. Lisette, who attends the Marquis de la Chesnaye during a lavish weekend party at a country chateau, flirts dangerously with a poacher turned servant (Julian Carette), while her overly jealous gamekeeper husband (Gaston Modot) tries to catch them at it.
Dubost and Carette play a deliciously sly and comic cat-and-mouse game with the absurdly rigid Modot, especially during the after-dinner entertainment, a breathtaking sequence, described by the critic Richard Roud as something from "a Marx brothers film scripted by a Feydeau who suddenly acquired a tragic sense...
- 9/30/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Paulette Dubost, known as the "Dean of French Cinema," and an actress in films directed by Jean Renoir, Marcel L'Herbier, Jacques Tourneur, Julien Duvivier, Max Ophüls, Preston Sturges, François Truffaut, Louis Malle, and Marcel Carné, died of "natural causes" on Sept. 21 in the Parisian suburb of Longjumeau. The Paris-born Dubost had turned 100 years old on October 8, 2010. Dubost's show business career began at the age of seven, performing various duties at the Paris Opera. Following some stage training, her film debut took place in 1931 in Wilhelm Thiele's Le bal, which also marked the film debut of Danielle Darrieux (who's still around and still active). Ultimately, Dubost's film career was to span more than seven decades, during which time she was featured in over 140 movies. She is probably best remembered as the adulterous chambermaid Lisette in Jean Renoir's 1939 comedy-drama La règle du jeu / The Rules of the Game, considered by...
- 9/25/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Dec 14, 2010
The Earrings of Madame de . . . is one of the four films – all made in the 1950s shortly before his death—that constitute the highest expression of Max Ophüls's personal style. Along with La ronde, Le plaisir, and Lola Montès, the film combines all the technical ingredients and thematic concerns that had preoccupied Ophüls throughout his rather "up and down" career. Foremost among these interests, of course, was the intricate blending of complex, dazzling camera work with the themes of mankind's obsession with material objects – and a kind of poignant romanticism ...Read more at MovieRetriever.com...
The Earrings of Madame de . . . is one of the four films – all made in the 1950s shortly before his death—that constitute the highest expression of Max Ophüls's personal style. Along with La ronde, Le plaisir, and Lola Montès, the film combines all the technical ingredients and thematic concerns that had preoccupied Ophüls throughout his rather "up and down" career. Foremost among these interests, of course, was the intricate blending of complex, dazzling camera work with the themes of mankind's obsession with material objects – and a kind of poignant romanticism ...Read more at MovieRetriever.com...
- 12/14/2010
- CinemaNerdz
(1961, PG, Mr Bongo)
At the epicentre of the French New Wave were the Cahiers du Cinéma critics (Truffaut, Chabrol, Godard). But numerous talented auteurs were involved in that cultural explosion, among them Jacques Demy (1931-90), whose feature debut, Lola, was one of the glories of the time. Shot in lyrical widescreen monochrome by Raoul Coutard (immediately after he lit Breathless) and set in Demy's native Atlantic port of Nantes, this bittersweet, cleverly patterned film centres on a golden-hearted nightclub prostitute (Anouk Aimée) and the men whose journeys cross her life. Demy called it "a musical without music", but it invokes On the Town and anticipates his Les Parapluies de Cherbourg and Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, which also have unforgettable songs by Michel Legrand. The title refers to Lola Montès, the final movie by Max Ophuls, the film's dedicatee, and to Dietrich's Lola in The Blue Angel. Unforgettable here in top hat and basque,...
At the epicentre of the French New Wave were the Cahiers du Cinéma critics (Truffaut, Chabrol, Godard). But numerous talented auteurs were involved in that cultural explosion, among them Jacques Demy (1931-90), whose feature debut, Lola, was one of the glories of the time. Shot in lyrical widescreen monochrome by Raoul Coutard (immediately after he lit Breathless) and set in Demy's native Atlantic port of Nantes, this bittersweet, cleverly patterned film centres on a golden-hearted nightclub prostitute (Anouk Aimée) and the men whose journeys cross her life. Demy called it "a musical without music", but it invokes On the Town and anticipates his Les Parapluies de Cherbourg and Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, which also have unforgettable songs by Michel Legrand. The title refers to Lola Montès, the final movie by Max Ophuls, the film's dedicatee, and to Dietrich's Lola in The Blue Angel. Unforgettable here in top hat and basque,...
- 9/18/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Criterion's December release announcement is brief, but sweet. David Cronenberg's Videodrome is coming to Blu-Ray while Guillermo Del Toro's Cronos will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray.
The Videodrome Blu-Ray seems to be sourced from same master as the 2004 Criterion DVD. Extras are largely same. Cronos is newly restored and packed with extras, including a previously unreleased short film called Geometria. Check the links in the calendar for full specifications.
Finally, as mentioned in the last Criterion Column, the DVD release of the America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story comes out on December 14th. The Blu-Ray will be released on November 23rd.
The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (January through December 2010, up-to-date as of September 16, 2010)
December 2010
David Cronenberg, Videodrome, Bd, 12/7/2010, Us & Canada
Guillermo del Toro, Cronos, 2-disc DVD & Bd, 12/7/2010, Us & Canada
November 2010
Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times, 2-dsc DVD & Bd, 11/16/10, Us & Canada
Charles Laughton, Night Of The Hunter, 2-disc DVD & 2-disc Bd,...
The Videodrome Blu-Ray seems to be sourced from same master as the 2004 Criterion DVD. Extras are largely same. Cronos is newly restored and packed with extras, including a previously unreleased short film called Geometria. Check the links in the calendar for full specifications.
Finally, as mentioned in the last Criterion Column, the DVD release of the America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story comes out on December 14th. The Blu-Ray will be released on November 23rd.
The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (January through December 2010, up-to-date as of September 16, 2010)
December 2010
David Cronenberg, Videodrome, Bd, 12/7/2010, Us & Canada
Guillermo del Toro, Cronos, 2-disc DVD & Bd, 12/7/2010, Us & Canada
November 2010
Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times, 2-dsc DVD & Bd, 11/16/10, Us & Canada
Charles Laughton, Night Of The Hunter, 2-disc DVD & 2-disc Bd,...
- 9/16/2010
- Screen Anarchy
In November, The Criterion Collection is set to release an eclectic mix of American classics with a bit of European transgression thrown in. A newly restored version of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times is planned for DVD and Blu-Ray. Charles Laughton's stunning black-and-white noir/horror tale Night of the Hunter (1955) is also on the schedule for DVD and Blu-Ray. Lars Von Trier's Antichrist will invade home video players everywhere.
Those are great releases, but highlight of the November list is the America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story box set, which features 6 films from Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider's production company Bbs during the 60s-70s. Titles include: Head, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Drive He Said, The Last Picture Show, and The King Of Marvin Gardens. Think about the scope of this release for a second. This is six films by Dennis Hopper, Henry Jaglom, Jack Nicholson Bob Rafelson,...
Those are great releases, but highlight of the November list is the America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story box set, which features 6 films from Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider's production company Bbs during the 60s-70s. Titles include: Head, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Drive He Said, The Last Picture Show, and The King Of Marvin Gardens. Think about the scope of this release for a second. This is six films by Dennis Hopper, Henry Jaglom, Jack Nicholson Bob Rafelson,...
- 8/21/2010
- Screen Anarchy
The October 2010 batch of Criterion titles brings a few surprises. Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory is hitting DVD and Blu-Ray as is Ingmar Bergman's film The Magician. Criterion continues its relationship with Wes Anderson by releasing The Darjeeling Limited on Blu-Ray and DVD. Ok.
Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai is headed for Blu-Ray with a new restored high-def transfer. If the quality of Criterion's other Kurosawa Blu-Ray discs (e.g. Kagemusha, Sanjuro and Yojimbo) are any indication, it is time to ditch the DVDs. This one should look spectacular.
Finally, Nobuhiko Obayashi's House is making its way to Blu-Ray and DVD just in time for Halloween. There are a few things to note here. First, the fact that Criterion is releasing this on Blu-Ray with a restored transfer and uncompressed mono sound is kind of a surprise. This is a very good thing. The other curious thing is the extras.
Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai is headed for Blu-Ray with a new restored high-def transfer. If the quality of Criterion's other Kurosawa Blu-Ray discs (e.g. Kagemusha, Sanjuro and Yojimbo) are any indication, it is time to ditch the DVDs. This one should look spectacular.
Finally, Nobuhiko Obayashi's House is making its way to Blu-Ray and DVD just in time for Halloween. There are a few things to note here. First, the fact that Criterion is releasing this on Blu-Ray with a restored transfer and uncompressed mono sound is kind of a surprise. This is a very good thing. The other curious thing is the extras.
- 7/17/2010
- Screen Anarchy
The September releases of Breathless on Blu-Ray and The Thin Red Line on Blu-Ray and DVD aren't so much of a surprise. A high-def Breathless release was inevitable and the Malick title leaked out a while ago. Also, Charade is the sort of classic Hollywood auterist fare that Criterion often deals in. No, the big surprise here is Oshima's Happy Birthday Mr. Lawrence. Both this release and the recent Oshima DVD box indicate that Criterion is seriously intent to digging deeper into the director's filmography. Finally, it would be a mistake not to mention the Eclipse box set of Allan King films. The Canadian director's documentaries have never been readily available in the U.S. so this box should expose his work to an entirely new audience (including this writer).
The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through September 2010, up-to-date as of July 7, 2010)
September 2010
Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless, DVD & Bd, 9/14/10, Us...
The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through September 2010, up-to-date as of July 7, 2010)
September 2010
Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless, DVD & Bd, 9/14/10, Us...
- 7/8/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Fall 2010 brings very interesting news and rumors about releases from The Criterion Collection. First, the label has issued the official list of films for August release. These include two essential documentaries by Terry Zwigoff, Black Orpheus, a box of Josef von Sternberg silent films, and 4 early Akira Kurosawa films that originally appeared in the Ak 100 25 disc box set.
Lots of unofficial information has also begun to surface about future releases. In late April, The New York Times confirmed rumors that Criterion will release Nobuhiko Obayashi's Hausu will in September. Additionally, pre-order pages for Criterion Blu-Rays of Antichrist, The Darjeeling Limited, The Seven Samurai, The Thin Red Line, and Videodrome have popped up on Amazon. Look for official updates in the next Criterion Column.
The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through August 2010, up-to-date as of May 23, 2010)
August 2010
Akira Kurosawa, Eclipse Series 23: The First Films Of Akira Kurosawa
(Sanshiro Sugata...
Lots of unofficial information has also begun to surface about future releases. In late April, The New York Times confirmed rumors that Criterion will release Nobuhiko Obayashi's Hausu will in September. Additionally, pre-order pages for Criterion Blu-Rays of Antichrist, The Darjeeling Limited, The Seven Samurai, The Thin Red Line, and Videodrome have popped up on Amazon. Look for official updates in the next Criterion Column.
The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through August 2010, up-to-date as of May 23, 2010)
August 2010
Akira Kurosawa, Eclipse Series 23: The First Films Of Akira Kurosawa
(Sanshiro Sugata...
- 5/22/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Another month brings another set of titles from The Criterion Collection. July 2010 releases include two early films by Yasujrio Ozu, Secrets of the Grain, a Sacha Guitry box set, and long awaited digitally-restored versions of The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
An earlier column mentioned the availability of 6 Zaitoichi films for free streaming on Hulu. Within the past few days, Criterion added 12 more Zaitoichi titles as well Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water to Hulu. The link to all of the free Criterion Hulu titles is featured in the "Related Links" section of this post.
The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through July 2010, up-to-date as of 4/19/2010)
July 2010
Yasujiro Ozu, The Only Son/There Was A Father: Two Films By Yasujiro Ozu, 2 DVD Box, 7/13/2010, Us & English speaking Canada
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, Black Narcissus, DVD & Bd, 7/20/10, Us & Canada
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, The Red Shoes,...
An earlier column mentioned the availability of 6 Zaitoichi films for free streaming on Hulu. Within the past few days, Criterion added 12 more Zaitoichi titles as well Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water to Hulu. The link to all of the free Criterion Hulu titles is featured in the "Related Links" section of this post.
The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through July 2010, up-to-date as of 4/19/2010)
July 2010
Yasujiro Ozu, The Only Son/There Was A Father: Two Films By Yasujiro Ozu, 2 DVD Box, 7/13/2010, Us & English speaking Canada
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, Black Narcissus, DVD & Bd, 7/20/10, Us & Canada
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, The Red Shoes,...
- 4/20/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Well folks, it’s been a while, but Netflix has finally added several more Criterion Collection films to their Watch Instantly streaming options. Back in December we saw a rather large group of films added, with each following month adding fewer and fewer Criterion films. This past week has seen the addition of 8 films (one on April 1st, and 7 on the 3rd), all of which you should add to your Queue.
We recently reported that Jean Luc Godard’s Breathless would be re-released in theaters with a new transfer this month as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival, with a general release at the end of May in New York, and a national roll out afterwards. You can now see the film that made our writer James McCormick’s Top Ten Jean Paul Belmondo Film list, via Watch Instantly. It will be interesting to see if this print of...
We recently reported that Jean Luc Godard’s Breathless would be re-released in theaters with a new transfer this month as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival, with a general release at the end of May in New York, and a national roll out afterwards. You can now see the film that made our writer James McCormick’s Top Ten Jean Paul Belmondo Film list, via Watch Instantly. It will be interesting to see if this print of...
- 4/3/2010
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Five titles from The Criterion Collection has been announced for release in June 2010. The list includes: Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train, Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert, Abbas Kiarostami's Close-Up, Luchino Visconti's The Leopard, Carol Reed's Night Train to Munich, and Jan Troell's Everlasting Moments. All of these titles except for Night Train to Munich will be released on both DVD and Blu-Ray. Specific details have been added to the bottom of the release calendar.
In other news, Criterion continues to make moves in to video on demand. As previously reported, dozens of Criterion titles are now available for streaming on Netflix. Now, Criterion has established a channel on Hulu through which six films in the classic Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman series can be accessed. Check the "Related Links" for more info.
The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through June, up-to-date as of 3/20/2010)
January 2010
Federico Fellini,...
In other news, Criterion continues to make moves in to video on demand. As previously reported, dozens of Criterion titles are now available for streaming on Netflix. Now, Criterion has established a channel on Hulu through which six films in the classic Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman series can be accessed. Check the "Related Links" for more info.
The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through June, up-to-date as of 3/20/2010)
January 2010
Federico Fellini,...
- 3/21/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Two years after completing his final film, 1955’s Lola Montès, Max Ophüls died not knowing whether it would ever be seen in the form he intended. Based on the true story of a notorious 19th-century sex symbol, Lola Montès takes place mainly in a circus, where Lola (played by Martine Carol) is the featured attraction, and where The Ringmaster (played by Peter Ustinov) tells her life story to the paying throng, while high-wire tricks and clown acts whirl in the background and serve as illustration. As The Ringmaster talks, Lola disappears into her own memories of ...
- 2/17/2010
- avclub.com
With President’s Day weekend behind us it’s now time to think about some late Valentine’s Day presents. In case you want to pick up something extra for your valentine or you completely forgot to get something at all, a great movie on Blu-ray or DVD makes a perfect gift. Fortunately, there’s some new ones coming out this week just in time.
Among this week’s selection we’re interested in are new to Blu-ray movies such as Law Abiding Citizen, Halo Legends, the Dirty Harry Collection, Contempt, Akira Kurosawa’s Ran and debut of TV series Barnaby Jones and the latest installment of Cannon. Also, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (pictured above with Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro) gets the 20th Anniversary treatment with a new Blu-ray release.
Movies
Black Dynamite ~ Michael Jai White (Blu-ray and DVD)
Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever ~ Michael Bowen,...
Among this week’s selection we’re interested in are new to Blu-ray movies such as Law Abiding Citizen, Halo Legends, the Dirty Harry Collection, Contempt, Akira Kurosawa’s Ran and debut of TV series Barnaby Jones and the latest installment of Cannon. Also, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (pictured above with Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro) gets the 20th Anniversary treatment with a new Blu-ray release.
Movies
Black Dynamite ~ Michael Jai White (Blu-ray and DVD)
Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever ~ Michael Bowen,...
- 2/17/2010
- by Joe Gillis
- The Flickcast
Lola Montès (1955) is "Max Ophüls's final masterpiece," declares Josef Braun, "mangled upon its initial release, newly restored in all its unspeakable gorgeousness, and now available from the Criterion Collection.... The project was originally meant to be more modest, but as the producers insisted on hoisting such intrusions as Technicolor, Cinemascope and sex goddess Martine Carol upon Ophüls — who utilized each of these items masterfully — Lola Montès increasingly became a kind of critique of itself. As Marcel Ophüls, the director's son, said, the more they tried to turn the project into a grandiose commercial spectacle, the more Lola Montès became a movie about grandiose commercial spectacle."...
- 2/16/2010
- MUBI
The Criterion Collection is bringing out the big guns in May 2010. No, Hausu has not been announced yet, but another big Japanese release is forthcoming. Specifically, Criterion is releasing a 5 DVD box set of Nagisa Oshima films from the 1960s. Oshima's earlier works are very difficult to find in legitimate form so this announcement is very exciting.
The good news doesn't stop with Oshima. The second volume in the Stan Brakhage anthology will finally see the light of day, and both volumes will be collected on a 3 disc Blu-Ray set. Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout makes an appearance for the first time on DVD and Blu-Ray. Fritz Lang's M will receive the Blu-Ray treatment. Finally, John Ford fans (there are a few) can look forward to Stagecoach on DVD and Blu-Ray. As usual, full details on the new titles have been added to the 2010 release calendar at the bottom of this post.
The good news doesn't stop with Oshima. The second volume in the Stan Brakhage anthology will finally see the light of day, and both volumes will be collected on a 3 disc Blu-Ray set. Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout makes an appearance for the first time on DVD and Blu-Ray. Fritz Lang's M will receive the Blu-Ray treatment. Finally, John Ford fans (there are a few) can look forward to Stagecoach on DVD and Blu-Ray. As usual, full details on the new titles have been added to the 2010 release calendar at the bottom of this post.
- 2/13/2010
- Screen Anarchy
The Criterion Collection has announced five new titles for April 2010. The list is the usual mix of vintage and recent films, including Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre Sa Vie, Ang Lee's Ride with the Devil, Sidney Lumet's The Fugitive Kind, and Olivier Assayas' Summer Hours. The full list has been added to the 2010 release calendar, which is featured at the bottom of this post.
In other news, Netflix has added dozens of Criterion titles to their "Watch Instantly" streaming service (United States only). The Criterion Cast site has compiled a list of over 35 titles currently available for streaming on Netflix. In some instances, the streaming titles track or even precede the home video release (Che was streaming before the DVD or Blu-Ray was available) On the downside, these releases don't include the extras that come with the DVDs and Blu-Rays. Also, the highest available resolution for streaming is 720p...
In other news, Netflix has added dozens of Criterion titles to their "Watch Instantly" streaming service (United States only). The Criterion Cast site has compiled a list of over 35 titles currently available for streaming on Netflix. In some instances, the streaming titles track or even precede the home video release (Che was streaming before the DVD or Blu-Ray was available) On the downside, these releases don't include the extras that come with the DVDs and Blu-Rays. Also, the highest available resolution for streaming is 720p...
- 1/22/2010
- Screen Anarchy
2010 is quickly approaching, and the timing seems right to begin a new endeavor: The Criterion Column. At least once a month, this column will provide information about upcoming releases from The Criterion Collection and highlight titles that may be of interest to Twitch readers. This column will also be complimented by timely reviews of upcoming Criterion and Eclipse releases as well as discussions of gems in the company's back catalog.
This first volume of this column is dedicated to a list of all announced releases for January, February and March of 2010. The data fields are in the following order: Director, Title, Format(s), Street Date, and Regional Availability. Each title is linked to the relevant entry at The Criterion Collection website. This list will be updated as new titles are announced.
January 2010
Federico Fellini, 8 ½, Bd, 1/12/10, Us & Canada
Steven Soderbergh, Che, DVD & Bd, 1/19/10, Us only
Wim Wenders, Paris, Texas, DVD & Bd,...
This first volume of this column is dedicated to a list of all announced releases for January, February and March of 2010. The data fields are in the following order: Director, Title, Format(s), Street Date, and Regional Availability. Each title is linked to the relevant entry at The Criterion Collection website. This list will be updated as new titles are announced.
January 2010
Federico Fellini, 8 ½, Bd, 1/12/10, Us & Canada
Steven Soderbergh, Che, DVD & Bd, 1/19/10, Us only
Wim Wenders, Paris, Texas, DVD & Bd,...
- 12/21/2009
- Screen Anarchy
Some exciting news from Criterion: Max Ophuls’ lavish biopic “Lola Montès” and Leo McCarey’s 30s tearjerker “Make Way for Tomorrow” will join the collection in February. Also on tap for the Criterion treatment are two recent films: Steve McQueen’s “Hunger” and Götz Spielmann’s “Revanche.” More from The Playlist. Out this week from Criterion is the 1969 skiing drama, “Downhill Racer,” starring Robert Redford. “If the movie often feels like a vaguely …...
- 11/16/2009
- Indiewire
In mid-January earlier this year Stefan Drössler, the Director of the Munich Film Museum, delivered a lecture co-presented by Pacific Film Archive and the Goethe-Institut San Francisco on the restoration of the German premiere version of Max Ophüls’ Lola Montès; a print acquired by Pfa from a private collection with help from Drössler and the Munich Film Museum. Among the scope of Drössler’s many specialities in film history are German cinema, Hollywood cinema (including his leading expertise on Orson Welles) and the history of 3-D, to name just a few. With Lola Montès currently poised for a theatrical run in San Francisco, I thought now would be a perfect opportunity to share his Pfa commentary.
Admitting it is always a pleasure to lecture at Pfa, Drössler likewise apologized for his modest English. He outlined that he would first discuss the production circumstances behind Lola Montès, followed by 10 minutes worth...
Admitting it is always a pleasure to lecture at Pfa, Drössler likewise apologized for his modest English. He outlined that he would first discuss the production circumstances behind Lola Montès, followed by 10 minutes worth...
- 11/4/2008
- by Michael Guillen
- Screen Anarchy
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