Click here to read the full article.
Everyone loves the Hollywood holiday classics — from It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story to Home Alone and Die Hard (yes, it is a classic, too – don’t get us started).
But after the 100th rerun, one’s holiday spirit can start to sag, and nostalgia for those festive evergreens can turn toxic.
So The Hollywood Reporter‘s international team has come up with this alternative list of holiday favorites from outside the U.S.
Our eclectic dirty dozen, including a French murder mystery, a Canadian horror classic and an anime retelling of the Christmas story, are the perfect counterprogramming for anyone looking for new ideas this festive season.
Merry Christmas
2005
‘Merry Christmas’
Christian Carion’s World War I drama, about the real-life Christmas truce that broke out on the Western Front in 1914 — amid the horrors of the war, a true holiday miracle — features Diane Kruger,...
Everyone loves the Hollywood holiday classics — from It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story to Home Alone and Die Hard (yes, it is a classic, too – don’t get us started).
But after the 100th rerun, one’s holiday spirit can start to sag, and nostalgia for those festive evergreens can turn toxic.
So The Hollywood Reporter‘s international team has come up with this alternative list of holiday favorites from outside the U.S.
Our eclectic dirty dozen, including a French murder mystery, a Canadian horror classic and an anime retelling of the Christmas story, are the perfect counterprogramming for anyone looking for new ideas this festive season.
Merry Christmas
2005
‘Merry Christmas’
Christian Carion’s World War I drama, about the real-life Christmas truce that broke out on the Western Front in 1914 — amid the horrors of the war, a true holiday miracle — features Diane Kruger,...
- 12/22/2022
- by Scott Roxborough, Alex Ritman and Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jane Powell, who starred as an angelically visaged young actress in a number of MGM musicals including “Royal Wedding” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” during the 1940s and 1950s, has died of natural causes. She was 92 years old.
The blonde, blue-eyed Powell usually played characters with a gentle mischievous streak in her musical comedies, but she would shatter the light-hearted atmosphere of her films when she sang: A surprisingly powerful coloratura would emerge from the diminutive (5-feet-1) thesp.
Her producer and mentor was MGM’s Joe Pasternak, who had earlier developed the talents of Deanna Durbin at Universal.
Auditioning for Louis B. Mayer and for David O. Selznick, she quickly drew a seven-year contract with MGM in 1943. Her first film, on loan-out, was 1944 musical “Song of the Open Road,” in which the actress played a child film star who runs away. She took her character’s name, Jane Powell,...
The blonde, blue-eyed Powell usually played characters with a gentle mischievous streak in her musical comedies, but she would shatter the light-hearted atmosphere of her films when she sang: A surprisingly powerful coloratura would emerge from the diminutive (5-feet-1) thesp.
Her producer and mentor was MGM’s Joe Pasternak, who had earlier developed the talents of Deanna Durbin at Universal.
Auditioning for Louis B. Mayer and for David O. Selznick, she quickly drew a seven-year contract with MGM in 1943. Her first film, on loan-out, was 1944 musical “Song of the Open Road,” in which the actress played a child film star who runs away. She took her character’s name, Jane Powell,...
- 9/16/2021
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
Bertrand Tavernier breaks the barrier between fans of European movies and 101 classic French pictures that most of us have never gotten a peek at. The key to this eight-hour film clip excerpt round-up is the hosting-curatorship of Tavernier — the fascinating miniseries has plenty to offer both fans that have never seen an old French movie, and some of us that thought (until now) that we knew something about them. The author and director is also a great storyteller, presenting his favorite underrated directors, actors & composers and putting them, in historical context. Tavernier is a deft film clip picker — all are riveting, none are spoilers, and you’ll come out learning fifty new French words, most of them clean. Highly, highly recommended.
Journeys Through French Cinema
Blu-ray
Cohen Media Group
2017 / Color + B&w / 1:78 widescreen + 1:33 flat / 459 min. without beating any particular bias-drum.
Even when championing directors he dubs The Forgotten Ones,...
Journeys Through French Cinema
Blu-ray
Cohen Media Group
2017 / Color + B&w / 1:78 widescreen + 1:33 flat / 459 min. without beating any particular bias-drum.
Even when championing directors he dubs The Forgotten Ones,...
- 3/27/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
A legendary movie star’s dubious memoirs outrage her daughter – played by Juliette Binoche – in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s stylish, seductive family drama
The title is a deadpan challenge, and it is up to us to decide where exactly this movie and its characters live in the disputed territory around truth, untruth, near-truth: the comforting fiction that we all create around what we remember of our lives. This is the first non-Japanese-language film from auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda (Palme d’Or winner at Cannes in 2018 for his film Shoplifters) and he has come to France for a very elegant and insouciant family drama set in Paris, which he has directed from his own script, translated from the original into French by Léa le Dimna.
Catherine Deneuve gives a seductive and self-aware performance as Fabienne Dangeville, a creamily well-preserved movie star in her mid-70s who is a legendary figure in her native land – opinionated,...
The title is a deadpan challenge, and it is up to us to decide where exactly this movie and its characters live in the disputed territory around truth, untruth, near-truth: the comforting fiction that we all create around what we remember of our lives. This is the first non-Japanese-language film from auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda (Palme d’Or winner at Cannes in 2018 for his film Shoplifters) and he has come to France for a very elegant and insouciant family drama set in Paris, which he has directed from his own script, translated from the original into French by Léa le Dimna.
Catherine Deneuve gives a seductive and self-aware performance as Fabienne Dangeville, a creamily well-preserved movie star in her mid-70s who is a legendary figure in her native land – opinionated,...
- 3/19/2020
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Billy Wilder became an indelible fixture of American cinema with his iconic noir masterpiece, 1944’s Double Indemnity, going on to direct some of the studio era’s finest crafted films. A trio of films just prior to that seem to have been obscured or forgotten, such as the WWII Franchot Tone headlined thriller Fives Graves to Cairo (1943), which was Oscar nominated for Art Direction and Cinematography, and his 1934 French language comedy Bad Seed, a debut which featured Danielle Darrieux. But it’s his 1942 sophomore film and English language debut The Major and the Minor which seems like the sterling Wilder comedy we’ve all been missing out on, which provides a template for the identity crisis semantics which would later be utilized to subversive maxims in 1959’s Some Like It Hot.…...
- 10/1/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Wash Westmoreland on the influence of Orson Welles's Citizen Kane: "Willy basically raps this poem about Colette and we have this big table and, oh, wouldn't it be great if everyone just started dancing on the table." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Max Ophüls' The Earrings Of Madame De…, starring Danielle Darrieux, Charles Boyer, and Vittorio De Sica, Guy de Maupassant, the Eiffel Tower, Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, and François Truffaut, the reflected relationship between Dominic West's Willy and Keira Knightley's Colette, and the influence of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure on Earthquake Bird, starring Alicia Vikander, Riley Keough, and Jack Huston, adapted from Susanna Jones's novel - all come up in the final instalment of my conversation with Colette director Wash Westmoreland at Le Parker Meridien in New York.
Wash Westmoreland on Willy (Dominic West) taking credit for Colette's (Keira Knightley) work: "Like in West Side Story,...
Max Ophüls' The Earrings Of Madame De…, starring Danielle Darrieux, Charles Boyer, and Vittorio De Sica, Guy de Maupassant, the Eiffel Tower, Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, and François Truffaut, the reflected relationship between Dominic West's Willy and Keira Knightley's Colette, and the influence of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure on Earthquake Bird, starring Alicia Vikander, Riley Keough, and Jack Huston, adapted from Susanna Jones's novel - all come up in the final instalment of my conversation with Colette director Wash Westmoreland at Le Parker Meridien in New York.
Wash Westmoreland on Willy (Dominic West) taking credit for Colette's (Keira Knightley) work: "Like in West Side Story,...
- 12/26/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Veteran French helmer Bertrand Tavernier (“The French Minister”) is curating a 15-film retrospective of films by Henri Decoin (1890-1969), a larger-than-life character who before directing his first feature, at the age of 43, was an Olympic swimmer, Wwi pilot, sports journalist and novelist.
Decoin is one of the three directors – alongside Jean Grémillon and Max Ophuls – featured in the first episode of Tavernier’s “My Journeys Through French Cinema,” a follow-up project to his documentary “My Journey Through French Cinema”.
Tavernier believes that Decoin left a decisive mark on Gallic cinema due to the fluidity of his directing style, inspired in part by his sojourn in Hollywood in 1938, his innovative exploration of genres such as crime, espionage thrillers, historical sagas and psychological dramas, his remarkable adaptations of novels by George Simenon and his notable collaboration with actors such as Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet and his second wife, Danielle Darrieux.
The retrospective...
Decoin is one of the three directors – alongside Jean Grémillon and Max Ophuls – featured in the first episode of Tavernier’s “My Journeys Through French Cinema,” a follow-up project to his documentary “My Journey Through French Cinema”.
Tavernier believes that Decoin left a decisive mark on Gallic cinema due to the fluidity of his directing style, inspired in part by his sojourn in Hollywood in 1938, his innovative exploration of genres such as crime, espionage thrillers, historical sagas and psychological dramas, his remarkable adaptations of novels by George Simenon and his notable collaboration with actors such as Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet and his second wife, Danielle Darrieux.
The retrospective...
- 10/18/2018
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
The upcoming 90th Academy Awards will mark the 25th consecutive year that the Oscars will feature an “In Memoriam” segment. While it had been done on occasion before, the annual tribute to Academy members and other film legends started a regular tradition at the 1994 ceremony hosted by Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg.
SEE2018 Oscars: Best Song performers include Mary J. Blige, Common, Andra Day, Keala Settle, Sufjan Stevens
We’ve assembled a list below of people who have died in the past 12 months who might be featured during the “In Memoriam” for the ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on March 4. Producers have not yet revealed who might be performing during the tribute. Sure to have prominent placements are previous Oscar champ Martin Landau (“Ed Wood,” 1994), honorary Oscar recipient Jerry Lewis and respected actor Bill Paxton (“Titanic,” “Apollo 13”). Paxton actually died on the weekend of last year’s ceremony and was mentioned on the broadcast,...
SEE2018 Oscars: Best Song performers include Mary J. Blige, Common, Andra Day, Keala Settle, Sufjan Stevens
We’ve assembled a list below of people who have died in the past 12 months who might be featured during the “In Memoriam” for the ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on March 4. Producers have not yet revealed who might be performing during the tribute. Sure to have prominent placements are previous Oscar champ Martin Landau (“Ed Wood,” 1994), honorary Oscar recipient Jerry Lewis and respected actor Bill Paxton (“Titanic,” “Apollo 13”). Paxton actually died on the weekend of last year’s ceremony and was mentioned on the broadcast,...
- 2/26/2018
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Other leading contenders include See You You There, Barbara and Bloody Milk.
Source: Cannes
‘Bpm (Beats Per Minute)’
Robin Campillo’s Aids activism drama Bpm (Beats Per Minute) leads nominations in France’s 2018 César awards which were announced in Paris on Wednesday morning (Jan 31).
Scroll down for the key nominations
The feature drama took 13 nominations including best film, best director and best screenplay and best male newcomer for its co-stars Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Arnaud Valois.
France’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences unveiled the nominations at its traditional news conference at the Le Fouquet’s restaurant on the Champs-Elysées.
The popularity of Campillo’s film among the academy’s members came as little surprise. Although ignored by Oscar and Golden Globe, the Cannes Grand Prix winner has been a critical and box office success in France where the film has drawn more than 800,000 spectators for Memento Distribution.
It also leads the nominations in the upcoming...
Source: Cannes
‘Bpm (Beats Per Minute)’
Robin Campillo’s Aids activism drama Bpm (Beats Per Minute) leads nominations in France’s 2018 César awards which were announced in Paris on Wednesday morning (Jan 31).
Scroll down for the key nominations
The feature drama took 13 nominations including best film, best director and best screenplay and best male newcomer for its co-stars Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Arnaud Valois.
France’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences unveiled the nominations at its traditional news conference at the Le Fouquet’s restaurant on the Champs-Elysées.
The popularity of Campillo’s film among the academy’s members came as little surprise. Although ignored by Oscar and Golden Globe, the Cannes Grand Prix winner has been a critical and box office success in France where the film has drawn more than 800,000 spectators for Memento Distribution.
It also leads the nominations in the upcoming...
- 1/31/2018
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Sunday’s telecast of the Screen Actors Guild will feature a special In Memoriam segment devoted to many of the actors and actresses who have died since last year’s ceremony in late January. Sure to be among those saluted include Oscar winner Martin Landau, comedy legend Jerry Lewis, and beloved film and TV star Bill Paxton. Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam galleries for this past year of 2017 and the newly-started gallery for 2018.
Over 100 people in SAG/AFTRA have passed away in the past 12 months. Which of the following 60 names will also be featured in the televised tribute?
SEE2018 SAG Awards TV predictions: Complete racetrack odds in all 9 categories
Richard Anderson (actor)
Chuck Barris (host/executive)
Shelley Berman (actor)
Chuck Berry (singer/actor)
Joseph Bologna (actor)
Powers Boothe (actor)
Brent Briscoe (actor)
Glen Campbell (singer/actor)
Bernie Casey (actor)
David Cassidy (actor/singer)
Mike Connors (actor)
Danielle Darrieux (actor...
Over 100 people in SAG/AFTRA have passed away in the past 12 months. Which of the following 60 names will also be featured in the televised tribute?
SEE2018 SAG Awards TV predictions: Complete racetrack odds in all 9 categories
Richard Anderson (actor)
Chuck Barris (host/executive)
Shelley Berman (actor)
Chuck Berry (singer/actor)
Joseph Bologna (actor)
Powers Boothe (actor)
Brent Briscoe (actor)
Glen Campbell (singer/actor)
Bernie Casey (actor)
David Cassidy (actor/singer)
Mike Connors (actor)
Danielle Darrieux (actor...
- 1/21/2018
- by Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Aaron is joined by Mark Hurne and Jason Michael to catch up on a month’s worth of Criterion stuff, including January 2018 announcements. We talk about what we got in the latest Flash Sale, many of the recent Janus Films announcements from restoration screenings to posters, and we share some Short Takes that are technically horror, but not too scary.
Episode Notes
6:00 – January 2018 Announcements
29:30 – Flash Sale and Criterion News
59:15 – Short Takes (Cronos, Cat People, The Lure))
1:08:21 – FilmStruck
Episode Links Agnes Varda Closet Picks Filminc – Pandora’s Box Janus Films – The Passion of Joan of Arc Sean Phillip’s Night of the Living Dead poster Janus Films – The Other Side of Hope poster Certain Women – Discussion Thread Federico Luppi Dies at 83 Danielle Darrieux Dies at 100 Episode Credits Aaron West: Twitter | Website | Letterboxd Mark Hurne: Twitter Jason Michael: Twitter | Instagram | Website Criterion Now: Facebook Group Criterion...
Episode Notes
6:00 – January 2018 Announcements
29:30 – Flash Sale and Criterion News
59:15 – Short Takes (Cronos, Cat People, The Lure))
1:08:21 – FilmStruck
Episode Links Agnes Varda Closet Picks Filminc – Pandora’s Box Janus Films – The Passion of Joan of Arc Sean Phillip’s Night of the Living Dead poster Janus Films – The Other Side of Hope poster Certain Women – Discussion Thread Federico Luppi Dies at 83 Danielle Darrieux Dies at 100 Episode Credits Aaron West: Twitter | Website | Letterboxd Mark Hurne: Twitter Jason Michael: Twitter | Instagram | Website Criterion Now: Facebook Group Criterion...
- 10/24/2017
- by Aaron West
- CriterionCast
by Salim Garami
The longevity of Danielle Darrieux's life - reaching up until the golden age of 100 as she passed Tuesday on 17 October - parallels the longevity of Darrieux's storied career. To know her path is to essentially map out the development of French cinema in a cursory sense: Beginning as a child in the very dawn of the French sound era within the musical comedy Le Bal in 1931 until a star-making turn in Anatole Litvak's Mayerling, taking a detour at the cusp of her fame to Hollywood like many beautiful French stars would, returning to her homeland right through the Left Bank faction of the French New Wave working with the likes of Claude Chabrol and Jacques Demy, finding her way to the Broadway stage with Coco as Coco Chanel, and taking a moment to work with directors of the Cahiers du Cinema second generation and the...
The longevity of Danielle Darrieux's life - reaching up until the golden age of 100 as she passed Tuesday on 17 October - parallels the longevity of Darrieux's storied career. To know her path is to essentially map out the development of French cinema in a cursory sense: Beginning as a child in the very dawn of the French sound era within the musical comedy Le Bal in 1931 until a star-making turn in Anatole Litvak's Mayerling, taking a detour at the cusp of her fame to Hollywood like many beautiful French stars would, returning to her homeland right through the Left Bank faction of the French New Wave working with the likes of Claude Chabrol and Jacques Demy, finding her way to the Broadway stage with Coco as Coco Chanel, and taking a moment to work with directors of the Cahiers du Cinema second generation and the...
- 10/19/2017
- by Salim Garami
- FilmExperience
Danielle Darrieux, a prolific French actress whose movie and theater career spanned eight decades, has died. She was 100.
One of France's best-loved actresses, Darrieux appeared in dozens of plays and more than 100 films during her long career.
Generations of French moviegoers watched her mature from a precocious, fresh-faced teen into a radiant nonagenarian starring in films into her 90s. Darrieux was born on May 1, 1917, in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.
Her father, an ophthalmologist, died when she was 7, and her mother supported the family by giving singing lessons. Darrieux was just 14 when she made...
One of France's best-loved actresses, Darrieux appeared in dozens of plays and more than 100 films during her long career.
Generations of French moviegoers watched her mature from a precocious, fresh-faced teen into a radiant nonagenarian starring in films into her 90s. Darrieux was born on May 1, 1917, in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.
Her father, an ophthalmologist, died when she was 7, and her mother supported the family by giving singing lessons. Darrieux was just 14 when she made...
- 10/19/2017
- by the Associated Press
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
French film actor best known for Madame de … and La Ronde
There are few actors who embodied many people’s idea of a French woman of the world more than Danielle Darrieux, who has died aged 100. Starting as an ingenue in the 1930s, she grew into a sophisticate in the 40s and 50s, and retained a dignified and magical presence in films into the new century.
The outstanding examples of her art were the three films Darrieux made with the German-born Max Ophüls when she was in her 30s. In La Ronde (1950), she played the married woman who is seduced by a student (Daniel Gélin). The second and best of the three adapted tales by Guy de Maupassant in Le Plaisir (House of Pleasure, 1952) is La Maison Tellier, in which Darrieux played one of a group of prostitutes paying an annual holiday visit to the country. But it was the...
There are few actors who embodied many people’s idea of a French woman of the world more than Danielle Darrieux, who has died aged 100. Starting as an ingenue in the 1930s, she grew into a sophisticate in the 40s and 50s, and retained a dignified and magical presence in films into the new century.
The outstanding examples of her art were the three films Darrieux made with the German-born Max Ophüls when she was in her 30s. In La Ronde (1950), she played the married woman who is seduced by a student (Daniel Gélin). The second and best of the three adapted tales by Guy de Maupassant in Le Plaisir (House of Pleasure, 1952) is La Maison Tellier, in which Darrieux played one of a group of prostitutes paying an annual holiday visit to the country. But it was the...
- 10/19/2017
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Danielle Darrieux, the French actress whose career on screen and stage spanned eight decades, has died at the age of 100, the Associated Press reported. A favorite of French directors such as Claude Chabrol, Jacques Demy and Andre Techine, she won an honorary Cesar Award in 1985. She made her first appearance on film at age 14 in the 1931 musical “Le Bal,” and continued to work well into her 90s. She won wide acclaim for her role as the matriarch in Francois Ozon’s 2002 film “8 Women.” Also Read: Hollywood's Notable Deaths of 2017 (Photos) Austrian-born Billy Wilder cast her in his...
- 10/19/2017
- by Thom Geier
- The Wrap
Danielle Darrieux, who made more than 100 films in a career that spanned eight decades, has died. The French actress and singer’s passing was reported by Afp citing her companion Jacques Jenvrin who said she died at her home in Bois-le-Roi, France on Tuesday. She turned 100 years old on May 1. Over the course of her long career, Darrieux worked with such directors as Max Ophuls, Jean Cocteau, Claude Chabrol, Henri Ducoin, Joseph L Mankiewicz, Jacques Demy, André Téchiné…...
- 10/19/2017
- Deadline
Danielle Darrieux in her Fifties hey-day Photo: UniFrance
The star acted right up to the present decade Photo: Unifrance The veteran French actress Danièle Darrieux (also credited as Danièle) has died in Paris at the age of 100.
She was particularly well known for her work with director Max Ophuls including La Ronde, made in 1950, in which she played a married woman who meets a young man (Daniel Gélin) for an assignation.
Two years later she worked with Opuls again on Le Plaisir as a good time girl, regretting her lost innocence. In 1953 she and Ophuls made the highly acclaimed The Earrings Of Madame De … in which she played opposite Vittorio De Sica.
Later she appeared in a tepid version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1955 but her later career was rescued from the doldrums by `Jacques Demy who offered her singing roles in The Young Girls Of Rochefort in 1967 and...
The star acted right up to the present decade Photo: Unifrance The veteran French actress Danièle Darrieux (also credited as Danièle) has died in Paris at the age of 100.
She was particularly well known for her work with director Max Ophuls including La Ronde, made in 1950, in which she played a married woman who meets a young man (Daniel Gélin) for an assignation.
Two years later she worked with Opuls again on Le Plaisir as a good time girl, regretting her lost innocence. In 1953 she and Ophuls made the highly acclaimed The Earrings Of Madame De … in which she played opposite Vittorio De Sica.
Later she appeared in a tepid version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1955 but her later career was rescued from the doldrums by `Jacques Demy who offered her singing roles in The Young Girls Of Rochefort in 1967 and...
- 10/19/2017
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This July will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.
To sign up for a free two-week trial here.
Saturday, July 1 Changing Faces
What does a face tell us even when it’s disguised or disfigured? And what does it conceal? Guest curator Imogen Sara Smith, a critic and author of the book In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, assembles a series of films that revolve around enigmatic faces transformed by masks, scars, and surgery, including Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960) and Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another (1966).
Tuesday, July 4 Tuesday’s Short + Feature: Premature* and Ten*
Come hitch a ride with Norwegian director Gunhild Enger and the late Iranian master...
To sign up for a free two-week trial here.
Saturday, July 1 Changing Faces
What does a face tell us even when it’s disguised or disfigured? And what does it conceal? Guest curator Imogen Sara Smith, a critic and author of the book In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, assembles a series of films that revolve around enigmatic faces transformed by masks, scars, and surgery, including Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960) and Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another (1966).
Tuesday, July 4 Tuesday’s Short + Feature: Premature* and Ten*
Come hitch a ride with Norwegian director Gunhild Enger and the late Iranian master...
- 6/26/2017
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Lovers of hot-blooded French noir will love this 1958 B&W drama, which swaps violence for a dangerous sexual relationship between a cop and drug addict suspected of a murder. If this is a ‘lazy’ star vehicle for French superstar Jean Gabin, please bring us more — in his paunchy ‘fifties Monsieur Gabin takes on a beauty half his age, and convinces us that he can keep her.
Le désordre et la nuit
All-Region Blu-ray
Pathé (Fr)
1958 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date April 1 2017, 2017 /
available through Amazon.fr / Eur 14,99
Starring: Jean Gabin, Danielle Darrieux, Nadja Tiller, Paul Frankeur,
Hazel Scott, Robert Berri, François Chaumette, Louis Ducreux, Jacky Bamboo and his combo,
Harald Wolff, Roger Hanin.
Cinematography: Louis Page
Film Editor: Jacqueline Sadoul
Original Music: Jean Yatove
Written by Michel Audiard, Gilles Grangier, Jacques Robert from his novel
Produced by Lucien Viard
Directed by Gilles Grangier
Sometime in the 1990s Sherman Torgan...
Le désordre et la nuit
All-Region Blu-ray
Pathé (Fr)
1958 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date April 1 2017, 2017 /
available through Amazon.fr / Eur 14,99
Starring: Jean Gabin, Danielle Darrieux, Nadja Tiller, Paul Frankeur,
Hazel Scott, Robert Berri, François Chaumette, Louis Ducreux, Jacky Bamboo and his combo,
Harald Wolff, Roger Hanin.
Cinematography: Louis Page
Film Editor: Jacqueline Sadoul
Original Music: Jean Yatove
Written by Michel Audiard, Gilles Grangier, Jacques Robert from his novel
Produced by Lucien Viard
Directed by Gilles Grangier
Sometime in the 1990s Sherman Torgan...
- 6/6/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
In focus: David Hemmings in Antonioni’s trip around swinging London, part of Cannes Classics Photo: Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival organisers have put the accent on heritage cinema with a particular connection to the Festival itself in the 70th edition.
The selection of some 24 titles and five documentaries, mainly in brand new copies, covers the years from 1946 to 1992 and includes René Clément’s The Battle Of The Rails, shown at the very first event, where it won an international jury award and a best director award.
Danielle Darrieux who has celebrated her 100th birthday, as she appears in Max Ophüls’ Madame De… in 1953. Photo: Cannes Film Festival
Other landmark titles announced today (3 May) are The Wages Of Fear by Henri-Georges Clouzot (shown in 1953); 1967’s Palme d’Or winner Blow-Up, Michelangelo Antonioni’s take on swinging London with David Hemmings, and the highly controversial (at the time in...
The Cannes Film Festival organisers have put the accent on heritage cinema with a particular connection to the Festival itself in the 70th edition.
The selection of some 24 titles and five documentaries, mainly in brand new copies, covers the years from 1946 to 1992 and includes René Clément’s The Battle Of The Rails, shown at the very first event, where it won an international jury award and a best director award.
Danielle Darrieux who has celebrated her 100th birthday, as she appears in Max Ophüls’ Madame De… in 1953. Photo: Cannes Film Festival
Other landmark titles announced today (3 May) are The Wages Of Fear by Henri-Georges Clouzot (shown in 1953); 1967’s Palme d’Or winner Blow-Up, Michelangelo Antonioni’s take on swinging London with David Hemmings, and the highly controversial (at the time in...
- 5/3/2017
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Strand will focus on the history of Cannes for the festival’s 70th anniversary.
Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28) has unveiled the line-up for this year’s Classic programme, with 24 screenings set to take place alongside five documentaries and one short film.
Documentaries about cinema including Filmworker - which focuses of Stanley Kubrick’s right hand man Leon Vitali, who played a crucial role behind the scenes of the director’s films - as well as Cary Grant doc Becoming Cary Grant, are set to feature.
This year’s selection is also set to focus on the history of the festival itself, with prize-winning films such as Michelangelo Antonioni Grand 1966 Prix winning film Blow-Up and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) from 1952 screening.
Nagisa Oshima’s 1976 film Ai No Korîda (In The Realm Of The Senses/L’Empire Des Sens), Luis Buñuel’s 1967 classic Belle De Jour (Beauty Of The Day...
Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28) has unveiled the line-up for this year’s Classic programme, with 24 screenings set to take place alongside five documentaries and one short film.
Documentaries about cinema including Filmworker - which focuses of Stanley Kubrick’s right hand man Leon Vitali, who played a crucial role behind the scenes of the director’s films - as well as Cary Grant doc Becoming Cary Grant, are set to feature.
This year’s selection is also set to focus on the history of the festival itself, with prize-winning films such as Michelangelo Antonioni Grand 1966 Prix winning film Blow-Up and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) from 1952 screening.
Nagisa Oshima’s 1976 film Ai No Korîda (In The Realm Of The Senses/L’Empire Des Sens), Luis Buñuel’s 1967 classic Belle De Jour (Beauty Of The Day...
- 5/3/2017
- ScreenDaily
While Cannes Film Festival premieres some of the best new films of the year, they also have a rich history of highlighting cinema history with their Cannes Classics line-up, many of which are new restorations of films that previously premiered at the festival. This year they are taking that idea further, featuring 16 films that made history at the festival, along with a handful of others, and five new documentaries. So, if you can’t make it to Cannes, to get a sense of restorations that may come to your city (or on Blu-ray) in the coming months/years, check out the line-up below.
From 1946 to 1992, from René Clément to Victor Erice, sixteen history-making films of the Festival de Cannes
1946: La Bataille du Rail (Battle of the Rails) by René Clément (1h25, France): Grand Prix International de la mise en scène and Prix du Jury International.
Presented by Ina.
From 1946 to 1992, from René Clément to Victor Erice, sixteen history-making films of the Festival de Cannes
1946: La Bataille du Rail (Battle of the Rails) by René Clément (1h25, France): Grand Prix International de la mise en scène and Prix du Jury International.
Presented by Ina.
- 5/3/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Perhaps motivated by the success of La La Land, Criterion has reissued two impressive Jacques Demy musicals as separate releases. This all-singing, all-dancing homage to candy-colored vintage Hollywood musicals is a captivating Franco-American hybrid that allows free rein to Demy’s marvelously positive romantic philosophy.
The Young Girls of Rochefort
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 717
1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 125 min. / Les Demoiselles de Rochefort / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 11, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac, Danielle Darrieux, George Chakiris, Gene Kelly, Michel Piccoli, Jacques Perrin
Cinematography: Ghislain Cloquet
Production Designer: Bernard Evein
Film Editor: Jean Hamon
Original Music: Michel Legrand
Produced by Mag Bodard, Gilbert de Goldschmidt
Written and Directed by Jacques Demy
I was going to squeak by reviewing only Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, but the interest in the new La La Land prompted some emails and messages that tell me a revisit of the charming...
The Young Girls of Rochefort
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 717
1967 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 125 min. / Les Demoiselles de Rochefort / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 11, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Françoise Dorléac, Danielle Darrieux, George Chakiris, Gene Kelly, Michel Piccoli, Jacques Perrin
Cinematography: Ghislain Cloquet
Production Designer: Bernard Evein
Film Editor: Jean Hamon
Original Music: Michel Legrand
Produced by Mag Bodard, Gilbert de Goldschmidt
Written and Directed by Jacques Demy
I was going to squeak by reviewing only Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, but the interest in the new La La Land prompted some emails and messages that tell me a revisit of the charming...
- 5/2/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Taking a look at the French director’s fascinating filmography.
One of the biggest films of 2016, La La Land, owes a thing or two to French director Jacques Demy. The bright, colorful musical visually mirrors Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), and director Damien Chazelle was able to capture something of the melancholic sweetness of Demy’s musicals. Demy is not one of the most famous French directors, however his films have a specific charm and intelligence that no other filmmaker could match. The way he blended Hollywood style with French culture was unlike any other filmmaker at the time.
Demy began his career in 1960s France, during the time of the “Nouvelle Vague” or French New Wave. This was the time of films such as Breathless, Jules and Jim, The 400 Blows, and Le Beau Serge. However, Demy lies a little bit outside of this group of filmmakers, and...
One of the biggest films of 2016, La La Land, owes a thing or two to French director Jacques Demy. The bright, colorful musical visually mirrors Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), and director Damien Chazelle was able to capture something of the melancholic sweetness of Demy’s musicals. Demy is not one of the most famous French directors, however his films have a specific charm and intelligence that no other filmmaker could match. The way he blended Hollywood style with French culture was unlike any other filmmaker at the time.
Demy began his career in 1960s France, during the time of the “Nouvelle Vague” or French New Wave. This was the time of films such as Breathless, Jules and Jim, The 400 Blows, and Le Beau Serge. However, Demy lies a little bit outside of this group of filmmakers, and...
- 3/20/2017
- by Angela Morrison
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Four new movies are coming to the Criterion Collection this April: Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo,” Francis Ford Coppola’s “Rumble Fish,” Wim Wenders’ “Buena Vista Social Club” and George Stevens’ “Woman of the Year.” In addition, two musicals directed by Jacques Demy already in the Collection are receiving new standalone editions: “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” and “The Young Girls of Rochefort.” More information below.
Read More: The Criterion Collection’s 2017 Lineup: What Movies Are Being Added This Year?
“Tampopo”
“The tale of an eccentric band of culinary ronin who guide the widow of a noodle shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe, this rapturous “ramen western” by Japanese director Juzo Itami is an entertaining, genre-bending adventure underpinned by a deft satire of the way social conventions distort the most natural of human urges, our appetites. Interspersing the efforts of Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto) and friends to make her café...
Read More: The Criterion Collection’s 2017 Lineup: What Movies Are Being Added This Year?
“Tampopo”
“The tale of an eccentric band of culinary ronin who guide the widow of a noodle shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe, this rapturous “ramen western” by Japanese director Juzo Itami is an entertaining, genre-bending adventure underpinned by a deft satire of the way social conventions distort the most natural of human urges, our appetites. Interspersing the efforts of Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto) and friends to make her café...
- 1/17/2017
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
2016 movies Things to Come (pictured) and Elle have earned French cinema icon Isabelle Huppert her – surprisingly – first National Society of Film Critics Best Actress Award. 2016 Movies: Isabelle Huppert & 'Moonlight' among National Society of Film Critics' top picks Earlier today (Jan. 7), the National Society of Film Critics announced their top 2016 movies and performances. Somewhat surprisingly, this year's Nsfc list – which generally contains more offbeat entries than those of other U.S.-based critics groups – is quite similar to their counterparts', most of which came out last December. No, that doesn't mean the National Society of Film Critics has opted for the crowd-pleasing route. Instead, this awards season U.S. critics have not infrequently gone for even less mainstream entries than usual. Examples, among either the Nsfc winners or runners-up, include Isabelle Huppert in Elle, Moonlight, Toni Erdmann, Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea, and Lily Gladstone in Certain Women. French...
- 1/8/2017
- by Mont. Steve
- Alt Film Guide
Michele Morgan - in her heyday
The French actress Michèle Morgan, who was the unforgettable partner of Jean Gabin in Le Quai Des Brumes, died today in Paris at the age of 96.
Born Simone Renée Roussel on 29 February 1920, Michèle Morgan began her career in 1935 as an extra in La Vie Parisienne directed by Robert Siodmak, and in Mademoiselle Mozart by Yvan Noé, in which the title role was taken by Danielle Darrieux.
She decided to take her craft seriously, enlisting in the stage school Cours Simon where she learned the essentials of acting - and paid for her studies by continuing to take small roles in films.
Then in 1937 she made her mark in Gribouille by Marc Allégret and ascended to mythic status when (in Le Quai Des Brumes) Jean Gabin remarked “Tu as des beaux yeux, tu sais …” (“You know you have beautiful eyes …”) to which she replied: “Embrasse-moi.
The French actress Michèle Morgan, who was the unforgettable partner of Jean Gabin in Le Quai Des Brumes, died today in Paris at the age of 96.
Born Simone Renée Roussel on 29 February 1920, Michèle Morgan began her career in 1935 as an extra in La Vie Parisienne directed by Robert Siodmak, and in Mademoiselle Mozart by Yvan Noé, in which the title role was taken by Danielle Darrieux.
She decided to take her craft seriously, enlisting in the stage school Cours Simon where she learned the essentials of acting - and paid for her studies by continuing to take small roles in films.
Then in 1937 she made her mark in Gribouille by Marc Allégret and ascended to mythic status when (in Le Quai Des Brumes) Jean Gabin remarked “Tu as des beaux yeux, tu sais …” (“You know you have beautiful eyes …”) to which she replied: “Embrasse-moi.
- 12/20/2016
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Mubi is exclusively showing Billy Wilder and Alexander Esway's Mauvaise Graine a.k.a. Bad Seed (1934) in the United States and most countries around the world from August 18 - September 16, 2016.In light of his illustrious Hollywood career to follow, Billy Wilder’s obscure directorial debut, Mauvaise Graine (1934), may seem like a mere curiosity. Making the film as he was passing through France by way of Germany en route to America, Wilder regarded the work with little adoration. For him, the experience was one rife with difficulty; it wasn’t fun, there was tremendous pressure, and he simply wasn’t accustomed to have such sweeping control over a production. But the writing was on the wall by 1933, and Wilder, like so many others, was keen to get out of Berlin while the getting was good. Arriving first in Paris, he met other film professionals seeking refuge from the burgeoning Nazi party,...
- 8/19/2016
- MUBI
Tired of stupid sword 'n' sandal costume pictures? Robert Rossen's all-star bio-epic of the charter founder of the Masons is a superior analysis of political ambition and the ruthless application of power. Yeah, he's wearing a blond wig, but Richard Burton captures the force of Alexander without camping up Asia Minor. Alexander the Great Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1956 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 136 min. / Ship Date March 15, 2016 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Richard Burton, Fredric March, Claire Bloom, Danielle Darrieux, Barry Jones, Harry Andrews, Stanley Baker, Niall MacGinnis, Peter Cushing. Cinematography Robert Krasker Art Direction Andrej Andrejew Film Editor Ralph Kemplen Original Music Mario Nascimbene Produced by Gordon Griffith, Robert Rossen Written and Directed by Robert Rossen
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Critical opinions aren't supposed to flip-flop with every screening of a film, but I have to admit that my appreciation of Robert Rossen's 1956 epic Alexander the Great...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Critical opinions aren't supposed to flip-flop with every screening of a film, but I have to admit that my appreciation of Robert Rossen's 1956 epic Alexander the Great...
- 4/2/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 actress and pioneering female film producer. Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 actress was pioneering woman producer, politically minded 'femme engagée' Danièle Delorme, who died on Oct. 17, '15, at the age of 89 in Paris, is best remembered as the first actress to incarnate Colette's teenage courtesan-to-be Gigi and for playing Jean Rochefort's about-to-be-cuckolded wife in the international box office hit Pardon Mon Affaire. Yet few are aware that Delorme was featured in nearly 60 films – three of which, including Gigi, directed by France's sole major woman filmmaker of the '40s and '50s – in addition to more than 20 stage plays and a dozen television productions in a show business career spanning seven decades. Even fewer realize that Delorme was also a pioneering woman film producer, working in that capacity for more than half a century. Or that she was what in French is called a femme engagée...
- 12/5/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Child actor Dickie Moore: 'Our Gang' member. Former child actor Dickie Moore dead at 89: Film career ranged from 'Our Gang' shorts to features opposite Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper 1930s child actor Dickie Moore, whose 100+ movie career ranged from Our Gang shorts to playing opposite the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck, and Gary Cooper, died in Connecticut on Sept. 7, '15 – five days before his 90th birthday. So far, news reports haven't specified the cause of death. According to a 2013 Boston Phoenix article about Moore's wife, MGM musical star Jane Powell, he had been “suffering from arthritis and bouts of dementia.” Dickie Moore movies At the behest of a persistent family friend, combined with the fact that his father was out of a job, Dickie Moore (born on Sept. 12, 1925, in Los Angeles) made his film debut as an infant in Alan Crosland's 1927 costume drama The Beloved Rogue,...
- 9/11/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Michael Caine young. Michael Caine movies: From Irwin Allen bombs to Woody Allen classic It's hard to believe that Michael Caine has been around making movies for nearly six decades. No wonder he's had time to appear – in roles big and small and tiny – in more than 120 films, ranging from unwatchable stuff like the Sylvester Stallone soccer flick Victory and Michael Ritchie's adventure flick The Island to Brian G. Hutton's X, Y and Zee, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Sleuth (a duel of wits and acting styles with Laurence Olivier), and Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men. (See TCM's Michael Caine movie schedule further below.) Throughout his long, long career, Caine has played heroes and villains and everything in between. Sometimes, in his worst vehicles, he has floundered along with everybody else. At other times, he was the best element in otherwise disappointing fare, e.g., Philip Kaufman's Quills.
- 8/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Olivia de Havilland picture U.S. labor history-making 'Gone with the Wind' star and two-time Best Actress winner Olivia de Havilland turns 99 (This Olivia de Havilland article is currently being revised and expanded.) Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland, the only surviving major Gone with the Wind cast member and oldest surviving Oscar winner, is turning 99 years old today, July 1.[1] Also known for her widely publicized feud with sister Joan Fontaine and for her eight movies with Errol Flynn, de Havilland should be remembered as well for having made Hollywood labor history. This particular history has nothing to do with de Havilland's films, her two Oscars, Gone with the Wind, Joan Fontaine, or Errol Flynn. Instead, history was made as a result of a legal fight: after winning a lawsuit against Warner Bros. in the mid-'40s, Olivia de Havilland put an end to treacherous...
- 7/2/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
'Being Julia' movie: Annette Bening and Shaun Evans 'Being Julia' movie review: Annette Bening showcase tells us a little about Avice A little Being Julia movie background: In Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1950 Oscar-winning classic All About Eve, Bette Davis plays Margo Channing, a major Broadway star who, despite her talent, wit, and some forty-odd years on this planet, falls prey to the youthful, ambitious wannabe Eve Harrington: sweet, soft-spoken Anne Baxter on the outside; ruthless, poisonous gargoyle on the inside.* More than a decade earlier, in 1937 to be exact, W. Somerset Maugham had written Theatre, a novel about West End diva Julia Lambert. In Maugham's tale, Julia, despite her talent, wit, and some forty-odd years on this planet, succumbs to her vanity when she falls madly in love with Tom Fennel, a handsome – and deceptively innocent-looking – American half her age. Through Tom's "special friendship" with the renowned Julia, an ambitious young actress,...
- 5/10/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Marc Allégret: From André Gide lover to Simone Simon mentor (photo: Marc Allégret) (See previous post: "Simone Simon Remembered: Sex Kitten and Femme Fatale.") Simone Simon became a film star following the international critical and financial success of the 1934 romantic drama Lac aux Dames, directed by her self-appointed mentor – and alleged lover – Marc Allégret.[1] The son of an evangelical missionary, Marc Allégret (born on December 22, 1900, in Basel, Switzerland) was to have become a lawyer. At age 16, his life took a different path as a result of his romantic involvement – and elopement to London – with his mentor and later "adoptive uncle" André Gide (1947 Nobel Prize winner in Literature), more than 30 years his senior and married to Madeleine Rondeaux for more than two decades. In various forms – including a threesome with painter Théo Van Rysselberghe's daughter Elisabeth – the Allégret-Gide relationship remained steady until the late '20s and their trip to...
- 2/28/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Simone Simon in 'La Bête Humaine' 1938: Jean Renoir's film noir (photo: Jean Gabin and Simone Simon in 'La Bête Humaine') (See previous post: "'Cat People' 1942 Actress Simone Simon Remembered.") In the late 1930s, with her Hollywood career stalled while facing competition at 20th Century-Fox from another French import, Annabella (later Tyrone Power's wife), Simone Simon returned to France. Once there, she reestablished herself as an actress to be reckoned with in Jean Renoir's La Bête Humaine. An updated version of Émile Zola's 1890 novel, La Bête Humaine is enveloped in a dark, brooding atmosphere not uncommon in pre-World War II French films. Known for their "poetic realism," examples from that era include Renoir's own The Lower Depths (1936), Julien Duvivier's La Belle Équipe (1936) and Pépé le Moko (1937), and particularly Marcel Carné's Port of Shadows (1938) and Daybreak (1939).[11] This thematic and...
- 2/6/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Kristen Stewart, Catherine Deneuve make César Award history (photo: Kristen Stewart in 'Clouds of Sils Maria,' with Juliette Binoche) Kristen Stewart and Catherine Deneuve are two 2015 César Award nominees making history. The French Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts announced the nominations on Jan. 28, 2015; the César Awards ceremony will take place on Feb. 20, 2015, at Paris' Théâtre du Châtelet. Kristen Stewart is in the running in the Best Supporting Actress category for Clouds of Sils Maria / Sils Maria. Catherine Deneuve has been shortlisted as Best Actress for In the Courtyard / Dans la cour. So, how are Stewart and Deneuve making César history? Well, let's begin with "the expected one": Deneuve. Catherine Deneuve One of the biggest film icons ever, Catherine Deneuve is one of those relatively rare international film superstars who has never bothered with – or needed – a Hollywood career. Deneuve, who turned 71 last October 22, has been...
- 1/30/2015
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
Sean Penn: Honorary César goes Hollywood – again (photo: Sean Penn in '21 Grams') Sean Penn, 54, will receive the 2015 Honorary César (César d'Honneur), the French Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts has announced. That means the French Academy's powers-that-be are once again trying to make the Prix César ceremony relevant to the American media. Their tactic is to hand out the career award to a widely known and relatively young – i.e., media friendly – Hollywood celebrity. (Scroll down for more such examples.) In the words of the French Academy, Honorary César 2015 recipient Sean Penn is a "living legend" and "a stand-alone icon in American cinema." It has also hailed the two-time Best Actor Oscar winner as a "mythical actor, a politically active personality and an exceptional director." Penn will be honored at the César Awards ceremony on Feb. 20, 2015. Sean Penn movies Sean Penn movies range from the teen comedy...
- 1/28/2015
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
Luis Buñuel movies on TCM tonight (photo: Catherine Deneuve in 'Belle de Jour') The city of Paris and iconoclastic writer-director Luis Buñuel are Turner Classic Movies' themes today and later this evening. TCM's focus on Luis Buñuel is particularly welcome, as he remains one of the most daring and most challenging filmmakers since the invention of film. Luis Buñuel is so remarkable, in fact, that you won't find any Hollywood hipster paying homage to him in his/her movies. Nor will you hear his name mentioned at the Academy Awards – no matter the Academy in question. And rest assured that most film critics working today have never even heard of him, let alone seen any of his movies. So, nowadays Luis Buñuel is un-hip, un-cool, and unfashionable. He's also unquestionably brilliant. These days everyone is worried about freedom of expression. The clash of civilizations. The West vs. The Other.
- 1/27/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Maureen O'Hara movies: 2014 Honorary Oscar for Hollywood legend (photo: Maureen O'Hara at the 2014 Governors Awards) In the photo above, the movies' Maureen O'Hara, 2014 Honorary Oscar recipient for her body of work, arrives with a couple of guests at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 2014 Governors Awards. This year's ceremony is being held this Saturday evening, November 8, in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. For the last couple of years, Maureen O'Hara has been a Boise, Idaho, resident. Before that, the 94-year-old movie veteran -- born Maureen FitzSimons, on August, 17, 1920, in Dublin -- had been living in Ireland. Below is a brief recap of her movies. Maureen O'Hara movies: From Charles Laughton to John Wayne Following her leading-lady role in Alfred Hitchcock's British-made Jamaica Inn, starring Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara arrived in Hollywood in 1939 to play the gypsy Esmeralda opposite Laughton in William Dieterle...
- 11/9/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Honorary Award: Gloria Swanson, Rita Hayworth among dozens of women bypassed by the Academy (photo: Honorary Award non-winner Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Blvd.') (See previous post: "Honorary Oscars: Doris Day, Danielle Darrieux Snubbed.") Part three of this four-part article about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Honorary Award bypassing women basically consists of a long, long — and for the most part quite prestigious — list of deceased women who, some way or other, left their mark on the film world. Some of the names found below are still well known; others were huge in their day, but are now all but forgotten. Yet, just because most people (and the media) suffer from long-term — and even medium-term — memory loss, that doesn't mean these women were any less deserving of an Honorary Oscar. So, among the distinguished female film professionals in Hollywood and elsewhere who have passed away without...
- 9/4/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Young Girls of Rochefort
Written and directed by Jacques Demy
France, 1967
Jacques Demy’s The Young Girls of Rochefort is the Oscar-nominated follow-up to his immensely popular and successful The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), which with all of its dialogue sung was something of a reinvention of the movie musical, an almost experiential musical. Young Girls, on the other hand, is simply a great musical. To be sure, Umbrellas is an excellent film as well (see my take on it here), but while it surely resonates with its tale of love unhappily ever after, and it radiates in attractive Eastmancolor, it’s in some ways hampered by its own novelty. There is of course more to it than merely the fact that everyone sings everything, but to many it’s probably best known as the movie where everyone sings everything. Young Girls is more traditional in that it has dialogue...
Written and directed by Jacques Demy
France, 1967
Jacques Demy’s The Young Girls of Rochefort is the Oscar-nominated follow-up to his immensely popular and successful The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), which with all of its dialogue sung was something of a reinvention of the movie musical, an almost experiential musical. Young Girls, on the other hand, is simply a great musical. To be sure, Umbrellas is an excellent film as well (see my take on it here), but while it surely resonates with its tale of love unhappily ever after, and it radiates in attractive Eastmancolor, it’s in some ways hampered by its own novelty. There is of course more to it than merely the fact that everyone sings everything, but to many it’s probably best known as the movie where everyone sings everything. Young Girls is more traditional in that it has dialogue...
- 7/30/2014
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
‘Dracula’ 1931 actress Carla Laemmle dead at 104 (photo: Carla Laemmle ca. 1930) Carla Laemmle, a bit player in a handful of silent movies and at the dawn of the sound era — e.g., the horror classics The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and Dracula (1931) — and a niece of Universal Studios co-founder Carl Laemmle, died on June 12, 2014, at her Los Angeles home. Laemmle, who had reportedly been in good health, was 104 years old. Born Rebekah Isabelle Laemmle on October 20, 1909, in Chicago, Carla Laemmle was less known for her movie work than for having survived most of her contemporaries and for her family connection to the Universal mogul — her father, Joseph Laemmle, was Carl’s brother. ‘Dracula’ actress was a member of Carl Laemmle’s ‘very large faemmle’ "Uncle Carl Laemmle, Has a very large faemmle," once half-joked poet Ogden Nash, in reference to Laemmle’s penchant for hiring family members. As Laemmle’s niece,...
- 6/13/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Danielle Darrieux turns 97: Darrieux has probably enjoyed the longest film star career in history (photo: Danielle Darrieux in ‘La Ronde’) Screen legend Danielle Darrieux is turning 97 today, May 1, 2014. In all likelihood, the Bordeaux-born (1917) Darrieux has enjoyed the longest "movie star" career ever: eight decades, from Wilhelm Thiele’s Le Bal (1931) to Denys Granier-Deferre’s The Wedding Cake / Pièce montée (2010). (Mickey Rooney has had a longer film career — nearly nine decades — but mostly as a supporting player in minor roles.) Absurdly, despite a prestigious career consisting of more than 100 movie roles, Danielle Darrieux — delightful in Club de femmes, superb in The Earrings of Madame De…, alternately hilarious and heartbreaking in 8 Women — has never won an Honorary Oscar. But then again, very few women have. At least, the French Academy did award her an Honorary César back in 1985; additionally, in 2002 Darrieux and her fellow 8 Women / 8 femmes co-stars shared Best Actress honors...
- 5/1/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 22, 2014
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $124.95
Studio: Criterion
French director Jacques Demy launched his glorious feature filmmaking career in the Sixties, a decade of astonishing invention in his national cinema. He stood out from the crowd of his fellow New Wavers, however, by filtering his self-conscious formalism through deeply emotional storytelling. Fate and coincidence, doomed love, and storybook romance surface throughout his films, many of which are further united by the intersecting lives of characters who either appear or are referenced across titles.
Six of Demy’s films are collected in The Essential Jacques Demy. Ranging from musical to melodrama to fantasia, all are triumphs of visual and sound design, camera work, and music, and they are galvanized by the great stars of French cinema at their centers, including Anouk Aimée (8 1/2), Catherine Deneuve (Belle de Jour), and Jeanne Moreau (Jules and Jim).
The six works here, made...
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $124.95
Studio: Criterion
French director Jacques Demy launched his glorious feature filmmaking career in the Sixties, a decade of astonishing invention in his national cinema. He stood out from the crowd of his fellow New Wavers, however, by filtering his self-conscious formalism through deeply emotional storytelling. Fate and coincidence, doomed love, and storybook romance surface throughout his films, many of which are further united by the intersecting lives of characters who either appear or are referenced across titles.
Six of Demy’s films are collected in The Essential Jacques Demy. Ranging from musical to melodrama to fantasia, all are triumphs of visual and sound design, camera work, and music, and they are galvanized by the great stars of French cinema at their centers, including Anouk Aimée (8 1/2), Catherine Deneuve (Belle de Jour), and Jeanne Moreau (Jules and Jim).
The six works here, made...
- 4/24/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Mickey Rooney was earliest surviving Best Actor Oscar nominee (photo: Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy in ‘Boys Town’) (See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Dead at 93: MGM’s Andy Hardy Series’ Hero and Judy Garland Frequent Co-Star Had Longest Film Career Ever?”) Mickey Rooney was the earliest surviving Best Actor Academy Award nominee — Babes in Arms, 1939; The Human Comedy, 1943 — and the last surviving male acting Oscar nominee of the 1930s. Rooney lost the Best Actor Oscar to two considerably more “prestigious” — albeit less popular — stars: Robert Donat for Sam Wood’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) and Paul Lukas for Herman Shumlin’s Watch on the Rhine (1943). Following Mickey Rooney’s death, there are only two acting Academy Award nominees from the ’30s still alive: two-time Best Actress winner Luise Rainer, 104 (for Robert Z. Leonard’s The Great Ziegfeld, 1936, and Sidney Franklin’s The Good Earth, 1937), and Best Supporting Actress nominee Olivia de Havilland,...
- 4/9/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Mickey Rooney dead at 93: Four-time Oscar nominee, frequent Judy Garland co-star may have had the longest film career ever (photo: Mickey Rooney ca. 1940) Mickey Rooney, four-time Academy Award nominee and one of the biggest domestic box-office draws during the studio era, died of "natural causes" on Sunday, April 6, 2014, at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of North Hollywood. The Brooklyn-born Rooney (as Joseph Yule Jr., on September 23, 1920) had reportedly been in ill health for some time. He was 93. Besides his countless movies, and numerous television and stage appearances, Mickey Rooney was also known for his stormy private life, which featured boozing and gambling, some widely publicized family infighting (including his testifying in Congress in 2011 about elder abuse), his filing for bankruptcy in 1962 after having earned a reported $12 million (and then going bankrupt again in 1996), his eight marriages — including those to actresses Ava Gardner, Martha Vickers, and Barbara Ann Thomason...
- 4/9/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award: Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Judi Dench are the only three female recipients to date (photo: European movies’ Lifetime Achievement Award-less actress Danielle Darrieux) (See previous post: "Catherine Deneuve: Only the Third Woman to Receive European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.") As mentioned in the previous post, French film icon Catherine Deneuve is only the third woman to receive the European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award since the organization’s first awards ceremony in 1988. Deneuve’s predecessors are The Lovers‘ Jeanne Moreau (1997) and Notes on a Scandal‘s Judi Dench (2008). In that regard, the European Film Academy is as male-oriented as the Beverly Hills-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. More on that below. Male recipients of the European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award are the following: Ingmar Bergman, Marcello Mastroianni, Federico Fellini, Andrzej Wajda, Alexandre Trauner, Billy Wilder,...
- 9/25/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Catherine Deneuve: 2013 European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Catherine Deneuve has been named the recipient of the the European Film Academy’s 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award for her "outstanding body of work." And outstanding it is. Yesterday, I posted an article about Dirk Bogarde (Victim, Death in Venice, Despair), one of the rare performers anywhere on the planet to have consistently worked with world-class international filmmakers. The Paris-born Catherine Deneuve, who turns 70 next October 22, is another one of those lucky actors. (Photo: Catherine Deneuve at the Potiche premiere at the 2010 Venice Film Festival.) Deneuve’s directors have included an eclectic and prestigious list of filmmakers from various countries. Those include Belle de Jour and Tristana‘s Luis Buñuel; Le Sauvage and La Vie de Château‘s Jean-Paul Rappenau; The Hunger‘s Tony Scott; Un Flic‘s Jean-Pierre Melville; The Mississippi Mermaid and The Last Metro‘s François Truffaut...
- 9/25/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Sixty years ago this week, on September 16, 1953, The Earrings of Madame de... premiered in Paris, which is as good an excuse as any to celebrate the various ways in which Max Ophüls’ masterpiece has been promoted over the years.
Since it is one of the most gorgeous and luxurious films ever made—Ophüls’ camera never seems to stop gliding and waltzing through the most opulent of settings—it is interesting how simple two of the most striking posters for the film are. The 1961 German poster and the 1959 Polish poster, both notably designed by women, are both in black and white (as is the film, gloriously so, but it was still unusual for posters of the period to be monochrome) and both pare the film down to a woman and her jewelry. In fact, they not only focus on the eponymous socialite but they isolate her in details. The German poster,...
Since it is one of the most gorgeous and luxurious films ever made—Ophüls’ camera never seems to stop gliding and waltzing through the most opulent of settings—it is interesting how simple two of the most striking posters for the film are. The 1961 German poster and the 1959 Polish poster, both notably designed by women, are both in black and white (as is the film, gloriously so, but it was still unusual for posters of the period to be monochrome) and both pare the film down to a woman and her jewelry. In fact, they not only focus on the eponymous socialite but they isolate her in details. The German poster,...
- 9/13/2013
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.