From the first time I saw it until this moment, two days before what might just be the most important, potentially resonant (for good and ill) American presidential election since the days of the Civil War, no other movie has expanded in my view more meaningfully, more ambiguously, with more fascination than has Robert Altman’s Nashville. We often hear of movies which “transcend” their genres, or their initial ambitions or intentions, and often built into that alleged transcendence is a condescension to said genre, or those ambitions or intentions, as if the roots were somehow corrupt or unworthy, in need of reconstruction. If the form of Nashville transcends anything, it’s the shape and scope of the multi-character drama as we’d come to know it in 1975, which was dominated at the time by disaster movies and their jam-packed casts filled with old Hollywood veterans and Oscar winners. But...
- 11/7/2016
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
46 years ago today, history was made on an episode of “The Tonight Show.” Novelty singer Tiny Tim — known for his ukulele playing and falsetto voice — married Miss Vicki on Johnny Carson’s talk show. It was the most-watched episode of Carson’s “Tonight Show” until his finale. Before televised celebrity weddings became a common occurrence, this was a wholly new spectacle. 45 million viewers tuned in for the event. (Compare that to a meager 4 million viewers watching Kim Kardashian’s much-publicized 2011 wedding to Kris Humphries.) Other notable December 17 happenings in pop culture history: • 1965: Judy Garland and The Supremes became first artists to perform at the Astrodome in Houston, Tex. • 1971: “Diamonds Are Forever,” the seventh Eon Productions James Bond film, opened in U.S. theaters. • 1976: “Freaky Friday,” starring Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris, had its theatrical release. The remake of “King Kong,” starring Jessica Lange in her first film role,...
- 12/17/2015
- by Emily Rome
- Hitfix
“Y’all take it easy now. This isn’t Dallas, it’s Nashville! They can’t do this to us here in Nashville! Let’s show them what we’re made of. Come on everybody, sing! Somebody, sing!”
Nashville screens one time only Thursday, September 24th at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis) at 7pm
In a decade of great films, Nashville is one of the greatest. I saw Nashville during its initial theatrical release and have seen it several times since but it has not played on the big screen (at least in St. Louis) in a long time. In 1974 director Robert Altman was directing films for United Artists and wanted them to produce his film Thieves Like Us. They agreed if he would agree to direct a story about country music that they had a script for. He rejected the script and said he would offer them...
Nashville screens one time only Thursday, September 24th at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis) at 7pm
In a decade of great films, Nashville is one of the greatest. I saw Nashville during its initial theatrical release and have seen it several times since but it has not played on the big screen (at least in St. Louis) in a long time. In 1974 director Robert Altman was directing films for United Artists and wanted them to produce his film Thieves Like Us. They agreed if he would agree to direct a story about country music that they had a script for. He rejected the script and said he would offer them...
- 9/22/2015
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Ann-Margret movies: From sex kitten to two-time Oscar nominee. Ann-Margret: 'Carnal Knowledge' and 'Tommy' proved that 'sex symbol' was a remarkable actress Ann-Margret, the '60s star who went from sex kitten to respected actress and two-time Oscar nominee, is Turner Classic Movies' star today, Aug. 13, '15. As part of its “Summer Under the Stars” series, TCM is showing this evening the movies that earned Ann-Margret her Academy Award nods: Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge (1971) and Ken Russell's Tommy (1975). Written by Jules Feiffer, and starring Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel, the downbeat – some have found it misogynistic; others have praised it for presenting American men as chauvinistic pigs – Carnal Knowledge is one of the precursors of “adult Hollywood moviemaking,” a rare species that, propelled by the success of disparate arthouse fare such as Vilgot Sjöman's I Am Curious (Yellow) and Costa-Gavras' Z, briefly flourished from...
- 8/14/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Super jam-packed week here at Tfe. We were possibly over-posting which brings us to Icymi because sure you did miss something. I've put the goods under song headers this morning just because.
We Can Be Heroes
Tfe got schizophrenic as Amir bitched about superhero franchises just as Anne Marie was celebrating them with live Comic Con coverage.
You're Beautiful
We gave Sandra Bullock a teensy look-back for her 50th. But I was mostly feeling love in short post form for players who get too little attention these days: Mary Steenburgen is always boss, John Leguizamo is an oft inspired clown, and on a clear day you can see Barbara Harris forever. I'm glad to know there are other fans out there of all three.
Anticipation
I was worried that Ynms efforts were getting stale but the inspiration faucet was suddenly turned back on for Imitation Game. And how about a...
We Can Be Heroes
Tfe got schizophrenic as Amir bitched about superhero franchises just as Anne Marie was celebrating them with live Comic Con coverage.
You're Beautiful
We gave Sandra Bullock a teensy look-back for her 50th. But I was mostly feeling love in short post form for players who get too little attention these days: Mary Steenburgen is always boss, John Leguizamo is an oft inspired clown, and on a clear day you can see Barbara Harris forever. I'm glad to know there are other fans out there of all three.
Anticipation
I was worried that Ynms efforts were getting stale but the inspiration faucet was suddenly turned back on for Imitation Game. And how about a...
- 7/28/2014
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
A Happy 79th birthday to Barbara Harris. She hasn't acted in such a long time but she was often just wonderful on the screen with unique rhythm, energy and comic ability.
I'm not sure that anything about Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot (Hitch's last feature in 1976) totally works but if you could argue that any of it does it's either the cemetery scene or anything involving Barbara Harris's performance as a con-artist psychic. The movie is frustrating since it feels half formed and its inarguably flabby: every time you need the editing too tighten it up which would have made everything, including the memorable actors (Karen Black and Bruce Dern are also on hand), pop. It just keeps the scene going.
Barbara Harris's largest claim to fame these days is her Golden Globe nominated work in the original Freaky Friday (1976) wherein she switched bodies with her tomboy...
I'm not sure that anything about Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot (Hitch's last feature in 1976) totally works but if you could argue that any of it does it's either the cemetery scene or anything involving Barbara Harris's performance as a con-artist psychic. The movie is frustrating since it feels half formed and its inarguably flabby: every time you need the editing too tighten it up which would have made everything, including the memorable actors (Karen Black and Bruce Dern are also on hand), pop. It just keeps the scene going.
Barbara Harris's largest claim to fame these days is her Golden Globe nominated work in the original Freaky Friday (1976) wherein she switched bodies with her tomboy...
- 7/26/2014
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
The prolific Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director whose films include Harry And Tonto, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Down And Out In Beverly Hills, died yesterday in Los Angeles of pulmonary cardiac arrest. Paul Mazursky was 84. Born 1930 in Brooklyn as Irwin Mazursky, he was a graduate of Brooklyn College and made his cinema debut in Stanley Kubrick’s feature Fear And Desire. When he wasn’t acting, Mazursky was a stand-up comic in New York and at the Gate of Horn in Chicago. After befriending Pauls Sills and Barbara Harris, Marzursky appeared in the west coast company of Second City. Writing […]...
- 7/1/2014
- Deadline
Often considered one of Robert Altman’s best films, Nashville subverts and revisits the tropes of the classic Hollywood musical through a revisionist lens. Though musicals still found success in the 1970s, the golden age of the genre was long gone and was due for a revival and re-evaluation. Utilizing tropes from classic Hollywood musicals, Nashville transforms our understanding of the genre. Altman situates the film in a contemporary setting, often negating the fantasy elements long associated with musicals. Nashville utilizes the conventions of genre in order to explore a vision of a New America and a New Cinema.
The classic Hollywood musical is very much tied to the idea of the subjective emotional experience. This is often done through the engagement with fantasy as an aesthetic choice. The subjectivity and the fantasy become a realization of the individual’s dreams and fantasies, keeping the genre in line with traditional narrative practises.
The classic Hollywood musical is very much tied to the idea of the subjective emotional experience. This is often done through the engagement with fantasy as an aesthetic choice. The subjectivity and the fantasy become a realization of the individual’s dreams and fantasies, keeping the genre in line with traditional narrative practises.
- 1/24/2014
- by Justine Smith
- SoundOnSight
efilmcritic Erik Childress's wonderful annual list of Blurb Whores of the Year
THR August Osage County wins big at the Capri festival in Italy, winning four prizes. Harvey Weinstein and Chris Cooper were also honored at the festival. In non Weinstein awards they honored 12 Years a Slave, Saving Mr Banks, and The Great Beauty as well as Valeria Golino (remember her?) as European actress of the year
EW Downton Abbey on the cover. Can't wait for its return this weekend
Variety 3 time Oscar winning producer Saul Zaentz (Amadeus, Cuckoo's Nest and The English Patient) has passed away
i09 Disney Princess themed lingerie from Japan!
Mnpp vicious but true takedown of Ron Howard's Rush
Cinema Blend The Rock for a new iteration of Green Lantern? There are worse ideas, casting-wise I suppose but DC movies are so hopeless!
The Guardian finds that The Wolf of Wall Street uses the naughty F word 506 times,...
THR August Osage County wins big at the Capri festival in Italy, winning four prizes. Harvey Weinstein and Chris Cooper were also honored at the festival. In non Weinstein awards they honored 12 Years a Slave, Saving Mr Banks, and The Great Beauty as well as Valeria Golino (remember her?) as European actress of the year
EW Downton Abbey on the cover. Can't wait for its return this weekend
Variety 3 time Oscar winning producer Saul Zaentz (Amadeus, Cuckoo's Nest and The English Patient) has passed away
i09 Disney Princess themed lingerie from Japan!
Mnpp vicious but true takedown of Ron Howard's Rush
Cinema Blend The Rock for a new iteration of Green Lantern? There are worse ideas, casting-wise I suppose but DC movies are so hopeless!
The Guardian finds that The Wolf of Wall Street uses the naughty F word 506 times,...
- 1/4/2014
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Frenzy
Written by Anthony Shaffer
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
UK, 1972
Family Plot
Written by Ernest Lehman
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
USA, 1976
There are some who opt for Alfred Hitchcock’s British years as his finest, taking into account his earliest silent features through Jamaica Inn in 1939. On the other hand, many regard the peak years in America as the Master of Suspense’s finest era, with films from Rebecca in 1940 to Marnie in 1964. Both have valid points to make and there are unquestionably several great works during each phase of the filmmaker’s career. Few, however, would rank Hitchcock’s final four films among his best. In a way, this is unfair, their lowly stature no doubt due to the masterworks that preceded them; with the films Hitchcock made before, the bar was set unassailably high. Taken apart from the imposing excellence of these earlier classics, these concluding films are solid movies.
Written by Anthony Shaffer
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
UK, 1972
Family Plot
Written by Ernest Lehman
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
USA, 1976
There are some who opt for Alfred Hitchcock’s British years as his finest, taking into account his earliest silent features through Jamaica Inn in 1939. On the other hand, many regard the peak years in America as the Master of Suspense’s finest era, with films from Rebecca in 1940 to Marnie in 1964. Both have valid points to make and there are unquestionably several great works during each phase of the filmmaker’s career. Few, however, would rank Hitchcock’s final four films among his best. In a way, this is unfair, their lowly stature no doubt due to the masterworks that preceded them; with the films Hitchcock made before, the bar was set unassailably high. Taken apart from the imposing excellence of these earlier classics, these concluding films are solid movies.
- 12/13/2013
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
Robert Altman’s Nashville is one of the towering achievements of 1970s New Hollywood Cinema, a portrait of the hub of the country music scene by juggling a myriad of characters, from self-appointed king of the community Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson) to its biggest star, Connie White (Karen Black), from the emotionally fragile Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley) to comically intrepid BBC reporter Opal (Geraldine Chaplin) and campaigning politician Hal Phillip Walker (Thomas Hal Phillips), a presence seen but never heard. A huge, highly accomplished cast — which also includes Ned Beatty, Shelly Duvall, Lily Tomlin, Keith Carradine, Barbara Harris and a very young Jeff […]...
- 12/6/2013
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Robert Altman’s Nashville is one of the towering achievements of 1970s New Hollywood Cinema, a portrait of the hub of the country music scene by juggling a myriad of characters, from self-appointed king of the community Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson) to its biggest star, Connie White (Karen Black), from the emotionally fragile Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley) to comically intrepid BBC reporter Opal (Geraldine Chaplin) and campaigning politician Hal Phillip Walker (Thomas Hal Phillips), a presence seen but never heard. A huge, highly accomplished cast — which also includes Ned Beatty, Shelly Duvall, Lily Tomlin, Keith Carradine, Barbara Harris and a very young Jeff […]...
- 12/6/2013
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Robert Altman’s Nashville resurfaces for the home video market in a nicely packaged DVD/Blu-ray combo set from Criterion. A Best Picture nominee from 1975, this sprawling satire both lampoons and laments the American Dream, which was beginning to show signs of serious leakage – if not outright rupture – by the mid 1970s. An American president, who two years earlier had been reelected by one of the largest margins in the nation’s history, had just resigned in disgrace while a long, bloody and bitterly divisive war had been revealed as corrupt and pointless. Yet, to the array of hopeful goofballs in Nashville, America was still the land of opportunity; its dark and dank country music venues the key to quick fame and easy riches.
As conceived by Altman and writer Joan Tewksbury, everything about Nashville is larger than life. From its massive melange of roughly two dozen principle characters to...
As conceived by Altman and writer Joan Tewksbury, everything about Nashville is larger than life. From its massive melange of roughly two dozen principle characters to...
- 12/3/2013
- by David Anderson
- IONCINEMA.com
William Devane Respects The Text
By
Alex Simon
Few actors ruled the big and small screen with such vigor during the 1970s as William Devane. Using his classically handsome Irish features to embody parts best described as “Ivy League menace,” Devane hasn’t stopped working since making his film debut in 1967. McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Missiles of October, Marathon Man, Family Plot, Rolling Thunder, Yanks and Testament are just a few of the classic titles to which Devane brought his unique brand of charisma. The ‘80s saw him dominating the airwaves on the primetime soap Knots Landing as the nefarious Gregory Sumner, with dozens more memorable turns to follow.
Devane lends his gravitas to the new indie thriller We Gotta Get Out of This Place, a nifty neo-noir about a group of Texas teens (Mackenzie Davis, Logan Huffman, Jeremy Allen White) from a dead-end town who find themselves over their...
By
Alex Simon
Few actors ruled the big and small screen with such vigor during the 1970s as William Devane. Using his classically handsome Irish features to embody parts best described as “Ivy League menace,” Devane hasn’t stopped working since making his film debut in 1967. McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Missiles of October, Marathon Man, Family Plot, Rolling Thunder, Yanks and Testament are just a few of the classic titles to which Devane brought his unique brand of charisma. The ‘80s saw him dominating the airwaves on the primetime soap Knots Landing as the nefarious Gregory Sumner, with dozens more memorable turns to follow.
Devane lends his gravitas to the new indie thriller We Gotta Get Out of This Place, a nifty neo-noir about a group of Texas teens (Mackenzie Davis, Logan Huffman, Jeremy Allen White) from a dead-end town who find themselves over their...
- 11/10/2013
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
What’s new, what’s hot, and what you may have missed, now available to stream on Netflix, blinkbox, BBC iPlayer, and Curzon on Demand.
new to stream
Freaky Friday: the 1976 original starring Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster; so much fun, and so very slyly feminist, too [at Netflix] The Help: if movies that’re all men and no women can be universal, so can this one; this is The Shawshank Redemption [my review] [at Netflix] Seven Psychopaths: a witty take on Hollywood’s narrowmindedness and creative despair; an arthouse anti-action flick [my review] [at Netflix]
streaming now, before it’s on dvd
The Purge: mixes science fiction speculation with familiar horror tropes to create a startling satire on America’s culture of violence [my review] [at blinkbox] Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington: powerful documentary about the war journalist killed in action, and what motivated him and his work [at blinkbox]
new to...
new to stream
Freaky Friday: the 1976 original starring Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster; so much fun, and so very slyly feminist, too [at Netflix] The Help: if movies that’re all men and no women can be universal, so can this one; this is The Shawshank Redemption [my review] [at Netflix] Seven Psychopaths: a witty take on Hollywood’s narrowmindedness and creative despair; an arthouse anti-action flick [my review] [at Netflix]
streaming now, before it’s on dvd
The Purge: mixes science fiction speculation with familiar horror tropes to create a startling satire on America’s culture of violence [my review] [at blinkbox] Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington: powerful documentary about the war journalist killed in action, and what motivated him and his work [at blinkbox]
new to...
- 10/15/2013
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
A teenage Jodie Foster stars in this family comedy that sees her playing Annabelle, a bolshie teen who winds up in trouble when she swaps identities with mum Barbara Harris. Suddenly in charge of taking care of the New York family's affairs and her younger brother Ben (whom Annabelle has not-so-affectionately nicknamed Ape Face), a series of increasingly bizarre and frustrating misadventures teach her to become gradually more appreciative of how difficult her mother's life is. Also worth checking out is the 2003 remake starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis.
- 10/4/2013
- Sky Movies
Actress Karen Black.
I grew up hearing about Karen Black as far back as I can remember. She would pop up on television and my mother would point her out as a compatriot from their college days at Northwestern University, a mixture of pride and wistfulness in her voice as the memories came back. When I finally got the opportunity to sit down with Karen during the summer of 2007, the venerable actress had turned playwright, with a well-received L.A. production of "The Missouri Waltz," a musical for which she penned the book. Black was alternately eccentric, passionate, grounded and fascinating during our chat, her obvious intelligence shining through the entire proceedings.
“Black brings to all her roles a freewheeling combination of raunch and winsomeness,” Time magazine wrote about her in 1975. “Sometimes she is kittenish. At other times she has an overripe quality that makes her look like the kind...
I grew up hearing about Karen Black as far back as I can remember. She would pop up on television and my mother would point her out as a compatriot from their college days at Northwestern University, a mixture of pride and wistfulness in her voice as the memories came back. When I finally got the opportunity to sit down with Karen during the summer of 2007, the venerable actress had turned playwright, with a well-received L.A. production of "The Missouri Waltz," a musical for which she penned the book. Black was alternately eccentric, passionate, grounded and fascinating during our chat, her obvious intelligence shining through the entire proceedings.
“Black brings to all her roles a freewheeling combination of raunch and winsomeness,” Time magazine wrote about her in 1975. “Sometimes she is kittenish. At other times she has an overripe quality that makes her look like the kind...
- 8/9/2013
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Review by Sam Moffitt
After seeing the wonderful new movie Hitchcock in a theater and now seeing it again on Blu-Ray I thought it might be nice to revisit one of the Master of Suspense’s own films, preferably one I had not seen in some time. Family Plot was Sir Alfred’s last film and a pretty good finale to an amazing career that started in the silent era, an apprentice ship at Ufa Studio’s in Germany, watching no less a master film maker than Fritz Lang and ended in the 70’s when all the rules of film making were being broken by a bunch of young mavericks who changed the language of film altogether.
When I was a kid I loved everything about Hitchcock. I read his mystery magazine avidly, often in high school study hall instead of reading from a text book. My Mother would let...
After seeing the wonderful new movie Hitchcock in a theater and now seeing it again on Blu-Ray I thought it might be nice to revisit one of the Master of Suspense’s own films, preferably one I had not seen in some time. Family Plot was Sir Alfred’s last film and a pretty good finale to an amazing career that started in the silent era, an apprentice ship at Ufa Studio’s in Germany, watching no less a master film maker than Fritz Lang and ended in the 70’s when all the rules of film making were being broken by a bunch of young mavericks who changed the language of film altogether.
When I was a kid I loved everything about Hitchcock. I read his mystery magazine avidly, often in high school study hall instead of reading from a text book. My Mother would let...
- 5/6/2013
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
A teenage Jodie Foster stars in this happy Disney comedy that's superior to the 2003 remake with Lindsay Lohan. The complications from Foster swapping identities with mum Barbara Harris are endless and there is plenty of good-natured entertainment, especially in a car chase at the end. Disney's process work is as abysmal as ever, but the sunny stars have charm to spare.
- 2/21/2013
- Sky Movies
"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there," L.P. Hartley noted in the opening of his novel The Go-Between.
In 1986, Francis Ford Coppola tried to explore that notion with his wan whimsy in Peggy Sue Got Married, which closed the New York Film Festival. Kathleen Turner, who was nearing the end of her film career as a marketable entity on the West Coast (The War of the Roses (1989) was her final Hollywood hit), starred as the eponymous fortyish mother whose greasy spouse (Nicolas Cage) is ditching her. Distraught, Peggy Sue is persuaded to attend her high school reunion where she ends up being crowned queen. Immediately, she collapses and winds up traveling back in time to her teens. The quirk is that both she and the audience see that Peggy Sue clearly is a middle-aged mom dressing up in age-inappropriate attire, while her parents, friends, and all...
In 1986, Francis Ford Coppola tried to explore that notion with his wan whimsy in Peggy Sue Got Married, which closed the New York Film Festival. Kathleen Turner, who was nearing the end of her film career as a marketable entity on the West Coast (The War of the Roses (1989) was her final Hollywood hit), starred as the eponymous fortyish mother whose greasy spouse (Nicolas Cage) is ditching her. Distraught, Peggy Sue is persuaded to attend her high school reunion where she ends up being crowned queen. Immediately, she collapses and winds up traveling back in time to her teens. The quirk is that both she and the audience see that Peggy Sue clearly is a middle-aged mom dressing up in age-inappropriate attire, while her parents, friends, and all...
- 9/27/2012
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
July 22: Actor Orson Bean ("Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman") is 84. Actress Louise Fletcher is 78. Singer Chuck Jackson is 75. Actor Terence Stamp is 74. Game show host Alex Trebek is 72. Singer George Clinton is 71. Singer-actor Bobby Sherman is 69. Actor Danny Glover is 66. Writer-director Paul Schrader is 66. Singer Don Henley is 65. Actor-comedian-director Albert Brooks is 65. Composer Alan Menken ("Little Mermaid," "Little Shop of Horrors") is 63. Musician Al Di Meola is 58. Actor Willem Dafoe is 57. Singer Keith Sweat is 51. Singer Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls is 49. Actor-comedian David Spade is 48. Actor John Leguizamo is 48. Bassist Pat Badger of Extreme is 45. Actor Rhys Ifans is 45. Musician Daniel Jones (Savage Garden) is 39. Singer Rufus Wainwright is 39. Actress Franka Potente ("The Bourne Identity") is 38. Actress Selena Gomez is 20.
July 23: Actress Gloria DeHaven is 87. Radio personality Don Imus is 72. Country singer Tony Joe White is 69. Actor Larry Manetti ("Magnum, P.I.") is 65. Singer David Essex is 65. Singer...
July 23: Actress Gloria DeHaven is 87. Radio personality Don Imus is 72. Country singer Tony Joe White is 69. Actor Larry Manetti ("Magnum, P.I.") is 65. Singer David Essex is 65. Singer...
- 7/19/2012
- by www.huffingtonpost.com
- Huffington Post
Directed by: Dean Hargrove
Written by: Dean Hargrove, Gabriel Dell
Cast: Gabriel Dell, Will Geer, Anjanette Comer, Joyce Van Patten, Vincent Gardenia, Barbara Harris, Jackie Coogan, Huntz Hill
For movie fans of all genres, Mod (Made on Demand) DVDs are both a blessing and a curse. While it's true DVD-r technology makes it possible for collectors to own a physical copy of movies that wouldn't otherwise warrant a full-scale release, it also allows the studios to sell any film hiding in the corner of a film vault. And that would be fine if it wasn’t for the premium price tag attached to the finished product.
Taking a risk by purchasing an unknown film can be costly, as you might be buying a film better suited for a Walmart dump bin, which is where The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery belongs. Despite the script's best intentions, and a cast filled...
Written by: Dean Hargrove, Gabriel Dell
Cast: Gabriel Dell, Will Geer, Anjanette Comer, Joyce Van Patten, Vincent Gardenia, Barbara Harris, Jackie Coogan, Huntz Hill
For movie fans of all genres, Mod (Made on Demand) DVDs are both a blessing and a curse. While it's true DVD-r technology makes it possible for collectors to own a physical copy of movies that wouldn't otherwise warrant a full-scale release, it also allows the studios to sell any film hiding in the corner of a film vault. And that would be fine if it wasn’t for the premium price tag attached to the finished product.
Taking a risk by purchasing an unknown film can be costly, as you might be buying a film better suited for a Walmart dump bin, which is where The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery belongs. Despite the script's best intentions, and a cast filled...
- 3/23/2012
- by Chris McMillan
- Planet Fury
Toby Jones/Sienna Miller = Alfred Hitchcock/Tippi Hedren? [Photo: Tippi Hedren / The Birds publicity shot.] Tippi Hedren once told The Times of London that Alfred Hitchcock — for whom she starred in The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964), and with whom she had an exclusive contract — "kept me under contract, kept paying me every week for almost two years to do nothing" after she refused his sexual advances. "I admired Hitch tremendously for his great talent and still do," Hedren told London's Daily Mail. "Yet, at the same time, I loathed him for his off-set behavior and the way he came on to me sexually. He was a great director – and he destroyed it all by his behavior when he got me alone." Hedren had no luck after she rid herself of her Hitchcock ties. She had a small supporting role in Charles Chaplin's box-office and critical flop A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren,...
- 3/21/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
DVD Playhouse—February 2012
By Allen Gardner
To Kill A Mockingbird 50th Anniversary Edition (Universal) Robert Mulligan’s film of Harper Lee’s landmark novel pits a liberal-minded lawyer (Gregory Peck) against a small Southern town’s racism when defending a black man (Brock Peters) on trumped-up rape charges. One of the 1960s’ first landmark films, a truly stirring human drama that hits all the right notes and isn’t dated a bit. Robert Duvall makes his screen debut (sans dialogue) as the enigmatic Boo Radley. DVD and Blu-ray double edition. Bonuses: Two feature-length documentaries: Fearful Symmetry and A Conversation with Gregory Peck; Featurettes; Excerpts and film clips from Gregory Peck’s Oscar acceptance speech and AFI Lifetime Achievement Award; Commentary by Mulligan and producer Alan J. Pakula; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 2.0 mono.
Outrage: Way Of The Yakuza (Magnolia) After a brief hiatus from his signature oeuvre of Japanese gangster flicks,...
By Allen Gardner
To Kill A Mockingbird 50th Anniversary Edition (Universal) Robert Mulligan’s film of Harper Lee’s landmark novel pits a liberal-minded lawyer (Gregory Peck) against a small Southern town’s racism when defending a black man (Brock Peters) on trumped-up rape charges. One of the 1960s’ first landmark films, a truly stirring human drama that hits all the right notes and isn’t dated a bit. Robert Duvall makes his screen debut (sans dialogue) as the enigmatic Boo Radley. DVD and Blu-ray double edition. Bonuses: Two feature-length documentaries: Fearful Symmetry and A Conversation with Gregory Peck; Featurettes; Excerpts and film clips from Gregory Peck’s Oscar acceptance speech and AFI Lifetime Achievement Award; Commentary by Mulligan and producer Alan J. Pakula; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 2.0 mono.
Outrage: Way Of The Yakuza (Magnolia) After a brief hiatus from his signature oeuvre of Japanese gangster flicks,...
- 2/26/2012
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
In December of 1961, I was able to get—through the kindoffices of my friend Nancy Donahue, who introduced me to her agent Deborah Coleman—an audition for Arthur Kopit's play "Oh Dad, Poor Dad…" (the title is actually longer than that), to be directed by Jerome Robbins. Jerry liked my audition, but he'd never heard of me, so he kept calling me back, and at every callback I got worse. Finally, on my sixth audition, I arrived and was asked to read opposite a young woman named Barbara Harris. It will always be one of the magical moments of my life. She began to speak, and the role I was auditioning for roared to life in me again. We both were cast that day.And then I began, in rehearsal, to learn her process. I'm not sure I've ever experienced a process like it. I'll just say I learned what it was.
- 10/12/2011
- by help@backstage.com ()
- backstage.com
Given the success of Warner’s Archive program, we’re thrilled to see other studios scouring their vaults for content aimed at the discerning cinephile. Here’s a release showcasing the latest coming from MGM via Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment:
Los Angeles (April 14, 2011) – Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is bringing even more classics to DVD in April through its unique “manufacturing on demand” (“Mod”). The newest group of films will be part of the MGM Limited Edition Collection and available through online retailers. The vast catalog ranges from 1980’s Defiance to 1965’s four-time Academy Award® nominated A Thousand Clowns.
Enjoy your favorite movies from across the decades including:
1950′s
● Davey Crockett, Scout (1950): A U.S. military scout is assigned to stop Indian attacks on a defenseless group of wagon trains making their way West. Stars George Montgomery, Ellen Drew, Noah Beery Jr. Directed by Lew Landers.
● Cloudburst...
Los Angeles (April 14, 2011) – Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is bringing even more classics to DVD in April through its unique “manufacturing on demand” (“Mod”). The newest group of films will be part of the MGM Limited Edition Collection and available through online retailers. The vast catalog ranges from 1980’s Defiance to 1965’s four-time Academy Award® nominated A Thousand Clowns.
Enjoy your favorite movies from across the decades including:
1950′s
● Davey Crockett, Scout (1950): A U.S. military scout is assigned to stop Indian attacks on a defenseless group of wagon trains making their way West. Stars George Montgomery, Ellen Drew, Noah Beery Jr. Directed by Lew Landers.
● Cloudburst...
- 4/21/2011
- by Robert Greenberger
- Comicmix.com
Composer of a string of Broadway musicals, he was best known for Fiddler On the Roof
Days after speaking at a memorial service for his Fiddler On the Roof collaborator Joseph Stein, the composer Jerry Bock has died, aged 81. With Stein and the lyricist Sheldon Harnick, Bock wrote some of the most loved and admired Broadway songs of the last century. Fiddler On the Roof, set in Tsarist Russia and starring Zero Mostel as Tevye the milkman, opened on Broadway in 1964 and broke all box-office records, running for more than 3,200 performances.
The show made Bock world-famous for his lilting, instantly familiar Jewish melodies and catchy rhythms. There was consummate artistry in the way he could set to music even so banal an exchange as "Do you love me?" "Do I what?" "Do you love me?" "Do I love you...?" with its tender, affirmative swerve in the last phrase.
Between 1956 and...
Days after speaking at a memorial service for his Fiddler On the Roof collaborator Joseph Stein, the composer Jerry Bock has died, aged 81. With Stein and the lyricist Sheldon Harnick, Bock wrote some of the most loved and admired Broadway songs of the last century. Fiddler On the Roof, set in Tsarist Russia and starring Zero Mostel as Tevye the milkman, opened on Broadway in 1964 and broke all box-office records, running for more than 3,200 performances.
The show made Bock world-famous for his lilting, instantly familiar Jewish melodies and catchy rhythms. There was consummate artistry in the way he could set to music even so banal an exchange as "Do you love me?" "Do I what?" "Do you love me?" "Do I love you...?" with its tender, affirmative swerve in the last phrase.
Between 1956 and...
- 11/4/2010
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
Mark Gordon, a veteran actor on film, TV and stage who was a key figure in the improvisational theater movement, died Aug. 12 of lung cancer in New York. He was 84.
Gordon's credits include the Woody Allen films "Take the Money and Run" (1969), "Don't Drink the Water" (1969) and "Sleeper" (1973), roles on such soap operas as "The Edge of Night" and "As the World Turns" and a one-episode stint on "Mary Tyler Moore" as Chuckles the Clown.
Gordon was workshop director and an actor in the famed Chicago-based Compass Players (which later became Second City), working alongside the likes of Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Barbara Harris and his wife of 52 years, Barbara Glenn Gordon.
With May, he continued in New York at the Premise, whose improvisational company that included Peter Boyle and Louise Lasser. Gordon also appeared in "A New Leaf," a 1971 comedy written and directed by May, and had the lead...
Gordon's credits include the Woody Allen films "Take the Money and Run" (1969), "Don't Drink the Water" (1969) and "Sleeper" (1973), roles on such soap operas as "The Edge of Night" and "As the World Turns" and a one-episode stint on "Mary Tyler Moore" as Chuckles the Clown.
Gordon was workshop director and an actor in the famed Chicago-based Compass Players (which later became Second City), working alongside the likes of Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Barbara Harris and his wife of 52 years, Barbara Glenn Gordon.
With May, he continued in New York at the Premise, whose improvisational company that included Peter Boyle and Louise Lasser. Gordon also appeared in "A New Leaf," a 1971 comedy written and directed by May, and had the lead...
- 9/8/2010
- by By Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In today's voiceover market, there's one area that actors should know more about: voice matching—what it is and when it's used. It's an integral part of the production/postproduction process on most films, TV shows, animated features, cartoons, and video games, as well as at theme parks and in Adr (automated dialogue replacement or alternative dialogue recording). Also known as looping, Adr is the process of replacing dialogue in a film, even breaths, grunts, screams, kisses—anything to do with the human voice."Voice matching is the ability to sound like—in tone, texture, and pitch—the way someone else sounds," says veteran casting director Barbara Harris, who has provided casting services and voice talent for the past 25 years. Her Los Angeles company, the Looping Group, has cast voices in literally thousands of motion picture and television productions. Harris has worked closely with such notable directors as Tony Scott,...
- 6/12/2010
- backstage.com
"Just learned, Robin Wood has died," Jaime posted at Dave Kehr's site yesterday evening. "I can't think of anything else to say, except that the loss hurts, a lot. What a wonderful mind."
Anecdotes and appreciations have followed in the ensuing hours. "He and Andrew Sarris were my role models when I started writing film criticism," posts Joseph McBride, "and they remain my two idols in the field. Robin wrote brilliantly and in great intellectual depth and with a brave candor and passion. He showed us all the way to write about films seriously and with the kind of scholarly involvement that characterized the work of the great literary critics who paved his way before film criticism became a true scholarly field. Robin was one of the few auteurists who weathered the structuralist storm by accomodating its insights while not succumbing to its jargon or conformism. His work was actually strengthened by that challenge.
Anecdotes and appreciations have followed in the ensuing hours. "He and Andrew Sarris were my role models when I started writing film criticism," posts Joseph McBride, "and they remain my two idols in the field. Robin wrote brilliantly and in great intellectual depth and with a brave candor and passion. He showed us all the way to write about films seriously and with the kind of scholarly involvement that characterized the work of the great literary critics who paved his way before film criticism became a true scholarly field. Robin was one of the few auteurists who weathered the structuralist storm by accomodating its insights while not succumbing to its jargon or conformism. His work was actually strengthened by that challenge.
- 12/25/2009
- MUBI
This entry is dedicated to Ave Montague, founder of the San Francisco Black Film Festival, who passed away late last month. Her contributions to Bay Area culture live on.
An atmosphere of trust pervaded the HBO West Coast premiere of The Black List Volume Two co-presented by the San Francisco Black Film Festival at San Francisco’s Cowell Theatre, Fort Mason; not only the trust the film’s subjects placed in filmmakers Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and Elvis Mitchell (who—in turn—trusted that these individuals would speak to the diversity of the African American experience in the 21st Century); but, the trust of the film’s first audience that their experience of the film would prove illuminating, challenging and inspiring. Said trust was well-invested all around.
The Black List: Volume Two—which debuts Thursday, February 26 (8:00-9:00Pm Et/Pt), exclusively on HBO—follows last year’s acclaimed HBO special...
An atmosphere of trust pervaded the HBO West Coast premiere of The Black List Volume Two co-presented by the San Francisco Black Film Festival at San Francisco’s Cowell Theatre, Fort Mason; not only the trust the film’s subjects placed in filmmakers Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and Elvis Mitchell (who—in turn—trusted that these individuals would speak to the diversity of the African American experience in the 21st Century); but, the trust of the film’s first audience that their experience of the film would prove illuminating, challenging and inspiring. Said trust was well-invested all around.
The Black List: Volume Two—which debuts Thursday, February 26 (8:00-9:00Pm Et/Pt), exclusively on HBO—follows last year’s acclaimed HBO special...
- 2/12/2009
- by Michael Guillen
- Screen Anarchy
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