Emily Brontë's 1847 barn burner of a debut (and final) novel, "Wuthering Heights," has the not unique distinction of being an extraordinary piece of writing without any great screen adaptations to its name. Plenty of great books have been adapted into great films.
But even more great literary adaptations litter the studio rubbish heaps, the victims of crippling executive intervention, directors who took a Coppola-like big swing and missed, and most common of all, filmmakers who didn't take a big swing and ended up with perfectly fine, perfectly flat, one-for-one translations that ultimately leave you feeling the story just should have stayed on the page.
Paramount's 1992 take on "Wuthering Heights" ultimately belongs to that last category. And it's a shame, because the project had so much potential. Mirroring its source author, the film was prolific television director Peter Kosminsky's first theatrical feature (and ended up being his last...
But even more great literary adaptations litter the studio rubbish heaps, the victims of crippling executive intervention, directors who took a Coppola-like big swing and missed, and most common of all, filmmakers who didn't take a big swing and ended up with perfectly fine, perfectly flat, one-for-one translations that ultimately leave you feeling the story just should have stayed on the page.
Paramount's 1992 take on "Wuthering Heights" ultimately belongs to that last category. And it's a shame, because the project had so much potential. Mirroring its source author, the film was prolific television director Peter Kosminsky's first theatrical feature (and ended up being his last...
- 7/27/2023
- by Ryan Coleman
- Slash Film
Roald Dahl’s marvelous horror thriller for children (the ones ready for it) knows exactly what it is and doesn’t soft-pedal the scary stuff. Horrible (but sexy) witches plot the wholesale destruction of Hansels and Gretels everywhere, and the only kid that can stop them has been changed into a mouse. Nicolas Roeg runs wild with Dahl’s imaginative, refreshingly un-pc book; the usual softening touches are skipped in favor of unadulterated scarifying Fun. It couldn’t be better directed; we wish that Roeg had been able to create a dozen such outrageous fantasies. Star Anjelica Huston is an amazing Grand High Witch, with Mai Zetterling, Anne Lambton and Jane Horrocks providing able witchy support. Recommended!
The Witches
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1990 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. / Street Date August 20, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, Jasen Fisher, Rowan Atkinson, Bill Paterson, Brenda Blethyn, Charlie Potter, Jim Carter,...
The Witches
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1990 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. / Street Date August 20, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, Jasen Fisher, Rowan Atkinson, Bill Paterson, Brenda Blethyn, Charlie Potter, Jim Carter,...
- 8/24/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Stanley Kubrick’s contribution to great cinema of the 1970s offers his vision of what an epic should be. Transported by images that recall great paintings of the period, and Kubrick’s new approaches to low-light cinematography, we witness a rogue’s progress through troubled times. And even Ryan O’Neal is good!
Barry Lyndon
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 897
1975 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 185 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 17, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger, Steven Berkoff, Gay Hamilton, Marie Kean, Diana Körner, Murray Melvin, Frank Middlemass, André Morell, Arthur O’Sullivan, Godfrey Quigley, Leonard Rossiter, Philip Stone, Leon Vitali Leon Vitali, Wolf Kahler, Ferdy Mayne, George Sewell, Michael Hordern (narrator).
Cinematography: John Alcott
Editor: Tony Lawson
Production design: Ken Adam
Conductor & Musical Adaptor: Leonard Rosenman
Written by Stanley Kubrick from the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray
Produced and Directed by Stanley Kubrick
The...
Barry Lyndon
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 897
1975 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 185 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 17, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger, Steven Berkoff, Gay Hamilton, Marie Kean, Diana Körner, Murray Melvin, Frank Middlemass, André Morell, Arthur O’Sullivan, Godfrey Quigley, Leonard Rossiter, Philip Stone, Leon Vitali Leon Vitali, Wolf Kahler, Ferdy Mayne, George Sewell, Michael Hordern (narrator).
Cinematography: John Alcott
Editor: Tony Lawson
Production design: Ken Adam
Conductor & Musical Adaptor: Leonard Rosenman
Written by Stanley Kubrick from the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray
Produced and Directed by Stanley Kubrick
The...
- 10/3/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Straw Dogs
Blu-ray
Criterion
1971 / 1:85 / Street Date June 27, 2017
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Susan George
Cinematography: John Coquillon
Film Editors: Paul Davies, Tony Lawson, Roger Spottiswoode
Written by David Zelag Goodman and Sam Peckinpah
Produced by Daniel Melnick
Music: Jerry Fielding
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Adrift from civilization, an attractive young couple find themselves threatened, assaulted, and eventually compelled to defend themselves in a bloody showdown. That is the basic premise of Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs, released in 1971 and inspired by some of the same movies then crowding the legendary dives of 42nd street. On its surface Straw Dogs is pure exploitation but its lasting power resides in Peckinpah’s transformation of those visceral grindhouse cliches into an appalling examination of human nature.
Straw Dogs begins with the seemingly benign introduction of David Sumner, a young man with an even younger wife, arriving in a tiny hamlet in the north of England,...
Blu-ray
Criterion
1971 / 1:85 / Street Date June 27, 2017
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Susan George
Cinematography: John Coquillon
Film Editors: Paul Davies, Tony Lawson, Roger Spottiswoode
Written by David Zelag Goodman and Sam Peckinpah
Produced by Daniel Melnick
Music: Jerry Fielding
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Adrift from civilization, an attractive young couple find themselves threatened, assaulted, and eventually compelled to defend themselves in a bloody showdown. That is the basic premise of Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs, released in 1971 and inspired by some of the same movies then crowding the legendary dives of 42nd street. On its surface Straw Dogs is pure exploitation but its lasting power resides in Peckinpah’s transformation of those visceral grindhouse cliches into an appalling examination of human nature.
Straw Dogs begins with the seemingly benign introduction of David Sumner, a young man with an even younger wife, arriving in a tiny hamlet in the north of England,...
- 7/15/2017
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Take one fiercely individual auteur fed up with the Hollywood game, put him in Kyoto with a full Japanese film company, and the result is a picture critics have been trying to figure out ever since. It’s a realistic story told in a highly artificial visual style, in un-subtitled Japanese. And its writer-director intended it to play for American audiences.
The Saga of Anatahan
Blu-ray
Kino Lorber
1953 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 91 min. / Anatahan, Ana-ta-han / Street Date April 25, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring: Akemi Negishi, Tadashi Suganuma, Kisaburo Sawamura, Shoji Nakayama, Jun Fujikawa, Hiroshi Kondo, Shozo Miyashita, Tsuruemon Bando, Kikuji Onoe, Rokuriro Kineya, Daijiro Tamura, Chizuru Kitagawa, Takeshi Suzuki, Shiro Amikura.
Cinematography: Josef von Sternberg, Kozo Okazaki
Film Editor: Mitsuzo Miyata
Original Music: Akira Ifukube
Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya
Written by Josef von Sternberg from the novel by Michiro Maruyama & Younghill Kang
Produced by Kazuo Takimura
Directed by Josef von Sternberg...
The Saga of Anatahan
Blu-ray
Kino Lorber
1953 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 91 min. / Anatahan, Ana-ta-han / Street Date April 25, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring: Akemi Negishi, Tadashi Suganuma, Kisaburo Sawamura, Shoji Nakayama, Jun Fujikawa, Hiroshi Kondo, Shozo Miyashita, Tsuruemon Bando, Kikuji Onoe, Rokuriro Kineya, Daijiro Tamura, Chizuru Kitagawa, Takeshi Suzuki, Shiro Amikura.
Cinematography: Josef von Sternberg, Kozo Okazaki
Film Editor: Mitsuzo Miyata
Original Music: Akira Ifukube
Special Effects: Eiji Tsuburaya
Written by Josef von Sternberg from the novel by Michiro Maruyama & Younghill Kang
Produced by Kazuo Takimura
Directed by Josef von Sternberg...
- 4/11/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Nicolas Roeg's bizarre blend of high drama, searing sex and over-the-top brutality waited a year, only to be given a tiny American release. It then dropped out of sight. We're now in a better position to appreciate the show's great actors - especially Theresa Russell, the boldest and bravest actress of the 1980s. Eureka Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition Small>1983 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 130 min. / Ship Date May 10, 2016 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Gene Hackman, Theresa Russell, Rutger Hauer, Jane Lapotaire, Mickey Rourke, Ed Lauter, Joe Pesci, Helena Kallianiotes, Corin Redgrave, Joe Spinell, Frank Pesce, Timothy Scott. Cinematography Alex Thomson Production Designer Michael Seymour Film Editor Tony Lawson Original Music Stanley Myers Written by Paul Mayersberg from a book by Marshall Houts Produced by Jeremy Thomas Directed by Nicolas Roeg
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
I remember Nicolas Roeg's Eureka as being one of the biggest busts of the 1980s.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
I remember Nicolas Roeg's Eureka as being one of the biggest busts of the 1980s.
- 5/21/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
On the centennial of the Easter Uprising and just a few days past St. Patrick's Day, Whv present's Neil Jordan's biopic epic of Ireland's most beloved patriotic hero -- a militant who stood up to the English occupiers. It's the role that should have cemented Liam Neeson's stardom. Michael Collins Blu-ray The Warner Archive Collection 1996 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 132 min. / Street Date March 22, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Julia Roberts, Alan Rickman, Stephen Rea, Brendan Gleeson, Charles Dance, Jonathan Rhys Myers, Ian McElhinney. Cinematography Chris Menges Film Editors J. Patrick Duffner, Tony Lawson Original Music Elliott Goldenthal Produced by Stephen Wooley Written and Directed by Neil Jordan
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Irish politics must be in ascendance, as this St. Patrick's Day Warner Bros. has bumped its Irish patriot biopic up to Blu-ray status. A DVD of it came out only a year before. It's...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Irish politics must be in ascendance, as this St. Patrick's Day Warner Bros. has bumped its Irish patriot biopic up to Blu-ray status. A DVD of it came out only a year before. It's...
- 3/19/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Hunger Games DoP Tom Stern and 12 Years a Slave cinematographer Sean Bobbitt among those chosen for jury duty.
The 21st Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 16-23), has revealed the competition jurors who will judge entries at this year’s event in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Jury members of the main competition jury are:
Tom Stern, cinematographer (Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, The Hunger Games);Ed Lachman, cinematographer (Erin Brockovich, The Virgin Suicides, I’m Not There);Todd McCarthy, journalist and film critic;Denis Lenoir, cinematographer (Paris, je t’aime, Righteous Kill, 88 Minutes);Adam Holender, cinematographer (Midnight Cowboy, Smoke, Fresh);Timo Salminen, cinematographer (The Man Without a Past, La Havre, The Match Factory Girl);Franz Lustig, cinematographer (Don’t Come Knocking, Land of Plenty, Palermo Shooting);Jeffrey Kimball, cinematographer (Top Gun, Mission: Impossible II, The Expendables).Polish Films Competition
Jost Vacano, the cinematographer behind several Paul Verhoeven films including Total Recall, RoboCop and [link...
The 21st Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 16-23), has revealed the competition jurors who will judge entries at this year’s event in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Jury members of the main competition jury are:
Tom Stern, cinematographer (Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, The Hunger Games);Ed Lachman, cinematographer (Erin Brockovich, The Virgin Suicides, I’m Not There);Todd McCarthy, journalist and film critic;Denis Lenoir, cinematographer (Paris, je t’aime, Righteous Kill, 88 Minutes);Adam Holender, cinematographer (Midnight Cowboy, Smoke, Fresh);Timo Salminen, cinematographer (The Man Without a Past, La Havre, The Match Factory Girl);Franz Lustig, cinematographer (Don’t Come Knocking, Land of Plenty, Palermo Shooting);Jeffrey Kimball, cinematographer (Top Gun, Mission: Impossible II, The Expendables).Polish Films Competition
Jost Vacano, the cinematographer behind several Paul Verhoeven films including Total Recall, RoboCop and [link...
- 11/8/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Seasoned horror fans will no doubt recognize the irony in today's vampire cinema. The "romanticization" of the vampire has been evolving since (at least) John Badham's 1979 rendition of Dracula -- but we never saw our beloved cinematic bloodsuckers lose their teeth like they did in the feckless Twilight movies. What used to be sexy but scary became gothic romance, which led to pop-culture overkill: the vampire became neutered.
But if there's a silver lining to the smash-hit success of the otherwise terrible Twilight movies, it's that producers all over the world are now (all of a sudden!) willing to bankroll a horror film... just because it has some vampires and a dash of romance. So in a way we can thank Twilight for recent indies and imports like We Are the Night, Kiss of the Damned, and Neil Jordan's Byzantium. It's nothing if not a little ironic: the...
- 5/31/2013
- by Scott Weinberg
- FEARnet
DVD Playhouse June 2011
By
Allen Gardner
Kiss Me Deadly (Criterion) Robert Aldrich’s 1955 reinvention of the film noir detective story is one of cinema’s great genre mash-ups: part hardboiled noir; part cold war paranoid thriller; and part science- fiction. Ralph Meeker plays Mickey Spillane’s fascist detective Mike Hammer as a narcissistic simian thug, a sadist who would rather smash a suspect’s fingers than make love to the bevvy of beautiful dames that cross his path. In fact, the only time you see a smile cross Meeker’s sneering mug is when he’s doling out pain, with a vengeance. When a terrified young woman (Cloris Leachman, film debut) literally crossed Hammer’s path one night, and later turns up dead, he vows to get to the bottom of her brutal demise. One of the most influential films ever made, and perhaps the most-cited film by the architects...
By
Allen Gardner
Kiss Me Deadly (Criterion) Robert Aldrich’s 1955 reinvention of the film noir detective story is one of cinema’s great genre mash-ups: part hardboiled noir; part cold war paranoid thriller; and part science- fiction. Ralph Meeker plays Mickey Spillane’s fascist detective Mike Hammer as a narcissistic simian thug, a sadist who would rather smash a suspect’s fingers than make love to the bevvy of beautiful dames that cross his path. In fact, the only time you see a smile cross Meeker’s sneering mug is when he’s doling out pain, with a vengeance. When a terrified young woman (Cloris Leachman, film debut) literally crossed Hammer’s path one night, and later turns up dead, he vows to get to the bottom of her brutal demise. One of the most influential films ever made, and perhaps the most-cited film by the architects...
- 6/11/2011
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Theresa Russell goes Marilyn in 1985's Insignificance.
Having already issued editions of Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout (1971) and Bad Timing (1980), the Criterion Collection will continue to explore the director’s canon with the release of his 1985 film Insignificance on Blu-ray and DVD on June 17.
Four unnamed people who look and sound a lot like Albert Einstein (Michael Emil, In the Spirit), Marilyn Monroe (Theresa Russell, Spider-Man 3), Joe Dimaggio (Gary Busey, Shade of Pale) and Joseph McCarthy (Tony Curtis, Sweet Smell of Success) converge in one New York City hotel room for Roeg’s inventive movie adaptation of Terry Johnson’s 1982 play.
With a combination of whimsy and dread, Roeg creates a fun-house-mirror film of cold war America that questions the nature of celebrity and plays on a society’s simmering nuclear fears. Pretty wild stuff, and arguably the best thing that Ms. Russell (the former Mrs. Roeg) has ever done.
Having already issued editions of Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout (1971) and Bad Timing (1980), the Criterion Collection will continue to explore the director’s canon with the release of his 1985 film Insignificance on Blu-ray and DVD on June 17.
Four unnamed people who look and sound a lot like Albert Einstein (Michael Emil, In the Spirit), Marilyn Monroe (Theresa Russell, Spider-Man 3), Joe Dimaggio (Gary Busey, Shade of Pale) and Joseph McCarthy (Tony Curtis, Sweet Smell of Success) converge in one New York City hotel room for Roeg’s inventive movie adaptation of Terry Johnson’s 1982 play.
With a combination of whimsy and dread, Roeg creates a fun-house-mirror film of cold war America that questions the nature of celebrity and plays on a society’s simmering nuclear fears. Pretty wild stuff, and arguably the best thing that Ms. Russell (the former Mrs. Roeg) has ever done.
- 3/16/2011
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
It always manages to amaze me how fast the months fly by, it seems like only yesterday we were announcing the May 2011 Criterion Collection titles, and here we are with June’s. This month continues Criterion’s recent trend of increasing the new titles selection, and bringing an amazing director to the Eclipse Series.
Let’s go through all of the new titles first this time. Earlier this year, Criterion released their “wacky new years” drawing, hinting at a couple of titles that we are finally getting to see made official this June. In that drawing we had an image of Marilyn Monroe with Albert Einstein’s head, hinting at Nicolas Roeg’s film, Insignificance. This will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 14. In that drawing, we also had the infamous glowing briefcase, hinting at Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly (which also screened last year at the...
Let’s go through all of the new titles first this time. Earlier this year, Criterion released their “wacky new years” drawing, hinting at a couple of titles that we are finally getting to see made official this June. In that drawing we had an image of Marilyn Monroe with Albert Einstein’s head, hinting at Nicolas Roeg’s film, Insignificance. This will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 14. In that drawing, we also had the infamous glowing briefcase, hinting at Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly (which also screened last year at the...
- 3/15/2011
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
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