"We need someone to land the plane." Apple TV has debuted an extended preview for their streaming series Hijack, with the final episode arriving on August 2nd this week. This is essentially a full recap of the six episodes before. Told in real time, Hijack is a tense thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London across a seven-hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers. This "Six Hours of Turbulence" is a peek into the first six hours of Kingdom 29's seven-hour flight from Dubai to London. Starring and executive produced by SAG Award winner and Emmy Award nominee Idris Elba, Hijack was created by George Kay ("Lupin") and Jim Field Smith. The series also stars Archie Panjabi, Christine Adams, Max Beesley, Eve Myles, Neil Maskell, Aimée Kelly, Jasper Britton, Harry Michell, Mohamed Elsandel, & Ben Miles. This has been getting solid reviews from critics,...
- 8/1/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Idris Elba is coming back to the small screen, this time for the high-wire thriller series “Hijack” on Apple TV+, which premieres Wednesday, June 28. The show follows a minute-by-minute accounting of a hijacked flight, and presents the series in a unique real-time format. You can watch Hijack with a 7-Day Free Trial of Apple TV+.
How to Watch ‘Hijack’ Series Premiere When: Wednesday, June 28, 2023 Where: Apple TV+ Stream: Watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Apple TV+. 7-Day Free Trial$6.99 / month apple.com About ‘Hijack’ Series Premiere
Told in real time, “Hijack” is a tense thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers. Elba will star as ‘Sam Nelson,’ an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try and...
How to Watch ‘Hijack’ Series Premiere When: Wednesday, June 28, 2023 Where: Apple TV+ Stream: Watch with a 7-Day Free Trial of Apple TV+. 7-Day Free Trial$6.99 / month apple.com About ‘Hijack’ Series Premiere
Told in real time, “Hijack” is a tense thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers. Elba will star as ‘Sam Nelson,’ an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try and...
- 6/28/2023
- by David Satin
- The Streamable
We present our interviews from the Hijack World Premiere in London. The AppleTV+ series stars Idris Elba, Christine Adams, Max Beesley, Eve Myles, Neil Maskell, Jasper Britton, Harry Michell, Aimee Kelly, Mohamed Elsandel and Ben Miles.
Created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith, the series follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven-hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers. Elba will star as ‘Sam Nelson,’ an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try and save the lives of the passengers — but, his high-risk strategy could be his undoing. Archie Panjabi will play the role of ‘Zahra Gahfoor,’ a counter-terrorism officer who is on the ground when the plane is hijacked and becomes part of the investigation.
The series takes flight on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, June 28, 2023, with the first two episodes,...
Created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith, the series follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven-hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers. Elba will star as ‘Sam Nelson,’ an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try and save the lives of the passengers — but, his high-risk strategy could be his undoing. Archie Panjabi will play the role of ‘Zahra Gahfoor,’ a counter-terrorism officer who is on the ground when the plane is hijacked and becomes part of the investigation.
The series takes flight on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, June 28, 2023, with the first two episodes,...
- 6/27/2023
- by Jon Lyus
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Apple TV+ dropped the official trailer for “Hijack,” the upcoming thriller series that is set to premiere with two episodes on Wednesday, June 28. The seven-episode season will be available on the streamer, with the remaining five episodes dropping the following five weeks, until the finale on August 2.
According to the official logline, “’Hijack’ is a thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven-hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers.”
“Hijack” stars Idris Elba as Sam Nelson, the business negotiator who steps up to save the lives of his fellow passengers. Elba is joined by Christine Adams, Max Beesley, Eve Myles, Neil Maskell, Jasper Britton, Harry Michell, Aimee Kelly, Mohamed Elsandel and Ben Miles.
Created by writer George Kay and director Jim Field Smith; the two also serve as executive producers alongside Elba, Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta and Kris Thykier.
According to the official logline, “’Hijack’ is a thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven-hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers.”
“Hijack” stars Idris Elba as Sam Nelson, the business negotiator who steps up to save the lives of his fellow passengers. Elba is joined by Christine Adams, Max Beesley, Eve Myles, Neil Maskell, Jasper Britton, Harry Michell, Aimee Kelly, Mohamed Elsandel and Ben Miles.
Created by writer George Kay and director Jim Field Smith; the two also serve as executive producers alongside Elba, Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta and Kris Thykier.
- 5/26/2023
- by Charna Flam, McKinley Franklin and Sophia Scorziello
- Variety Film + TV
Idris Elba wants you to buckle up.
Apple TV+ today unveiled the trailer for “Hijack,” the upcoming thriller starring and executive produced by Elba (“Luther”).
Created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith, who also wrote and lead directed the series respectively, the seven-part series also stars Archie Panjabi.
Told in real time, “Hijack” is a thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven-hour flight, as authorities on the ground scramble for answers. Elba will star as ‘Sam Nelson,’ an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try and save the lives of the passengers — but, his high-risk strategy could be his undoing.
Panjabi will play the role of ‘Zahra Gahfoor,’ a counter-terrorism officer who is on the ground...
Apple TV+ today unveiled the trailer for “Hijack,” the upcoming thriller starring and executive produced by Elba (“Luther”).
Created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith, who also wrote and lead directed the series respectively, the seven-part series also stars Archie Panjabi.
Told in real time, “Hijack” is a thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven-hour flight, as authorities on the ground scramble for answers. Elba will star as ‘Sam Nelson,’ an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try and save the lives of the passengers — but, his high-risk strategy could be his undoing.
Panjabi will play the role of ‘Zahra Gahfoor,’ a counter-terrorism officer who is on the ground...
- 5/26/2023
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Idris Elba’s determined to stop hijackers from downing a plane with 200 passengers in Apple TV+s first official trailer for Hijack. The trailer reveals Idris Elba’s character, Sam Nelson, has a particular set of skills that make him the perfect negotiator. It also helps that he’s one of the passengers on the hijacked plane and can work on a solution from the inside.
Emmy Award winner Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife), Christine Adams (Black Lightning), Max Beesley (Jamestown), Eve Myles (Torchwood), Neil Maskell (Peaky Blinders), Jasper Britton (Anonymous), and Harry Michell (Devils) also star. The cast also includes Aimee Kelly (This England), Mohamed Elsandel, and Ben Miles (Andor).
The thriller was created by writer George Kay (Lupin) and director Jim Field Smith (Criminal). Kay, Field Smith, Elba, Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, and Kris Thykier executive produce.
Hijack premieres on Apple TV+ on June 28, 2023 with the release of the first two episodes.
Emmy Award winner Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife), Christine Adams (Black Lightning), Max Beesley (Jamestown), Eve Myles (Torchwood), Neil Maskell (Peaky Blinders), Jasper Britton (Anonymous), and Harry Michell (Devils) also star. The cast also includes Aimee Kelly (This England), Mohamed Elsandel, and Ben Miles (Andor).
The thriller was created by writer George Kay (Lupin) and director Jim Field Smith (Criminal). Kay, Field Smith, Elba, Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, and Kris Thykier executive produce.
Hijack premieres on Apple TV+ on June 28, 2023 with the release of the first two episodes.
- 5/25/2023
- by Rebecca Murray
- Showbiz Junkies
Idris Elba in “Hijack,” premiering June 28, 2023 on Apple TV+. Apple TV+ has unveiled the trailer for “Hijack,” the upcoming, high octane thriller starring and executive produced by SAG Award-winner and Emmy Award-nominee Idris Elba (“Luther”). Created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith, who also wrote and lead directed the series respectively, the seven-part series also stars Emmy Award and NAACP Image Award-winner Archie Panjabi. “Hijack” takes flight on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, June 28, 2023, with the first two episodes, followed by one new episode every Wednesday through August 2. Told in real time, “Hijack” is a tense thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers. Elba will star as ‘Sam Nelson,’ an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try...
- 5/25/2023
- by Hollywood Outbreak
- HollywoodOutbreak.com
"We got one job to do right now - just get through it for them." Apple has unveiled a trailer for the thriller series Hijack. Much like the movie Plane from earlier this year, this remarkably simple title does indeed hint that the series is about a hijacking on a plane. Because, you know, what else could you call a hijacking thriller other than just Hijack? Told in real time, this tense thriller follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven-hour flight, and as authorities on the ground scramble for answers. Starring and executive produced by SAG Award winner and Emmy Award nominee Idris Elba, Hijack was created by George Kay ("Lupin") and Jim Field Smith. The series also stars Archie Panjabi, Christine Adams, Max Beesley, Eve Myles, Neil Maskell, Aimée Kelly, Jasper Britton, Harry Michell, Mohamed Elsandel, and Ben Miles.
- 5/25/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Apple TV+ has unveiled the trailer for ‘Hijack,’ the upcoming, high-octane thriller starring and executive produced by SAG Award-winner and Emmy Award-nominee Idris Elba.
Created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith, the series follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven-hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers. Elba will star as ‘Sam Nelson,’ an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try and save the lives of the passengers — but, his high-risk strategy could be his undoing. Archie Panjabi will play the role of ‘Zahra Gahfoor,’ a counter-terrorism officer who is on the ground when the plane is hijacked and becomes part of the investigation.
The series also stars Christine Adams, Max Beesley, Eve Myles, Neil Maskell, Jasper Britton, Harry Michell, Aimee Kelly, Mohamed Elsandel and Ben Miles.
Created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith, the series follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven-hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers. Elba will star as ‘Sam Nelson,’ an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try and save the lives of the passengers — but, his high-risk strategy could be his undoing. Archie Panjabi will play the role of ‘Zahra Gahfoor,’ a counter-terrorism officer who is on the ground when the plane is hijacked and becomes part of the investigation.
The series also stars Christine Adams, Max Beesley, Eve Myles, Neil Maskell, Jasper Britton, Harry Michell, Aimee Kelly, Mohamed Elsandel and Ben Miles.
- 5/25/2023
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
It’s Passenger 57 meets 24. Or perhaps just 24. Idris Elba stars in a new series from AppleTV+ called Hijack. The title pretty much cues you in on the concept. A group of terrorists takes over a seven-hour flight. What they want is not yet revealed, but they have allies on the ground that are helping to make their demands. However, something they didn’t count on is an experienced business negotiator already on the flight. This negotiator, portrayed by Elba, is preparing to deal with them…in more ways than one. The show takes during the events surrounding the seven-hour international flight and will be told in real-time.
The Hollywood Reporter has unveiled details about the new Apple original. “The action takes place in real-time, over the course of the seven-hour flight from Dubai to London. The clock starts ticking as Sam (played by Idris Elba) tries first to negotiate...
The Hollywood Reporter has unveiled details about the new Apple original. “The action takes place in real-time, over the course of the seven-hour flight from Dubai to London. The clock starts ticking as Sam (played by Idris Elba) tries first to negotiate...
- 5/25/2023
- by EJ Tangonan
- JoBlo.com
Idris Elba has proven to be one of the best action stars, and his next role is destined to be one of his best.
Apple TV+ on Thursday dropped the full-length trailer for Hijack, a new drama series.
Hijack will debut globally with the first two episodes on Wednesday, June 28, on Apple TV+.
The series was created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith (Criminal Truth Seekers), who also wrote and directed the series, respectively.
Told in real-time, Hijack is a tense thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven-hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers.
Elba will star as Sam Nelson, an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try and save the lives of the passengers — but his high-risk strategy could be his undoing.
Apple TV+ on Thursday dropped the full-length trailer for Hijack, a new drama series.
Hijack will debut globally with the first two episodes on Wednesday, June 28, on Apple TV+.
The series was created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith (Criminal Truth Seekers), who also wrote and directed the series, respectively.
Told in real-time, Hijack is a tense thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven-hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers.
Elba will star as Sam Nelson, an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try and save the lives of the passengers — but his high-risk strategy could be his undoing.
- 5/25/2023
- by Paul Dailly
- TVfanatic
Idris Elba Fights to Save 200 Passengers in First ‘Hijack’ Trailer: ‘It’s Either Us or Them’ (Video)
Idris Elba steps up to save 200 passengers after terrorists take control of a flight bound for London in the first trailer for the limited series “Hijack,” which Apple TV+ released on Thursday.
Elba, who also produces via the deal between his Green Door Pictures and Apple TV+, plays Sam Nelson, a businessman who’s skilled at high-pressure negotiations and becomes the logical choice to try to talk the hijackers down. “Let me make you an offer,” he says in the trailerk which you can watch above.
Meanwhile, however, he’s secretly coordinating a counter attack with his fellow passengers. “It’s either us or them and I can tell you it’s not gonna be us,” the “Luther” star tells another hostage.
The seven-part series, which plays out in real time, is from “Criminal” duo George Kay and Jim Field Smith. They also produce through their Idiotlamp Productions.
Also Read:...
Elba, who also produces via the deal between his Green Door Pictures and Apple TV+, plays Sam Nelson, a businessman who’s skilled at high-pressure negotiations and becomes the logical choice to try to talk the hijackers down. “Let me make you an offer,” he says in the trailerk which you can watch above.
Meanwhile, however, he’s secretly coordinating a counter attack with his fellow passengers. “It’s either us or them and I can tell you it’s not gonna be us,” the “Luther” star tells another hostage.
The seven-part series, which plays out in real time, is from “Criminal” duo George Kay and Jim Field Smith. They also produce through their Idiotlamp Productions.
Also Read:...
- 5/25/2023
- by Sharon Knolle
- The Wrap
The first trailer for Apple TV+’s tense Idris Elba-led drama Hijack has dropped.
In the clip, we see Elba’s character Sam, an experienced negotiator in the business world, board a flight that is then taken over by armed men. The clock starts ticking as Sam tries to first negotiate and then outsmart the terrorists, but in so doing uncovers a larger conspiracy. The action takes place in real time, over the course of the seven-hour flight from Dubai to London.
On the ground in London, a counterterrorism team led by Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife) becomes embroiled in the investigation and scrambles to find answers before passengers start dying.
The series, created by George Kay (Lupin) and Jim Field Smith (Criminal), also stars Christine Adams, Max Beesley, Eve Myles, Neil Maskell, Jasper Britton, Harry Michell, Aimee Kelly, Mohamed Elsandel and Ben Miles.
In addition to writing and directing,...
In the clip, we see Elba’s character Sam, an experienced negotiator in the business world, board a flight that is then taken over by armed men. The clock starts ticking as Sam tries to first negotiate and then outsmart the terrorists, but in so doing uncovers a larger conspiracy. The action takes place in real time, over the course of the seven-hour flight from Dubai to London.
On the ground in London, a counterterrorism team led by Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife) becomes embroiled in the investigation and scrambles to find answers before passengers start dying.
The series, created by George Kay (Lupin) and Jim Field Smith (Criminal), also stars Christine Adams, Max Beesley, Eve Myles, Neil Maskell, Jasper Britton, Harry Michell, Aimee Kelly, Mohamed Elsandel and Ben Miles.
In addition to writing and directing,...
- 5/25/2023
- by Abid Rahman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Idris Elba in ‘Hijack,’ premiering June 28, 2023 on Apple TV+
Idris Elba, the Emmy Award-winning star of Luther, stars in and executive produces the new thriller Hijack, which will premiere on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, June 28, 2023. The seven-episode drama, created by George Kay (Lupin) and Jim Field Smith (Criminal), has just released the first set of photos from the upcoming season.
In addition to Idris Elba, Hijack stars Emmy Award winner Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife), Christine Adams (Black Lightning), Max Beesley (Jamestown), Eve Myles (Torchwood), Neil Maskell (Peaky Blinders), Jasper Britton (Anonymous), Harry Michell (Devils), Aimee Kelly (This England), Mohamed Elsandel, and Ben Miles (Andor).
George Kay writes and executive produces, with Jim Field Smith directing and executive producing. In addition, Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta and Kris Thykier executive produce, and 60Forty Films, Idiotlamp Productions, and Green Door Pictures produce.
Apple TV+ released the following synopsis of the thriller:
“Told in real time,...
Idris Elba, the Emmy Award-winning star of Luther, stars in and executive produces the new thriller Hijack, which will premiere on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, June 28, 2023. The seven-episode drama, created by George Kay (Lupin) and Jim Field Smith (Criminal), has just released the first set of photos from the upcoming season.
In addition to Idris Elba, Hijack stars Emmy Award winner Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife), Christine Adams (Black Lightning), Max Beesley (Jamestown), Eve Myles (Torchwood), Neil Maskell (Peaky Blinders), Jasper Britton (Anonymous), Harry Michell (Devils), Aimee Kelly (This England), Mohamed Elsandel, and Ben Miles (Andor).
George Kay writes and executive produces, with Jim Field Smith directing and executive producing. In addition, Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta and Kris Thykier executive produce, and 60Forty Films, Idiotlamp Productions, and Green Door Pictures produce.
Apple TV+ released the following synopsis of the thriller:
“Told in real time,...
- 5/5/2023
- by Rebecca Murray
- Showbiz Junkies
Are you ready for Idris Elba and Archie Panjabi to share the small screen?
Apple TV+ on Friday unveiled photos and a premiere date for the exciting new thriller.
Hijack will debut globally with the first two episodes on Wednesday, June 28, on Apple TV+.
The series was created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith (Criminal Truth Seekers), who also wrote and directed the series, respectively.
Told in real-time, Hijack is a tense thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven-hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers.
Elba will star as Sam Nelson, an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try and save the lives of the passengers — but his high-risk strategy could be his undoing.
Panjabi will play the role of Zahra Gahfoor, a...
Apple TV+ on Friday unveiled photos and a premiere date for the exciting new thriller.
Hijack will debut globally with the first two episodes on Wednesday, June 28, on Apple TV+.
The series was created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith (Criminal Truth Seekers), who also wrote and directed the series, respectively.
Told in real-time, Hijack is a tense thriller that follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven-hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers.
Elba will star as Sam Nelson, an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try and save the lives of the passengers — but his high-risk strategy could be his undoing.
Panjabi will play the role of Zahra Gahfoor, a...
- 5/5/2023
- by Paul Dailly
- TVfanatic
Hijack, a seven-episode Apple TV+ thriller starring Idris Elba and Archie Panjabi, has set a time of departure.
Created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith (of Netflix’s Criminal franchise), the real-time drama will release its first two episodes on Wednesday, June 28, followed by weekly drops. Check out the first photos above and below.
More from TVLineSilo Recap: 'I Want to Go Out!' -- Grade the Apple TV+ Drama PremiereEmmys Nix Schmigadoon! Category Change for Season 2Silo Stars and EPs Share a Look at Life in Apple TV+'s Dystopian Drama, Weigh In on Snowpiercer Comparisons
Hijack follows...
Created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith (of Netflix’s Criminal franchise), the real-time drama will release its first two episodes on Wednesday, June 28, followed by weekly drops. Check out the first photos above and below.
More from TVLineSilo Recap: 'I Want to Go Out!' -- Grade the Apple TV+ Drama PremiereEmmys Nix Schmigadoon! Category Change for Season 2Silo Stars and EPs Share a Look at Life in Apple TV+'s Dystopian Drama, Weigh In on Snowpiercer Comparisons
Hijack follows...
- 5/5/2023
- by Matt Webb Mitovich
- TVLine.com
By Sam Moffitt
Night Will Fall 2014 Directed by Andre’ Singer, Written by Lynette Singer Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter and Jasper Britton
The Pawnbroker 1964 Directed by Sidney Lumet Written by Norton S Fine and David Friedkin from a novel by Edward Lewis Wallant, Starring Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Brock Peters and Jaime Sanchez
I met a Holocaust survivor, very recently. I was in a discount store, standing in line pay for my purchases. In front of me was an older gentleman, wearing a cap that looked like a military veteran’s cap. I enjoy talking with other veterans and thanking them for their service. I always want to hear what other veterans have done in service to our country.
“Is that a military cap you’re wearing?” “No, but I survived World War Two.” He said this with a German accent so my next question, “Were you in Germany and survived the air raids?...
Night Will Fall 2014 Directed by Andre’ Singer, Written by Lynette Singer Narrated by Helena Bonham Carter and Jasper Britton
The Pawnbroker 1964 Directed by Sidney Lumet Written by Norton S Fine and David Friedkin from a novel by Edward Lewis Wallant, Starring Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Brock Peters and Jaime Sanchez
I met a Holocaust survivor, very recently. I was in a discount store, standing in line pay for my purchases. In front of me was an older gentleman, wearing a cap that looked like a military veteran’s cap. I enjoy talking with other veterans and thanking them for their service. I always want to hear what other veterans have done in service to our country.
“Is that a military cap you’re wearing?” “No, but I survived World War Two.” He said this with a German accent so my next question, “Were you in Germany and survived the air raids?...
- 8/4/2022
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Stars: Margaret Clunie, Timothy Renouf, Tom Bailey, Jessica Webber, Charlie Robb, Robert Llewellyn, Nicholas Le Prevost, Jasper Britton, Maureen Bennett | Written by Jack McHenry, Alice Sidgwick | Directed by Jack McHenry
Filmed in black and white, with cut-glass British accents and a dodgy American in the cocktail party mix, a sophisticated 1930s soiree at an isolated country mansion descends into carnage, gore and demonic possession as rivalries and old friendships are put to the test when a gateway to Hell opens up.
Imagine – if you will – that at some point during his illustrious career, schlockmeister William Castle decided to take a trip to England to shoot a film about demonic possession; and then imagine if Castle managed to do Evil Dead, complete with buckets of blood and some fantastic (if slightly Ott) gore and monster effects Before Sam Raimi did Evil Dead. Than imagine whilst in England he happened to see...
Filmed in black and white, with cut-glass British accents and a dodgy American in the cocktail party mix, a sophisticated 1930s soiree at an isolated country mansion descends into carnage, gore and demonic possession as rivalries and old friendships are put to the test when a gateway to Hell opens up.
Imagine – if you will – that at some point during his illustrious career, schlockmeister William Castle decided to take a trip to England to shoot a film about demonic possession; and then imagine if Castle managed to do Evil Dead, complete with buckets of blood and some fantastic (if slightly Ott) gore and monster effects Before Sam Raimi did Evil Dead. Than imagine whilst in England he happened to see...
- 3/4/2019
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Freaks
It’s full scream ahead as Arrow Video FrightFest, the UK’s favourite horror fantasy event, returns to Glasgow Film Festival for a 14th fearful year, from Thursday 28 February to Saturday 2 March, 2019. Presenting a stunning and resonating two days of trauma, terror and tantalising thrills, this year’s line-up, once again housed at the iconic Glasgow Film Theatre, embraces the latest genre discoveries from around the world, spanning four continents, with two world, two European and six UK premieres.
Alan Jones, FrightFest co-director, commented:
Currently at its most vibrant and popular, the horror fantasy genre is constantly garnering critical acclaim, pushing boundaries and asking tough questions of audiences by reflecting relevant political and social issues. The genre isn’t just about escapism but a key tool to make sense of the chaos and confusion swirling around our everyday lives and FrightFest has known this for 20 years now, so it...
It’s full scream ahead as Arrow Video FrightFest, the UK’s favourite horror fantasy event, returns to Glasgow Film Festival for a 14th fearful year, from Thursday 28 February to Saturday 2 March, 2019. Presenting a stunning and resonating two days of trauma, terror and tantalising thrills, this year’s line-up, once again housed at the iconic Glasgow Film Theatre, embraces the latest genre discoveries from around the world, spanning four continents, with two world, two European and six UK premieres.
Alan Jones, FrightFest co-director, commented:
Currently at its most vibrant and popular, the horror fantasy genre is constantly garnering critical acclaim, pushing boundaries and asking tough questions of audiences by reflecting relevant political and social issues. The genre isn’t just about escapism but a key tool to make sense of the chaos and confusion swirling around our everyday lives and FrightFest has known this for 20 years now, so it...
- 1/10/2019
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
The Holocaust needs to be retold forever, but it's a tough topic to address without distortion or trivialization. André SInger's docu is about the Allied film record of the liberation of the camps -- horrific footage that was used in the war crimes trials and cut into documentaries -- that were then suppressed and locked away. In 2008, an abandoned film supervised by Alfred Hitchcock was finally finished. Night Will Fall DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 2014 / Color / 1:78 enhanced widescreen / 75 min. / Street Date January 27, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Narrators Helena Bonham Carter, Jasper Britton. Cinematography Richard Blanshard Film Editors Arik Lahav, Stephen Miller Original Music Nicolas Singer Written by Lynette Singer Produced by Sally Angel, Brett Ratner <Directed by André Singer
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Documentaries about the Holocaust have always been problematical. In some ways the subject was deemed a cultural taboo, to be discussed in only the gravest terms. For years after the war most Americans saw only chosen snippets of film footage, glimpses of the horrors in the death camps. The images published in magazine photo articles were more than people wanted to see.. There were plenty of exceptions, but most ordinary Americans first saw extended documentary footage in -- of all things -- a for-profit Hollywood picture in which big stars portrayed victims and villains. The movie, Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg was actually in good taste, and had a laudable social purpose. The graphic film from the camp was part of the actual Nuremberg trials, after all. It showed a reality of our times that had been suppressed, whether for questions of taste or decency, or because 'the public couldn't take it.' I believe America accepted 'not seeing' because we were not yet a nation of morbid voyeurs. (Live and learn... from Joe Dante: "Actually I think the first time American audiences were exposed to Death Camp footage was in Welles' The Stranger, long before Judgment at Nuremberg.") Art film viewers saw Alain Resnais' Night and Fog, a quiet, haunting film that avoids emotional sensationalism by telling the story through views of Auschwitz as it was in 1955 and non-confrontational narration. Italians, East Germans, Russians and others eventually made dramatic movies that showed the experiences of various concentration camp victims. Many of these dramas were good, but none could embrace the near-cosmic immensity of the horror. Can any single experience help us to come to grips with the fate of millions? And then there's the problem of the endless footage of corpses -- these formerly taboo images are still too much for sensitive people. The English, the Americans and the Russians all filmed in the camps that they liberated. Night Will Fall tells the story of the 1945 production and then abandonment of a long-form film documentary officially sanctioned by the Allied victors. It was produced by Sidney Bernstein and partly overseen by Alfred Hitchcock. The director developed a script and an approach for a document intended to quash present and future claims that the mass murders were faked, exaggerated or a political illusion. A cut called German Concentration Camps Factual Survey (Gccfs) was prepared up to a certain point, but then shelved, with no go-ahead for a finish. The U.S. Army finally brought in Billy Wilder to supervise a shorter version called Death Mills. But Wilder's film also remained classified, and was not released to the public either. A version of it was shown to German audiences. The docu footage was also projected at the Nuremberg trials, as evidence against the German war criminals. Night Will Fall was announced almost ten years ago, in newspaper articles that explained that the British Imperial War Museum was finally going to complete the original Gccfs. Yet we had already seen much of Gccfs on PBS TV in 1985. All but the last reel of the film was located, in its work print form. It screened at least twice on PBS as Frontline: Memory of the Camps; I taped the second airing on VHS and have a burned DVD of it around somewhere. The 'new' Memory of the Camps was finished in 2014. The Warner Archive Collection's Night Will Fall is a documentary about the making of these movies back at the close of the war. Holocaust survivors, surviving Signal Corps cameramen and the producer of Schindler's List -- himself an Auschwitz survivor - are among the on-camera interviewees. Various personalities including directors Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock are represented by archived interviews on film and audiotape. The details of the liberation and the Signal Corps' activities are certainly interesting. We also want to know about the involvement of Hitchcock and Wilder, although all we get are a few remarks and notes on Hitchcock's concerns with the narrative, in audio bites that I would guess were taken from the famed Hitchcock/Truffaut interviews. Hitchcock asks for the inclusion of panning shots, to help prove that what was seen wasn't being faked. Wilder says much the same thing. When it comes time to explain why the project stalled, we're shown a couple of paragraphs in some documents that suggest that America did not want to antagonize the German population with this negative material. The inference is that with the Cold War heating up, most forms of de-Nazification were abandoned after the obvious death camp villains and high-ranking Nazis were executed or locked away. Washington wanted German cooperation in opposing Stalin, and put a halt to the bringing of many more German war criminals to justice. The Russian attitude was quite different. A Soviet Army cinematographer interviewed for Night Will Fall tells us that when their troops liberated a camp, their first action was to shoot every German guard as soon as they were positively identified. That's sounds okay to me. As I said, the 'finished'1945 film German Concentration Camps Factual Survey was also released in 2014. It retains the title Memory of the Camps and is credited to Sidney Bernstein and Alfred Hitchcock. Night Will Fall ends with a final couple of minutes of the 'finished' Memory. It consists of a semi-poetic narration and an edited sequence showing, in graphic close-up, ten or so victims by the side of the road, presumably executed during the retreat of the camp guards. It's everything the movie shouldn't be, a repetitive series of shock cuts to staring corpses with parts of their heads blown away. I can only compare it to one of the intolerably gory highway safety films that aim only to shock the audience. The brain of one corpse lies in a neat heap alongside a skull blown wide open; another man's head seems to be missing above the nose. I'm not sure what the point is. If it's done to produce a blast of more extreme horror to reach the audience, it's a failure. I must admit that I'm conservative on this issue, as I believe that too much of the audience will compare this real carnage to effects they see in the latest zombie thriller. That sickens me the same way I felt when I witnessed high schoolers on a bus describing the awful 9/11 coverage as, 'really cool.' Night Will Fall has value, but to me its style, making even mild use of editing techniques from today's Reality Programming, is inappropriate. The horror of this reality is blatant, banal even. The most responsible way to use the the horror footage would be to simply lay out the raw takes, with slates and camera stops, like legal evidence. Night Will Fall aestheticizes many shots. In one sequence, close-ups of massed corpses are rendered in negative, turning the horror into stylized 'art.' Fake 'end of reel' blips and flashes are added for style, as in any modern Reality Show, where the only rule is to hype the subject matter using any editorial trick that will keep the frame alive. A s hort piece of footage has been digitally sharpened, and looks as if a sub-par tape source had been run through a bad electronic filter. Is this splitting hairs, and being oversensitive? I suppose that times change and that revisionism happens with everything. But this grim, vitally important history is now leaning toward becoming another entertainment choice. Other snippets of the new 'finished' Memory of the Camps are glimpsed in Night Will Fall. The new film appears to use the same or much of the same narration text. I can't tell if that reconstituted ending was part of the original, because when the original Memory showed on PBS, a card came up informing us that the final 'Auschwitz' chapter had been removed at an earlier date. What remained of the original rough cut ended there. I've always theorized that it was snipped off to be given to documentarians and Stanley Kramer. Many of the standard shots of Auschwitz that we see, often in terrible quality, may have come from that reel. The new Memory of the Camps doesn't retain the original narration, as read by actor Trevor Howard. The original version was unusually eerie and effective because it was just a sequence of raw shots with insert title cards and maps, and the only audio on the soundtrack was Trevor Howard's distinctive voice. It is a very good read. Howard seems to be suppressing his anger all the way through, reading the more ironic comments as if he's personally offended. It's as if the Army Intelligence officer Trevor Howard plays in The Third Man had been asked to record the narration. The new narrator in the finished (2014) clips we see gives a smooth and uninflected read, which to me revises and re-interprets everything. The Holocaust shouldn't need mood music to tell us how to react -- although I realize that that a music track might have been part of the plan in 1945 as well. And it's possible that Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein, when they heard Trevor Howard's interpretation of the narration script, already knew that they wanted something else. But Howard's track is the one that came from the battlefield of the original production, and should be preserved. I remember buying a copy of a previously classified Army movie about 1950s atom tests, only to find that the original narration had been similarly tossed away and replaced with a new one that sometimes didn't even align with the graphics on screen. This to me makes the movie a censored, worthless revision. Watch William Wyler and John Sturges' docu Thunderbolt on TCM sometime. The Army wasn't keen to show that movie either, and we can tell why -- it's an honest account of how fighter bomber pilots, mostly unopposed in the air, pressed their advantage over retreating Germans in Italy. The narration and the comments by the pilots are bloodthirsty and merciless. Apparently the Army did not like seeing its personnel presented as gleeful killers. Thunderbolt was released only several years after it was finished, by a small studio. Like I said above, I realize that my comments about the style of Night Will Fall are highly subjective and prejudiced. But they are my honest thoughts on the film. The Warner Archive Collection DVD-r of Night Will Fall is a good enhanced encoding of a show that consists of new interviews and the old atrocity documentation footage. The improved quality of the film from the camps spares us nothing. If there are more ways to mangle, burn or abuse a human body, I don't want to know about them. The audio and other technical specs are of a high quality as well. The disc's three extras offer much added value. The first is a lengthy lecture by Professor Rainer Schulze, who re-traces basically the entire subject matter of Night Will Fall on a higher plane, with more detail and information. The lecture answers many questions that the main feature doesn't touch. Schulze also discusses the politics behind the ways the 'hot potato' death camp footage was shown, and then not shown. Frankly, I can see a spokesman like Professor Schulze being excluded from a new 'entertainment' documentary because (a.) he probes deeply into uncomfortable aspects of the subject and (b.) he's a German with a German accent. Want to learn more about this appalling yet essential history lesson? This is a fine study piece. The second and third extras are two shorter concentration camp docus that show how both sides depicted the horror, using much of the same footage. Oświecim (Auschwitz) is the Russian film. It has a Russian title card but English opening and ending text cards -- with a misspelling. It identifies the 'great men' that will insure that the Fascists are brought to justice as Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill -- even though Roosevelt had been dead for a year. The Russian docu refers to the war criminals mostly as Fascists, not Germans, perhaps because they wanted to show the film in the Russian sector of defeated Germany. The narration is fairly specific about what we're seeing, describing the things done to individual prisoners and identifying a number of them by name. Adults and children pose for the camera as Russian doctors examine them. The last film is indeed the Billy Wilder supervised Death Mills, which covers much of the same content. Although it consists mostly of British and American film, it also uses a great deal of Russian footage, with a narration track that says totally different things about some of the victims we see. At one point the narration refers to the brutish-looking female SS guards as Amazons, and says that they are 'Deadlier than the Male.' Is that evidence of Billy Wilder's input? My bias against Night Will Fall is probably a more generalized rant against today's commercial documentaries, many of which are, I think, compromised by the need to compete with other forms of entertainment. The show does have interesting content and may be perfect for someone unfamiliar with the subject. If a viewer wants a show to introduce the subject of Genocide to children, I can't see this or any atrocity footage being the right thing to show them. For others, the excellent extras greatly enhance the film's desirability. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Night Will Fall DVD-r rates: Movie: Good Video: Very good Sound: Excellent Supplements: One informational lecture short subjects and two short docus made right after the war (see above) Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? Yes; Subtitles: English Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 18, 2016 small>(5144fall)
Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: dvdsavant@mindspring.com
Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Documentaries about the Holocaust have always been problematical. In some ways the subject was deemed a cultural taboo, to be discussed in only the gravest terms. For years after the war most Americans saw only chosen snippets of film footage, glimpses of the horrors in the death camps. The images published in magazine photo articles were more than people wanted to see.. There were plenty of exceptions, but most ordinary Americans first saw extended documentary footage in -- of all things -- a for-profit Hollywood picture in which big stars portrayed victims and villains. The movie, Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg was actually in good taste, and had a laudable social purpose. The graphic film from the camp was part of the actual Nuremberg trials, after all. It showed a reality of our times that had been suppressed, whether for questions of taste or decency, or because 'the public couldn't take it.' I believe America accepted 'not seeing' because we were not yet a nation of morbid voyeurs. (Live and learn... from Joe Dante: "Actually I think the first time American audiences were exposed to Death Camp footage was in Welles' The Stranger, long before Judgment at Nuremberg.") Art film viewers saw Alain Resnais' Night and Fog, a quiet, haunting film that avoids emotional sensationalism by telling the story through views of Auschwitz as it was in 1955 and non-confrontational narration. Italians, East Germans, Russians and others eventually made dramatic movies that showed the experiences of various concentration camp victims. Many of these dramas were good, but none could embrace the near-cosmic immensity of the horror. Can any single experience help us to come to grips with the fate of millions? And then there's the problem of the endless footage of corpses -- these formerly taboo images are still too much for sensitive people. The English, the Americans and the Russians all filmed in the camps that they liberated. Night Will Fall tells the story of the 1945 production and then abandonment of a long-form film documentary officially sanctioned by the Allied victors. It was produced by Sidney Bernstein and partly overseen by Alfred Hitchcock. The director developed a script and an approach for a document intended to quash present and future claims that the mass murders were faked, exaggerated or a political illusion. A cut called German Concentration Camps Factual Survey (Gccfs) was prepared up to a certain point, but then shelved, with no go-ahead for a finish. The U.S. Army finally brought in Billy Wilder to supervise a shorter version called Death Mills. But Wilder's film also remained classified, and was not released to the public either. A version of it was shown to German audiences. The docu footage was also projected at the Nuremberg trials, as evidence against the German war criminals. Night Will Fall was announced almost ten years ago, in newspaper articles that explained that the British Imperial War Museum was finally going to complete the original Gccfs. Yet we had already seen much of Gccfs on PBS TV in 1985. All but the last reel of the film was located, in its work print form. It screened at least twice on PBS as Frontline: Memory of the Camps; I taped the second airing on VHS and have a burned DVD of it around somewhere. The 'new' Memory of the Camps was finished in 2014. The Warner Archive Collection's Night Will Fall is a documentary about the making of these movies back at the close of the war. Holocaust survivors, surviving Signal Corps cameramen and the producer of Schindler's List -- himself an Auschwitz survivor - are among the on-camera interviewees. Various personalities including directors Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock are represented by archived interviews on film and audiotape. The details of the liberation and the Signal Corps' activities are certainly interesting. We also want to know about the involvement of Hitchcock and Wilder, although all we get are a few remarks and notes on Hitchcock's concerns with the narrative, in audio bites that I would guess were taken from the famed Hitchcock/Truffaut interviews. Hitchcock asks for the inclusion of panning shots, to help prove that what was seen wasn't being faked. Wilder says much the same thing. When it comes time to explain why the project stalled, we're shown a couple of paragraphs in some documents that suggest that America did not want to antagonize the German population with this negative material. The inference is that with the Cold War heating up, most forms of de-Nazification were abandoned after the obvious death camp villains and high-ranking Nazis were executed or locked away. Washington wanted German cooperation in opposing Stalin, and put a halt to the bringing of many more German war criminals to justice. The Russian attitude was quite different. A Soviet Army cinematographer interviewed for Night Will Fall tells us that when their troops liberated a camp, their first action was to shoot every German guard as soon as they were positively identified. That's sounds okay to me. As I said, the 'finished'1945 film German Concentration Camps Factual Survey was also released in 2014. It retains the title Memory of the Camps and is credited to Sidney Bernstein and Alfred Hitchcock. Night Will Fall ends with a final couple of minutes of the 'finished' Memory. It consists of a semi-poetic narration and an edited sequence showing, in graphic close-up, ten or so victims by the side of the road, presumably executed during the retreat of the camp guards. It's everything the movie shouldn't be, a repetitive series of shock cuts to staring corpses with parts of their heads blown away. I can only compare it to one of the intolerably gory highway safety films that aim only to shock the audience. The brain of one corpse lies in a neat heap alongside a skull blown wide open; another man's head seems to be missing above the nose. I'm not sure what the point is. If it's done to produce a blast of more extreme horror to reach the audience, it's a failure. I must admit that I'm conservative on this issue, as I believe that too much of the audience will compare this real carnage to effects they see in the latest zombie thriller. That sickens me the same way I felt when I witnessed high schoolers on a bus describing the awful 9/11 coverage as, 'really cool.' Night Will Fall has value, but to me its style, making even mild use of editing techniques from today's Reality Programming, is inappropriate. The horror of this reality is blatant, banal even. The most responsible way to use the the horror footage would be to simply lay out the raw takes, with slates and camera stops, like legal evidence. Night Will Fall aestheticizes many shots. In one sequence, close-ups of massed corpses are rendered in negative, turning the horror into stylized 'art.' Fake 'end of reel' blips and flashes are added for style, as in any modern Reality Show, where the only rule is to hype the subject matter using any editorial trick that will keep the frame alive. A s hort piece of footage has been digitally sharpened, and looks as if a sub-par tape source had been run through a bad electronic filter. Is this splitting hairs, and being oversensitive? I suppose that times change and that revisionism happens with everything. But this grim, vitally important history is now leaning toward becoming another entertainment choice. Other snippets of the new 'finished' Memory of the Camps are glimpsed in Night Will Fall. The new film appears to use the same or much of the same narration text. I can't tell if that reconstituted ending was part of the original, because when the original Memory showed on PBS, a card came up informing us that the final 'Auschwitz' chapter had been removed at an earlier date. What remained of the original rough cut ended there. I've always theorized that it was snipped off to be given to documentarians and Stanley Kramer. Many of the standard shots of Auschwitz that we see, often in terrible quality, may have come from that reel. The new Memory of the Camps doesn't retain the original narration, as read by actor Trevor Howard. The original version was unusually eerie and effective because it was just a sequence of raw shots with insert title cards and maps, and the only audio on the soundtrack was Trevor Howard's distinctive voice. It is a very good read. Howard seems to be suppressing his anger all the way through, reading the more ironic comments as if he's personally offended. It's as if the Army Intelligence officer Trevor Howard plays in The Third Man had been asked to record the narration. The new narrator in the finished (2014) clips we see gives a smooth and uninflected read, which to me revises and re-interprets everything. The Holocaust shouldn't need mood music to tell us how to react -- although I realize that that a music track might have been part of the plan in 1945 as well. And it's possible that Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein, when they heard Trevor Howard's interpretation of the narration script, already knew that they wanted something else. But Howard's track is the one that came from the battlefield of the original production, and should be preserved. I remember buying a copy of a previously classified Army movie about 1950s atom tests, only to find that the original narration had been similarly tossed away and replaced with a new one that sometimes didn't even align with the graphics on screen. This to me makes the movie a censored, worthless revision. Watch William Wyler and John Sturges' docu Thunderbolt on TCM sometime. The Army wasn't keen to show that movie either, and we can tell why -- it's an honest account of how fighter bomber pilots, mostly unopposed in the air, pressed their advantage over retreating Germans in Italy. The narration and the comments by the pilots are bloodthirsty and merciless. Apparently the Army did not like seeing its personnel presented as gleeful killers. Thunderbolt was released only several years after it was finished, by a small studio. Like I said above, I realize that my comments about the style of Night Will Fall are highly subjective and prejudiced. But they are my honest thoughts on the film. The Warner Archive Collection DVD-r of Night Will Fall is a good enhanced encoding of a show that consists of new interviews and the old atrocity documentation footage. The improved quality of the film from the camps spares us nothing. If there are more ways to mangle, burn or abuse a human body, I don't want to know about them. The audio and other technical specs are of a high quality as well. The disc's three extras offer much added value. The first is a lengthy lecture by Professor Rainer Schulze, who re-traces basically the entire subject matter of Night Will Fall on a higher plane, with more detail and information. The lecture answers many questions that the main feature doesn't touch. Schulze also discusses the politics behind the ways the 'hot potato' death camp footage was shown, and then not shown. Frankly, I can see a spokesman like Professor Schulze being excluded from a new 'entertainment' documentary because (a.) he probes deeply into uncomfortable aspects of the subject and (b.) he's a German with a German accent. Want to learn more about this appalling yet essential history lesson? This is a fine study piece. The second and third extras are two shorter concentration camp docus that show how both sides depicted the horror, using much of the same footage. Oświecim (Auschwitz) is the Russian film. It has a Russian title card but English opening and ending text cards -- with a misspelling. It identifies the 'great men' that will insure that the Fascists are brought to justice as Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill -- even though Roosevelt had been dead for a year. The Russian docu refers to the war criminals mostly as Fascists, not Germans, perhaps because they wanted to show the film in the Russian sector of defeated Germany. The narration is fairly specific about what we're seeing, describing the things done to individual prisoners and identifying a number of them by name. Adults and children pose for the camera as Russian doctors examine them. The last film is indeed the Billy Wilder supervised Death Mills, which covers much of the same content. Although it consists mostly of British and American film, it also uses a great deal of Russian footage, with a narration track that says totally different things about some of the victims we see. At one point the narration refers to the brutish-looking female SS guards as Amazons, and says that they are 'Deadlier than the Male.' Is that evidence of Billy Wilder's input? My bias against Night Will Fall is probably a more generalized rant against today's commercial documentaries, many of which are, I think, compromised by the need to compete with other forms of entertainment. The show does have interesting content and may be perfect for someone unfamiliar with the subject. If a viewer wants a show to introduce the subject of Genocide to children, I can't see this or any atrocity footage being the right thing to show them. For others, the excellent extras greatly enhance the film's desirability. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Night Will Fall DVD-r rates: Movie: Good Video: Very good Sound: Excellent Supplements: One informational lecture short subjects and two short docus made right after the war (see above) Deaf and Hearing Impaired Friendly? Yes; Subtitles: English Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 18, 2016 small>(5144fall)
Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: dvdsavant@mindspring.com
Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...
- 6/21/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Exclusive: In April 1945, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force ordered that footage shot by combat and newsreel cameramen during the liberation of Occupied Europe be aggregated into a documentary film that would be shown to the German prisoners of war as irrefutable proof of what had occurred under the Nazi regime. The producer from the British Ministry of Information, Sidney Bernstein, assembled a first-rank team of editors for the project and eventually brought Alfred Hitchcock over to help organize the footage and accompanying narration. (Later, Billy Wilder would also be brought in to work on the documentary.)
Post-war events quickly overshadowed the painstaking work. The last official action on the film, according to the Imperial War Museum in London, was a screening of the five-reel rough cut on September 29, 1945, after which it was shelved. Seven years later, the material, including 100 more reels of unedited footage, a script for the narration...
Post-war events quickly overshadowed the painstaking work. The last official action on the film, according to the Imperial War Museum in London, was a screening of the five-reel rough cut on September 29, 1945, after which it was shelved. Seven years later, the material, including 100 more reels of unedited footage, a script for the narration...
- 1/28/2015
- by Jeremy Gerard
- Deadline
Sheffield Crucible
The effect of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor slicing one another with lines as sharp as flensing knives in the 1966 film version of Edward Albee's 1962 play is still emotion-scouringly vivid. (Taylor, who died last week, won an Oscar for her performance.) Their coruscating exchanges seemed set to define the middle-aged, warring, married couple, George and Martha - whose names, borrowed from President Washington and his wife, signal their function as emblems of the ruin of the American dream.
Sian Thomas and Jasper Britton, though, seize the parts for their own in this Northern Stage and Sheffield theatres co-production. Thomas's Martha, part praying mantis, part puppet, jerks around the stage as if impelled by forces trying to rip free from her control – despair, grief and rage. Britton's George is a perfect foil – an oxymoronic worm with a backbone. John Hopkins and Lorna Beckett shine as the initially pure-seeming but morally putrid younger couple.
The effect of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor slicing one another with lines as sharp as flensing knives in the 1966 film version of Edward Albee's 1962 play is still emotion-scouringly vivid. (Taylor, who died last week, won an Oscar for her performance.) Their coruscating exchanges seemed set to define the middle-aged, warring, married couple, George and Martha - whose names, borrowed from President Washington and his wife, signal their function as emblems of the ruin of the American dream.
Sian Thomas and Jasper Britton, though, seize the parts for their own in this Northern Stage and Sheffield theatres co-production. Thomas's Martha, part praying mantis, part puppet, jerks around the stage as if impelled by forces trying to rip free from her control – despair, grief and rage. Britton's George is a perfect foil – an oxymoronic worm with a backbone. John Hopkins and Lorna Beckett shine as the initially pure-seeming but morally putrid younger couple.
- 3/27/2011
- by Clare Brennan
- The Guardian - Film News
Richard Eyre's production of The Last Cigarette, adapted by Hugh Whitemore and Simon Gray from Gray's critically acclaimed The Smoking Diaries, is to transfer to the West End having previously opened the 2009 season at the Chichester Festival Theatre. Starring Felicity Kendal, Nicholas Le Prevost and Jasper Britton, who all perform as Simon Gray, The Last Cigarette will run at Trafalgar Studios from 21 April - 1 August, with opening night 28 April 2009. Designs are by Rob Howell with lighting and projection by John Driscoll and music by George Fenton.
- 4/16/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
Richard Eyre's production of The Last Cigarette, adapted by Hugh Whitemore and Simon Gray from Gray's critically acclaimed The Smoking Diaries, is to transfer to the West End having previously opened the 2009 Season at the Chichester Festival Theatre. Starring Felicity Kendal, Nicholas le Prevost and Jasper Britton, who all perform as Simon Gray, The Last Cigarette will run at Trafalgar Studios from 21 April - 1 August, with opening night 28 April 2009. Designs are by Rob Howell with lighting and projection by John Driscoll and music by George Fenton.
- 3/27/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
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