Last Saturday, at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles (via The Hollywood Reporter), “Holdovers” director Alexander Payne presented The Robert Osborne Award — an award named for the late TCM anchor that honors individuals dedicated to preserving classic film history — to an educator and historian that many people may not have heard of. Her name is Jeanine Basinger and before her 60-year career teaching at Wesleyan University, or writing 13 books on film that continue to inspire, she was a movie theater usher in a town in South Dakota with only two venues. So vast was her love for the medium that, according to Payne, she worked “at both theaters.”
It was this love that fostered a passion in Payne as well despite never having had a single class with Basinger. In his speech to her, he said, “I didn’t go to Wesleyan. And I would say she’s...
It was this love that fostered a passion in Payne as well despite never having had a single class with Basinger. In his speech to her, he said, “I didn’t go to Wesleyan. And I would say she’s...
- 4/27/2024
- by Harrison Richlin
- Indiewire
Le chinoise.Most serious writing about Jean-Luc Godard tends to be both high-flown and forbidding, rather like the films it’s discussing. Translations from French to English or vice versa can make things even dicier. But according to the literary scholar Fredric Jameson, who contributes an enthusiastic preface and afterword, Reading with Jean-Luc Godard—a compendium of 109 three-page essays by 50 writers from a dozen countries, announced as the first in a series—launches “a new form” and “a new genre.”The brevity of each entry tends to confirm Jameson’s claim. The book can be described as an audience-friendly volume designed to occupy the same space between academia and journalism staked out by Notebook while proposing routes into Godard’s work provided by his eclectic reading—a batch of writers ranged alphabetically and intellectually from Louis Aragon, Robert Ardrey, Hannah Arendt, and Honoré de Balzac to François Truffaut, Paul Valéry,...
- 1/30/2024
- MUBI
The term "auteur theory" was first coined by American critic Andrew Sarris, a phrase he extrapolated from the essays published in Cahiers du Cinéma in the early 1950s by the founding members of the French New Wave. Auteur theory posited that a director stands as the final authorial voice behind a feature film, and not the writer, the editor, or any of the other filmmakers. While many critics over the years have objected to auteur theory (Pauline Kael famously hated it), the language of referring to a film's director as its "one author" has become the default used by pundits and journalists to this day.
Throughout the 2010s, there was a visible push-and-pull when it came to auteur theory. While plenty of striking, important directors put out unique, idiosyncratic works, massive studio franchise pictures stayed at the commercial fore, and individual directors were subservient to all-powerful Higher Ups. For the...
Throughout the 2010s, there was a visible push-and-pull when it came to auteur theory. While plenty of striking, important directors put out unique, idiosyncratic works, massive studio franchise pictures stayed at the commercial fore, and individual directors were subservient to all-powerful Higher Ups. For the...
- 12/24/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Michele Civetta is the director of feature films “Agony” and “The Gateway” and music videos for Lou Reed, Sean Lennon, and Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.
We came from a generation…
With aspirations of what cinema is as an art form, what it can do to provoke change, illuminate dreams of individual stories, and propel cultural narratives. Inspired by the American New Wave of Cinema, living under the banner of the Cahiers du Cinema auteur theory, a world where writers, directors, and producers created stories in the emerging screen revolution colliding between world cinema and the 90s independent film boom. Looking inside the cinematic kaleidoscope, imagining how to penetrate the dream factory, Kevin Turen was born to be a maverick as he surmounted this unpaved road for our generation of friends and filmmaking talent. As New York City Kids, we crossed the threshold into our professional years. Kevin helped out...
We came from a generation…
With aspirations of what cinema is as an art form, what it can do to provoke change, illuminate dreams of individual stories, and propel cultural narratives. Inspired by the American New Wave of Cinema, living under the banner of the Cahiers du Cinema auteur theory, a world where writers, directors, and producers created stories in the emerging screen revolution colliding between world cinema and the 90s independent film boom. Looking inside the cinematic kaleidoscope, imagining how to penetrate the dream factory, Kevin Turen was born to be a maverick as he surmounted this unpaved road for our generation of friends and filmmaking talent. As New York City Kids, we crossed the threshold into our professional years. Kevin helped out...
- 11/21/2023
- by Michele Civetta
- Indiewire
The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Artists and Models.By rights, Martin and Lewis should have the kind of cultural footprint renders them permanent household names: the status that turns artists into Halloween costumes, as archetypal as cartoon characters and ancient gods. For ten years, from 1946 to 1956, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were a double act, and accurately describing how popular they were sounds like gross exaggeration. They were so big that the only fitting comparisons are to rock stars—and not just any rock stars, but Elvis Presley, or The Beatles. “For ten years after World War II, Dean and I were not only the most successful show-business act in history,” Jerry Lewis wrote with his trademark humility in Dean and Me: A Love Story (1984), “—we were history.” Their live shows were pandemonium. They reportedly made eleven million dollars in 1951 alone.
- 10/23/2023
- MUBI
Apologies to André Bazin, Pauline Kael, and Andrew Sarris, but Roger Ebert was unquestionably the most influential film critic of the cinema's first century. In fact, unless the media landscape is drastically altered over the next few years, he may also wind up being the last film critic who ever truly mattered.
I do not mean this as a put-down of my colleagues. If you actually read film criticism nowadays, you know that there's never been a more thrillingly diverse assortment of voices in this too-cluttered arena. Manohla Dargis, Justin Chang, Scott Tobias, Angelica Jade Bastién, and Bilge Ebiri are must-reads in this house, and I could name a few dozen more who are reliably incisive and original in their thinking. I don't have time to read all of the critics I respect, which is both a frustrating and good thing.
But be honest, do you actually read film criticism nowadays?...
I do not mean this as a put-down of my colleagues. If you actually read film criticism nowadays, you know that there's never been a more thrillingly diverse assortment of voices in this too-cluttered arena. Manohla Dargis, Justin Chang, Scott Tobias, Angelica Jade Bastién, and Bilge Ebiri are must-reads in this house, and I could name a few dozen more who are reliably incisive and original in their thinking. I don't have time to read all of the critics I respect, which is both a frustrating and good thing.
But be honest, do you actually read film criticism nowadays?...
- 9/7/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
by Cláudio Alves
Shelley Duvall is one of a kind. Upon seeing her work in Altman's 3 Women, Andrew Sarris compared her to "a young Katharine Hepburn," while Pauline Kael said she was the "closest thing we've ever come to a female Buster Keaton." And yet, the critic would also inevitably arrive at the same conclusion that she was unique. "There are no forebears or influences that would help to explain Shelley Duvall's acting; she doesn't seem to owe anything to anyone." And so, it's a tragedy that, nowadays, she's mostly remembered as the woman broken by Stanley Kubrick during The Shining's grueling shoot, a pop psychology misreading that's spread through social media despite Duvall's own words on the matter.
Infuriating, it's condescending to a great multi-hyphenated artist whose independence and ambition defined a decades-spanning career in entertainment. Let's keep the wonders of Duvall's work alive and bright,...
Shelley Duvall is one of a kind. Upon seeing her work in Altman's 3 Women, Andrew Sarris compared her to "a young Katharine Hepburn," while Pauline Kael said she was the "closest thing we've ever come to a female Buster Keaton." And yet, the critic would also inevitably arrive at the same conclusion that she was unique. "There are no forebears or influences that would help to explain Shelley Duvall's acting; she doesn't seem to owe anything to anyone." And so, it's a tragedy that, nowadays, she's mostly remembered as the woman broken by Stanley Kubrick during The Shining's grueling shoot, a pop psychology misreading that's spread through social media despite Duvall's own words on the matter.
Infuriating, it's condescending to a great multi-hyphenated artist whose independence and ambition defined a decades-spanning career in entertainment. Let's keep the wonders of Duvall's work alive and bright,...
- 7/8/2023
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
With the release of Ari Aster's third feature film, "Beau is Afraid" (read our review here), the word around the virtual water cooler is that Aster has solidified his place as the next great auteur. The word "auteur" gets thrown around a lot these days, joining the ranks of words like "iconic" that have seemingly lost all meaning in favor of becoming a way to say, "I really like this." Artistic assessment by the masses has grown increasingly hyperbolic, with every new film earning as many 5-star Letterboxd comments reading "a masterpiece" as it does 0.5-star declarations of "the worst movie ... ever." But auteur theory gained prominence back in the 1940s, birthed from French theorists André Bazin and Alexandre Astruc and given its name by American film critic Andrew Sarris.
The foundation was based on the idea of "director-as-author," but has evolved to also encompass a director's signature style or recognizable motifs.
The foundation was based on the idea of "director-as-author," but has evolved to also encompass a director's signature style or recognizable motifs.
- 4/26/2023
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
Taking place from March 17 - 26 in NYC, Film at Lincoln Center presents Unspeakable: The Films of Tod Browning, an extensive retrospective screening series from one of the first masters of horror! We have more details and the trailer below, along with discount codes and details on how you can win an all access pass:
"Featuring 35mm screenings, new restorations, and live piano accompaniment, Unspeakable: The Films of Tod Browning takes place in our theaters March 17-26.
Tod Browning (1880–1962) ranks among the most original and enigmatic filmmakers of his time. Born Charles Albert Browning, Jr., son of a middle-class family, he ran away from his Kentucky home at age 16 to join the circus, where he took jobs as a barker, a contortionist, a clown, and a somnambulist buried alive in a box with its own ventilation system. Following a stint in vaudeville and adopting the moniker Tod (German for “death”), Browning...
"Featuring 35mm screenings, new restorations, and live piano accompaniment, Unspeakable: The Films of Tod Browning takes place in our theaters March 17-26.
Tod Browning (1880–1962) ranks among the most original and enigmatic filmmakers of his time. Born Charles Albert Browning, Jr., son of a middle-class family, he ran away from his Kentucky home at age 16 to join the circus, where he took jobs as a barker, a contortionist, a clown, and a somnambulist buried alive in a box with its own ventilation system. Following a stint in vaudeville and adopting the moniker Tod (German for “death”), Browning...
- 3/16/2023
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
The director’s last film is rumoured to centre on the life of New Yorker film writer Pauline Kael – if true, her 1970s face-off with Warren Beatty would make a thrilling plot line
How intriguing to hear that Quentin Tarantino’s new film is going to be about a film critic – the news has sent all of us in the film-critic community into a nervy tizzy of pre-emptive gags and warily dismissive tweets about what this means for the discourse. And The Movie Critic (a working title?) is reportedly to be Tarantino’s final film, his signoff. It’s no surprise that this fanatically encyclopaedic cinephile wanted this film to be set within the film world – but it’s not about a movie actor or a movie producer or a movie director, but a movie critic, surely a hilariously marginal, impotent and parasitical figure, who deserves no more than a walk-on part at best?...
How intriguing to hear that Quentin Tarantino’s new film is going to be about a film critic – the news has sent all of us in the film-critic community into a nervy tizzy of pre-emptive gags and warily dismissive tweets about what this means for the discourse. And The Movie Critic (a working title?) is reportedly to be Tarantino’s final film, his signoff. It’s no surprise that this fanatically encyclopaedic cinephile wanted this film to be set within the film world – but it’s not about a movie actor or a movie producer or a movie director, but a movie critic, surely a hilariously marginal, impotent and parasitical figure, who deserves no more than a walk-on part at best?...
- 3/16/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Credited as a pioneering director who helped create the horror film genre, Tod Browning‘s influence can be seen in the work of David Lynch, John Waters, Guillermo del Toro, and David Cronenberg, and Film at Lincoln Center pays tribute to Browning this month.
Film at Lincoln Center has announced Unspeakable: The Films of Tod Browning, a retrospective of the pioneering filmmaker’s career consisting of 17 films presented almost entirely on 35mm, running from March 17 through 26.
Tod Browning (1880–1962) ranks among the most original and enigmatic filmmakers of his time. Born Charles Albert Browning, Jr., son of a middle-class family, he ran away from his Kentucky home at age 16 to join the circus, where he took jobs as a barker, a contortionist, a clown, and a somnambulist buried alive in a box with its own ventilation system. Following a stint in vaudeville and adopting the moniker Tod (German for “death”), Browning...
Film at Lincoln Center has announced Unspeakable: The Films of Tod Browning, a retrospective of the pioneering filmmaker’s career consisting of 17 films presented almost entirely on 35mm, running from March 17 through 26.
Tod Browning (1880–1962) ranks among the most original and enigmatic filmmakers of his time. Born Charles Albert Browning, Jr., son of a middle-class family, he ran away from his Kentucky home at age 16 to join the circus, where he took jobs as a barker, a contortionist, a clown, and a somnambulist buried alive in a box with its own ventilation system. Following a stint in vaudeville and adopting the moniker Tod (German for “death”), Browning...
- 3/6/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Mike Hodges, best known as the director of gritty, stylish thrillers like Get Carter — the original — Croupier, The Terminal Man and I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead has died, according to his longtime friend and the producer of I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, Mike Kaplan. Hodges was 90.
Hodges was a relatively new director who’d worked mostly in TV when he burst upon the international film scene with Get Carter in 1971. The crime drama starring Michael Caine is still considered among the best British gangster films ever made. Set against a working class background in northern England, Hodges blended irony and humor with stark tension and sudden violence. Those elements became, along with his attention to atmosphere, his signatures. The film was remade in 2000 with Sylvester Stallone as the lead.
Michael Caine in ‘Get Carter’ circa 1971. (Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
In 2000, his film Croupier introduced the world to Clive Owen.
Hodges was a relatively new director who’d worked mostly in TV when he burst upon the international film scene with Get Carter in 1971. The crime drama starring Michael Caine is still considered among the best British gangster films ever made. Set against a working class background in northern England, Hodges blended irony and humor with stark tension and sudden violence. Those elements became, along with his attention to atmosphere, his signatures. The film was remade in 2000 with Sylvester Stallone as the lead.
Michael Caine in ‘Get Carter’ circa 1971. (Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
In 2000, his film Croupier introduced the world to Clive Owen.
- 12/20/2022
- by Tom Tapp
- Deadline Film + TV
British director Mike Hodges, known for directing “Get Carter,” “Croupier” and “Flash Gordon,” died in Dorset, England on Dec. 17. He was 90.
His death was announced by Mike Kaplan, longtime friend and producer of “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.”
Hodges’ crime dramas came at the beginning of his career — “Get Carter” (1971) and “Pulp” (1972) — and the end — “Croupier” (1999) and “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” (2003). In addition to his crime dramas he was known for his campy, stylized take on “Flash Gordon.”
Andrew Sarris wrote in the Observer in 2000, “Director Mike Hodges has become one of the most under-appreciated and virtually unknown masters of the medium over the last 30 years” and “Mr. Hodges has been hailed by everyone from Martin Scorsese to Pauline Kael as a stylist of the first order.”
Hodges adapted “Get Carter” — one of the greatest British gangster movies of all time — himself from a novel by Ted Lewis.
His death was announced by Mike Kaplan, longtime friend and producer of “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead.”
Hodges’ crime dramas came at the beginning of his career — “Get Carter” (1971) and “Pulp” (1972) — and the end — “Croupier” (1999) and “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead” (2003). In addition to his crime dramas he was known for his campy, stylized take on “Flash Gordon.”
Andrew Sarris wrote in the Observer in 2000, “Director Mike Hodges has become one of the most under-appreciated and virtually unknown masters of the medium over the last 30 years” and “Mr. Hodges has been hailed by everyone from Martin Scorsese to Pauline Kael as a stylist of the first order.”
Hodges adapted “Get Carter” — one of the greatest British gangster movies of all time — himself from a novel by Ted Lewis.
- 12/20/2022
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
Few movies have the diabolical aura of "The Exorcist," and much of its reputation comes from its sensational and controversial release almost 50 years ago. William Friedkin's film had people queuing in the streets to see what all the fuss was about, as tales of moviegoers vomiting or passing out in theaters only served to emphasize its devilish allure. Critic Andrew Sarris of The Village Voice even went so far as to call it "a thoroughly evil film." Then there were the predictable rumors of an on-set curse and the subsequent ban in the UK, all of which added to its stature as one of the most frightening mainstream horrors ever made.
Despite its whiff of sulfur, I never saw the film as anything remotely evil. I approached it with caution at first but I consider it a good film in the purest sense of the word. Sure, it catalogs...
Despite its whiff of sulfur, I never saw the film as anything remotely evil. I approached it with caution at first but I consider it a good film in the purest sense of the word. Sure, it catalogs...
- 10/16/2022
- by Lee Adams
- Slash Film
Producer Mike Finnell (Joe Dante’s long time producing partner) joins Josh and Joe to discuss a few of his favorite movies.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Avalanche (1978)
Airport (1970)
Earthquake (1974) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Matinee (1993) – Illeana Douglas’s trailer commentary, Dennis Cozzalio’s review, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Hollywood Boulevard (1976) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing
Deceived (1991)
Newsies (1992)
Milk Money (1994)
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979) – Eli Roth’s trailer commentary
The Howling (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s 4K Blu-ray review, Tfh’s 30th anniversary celebration
Explorers (1985) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Innerspace (1987) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The ’Burbs (1989) – Ti West’s trailer commentary, Tfh’s ’Burbs Mania
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Small Soldiers (1998)
A Matter of Life and Death (1946) – Glenn Erickson’s...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Avalanche (1978)
Airport (1970)
Earthquake (1974) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Matinee (1993) – Illeana Douglas’s trailer commentary, Dennis Cozzalio’s review, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Hollywood Boulevard (1976) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing
Deceived (1991)
Newsies (1992)
Milk Money (1994)
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979) – Eli Roth’s trailer commentary
The Howling (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s 4K Blu-ray review, Tfh’s 30th anniversary celebration
Explorers (1985) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Innerspace (1987) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The ’Burbs (1989) – Ti West’s trailer commentary, Tfh’s ’Burbs Mania
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Small Soldiers (1998)
A Matter of Life and Death (1946) – Glenn Erickson’s...
- 7/12/2022
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Kino’s triple-threat Edgar Ulmer show has great commentaries plus HD debuts of his two ‘Texas’ movies, that likely have not been seen in their original widescreen aspect ratios since the 1960s. Ulmer’s first tale of a solo space invader has the pleasing look of a silent-era expressionist film. His take on a time travel paradox uses Air Force cooperation to project pilot Robert Clarke from 1959 to the far far future date of 2024 (ulp!). And Ulmer’s cut-rate invisible man is a master thief sprung from the pokey to help with a mad scheme to conquer the world — but the crook instead rushes to rob a bank! The excellent presentations will have special appeal for connoisseurs of exotic sci-fi thrillers.
Edgar G. Ulmer Sci-Fi Collection
The Man from Planet X, Beyond the Time Barrier, The Amazing Transparent Man
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1951-1960 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen, 1:37 Academy / 204 min.
Edgar G. Ulmer Sci-Fi Collection
The Man from Planet X, Beyond the Time Barrier, The Amazing Transparent Man
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1951-1960 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen, 1:37 Academy / 204 min.
- 4/5/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Writer-director Billy Wilder’s favorite and perhaps best movie takes the leap to 4K, revealing even more beauty in the images of Joseph Lashelle and the designs of Alexandre Trauner . . . we all feel like we’ve lived in C.C. Baxter’s New York flat. Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond’s ‘dirty fairy tale’ best expresses the difficulty of keeping both a job and one’s self-respect — fitting in a love life seems altogether too much to ask. It all comes down to Shirley MacLaine’s sweet smile and Jack Lemmon’s eagerness to be a ‘mensch’ — when he’s discovering that a moral compromise is like selling one’s soul.
The Apartment 4K
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1960 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 125 min. / Street Date March 15, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, Jack Kruschen, David Lewis, Hope Holiday, Joan Shawlee, Naomi Stevens,...
The Apartment 4K
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1960 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 125 min. / Street Date March 15, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, Jack Kruschen, David Lewis, Hope Holiday, Joan Shawlee, Naomi Stevens,...
- 4/2/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
To cite Monica Vitti as an icon, following her death in Rome this week at 90, is somehow unsatisfying. She could never be summed up as something so inert — she was far too vividly alive. If her sensuality has been called “chilly,” it nonetheless animated every frame she stood in or fast-tapped through in high heels. If the landscapes her greatest creative partner Michelangelo Antonioni directed her across were at times sprawling or forbidding, she always held the eye, whether with a look or a highly kinetic outburst.
To a young film buff crammed into a swaybacked seat at a Manhattan arthouse, beholding her for the first time was to risk a schoolboy crush. She’s been called “Impossibly lovely” on this site, and that’s true enough — impossible, and yet there she is onscreen. The sturdy lips forming a blossom of a mouth, the eyes that seem focused just a...
To a young film buff crammed into a swaybacked seat at a Manhattan arthouse, beholding her for the first time was to risk a schoolboy crush. She’s been called “Impossibly lovely” on this site, and that’s true enough — impossible, and yet there she is onscreen. The sturdy lips forming a blossom of a mouth, the eyes that seem focused just a...
- 2/3/2022
- by Fred Schruers
- Indiewire
Let loose some airy English film aesthetes with a big budget, a French film studio and a theme somewhere between Marcel Proust and Jean Cocteau, and back comes this strange, slightly off-balance but extremely impressive objet d’art. Eric Portman is really good, Edana Romney not so much. English actresses Barbara Mullen and Joan Maude compensate greatly — they’re haunting, actually. For his first job of direction Terence Young gives us a flash of Christopher Lee in his first film, along with pretty Lois Maxwell. Content-wise the film has the screwiest construction … its style and obsessions are split between the two films presently rated the best ever made! Expect something different: the baroque style may prompt some viewers to reach for the ‘eject’ button.
Corridor of Mirrors
Blu-ray
1948 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / Street Date October 19, 2021 / Available from /
Starring: Eric Portman, Edana Romney, Barbara Mullen, Hugh Sinclair, Bruce Belfrage, Alan Wheatley,...
Corridor of Mirrors
Blu-ray
1948 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / Street Date October 19, 2021 / Available from /
Starring: Eric Portman, Edana Romney, Barbara Mullen, Hugh Sinclair, Bruce Belfrage, Alan Wheatley,...
- 10/16/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Milton Moses Ginsberg, who developed a cult following for his low-budget indie films Coming Apart and The Werewolf of Washington, died May 23 in Manhattan. He was 85 and died from cancer, according to his wife, Nina Ginsberg.
Ginsberg was a film editor when his ambitions led him to make Coming Apart in 1969. The black and white film used a static camera to document Rip Torn as a psychiatrist who records his trysts with a hidden camera. The film received a good review from Richard Schickel, but some others – notably Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice – panned it.
Undaunted, Ginsberg tried again in 1973 with The Werewolf of Washington, which featured Dean Stockwell as a White House staffer who turns into a werewolf at inopportune times and murders characters based on well-known Washington figures of the era.
Ill health forced Ginsberg back to film editing. He worked on the Oscar-winning documentaries Down and...
Ginsberg was a film editor when his ambitions led him to make Coming Apart in 1969. The black and white film used a static camera to document Rip Torn as a psychiatrist who records his trysts with a hidden camera. The film received a good review from Richard Schickel, but some others – notably Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice – panned it.
Undaunted, Ginsberg tried again in 1973 with The Werewolf of Washington, which featured Dean Stockwell as a White House staffer who turns into a werewolf at inopportune times and murders characters based on well-known Washington figures of the era.
Ill health forced Ginsberg back to film editing. He worked on the Oscar-winning documentaries Down and...
- 6/13/2021
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about filmmakers! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.
Today, Conor and I bring in the big guns (One Heat Minute Productions creator Blake Howard) to discuss one of the great filmmakers: Alan J. Pakula. After making a name for himself as a producer (he earned an Oscar nomination for To Kill a Mockingbird), Pakula emerged as a seminal New Hollywood director with his “paranoia trilogy:” Klute (1971), The Parallax View (1974), and All the President’s Men (1976). And yet, he is rarely acknowledged in the upper-echelon of great 70s filmmakers like Coppola or De Palma.
On this episode we focus on Pakula’s underseen, unassuming western Comes a Horseman, his over-cooked domestic thriller Consenting Adults, and his final film The Devil’s Own, which stars Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt.
Today, Conor and I bring in the big guns (One Heat Minute Productions creator Blake Howard) to discuss one of the great filmmakers: Alan J. Pakula. After making a name for himself as a producer (he earned an Oscar nomination for To Kill a Mockingbird), Pakula emerged as a seminal New Hollywood director with his “paranoia trilogy:” Klute (1971), The Parallax View (1974), and All the President’s Men (1976). And yet, he is rarely acknowledged in the upper-echelon of great 70s filmmakers like Coppola or De Palma.
On this episode we focus on Pakula’s underseen, unassuming western Comes a Horseman, his over-cooked domestic thriller Consenting Adults, and his final film The Devil’s Own, which stars Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt.
- 5/13/2021
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Hubert Cornfield’s smoothly directed, moody kidnapping story is mysterious, engaging and well acted, but opts for an anti-thriller vibe with a curiously unsatisfying ending. Was this really the plan, or did the irksomely capricious Marlon Brando just not want to cooperate with the director? Brando is terrific anyway. The well-cast Rita Moreno, Richard Boone and Pamela Franklin are short-changed by directorial and editorial decisions that don’t give us enough of a purchase on the characters. The overcast weather on the French coast is a plus, but not the director’s choice of a downbeat, arty finish.
The Night of the Following Day
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date May 25, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Marlon Brando, Richard Boone, Rita Moreno, Pamela Franklin,
Jess Hahn, Gérard Buhr, Hugues Wanner, Jacques Marin, Al Lettieri.
Cinematography: Willy Kurant
Film Editor: Gordon Pilkington
Art Direction Jean Boulet
Original...
The Night of the Following Day
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1969 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date May 25, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Marlon Brando, Richard Boone, Rita Moreno, Pamela Franklin,
Jess Hahn, Gérard Buhr, Hugues Wanner, Jacques Marin, Al Lettieri.
Cinematography: Willy Kurant
Film Editor: Gordon Pilkington
Art Direction Jean Boulet
Original...
- 5/1/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
One could have watched the Critics Choice Awards last Sunday and thought they were re-watching the Golden Globes. Same nominees, mostly the same winners, same sweatshirt for Jason Sudeikis. Wait … didn’t the professional entertainment judgers generally blast the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for, well, for being what and who they are?
What happened to early critics’ winners like “First Cow”? How quickly they forget and go with the flow. In fact, this is the time critics — respect or resent them — are currently getting a taste of their own.
Consider “Malcolm and Marie,” the controversial film from Sam Levinson starring John Thomas Washington and Zendaya. It is basically one long argument about whether “that white lady of the L.A. Times” wrote a positive or negative review of Washington’s character’s film, seen through the racial lens. Washington ends his screed by saying he hopes the writer gets “f...
What happened to early critics’ winners like “First Cow”? How quickly they forget and go with the flow. In fact, this is the time critics — respect or resent them — are currently getting a taste of their own.
Consider “Malcolm and Marie,” the controversial film from Sam Levinson starring John Thomas Washington and Zendaya. It is basically one long argument about whether “that white lady of the L.A. Times” wrote a positive or negative review of Washington’s character’s film, seen through the racial lens. Washington ends his screed by saying he hopes the writer gets “f...
- 3/13/2021
- by Michele Willens
- The Wrap
David Fincher’s “Mank,” a drama set in the Hollywood of the 1930s and ’40s and focusing on “Citizen Kane” screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, has found itself embroiled in an argument that began when Fincher was only 8 years old. It’s a battle whose combatants included film critic Pauline Kael, director Peter Bogdanovich and Orson Welles himself.
At issue is the question of how much Welles contributed to the “Kane” script, for which he and Mankiewicz are both credited. Welles’ critics say the screenplay was almost entirely Mankiewicz’s creation, with the director-actor-producer trying to seize writing credit from the man who actually did the work. Welles’ supporters say that Mankiewicz and Welles simultaneously wrote first drafts, which Welles then turned into the final script, largely without input from Mankiewicz.
“Mank” does not adhere strictly to either viewpoint, and much of the film is devoted more to the California gubernatorial election...
At issue is the question of how much Welles contributed to the “Kane” script, for which he and Mankiewicz are both credited. Welles’ critics say the screenplay was almost entirely Mankiewicz’s creation, with the director-actor-producer trying to seize writing credit from the man who actually did the work. Welles’ supporters say that Mankiewicz and Welles simultaneously wrote first drafts, which Welles then turned into the final script, largely without input from Mankiewicz.
“Mank” does not adhere strictly to either viewpoint, and much of the film is devoted more to the California gubernatorial election...
- 12/9/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
It holds the lofty perch of being the greatest cinematic achievement of all-time. The American Film Institute picked it as the best movie ever made. Twice. François Truffaut filmed himself daydreaming of Orson Welles in Day for Night (1973). Liev Schreiber starred as Welles in an HBO movie about the film’s making.
Citizen Kane is like the white whale for moviemakers who want to make movies about other moviemakers. And now David Fincher is giving it a singular, and possibly revisionist, angle in Mank, a new Netflix film starring Gary Oldman as Herman J. Mankiewicz.
Herman’s name is arguably not as famous as that of his younger brother, Joseph Mankiewicz, the latter of whom wrote and directed All About Eve (1950) and Cleopatra (1963), but Fincher and his father Jack Fincher, the latter of whom wrote the screenplay for Netflix’s Mank, seem to argue he should be. As depicted in the movie,...
Citizen Kane is like the white whale for moviemakers who want to make movies about other moviemakers. And now David Fincher is giving it a singular, and possibly revisionist, angle in Mank, a new Netflix film starring Gary Oldman as Herman J. Mankiewicz.
Herman’s name is arguably not as famous as that of his younger brother, Joseph Mankiewicz, the latter of whom wrote and directed All About Eve (1950) and Cleopatra (1963), but Fincher and his father Jack Fincher, the latter of whom wrote the screenplay for Netflix’s Mank, seem to argue he should be. As depicted in the movie,...
- 10/21/2020
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
For the last five months, Film Comment — the house organ of Film at Lincoln Center, a repository for erudite film coverage, and a thought leader in specialty film — has existed in limbo. It’s not dead; while the staff was put on hiatus in March, publisher Eugene Hernandez is working to determine next steps. It’s not in print; its last physical edition was March/April. It’s not quite digital: Content for the May/June issue is available at the Film Comment site and at Zinio, but any internet consumer knows that online publications can’t survive on bimonthly updates.
From the critical brickbats of Pauline Kael vs. Andrew Sarris to defining identities for seminal filmmakers like Max Ophüls, John Huston, and Martin Scorsese, Film Comment has been at the center of a vital global film conversation for 58 years. Embraced by cinephiles and academics, it also saw the art...
From the critical brickbats of Pauline Kael vs. Andrew Sarris to defining identities for seminal filmmakers like Max Ophüls, John Huston, and Martin Scorsese, Film Comment has been at the center of a vital global film conversation for 58 years. Embraced by cinephiles and academics, it also saw the art...
- 8/24/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
For the last five months, Film Comment — the house organ of Film at Lincoln Center, a repository for erudite film coverage, and a thought leader in specialty film — has existed in limbo. It’s not dead; while the staff was put on hiatus in March, publisher Eugene Hernandez is working to determine next steps. It’s not in print; its last physical edition was March/April. It’s not quite digital: Content for the May/June issue is available at the Film Comment site and at Zinio, but any internet consumer knows that online publications can’t survive on bimonthly updates.
From the critical brickbats of Pauline Kael vs. Andrew Sarris to defining identities for seminal filmmakers like Max Ophüls, John Huston, and Martin Scorsese, Film Comment has been at the center of a vital global film conversation for 58 years. Embraced by cinephiles and academics, it also saw the art...
From the critical brickbats of Pauline Kael vs. Andrew Sarris to defining identities for seminal filmmakers like Max Ophüls, John Huston, and Martin Scorsese, Film Comment has been at the center of a vital global film conversation for 58 years. Embraced by cinephiles and academics, it also saw the art...
- 8/24/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Almost exactly one year since it began its theatrical release in the United States, Bong Joon Ho‘s Parasite is arriving on The Criterion Collection. The Best Picture winner leads their October 2020 lineup, and for those who bought the standard Blu-ray edition earlier this year, you can now plan to give it to a friend as the disc is packed with extras.
Among the special features is the black-and-white version of the film, an audio commentary by Bong Joon Ho and critic Tony Rayns, a feature on the New Korean Cinema movement featuring Bong and Park Chan Wook, a storyboard comparison and more.
Also part of the October lineup is Stephen Frears’ crime drama The Hit, starring Terence Stamp, the Gregory Peck-led western The Gunfighter, John Berry’s Claudine, which features an Oscar-nominated performance by Diahann Carroll, and a new restoration of the Jean-Luc Godard classic Pierrot le fou.
Among the special features is the black-and-white version of the film, an audio commentary by Bong Joon Ho and critic Tony Rayns, a feature on the New Korean Cinema movement featuring Bong and Park Chan Wook, a storyboard comparison and more.
Also part of the October lineup is Stephen Frears’ crime drama The Hit, starring Terence Stamp, the Gregory Peck-led western The Gunfighter, John Berry’s Claudine, which features an Oscar-nominated performance by Diahann Carroll, and a new restoration of the Jean-Luc Godard classic Pierrot le fou.
- 7/15/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The director of Over The Edge and The Accused takes us on a journey through some of his favorite movies.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Student Teachers (1973)
Night Call Nurses (1972)
White Line Fever (1975)
Truck Turner (1974)
Heart Like A Wheel (1983)
The Accused (1988)
Over The Edge (1979)
Modern Times (1936)
City Lights (1931)
Manhattan (1979)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Apartment (1960)
North By Northwest (1959)
Moon Pilot (1962)
Mr. Billion (1977)
White Heat (1949)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Three Musketeers (1973)
The Four Musketeers (1974)
Superman (1978)
Superman II (1980)
The Three Musketeers (1948)
Shane (1953)
The 400 Blows (1959)
8 ½ (1963)
Fellini Satyricon (1969)
Richard (1972)
Millhouse (1971)
The Projectionist (1970)
El Dorado (1966)
The Shootist (1976)
Woodstock (1970)
Payback (1999)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Billy Liar (1963)
Ford Vs Ferrari (2019)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)
Bad Girls (1994)
Masters of the Universe (1987)
Giant (1956)
The More The Merrier (1943)
The Graduate (1967)
The Victors (1963)
…And Justice For All (1979)
Citizen Kane (1941)
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Student Teachers (1973)
Night Call Nurses (1972)
White Line Fever (1975)
Truck Turner (1974)
Heart Like A Wheel (1983)
The Accused (1988)
Over The Edge (1979)
Modern Times (1936)
City Lights (1931)
Manhattan (1979)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Apartment (1960)
North By Northwest (1959)
Moon Pilot (1962)
Mr. Billion (1977)
White Heat (1949)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Three Musketeers (1973)
The Four Musketeers (1974)
Superman (1978)
Superman II (1980)
The Three Musketeers (1948)
Shane (1953)
The 400 Blows (1959)
8 ½ (1963)
Fellini Satyricon (1969)
Richard (1972)
Millhouse (1971)
The Projectionist (1970)
El Dorado (1966)
The Shootist (1976)
Woodstock (1970)
Payback (1999)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Billy Liar (1963)
Ford Vs Ferrari (2019)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)
Bad Girls (1994)
Masters of the Universe (1987)
Giant (1956)
The More The Merrier (1943)
The Graduate (1967)
The Victors (1963)
…And Justice For All (1979)
Citizen Kane (1941)
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn...
- 7/7/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Though his actual first name was Howard, and he signed his books “James Harvey,” in the 20-plus years of our friendship I always knew him as Jim. In our household, my wife, daughter and I also had a nickname for him, “The Owl,” because of the night hours he kept. I am a morning person, and sometimes the difference created tension between us, if, say, we were having dinner after a film and it was going on 10:30 and I could barely keep my eyes open. I would stand up to signal I was done and ready to leave while he was still nursing his espresso, just getting started, and he would get a wounded look in his eyes and let me know he thought I was being rude. It’s true, I can be abrupt, and he was the opposite, apt to make a more gradual, mannerly leave-taking. We were both great walkers,...
- 5/29/2020
- by Phillip Lopate
- Indiewire
This great, unheralded western is divorced from the usual concerns of law and order and gunslinger protocol. As in most every film by Jacques Tourneur, we feel a strong empathy for characters that behave like real people working out real problems. The Oregon Territory is pioneered by imperfect people — opportunists, knaves and hopeful dreamers — all rich in personality. Dana Andrews and Susan Hayward lead a large cast in a tale with just as much conflict and violence as the next western, but with an integrity one can feel. The icing on the cake is the presence of ‘troubadour’ Hoagy Carmichael and his beautiful music.
Canyon Passage
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1946 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 92 min. / Street Date March 10, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, Brian Donlevy, Patricia Roc, Ward Bond, Hoagy Carmichael, Fay Holden, Stanley Ridges, Lloyd Bridges, Andy Devine, Victor Cutler, Rose Hobart, Halliwell Hobbes, James Cardwell,...
Canyon Passage
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1946 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 92 min. / Street Date March 10, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Dana Andrews, Susan Hayward, Brian Donlevy, Patricia Roc, Ward Bond, Hoagy Carmichael, Fay Holden, Stanley Ridges, Lloyd Bridges, Andy Devine, Victor Cutler, Rose Hobart, Halliwell Hobbes, James Cardwell,...
- 2/22/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe first poster for Abel Ferrara's long-awaited Siberia, which will compete in the upcoming Berlin Film Festival. In 2015, Ferrara described the mysterious picture as a means of seeing "if we can really film dreams—our fears, our regrets, our nostalgia.”This year's Academy Awards concluded with a Best Picture win for Parasite! Check out the rest of the winners here. Recommended VIEWINGThe trailer for Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, about the final issue published by a fictional American magazine based in a French city. Matías Piñeiro continues his Shakespeare series with Isabella. The film, which premieres at the upcoming Berlinale, features regular collaborators Maria Villar and Agustina Muñoz and circles the production of the play Measure by Measure. The first trailer for Sally Potter's The Roads Not Taken, which stars Javier Bardem...
- 2/12/2020
- MUBI
It’s hard to believe with all the divergent opinions floating around today about movies on Twitter, Facebook, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and dozens of other outlets, that there was a time when a handful of influential film critics wielded the power to make or break a movie.
And the most powerful of those critics was Pauline Kael, who held sway with a sharp tongue and corrosive wit at the New Yorker from 1967 to 1989. To see Rob Garver’s affectionate documentary about her career, “What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael,” is to be once again swept away by the excitement of cinema as she experienced it.
Born on a chicken farm in Northern California and raised in San Francisco, Kael was an outsider to the New York art scene, and that otherness gave her the temperament and cocksure confidence to find her own voice. She desperately wanted to be an artist,...
And the most powerful of those critics was Pauline Kael, who held sway with a sharp tongue and corrosive wit at the New Yorker from 1967 to 1989. To see Rob Garver’s affectionate documentary about her career, “What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael,” is to be once again swept away by the excitement of cinema as she experienced it.
Born on a chicken farm in Northern California and raised in San Francisco, Kael was an outsider to the New York art scene, and that otherness gave her the temperament and cocksure confidence to find her own voice. She desperately wanted to be an artist,...
- 12/13/2019
- by James Greenberg
- The Wrap
When the critic John Simon died last weekend, at 94, virtually every piece written about him — one usually calls these pieces “tributes,” though in Simon’s case I’m not sure the word applies — dealt front and center with the quality that had made him a legend: his famous vitriol, the gleeful and reflexive nastiness that sloshed through the cartridge of his poison pen.
For Simon, toxic negativity wasn‘t a tool for reviewing an art form; it was the art form. At New York magazine, where he was ensconced as the theater critic from 1968 to 2005, and at the National Review, where he reviewed movies for decades, he pushed the role of critical hanging judge as far as it could go, to the point that it was the driving force of his identity. In 1967, he was fired from New York’s Channel 13 for writing reviews that were deemed too “misanthropic,...
For Simon, toxic negativity wasn‘t a tool for reviewing an art form; it was the art form. At New York magazine, where he was ensconced as the theater critic from 1968 to 2005, and at the National Review, where he reviewed movies for decades, he pushed the role of critical hanging judge as far as it could go, to the point that it was the driving force of his identity. In 1967, he was fired from New York’s Channel 13 for writing reviews that were deemed too “misanthropic,...
- 11/30/2019
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Jacques Tourneur’s ‘big sky’ western gives us the beauty of Colorado mountains plus stunning color images (originally Technicolor) of his attractive cast: Robert Stack, Virginia Mayo, Ruth Roman. North-South antagonisms break out in Denver City, before the Civil War begins, and Robert Stack’s loner opportunist must choose a side. The Wac’s disc includes four Jacques Tourneur short subjects, with mystery themes.
Great Day in the Morning
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1956 / Color / 1:2 widescreen (Superscope) / 92 min. / Street Date November 26, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Virginia Mayo, Robert Stack, Ruth Roman, Alex Nicol, Raymond Burr, Leo Gordon, Regis Toomey, Carleton Young, Donald MacDonald, William Phipps, Peter Whitney.
Cinematography: William Snyder
Film Editor: Harry Marker
Original Music: Leith Stevens
Written by Lesser Samuels, from the novel by Robert Hardy Andrews
Produced by Edmund Grainger
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
(Note: none of these images reflect the fine quality of the Blu-ray.)
The...
Great Day in the Morning
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1956 / Color / 1:2 widescreen (Superscope) / 92 min. / Street Date November 26, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Virginia Mayo, Robert Stack, Ruth Roman, Alex Nicol, Raymond Burr, Leo Gordon, Regis Toomey, Carleton Young, Donald MacDonald, William Phipps, Peter Whitney.
Cinematography: William Snyder
Film Editor: Harry Marker
Original Music: Leith Stevens
Written by Lesser Samuels, from the novel by Robert Hardy Andrews
Produced by Edmund Grainger
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
(Note: none of these images reflect the fine quality of the Blu-ray.)
The...
- 11/12/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Blake Edwards. Courtesy of Paramount.“[Blake] Edwards has become a stylistic influence in the cinema,” Andrew Sarris would write of the filmmaker in 1968, “And his personality and script dominate Ralph Nelson’s Soldier in the Rain the way Lubitsch’s personality once dominated Cukor’s One Hour With You.” Sarris would dub himself an “Edwardian”in his support of the film director and the inclusion of Edwards in his foundational book, The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968, still remains the most serious scholarship on him. Edwards’ distinction in the book included him in “The Far Side of Paradise,” the category that “falls short of Pantheon,” the highest distinction. Edwards would be categorized alongside the likes of Capra, Cukor, Minnelli, Preminger, and Fuller—strong company, but characterized as such for Sarris because there is fragmentation or disruption within their careers. This high distinction by Sarris would have the great film critic come...
- 10/18/2019
- MUBI
Gremlins (1984)Towards the end of his latest book, Make My Day: Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan, film critic J. Hoberman highlights Charles Musser’s Politicking and Emergent Media: Us Presidential Elections of the 1890s, a historical study that demonstrated how “the candidate most adroit in deploying new communications technology almost always prevailed.” Extrapolating from this, Hoberman points out Roosevelt’s “successful use of radio,” Eisenhower’s “pioneering TV commercials,” and Kennedy’s victory over Nixon which was secured over televised debate—after which he moves on to Ronald Reagan, the book’s prime player. The final entry in the author’s “Found Illusions” trilogy, Make My Day completes the long-gestating historical project Hoberman started in 2003 with The Dream Life and extended with 2011’s An Army of Phantoms. Thus, it's both a culmination of the author’s considered, career-long engagement with American film culture, and a kind of corollary to Musser’s study,...
- 10/10/2019
- MUBI
Joe Carnahan has deleted his Twitter account after lashing out at a film critic who gave the new film “El Chicano” a mixed review. Carnahan produced the superhero movie and co-wrote the script with first-time director Ben Hernandez Bray. Film critic Carlos Aguilar reviewed “El Chicano” for the Los Angeles Times, calling the film “solidly acted” and a “technically accomplished spectacle” despite a troubling script that creates “separation between Mexican Americans and Mexican nationals, presented only as demonized, criminal, carnage-friendly, nationalist invaders.”
Aguilar submitted his review to Rotten Tomatoes as a positive one, but his criticisms clearly rubbed Carnahan the wrong way as the filmmaker used Twitter to attack the critic. Carnahan responded to Aguilar’s tweet about the review by saying, “You suck as a writer.”
“This motherfucker is proof that the days of Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert, and Andrew Sarris are dead,” Carnahan wrote about Aguilar in a now-deleted post.
Aguilar submitted his review to Rotten Tomatoes as a positive one, but his criticisms clearly rubbed Carnahan the wrong way as the filmmaker used Twitter to attack the critic. Carnahan responded to Aguilar’s tweet about the review by saying, “You suck as a writer.”
“This motherfucker is proof that the days of Pauline Kael, Roger Ebert, and Andrew Sarris are dead,” Carnahan wrote about Aguilar in a now-deleted post.
- 5/3/2019
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Is it a film noir? This desert-set crime tale sees a rat (Ray Milland) escaping to Mexico with a bag of cash, forcing a hunting guide (Anthony Quinn) to show him the way and stealing his wife (Debra Paget) in the bargain. Remember what Godard said about only needing a girl and a gun to make a movie? Veteran director Allan Dwan has already memorized that lesson, and pulls it off in color and CinemaScope on Mexican locations. Ms. Paget takes both a bath and a shower, only to be upstaged by a peach-colored T-Bird convertible.
The River’s Edge
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date March 19, 2019 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95
Starring: Ray Milland, Anthony Quinn, Debra Paget, Harry Carey Jr., Chubby Johnson, Byron K. Foulger, Tom McKee, Frank Gerstle.
Cinematography: Harold Lipstein
Film Editor: James Leicester
Original Music: Louis Forbes
Written by Harold Jacob Smith,...
The River’s Edge
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date March 19, 2019 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95
Starring: Ray Milland, Anthony Quinn, Debra Paget, Harry Carey Jr., Chubby Johnson, Byron K. Foulger, Tom McKee, Frank Gerstle.
Cinematography: Harold Lipstein
Film Editor: James Leicester
Original Music: Louis Forbes
Written by Harold Jacob Smith,...
- 4/6/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This is a big one, the restoration we long thought would never come. CineSavant tries to explain what makes Edgar G. Ulmer’s masterpiece uniquely memorable, how it works its Loser Noir magic, and why this particular restoration bodes well for a certain class of picture mired in murky rights issues. Meet Al Roberts, a hard luck case happy to bend your ear for an hour, explaining how Fate has Done Him Wrong. This Prc gem transcends Noir pessimism, because a sensible read forces us to conclude that Al is his own worst enemy, a self-made misery man. This hitch-hiking epic carries an extra added jolt: Ann Savage delivers what has to be the boldest, most caustic hell-to-pay performance of ‘forties Hollywood.
Detour
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 966
1945 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 69 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 19, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, Edmund MacDonald,...
Detour
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 966
1945 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 69 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 19, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, Edmund MacDonald,...
- 3/12/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Independent Filmmaker Project announced on Wednesday that it has tapped film producer Jeffrey Sharp as the institution’s new executive director.
Sharp, an award-winning producer for “You Can Count on Me,” will bring decades of experience to Ifp, including his other work producing films such as “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Evening and The Yellow Birds” and digitally publishing authors such as William Styron, Pat Conroy and Pearl Buck as co-founder and president of Open Road Integrated Media.
“We are delighted to have Jeff join Ifp as its leader. His credentials and background are a perfect fit with our organization,” Ifp co-chairs Anthony Bregman and Jim Janowitz said in a statement. “He has developed and produced prestigious independent films. He has extensive non-profit experience as a co-founder and Chair of the Hamptons International Film Festival Advisory Board. He has broad contacts across foundations, arts organizations, and government.”
“I am tremendously...
Sharp, an award-winning producer for “You Can Count on Me,” will bring decades of experience to Ifp, including his other work producing films such as “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Evening and The Yellow Birds” and digitally publishing authors such as William Styron, Pat Conroy and Pearl Buck as co-founder and president of Open Road Integrated Media.
“We are delighted to have Jeff join Ifp as its leader. His credentials and background are a perfect fit with our organization,” Ifp co-chairs Anthony Bregman and Jim Janowitz said in a statement. “He has developed and produced prestigious independent films. He has extensive non-profit experience as a co-founder and Chair of the Hamptons International Film Festival Advisory Board. He has broad contacts across foundations, arts organizations, and government.”
“I am tremendously...
- 3/6/2019
- by Trey Williams
- The Wrap
The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) has announced the appointment Jeffrey Sharp as the organization’s new Executive Director. The award-winning international film and TV producer and publishing entrepreneur will succeed long-time Ifp head Joana Vicente, who announced in August that she was joining the Toronto International Film Festival as its Executive Director and Co-Head.
Sharp is best known in industry circles for producing films such as “Boys Don’t Cry,” “You Can Count on Me,” “Evening,” and “The Yellow Birds” and digitally publishing authors such as William Styron, Pat Conroy, and Pearl Buck as co-founder and President of Open Road Integrated Media. Sharp is a member of AMPAS, BAFTA, and the PGA. Sharp won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature for “You Can Count on Me,” was nominated for a Golden Globe for “Nicholas Nickleby,” and was honored with the Andrew Sarris award in 2005 from the Columbia University School of the Arts...
Sharp is best known in industry circles for producing films such as “Boys Don’t Cry,” “You Can Count on Me,” “Evening,” and “The Yellow Birds” and digitally publishing authors such as William Styron, Pat Conroy, and Pearl Buck as co-founder and President of Open Road Integrated Media. Sharp is a member of AMPAS, BAFTA, and the PGA. Sharp won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature for “You Can Count on Me,” was nominated for a Golden Globe for “Nicholas Nickleby,” and was honored with the Andrew Sarris award in 2005 from the Columbia University School of the Arts...
- 3/6/2019
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Producer won Independent Spirit Award in 2001 for best first feature for You Can Count On Me.
The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) has appointed producer and independent stalwart Jeffrey Sharp as the new executive director following the departure last year of Joana Vicente.
The award-winning international film and TV producer and publishing entrepreneur brings decades of experience to Ifp, including his work as a producer on Boys Don’t Cry, You Can Count On Me, Evening, and The Yellow Birds.
Sharp has also digitally published authors such as William Styron, Pat Conroy and Pearl Buck as co-founder and president of Open Road Integrated Media.
The Independent Filmmaker Project (Ifp) has appointed producer and independent stalwart Jeffrey Sharp as the new executive director following the departure last year of Joana Vicente.
The award-winning international film and TV producer and publishing entrepreneur brings decades of experience to Ifp, including his work as a producer on Boys Don’t Cry, You Can Count On Me, Evening, and The Yellow Birds.
Sharp has also digitally published authors such as William Styron, Pat Conroy and Pearl Buck as co-founder and president of Open Road Integrated Media.
- 3/6/2019
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Xavier Dolan's Heartbeats (2010) is showing November 10 – December 9, 2018 on Mubi in the United States.Xavier Dolan is infatuated with image. The Louis Vuitton model makes films of meticulous composition, color, and sartorial specificity. The filmmaker’s life, as he completes a decade of making films, is well known: a wunderkind-cum-enfant terrible, Dolan made his first film at nineteen. The film, I Killed My Mother (2009), played at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, where he’s become a house cat amongst toms, racking up prestigious awards and adulation while arrayed in the finest of fashion—the man has style. Somewhere along his ascent the critical discourse began to curdle. Flaws and weaknesses (excessive fealty to Wong Kar-wai and overly-simplistic character dynamics) in his first few films were absolved under the auspices of youthful promise. Critics and viewers were excited to discover a new cine-stylist, but around the time of Mommy (2014) the pools of disfavor began to form.
- 11/12/2018
- MUBI
The Village Voice, which was founded in 1955 and left an indelible mark on New York’s cultural and political landscape for decades, has finally faced up to its daunting business reality and opted to cease editorial operations.
The news bubbled up in reports early this afternoon by Gothamist, the Associated Press and Columbia Journalism Review. Those outlets obtained a recording of a conference call with staffers conducted this morning by Peter Barbey, who bought the weekly from Voice Media Group in 2015.
“Today is kind of a sucky day,” Barbey said on the call. “Due to the business realities, we are going to stop publishing Village Voice new material.”
About half of the remaining 20 staffers were laid off as of today, with the other half winding down operations and focusing on digitizing the paper’s extensive archives. In 2017, the Voice had stopped publishing its print edition but remained online.
In a later statement,...
The news bubbled up in reports early this afternoon by Gothamist, the Associated Press and Columbia Journalism Review. Those outlets obtained a recording of a conference call with staffers conducted this morning by Peter Barbey, who bought the weekly from Voice Media Group in 2015.
“Today is kind of a sucky day,” Barbey said on the call. “Due to the business realities, we are going to stop publishing Village Voice new material.”
About half of the remaining 20 staffers were laid off as of today, with the other half winding down operations and focusing on digitizing the paper’s extensive archives. In 2017, the Voice had stopped publishing its print edition but remained online.
In a later statement,...
- 8/31/2018
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
Fritz Lang’s third wartime anti-Nazi film is an Alfred Hitchcock-type spy chase taken from a psychological novel by Graham Greene, with the psychology angle transferred mostly to physical threats — ticking clocks, a mystery cake, and German bombs in the Blitz. Ray Milland is cool and collected for a man just released from a mental asylum, and proves up to the task of defeating a Nazi conspiracy.
Ministry of Fear
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1944 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 86 min. / Street Date August 27, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99
Starring: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke, Percy Waram, Dan Duryea, Alan Napier, Erskine Sanford, Byron Foulger.
Cinematography: Henry Sharp
Film Editor: Victor Young
Original Music: Victor Young
Written by Seton I. Miller from the novel by Graham Greene
Produced by Seton I. Miller
Directed by Fritz Lang
Why do we go for certain Region B Blu-ray imports, even...
Ministry of Fear
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1944 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 86 min. / Street Date August 27, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99
Starring: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke, Percy Waram, Dan Duryea, Alan Napier, Erskine Sanford, Byron Foulger.
Cinematography: Henry Sharp
Film Editor: Victor Young
Original Music: Victor Young
Written by Seton I. Miller from the novel by Graham Greene
Produced by Seton I. Miller
Directed by Fritz Lang
Why do we go for certain Region B Blu-ray imports, even...
- 8/28/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
It’s a CineSavant guest reviewer debut for journalist Sergio Alejandro Mims. In its first ever 2-disc set Twilight Time makes a bold statement with a domestic release of an important U.K. restoration. It’s without question extremely influential as filmmaking — techniques used in The Avengers: Infinity War can be traced back to D.W. Griffith’s classic. But this controversial picture is also one of the most vile, racist movies ever made. It has a lot of answer for, yet still makes an impact today. What other film released over a century ago can make that statement?
The Birth of a Nation
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1915 / Color tinted / 1:33 flat full frame / 191 min. / Street Date May 22, 2018 /Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store /
Starring: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Ralph Lewis, George Siegman Walter Long, Joseph Henabery Jennie Lee, Mary Alden.
Cinematography: G.W. Bitzer
Film Editors: D.W.
The Birth of a Nation
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1915 / Color tinted / 1:33 flat full frame / 191 min. / Street Date May 22, 2018 /Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store /
Starring: Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Ralph Lewis, George Siegman Walter Long, Joseph Henabery Jennie Lee, Mary Alden.
Cinematography: G.W. Bitzer
Film Editors: D.W.
- 6/9/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Bid welcome to five westerns guaranteed to make one fall in love with the genre all over again. Each stars the ultra-virtuous man of the West Randolph Scott, pitted against some of the most colorful antagonists on the range: Richard Boone, Lee Van Cleef, Claude Akins. Indicator’s extras constitute the best collection of research materials ever assembled on the underrated director Budd Boetticher.
Five Tall Tales: Budd Boetticher & Randolph Scott At Columbia, 1957-1960
The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone, Ride Lonesome, Comanche Station
Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
Color / 1:85 and 2:35 widescreen / 380 min. / / Street Date May 28, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £42.99
Starring: Randolph Scott.
Leading Ladies: Maureen O’Sullivan, Karen Steele (2), Valerie French, Nancy Gates.
Noble Villains: Richard Boone, John Carroll, Craig Stevens, Pernell Roberts, Lee Van Cleef, Claude Akins.
Hopeful Sidekicks: James Best, James Coburn, Skip Homeier (2), Henry Silva, Noah Beery Jr., L.Q. Jones, Richard Rust.
Five Tall Tales: Budd Boetticher & Randolph Scott At Columbia, 1957-1960
The Tall T, Decision at Sundown, Buchanan Rides Alone, Ride Lonesome, Comanche Station
Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
Color / 1:85 and 2:35 widescreen / 380 min. / / Street Date May 28, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £42.99
Starring: Randolph Scott.
Leading Ladies: Maureen O’Sullivan, Karen Steele (2), Valerie French, Nancy Gates.
Noble Villains: Richard Boone, John Carroll, Craig Stevens, Pernell Roberts, Lee Van Cleef, Claude Akins.
Hopeful Sidekicks: James Best, James Coburn, Skip Homeier (2), Henry Silva, Noah Beery Jr., L.Q. Jones, Richard Rust.
- 5/22/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Auteur theory says a director’s vision is present in every frame. What happens if they turn out to be a liability?
Handing out the Oscar for best director three weeks ago, Emma Stone prefaced the award by suggesting the power and influence of that figure in the film-making process. “It is the director whose indelible touch is reflected on every frame,” she said. In any other year, that statement would have sounded uncontroversial; it has, after all, been integral to the notion of auteurship since it was first expounded in the late 1940s by André Bazin. And it was Andrew Sarris, courier of those ideas to English-speaking readers in the early 60s, who explained that an auteur should have an “identifiable personality” and bring “interior meaning”.
But these are more than usually troubled times in the film industry, and the assumption that the director is present in every frame...
Handing out the Oscar for best director three weeks ago, Emma Stone prefaced the award by suggesting the power and influence of that figure in the film-making process. “It is the director whose indelible touch is reflected on every frame,” she said. In any other year, that statement would have sounded uncontroversial; it has, after all, been integral to the notion of auteurship since it was first expounded in the late 1940s by André Bazin. And it was Andrew Sarris, courier of those ideas to English-speaking readers in the early 60s, who explained that an auteur should have an “identifiable personality” and bring “interior meaning”.
But these are more than usually troubled times in the film industry, and the assumption that the director is present in every frame...
- 3/23/2018
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
Alex Garland’s smart sci-fi film “Annihilation” inspired a great deal of consternation, but not a lot of box office. More than anything, however, the film’s release may speak more to the impatient state of studio moviemaking.
For some, it showed Hollywood still is unwilling to back genre films with female protagonists, especially the smart, diverse scientist kind. Paramount took heat for cold feet, having unloaded most of the film’s rights to Netflix — reportedly after unfavorable test screenings — and then assembling a half-hearted marketing campaign behind the film’s theatrical release. The Guardian critic Guy Lodge put it bluntly: “Was ‘Annihilation’ too brainy for the box office?”
It’s been 50 years since Stanley Kubrick practically invented the cerebral sci-fi film with “2001: A Space Odyssey,” but does “Annihilation” really prove that modern audiences only go to theaters for spectacle, not for smart? Like “Annihilation,” reviewers in April 1968 said Kubrick’s film was heady,...
For some, it showed Hollywood still is unwilling to back genre films with female protagonists, especially the smart, diverse scientist kind. Paramount took heat for cold feet, having unloaded most of the film’s rights to Netflix — reportedly after unfavorable test screenings — and then assembling a half-hearted marketing campaign behind the film’s theatrical release. The Guardian critic Guy Lodge put it bluntly: “Was ‘Annihilation’ too brainy for the box office?”
It’s been 50 years since Stanley Kubrick practically invented the cerebral sci-fi film with “2001: A Space Odyssey,” but does “Annihilation” really prove that modern audiences only go to theaters for spectacle, not for smart? Like “Annihilation,” reviewers in April 1968 said Kubrick’s film was heady,...
- 3/19/2018
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
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