Ryan Lambie Dec 7, 2016
Space horror in The Black Hole. Animated death in The Black Cauldron. Ryan looks back at a unique period in Disney's filmmaking history...
When George Lucas started writing Star Wars in the early 70s, the space saga was intended to fill a void left behind by westerns, pirate movies and the sci-fi fantasy of old matinee serials. "Disney had abdicated its rein over the children's market," Lucas once said, according to Peter Biskind's book, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, "and nothing had replaced it."
See related Close To The Enemy episode 4 review Close To The Enemy episode 3 review Close To The Enemy episode 2 review Close To The Enemy episode 1 review
Indeed, Disney was one of many Hollywood studios that Lucas had approached with Star Wars and they, just like Universal, United Artists and everyone other than 20th Century Fox boss Alan Ladd Jr, had turned it down flat.
Space horror in The Black Hole. Animated death in The Black Cauldron. Ryan looks back at a unique period in Disney's filmmaking history...
When George Lucas started writing Star Wars in the early 70s, the space saga was intended to fill a void left behind by westerns, pirate movies and the sci-fi fantasy of old matinee serials. "Disney had abdicated its rein over the children's market," Lucas once said, according to Peter Biskind's book, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, "and nothing had replaced it."
See related Close To The Enemy episode 4 review Close To The Enemy episode 3 review Close To The Enemy episode 2 review Close To The Enemy episode 1 review
Indeed, Disney was one of many Hollywood studios that Lucas had approached with Star Wars and they, just like Universal, United Artists and everyone other than 20th Century Fox boss Alan Ladd Jr, had turned it down flat.
- 12/6/2016
- Den of Geek
Above: Czech poster for Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, Spain/Switzerland, 1966) by Karel Machálek.The last piece I wrote for Movie Poster of the Week in 2015 was about Doctor Zhivago. Orson Welles’s Chimes at Midnight, which competed against Zhivago at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival (they both lost out for the Grand Prize to Claude Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman and Pietro Germi’s The Birds, The Bees and the Italians) was actually filmed next door to Zhivago in Spain in late 1964 and early 1965. In Peter Bogdanovich’s book of interviews with the director, Welles talks about a conversation that takes place next to a fireplace:“That scene was originally to have been shot in the skeleton of an orchard with poor little black trees in the snow... We moved indoors for it because we couldn’t get the snow. David Lean, making Doctor Zhivago next door to us,...
- 1/9/2016
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Sweet Creature of Bombast: Welles’ Restored Homage to Shakespeare’s Ultimate Clown
Before the world finally gets a chance to see Orson Welles’ last uncompleted film The Other Side of the Wind, which had been intended to be the troubled auteur’s return to American filmmaking following a decade in Europe, audiences can feast on a restored version of his final narrative masterpiece, Chimes at Midnight. For decades, the 1965 title has been unavailable and now arrives restored on behalf of Janus Films. Playing in competition at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival, Welles homage to one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comic characters, Sir John Falstaff, initially received a chilly reception and stilted marketing campaign upon hitting Us theaters. Despite a throng of critics attempting to recuperate its reputation since then, it has remained an obscure classic.
Taking place from the years 1400 to 1408 in England, a narrator explains King Henry IV (John Gielgud...
Before the world finally gets a chance to see Orson Welles’ last uncompleted film The Other Side of the Wind, which had been intended to be the troubled auteur’s return to American filmmaking following a decade in Europe, audiences can feast on a restored version of his final narrative masterpiece, Chimes at Midnight. For decades, the 1965 title has been unavailable and now arrives restored on behalf of Janus Films. Playing in competition at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival, Welles homage to one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comic characters, Sir John Falstaff, initially received a chilly reception and stilted marketing campaign upon hitting Us theaters. Despite a throng of critics attempting to recuperate its reputation since then, it has remained an obscure classic.
Taking place from the years 1400 to 1408 in England, a narrator explains King Henry IV (John Gielgud...
- 12/31/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
It's been more than a decade since the 1990s ended, yet the Internet can't seem to go a day without a reminder of the neon slap bracelets that may have been banned from your school.
Yes, we get it. Times are tough and there's comfort in reflection, but enough is enough.
Below, a final goodbye to the 90s to end the nostalgia once and for all. (We're not kidding. There are 1990 items below.)
1. Scrunchies
2. "The Wild Thornberries"
3. Dawson and Joey
4. "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys"
5. Mr. Feeny
7. MTV playing music videos
8. Snick
9. The premiere of "Freaks and Geeks"
10. Levar Burton
11. "Daria"
12. "Arthur"
13. "The Powerpuff Girls"
14. "Smart Guy"
15. Comedy Central globe logo with buildings
16. "The X-Files"
17. Rosie O'Donnell
18. Bill Nye
19. "Dawson's Creek"
20. The Mighty Ducks"
21. "Are You Afraid of the Dark"
22. Cornholio
23. Rachel Green
24. Tim Allen
25. "All That"
26. "Beverly Hills 90210"
27. "Step by Step"
28. "The Ren & Stimpy Show"
29. "The Famous Jett Jackson"
30. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer...
Yes, we get it. Times are tough and there's comfort in reflection, but enough is enough.
Below, a final goodbye to the 90s to end the nostalgia once and for all. (We're not kidding. There are 1990 items below.)
1. Scrunchies
2. "The Wild Thornberries"
3. Dawson and Joey
4. "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys"
5. Mr. Feeny
7. MTV playing music videos
8. Snick
9. The premiere of "Freaks and Geeks"
10. Levar Burton
11. "Daria"
12. "Arthur"
13. "The Powerpuff Girls"
14. "Smart Guy"
15. Comedy Central globe logo with buildings
16. "The X-Files"
17. Rosie O'Donnell
18. Bill Nye
19. "Dawson's Creek"
20. The Mighty Ducks"
21. "Are You Afraid of the Dark"
22. Cornholio
23. Rachel Green
24. Tim Allen
25. "All That"
26. "Beverly Hills 90210"
27. "Step by Step"
28. "The Ren & Stimpy Show"
29. "The Famous Jett Jackson"
30. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer...
- 7/29/2013
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
The great Chilean director Raul Ruiz died before filming began on his latest epic. Now it's about to get its Venice premiere, with his widow in the director's chair
You wouldn't have put it past Raul Ruiz to direct a film from beyond the grave. The Chilean master was hard at work on a new feature, The Lines of Wellington, at the time of his death last August, aged 70. This was a Napoleonic-era epic, a "Portuguese War and Peace", set in 1810 as the French troops battled with a British and Portuguese army commanded by General Wellington. At Wellington's bidding, a daunting system of fortifications – the so-called Lines of Torres Vedras – was secretly built to repel the French invaders. Wellington pursued a scorched earth policy, which displaced huge numbers of Portuguese and British; it's their story the film tells.
The cast for Lines of Wellington, led by John Malkovich, Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve,...
You wouldn't have put it past Raul Ruiz to direct a film from beyond the grave. The Chilean master was hard at work on a new feature, The Lines of Wellington, at the time of his death last August, aged 70. This was a Napoleonic-era epic, a "Portuguese War and Peace", set in 1810 as the French troops battled with a British and Portuguese army commanded by General Wellington. At Wellington's bidding, a daunting system of fortifications – the so-called Lines of Torres Vedras – was secretly built to repel the French invaders. Wellington pursued a scorched earth policy, which displaced huge numbers of Portuguese and British; it's their story the film tells.
The cast for Lines of Wellington, led by John Malkovich, Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve,...
- 8/22/2012
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- The Guardian - Film News
Raúl Ruiz's "last movie," La noche de enfrente, played in Cannes at the Directors' Fortnight, where I saw and wrote about it. The notes below, written on the film by Ruiz and written on Ruiz by the film's producer, François Margolin, were found in the press notes for the production. I thought they were important enough to obtain permission to reprint them here. I hope you enjoy them. —Daniel Kasman
A Statement from Raoul Ruiz
My purpose is to immerse myself in the poetic world of one of the most secretive and surprising writers of Chilean literature, Hernan del Solar. He was a member of the eminent group of writers known as the "Imaginists." The "Imaginists" pushed against the grain of naturalism that reigned in the forties and fifties. They hoped to innovate with an imaginative and contemplative literature that had already been practiced by the likes of A.
A Statement from Raoul Ruiz
My purpose is to immerse myself in the poetic world of one of the most secretive and surprising writers of Chilean literature, Hernan del Solar. He was a member of the eminent group of writers known as the "Imaginists." The "Imaginists" pushed against the grain of naturalism that reigned in the forties and fifties. They hoped to innovate with an imaginative and contemplative literature that had already been practiced by the likes of A.
- 6/18/2012
- MUBI
The second edition of the N1FR, n+1's film review, "is very late," begins editor As Hamrah, but there's no need to apologize. The timing is perfect, arriving just many of us will be desperate for distraction from what promises to be a very noisy weekend. As Hamrah notes, there's not one piece in the entire issue on "even one film nominated for an Oscar this year."
Instead, we have Chris Fujiwara setting Vincent Gallo and George Clooney next to each other and riffing on the juxtaposition, Christine Smallwood on Apichatpong Weerasethakul and on Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Jeanette Samyn and Jonathan Kyle Sturgeon on Pedro Costa, Dmitry Martov on Serge Bozon and his circle, Emily Gould on Badmaash Company, a Bollywood movie that screams out to be compared and contrasted with The Social Network, Jennifer Krasinski on the rise of the polymath, Ben Maraniss on Mel Gibson,...
Instead, we have Chris Fujiwara setting Vincent Gallo and George Clooney next to each other and riffing on the juxtaposition, Christine Smallwood on Apichatpong Weerasethakul and on Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Jeanette Samyn and Jonathan Kyle Sturgeon on Pedro Costa, Dmitry Martov on Serge Bozon and his circle, Emily Gould on Badmaash Company, a Bollywood movie that screams out to be compared and contrasted with The Social Network, Jennifer Krasinski on the rise of the polymath, Ben Maraniss on Mel Gibson,...
- 2/25/2012
- MUBI
Looking back at 2011 on what films moved and impressed us it becomes more and more clear—to me at least—that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, our end of year poll, now an annual tradition, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2011—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2011 to create a unique double feature. Many contributors chose their favorites of 2011, some picked out-of-the-way gems, others made some pretty strange connections—and some frankly just want to create a kerfuffle. All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2011 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative...
- 1/5/2012
- MUBI
In cinema, The War of the Canon will always be waging. Films will rise and films will fall; Ozu shifts for Renoir, who himself shuffled around for some other great. The film that it seems will never be toppled from its throne position, the film that has become a bizarre reference in still-early art forms like video games to connote a historical-pinnacle-meta-artistic embodiment of mass entertainment as art, is Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. A melancholy film in a melancholy position—all alone at the top.
If one has been wearied by the endless trumpeting of that film and no other as the greatest film ever—an understandable cinephilic state of mind—it behooves you to watch immediately the two part (of an imaginative many to come) video essay American: Exhibits from the C.F. Kane Museum (2010) by critic-filmmaker B. Kite. One of the rare instances of a truly creative,...
If one has been wearied by the endless trumpeting of that film and no other as the greatest film ever—an understandable cinephilic state of mind—it behooves you to watch immediately the two part (of an imaginative many to come) video essay American: Exhibits from the C.F. Kane Museum (2010) by critic-filmmaker B. Kite. One of the rare instances of a truly creative,...
- 12/16/2011
- MUBI
Four-and-a-half hours of ambiguous, interweaving fictions fly by in the expert hands of veteran director Raúl Ruiz
Raúl Ruiz, who died in August aged 70, left his native Chile following the 1973 Pinochet coup and settled in France to become one of cinema's most prolific and singular film-makers. Sadly his work has been regarded as too obscure or avant-garde for British audiences and only a handful of his 100 or more pictures have been released here. The most recent was the ambitious, enigmatic Klimt, shown here in 2007, starring John Malkovich as the Austrian painter. It was characteristically described by Ruiz as "a phantasmagoria in the manner of Arthur Schnitzler" and, interestingly, in view of Scorsese's Hugo, features a meeting between Klimt and the movie pioneer Georges Méliès at the 1900 World Exposition in Paris.
The Ruiz picture that made the greatest impression here was Time Regained (starring Malkovich as Baron de Charlus), his bold...
Raúl Ruiz, who died in August aged 70, left his native Chile following the 1973 Pinochet coup and settled in France to become one of cinema's most prolific and singular film-makers. Sadly his work has been regarded as too obscure or avant-garde for British audiences and only a handful of his 100 or more pictures have been released here. The most recent was the ambitious, enigmatic Klimt, shown here in 2007, starring John Malkovich as the Austrian painter. It was characteristically described by Ruiz as "a phantasmagoria in the manner of Arthur Schnitzler" and, interestingly, in view of Scorsese's Hugo, features a meeting between Klimt and the movie pioneer Georges Méliès at the 1900 World Exposition in Paris.
The Ruiz picture that made the greatest impression here was Time Regained (starring Malkovich as Baron de Charlus), his bold...
- 12/11/2011
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Above: City of Pirates (1983).
Jorge Arriagada's multi-faceted, genre-crossing (and blending) collaboration with Raúl Ruiz is one of cinema's most fruitful, varied and extensive composer-director partnerships, beginning in the 1970s and continuing all the way through Ruiz's most recently released film, Mysteries of Lisbon. Here is a selection of Arriagada's scores for Ruiz, all from chapaev36's YouTube channel, to which we offer our thanks.
In the playlist below you'll find Arriagada's music from:
The Territory (1981) On Top of the Whale (1982) City of Pirates (1983) Three Crowns of the Sailor (1983) Manoel dans l'île des merveilles (Manoel's Destinies) (1984) Treasure Island (1985) Richard III (1986) The Blind Owl (1990) Dark at Noon (1993) Three Lives and Only One Death (1996) Time Regained(1999)...
Jorge Arriagada's multi-faceted, genre-crossing (and blending) collaboration with Raúl Ruiz is one of cinema's most fruitful, varied and extensive composer-director partnerships, beginning in the 1970s and continuing all the way through Ruiz's most recently released film, Mysteries of Lisbon. Here is a selection of Arriagada's scores for Ruiz, all from chapaev36's YouTube channel, to which we offer our thanks.
In the playlist below you'll find Arriagada's music from:
The Territory (1981) On Top of the Whale (1982) City of Pirates (1983) Three Crowns of the Sailor (1983) Manoel dans l'île des merveilles (Manoel's Destinies) (1984) Treasure Island (1985) Richard III (1986) The Blind Owl (1990) Dark at Noon (1993) Three Lives and Only One Death (1996) Time Regained(1999)...
- 8/23/2011
- MUBI
Anxiously awaiting the arrival of The Muppets movie? Why not join us as we take a look back at all the other films to feature Jim Henson’s characters…
If you’re as enthusiastic about seeing The Muppets as we are, you’ll almost certainly be excitedly waiting for its release in November. And if you’re a resident of the UK, you’ll have to wait until next February, which is a terrible injustice. You might have heard us moaning about this before.
To tide us over until then, we’ve provided a handy guide to the history of the Muppets’ big screen adventures, starting with their classic debut from 1979…
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The first cinematic outing for the Muppets is an excellent piece of work. The film follows Kermit as he travels to Hollywood to become rich and famous, meeting the rest of the Muppets along the way...
If you’re as enthusiastic about seeing The Muppets as we are, you’ll almost certainly be excitedly waiting for its release in November. And if you’re a resident of the UK, you’ll have to wait until next February, which is a terrible injustice. You might have heard us moaning about this before.
To tide us over until then, we’ve provided a handy guide to the history of the Muppets’ big screen adventures, starting with their classic debut from 1979…
The Muppet Movie (1979)
The first cinematic outing for the Muppets is an excellent piece of work. The film follows Kermit as he travels to Hollywood to become rich and famous, meeting the rest of the Muppets along the way...
- 8/23/2011
- Den of Geek
The great Chilean filmmaker Raul Ruiz passed away today in Paris. Through his feature The Golden Boat, which was James Schamus’s first as a producer, Raul gave a group of us in New York’s nascent ’80s independent scene a wonderful and nearly indescribable introduction to filmmaking. So, I’m grateful here to James for this piece remembering Ruiz and those thrilling and formative days. — S.M.
Raul Ruiz: First Thoughts
Raul Ruiz passed away today, age 70, in Paris. He’ll be remembered as one of the truly great, idiosyncratic and visionary voices of world cinema. He was tirelessly inventive, gentle, profoundly uninterested in the business and hype of the film world, willing to show up anywhere a good crew and cast were ready to explore with him. He didn’t so much make movies as he lived one long continuously productive moviemaking life. Exiled from his native...
Raul Ruiz: First Thoughts
Raul Ruiz passed away today, age 70, in Paris. He’ll be remembered as one of the truly great, idiosyncratic and visionary voices of world cinema. He was tirelessly inventive, gentle, profoundly uninterested in the business and hype of the film world, willing to show up anywhere a good crew and cast were ready to explore with him. He didn’t so much make movies as he lived one long continuously productive moviemaking life. Exiled from his native...
- 8/19/2011
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Catherine Grant has tweeted a link to the shocking news as reported by El Mostrador: Raúl Ruiz, widely considered the most important filmmaker to have come from Chile, has died in Paris at the age of 70. The funeral will be held on Tuesday morning.
Just a few weeks ago, the New York Times' Ao Scott profiled Ruiz, director of more than "100 films in several languages and also, in his spare time, a theater director and film theorist of some renown in Europe and beyond. He has taught at Harvard, adapted the last volume of Proust into a feature film, transformed several of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tales into a dark, surrealist comedy starring Marcello Mastroianni and made the life of the Viennese painter Gustav Klimt into a fractured biopic starring John Malkovich. His forays into North America have included the twisty psychological thriller Shattered Image, starring William Baldwin and Anne Parillaud,...
Just a few weeks ago, the New York Times' Ao Scott profiled Ruiz, director of more than "100 films in several languages and also, in his spare time, a theater director and film theorist of some renown in Europe and beyond. He has taught at Harvard, adapted the last volume of Proust into a feature film, transformed several of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tales into a dark, surrealist comedy starring Marcello Mastroianni and made the life of the Viennese painter Gustav Klimt into a fractured biopic starring John Malkovich. His forays into North America have included the twisty psychological thriller Shattered Image, starring William Baldwin and Anne Parillaud,...
- 8/19/2011
- MUBI
[1] What is Page 2? Page 2 is a compilation of stories and news tidbits, which for whatever reason, didn’t make the front page of /Film. After the jump we’ve included 24 different items, fun images, videos, casting tidbits, articles of interest and more. It’s like a mystery grab bag of movie web related goodness. If you have any interesting items that we might've missed that you think should go in /Film's Page 2 - email us [2]! LOLMart [3] is selling a t-shirt of three groundhogs dressed like three of Bill Murray's memorable roles. [4] /Film reader Matt Merenda created a poster for The Social Network. Here is explanation from the artist: "Took a cue from that great Citizen Kane still of Orson Welles in front a giant picture of his own face, and since this movie is all about power, I wanted to try something with it. If you can find a...
- 2/3/2011
- by Peter Sciretta
- Slash Film
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