If Criterion24/7 hasn’t completely colonized your attention every time you open the Channel––this is to say: if you’re stronger than me––their May lineup may be of interest. First and foremost I’m happy to see a Michael Roemer triple-feature: his superlative Nothing But a Man, arriving in a Criterion Edition, and the recently rediscovered The Plot Against Harry and Vengeance is Mine, three distinct features that suggest a long-lost voice of American movies. Meanwhile, Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Antiwar Trilogy four by Sara Driver, and a wide collection from Ayoka Chenzira fill out the auteurist sets.
Series-wise, a highlight of 1999 goes beyond the well-established canon with films like Trick and Bye Bye Africa, while of course including Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann, Scorsese, and Claire Denis. Films starring Shirley Maclaine, a study of 1960s paranoia, and Columbia’s “golden era” (read: 1950-1961) are curated; meanwhile, The Breaking Ice,...
Series-wise, a highlight of 1999 goes beyond the well-established canon with films like Trick and Bye Bye Africa, while of course including Sofia Coppola, Michael Mann, Scorsese, and Claire Denis. Films starring Shirley Maclaine, a study of 1960s paranoia, and Columbia’s “golden era” (read: 1950-1961) are curated; meanwhile, The Breaking Ice,...
- 4/17/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Dianne Crittenden, casting director on the original Star Wars who also worked on Pretty Woman, Spider-Man 2 and dozens of other films during a 40-year career, died March 19 at her home in Pacific Palisades. She was 82.
Her friend and colleague Ilene Starger confirmed her passing to Deadline.
Born on August 6, 1941, in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, NY, Crittenden got her start in the entertainment industry working with Howard Zieff, a photographer and director. They worked on advertising campaigns, TV commercials and films.
Her first project as casting director was Terrence Malick’s 1973 drama Badlands, starring Martin Sheen-Sissy Spacek, on which Bruce Springsteen based his song “Nebraska” a decade later. Crittenden worked on a few other films and TV shows, including the Emmy-winning 1976 Sally Field miniseries Sybil, before land the casting-director role of a lifetime — a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
After working with George Lucas on the iconic Star Wars,...
Her friend and colleague Ilene Starger confirmed her passing to Deadline.
Born on August 6, 1941, in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, NY, Crittenden got her start in the entertainment industry working with Howard Zieff, a photographer and director. They worked on advertising campaigns, TV commercials and films.
Her first project as casting director was Terrence Malick’s 1973 drama Badlands, starring Martin Sheen-Sissy Spacek, on which Bruce Springsteen based his song “Nebraska” a decade later. Crittenden worked on a few other films and TV shows, including the Emmy-winning 1976 Sally Field miniseries Sybil, before land the casting-director role of a lifetime — a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
After working with George Lucas on the iconic Star Wars,...
- 3/22/2024
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s Cape Fear meets ‘The Burbs in director John Schlesinger’s Pacific Heights. Although you might be fooled by Hanz Zimmer’s score, which sounds a lot more like you’re watching Sexy Beetlejuice than a ’90s thriller. This is pure irony, of course, considering the film stars Beetlejuice himself, Michael Keaton, as a conman who is six feet from the edge and thinking maybe doing murder isn’t so far down.
For those of you arguing silently in your heads that Pacific Heights is not a horror movie, let me go ahead and agree with you. It’s a pure thriller. But imagine this for a moment; imagine somewhere out there is a fresh-off Batman Michael Keaton, sitting in a dark room twirling both a razor blade and a large cockroach through his fingers like some sort of emo fidget spinner, plotting you and your significant other’s demise.
For those of you arguing silently in your heads that Pacific Heights is not a horror movie, let me go ahead and agree with you. It’s a pure thriller. But imagine this for a moment; imagine somewhere out there is a fresh-off Batman Michael Keaton, sitting in a dark room twirling both a razor blade and a large cockroach through his fingers like some sort of emo fidget spinner, plotting you and your significant other’s demise.
- 3/12/2024
- by Mike Holtz
- bloody-disgusting.com
Martin Scorsese was at the Berlinale this week for the first time in a decade. His presence to collect an honorary Golden Bear was a reminder of the festival’s glories of yesteryear.
In decades past, Scorsese touched down in Berlin with major works such as Raging Bull (1981), Cape Fear (1992); Gangs of New York (2003 ), Shine a Light (2008) and Shutter Island (2010). It feels a long time since the event — traditionally one of the world’s great cinema showcases — has attracted such movies. In recent years the studio splashes have dried up.
So have memorable movies from A-list arthouse filmmakers. Scorsese this week sang the praises of the event for the encouragement it had given him as an emerging filmmaker. Citing Brian de Palma’s Silver Bear win for his second film Greetings in 1969, Scorsese said the prize had marked a turning point for unknown, independent American directors such as himself, de Palma,...
In decades past, Scorsese touched down in Berlin with major works such as Raging Bull (1981), Cape Fear (1992); Gangs of New York (2003 ), Shine a Light (2008) and Shutter Island (2010). It feels a long time since the event — traditionally one of the world’s great cinema showcases — has attracted such movies. In recent years the studio splashes have dried up.
So have memorable movies from A-list arthouse filmmakers. Scorsese this week sang the praises of the event for the encouragement it had given him as an emerging filmmaker. Citing Brian de Palma’s Silver Bear win for his second film Greetings in 1969, Scorsese said the prize had marked a turning point for unknown, independent American directors such as himself, de Palma,...
- 2/23/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow and Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The New Hollywood revolution was raging in 1971, and studios were rapidly transitioning from old-school leadership to boat-rocking up-and-comers who seemed to have the pulse of the Baby Boomer-driven counterculture. The age of star-studded mega-musicals and old-fashioned oaters was over; movies didn't necessarily need a serrated edge to slash into the zeitgeist, but even a weepie like Arthur Hiller's "Love Story" boasted a lived-in verisimilitude. These films, shorn of backlot artifice, were happening in the real world.
Young moviegoers weren't the only ones craving authenticity. John Schlesinger's "Midnight Cowboy" couldn't have been voted Best Picture of 1969 without significant support from gray-haired Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members. This was a film that plunged viewers into the seamiest iteration of New York City ever captured by a studio movie, that dealt with issues of sex work and homosexuality so unflinchingly that the MPAA (now known as MPA) gave it an X-rating.
Young moviegoers weren't the only ones craving authenticity. John Schlesinger's "Midnight Cowboy" couldn't have been voted Best Picture of 1969 without significant support from gray-haired Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members. This was a film that plunged viewers into the seamiest iteration of New York City ever captured by a studio movie, that dealt with issues of sex work and homosexuality so unflinchingly that the MPAA (now known as MPA) gave it an X-rating.
- 2/16/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
I Heard Her Call My Name upcoming event: Lucy Sante with Griffin Hansbury at Rizzoli in New York on February 12.
In the first instalment with author, critic, and artist Lucy Sante, music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman joined us. In this second instalment we discuss Lucy coming from Belgium as a young boy to New Jersey; fighting to survive school in Manhattan, dandyism, and the unattractive prospect of masculinity; her book Nineteen Reservoirs: On Their Creation And The Promise Of Water for New York City (published by Experiment in 2022), and touch upon Nancy Buirski’s documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy and Jon Voight’s boyishness as Joe Buck in John Schlesinger’s film.
Lucy Sante with Anne-Katrin Titze on going to an all-boys Jesuit high school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan: “I really did not fit in.”
Lucy Sante is...
In the first instalment with author, critic, and artist Lucy Sante, music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman joined us. In this second instalment we discuss Lucy coming from Belgium as a young boy to New Jersey; fighting to survive school in Manhattan, dandyism, and the unattractive prospect of masculinity; her book Nineteen Reservoirs: On Their Creation And The Promise Of Water for New York City (published by Experiment in 2022), and touch upon Nancy Buirski’s documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy and Jon Voight’s boyishness as Joe Buck in John Schlesinger’s film.
Lucy Sante with Anne-Katrin Titze on going to an all-boys Jesuit high school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan: “I really did not fit in.”
Lucy Sante is...
- 2/8/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The BBC is celebrating the art of the literary adaptation by screening a variety of classics on BBC Four. More details here.
The BBC is quite rightly celebrated for its rich history of book to screen adaptations, such as the iconic 1995 version of Jane Austen’a Pride And Prejudice to Cbbc’s hugely successful adaptation of Dame Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker series.
It has now put together a season of 14 adaptations from the BBC archive, some of which have rarely been seen since their original broadcast.
The dramas are:
The Great Gatsby
Toby Stephens, Mira Sorvino and Paul Rudd lead the cast in this 2000 BBC adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel on the American dream in the jazz age.
Small Island
Naomie Harris, Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ashley Walters star in this 2009 TV version of Andrea Levy’s novel focusing on the lives and...
The BBC is quite rightly celebrated for its rich history of book to screen adaptations, such as the iconic 1995 version of Jane Austen’a Pride And Prejudice to Cbbc’s hugely successful adaptation of Dame Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker series.
It has now put together a season of 14 adaptations from the BBC archive, some of which have rarely been seen since their original broadcast.
The dramas are:
The Great Gatsby
Toby Stephens, Mira Sorvino and Paul Rudd lead the cast in this 2000 BBC adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel on the American dream in the jazz age.
Small Island
Naomie Harris, Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ashley Walters star in this 2009 TV version of Andrea Levy’s novel focusing on the lives and...
- 2/6/2024
- by Jake Godfrey
- Film Stories
Adapted from Nathanael West’s scabrously funny 1939 novel, The Day of the Locust reunites the creative triumvirate of producer Jerome Hellman, director John Schlesinger, and screenwriter Waldo Salt, who had previously teamed up for Midnight Cowboy. Superficially, the two films would seem to be quite different. One is a contemporary tale shot documentary-style on the mean streets of late-’60s New York. The other is an exquisitely detailed period piece filmed largely on Paramount soundstages in L.A. Midnight Cowboy favors gritty realism, while The Day of the Locust descends into a kind of deranged surrealism. But the films are linked since they both focus on loners and outcasts, salaciously prod the seedy underbelly of their milieus, and expose the unforgiving flipside of the American Dream.
The biggest difference between the two films is that Midnight Cowboy mitigates its ultimately tragic denouement with a certain tenderness between its damaged protagonists.
The biggest difference between the two films is that Midnight Cowboy mitigates its ultimately tragic denouement with a certain tenderness between its damaged protagonists.
- 12/12/2023
- by Budd Wilkins
- Slant Magazine
Shirley Anne Field, the British leading lady who starred alongside Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer, Albert Finney in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and Kenneth More in Man in the Moon — all in 1960 — has died. She was 87.
“It is with great sadness that we are sharing the news that Shirley Anne Field passed away peacefully on Sunday, Dec. 10, surrounded by her family and friends,” a spokesperson announced.
“Shirley Anne will be greatly missed and remembered for her unbreakable spirit and her amazing legacy spanning more than five decades on stage and screen.”
For her first Hollywood film, Field passed up John Schlesinger’s A Kind of Loving to star opposite Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner in the World War II drama The War Lover (1962). It was a decision she would regret, she explained in a 2009 interview.
“I finally had a chance to go to Hollywood and become a worldwide name.
“It is with great sadness that we are sharing the news that Shirley Anne Field passed away peacefully on Sunday, Dec. 10, surrounded by her family and friends,” a spokesperson announced.
“Shirley Anne will be greatly missed and remembered for her unbreakable spirit and her amazing legacy spanning more than five decades on stage and screen.”
For her first Hollywood film, Field passed up John Schlesinger’s A Kind of Loving to star opposite Steve McQueen and Robert Wagner in the World War II drama The War Lover (1962). It was a decision she would regret, she explained in a 2009 interview.
“I finally had a chance to go to Hollywood and become a worldwide name.
- 12/12/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Above: first US teaser poster for Poor Things. Design by Vasilis Marmatakis.I don’t know whether it’s because of the power of Yorgos Lanthimos, or the popularity of Emma Stone, or the sheer genius of designer Vasilis Marmatakis, or a combination of all of them, but three out of the four most liked posters on my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram over the past six months have all been posters for Lanthimos’s latest, Poor Things. The teaser above is now the most liked poster ever on my feed.Breaking up the Poor Things monopoly at number two is Polish designer Maks Bereski’s fan-art design for Ridley Scott’s yet-to-be-released Napoleon, which also went through the roof with over 4,000 likes when I posted it in June in conjunction with my article on Bereski and his favorite movie posters. Instagram likes are a fickle thing but it...
- 10/12/2023
- MUBI
In the 1960s, there were few cameramen who shared Nicolas Roeg’s ability to render sirenic, jittery sensuality at 24 frames per second—and this was an era whose dominant culture arguably cracked open and redefined the sensual palate. Even more impressively, Roeg’s gift often manifested itself most lucidly while serving the orgiastic gimmicks of Roger Corman’s The Masque of the Red Mask and the bucolic splendor of John Schlesinger’s Far from the Madding Crowd with the guarded glee of a merry prankster spiking a corporate water cooler with LSD.
But it’s not just that Roeg successfully snuck timely art into the mise-en-scène of those and other studio-centric films, it’s that he seemed incapable of recording anything but subtle art within whatever limitations his aspect ratio enforced. And so while Walkabout may have been his proper directorial debut, it’s far more significantly his final cinematographic statement.
But it’s not just that Roeg successfully snuck timely art into the mise-en-scène of those and other studio-centric films, it’s that he seemed incapable of recording anything but subtle art within whatever limitations his aspect ratio enforced. And so while Walkabout may have been his proper directorial debut, it’s far more significantly his final cinematographic statement.
- 9/20/2023
- by Joseph Jon Lanthier
- Slant Magazine
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
The Adults (Dustin Guy Defa)
Six years after directing his last feature, Dustin Guy Defa returns with The Adults, a film of complicated shared histories and gradually revealing inner lives. With his relatively sprawling Person to Person, Defa followed a wide array of characters over five interweaving storylines. This time he focuses on one family and, closer still, on an unmistakable feeling: that of moving out and growing up, only to return home and realize all that delicately assembled adulthood was merely a façade. Playing out across a leafy town in upstate New York, The Adults follows a trio of siblings as they reunite: the brother who went away and the sisters who did not. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream:...
The Adults (Dustin Guy Defa)
Six years after directing his last feature, Dustin Guy Defa returns with The Adults, a film of complicated shared histories and gradually revealing inner lives. With his relatively sprawling Person to Person, Defa followed a wide array of characters over five interweaving storylines. This time he focuses on one family and, closer still, on an unmistakable feeling: that of moving out and growing up, only to return home and realize all that delicately assembled adulthood was merely a façade. Playing out across a leafy town in upstate New York, The Adults follows a trio of siblings as they reunite: the brother who went away and the sisters who did not. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream:...
- 9/8/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Wes Anderson beamed with joy as his 40-minute short film “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” received a nearly 4-minute standing ovation at its Venice Film Festival premiere.
Prior to the screening, Anderson was given Cartier’s Glory to the Filmmaker Award, which was presented to him by his frequent collaborator Alexandre Desplat. Anderson humbly accepted the honor, remarking that he had researched the award in advance and observed that it had been given to filmmakers “at their premieres of some of their worst movies.”
“I hope I’m not going to repeat that,” he wisecracked.
After the quirky comedy — starring Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch and Dev Patel — played its end credits, it became clear that Anderson had not joined that list of worst movies, but he continued to convey humility, bashfully waving goodbye to the crowd before the applause had fully ceased.
Based on Roald Dahl’s 1977 short story collection,...
Prior to the screening, Anderson was given Cartier’s Glory to the Filmmaker Award, which was presented to him by his frequent collaborator Alexandre Desplat. Anderson humbly accepted the honor, remarking that he had researched the award in advance and observed that it had been given to filmmakers “at their premieres of some of their worst movies.”
“I hope I’m not going to repeat that,” he wisecracked.
After the quirky comedy — starring Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch and Dev Patel — played its end credits, it became clear that Anderson had not joined that list of worst movies, but he continued to convey humility, bashfully waving goodbye to the crowd before the applause had fully ceased.
Based on Roald Dahl’s 1977 short story collection,...
- 9/1/2023
- by Ellise Shafer and Zack Sharf
- Variety Film + TV
With festivals beckoning and box office wobbling, this obnoxious question looms ever larger: What’s next?
The strikes will end and a new season will begin but where’s that next cycle of movies and streaming content that represent groundbreaking ideas? Where will they come from?
A quick survey of past groundbreakers poses some answers, all of them disturbing.
Breakthrough movies of years past have represented the unpredictable product of corporate guile (The Avengers), artistic monomania (Avatar) or accidents of history (Barbie).
Some hits invaded the zeitgeist because they were relentlessly defiant (Midnight Cowboy) or simply inevitable (Harry Potter). Ironically, some of Hollywood’s most culturally ambitious movies were distributed at moments when films were being largely ignored by the filmgoing public – Doctor Zhivago (1965) or Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
Cinema, as with every form of pop culture, has gone through cycles of bold innovation as well as pervasive failure. Hollywood, circa the early 1960s,...
The strikes will end and a new season will begin but where’s that next cycle of movies and streaming content that represent groundbreaking ideas? Where will they come from?
A quick survey of past groundbreakers poses some answers, all of them disturbing.
Breakthrough movies of years past have represented the unpredictable product of corporate guile (The Avengers), artistic monomania (Avatar) or accidents of history (Barbie).
Some hits invaded the zeitgeist because they were relentlessly defiant (Midnight Cowboy) or simply inevitable (Harry Potter). Ironically, some of Hollywood’s most culturally ambitious movies were distributed at moments when films were being largely ignored by the filmgoing public – Doctor Zhivago (1965) or Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
Cinema, as with every form of pop culture, has gone through cycles of bold innovation as well as pervasive failure. Hollywood, circa the early 1960s,...
- 8/24/2023
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Netflix has shared the release date for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, a new short film by Wes Anderson adapted from Roald Dahl’s short story of the same name. After its September 1st premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the title will land on streaming Wednesday, September 27th.
The 39-minute-long The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar stars leading man Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, a compulsive gambler who discovers a new method of cheating. Ralph Fiennes will also star in the film as Dahl, while Dev Patel, Sir Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade round out the ensemble cast.
This marks the second time Anderson has brought a Dahl story to the screen, following 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. In an interview with IndieWire earlier this year, he explained that he’d long been wanting to adapt Henry Sugar — the Dahl family had even set it aside for him...
The 39-minute-long The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar stars leading man Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role, a compulsive gambler who discovers a new method of cheating. Ralph Fiennes will also star in the film as Dahl, while Dev Patel, Sir Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade round out the ensemble cast.
This marks the second time Anderson has brought a Dahl story to the screen, following 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. In an interview with IndieWire earlier this year, he explained that he’d long been wanting to adapt Henry Sugar — the Dahl family had even set it aside for him...
- 8/24/2023
- by Abby Jones
- Consequence - Film News
This fall, quirky auteur Wes Anderson follows up this year’s Asteroid City with another project slated to stream on Netflix in the fall. The movie is The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and surprisingly, it’s only a short film. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar clocks in at 39 minutes and is scheduled to premiere on the streaming service on September 27. Prior to its premiere on the content platform, Netflix is also proud to announce that the Wes Anderson short will also be making its debut at the Venice Film Festival.
The official logline for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar from Netflix reads,
“A beloved Roald Dahl story about a rich man who learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes and then sets out to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.” In typical Wes Anderson fashion, the filmmaker has assembled an all-star cast for his project.
The official logline for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar from Netflix reads,
“A beloved Roald Dahl story about a rich man who learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes and then sets out to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.” In typical Wes Anderson fashion, the filmmaker has assembled an all-star cast for his project.
- 8/24/2023
- by EJ Tangonan
- JoBlo.com
Wes Anderson’s latest take on Roald Dahl comes to Venice and Netflix this fall.
Anderson writes and directs the short film adaptation of Dahl’s 1977 story “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.” Anderson previously helmed the Dahl adaptation “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which earned Oscar nominations for Animated Feature and Original Score in 2010.
Per the official synopsis, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” is a beloved Roald Dahl story about a rich man who learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes and then sets out to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.
Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade star in the 39-minute short film, which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival out of competition.
“For years I wanted to do ‘Henry Sugar,'” Anderson told IndieWire earlier this year. “They set this story aside for me because I was friends with them.
Anderson writes and directs the short film adaptation of Dahl’s 1977 story “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.” Anderson previously helmed the Dahl adaptation “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which earned Oscar nominations for Animated Feature and Original Score in 2010.
Per the official synopsis, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” is a beloved Roald Dahl story about a rich man who learns about a guru who can see without using his eyes and then sets out to master the skill in order to cheat at gambling.
Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and Richard Ayoade star in the 39-minute short film, which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival out of competition.
“For years I wanted to do ‘Henry Sugar,'” Anderson told IndieWire earlier this year. “They set this story aside for me because I was friends with them.
- 8/24/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
If you thought the animatronic rats, chickens and bloodhounds that could break out in song – or revolt – at any time were the scariest part of Chuck E. Cheese, then you never encountered Kiefer Sutherland inside of one. It didn’t help that he had just starred as a rapist and murderer in 1996’s Eye for an Eye.
Speaking at the Fan Expo Chicago (via Entertainment Weekly) over the weekend, Kiefer Sutherland recalled his experience in public soon after playing Robert Dobbs, the man who goes unconvicted after killing Sally Field’s daughter in Eye for an Eye. “After Eye for an Eye opened, I took my daughter, who was eight years old, into Chuck E. Cheese…I’ve never seen parents leave a place so fast with their children in my life. My daughter actually thought I’d rented the place for just us. Because within 10 minutes, everybody was gone.
Speaking at the Fan Expo Chicago (via Entertainment Weekly) over the weekend, Kiefer Sutherland recalled his experience in public soon after playing Robert Dobbs, the man who goes unconvicted after killing Sally Field’s daughter in Eye for an Eye. “After Eye for an Eye opened, I took my daughter, who was eight years old, into Chuck E. Cheese…I’ve never seen parents leave a place so fast with their children in my life. My daughter actually thought I’d rented the place for just us. Because within 10 minutes, everybody was gone.
- 8/19/2023
- by Mathew Plale
- JoBlo.com
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSEvil Does Not Exist.The Venice Film Festival has unveiled its full lineup, featuring new films from Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Sofia Coppola, and Yorgos Lanthimos in competition, alongside buzzy titles like David Fincher’s The Killer and Michael Mann’s Ferrari.There's lineup news from Toronto as well. So far, TIFF has revealed its opening night selection, Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron (better original title: How Do You Live?), as well as its gala, special, Platform, and nonfiction presentations. On the docket are new films from Raoul Peck, Kitty Green, Atom Egoyan, and Richard Linklater, among others. The Platform section will open with Kristoffer Borgli's Dream Scenario, starring Nicolas Cage; he portrays an academic who begins appearing in people's dreams.Dream Scenario.REMEMBERINGPee-wee's Big Adventure.Comedian and actor Paul Reubens—best...
- 8/2/2023
- MUBI
Lelia Goldoni, who was cast in the lead role for John Cassavette’s race-centered film “Shadows,” died over the weekend at the age of 86.
The actress died on Saturday at the Actors Fund Home in Engelwood, New Jersey, Goldoni’s friend, Jd Sobol, told TheWrap on Thursday.
The New York City native was born on Oct. 1, 1936, and got her start in the entertainment business during the 1940s, with one of her first roles being a cameo in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s “House of Strangers” in 1949. That same year she also had a role in John Huston’s “We Were Strangers.”
Martin Scorsese later brought Goldoni on to star as a friend of Ellen Burnstyn’s character in his 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” Her resume also included performing in the original “The Italian Job” (1969), John Schlesinger’s “The Day of the Locust” (1975) and Robert Mulligan’s “Bloodbrothers.”
Goldoni, who...
The actress died on Saturday at the Actors Fund Home in Engelwood, New Jersey, Goldoni’s friend, Jd Sobol, told TheWrap on Thursday.
The New York City native was born on Oct. 1, 1936, and got her start in the entertainment business during the 1940s, with one of her first roles being a cameo in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s “House of Strangers” in 1949. That same year she also had a role in John Huston’s “We Were Strangers.”
Martin Scorsese later brought Goldoni on to star as a friend of Ellen Burnstyn’s character in his 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” Her resume also included performing in the original “The Italian Job” (1969), John Schlesinger’s “The Day of the Locust” (1975) and Robert Mulligan’s “Bloodbrothers.”
Goldoni, who...
- 7/28/2023
- by Raquel "Rocky" Harris
- The Wrap
Lelia Goldoni, who sparkled as the lead in John Cassavettes’ Shadows and played a friend of Ellen Burstyn’s character in Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, has died. She was 86.
Goldoni died Saturday at The Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey, her friend Jd Sobol announced.
Goldoni also appeared in the original The Italian Job (1969), in John Schlesinger’s The Day of the Locust (1975), in Philip Kaufman’s remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and in Robert Mulligan’s Bloodbrothers (1978).
A second cousin of famed New York Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto, Lelia Vita Goldoni was born in New York on Oct. 1, 1936. She was raised in Los Angeles, where she was one of the Lester Horton Dancers alongside Alvin Ailey and Carmen de Lavallade.
Goldoni studied acting with Jeff Corey and at age 19 moved back to New York, where she became a student at a drama...
Goldoni died Saturday at The Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey, her friend Jd Sobol announced.
Goldoni also appeared in the original The Italian Job (1969), in John Schlesinger’s The Day of the Locust (1975), in Philip Kaufman’s remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and in Robert Mulligan’s Bloodbrothers (1978).
A second cousin of famed New York Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto, Lelia Vita Goldoni was born in New York on Oct. 1, 1936. She was raised in Los Angeles, where she was one of the Lester Horton Dancers alongside Alvin Ailey and Carmen de Lavallade.
Goldoni studied acting with Jeff Corey and at age 19 moved back to New York, where she became a student at a drama...
- 7/27/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Joe Buck (Jon Voight) with Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) in John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy
In the second instalment with Nancy Buirski on Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy (special advisor Martin Scorsese) we discuss Jon Voight as Joe Buck with the little girl reading a Wonder Woman comic, Jennifer Salt’s Crazy Annie and Sylvia Miles’s Cass in Midnight Cowboy. John Schlesinger with Dp Adam Holender showing New York the way it really was, a Roberta Flack song and William Wyler’s adaption of Lilian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour, starring Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn, Nancy’s longtime cinematographer Rex Miller, Far From The Madding Crowd and Vietnam, Brian De Palma on Dennis Hopper and the “international invasion”, and screenwriter Waldo Salt also came up.
Nancy Buirski on Crazy Annie (Jennifer Salt) with Joe Buck (Jon Voight): “Many of the women in...
In the second instalment with Nancy Buirski on Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy (special advisor Martin Scorsese) we discuss Jon Voight as Joe Buck with the little girl reading a Wonder Woman comic, Jennifer Salt’s Crazy Annie and Sylvia Miles’s Cass in Midnight Cowboy. John Schlesinger with Dp Adam Holender showing New York the way it really was, a Roberta Flack song and William Wyler’s adaption of Lilian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour, starring Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn, Nancy’s longtime cinematographer Rex Miller, Far From The Madding Crowd and Vietnam, Brian De Palma on Dennis Hopper and the “international invasion”, and screenwriter Waldo Salt also came up.
Nancy Buirski on Crazy Annie (Jennifer Salt) with Joe Buck (Jon Voight): “Many of the women in...
- 7/13/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Rockstars appearing in movies is not rare, but they don’t often have leading roles. The Beatles had a few films starring themselves, such as A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, and accompanied by a stellar soundtrack. Mick Jagger also has a minor acting career, but he wanted to go big by starring in the lead role in a Stanley Kubrick classic, and The Beatles backed his ambitions.
The Beatles signed a letter saying Mick Jagger should play the lead in ‘A Clockwork Orange’
1971’s A Clockwork Orange was directed by Stanley Kubrick and starred Malcolm McDowell in the lead role. Based on a novel by Anthony Burgess, the film centers around Alex, a young, violent delinquent who is jailed and subjected to behavior modification techniques. He returns to the world, cured, but is punished by the victims he wronged in his past.
It’s a disturbing film that...
The Beatles signed a letter saying Mick Jagger should play the lead in ‘A Clockwork Orange’
1971’s A Clockwork Orange was directed by Stanley Kubrick and starred Malcolm McDowell in the lead role. Based on a novel by Anthony Burgess, the film centers around Alex, a young, violent delinquent who is jailed and subjected to behavior modification techniques. He returns to the world, cured, but is punished by the victims he wronged in his past.
It’s a disturbing film that...
- 7/11/2023
- by Ross Tanenbaum
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
When Midnight Cowboy came out in 1969, Miami Herald critic John Huddy heralded its arrival with a string of superlatives: “Staggering, shattering, heartbreaking, hilarious, tragic, raw and absurd.”
Over the years, the ranks of its admirers has only grown, among them documentary filmmaker Nancy Buirski.
“I remember feeling that it was a really radical film,” recalls Buirski, who first saw Midnight Cowboy sometime after its original release. “It felt different from anything I had seen… It was like a gut punch.”
Director Nancy Buirski
Buirski’s documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, now playing in limited release in New York, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Detroit and other cities, digs into the loam that produced such a bleak yet beautiful flower of a film. Midnight Cowboy hit theaters the same year as Hello, Dolly! and Paint Your Wagon but unlike those celluloid larks, John Schlesinger’s film...
Over the years, the ranks of its admirers has only grown, among them documentary filmmaker Nancy Buirski.
“I remember feeling that it was a really radical film,” recalls Buirski, who first saw Midnight Cowboy sometime after its original release. “It felt different from anything I had seen… It was like a gut punch.”
Director Nancy Buirski
Buirski’s documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, now playing in limited release in New York, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Detroit and other cities, digs into the loam that produced such a bleak yet beautiful flower of a film. Midnight Cowboy hit theaters the same year as Hello, Dolly! and Paint Your Wagon but unlike those celluloid larks, John Schlesinger’s film...
- 6/30/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Footage of late Sixties New York City seamlessly sways into Dustin Hoffman’s Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy stealing a handful of plum tomatoes and a coconut from a fruit stand with help from his new sidekick Joe Buck (Jon Voight). “These Eyes” sing Guess Who, and Lucy Sante comments that the film “could be an advertisement for anti-glamour and yet by doing this it manages to express the zeitgeist.”
Nancy Buirski’s masterful Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy, edited with Anthony Ripoli is much more than a documentary on John Schlesinger’s multiple Oscar-winning film. Based on James Leo Herlihy’s novel, adapted by Waldo Salt, shot by Adam Holender, with costumes by Ann Roth, Midnight Cowboy features an impressive supporting cast, including Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro, Jennifer Salt, and...
Nancy Buirski’s masterful Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy, edited with Anthony Ripoli is much more than a documentary on John Schlesinger’s multiple Oscar-winning film. Based on James Leo Herlihy’s novel, adapted by Waldo Salt, shot by Adam Holender, with costumes by Ann Roth, Midnight Cowboy features an impressive supporting cast, including Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro, Jennifer Salt, and...
- 6/29/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Desperate Souls, Dark City and The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy director Nancy Buirski on Joe Buck and Ratso Rizzo: “They become appealing because of these wonderful performances by Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman.”
Nancy Buirski’s masterpiece is much more than a documentary on John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy, screenplay by Waldo Salt, shot by Adam Holender, costumes by Ann Roth, and starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman with Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro, Jennifer Salt, and Bob Balaban. Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy, edited by Anthony Ripoli, features on-camera interviews shot by Rex Miller with Lucy Sante, Brian De Palma, Edmund White, Michael Childers, Charles Kaiser, Jim Hoberman, Ian Buruma, Voight, Vaccaro, Balaban, Holender, and Jennifer Salt.
Brenda Vaccaro with John Schlesinger: “Ann Roth saved my life,” says Vaccaro, “by putting me in that fur coat.”
The evocative, wide-ranging, and evermore timely documentary drops us...
Nancy Buirski’s masterpiece is much more than a documentary on John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy, screenplay by Waldo Salt, shot by Adam Holender, costumes by Ann Roth, and starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman with Sylvia Miles, Brenda Vaccaro, Jennifer Salt, and Bob Balaban. Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy, edited by Anthony Ripoli, features on-camera interviews shot by Rex Miller with Lucy Sante, Brian De Palma, Edmund White, Michael Childers, Charles Kaiser, Jim Hoberman, Ian Buruma, Voight, Vaccaro, Balaban, Holender, and Jennifer Salt.
Brenda Vaccaro with John Schlesinger: “Ann Roth saved my life,” says Vaccaro, “by putting me in that fur coat.”
The evocative, wide-ranging, and evermore timely documentary drops us...
- 6/26/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
A movie, good, bad or indifferent, is always “about” something. But some movies are about more things than others, and as you watch “Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy,” Nancy Buirski’s rapt, incisive, and beautifully exploratory making-of-a-movie documentary, what comes into focus is that “Midnight Cowboy” was about so many things that audiences could sink into the film as if it were a piece of their own lives.
The movie was about loneliness. It was about dreams, sunny yet broken. It was about gay male sexuality and the shock of really seeing it, for the first time, in a major motion picture. It was about the crush and alienation of New York City: the godless concrete carnival wasteland, which had never been captured onscreen with the telephoto authenticity it had here. The movie was also about the larger sexual revolution — what the scuzziness of “free love” really looked like,...
The movie was about loneliness. It was about dreams, sunny yet broken. It was about gay male sexuality and the shock of really seeing it, for the first time, in a major motion picture. It was about the crush and alienation of New York City: the godless concrete carnival wasteland, which had never been captured onscreen with the telephoto authenticity it had here. The movie was also about the larger sexual revolution — what the scuzziness of “free love” really looked like,...
- 6/23/2023
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy professes to be something more than just a documentary about the making of Midnight Cowboy: an extremely ambitious film attempting to navigate the impact and cultural presence of John Schlesinger’s masterpiece while also exploring the history of American queer cinema, the death of the Western in the mainstream, and the counter-culture of the ’60s transforming into the nihilism of the 1970s. Packing so much information and so many perspectives into 101 minutes occasionally comes across as overstuffed. But Desperate Souls’ sheer enthusiasm for Midnight Cowboy and the cultural period is infectious, a vibe that compensates for certain faults holding it back from becoming a truly great documentary.
While structurally ambitious in its approach to montage, the precise cutting is flawed and fragmented. Transitions between interviews and archival footage are often awkward and lackluster, and editing plays slightly rushed during...
While structurally ambitious in its approach to montage, the precise cutting is flawed and fragmented. Transitions between interviews and archival footage are often awkward and lackluster, and editing plays slightly rushed during...
- 6/23/2023
- by Logan Kenny
- The Film Stage
By Glenn Charlie Dunks
“When in doubt, make a western.” – John Ford.
This quote stuck out to me in the opening of The Taking, the latest film about film from Swiss director Alexandre O. Philippe. Like ford, director John Schlesinger made a western himself after an early-career stumble. The films of John Ford and Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy aren’t linked too much; at least not on the surface. But with two new documentaries, they are given visual deep-dives that tie them together as logical ends of a spectrum that used images to sell America as a hard land or hard men.
Both Philippe’s The Taking and Nancy Buirski’s Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy err on the side of cinematic essays than traditional behind-the-scenes making-of documentaries. Each offer their subjects’ take on the (quote unquote) western as both of their time and in many ways timeless.
“When in doubt, make a western.” – John Ford.
This quote stuck out to me in the opening of The Taking, the latest film about film from Swiss director Alexandre O. Philippe. Like ford, director John Schlesinger made a western himself after an early-career stumble. The films of John Ford and Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy aren’t linked too much; at least not on the surface. But with two new documentaries, they are given visual deep-dives that tie them together as logical ends of a spectrum that used images to sell America as a hard land or hard men.
Both Philippe’s The Taking and Nancy Buirski’s Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy err on the side of cinematic essays than traditional behind-the-scenes making-of documentaries. Each offer their subjects’ take on the (quote unquote) western as both of their time and in many ways timeless.
- 6/17/2023
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
“She’s 100% a professional, and this is a great night for professionals,” said the actor Juliet Mills as she accepted Glenda Jackson’s first Best Actress Oscar on the absent winner’s behalf at the 1970 Academy Awards. On the face of it, it sounds an oddly impersonal thing to say in the circumstances — almost as if Mills knew nothing of Jackson, and opted for the vaguest praise possible.
It proved, however, a rather apt way for Jackson, then 34, to be welcomed into Hollywood’s inner circle. A proudly working-class Brit who didn’t look or act (on screen or off) like the blushing English roses typically imported from across the pond, Jackson had markedly more interest in being a professional actor than in being a movie star. That spared her, even as she racked up assignments and awards, much of the fuss and frippery associated with A-list status — going to the Oscars included.
It proved, however, a rather apt way for Jackson, then 34, to be welcomed into Hollywood’s inner circle. A proudly working-class Brit who didn’t look or act (on screen or off) like the blushing English roses typically imported from across the pond, Jackson had markedly more interest in being a professional actor than in being a movie star. That spared her, even as she racked up assignments and awards, much of the fuss and frippery associated with A-list status — going to the Oscars included.
- 6/15/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Wes Anderson is making 2023 special by adding two projects to his release calendar. The imaginative director’s Asteroid City touches down in theaters next week, and the filmmaker is busy bringing an adaptation of Roald Dahl‘s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar to Netflix. Many wonder how Anderson is pulling off two movies in a single year. However, there’s a simple explanation. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is a relatively short feature. It’s 37 minutes long!
Speaking with IndieWire, Anderson revealed the adaptation’s brief runtime, saying he’s delighted to present something akin to the BBC series Play for Today. This series brings short-form filmmaking to a broad audience, with installments being an hour or less in length. “It’s not a feature film,” Anderson told the outlet. “It’s like 37 minutes or something. But by the time I was ready to do it, the Dahl...
Speaking with IndieWire, Anderson revealed the adaptation’s brief runtime, saying he’s delighted to present something akin to the BBC series Play for Today. This series brings short-form filmmaking to a broad audience, with installments being an hour or less in length. “It’s not a feature film,” Anderson told the outlet. “It’s like 37 minutes or something. But by the time I was ready to do it, the Dahl...
- 6/15/2023
- by Steve Seigh
- JoBlo.com
Wes Anderson announced in an interview with IndieWire that his upcoming Netflix movie “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” based on Roald Dahl’s 1977 short story collection, will only be 37 minutes long. The film is Anderson’s second Dahl adaptation after “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel and Ben Kingsley. Notably, “Henry Sugar” marks Anderson’s first Netflix original. He told IndieWire that collaborating with the streamer was more out of necessity than personal preference.
“In my case it’s a little bit of a weird thing,” Anderson said about partnering with Netflix. “I knew Roald Dahl since before we made ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox.’ I met Lindsay Dahl, his widow, when we were shooting ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ like 20 years ago. For years I wanted to do ‘Henry Sugar.’ They set this story aside for me because I was friends with them. Lindsay kind of handed the torch to Luke,...
“In my case it’s a little bit of a weird thing,” Anderson said about partnering with Netflix. “I knew Roald Dahl since before we made ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox.’ I met Lindsay Dahl, his widow, when we were shooting ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ like 20 years ago. For years I wanted to do ‘Henry Sugar.’ They set this story aside for me because I was friends with them. Lindsay kind of handed the torch to Luke,...
- 6/15/2023
- by Zack Sharf
- Variety Film + TV
Glenda Jackson, the British actress who hit the snooze bar on her acting career for a 23-year career in politics, died on Thursday, as per her representatives. During her peak years in the 1970s and 80s, she won two Oscars (and was nominated for two more) and two Emmy Awards. She was nominated for four Tony Awards, finally winning one in 2018 after a late-in-life career resurgence. She was 87 years old.
Jackson, whose father was a bricklayer and whose mother was a barmaid and domestic, studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She was told by the academy’s principal that, due to her looks, she would likely only find work as a character actress, and she shouldn’t depend on getting jobs after 40.
This proved to be the opposite of true. Her big break came when experimental theater director Peter Brook cast her in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s groundbreaking adaptation of “Marat/Sade.
Jackson, whose father was a bricklayer and whose mother was a barmaid and domestic, studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She was told by the academy’s principal that, due to her looks, she would likely only find work as a character actress, and she shouldn’t depend on getting jobs after 40.
This proved to be the opposite of true. Her big break came when experimental theater director Peter Brook cast her in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s groundbreaking adaptation of “Marat/Sade.
- 6/15/2023
- by Jordan Hoffman
- Gold Derby
Jackson won Academy Awards for ’Women In Love’ and ’A Touch Of Class’.
UK actress Glenda Jackson, known for her Oscar-winning performances in Women In Love and A Touch Of Class, has died aged 87.
Jackson, who was also a former Labour MP, ”died peacefully at her home in Blackheath, London this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side,” according to her agent Lionel Larner.
Born in Birkenhead, UK, Jackson’s acting career began in theatre in the late 1950’s before she made her big screen debut with an uncredited role in Lindsay Anderson’s This Sporting Life...
UK actress Glenda Jackson, known for her Oscar-winning performances in Women In Love and A Touch Of Class, has died aged 87.
Jackson, who was also a former Labour MP, ”died peacefully at her home in Blackheath, London this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side,” according to her agent Lionel Larner.
Born in Birkenhead, UK, Jackson’s acting career began in theatre in the late 1950’s before she made her big screen debut with an uncredited role in Lindsay Anderson’s This Sporting Life...
- 6/15/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Glenda Jackson, who segued from a successful actress — Oscars for “Women in Love” and “A Touch of Class” and two Emmys for “Elizabeth R” — into a 23-year career as member of the U.K.’s House of Commons, has died. She was 87.
Jackson died after a brief illness at her home in London, her agent Lionel Larner said. “Glenda Jackson, two-time Academy Award-winning actress and politician, died peacefully at her home in Blackheath, London this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side. She recently completed filming ‘The Great Escaper’ in which she co-starred with Michael Caine,” Larner said in a statement.
Aside from her prize-winning roles, Jackson gave terrific performances in such films as 1967’s “Marat/Sade” (as Charlotte Corday), “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and on TV in “The Patricia Neal Story,” a 1981 work about that actress’s stroke and recovery with husband Roald Dahl. A defining role in...
Jackson died after a brief illness at her home in London, her agent Lionel Larner said. “Glenda Jackson, two-time Academy Award-winning actress and politician, died peacefully at her home in Blackheath, London this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side. She recently completed filming ‘The Great Escaper’ in which she co-starred with Michael Caine,” Larner said in a statement.
Aside from her prize-winning roles, Jackson gave terrific performances in such films as 1967’s “Marat/Sade” (as Charlotte Corday), “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and on TV in “The Patricia Neal Story,” a 1981 work about that actress’s stroke and recovery with husband Roald Dahl. A defining role in...
- 6/15/2023
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
The new documentary feature "Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy", directed by Nancy Buirski , "...is not a documentary about the making of 'Midnight Cowboy'. It is about the deeply gifted and flawed people behind a dark and difficult masterpiece...", releasing June 23, 2023 in theaters:
".... a half century after its release, 'Midnight Cowboy' remains one of the most original and groundbreaking movies of the modern era.
"With performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman as two loners who join forces out of desperation, blacklist survivor Waldo Salt's screenplay and John Schlesinger's direction...
"...the 1969 film became the only X- rated film to ever win the 'Academy Award' for 'Best Picture'.
"Its vivid and compassionate depiction of a more realistic, unsanitized New York City and its inhabitants...
"...paved the way for a generation’s worth of gritty movies with complex characters and adult themes.
".... a half century after its release, 'Midnight Cowboy' remains one of the most original and groundbreaking movies of the modern era.
"With performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman as two loners who join forces out of desperation, blacklist survivor Waldo Salt's screenplay and John Schlesinger's direction...
"...the 1969 film became the only X- rated film to ever win the 'Academy Award' for 'Best Picture'.
"Its vivid and compassionate depiction of a more realistic, unsanitized New York City and its inhabitants...
"...paved the way for a generation’s worth of gritty movies with complex characters and adult themes.
- 5/31/2023
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Marlene Clark, the statuesque actress who portrayed Lamont’s fiancée on Sanford and Son and stood out in such 1970s’ films as Ganja & Hess, Switchblade Sisters and Slaughter, has died. She was 85.
Clark died May 18 in her home in Los Angeles, her family announced. No cause of death was revealed.
Clark also starred as a reptilian seductress in Roger Corman’s Night of the Cobra Woman (1972) and as one of the suspected werewolves in the British horror film The Beast Must Die (1974), and she was an early victim in the Larry Hagman-directed Beware! The Blob (1972).
Clark played John Saxon‘s secretary in Enter the Dragon (1973), starring Bruce Lee, and her big-screen body of work also included Black Mamba (1974), Newman’s Law (1974), Lord Shango (1975) and The Baron (1977), where she appeared opposite her Beast Must Die onscreen husband, Calvin Lockhart.
In the surreal Ganja & Hess (1973), directed by Bill Gunn,...
Clark died May 18 in her home in Los Angeles, her family announced. No cause of death was revealed.
Clark also starred as a reptilian seductress in Roger Corman’s Night of the Cobra Woman (1972) and as one of the suspected werewolves in the British horror film The Beast Must Die (1974), and she was an early victim in the Larry Hagman-directed Beware! The Blob (1972).
Clark played John Saxon‘s secretary in Enter the Dragon (1973), starring Bruce Lee, and her big-screen body of work also included Black Mamba (1974), Newman’s Law (1974), Lord Shango (1975) and The Baron (1977), where she appeared opposite her Beast Must Die onscreen husband, Calvin Lockhart.
In the surreal Ganja & Hess (1973), directed by Bill Gunn,...
- 5/26/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
With incredible performances in films like Midnight Cowboy, Coming Home, Deliverance and Runaway Train, Jon Voight has earned himself a spot in the acting Pantheon. At 84, he has never stopped working. Seven seasons of Ray Donovan being a recent highlight. On this episode, he talks about how he “starts slow” when developing an approach to a character, letting “things drop into my psyche.” He pinpoints directorial characteristics of John Schlesinger (director of Midnight Cowboy) that worked well for him, details a scrappy fight scene with Jonathan Rhys Myers on his latest film Mercy, reminisces about working with Cassavetes on Love […]
The post “I Think That’s Why I’m an Actor—I’m a Daydreamer”: Jon Voight first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “I Think That’s Why I’m an Actor—I’m a Daydreamer”: Jon Voight first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 5/16/2023
- by Peter Rinaldi
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
With incredible performances in films like Midnight Cowboy, Coming Home, Deliverance and Runaway Train, Jon Voight has earned himself a spot in the acting Pantheon. At 84, he has never stopped working. Seven seasons of Ray Donovan being a recent highlight. On this episode, he talks about how he “starts slow” when developing an approach to a character, letting “things drop into my psyche.” He pinpoints directorial characteristics of John Schlesinger (director of Midnight Cowboy) that worked well for him, details a scrappy fight scene with Jonathan Rhys Myers on his latest film Mercy, reminisces about working with Cassavetes on Love […]
The post “I Think That’s Why I’m an Actor—I’m a Daydreamer”: Jon Voight first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “I Think That’s Why I’m an Actor—I’m a Daydreamer”: Jon Voight first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 5/16/2023
- by Peter Rinaldi
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
"If I'm going to America to make a movie, this is the movie I'd like to make." Zeitgeist Films + Kino Lorber have unveiled the official trailer for a documentary film titled in full: Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy. This already premiered at the prestigious 2022 Venice and Telluride Film Festivals last fall, with a limited US release set for June this summer. The cinema history doc follows the behind-the-scenes odyssey to get Midnight Cowboy (1969) produced, as well as the tumultuous era in which the movie was released and embraced. The original film won three Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, and starred Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight. It's about a hustler who travels from Texas to the grit & grime of New York City, finding a new friend in the process. This doc looks like a heartfelt tribute to the film, digging into why it's such a unique work of art,...
- 4/24/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Exclusive: Mvd Entertainment Group has claimed North American rights to the darkly comedic thriller Wrong Reasons, marking the feature debut of writer-director Josh Roush. The film, executive produced by and featuring Kevin Smith, is slated for release on digital, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD on August 15.
Hailing from AntiCurrent Productions, Wrong Reasons watches as an ambiguously intentioned masked man (James Parks) kidnaps a drug addicted punk rock singer (Liv Roush) and triggers a police investigation headed by Detective Charles Dobson (Ralph Garman) as well as a media circus. The film also starring Teresa Ruiz, David Koechner, Daniel Roebuck, Smith and Keith Coogan boasts a punk rock soundtrack with music by Tim Armstrong, L7, Black Flag, The Wipers, Channel 3, William Elliott Whitmore, The Unseen, Bi-Product and more.
After world premiering at Smith’s first annual Smodcastle Film Festival in the fall of 2022, the Liv Roush-produced film...
Hailing from AntiCurrent Productions, Wrong Reasons watches as an ambiguously intentioned masked man (James Parks) kidnaps a drug addicted punk rock singer (Liv Roush) and triggers a police investigation headed by Detective Charles Dobson (Ralph Garman) as well as a media circus. The film also starring Teresa Ruiz, David Koechner, Daniel Roebuck, Smith and Keith Coogan boasts a punk rock soundtrack with music by Tim Armstrong, L7, Black Flag, The Wipers, Channel 3, William Elliott Whitmore, The Unseen, Bi-Product and more.
After world premiering at Smith’s first annual Smodcastle Film Festival in the fall of 2022, the Liv Roush-produced film...
- 4/21/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Julie Christie is an Oscar-winning actress who has been largely absent from movie screens this century, enjoying a semi-retirement that finds her returning for the odd performance here and there. Yet she’s always finding new fans as younger generations discover her cinematic classics. Let’s take a look at 20 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Born on April 14, 1940, Christie rose to prominence for her work in London, starting with a breakthrough performance in John Schlesinger‘s “Billy Liar” (1963). She won the Oscar as Best Actress just two years later for Schlesinger’s “Darling” (1965), playing a fashion model who sleeps her way to the top. That same year, she shot to stardom thanks to David Lean‘s romantic epic “Doctor Zhivago” (1965), which casts her as a political activist’s wife who falls in love with a physician (Omar Sharif) during the Russian Revolution.
She earned a second Best...
Born on April 14, 1940, Christie rose to prominence for her work in London, starting with a breakthrough performance in John Schlesinger‘s “Billy Liar” (1963). She won the Oscar as Best Actress just two years later for Schlesinger’s “Darling” (1965), playing a fashion model who sleeps her way to the top. That same year, she shot to stardom thanks to David Lean‘s romantic epic “Doctor Zhivago” (1965), which casts her as a political activist’s wife who falls in love with a physician (Omar Sharif) during the Russian Revolution.
She earned a second Best...
- 4/7/2023
- by Zach Laws and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Exclusive: Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist Films have picked up North American rights to Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy — a new documentary on the making of the iconic John Schlesinger film, from acclaimed documentarian Nancy Buirski (The Loving Story).
Related Story 1091 Pictures Acquires Domestic Distribution Rights To Romantic Drama ‘Under My Skin’ Related Story Locarno Film Festival War Drama 'Tommy Guns' Gets North American Deal Related Story Ralph Fiennes' 'Four Quartets' Gets North American Distribution Deal Ahead Of Stateside Bow At Santa Barbara
Zeitgeist will open the film in North American theaters beginning at New York’s Film Forum in late June and take it nationwide from there, with a digital, educational and home video release on all major platforms via Kino Lorber to follow.
Inspired by Glen Frankel’s 2021 book Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation and the Making of a Dark Classic, Desperate...
Related Story 1091 Pictures Acquires Domestic Distribution Rights To Romantic Drama ‘Under My Skin’ Related Story Locarno Film Festival War Drama 'Tommy Guns' Gets North American Deal Related Story Ralph Fiennes' 'Four Quartets' Gets North American Distribution Deal Ahead Of Stateside Bow At Santa Barbara
Zeitgeist will open the film in North American theaters beginning at New York’s Film Forum in late June and take it nationwide from there, with a digital, educational and home video release on all major platforms via Kino Lorber to follow.
Inspired by Glen Frankel’s 2021 book Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation and the Making of a Dark Classic, Desperate...
- 3/22/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
William Goldman’s international conspiracy thriller provides Dustin Hoffman with an outright ‘action man’ star vehicle. The public applauded supporting star Laurence Olivier, who with just a few gestures creates a terrifying villain: “Is it safe?” William Devane and Marthe Keller co-star. We wish Roy Scheider’s character could have continued in a series of crime thrillers — he brings genuine movie star charisma. The story is by William Goldman, from his own book.
Marathon Man 4K
4K Ultra-hd + Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1976 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 125 min. / Street Date February 28, 2023 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver, Richard Bright, Marc Lawrence, Lou Gilbert, Fred Stuthman, Jacques Marin, Litti Palfi Andor, Madge Kennedy, Treat Williams.
Cinematography: Conrad Hall
Production Designer: Richard Macdonald
Art Director: Jack De Shields
Film Editor: Jim Clark
Special Makeup Consultant: Dick Smith
Original Music: Michael Small
Written by...
Marathon Man 4K
4K Ultra-hd + Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1976 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 125 min. / Street Date February 28, 2023 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver, Richard Bright, Marc Lawrence, Lou Gilbert, Fred Stuthman, Jacques Marin, Litti Palfi Andor, Madge Kennedy, Treat Williams.
Cinematography: Conrad Hall
Production Designer: Richard Macdonald
Art Director: Jack De Shields
Film Editor: Jim Clark
Special Makeup Consultant: Dick Smith
Original Music: Michael Small
Written by...
- 2/14/2023
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
One of the key works in the early British “kitchen sink” movement, John Schlesinger’s screen adaptation of Keith Waterhouse’s seriocomic novel spoke loudly to young people the world over. Tom Courtenay, taking over from Albert Finney in the stage version, made a big enough impression to go on to a strong career. But the revelation here is Julie Christie, luminous as the hero’s free-spirited girlfriend in only her third film role. Schlesinger went on direct her Oscar-winning breakthough two years later with the lead role in Darling.
The post Billy Liar appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post Billy Liar appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 2/8/2023
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
John Landis' 1978 comedy "Animal House" would change the game for many; not only was the college campus laugh-fest a launchpad for several of its stars — including the already famous "SNL" star John Belushi, who would soon get a call from Steven Spielberg about an upcoming comedy project — but it also heralded a new age of irreverent comedy, one that celebrated contemporary filmmakers didn't quite see at the time.
In Mick de Semlyen's book "Wild and Crazy Guys," producer Ivan Reitman reasoned:
"Before 'Animal House' they were all watching Bob Hope and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis ... and then this was the first film really made by kids who were postwar and in their early twenties, with a different way of expressing what's funny."
That expression would see the story's central troupe of "fat, drunk, and stupid" college students launching food fights, thumbing their noses at authority, frightening a...
In Mick de Semlyen's book "Wild and Crazy Guys," producer Ivan Reitman reasoned:
"Before 'Animal House' they were all watching Bob Hope and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis ... and then this was the first film really made by kids who were postwar and in their early twenties, with a different way of expressing what's funny."
That expression would see the story's central troupe of "fat, drunk, and stupid" college students launching food fights, thumbing their noses at authority, frightening a...
- 1/17/2023
- by Anya Stanley
- Slash Film
"Rocky" has endured as one of the most uplifting sports films of all time thanks in large part to its heartfelt portrayal of two social misfits falling haltingly in love as one of them trains for an unlikely, yet plausible shot at the heavyweight boxing title. Sylvester Stallone and Talia Shire give lovely, lived-in performances that are painful to watch at times because Rocky has no idea how awkwardly his gregariousness lands, while Adrian seems terrified that anyone would find her worthy of affection.
For most of its runtime, "Rocky" is a human drama about losers. It soars to life during its Bill Conti-scored training montage that explodes the film into its exhilarating third act. Interestingly, the final match isn't all that long. From the opening bell to the end of the fifteenth round, it occupies a scant eight-and-a-half minutes of screen time. But it feels like trench warfare...
For most of its runtime, "Rocky" is a human drama about losers. It soars to life during its Bill Conti-scored training montage that explodes the film into its exhilarating third act. Interestingly, the final match isn't all that long. From the opening bell to the end of the fifteenth round, it occupies a scant eight-and-a-half minutes of screen time. But it feels like trench warfare...
- 1/13/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Hubert G. Wells, who trained animals for films including the original Doctor Dolittle, Out of Africa, Wolf, Sheena and The Ghost and the Darkness, has died. He was 88.
Wells died on Christmas Day of age-related illnesses at his home in Thousand Oaks, fellow animal trainer Doree Sitterly told The Hollywood Reporter.
Sitterly and Wells worked together for 20 years — she doubled for Meryl Streep on Out of Africa while Wells was serving as chief animal trainer on the 1986 Oscar best picture winner — and for 10 of those they lived on a compound in the Santa Monica Mountains that was filled with trained wild animals. (They raised lion cubs in the laundry room.)
The Hungarian-born Wells got his start in Hollywood at Jungleland, a 27-acre theme park and private zoo in Thousand Oaks that was used to rent and train animals for movies, TV shows and commercials. After it closed in 1969, he created Animal Actors of Hollywood,...
Wells died on Christmas Day of age-related illnesses at his home in Thousand Oaks, fellow animal trainer Doree Sitterly told The Hollywood Reporter.
Sitterly and Wells worked together for 20 years — she doubled for Meryl Streep on Out of Africa while Wells was serving as chief animal trainer on the 1986 Oscar best picture winner — and for 10 of those they lived on a compound in the Santa Monica Mountains that was filled with trained wild animals. (They raised lion cubs in the laundry room.)
The Hungarian-born Wells got his start in Hollywood at Jungleland, a 27-acre theme park and private zoo in Thousand Oaks that was used to rent and train animals for movies, TV shows and commercials. After it closed in 1969, he created Animal Actors of Hollywood,...
- 1/11/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Si Litvinoff, a film producer and lawyer whose work included “A Clockwork Orange,” “Walkabout” and “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” died Dec. 26 in Los Angeles. He was 93.
On “A Clockwork Orange,” Litvinoff acquired the rights to Anthony Burgess’ novel of the same name and developed it with screenplays from Burgess and Terry Southern. Litvinoff pursued director Stanley Kubrick for five years to helm the film, which was greenlit in 1970 and released in 1971. Litvinoff also executive produced “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” which was directed by Nicolas Roeg and starred David Bowie in his feature film debut.
After graduating from NYU School of Law, Litvinoff was a practicing lawyer for 12 years before transitioning into producing. His clients included Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Jack Youngerman, Terry Southern, Timothy Leary, Joel Grey, Orson Bean, Rip Torn and Alan Arkin. He was also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts...
On “A Clockwork Orange,” Litvinoff acquired the rights to Anthony Burgess’ novel of the same name and developed it with screenplays from Burgess and Terry Southern. Litvinoff pursued director Stanley Kubrick for five years to helm the film, which was greenlit in 1970 and released in 1971. Litvinoff also executive produced “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” which was directed by Nicolas Roeg and starred David Bowie in his feature film debut.
After graduating from NYU School of Law, Litvinoff was a practicing lawyer for 12 years before transitioning into producing. His clients included Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Jack Youngerman, Terry Southern, Timothy Leary, Joel Grey, Orson Bean, Rip Torn and Alan Arkin. He was also a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts...
- 1/6/2023
- by EJ Panaligan
- Variety Film + TV
Si Litvinoff, the visionary producer behind Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and the Nicolas Roeg-directed films The Man Who Fell to Earth and the Australian New Wave classic Walkabout, has died. He was 93.
Litvinoff died peacefully Dec. 26 in Los Angeles, his friend Shade Rupe announced. Rupe interviewed him for the Blu-ray release of Litvinoff’s groundbreaking 1968 film The Queen, which revolves around a national drag queen contest.
Litvinoff also produced the London-set All the Right Noises (1970), starring Olivia Hussey, Tom Bell and Judy Carne, and executive produced a Roeg-directed documentary about the 1972 Glastonbury Fayre music festival that featured performances by Traffic, Fairport Convention, Melanie and Arthur Brown.
In 1965, Litvinoff optioned Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange for a reported 500 and sent the book to Kubrick. While paying for screenplays by Burgess, Terry Southern and Michael Cooper, the producer sought Mick Jagger to star in it, all while Kubrick...
Litvinoff died peacefully Dec. 26 in Los Angeles, his friend Shade Rupe announced. Rupe interviewed him for the Blu-ray release of Litvinoff’s groundbreaking 1968 film The Queen, which revolves around a national drag queen contest.
Litvinoff also produced the London-set All the Right Noises (1970), starring Olivia Hussey, Tom Bell and Judy Carne, and executive produced a Roeg-directed documentary about the 1972 Glastonbury Fayre music festival that featured performances by Traffic, Fairport Convention, Melanie and Arthur Brown.
In 1965, Litvinoff optioned Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange for a reported 500 and sent the book to Kubrick. While paying for screenplays by Burgess, Terry Southern and Michael Cooper, the producer sought Mick Jagger to star in it, all while Kubrick...
- 1/6/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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