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Jess Franco, Spanish Director Of Cult Film Favorites, Dead At Age 82
4 April 2013 9:33 AM, PDT
Spanish film director Jess "Jesus" Franco has died at age 82 in Malaga, Spain. The prolific pioneer of Spanish horror and fantasy cult films capitalized on a relaxation of censorship laws to create a body of films that have withstood the test of time and still maintain loyal followings today. Among them: Succubus, Vampyros Lesbos, 99 Women, The Awful Dr. Orlof, Necronomicon and the 1969 Count Dracula starring Hammer film favorite Christopher Lee. He also served as second unit director on Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight. A respected talent who specialized in exploitation films, Franco also occasionally acted, wrote screenplays and composed music for his own films as well as those of other artists. In all, Franco was involved in the production of over 200 films.
Click here to read Variety obituary
Click here to view kinky trailer for Vampyros Lesbos. »
- nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
Cinema Retro Exclusive! Todd Garbarini Interviews Pasha Roberts, Director Of "Silver Circle"
3 April 2013 12:11 PM, PDT
By Todd Garbarini
Pasha Roberts is the director of the new film Silver Circle. He obtained his masters in financial engineering, which he describes as “hedge fund math,” roughly ten years ago. His interest was in financial digitalization and how to apply modern computer graphics to high finance. His thesis subject consisted of applying a game-like graphics engine to doing equity trading in finance so that a reasonably intelligent 13-year-old gamer could use it to learn this type of trading. Upon doing this, he realized that what was missing from financial communications was a way of describing complicated concepts from a Ph.D level and bringing it down to a Masters level, essentially reducing the complexity and making it accessible; he did this by working with banks, corporations and think tanks.
Beginning around 2006, he began moving towards more economic-type concepts, and felt that it was important to describe things on »
- nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
Actor Milo O'Shea Dead At Age 86
3 April 2013 11:15 AM, PDT
O'Shea squares off in court against Paul Newman in The Verdict.
The acclaimed Irish actor Milo O'Shea has died after a brief illness at age 86. The Dublin-born O'Shea had lived in New York City since 1976. He was described as a giant talent of stage, screen and TV. His memorable feature film performances include the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet, Barbarella, Ulysses and as the compromised judge who argues with attorney Paul Newman in Sidney Lumet's 1982 film The Verdict. O'Shea, an "actor's actor", also appeared in many popular American and British TV shows including The Golden Girls, Cheers, The West Wing and Me Mammy. For more click here »
- nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
Burt Lancaster Film Festival, Billy Wilder Theater, L.A
3 April 2013 7:00 AM, PDT
Lancaster in director Robert Aldrich's superb 1972 Western Ulzana's Raid, one of many films to be screened in tribute to the Oscar-winning screen legend.
In-person:
Joanna Lancaster, Susie Lancaster, actor Ed Lauter and author James Naremore (4/5); actress Terry Moore (4/8); author Alan K. Rode (5/4).
Burt Lancaster was an American original. Born in 1913 in the melting pot of East Harlem, he first acted on the stage of the Union Settlement House before his natural athleticism drew him to a successful career as a circus aerialist. The strapping, blue-eyed, blonde with the legendary grin later referred to Hollywood as “nothing more than a big circus” and when fate brought him into the big top, he seized center ring. A chance meeting with a theatrical agent in 1945 (while picking up his future wife, Norma, for lunch) led to an appearance on Broadway and a contract with producer Hal Wallis who planned to introduce him »
- nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
Film Review: "Room 237"; A Documentary About Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining"
1 April 2013 5:23 PM, PDT
By Todd Garbarini
Room 237 is the title of the excellent new documentary by director Rodney Ascher that takes the points of view of five off-screen individuals who do their best to unmask the purported hidden meanings in Stanley Kubrick’s initially disappointing yet subsequently revered 1980 film version of Stephen King’s The Shining. In doing so, they are keeping in line with a motif derived straight from the novel in a sequence wherein Horace Derwent, a former owner of the Overlook Hotel, urges his costumed party-goers to unmask at a lavish celebration, thereby revealing their identities. The human face as a mask is also a common theme throughout all of Mr. Kubrick’s filmography, so it is only fitting that Room 237 takes the approach of removing layers to reveal what might be hidden beneath the surface in order to get at The Shining’s essence.
As a fan of Mr. »
- nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
A "Titan" Of A Documentary Celebrates Ray Harryhausen's Amazing Career
1 April 2013 3:38 AM, PDT
By Dave Worrall
SFX guru Dennis Muren says, during one of the interviews in Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan, that today special effects are no longer special. Audiences expect them, and are no longer impressed by them. This wasn't the case back in the 50s and 60s when master animator Ray Harryhausen was breaking new ground and entertaining audiences the world over. That said, Harryhausen's work was right for the time, but would not stand up with audiences not familiar with his work today. They have come to expect the impossible, and that's what CGI almost delivers. However, the difference between Harryhausen's creations and today's computer generated creatures is that the latter were animated objects. They were 'real' and as dimensional as the actors who worked alongside the. Tangible objects that had a life of their own. Today they may seem dated, but they have far more character than a CGI effect, »
- nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
6 articles
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