Norman Spencer, the British producer, production manager and screenwriter who worked alongside famed director David Lean on films including Blithe Spirit, Great Expectations, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, has died. He was 110.
Spencer died Aug. 16 in Wimbledon three days after his birthday, the European Supercentenarian Organisation announced.
Apart from Lean, Spencer produced Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), starring Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift and Katharine Hepburn; Richard C. Sarafian’s Vanishing Point (1971), the car chase movie that starred Barry Newman; and Richard Attenborough’s Cry Freedom (1987), starring Denzel Washington.
Spencer was Lean’s unit manager on the ghost comedy Blithe Spirit (1945), based on the Noël Coward play, and served as his production manager on his adaptations of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948).
He produced Lean’s The Passionate Friends (1949) and the Hepburn-starring, Venice-set Summertime (1955); worked on a rewrite of the script for...
Spencer died Aug. 16 in Wimbledon three days after his birthday, the European Supercentenarian Organisation announced.
Apart from Lean, Spencer produced Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), starring Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift and Katharine Hepburn; Richard C. Sarafian’s Vanishing Point (1971), the car chase movie that starred Barry Newman; and Richard Attenborough’s Cry Freedom (1987), starring Denzel Washington.
Spencer was Lean’s unit manager on the ghost comedy Blithe Spirit (1945), based on the Noël Coward play, and served as his production manager on his adaptations of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948).
He produced Lean’s The Passionate Friends (1949) and the Hepburn-starring, Venice-set Summertime (1955); worked on a rewrite of the script for...
- 9/5/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
David Hinton’s thoroughly captivating Made In England: The Films Of Powell And Pressburger (a highlight of the 23rd edition of the Tribeca Festival) has Martin Scorsese (who is also an executive producer) as our personal guide into the wonderful world of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which includes production designers Alfred Junge and Hein Heckroth, cinematographer Jack Cardiff, and art director Arthur Lawson.
Starting with The Thief Of Baghdad (co-directed by Powell with Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan) and The Tales Of Hoffmann on a black and white TV, little Marty was already “bewitched.” Later, The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp’s influence is vast on Scorsese, with the duel between Clive Candy (Roger Livesey) and Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook) inspiring the way he shot (cinematography by Michael Chapman) and cut (by Thelma Schoonmaker) the fight scene in Raging Bull, and with...
Starting with The Thief Of Baghdad (co-directed by Powell with Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan) and The Tales Of Hoffmann on a black and white TV, little Marty was already “bewitched.” Later, The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp’s influence is vast on Scorsese, with the duel between Clive Candy (Roger Livesey) and Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook) inspiring the way he shot (cinematography by Michael Chapman) and cut (by Thelma Schoonmaker) the fight scene in Raging Bull, and with...
- 7/14/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
David Hinton with Anne-Katrin Titze (holding up her Mansur Gavriel Square Toe Ballerinas) on Moira Shearer starring in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes: “She was a ballerina, she wasn’t an actress. And Michael insisted, we must have a ballerina!”
David Hinton’s thoroughly captivating Made In England: The Films Of Powell And Pressburger (a highlight of the 23rd edition of the Tribeca Festival) has Martin Scorsese (who is also an executive producer) as our personal guide into the wonderful world of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which includes production designers Alfred Junge and Hein Heckroth, cinematographer Jack Cardiff, and art director Arthur Lawson.
David Hinton on casting Karlheinz Böhm in Peeping Tom: “It seems such an extraordinarily strange thing to do but it works so perfectly, doesn’t it?”
Starting with The Thief Of Baghdad (co-directed by Powell with Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan...
David Hinton’s thoroughly captivating Made In England: The Films Of Powell And Pressburger (a highlight of the 23rd edition of the Tribeca Festival) has Martin Scorsese (who is also an executive producer) as our personal guide into the wonderful world of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which includes production designers Alfred Junge and Hein Heckroth, cinematographer Jack Cardiff, and art director Arthur Lawson.
David Hinton on casting Karlheinz Böhm in Peeping Tom: “It seems such an extraordinarily strange thing to do but it works so perfectly, doesn’t it?”
Starting with The Thief Of Baghdad (co-directed by Powell with Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan...
- 7/14/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
David Hinton with Anne-Katrin Titze (holding up her Mansur Gavriel Square Toe Ballerinas) on Moira Shearer starring in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes: “She was a ballerina, she wasn’t an actress. And Michael insisted, we must have a ballerina!”
David Hinton’s thoroughly captivating Made In England: The Films Of Powell And Pressburger (a highlight of the 23rd edition of the Tribeca Festival) has Martin Scorsese (who is also an executive producer) as our personal guide into the wonderful world of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which includes production designers Alfred Junge and Hein Heckroth, cinematographer Jack Cardiff, and art director Arthur Lawson.
David Hinton on casting Karlheinz Böhm in Peeping Tom: “It seems such an extraordinarily strange thing to do but it works so perfectly, doesn’t it?”
Starting with The Thief Of Baghdad (co-directed by Powell with Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan...
David Hinton’s thoroughly captivating Made In England: The Films Of Powell And Pressburger (a highlight of the 23rd edition of the Tribeca Festival) has Martin Scorsese (who is also an executive producer) as our personal guide into the wonderful world of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which includes production designers Alfred Junge and Hein Heckroth, cinematographer Jack Cardiff, and art director Arthur Lawson.
David Hinton on casting Karlheinz Böhm in Peeping Tom: “It seems such an extraordinarily strange thing to do but it works so perfectly, doesn’t it?”
Starting with The Thief Of Baghdad (co-directed by Powell with Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan...
- 7/14/2024
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
In David Hinton’s documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger, Martin Scorsese provides a semester’s worth of material to learn about two filmmakers near and dear to his artistry and life. An extended interview with Scorsese guides us through the filmography of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who made a legendary run of films within the British studio system of the 1940s and ’50s under the banner of their production company The Archers. Scorsese also breaks down what makes their films so special while also illuminating the many points of inspiration for his own body of work.
But as Made in England highlights, the connection runs deeper than anything on the screen. Scorsese befriended Powell in the ’70s after the British filmmaker had slipped into obscurity and helped rehabilitate his reputation. Scorsese also served as an unexpected matchmaker by introducing Powell to the woman he would later marry,...
But as Made in England highlights, the connection runs deeper than anything on the screen. Scorsese befriended Powell in the ’70s after the British filmmaker had slipped into obscurity and helped rehabilitate his reputation. Scorsese also served as an unexpected matchmaker by introducing Powell to the woman he would later marry,...
- 7/12/2024
- by Marshall Shaffer
- Slant Magazine
Without Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the films and career of Martin Scorsese would be very different. “Mean Streets” would be less red (thank those titular “Red Shoes”), the title fight in “Raging Bull” wouldn’t have been preceded by that thrilling oner (thank the duel in “Colonel Blimp”), and we wouldn’t have that audacious flash of yellow in “The Age of Innocence,” an idea swiped from the red-hot climax of “Black Narcissus.”
Scorsese has always been admirably honest about his tendency to steal from the best, and “Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger” is at its most fun when Marty talks the audience through how the ironic filmmaking duo’s most striking images reshaped the canon. And what — to him — ultimately made them worth stealing.
These seemingly spontaneous moments are well-illustrated by director David Hinton, a BAFTA-winning documentarian who also made an episode of the...
Scorsese has always been admirably honest about his tendency to steal from the best, and “Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger” is at its most fun when Marty talks the audience through how the ironic filmmaking duo’s most striking images reshaped the canon. And what — to him — ultimately made them worth stealing.
These seemingly spontaneous moments are well-illustrated by director David Hinton, a BAFTA-winning documentarian who also made an episode of the...
- 2/21/2024
- by Adam Solomons
- Indiewire
It’s not often that a doc about the transformative power of cinema will deliberately use bad clips of the movies it’s talking about, but that’s part of the point of this insightful, sprawling film, corralled by director David Hinton. Though the masterpieces made by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger at the height of their big-screen, Technicolor powers were visually impeccable, their subversive emotional power could still pack a punch through a 16-inch TV screen, even from the most scratched, butchered, and washed-out black-and-white prints.
This is, famously, how the young Martin Scorsese discovered The Archers (as the pairing styled themselves), and in this lengthy discourse he gets to position them both as an influence on his own movies and as unsung heroes in the history of world cinema. Now, there are plenty of people who will immediately say that Powell and Pressburger have actually been sung quite a bit,...
This is, famously, how the young Martin Scorsese discovered The Archers (as the pairing styled themselves), and in this lengthy discourse he gets to position them both as an influence on his own movies and as unsung heroes in the history of world cinema. Now, there are plenty of people who will immediately say that Powell and Pressburger have actually been sung quite a bit,...
- 2/21/2024
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Producer Mike Finnell (Joe Dante’s long time producing partner) joins Josh and Joe to discuss a few of his favorite movies.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Avalanche (1978)
Airport (1970)
Earthquake (1974) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Matinee (1993) – Illeana Douglas’s trailer commentary, Dennis Cozzalio’s review, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Hollywood Boulevard (1976) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing
Deceived (1991)
Newsies (1992)
Milk Money (1994)
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979) – Eli Roth’s trailer commentary
The Howling (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s 4K Blu-ray review, Tfh’s 30th anniversary celebration
Explorers (1985) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Innerspace (1987) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The ’Burbs (1989) – Ti West’s trailer commentary, Tfh’s ’Burbs Mania
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Small Soldiers (1998)
A Matter of Life and Death (1946) – Glenn Erickson’s...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Avalanche (1978)
Airport (1970)
Earthquake (1974) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Matinee (1993) – Illeana Douglas’s trailer commentary, Dennis Cozzalio’s review, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Hollywood Boulevard (1976) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing
Deceived (1991)
Newsies (1992)
Milk Money (1994)
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979) – Eli Roth’s trailer commentary
The Howling (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s 4K Blu-ray review, Tfh’s 30th anniversary celebration
Explorers (1985) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Innerspace (1987) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The ’Burbs (1989) – Ti West’s trailer commentary, Tfh’s ’Burbs Mania
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Small Soldiers (1998)
A Matter of Life and Death (1946) – Glenn Erickson’s...
- 7/12/2022
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Martin Scorsese’s nonprofit The Film Foundation is officially launching a free virtual screening room to showcase film restorations. The Film Foundation Restoration Screening Room, which will showcase both foundation restorations as well as those from partners, will launch on Monday, May 9, with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1945 romantic comedy “I Know Where I’m Going!” starring Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey. The restoration was overseen by The Film Foundation and BFI National Archive, in association with ITV and Park Circus.
The film and subsequent titles will be available for a 24-hour window and will feature introductions and conversations with filmmakers and archivists, providing an inside look at the restoration process. The Film Foundation Restoration Screening Room will offer “appointment viewing,” with screenings starting at a set time and available for a limited period, which is unlike other classic streaming options.
The restoration of “I Know Where I’m Going,...
The film and subsequent titles will be available for a 24-hour window and will feature introductions and conversations with filmmakers and archivists, providing an inside look at the restoration process. The Film Foundation Restoration Screening Room will offer “appointment viewing,” with screenings starting at a set time and available for a limited period, which is unlike other classic streaming options.
The restoration of “I Know Where I’m Going,...
- 4/22/2022
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The wonder movie of 1946 sees the Archers infusing the ‘Film Blanc’ fantasy with amazing images and powerful emotions. Imagination and resourcefulness accomplishes miracles on a Stairway to Heaven, with visual effects never bettered in the pre-cgi era. Michael Powell’s command of the screen overpowers a soon-obsoleted theme about U.S.- British relations.
A Matter of Life and Death
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 939
1946 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 104 min. / Stairway to Heaven / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date July 26, 2018 / 39.95
Starring: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Marius Goring, Roger Livesey, Robert Coote, Kathleen Byron, Richard Attenborough, Bonar Colleano, Joan Maude.
Cinematography: Jack Cardiff
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
Production Design: Alfred Junge
Original Music: Allan Gray
Written, Produced and Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger came into their own making wartime movies, most of which steered far clear of the accepted definition of propaganda. After their Anglo-Dutch...
A Matter of Life and Death
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 939
1946 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 104 min. / Stairway to Heaven / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date July 26, 2018 / 39.95
Starring: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Marius Goring, Roger Livesey, Robert Coote, Kathleen Byron, Richard Attenborough, Bonar Colleano, Joan Maude.
Cinematography: Jack Cardiff
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
Production Design: Alfred Junge
Original Music: Allan Gray
Written, Produced and Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger came into their own making wartime movies, most of which steered far clear of the accepted definition of propaganda. After their Anglo-Dutch...
- 7/7/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Alfred Hitchcock assembles all the right elements for this respected mystery thriller. Joan Fontaine is concerned that her new hubby Cary Grant plans to murder her. But Hitch wasn't able to use the twist ending that attracted him to the story in the first place! Suspicion Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1941 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 99 min. / Street Date , 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Joan Fontaine, Cary Grant, Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Dame May Whitty, Auriol Lee, Leo G. Carroll Cinematography Harry Stradling Art Direction Van Nest Polglase Film Editor William Hamilton Original Music Franz Waxman Written by Samson Raphaelson, Joan Harrison, Alma Reville from the novel Before the Fact by Francis Iles (Anthony Berkeley) Produced and Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Some movies don't get better as time goes on. Alfred Hitchcock got himself painted into a corner on this one, perhaps not realizing that in America,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Some movies don't get better as time goes on. Alfred Hitchcock got himself painted into a corner on this one, perhaps not realizing that in America,...
- 4/9/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
'Saint Joan': Constance Cummings as the George Bernard Shaw heroine. Constance Cummings on stage: From sex-change farce and Emma Bovary to Juliet and 'Saint Joan' (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Frank Capra, Mae West and Columbia Lawsuit.”) In the mid-1930s, Constance Cummings landed the title roles in two of husband Benn W. Levy's stage adaptations: Levy and Hubert Griffith's Young Madame Conti (1936), starring Cummings as a demimondaine who falls in love with a villainous character. She ends up killing him – or does she? Adapted from Bruno Frank's German-language original, Young Madame Conti was presented on both sides of the Atlantic; on Broadway, it had a brief run in spring 1937 at the Music Box Theatre. Based on the Gustave Flaubert novel, the Theatre Guild-produced Madame Bovary (1937) was staged in late fall at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. Referring to the London production of Young Madame Conti, The...
- 11/10/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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From Thomas F Wilson in Back To The Future to Nicolas Cage and John Travolta in Face/Off - when actors play multiple roles...
The dramatic use of actors playing multiple characters is a bold and rather theatrical device that has its ups and downs. It goes at least as far back as Captain Hook being played by the same actor who plays the Darling children's father in stage productions of Peter Pan, a technique largely adopted in film adaptations of the story, too (hello to Jason Isaacs).
It's used a lot in cinema too. Done well, it's impressive, but when it's bad, it's Jack & Jill. Whether used in comedy or drama or outright horror, there are countless examples of actors delivering terrific performances in more than one role at once, and that's before we even get past Cloud Atlas. Still, we've had a go at totting up 25 of the best.
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From Thomas F Wilson in Back To The Future to Nicolas Cage and John Travolta in Face/Off - when actors play multiple roles...
The dramatic use of actors playing multiple characters is a bold and rather theatrical device that has its ups and downs. It goes at least as far back as Captain Hook being played by the same actor who plays the Darling children's father in stage productions of Peter Pan, a technique largely adopted in film adaptations of the story, too (hello to Jason Isaacs).
It's used a lot in cinema too. Done well, it's impressive, but when it's bad, it's Jack & Jill. Whether used in comedy or drama or outright horror, there are countless examples of actors delivering terrific performances in more than one role at once, and that's before we even get past Cloud Atlas. Still, we've had a go at totting up 25 of the best.
- 11/5/2015
- by simonbrew
- Den of Geek
Raymond Massey ca. 1940. Raymond Massey movies: From Lincoln to Boris Karloff Though hardly remembered today, the Toronto-born Raymond Massey was a top supporting player – and sometime lead – in both British and American movies from the early '30s all the way to the early '60s. During that period, Massey was featured in nearly 50 films. Turner Classic Movies generally selects the same old MGM / Rko / Warner Bros. stars for its annual “Summer Under the Stars” series. For that reason, it's great to see someone like Raymond Massey – who was with Warners in the '40s – be the focus of a whole day: Sat., Aug. 8, '15. (See TCM's Raymond Massey movie schedule further below.) Admittedly, despite his prestige – his stage credits included the title role in the short-lived 1931 Broadway production of Hamlet – the quality of Massey's performances varied wildly. Sometimes he could be quite effective; most of the time, however, he was an unabashed scenery chewer,...
- 8/8/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Part I. Anger, Suez and Archie Rice
“There they are,” George Devine told John Osborne, surveying The Entertainer‘s opening night audience. “All waiting for you…Same old pack of c***s, fashionable assholes. Just more of them than usual.” The Royal Court had arrived: no longer outcasts, they were London’s main attraction.
Look Back in Anger vindicated Devine’s model of a writer’s-based theater. Osborne’s success attracted a host of dramatists to Sloane Square. There’s Shelagh Delaney, whose A Taste of Honey featured a working-class girl pregnant from an interracial dalliance; Harold Pinter’s The Room, a bizarre “comedy of menace”; and John Arden’s Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance, which aimed a Gatling gun at its audience. Devine encouraged them, however bold or experimental. “You always knew he was on the writer’s side,” Osborne said.
Peter O’Toole called the Royal Court actors “an...
“There they are,” George Devine told John Osborne, surveying The Entertainer‘s opening night audience. “All waiting for you…Same old pack of c***s, fashionable assholes. Just more of them than usual.” The Royal Court had arrived: no longer outcasts, they were London’s main attraction.
Look Back in Anger vindicated Devine’s model of a writer’s-based theater. Osborne’s success attracted a host of dramatists to Sloane Square. There’s Shelagh Delaney, whose A Taste of Honey featured a working-class girl pregnant from an interracial dalliance; Harold Pinter’s The Room, a bizarre “comedy of menace”; and John Arden’s Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance, which aimed a Gatling gun at its audience. Devine encouraged them, however bold or experimental. “You always knew he was on the writer’s side,” Osborne said.
Peter O’Toole called the Royal Court actors “an...
- 3/13/2015
- by Christopher Saunders
- SoundOnSight
Top twenty. Now we start to see the more widely recognizable films that people have some emotional attachment to. World War II gets a few mentions in this portion of the list, but this is one of the more diverse sections, overall. We get a mention of the Boer War, the Algerian War, and the Korean War, as well as the only movie about the American Civil War on this list.
20. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Directed by: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Conflict: Boer War, World War I, World War II
The only film on the list that spans multiple wars is also probably the least battle-focused film on the list. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is told through an extended flashback, following Major-General Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesey) as he rises through the ranks of the British military from war to war. The flashback is...
20. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Directed by: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Conflict: Boer War, World War I, World War II
The only film on the list that spans multiple wars is also probably the least battle-focused film on the list. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is told through an extended flashback, following Major-General Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesey) as he rises through the ranks of the British military from war to war. The flashback is...
- 6/26/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
What’s new, what’s hot, and what you may have missed, now available to stream.
new to stream
Avengers Assemble (aka Marvel’s The Avengers): one of the best superhero movies ever made, this is funny, poignant, exciting, and involving [my review] [at Netflix] Call Me Kuchu: powerful documentary about gay men fighting for equal rights and human dignity in Uganda [at Netflix] Fright Night: 2011 update of the classic 80s comedy horror features a killer performance by David Tennant as a stage magician [my review] [at Netflix] Populaire: ridiculous charming and totally delightful, this is a sly sendup of sports movies within a hugely smart and funny nostalgic romance [my review] [at Netflix] The Queen of Versailles: entertaining look at the financial troubles of one of the wealthiest families in America… and perhaps one of the most dysfunctional [my review] [at Netflix]
streaming now, while it’s still in theaters
The Machine: the bleak chic of this Sf drama is intriguing, but the...
new to stream
Avengers Assemble (aka Marvel’s The Avengers): one of the best superhero movies ever made, this is funny, poignant, exciting, and involving [my review] [at Netflix] Call Me Kuchu: powerful documentary about gay men fighting for equal rights and human dignity in Uganda [at Netflix] Fright Night: 2011 update of the classic 80s comedy horror features a killer performance by David Tennant as a stage magician [my review] [at Netflix] Populaire: ridiculous charming and totally delightful, this is a sly sendup of sports movies within a hugely smart and funny nostalgic romance [my review] [at Netflix] The Queen of Versailles: entertaining look at the financial troubles of one of the wealthiest families in America… and perhaps one of the most dysfunctional [my review] [at Netflix]
streaming now, while it’s still in theaters
The Machine: the bleak chic of this Sf drama is intriguing, but the...
- 3/24/2014
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Even back when Britain was an industrial nation, films about industry were relatively rare: audiences who worked on assembly lines presumably wanted to look at something more glamorous on their night at the pictures. In Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), Albert Finney snarled, "Don't let the bastards grind you down," a neat encapsulation of the working man's political philosophy, whereas I'm Alright Jack (1959) took a dismayed view of the hostile stand-off between Capital and Labor. That Boulting Brothers satire may have adopted a "plague on both your houses" stance, but in fact its sympathy was with management.
The Agitator (1945) is the product of a gentler age: it tries to be sympathetic to everybody, but again there's a hidden conservative bias. Still, as the product of a generation who had just won the war and were looking forward, some of them, to a bright socialist future of free education and health care,...
The Agitator (1945) is the product of a gentler age: it tries to be sympathetic to everybody, but again there's a hidden conservative bias. Still, as the product of a generation who had just won the war and were looking forward, some of them, to a bright socialist future of free education and health care,...
- 3/20/2014
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Xan Brooks's account of his emotional engagement with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's A Canterbury Tale (A pilgrim's progress, Review, 10 August) captures beautifully what many feel about this evocative film. Unfortunately, he plays down two important elements that make the film what it is. Most important is the contribution of Pressburger, who was much more than Powell's "regular collaborator", but a full partner in all departments except directing on this and 16 other features.
Having organised the first full retrospective of their work for the BFI, I can testify that they considered the film a "failure", but were gratified when the BBC's restoration of the truncated original premiered to acclaim at the Nft in 1978. Emeric later introduced the film at MoMA in New York and spoke about trying to create the conditions for "magic" to happen on screen – his contribution shouldn't be downgraded. The other vital ingredient was the non-professional Sgt John Sweet,...
Having organised the first full retrospective of their work for the BFI, I can testify that they considered the film a "failure", but were gratified when the BBC's restoration of the truncated original premiered to acclaim at the Nft in 1978. Emeric later introduced the film at MoMA in New York and spoke about trying to create the conditions for "magic" to happen on screen – his contribution shouldn't be downgraded. The other vital ingredient was the non-professional Sgt John Sweet,...
- 8/16/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Seventy years after it was made, Michael Powell's A Canterbury Tale remains the perfect remedy for self-pity. Xan Brooks seeks out the film's locations, still haunted by the ghosts of a film that celebrated the values and traditions of an England under fire
In August 1943 the director Michael Powell came to east Kent to shoot his most ambitious and personal film to date. A Canterbury Tale took its lead from Chaucer to spin the story of three modern-day pilgrims uprooted by the war. It showed us the hedgerows and the hop gardens and the ancient road atop the downs. It celebrated the values and traditions of an England under fire. That wartime summer, the film's locations came haunted by the ghosts of the pardoner, the falconer, the garrulous wife of Bath. Today, for me, they are haunted by the ghosts of A Canterbury Tale. Seventy years on, it's as...
In August 1943 the director Michael Powell came to east Kent to shoot his most ambitious and personal film to date. A Canterbury Tale took its lead from Chaucer to spin the story of three modern-day pilgrims uprooted by the war. It showed us the hedgerows and the hop gardens and the ancient road atop the downs. It celebrated the values and traditions of an England under fire. That wartime summer, the film's locations came haunted by the ghosts of the pardoner, the falconer, the garrulous wife of Bath. Today, for me, they are haunted by the ghosts of A Canterbury Tale. Seventy years on, it's as...
- 8/9/2013
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
‘A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway To Heaven)’
Written & Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Starring David Niven, Kim Hunter, and Roger Livesey
UK, 104 min – 1946.
“A weak mind isn’t strong enough to hurt itself. Stupidity has saved many a man from going mad.”
When A Matter of Life and Death begins, there is seemingly no hope for Raf pilot, Peter Carter (David Niven). His plane has been shot at, while returning from a bombing run in May 1945. His crew safely bails out, but he remains. Peter gets on the radio and speaks to American operator, June (Kim Hunter) revealing that these are his last moments. He talks to her of love and loss and of his readiness to die and then jumps out of his burning plane, sans parachute. This is supposed to be his time of death, but unfortunately Peter’s heavenly Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) misses him in the English fog.
Written & Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Starring David Niven, Kim Hunter, and Roger Livesey
UK, 104 min – 1946.
“A weak mind isn’t strong enough to hurt itself. Stupidity has saved many a man from going mad.”
When A Matter of Life and Death begins, there is seemingly no hope for Raf pilot, Peter Carter (David Niven). His plane has been shot at, while returning from a bombing run in May 1945. His crew safely bails out, but he remains. Peter gets on the radio and speaks to American operator, June (Kim Hunter) revealing that these are his last moments. He talks to her of love and loss and of his readiness to die and then jumps out of his burning plane, sans parachute. This is supposed to be his time of death, but unfortunately Peter’s heavenly Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) misses him in the English fog.
- 5/28/2013
- by Karen Bacellar
- SoundOnSight
1935-42, PG, Network
The first volume of this series was disappointing, but this one is both valuable and entertaining. The first disc from pre-Michael Balcon days has the more significant films. The likable 18th-century children's naval yarn Midshipman Easy (1935) stars future TV star Hughie Green as an idealistic, naive teenager turning up trumps at sea and waving a cutlass ashore while serving on a Royal Navy sloop command by Roger Livesey. It's significant as the directorial debut of Carol Reed and welcomed by his future collaborator Graham Greene in his Spectator film column.
The other film, Brief Ecstasy (1937), directed by Edmond T Gréville, a French film-maker at home on both sides of the Channel, is a little gem about a handsome middle-class Englishman (Hugh Williams) and the attractive student (Linden Travers) with whom he has a one-night stand in London and then meets again five years later, when she's...
The first volume of this series was disappointing, but this one is both valuable and entertaining. The first disc from pre-Michael Balcon days has the more significant films. The likable 18th-century children's naval yarn Midshipman Easy (1935) stars future TV star Hughie Green as an idealistic, naive teenager turning up trumps at sea and waving a cutlass ashore while serving on a Royal Navy sloop command by Roger Livesey. It's significant as the directorial debut of Carol Reed and welcomed by his future collaborator Graham Greene in his Spectator film column.
The other film, Brief Ecstasy (1937), directed by Edmond T Gréville, a French film-maker at home on both sides of the Channel, is a little gem about a handsome middle-class Englishman (Hugh Williams) and the attractive student (Linden Travers) with whom he has a one-night stand in London and then meets again five years later, when she's...
- 5/11/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
In the great romcoms of old, it was the women who were a bit nuts. But in Love is All You Need and Silver Linings Playbook, it's the other way round …
If ever one needed a excuse to flip, the heroine of Love is All You Need would appear to have an embarrassment of riches. She has had surgery for cancer and just finished a bout of chemo, the long-term efficiency of which she doubts. She returns home from hospital to find her husband of 25 years shagging a colleague on their couch. He leaves her, then the following week shows up with the colleague – to whom he's now engaged – at the wedding of their daughter in Italy. Their son can't come as he's serving as a soldier in a warzone.
And yet she remains, throughout, perfectly peaceful and sanguine. She starts sane and she ends sane – her hopes get mashed...
If ever one needed a excuse to flip, the heroine of Love is All You Need would appear to have an embarrassment of riches. She has had surgery for cancer and just finished a bout of chemo, the long-term efficiency of which she doubts. She returns home from hospital to find her husband of 25 years shagging a colleague on their couch. He leaves her, then the following week shows up with the colleague – to whom he's now engaged – at the wedding of their daughter in Italy. Their son can't come as he's serving as a soldier in a warzone.
And yet she remains, throughout, perfectly peaceful and sanguine. She starts sane and she ends sane – her hopes get mashed...
- 4/18/2013
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
Before the legendary British filmmaking duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger lensed the classics The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus or A Matter of Life & Death, they raised quite a stir with their life long tale of an aging army officer, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. The directors were working as hired guns on British war propaganda films in the midst of World War II when they started work on the picture. Featuring the well-known British cartoon icon created by David Low, Colonel Blimp was a satirical symbol of low brow soldiery and politics of the time, and when Powell and Pressburger decided to recast the character as Clive Candy, placed by the amorphous Roger Livesey, and have him befriend a German soldier, a sworn enemy of the state at the time, British officials, including Winston Churchill himself, were outraged and tried desperately to dissuade the film’s completion.
- 4/2/2013
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Makeup artist who created Yoda and Chewbacca for the Star Wars films
If there was a film made in Britain between the early 1940s and early 1980s that required innovations in makeup and prosthetics design, chances are that Stuart Freeborn, who has died aged 98, was involved in it in some capacity. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, David Lean's adaptation of Oliver Twist, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Omen, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back: all these benefited from Freeborn's pioneering approach to makeup. When audiences gaze with wonder upon the apes in the "dawn of man" sequence at the beginning of 2001, or fall under the spell of the 2ft tall guru Yoda and his gnomic proclamations, their response is a testament to Freeborn's persuasive artistry.
He was born in Leytonstone, east London, where it was assumed that he would follow in the footsteps of his father,...
If there was a film made in Britain between the early 1940s and early 1980s that required innovations in makeup and prosthetics design, chances are that Stuart Freeborn, who has died aged 98, was involved in it in some capacity. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, David Lean's adaptation of Oliver Twist, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Omen, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back: all these benefited from Freeborn's pioneering approach to makeup. When audiences gaze with wonder upon the apes in the "dawn of man" sequence at the beginning of 2001, or fall under the spell of the 2ft tall guru Yoda and his gnomic proclamations, their response is a testament to Freeborn's persuasive artistry.
He was born in Leytonstone, east London, where it was assumed that he would follow in the footsteps of his father,...
- 2/9/2013
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: March 19, 2013
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Roger Livesey stars in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Considered by many to be the finest British films ever made, the1943 war-drama-romance classic The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (The Battle of the River Plate).
Roger Livesey dynamically embodies outmoded English militarism as the indelible General Clive Candy, who barely survives four decades of tumultuous British history (1902 to 1942) only to see the world change irrevocably before his eyes. Anton Walbrook (The Red Shoes) and Deborah Kerr (Black Narcissus) provide unforgettable support, he as a German enemy turned lifelong friend of Blimp’s and she as young women of three consecutive generations—a socially committed governess, a sweet-souled war nurse, and a modern-thinking army driver—who inspire him.
Shot in gorgeous Technicolor, Colonel Blimp is both moving and satirical—a...
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Roger Livesey stars in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Considered by many to be the finest British films ever made, the1943 war-drama-romance classic The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (The Battle of the River Plate).
Roger Livesey dynamically embodies outmoded English militarism as the indelible General Clive Candy, who barely survives four decades of tumultuous British history (1902 to 1942) only to see the world change irrevocably before his eyes. Anton Walbrook (The Red Shoes) and Deborah Kerr (Black Narcissus) provide unforgettable support, he as a German enemy turned lifelong friend of Blimp’s and she as young women of three consecutive generations—a socially committed governess, a sweet-souled war nurse, and a modern-thinking army driver—who inspire him.
Shot in gorgeous Technicolor, Colonel Blimp is both moving and satirical—a...
- 12/21/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
An elegy for the British stiff upper lip, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp couldn't have been more foreign to a young Italian-American in the 1950s. But Martin Scorsese tells Joe Queenan why restoring the classic is part of his duty to cinema
One rainy day in the early 1950s, a very young Martin Scorsese was watching a butchered version of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp on his black-and-white TV. Colonel Blimp, which deals with a lifelong friendship between Clive Candy, a British soldier sporting an upper lip of almost unbelievable stiffness, and his top-hole German counterpart, Theodore Kretschmar-Schuldorff, first saw the light of day in 1943. This was not the best time to be releasing a film with a sympathetic German character.
The film Scorsese saw was not the film Michael Powell had shot, nor the film his collaborator Emeric Pressburger had written. (For years, the pair...
One rainy day in the early 1950s, a very young Martin Scorsese was watching a butchered version of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp on his black-and-white TV. Colonel Blimp, which deals with a lifelong friendship between Clive Candy, a British soldier sporting an upper lip of almost unbelievable stiffness, and his top-hole German counterpart, Theodore Kretschmar-Schuldorff, first saw the light of day in 1943. This was not the best time to be releasing a film with a sympathetic German character.
The film Scorsese saw was not the film Michael Powell had shot, nor the film his collaborator Emeric Pressburger had written. (For years, the pair...
- 10/30/2012
- by Joe Queenan
- The Guardian - Film News
The Mumbai Film Festival (October 18 – 25, 2012) is the largest film festival in India with over 100,000 attending. The Festival is 14 years old itself but Reliance Big Entertainment, the company that backs both Dreamworks and Im Global, one of U.S.’s foremost international sales agents, has backed this festival for the last 4 years and the result is a scaled up festival. It is part of the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image, a not for profit trust founded in 1997 by Indian Film Industry personalities led by renowned filmmaker late Hrishikesh Mukherji. Its 220 films are all free.
Parenthetically, though not part of the festival itself, Mumbai is "'in the news" with the Tiff's City-to-City program focusing on Mumbai. This was organized by Cameron Bailey directly with filmmakers in Mumbai and is not a Mumbai Film Festival program…Also of interest is that Mumbai also hosts India's largest international Queer Film Festival For Everyone which was held in May of this year with the Alliance Francaise de Bombay.
The Mumbai Film Festival also works with Unifance and French Rendez-Vous.
Sections include Discovery, Retrospective - this year to feature 50 years of the Cannes Critics Week, International Competition which awards $200,000 to a first feature.
Three new developments are taking place this year.
1. To celebrate 100 years of Indian cinema, the festival is launching a new competition for Indian films (called 'India Gold') with cumulative cash rewards of around $30,000 Us. The winners will be selected by an international jury to be announced.
2. The festival is moving to historic South Bombay. The festival, previously held mostly in the Juhu and Andheri districts of Mumbai – where Bollywood is located - will now take place in the south of the city, the historic center of old colonial Bombay with amazing Victorian landmarks – train station, court house, with the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Ncpa) and Inox Theatre as the main venues. The retrospective of restored films will be screened in a third theater - a historic art deco theater named the Liberty Cinema – so named because it was built in 1949, the year of India's independence from Britain. For more information on the Liberty see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Cinema
3. The Spotlight on Film Restoration and Preservation. For the first time, a section of the festival (programmed by Ian Birnie, U.S. Representative for the Mumbai Film Festival) will be devoted to screenings of restored classic films with a particular focus on Twentieth Century Fox. Screenings will be introduced by various archivists all of whom are leading experts in the field. A panel will bring together Western archivists and their Indian counterparts and the discussion will focus on the economic challenges and new technologies that are changing the future of film preservation.
The American participants are:
Schawn Belston, Senior VP, Library and Technical Services, Twentieth Century Fox
Margaret Bodde, Executive Director, The Film Foundation
Mike Pogorzelski, Director, The Academy Film Archive
Douglas Laible, Managing Director, World Cinema Foundation
TheTwentieth Century Fox Archive will present 8 films spanning 40 years in the 'Fox Classics' series. Note: all were restored in-house at Fox, and by Fox in association with the Academy Film Archive (Afa) and with The Film Foundation (Ff)
Sunrise (1928/b&w/94 min.) dir: F.W. Murnau; w /George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston.(Fox/Afa)
How Green Was My Valley(1941/b&w/118 min.) dir: John Ford; w/ Walter Pigeon, Maureen O'Hara. (Fox/Afa)
Laura (1944/b&w/88 min.) dir: Otto Preminger; w/ Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb. (Fox in-house)
Leave Her to Heaven(1945/color/110 min.) dir: John Stahl; w/ Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain. (Fox/Afa/Ff)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953/color/91 min.) dir: Howard Hawks; w/ Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell.(Fox in-house)
Wild River(1960/color/110 min./CinemaScope) dir: Elia Kazan; w/ Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, Jo Van Fleet. (Fox/Afa/Ff)
The Leopard (1963/color/187 min.) dir: Luchino Visconti; w/ Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale.(Fox/Ff/Cineteca di Bologna)
Two for the Road(1967/color/110 min./Panavision) dir: Stanley Donen; w/ Audey Hepburn, Albert Finney. (Fox/Afa)
In addition to the Fox titles, 7 additional restored films will be screened.
The Academy Film Archive will present two recent restorations from their ongoing project to restore all the films by the great Indian director Satyajit Ray:
Charulata(1964/b&w/117 min.) w/ Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Shailen Mukherjee.
The Chess Players (1977/color/129 min.) w/ Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Shabana Azmi
The Film Foundation will present two recent restorations:
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1945/color/163 min.) dir: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger; w/ Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook.
Once Upon a Time in America (1984/color/ ??? min.) dir: Sergio Leone; w/ Robert DeNiro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern.
The World Cinema Foundation will present its new restoration of a classic Indian film:
Kalpana (1948/b&w/155 min.)
The Cineteca Bologna will present two restored Italian silent classics as part of an Italian Cinema retrospective.
Sections of the Festival
Dimensions Mumbai, a short film competition of films dealing with any aspect of life in Mumbai and targeted to the Mumbai Youth below 25 years was introduced in 2008.
An International Competition for the First Feature Film of directors with the award money of Us $ 150,000 (Us $ 100,000 for the Best Film and Us $ 50,000 for the Jury Grand Prize) was introduced in 2009. The UK Film 'White Lightn'in won the 2011 Best Film Award and Austria-Italy co-production La Pivillina won the Jury Grand Prize.
The Audience Choice Award carrying U.S. $ 20,000 for any film participating in the Festival, (excepting the Retrospectives and Tribute sections) was introduced in 09 as well. The Indian Film 'Road to Sangam' won this award.
International Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred on the Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos.
A new initiative Mumbai Young Critics was introduced in '09 as well. 24 college students selected from more than 80 aspirants recommended by the colleges in Mumbai went through a workshop conducted by the German writer and film critic Daniel Kothenschulte for three days before the Festival. This group watched the films in the festival, wrote about them in Festival publications and newspapers and also selected a film for the Mumbai Young Critics Award.
Last year the festival showcased over 200 films from 60 countries across various sections at its three venues- Cinemax Versova, Cinemax Sion and Metro Big Cinemas.
The festival hosts a special section ‘4me Rendez-Vous’, in collaboration with Unifrance, Embassy of France in India and Consulate General of France in Mumbai. The section screens the best of New French Cinema, which last year included ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro’, ‘The Conquest’ and ‘Declaration of War’ amongst others.
Last year's highlight was the special presentation by Lee Yong Kwan, Director, Busan International Film Festival, who presented a selection of the latest Asian Films from Busan.
Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred on the legendary actor Morgan Freeman. Olivia Harrison widow of George Harrison presented the documentary film “George Harrison: Living in the material World”.
The Festival strengthened and consolidated its academic activities with an Indo-German Script Development Workshop scheduled from 11th to the 13th of October just ahead of the festival opening. Speakers at the workshop included the renowned directors Dani Levy, Thorsten Schulz, Screenwriters Anjum Rajabali and Sooni Taraporevala amongst others.
This year's Festival continues to facilitate cinema business with the Mumbai Film Mart, created 'by' the industry, 'for' the industry, 'in' the industry hub - Mumbai, the Film Capital of India. The Mumbai Film Mart saw participation from the biggest Entertainment Industry players, both from India and abroad. In the three days, over 2,000 meeting requests were received, 400 meetings were carried out face to face, while an equal number took place among the senior decision makers from leading film production houses, buyers, sellers, festival programmers and independent filmmakers as they milled around and networked with each other.
Among the many firsts, the Mart attracted all the forthcoming big ticket films such as ‘Ra One’, ‘Don 2’, ‘Rockstar’, ‘Ricky Behl v/s Ladies’, ‘The Dirty Picture’, ‘DesiBoyz’ , tabled for acquisition and distribution in the non-traditional markets for Indian Cinema in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Germany, France and Latin America. The focus on these countries attracted leading buyers that included Huayi Brothers Media Corp. (China), NikkatsuCorp.(Japan), Happinet Corp.(Japan), Showbox (Korea), Apex Entertainment (Korea), Cj Entertainment (Korea), Top Films (Ukraine), Novo films (France), Rapid Eye (Germany), Im Global (USA), amongst many others.
The International Jury will be responsible choosing the winners out of 14 films, all first features of debut filmmakers around the world, awarding them with a huge cash prize. This way we would like to recognize and encourage the first time filmmakers, going in line with the festival theme of discovery.
Apart from the main international section, there are many other sections including the world cinema, Indian Frame, New Faces in Indian Cinema, Documentaries etc. Please do check out their website www.mumbaifilmfest.com for more information. Last year, it screened about 220 films from 60 countries.
Composition of Mami:
Shyam Benegal, Eminent Filmmaker – Chairman
Amit Khanna, producer, lyricist and Chairman of Reliance Entertainment
Amol Palekar, acclaimed actor-director
Ashutosh Gowarikar (Oscar Nominee - Best Foreign Language Film for Lagaan)
Farhan Akhtar, one of the youngest directors and actor
Jaya Bachchan, acclaimed and award winning actress
Karan Johar, director-producer of some of the most successful films at the box office
Ramesh Sippy, well known filmmaker of Sholay fame
Shabana Azmi, renowned actress who has won acclaim and awards Internationally
Yash Chopra, producer-director, doyen of the Hindi film industry.
Narayan is the Director and head programmer, Anu is second in command.
And there is a selection committee that screens all the competition films – industry people and critics in Mumbai.
About Reliance Big Entertainment
Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd. (Rbel) is the flagship media and entertainment arm of India's Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, with a significant presence in film entertainment (film production, distribution, and exhibition), broadcasting and new media ventures.
Rbel's motion picture brand, Reliance Big Pictures ( www.reliancebigpictures.com ) has built a impressive film production slate in Hindi, English & other Indian languages, which it markets and distributes worldwide. Following Reliance Big Picturess association with Im Global, the company now benefits from an international sales team with an excellent reputation and global presence dedicated to selling its Bollywood and regional language slate. Going into production in November is the $45 million ðDreddð, which Reliance Big Entertainment is co-financing with Im Global.
In Hollywood, Reliance Big Pictures has partnered with Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider on the formation of DreamWorks Studios and hasdevelopment deals with Nicolas Cage's Saturn Films, Jim Carrey's Jc 23 Entertainment, George Clooney's Smokehouse Productions, Chris Columbus'1492 Pictures, Tom Hanksð Playtone Productions, Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment, Jay Roach's Everyman Pictures, Brett Ratnerðs Rat Entertainment,Julia Robertsð Red Om Films and Brian Grazer and Ron Howardðs Imagine Entertainment.
Also worth noting: the competition section of the festival is for first features and carries a Grand prize of Us$100,000 and a Jury prize of Us$50,000.00, with a percentage of the money of allocated to the sales agent who submitted the film. With 14 features, the odds are better than most lotteries… This was last year's lineup http://www.mumbaifilmfest.com/Mami/films_list.php The Salesman, one of the films their U.S. Representative Programmer, Ian Bernie (former longtime Lacma programmer) selected, won the Jury Award and Best Actor.
Parenthetically, though not part of the festival itself, Mumbai is "'in the news" with the Tiff's City-to-City program focusing on Mumbai. This was organized by Cameron Bailey directly with filmmakers in Mumbai and is not a Mumbai Film Festival program…Also of interest is that Mumbai also hosts India's largest international Queer Film Festival For Everyone which was held in May of this year with the Alliance Francaise de Bombay.
The Mumbai Film Festival also works with Unifance and French Rendez-Vous.
Sections include Discovery, Retrospective - this year to feature 50 years of the Cannes Critics Week, International Competition which awards $200,000 to a first feature.
Three new developments are taking place this year.
1. To celebrate 100 years of Indian cinema, the festival is launching a new competition for Indian films (called 'India Gold') with cumulative cash rewards of around $30,000 Us. The winners will be selected by an international jury to be announced.
2. The festival is moving to historic South Bombay. The festival, previously held mostly in the Juhu and Andheri districts of Mumbai – where Bollywood is located - will now take place in the south of the city, the historic center of old colonial Bombay with amazing Victorian landmarks – train station, court house, with the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Ncpa) and Inox Theatre as the main venues. The retrospective of restored films will be screened in a third theater - a historic art deco theater named the Liberty Cinema – so named because it was built in 1949, the year of India's independence from Britain. For more information on the Liberty see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Cinema
3. The Spotlight on Film Restoration and Preservation. For the first time, a section of the festival (programmed by Ian Birnie, U.S. Representative for the Mumbai Film Festival) will be devoted to screenings of restored classic films with a particular focus on Twentieth Century Fox. Screenings will be introduced by various archivists all of whom are leading experts in the field. A panel will bring together Western archivists and their Indian counterparts and the discussion will focus on the economic challenges and new technologies that are changing the future of film preservation.
The American participants are:
Schawn Belston, Senior VP, Library and Technical Services, Twentieth Century Fox
Margaret Bodde, Executive Director, The Film Foundation
Mike Pogorzelski, Director, The Academy Film Archive
Douglas Laible, Managing Director, World Cinema Foundation
TheTwentieth Century Fox Archive will present 8 films spanning 40 years in the 'Fox Classics' series. Note: all were restored in-house at Fox, and by Fox in association with the Academy Film Archive (Afa) and with The Film Foundation (Ff)
Sunrise (1928/b&w/94 min.) dir: F.W. Murnau; w /George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston.(Fox/Afa)
How Green Was My Valley(1941/b&w/118 min.) dir: John Ford; w/ Walter Pigeon, Maureen O'Hara. (Fox/Afa)
Laura (1944/b&w/88 min.) dir: Otto Preminger; w/ Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb. (Fox in-house)
Leave Her to Heaven(1945/color/110 min.) dir: John Stahl; w/ Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain. (Fox/Afa/Ff)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953/color/91 min.) dir: Howard Hawks; w/ Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell.(Fox in-house)
Wild River(1960/color/110 min./CinemaScope) dir: Elia Kazan; w/ Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, Jo Van Fleet. (Fox/Afa/Ff)
The Leopard (1963/color/187 min.) dir: Luchino Visconti; w/ Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale.(Fox/Ff/Cineteca di Bologna)
Two for the Road(1967/color/110 min./Panavision) dir: Stanley Donen; w/ Audey Hepburn, Albert Finney. (Fox/Afa)
In addition to the Fox titles, 7 additional restored films will be screened.
The Academy Film Archive will present two recent restorations from their ongoing project to restore all the films by the great Indian director Satyajit Ray:
Charulata(1964/b&w/117 min.) w/ Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Shailen Mukherjee.
The Chess Players (1977/color/129 min.) w/ Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Shabana Azmi
The Film Foundation will present two recent restorations:
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1945/color/163 min.) dir: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger; w/ Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook.
Once Upon a Time in America (1984/color/ ??? min.) dir: Sergio Leone; w/ Robert DeNiro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern.
The World Cinema Foundation will present its new restoration of a classic Indian film:
Kalpana (1948/b&w/155 min.)
The Cineteca Bologna will present two restored Italian silent classics as part of an Italian Cinema retrospective.
Sections of the Festival
Dimensions Mumbai, a short film competition of films dealing with any aspect of life in Mumbai and targeted to the Mumbai Youth below 25 years was introduced in 2008.
An International Competition for the First Feature Film of directors with the award money of Us $ 150,000 (Us $ 100,000 for the Best Film and Us $ 50,000 for the Jury Grand Prize) was introduced in 2009. The UK Film 'White Lightn'in won the 2011 Best Film Award and Austria-Italy co-production La Pivillina won the Jury Grand Prize.
The Audience Choice Award carrying U.S. $ 20,000 for any film participating in the Festival, (excepting the Retrospectives and Tribute sections) was introduced in 09 as well. The Indian Film 'Road to Sangam' won this award.
International Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred on the Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos.
A new initiative Mumbai Young Critics was introduced in '09 as well. 24 college students selected from more than 80 aspirants recommended by the colleges in Mumbai went through a workshop conducted by the German writer and film critic Daniel Kothenschulte for three days before the Festival. This group watched the films in the festival, wrote about them in Festival publications and newspapers and also selected a film for the Mumbai Young Critics Award.
Last year the festival showcased over 200 films from 60 countries across various sections at its three venues- Cinemax Versova, Cinemax Sion and Metro Big Cinemas.
The festival hosts a special section ‘4me Rendez-Vous’, in collaboration with Unifrance, Embassy of France in India and Consulate General of France in Mumbai. The section screens the best of New French Cinema, which last year included ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro’, ‘The Conquest’ and ‘Declaration of War’ amongst others.
Last year's highlight was the special presentation by Lee Yong Kwan, Director, Busan International Film Festival, who presented a selection of the latest Asian Films from Busan.
Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred on the legendary actor Morgan Freeman. Olivia Harrison widow of George Harrison presented the documentary film “George Harrison: Living in the material World”.
The Festival strengthened and consolidated its academic activities with an Indo-German Script Development Workshop scheduled from 11th to the 13th of October just ahead of the festival opening. Speakers at the workshop included the renowned directors Dani Levy, Thorsten Schulz, Screenwriters Anjum Rajabali and Sooni Taraporevala amongst others.
This year's Festival continues to facilitate cinema business with the Mumbai Film Mart, created 'by' the industry, 'for' the industry, 'in' the industry hub - Mumbai, the Film Capital of India. The Mumbai Film Mart saw participation from the biggest Entertainment Industry players, both from India and abroad. In the three days, over 2,000 meeting requests were received, 400 meetings were carried out face to face, while an equal number took place among the senior decision makers from leading film production houses, buyers, sellers, festival programmers and independent filmmakers as they milled around and networked with each other.
Among the many firsts, the Mart attracted all the forthcoming big ticket films such as ‘Ra One’, ‘Don 2’, ‘Rockstar’, ‘Ricky Behl v/s Ladies’, ‘The Dirty Picture’, ‘DesiBoyz’ , tabled for acquisition and distribution in the non-traditional markets for Indian Cinema in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Germany, France and Latin America. The focus on these countries attracted leading buyers that included Huayi Brothers Media Corp. (China), NikkatsuCorp.(Japan), Happinet Corp.(Japan), Showbox (Korea), Apex Entertainment (Korea), Cj Entertainment (Korea), Top Films (Ukraine), Novo films (France), Rapid Eye (Germany), Im Global (USA), amongst many others.
The International Jury will be responsible choosing the winners out of 14 films, all first features of debut filmmakers around the world, awarding them with a huge cash prize. This way we would like to recognize and encourage the first time filmmakers, going in line with the festival theme of discovery.
Apart from the main international section, there are many other sections including the world cinema, Indian Frame, New Faces in Indian Cinema, Documentaries etc. Please do check out their website www.mumbaifilmfest.com for more information. Last year, it screened about 220 films from 60 countries.
Composition of Mami:
Shyam Benegal, Eminent Filmmaker – Chairman
Amit Khanna, producer, lyricist and Chairman of Reliance Entertainment
Amol Palekar, acclaimed actor-director
Ashutosh Gowarikar (Oscar Nominee - Best Foreign Language Film for Lagaan)
Farhan Akhtar, one of the youngest directors and actor
Jaya Bachchan, acclaimed and award winning actress
Karan Johar, director-producer of some of the most successful films at the box office
Ramesh Sippy, well known filmmaker of Sholay fame
Shabana Azmi, renowned actress who has won acclaim and awards Internationally
Yash Chopra, producer-director, doyen of the Hindi film industry.
Narayan is the Director and head programmer, Anu is second in command.
And there is a selection committee that screens all the competition films – industry people and critics in Mumbai.
About Reliance Big Entertainment
Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd. (Rbel) is the flagship media and entertainment arm of India's Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, with a significant presence in film entertainment (film production, distribution, and exhibition), broadcasting and new media ventures.
Rbel's motion picture brand, Reliance Big Pictures ( www.reliancebigpictures.com ) has built a impressive film production slate in Hindi, English & other Indian languages, which it markets and distributes worldwide. Following Reliance Big Picturess association with Im Global, the company now benefits from an international sales team with an excellent reputation and global presence dedicated to selling its Bollywood and regional language slate. Going into production in November is the $45 million ðDreddð, which Reliance Big Entertainment is co-financing with Im Global.
In Hollywood, Reliance Big Pictures has partnered with Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider on the formation of DreamWorks Studios and hasdevelopment deals with Nicolas Cage's Saturn Films, Jim Carrey's Jc 23 Entertainment, George Clooney's Smokehouse Productions, Chris Columbus'1492 Pictures, Tom Hanksð Playtone Productions, Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment, Jay Roach's Everyman Pictures, Brett Ratnerðs Rat Entertainment,Julia Robertsð Red Om Films and Brian Grazer and Ron Howardðs Imagine Entertainment.
Also worth noting: the competition section of the festival is for first features and carries a Grand prize of Us$100,000 and a Jury prize of Us$50,000.00, with a percentage of the money of allocated to the sales agent who submitted the film. With 14 features, the odds are better than most lotteries… This was last year's lineup http://www.mumbaifilmfest.com/Mami/films_list.php The Salesman, one of the films their U.S. Representative Programmer, Ian Bernie (former longtime Lacma programmer) selected, won the Jury Award and Best Actor.
- 8/31/2012
- Sydney's Buzz
Courtesy of AMPAS
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present a new digitally restored, full-length version of “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (1943) on Wednesday, June 27, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. This West Coast premiere will feature an introduction by three-time Oscar®-winning film editor Thelma Schoonmaker. The film was restored by the Academy Film Archive, in association with the British Film Institute, ITV Studios Global Entertainment Ltd and the Film Foundation.
79th Annual Academy Awards
Inspired by a satiric cartoon character created by newspaper cartoonist David Low, “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” tells a story both epic and deeply personal as it follows the 40-year career of a British Army officer from the Boer War to World War II. Created by the dynamic British writing-directing-producing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (whose longtime partnership would...
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present a new digitally restored, full-length version of “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (1943) on Wednesday, June 27, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. This West Coast premiere will feature an introduction by three-time Oscar®-winning film editor Thelma Schoonmaker. The film was restored by the Academy Film Archive, in association with the British Film Institute, ITV Studios Global Entertainment Ltd and the Film Foundation.
79th Annual Academy Awards
Inspired by a satiric cartoon character created by newspaper cartoonist David Low, “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” tells a story both epic and deeply personal as it follows the 40-year career of a British Army officer from the Boer War to World War II. Created by the dynamic British writing-directing-producing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (whose longtime partnership would...
- 6/6/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Arguably the finest British film made during the second world war, Powell and Pressburger's 1943 epic traces the career of General Clive Candy (Roger Livesey), a bluff, middle-class British soldier from the Boer war, where he won a Vc, up to 1943 when clearly a less gentlemanly form of military behaviour was needed to defeat the Nazis. They were inspired by David Low's celebrated military fogey, Colonel Blimp, but they turn the cartoonist's caricature into a character. Anton Walbrook is outstanding as an honourable German, Candy's friend of long standing, a figure who infuriated Winston Churchill, and Deborah Kerr, Powell's lover at the time and the love of his life, is enchanting as three different women over successive generations. She adds that haunting touch of romantic mystery we find in much of Powell and Pressburger's best work.
War filmsMichael PowellDramaPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
War filmsMichael PowellDramaPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
- 5/19/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
The Dictator (15)
(Larry Charles, 2012, Us) Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris, Jason Mantzoukas, Ben Kingsley, John C Reilly. 83 mins
Having run out of unsuspecting Americans to prank, Sacha Baron Cohen takes the conventional fish-out-of-water route this time, as his Arab tyrant comes to terms with western democracy. But if the story plays it safe, the comedy treads a risky line between lampooning Islamophobia and fuelling it. The high gag rate, animated performance and general broad-spectrum offensiveness help him get away with murder, and worse.
The Raid (18)
(Gareth Evans, 2011, Indon/Us) Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Yayan Ruhian. 101 mins
Throwing more punches than every other movie this year combined, this single-minded Indonesian martial arts epic doesn't let up until everyone in its baddy-infested apartment block, and the auditorium, is pummelled into submission. Pacifists, look away now.
2 Days In New York (15)
(Julie Delpy, 2011, Ger/Fra/Bel) Julie Delpy, Chris Rock, Albert Delpy. 96 mins
Welcome return for Delpy's chaotic,...
(Larry Charles, 2012, Us) Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris, Jason Mantzoukas, Ben Kingsley, John C Reilly. 83 mins
Having run out of unsuspecting Americans to prank, Sacha Baron Cohen takes the conventional fish-out-of-water route this time, as his Arab tyrant comes to terms with western democracy. But if the story plays it safe, the comedy treads a risky line between lampooning Islamophobia and fuelling it. The high gag rate, animated performance and general broad-spectrum offensiveness help him get away with murder, and worse.
The Raid (18)
(Gareth Evans, 2011, Indon/Us) Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Yayan Ruhian. 101 mins
Throwing more punches than every other movie this year combined, this single-minded Indonesian martial arts epic doesn't let up until everyone in its baddy-infested apartment block, and the auditorium, is pummelled into submission. Pacifists, look away now.
2 Days In New York (15)
(Julie Delpy, 2011, Ger/Fra/Bel) Julie Delpy, Chris Rock, Albert Delpy. 96 mins
Welcome return for Delpy's chaotic,...
- 5/18/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
This glorious film gets more fascinating and moving each time its seen
This exotic English romance of 1943, by Powell and Pressburger, has been reissued, and each time it gets more fascinating and moving. Taking as their starting point David Low's cartoon character, the film-makers created General Clive Wynne-Candy, superbly played by the husky-voiced Roger Livesey. As we join the story in 1943, he appears to be nothing more than a pop-eyed, reactionary buffer. But the movie takes us back in time to show how the old grump was once a young blade, a dashing officer of frank and good-natured simplicity who won a Vc during the Boer war. His life was changed by an intense and ennobling friendship with a German army officer, Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff, played by the incomparably elegant Anton Walbrook. Candy is also entranced with an ideal embodiment of woman, played in three incarnations and three generations by...
This exotic English romance of 1943, by Powell and Pressburger, has been reissued, and each time it gets more fascinating and moving. Taking as their starting point David Low's cartoon character, the film-makers created General Clive Wynne-Candy, superbly played by the husky-voiced Roger Livesey. As we join the story in 1943, he appears to be nothing more than a pop-eyed, reactionary buffer. But the movie takes us back in time to show how the old grump was once a young blade, a dashing officer of frank and good-natured simplicity who won a Vc during the Boer war. His life was changed by an intense and ennobling friendship with a German army officer, Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff, played by the incomparably elegant Anton Walbrook. Candy is also entranced with an ideal embodiment of woman, played in three incarnations and three generations by...
- 5/17/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
They outraged the authorities on release. But the two films, made before and during the second world war, are now considered classics – and will be re-released this month. Our critics consider their impact
Ryan Gilbey on Le Quai des Brumes
It's easy now to call Marcel Carné's Le Quai des Brumes a masterpiece. When the film was released in 1938, such a view was more contentious. In the wake of the collapse of France's Popular Front government, the film was seen as exacerbating the mood of despair creeping into the left. Jean Renoir labelled it "counter-revolutionary". The Motion Picture Herald concluded: "One will be sorry that such art and talents have been used for such a trite and sordid story, which includes not a decent or healthy character." The Vichy government denounced it as "immoral, depressing and detrimental to young people", and declared that if the war was lost, Le Quai des Brumes...
Ryan Gilbey on Le Quai des Brumes
It's easy now to call Marcel Carné's Le Quai des Brumes a masterpiece. When the film was released in 1938, such a view was more contentious. In the wake of the collapse of France's Popular Front government, the film was seen as exacerbating the mood of despair creeping into the left. Jean Renoir labelled it "counter-revolutionary". The Motion Picture Herald concluded: "One will be sorry that such art and talents have been used for such a trite and sordid story, which includes not a decent or healthy character." The Vichy government denounced it as "immoral, depressing and detrimental to young people", and declared that if the war was lost, Le Quai des Brumes...
- 5/3/2012
- by Ryan Gilbey, Philip Oltermann
- The Guardian - Film News
A teen horror that still manages to thrill, a hotly anticipated Bob Marley biopic and the east-coast sophistication of Whit Stillman
The Cabin in the Woods
(dir. Drew Goddard)
Excitement has been building about this teen horror movie written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. A group of great-looking young people go for a break in a remote woodland cabin; horrible things happen. It looks like the kind of thing often seen before and yet still springs all kinds of tricks. Released on 13 April.
Marley
(dir. Kevin Macdonald)
This biopic of Bob Marley has been a long time in the works, with Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme once attached, but now Kevin Macdonald takes the helm. Marley rose from poor beginnings in Jamaica to superstardom and after his death to iconic status: a new Che. Yet the film shows a flawed man whose relationship with his wife and children was fraught.
The Cabin in the Woods
(dir. Drew Goddard)
Excitement has been building about this teen horror movie written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. A group of great-looking young people go for a break in a remote woodland cabin; horrible things happen. It looks like the kind of thing often seen before and yet still springs all kinds of tricks. Released on 13 April.
Marley
(dir. Kevin Macdonald)
This biopic of Bob Marley has been a long time in the works, with Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme once attached, but now Kevin Macdonald takes the helm. Marley rose from poor beginnings in Jamaica to superstardom and after his death to iconic status: a new Che. Yet the film shows a flawed man whose relationship with his wife and children was fraught.
- 4/9/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
A flurry of press releases from the Berlinale today, and the one you may find most interesting isn't the newsiest. You already knew that the Retrospective, The Red Dream Factory, will be featuring Eisenstein's October (Oktjabr, 1928), but today's announcement has details on the new restoration and the presentation on February 10: "Conducted by Frank Strobel, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra will perform the original score as composed by Edmund Meisel."
The second release of the day reveals that 12 titles have been added to the lineup of the Berlinale Special program, in addition to the six previously announced (here and here). Seems we can assume the first three events will be happening on Potsdamer Platz:
To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the film journal Positif: Volker Schlöndorff's Der Fangschuss (Le coup de grâce, 1975) with Matthias Habich, Margarethe von Trotta, Rüdiger Kirschtein, Mathieu Carrière and Valeska Gert.
The European premiere of...
The second release of the day reveals that 12 titles have been added to the lineup of the Berlinale Special program, in addition to the six previously announced (here and here). Seems we can assume the first three events will be happening on Potsdamer Platz:
To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the film journal Positif: Volker Schlöndorff's Der Fangschuss (Le coup de grâce, 1975) with Matthias Habich, Margarethe von Trotta, Rüdiger Kirschtein, Mathieu Carrière and Valeska Gert.
The European premiere of...
- 1/17/2012
- MUBI
It's a good day for cinema, because we have the UK quad for the release of the restored The Life And Death of Colonel Blimp, the Powell and Pressburger classic of 1943. If you haven't seen it, you should rectify that this May on its re-release, because it's really rather great even by Powell and Pressburger's august standards.It's all the story of Major General Clive Wynne-Candy - or at least the young, brash officer who becomes that old duffer. Played throughout his life by Roger Livesey, the film essentially traces the evolution of the British military through the experience of one man, from the Boer War to World War II via the trenches. Along the way, a series of relationships with women played by Deborah Kerr, and the friendship of a German named Theo (Anton Walbrook) shape Clive's life.The film is set to return to the big screen...
- 1/12/2012
- EmpireOnline
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) "so unambiguously [satirizes] the military mind-set that Prime Minister Winston Churchill tried to have it banned," writes J Hoberman in the Voice. "Newly restored by Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation and playing two weeks [starting Friday] at Film Forum in its full length, Colonel Blimp is as stylized in its florid palette, lavish mise-en-scène, and obtrusive musical cues as Powell and Pressburger's subsequent The Red Shoes. Beginning and ending in London under the blitz, the movie spans 40 years, tracking the career of General Clive Candy (Roger Livesey) from dashing young hero of the Boer War to the sort of walrus-mustached establishment fogy that political cartoonist David Low named 'Colonel Blimp.' … The filmmakers originally wanted Laurence Olivier, but it seems unlikely that so acerbic an actor could have delivered so warm a performance."
"Seeing Colonel Blimp strictly in the...
"Seeing Colonel Blimp strictly in the...
- 11/16/2011
- MUBI
Action films should regress to an epoch when swords were as prevalent as guns, or forward to a time when firearms don't work
Another year, another musketeers movie. What a shame no one thought of rereleasing Richard Lester's two-parter, or even the MGM version with Gene Kelly. But no, swashbuckling on its own is no longer deemed enough to hold the attention of today's fidgety kids, so Paul Ws Anderson gussies up his The Three Musketeers with 3-D, slo-mo and ninja skills. Phew! No danger of us getting bored there, then!
I love swordfights and want to see more of them, preferably not obscured by bells and whistles. Lester's Musketeer films have some cracking examples, mostly lighthearted, though slapstick gives way to a deadly serious duel towards the end, which goes on for so long that Michael York and Christopher Lee end up tottering with exhaustion.
That fight choreographer,...
Another year, another musketeers movie. What a shame no one thought of rereleasing Richard Lester's two-parter, or even the MGM version with Gene Kelly. But no, swashbuckling on its own is no longer deemed enough to hold the attention of today's fidgety kids, so Paul Ws Anderson gussies up his The Three Musketeers with 3-D, slo-mo and ninja skills. Phew! No danger of us getting bored there, then!
I love swordfights and want to see more of them, preferably not obscured by bells and whistles. Lester's Musketeer films have some cracking examples, mostly lighthearted, though slapstick gives way to a deadly serious duel towards the end, which goes on for so long that Michael York and Christopher Lee end up tottering with exhaustion.
That fight choreographer,...
- 10/14/2011
- by Anne Billson
- The Guardian - Film News
Watching the Powell/Pressburger classic in the place it's set gave it a darker, more subversive slant
I've just returned from the Isle of Mull in Scotland. It was a holiday which quickly assumed the character of a secular pilgrimage to the key locations in the 1945 Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger classic I Know Where I'm Going!, a sublime and utterly distinctive romantic comedy, set towards the end of the second world war.
It stars Wendy Hiller as the headstrong, self-possessed and rather conceited young Englishwoman, Joan Webster, who travels to the Hebrides to marry a wealthy industrialist on the remote island of Kiloran. Foul weather strands her on the neighbouring island of Mull the night before their wedding – the first time in her life anything or anyone has ever interfered with her plans. Yet, little by little, she finds herself beguiled by the island and the islanders – in particular Torquil MacNeil,...
I've just returned from the Isle of Mull in Scotland. It was a holiday which quickly assumed the character of a secular pilgrimage to the key locations in the 1945 Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger classic I Know Where I'm Going!, a sublime and utterly distinctive romantic comedy, set towards the end of the second world war.
It stars Wendy Hiller as the headstrong, self-possessed and rather conceited young Englishwoman, Joan Webster, who travels to the Hebrides to marry a wealthy industrialist on the remote island of Kiloran. Foul weather strands her on the neighbouring island of Mull the night before their wedding – the first time in her life anything or anyone has ever interfered with her plans. Yet, little by little, she finds herself beguiled by the island and the islanders – in particular Torquil MacNeil,...
- 8/24/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
This coming Friday, July 15, marks the birthday of the greatest of all Dutch painters, Rembrandt van Rijn. Born 505 years ago, I figured now was as suitable an occasion as I’d ever have to review Rembrandt, this fine biopic from 1936 starring Charles Laughton, part of Eclipse Series 16: Alexander Korda’s Private Lives.
Korda is one of the most influential and dynamic figures in the history of UK cinema, founder of London Films and the first man ever granted knighthood for his work in the English film industry. Along with his brothers Zoltan and Vincent, he played a major part in creating some of the most fondly remembered British films of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, including The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Four Feathers, That Hamilton Woman, The Thief of Bagdad, The Third Man and Laurence Olivier’s version of Richard III.
As anyone who’s paid even the slightest attention...
Korda is one of the most influential and dynamic figures in the history of UK cinema, founder of London Films and the first man ever granted knighthood for his work in the English film industry. Along with his brothers Zoltan and Vincent, he played a major part in creating some of the most fondly remembered British films of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, including The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Four Feathers, That Hamilton Woman, The Thief of Bagdad, The Third Man and Laurence Olivier’s version of Richard III.
As anyone who’s paid even the slightest attention...
- 7/11/2011
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
Another week has gone by and as usual, Criterion has put up some choice content on their page on Hulu Plus. Using the service more than ever to stream films that I’ve seen before and don’t own or have never even heard of until Criterion put them up, I’ve valued Hulu Plus more than ever. I also want to thank all those who have used our referral link to sign up. It pays for this article to keep going so please, sign up here to keep it going with no hiccups whatsoever. But you want to know what new and amazing films are streaming. So without further adieu…
It’s Alain Resnais’ birthday so you should be streaming his film Night And Fog (1955), a very harsh and intense depiction of the Holocaust, one of the first truthful accounts around.
Also you can stream the film we’re covering this week,...
It’s Alain Resnais’ birthday so you should be streaming his film Night And Fog (1955), a very harsh and intense depiction of the Holocaust, one of the first truthful accounts around.
Also you can stream the film we’re covering this week,...
- 6/4/2011
- by James McCormick
- CriterionCast
Many unsuspecting cinema-goers who clearly hadn’t read the reviews got quite a shock when they went into Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan expecting a nice movie about ballet. Black Swan is a fully-fledged (pun intended) horror movie full of fantastical elements – or is it? Horror it certainly is – fantasy, it may not be, as it is entirely possible that every uncanny event in the film exists only in the protagonist’s disturbed mind. Black Swan is far from the first film to play with the line between fantasy and reality, and it won’t be the last. What follows is a subjective list of some of my favourite reality-bending fantastical films.*
A Matter of Life and Death (dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1946, known as Stairway to Heaven in the Us)
A Matter of Life and Death uses exactly the same method as Black Swan to bend reality, but to the exact opposite effect.
A Matter of Life and Death (dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1946, known as Stairway to Heaven in the Us)
A Matter of Life and Death uses exactly the same method as Black Swan to bend reality, but to the exact opposite effect.
- 2/25/2011
- by Juliette Harrisson
- SoundOnSight
by Vadim Rizov
In 1957, Jack Hawkins led a coordinated Allied attack on The Bridge on the River Kwai, and three years later, he led a coordinated private attack on a British bank. The film was The League of Gentlemen (included in Basil Dearden's London Underground, a smashing new box set from Criterion/Eclipse), in which Hawkins rounds up seven equally unpleasant, mostly meta-cast men to assist. The recruits comprise a microcosm of various, superficially resilient members of the British way of post-war life. One is Nigel Patrick, perhaps best known at that point as a mindlessly brave test pilot in The Sound Barrier, a sacrificial lamb to the stiff-upper-limb ethos to the last. He's Hawkins' aide, clinging to his pre-war aristocratic status by being paternally glib to the other men and looking foolish in the process. Other members: Terence Alexander (in real life a member of the 27th Lancers,...
In 1957, Jack Hawkins led a coordinated Allied attack on The Bridge on the River Kwai, and three years later, he led a coordinated private attack on a British bank. The film was The League of Gentlemen (included in Basil Dearden's London Underground, a smashing new box set from Criterion/Eclipse), in which Hawkins rounds up seven equally unpleasant, mostly meta-cast men to assist. The recruits comprise a microcosm of various, superficially resilient members of the British way of post-war life. One is Nigel Patrick, perhaps best known at that point as a mindlessly brave test pilot in The Sound Barrier, a sacrificial lamb to the stiff-upper-limb ethos to the last. He's Hawkins' aide, clinging to his pre-war aristocratic status by being paternally glib to the other men and looking foolish in the process. Other members: Terence Alexander (in real life a member of the 27th Lancers,...
- 2/1/2011
- GreenCine Daily
DVD Playhouse: January 2011
By
Allen Gardner
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (20th Century Fox) Sequel to the seminal 1980s film catches up with a weathered, but still determined Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, who seems to savor every syllable of Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff’s screenplay) just out of jail and back on the comeback trail. In attempting to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter (Carey Mulligan), Gekko forges a reluctant alliance with her fiancé (Shia Labeouf), himself an ambitious young turk who finds himself seduced by Gekko’s silver tongue and promise of riches. Lifeless film is further evidence of director Oliver Stone’s decline. Once America’s most exciting filmmaker, Stone hasn’t delivered a film with any teeth since 1995’s Nixon. Labeouf and Mulligan generate no sparks on-screen, and the story feels forced from the protracted opening to the final, Disney-esque denouement. Only a brief cameo by Charlie Sheen,...
By
Allen Gardner
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (20th Century Fox) Sequel to the seminal 1980s film catches up with a weathered, but still determined Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, who seems to savor every syllable of Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff’s screenplay) just out of jail and back on the comeback trail. In attempting to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter (Carey Mulligan), Gekko forges a reluctant alliance with her fiancé (Shia Labeouf), himself an ambitious young turk who finds himself seduced by Gekko’s silver tongue and promise of riches. Lifeless film is further evidence of director Oliver Stone’s decline. Once America’s most exciting filmmaker, Stone hasn’t delivered a film with any teeth since 1995’s Nixon. Labeouf and Mulligan generate no sparks on-screen, and the story feels forced from the protracted opening to the final, Disney-esque denouement. Only a brief cameo by Charlie Sheen,...
- 1/21/2011
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Filed under: Columns, Cinematical
Welcome to Where Everyone Has Gone Before, the column in which I continue my film education before your very eyes by seeking out and watching all of the movies I should have seen by now. I will first judge the movie before I've watched it, based entirely on its reputation (and my potentially misguided thoughts). Then I will give the movie a fair chance and actually watch it. You will laugh at me, you may condemn me, but you will never say I didn't try!
The Film: 'A Matter of Life and Death' (1946), Dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Starring: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Marius Goring and Abraham Sofaer.
Why I Haven't Seen It Until Now: Every film buff worth his salt has at least heard of Powell and Pressburger, the brilliant duo behind such films as 'The Red Shoes,' 'Black Narcissus...
Welcome to Where Everyone Has Gone Before, the column in which I continue my film education before your very eyes by seeking out and watching all of the movies I should have seen by now. I will first judge the movie before I've watched it, based entirely on its reputation (and my potentially misguided thoughts). Then I will give the movie a fair chance and actually watch it. You will laugh at me, you may condemn me, but you will never say I didn't try!
The Film: 'A Matter of Life and Death' (1946), Dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Starring: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Marius Goring and Abraham Sofaer.
Why I Haven't Seen It Until Now: Every film buff worth his salt has at least heard of Powell and Pressburger, the brilliant duo behind such films as 'The Red Shoes,' 'Black Narcissus...
- 11/13/2010
- by Jacob Hall
- Cinematical
Filed under: Columns, Cinematical
Welcome to Where Everyone Has Gone Before, the column in which I continue my film education before your very eyes by seeking out and watching all of the movies I should have seen by now. I will first judge the movie before I've watched it, based entirely on its reputation (and my potentially misguided thoughts). Then I will give the movie a fair chance and actually watch it. You will laugh at me, you may condemn me, but you will never say I didn't try!
The Film: 'A Matter of Life and Death' (1946), Dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Starring: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Marius Goring and Abraham Sofaer.
Why I Haven't Seen It Until Now: Every film buff worth his salt has at least heard of Powell and Pressburger, the brilliant duo behind such films as 'The Red Shoes,' 'Black Narcissus...
Welcome to Where Everyone Has Gone Before, the column in which I continue my film education before your very eyes by seeking out and watching all of the movies I should have seen by now. I will first judge the movie before I've watched it, based entirely on its reputation (and my potentially misguided thoughts). Then I will give the movie a fair chance and actually watch it. You will laugh at me, you may condemn me, but you will never say I didn't try!
The Film: 'A Matter of Life and Death' (1946), Dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Starring: David Niven, Kim Hunter, Roger Livesey, Marius Goring and Abraham Sofaer.
Why I Haven't Seen It Until Now: Every film buff worth his salt has at least heard of Powell and Pressburger, the brilliant duo behind such films as 'The Red Shoes,' 'Black Narcissus...
- 11/13/2010
- by Jacob Hall
- Moviefone
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