Sunday Am: A24 is calling Civil War at a $25.7M opening, largely fueled by Democrat and Liberal moviegoers, but with overperforming business in some Red state regions like the South and Southwest.
Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak polled Civil War attendees’ politics reporting that 22% considered themselves Liberal, 19% were Democrats, 11% considered themselves moderate, whereas registered Republicans (6%), Evangelical Christians (6%) and politically conservative folks (5%) showed up as a minority.
The markets that overperformed were L.A., San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Austin, Navy hub San Diego, and conservative market Denver. But then there were these smaller regional markets that rallied, including El Paso and Waco, Texas, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Charlottesville, Virginia. As we told you, South, South Central, and West were the best regions for the A24 release, which follows journalists chronicling a divided, violent America.
Civil War, from left: Wagner Moura, Kirsten Dunst, 2024. ph: Murray Close / © A24 / Courtesy...
Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak polled Civil War attendees’ politics reporting that 22% considered themselves Liberal, 19% were Democrats, 11% considered themselves moderate, whereas registered Republicans (6%), Evangelical Christians (6%) and politically conservative folks (5%) showed up as a minority.
The markets that overperformed were L.A., San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Austin, Navy hub San Diego, and conservative market Denver. But then there were these smaller regional markets that rallied, including El Paso and Waco, Texas, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Charlottesville, Virginia. As we told you, South, South Central, and West were the best regions for the A24 release, which follows journalists chronicling a divided, violent America.
Civil War, from left: Wagner Moura, Kirsten Dunst, 2024. ph: Murray Close / © A24 / Courtesy...
- 4/14/2024
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Ava DuVernay has only made five narrative features, but she’s one of the busiest women in Hollywood.
Before 2023, the California-born filmmaker’s last feature was her “A Wrinkle in Time” adaptation, released in theaters in 2018 — a five-year gap between releases that’s partially attributable to projects that sputtered in development like DC’s “New Gods” film and a Prince biopic. And yet, DuVernay has remained a constant presence during that relatively long gap, translating her numerous talents to producing and TV work. She created and directed the acclaimed Netflix miniseries “When They See Us,” about the controversial Central Park Five case. Several other TV projects followed, including OWN’s “Cherish the Day,” Netflix’s “Colin in Black and White,” and The CW’s “Naomi.” But while many of those projects have been terrific, it’s great to see the director of great films like “Middle of Nowhere” and “Selma...
Before 2023, the California-born filmmaker’s last feature was her “A Wrinkle in Time” adaptation, released in theaters in 2018 — a five-year gap between releases that’s partially attributable to projects that sputtered in development like DC’s “New Gods” film and a Prince biopic. And yet, DuVernay has remained a constant presence during that relatively long gap, translating her numerous talents to producing and TV work. She created and directed the acclaimed Netflix miniseries “When They See Us,” about the controversial Central Park Five case. Several other TV projects followed, including OWN’s “Cherish the Day,” Netflix’s “Colin in Black and White,” and The CW’s “Naomi.” But while many of those projects have been terrific, it’s great to see the director of great films like “Middle of Nowhere” and “Selma...
- 1/25/2024
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
Giuliano Montaldo, the admired Italian filmmaker who wrote and directed Sacco & Vanzetti, the John Cassavetes-starring Machine Gun McCain and every episode of the big-budget 1982 miniseries Marco Polo, has died. He was 93.
Montaldo died Wednesday at his home in Rome, his family announced.
His big-screen résumé also included The Reckless (1965), starring Renato Salvatori; Grand Slam (1967), starring Janet Leigh; Giordano Bruno (1973), starring Gian Maria Volonté and Charlotte Rampling; And Agnes Chose to Die (1976), starring Ingrid Thulin; and The Gold Rimmed Glasses (1987), starring Philippe Noiret, Rupert Everett, Stefania Sandrelli and Valeria Golino.
Of the 20 films Montaldo helmed, 16 were set to music by Ennio Morricone; no other director collaborated with the famed composer more.
Montaldo also served as president of Italy’s Rai Cinema from 1999-2004.
Montaldo’s gangster tale Machine Gun McCain (1969), which also starred Britt Ekland, Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk, and Sacco & Vanzetti (1971), about the Massachusetts trial and 1927 execution of...
Montaldo died Wednesday at his home in Rome, his family announced.
His big-screen résumé also included The Reckless (1965), starring Renato Salvatori; Grand Slam (1967), starring Janet Leigh; Giordano Bruno (1973), starring Gian Maria Volonté and Charlotte Rampling; And Agnes Chose to Die (1976), starring Ingrid Thulin; and The Gold Rimmed Glasses (1987), starring Philippe Noiret, Rupert Everett, Stefania Sandrelli and Valeria Golino.
Of the 20 films Montaldo helmed, 16 were set to music by Ennio Morricone; no other director collaborated with the famed composer more.
Montaldo also served as president of Italy’s Rai Cinema from 1999-2004.
Montaldo’s gangster tale Machine Gun McCain (1969), which also starred Britt Ekland, Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk, and Sacco & Vanzetti (1971), about the Massachusetts trial and 1927 execution of...
- 9/6/2023
- by Alberto Crespi
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Giuliano Montaldo, the prolific Italian director, actor and film industry executive, whose works comprise powerful political drama “Sacco and Vanzetti” about the Massachusetts trial and execution in 1927 of accused Italian anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, has died at his home in Rome. He was 93.
His death was announced Wednesday by his family and reported by multiple Italian media outlets. No cause of death was revealed.
Born in 1930 in Genoa, Montaldo was still a Turin university student when, in 1950, director Carlo Lizzani gave him a role in the film “Achtung Banditi!.” Montaldo then moved to Rome in 1954, where he worked as a journalist for Italian newspaper Il Tempo and after a few years decided to pursue a filmmaking career.
Montaldo cut his teeth as a director working as an assistant to Lizzani and then to Gillo Pontecorvo, Sergio Leone, and Francesco Rosi, learning the ropes from some of the masters of Italian cinema.
His death was announced Wednesday by his family and reported by multiple Italian media outlets. No cause of death was revealed.
Born in 1930 in Genoa, Montaldo was still a Turin university student when, in 1950, director Carlo Lizzani gave him a role in the film “Achtung Banditi!.” Montaldo then moved to Rome in 1954, where he worked as a journalist for Italian newspaper Il Tempo and after a few years decided to pursue a filmmaking career.
Montaldo cut his teeth as a director working as an assistant to Lizzani and then to Gillo Pontecorvo, Sergio Leone, and Francesco Rosi, learning the ropes from some of the masters of Italian cinema.
- 9/6/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Focusing on the everyday domesticity of the Auschwitz commandant’s family might only reflect the horror indirectly, but the film pulls the banality of evil into pin-sharp focus
A single, satanic joke burns through the celluloid in Jonathan Glazer’s technically brilliant, uneasy Holocaust movie, freely adapted by the director from the novel by Martin Amis, a film which for all its artistry is perhaps not entirely in control of its (intentional) bad taste.
How did the placidly respectable home life of the German people coexist with imagining and executing the horrors of the genocide? How did such evil flower within what George Steiner famously called the German world of “silent night, holy night, gemütlichkeit”?
The film imagines the pure bucolic bliss experienced by Auschwitz camp commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) who with his family lives in a handsomely appointed family home with servants just outside the barbed-wire-topped wall. His wife,...
A single, satanic joke burns through the celluloid in Jonathan Glazer’s technically brilliant, uneasy Holocaust movie, freely adapted by the director from the novel by Martin Amis, a film which for all its artistry is perhaps not entirely in control of its (intentional) bad taste.
How did the placidly respectable home life of the German people coexist with imagining and executing the horrors of the genocide? How did such evil flower within what George Steiner famously called the German world of “silent night, holy night, gemütlichkeit”?
The film imagines the pure bucolic bliss experienced by Auschwitz camp commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) who with his family lives in a handsomely appointed family home with servants just outside the barbed-wire-topped wall. His wife,...
- 5/19/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw in Cannes
- The Guardian - Film News
Ten years ago, there were five clear frontrunners for the Oscar for Best Director of 2012: Ben Affleck for “Argo,” Kathryn Bigelow for “Zero Dark Thirty,” Tom Hooper for “Les Misérables,” Ang Lee for “Life of Pi” and Steven Spielberg for “Lincoln. But when the nominations were announced, only Lee and Spielberg made the cut. Replacing Affleck, Bigelow and Hooper were Michael Haneke for “Amour,” David O. Russell for “Silver Linings Playbook” and Benh Zeitlin for “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”
Talk about an Oscar race going wild.
The lesson learned was that the Directors Branch of the Academy can be very unpredictable. They might overlook a big Hollywood star for helming a critical and commercial success, and instead go with an obscure director for their work on a tiny arthouse film. With that said, we should be prepared for some surprises in the directing category when the nominations are...
Talk about an Oscar race going wild.
The lesson learned was that the Directors Branch of the Academy can be very unpredictable. They might overlook a big Hollywood star for helming a critical and commercial success, and instead go with an obscure director for their work on a tiny arthouse film. With that said, we should be prepared for some surprises in the directing category when the nominations are...
- 1/9/2023
- by Tariq Khan
- Gold Derby
This Region-Free import gives us both versions of Gillo Pontecorvo’s fictional tale of colonial misdeeds that sums up old Europe’s attitude toward the New World. Marlon Brando’s agent provocateur and freebooting soldier of fortune foments revolution against the Portuguese and then hires out to reverse everything he’s done for English interests. The big scale production was filmed in several locations across the globe; it has a standout performance from Evaristo Márquez as a charismatic peasant eager to become a conqueror.
Burn!
Region Free Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 194
1969 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 129, 112 min. / Street Date December 28, 2022 / Available from Viavision / au 79.95
Starring: Marlon Brando, Evaristo Márquez, Norman Hill, Renato Salvatori.
Cinematography: Marcello Gatti, Giuseppe Ruzzolini
Production Designer: Sergio Canevari
Art Director: Piero Gherardi
Film Editor: Mario Morra
Original Music: Ennio Morricone
Written by Franco Solinas, Giorgio Arlorio
Produced by Alberto Grimaldi
Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo
The enterprising Italian producer Alberto...
Burn!
Region Free Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 194
1969 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 129, 112 min. / Street Date December 28, 2022 / Available from Viavision / au 79.95
Starring: Marlon Brando, Evaristo Márquez, Norman Hill, Renato Salvatori.
Cinematography: Marcello Gatti, Giuseppe Ruzzolini
Production Designer: Sergio Canevari
Art Director: Piero Gherardi
Film Editor: Mario Morra
Original Music: Ennio Morricone
Written by Franco Solinas, Giorgio Arlorio
Produced by Alberto Grimaldi
Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo
The enterprising Italian producer Alberto...
- 12/31/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The 14th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — sponsored by Jane M. & Bruce P. Robert Charitable Foundation — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. This year’s featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the 1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.
The festival takes place Aug. 5-7, 12-14, and 19-21.
The fest annually includes significant restorations, and this year features seven such works, including a brand-new restoration of Luis Bunuel’s “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,” which is part of our year-long Golden Anniversaries programming, which features films celebrating their 50th anniversaries.
In honor of St. Louis’ own Josephine Baker and her installation in France’s Panthéon on Nov. 30 of last year, the fest will present her silent film debut, “Siren of the Tropics,” with an original score and live accompaniment by the Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra.
https://www.cinemastlouis.org...
The festival takes place Aug. 5-7, 12-14, and 19-21.
The fest annually includes significant restorations, and this year features seven such works, including a brand-new restoration of Luis Bunuel’s “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,” which is part of our year-long Golden Anniversaries programming, which features films celebrating their 50th anniversaries.
In honor of St. Louis’ own Josephine Baker and her installation in France’s Panthéon on Nov. 30 of last year, the fest will present her silent film debut, “Siren of the Tropics,” with an original score and live accompaniment by the Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra.
https://www.cinemastlouis.org...
- 7/21/2022
- by Michelle Hannett
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The maestro talks about what drove his famous scores while actors, directors and musical peers celebrate his contribution to cinema
This documentary represents a painstakingly detailed, fantastically entertaining, and profoundly exhausting deep dive into the career of the hyper-prolific Italian composer Ennio Morricone, known best perhaps for his orchestral scores for Sergio Leone (including the so-called Dollars Trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West), Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers, Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900 – and a whole bunch of American films, ranging from the great to the abominable (Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight).
It’s not so much the running time of 156 minutes that will tire you out as the incredible sonic, visual and emotional overload generated by the work itself; perhaps this is ideally seen first in a cinema for maximum impact and then again in small, digestible chunks at home. It’s one huge...
This documentary represents a painstakingly detailed, fantastically entertaining, and profoundly exhausting deep dive into the career of the hyper-prolific Italian composer Ennio Morricone, known best perhaps for his orchestral scores for Sergio Leone (including the so-called Dollars Trilogy and Once Upon a Time in the West), Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers, Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900 – and a whole bunch of American films, ranging from the great to the abominable (Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight).
It’s not so much the running time of 156 minutes that will tire you out as the incredible sonic, visual and emotional overload generated by the work itself; perhaps this is ideally seen first in a cinema for maximum impact and then again in small, digestible chunks at home. It’s one huge...
- 4/20/2022
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
Alex Cox attacks the Reagan years with a political tale sung in the key of the Italo Spaghetti Western: expect plenty of slow motion shots of stylish pistolero mercenaries fighting for the historical ‘filibuster’ William Walker. Look him up, he’s the patron saint of every neocon and would-be soldier of fortune. Everybody on this show goes the whole 9 yards in commitment, with Ed Harris in the lead — they filmed in Nicaragua. It may be director Cox’s finest film, packed with vivid images and surreal anachronisms — and a terrific music score by Joe Strummer.
Walker
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 423
1987 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 94 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 12, 2022 / 39.95
Starring: Ed Harris, Richard Masur, Rene Auberjonois, Xander Berkeley, Peter Boyle, Marlee Matlin, Alfonso Arau, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Gerrit Graham, William O’Leary, Blanca Guerra, Miguel Sandoval.
Cinematography: David Bridges
Production Designer: Bruno Rubeo
Art Directors: Cecilia Montiel, Jorge Sainz
Film Editors: Alex Cox,...
Walker
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 423
1987 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 94 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 12, 2022 / 39.95
Starring: Ed Harris, Richard Masur, Rene Auberjonois, Xander Berkeley, Peter Boyle, Marlee Matlin, Alfonso Arau, Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Gerrit Graham, William O’Leary, Blanca Guerra, Miguel Sandoval.
Cinematography: David Bridges
Production Designer: Bruno Rubeo
Art Directors: Cecilia Montiel, Jorge Sainz
Film Editors: Alex Cox,...
- 4/16/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Peter Weller and Sam Elliott on the Forty Deuce under the Times Square Theatre marquee in James Glickenhaus' Shakedown.Movie-lovers!Welcome back to The Deuce Notebook, a collaboration between Notebook and The Deuce Film Series, our monthly event at Nitehawk Williamsburg that excavates the facts and fantasies of cinema's most infamous block in the world: 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. For each screening, my co-hosts and I pick a flick that we think embodies the era of late-night celluloid consumption and present the theater at which it premiered.American writer, director, and producer James Glickenhaus made action movies: eye-for-an-eye fables starring virtuous underdogs and righteous renegades—rogue cops, ex-Army officers, and cunning FBI agents settling scores with street scum, Mafiosi, and the international drug cartel. These low-cost, high-grossing blockbusters projected do-good Nationalism onto the silver screens and boob tubes of the 1980s, encouraging a generation of bleary-eyed Boy Scouts to stay strong,...
- 2/19/2022
- MUBI
The public considers the Academy Awards as a Hollywood event. True, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is headquartered in Southern California, and most of the best pic contenders are American and/or in the English language. But Oscar history proves they have been an international event from the beginning.
In the first year (1927-28), there were nominations for directors Herbert Brenon (born in Ireland) and Lewis Milestone (born in Moldova), plus a special award to Charlie Chaplin (from the U.K.).
The next five years saw two noms apiece for directors Ernst Lubitsch (Germany) and Josef von Sternberg (Austria). And the second best actress Academy Award was given to Canadian Mary Pickford.
The early years of Oscar featured a slew of non-Americans. Aside from mega-star Chaplin, the list of early Academy Award winners includes Emil Jannings, George Arliss (U.K.), Claudette Colbert (raised in the U.S. but...
In the first year (1927-28), there were nominations for directors Herbert Brenon (born in Ireland) and Lewis Milestone (born in Moldova), plus a special award to Charlie Chaplin (from the U.K.).
The next five years saw two noms apiece for directors Ernst Lubitsch (Germany) and Josef von Sternberg (Austria). And the second best actress Academy Award was given to Canadian Mary Pickford.
The early years of Oscar featured a slew of non-Americans. Aside from mega-star Chaplin, the list of early Academy Award winners includes Emil Jannings, George Arliss (U.K.), Claudette Colbert (raised in the U.S. but...
- 1/22/2022
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Leave No Traces Venice, day nine. There’s something almost ineffably melancholic about watching a festival empty out. As I type these words, twenty-four hours or so before the awards will be announced, the press room I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time in, is now home to a smattering of survivors. The end is nigh, people are flocking home, and the jury led by Bong Joon-ho is busy picking this year’s winners somewhere on the island. It’s been a strange, uneven ride, with a lineup so front-loaded it was perhaps only natural that the fest’s second week wouldn’t live up to the sheen of the first few days. But the last stretch was still home to some belated surprises, among them, Jan P. Matuszyński’s Leave No Traces. A follow-up to his 2016 Locarno prizewinning The Last Family, Matuszyński’s second feature is based on...
- 9/16/2021
- MUBI
The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.The Battle of AlgiersCommenting on the role of cinema in his native Cuba, director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea once wrote that films should not just add to people’s enjoyment of life, but also “contribute in the most effective way possible to elevating [their] revolutionary consciousness.” Gutiérrez Alea was writing in 1982 (the words are cribbed from his essay “The Viewer’s Dialectic”), over twenty years since Fidel Castro ousted Fulgencio Batista and brought an end to the US-backed dictatorship in the island. But the idea that cinema can serve a higher function that mere entertainment—the belief that films should both educate and agitate spectators—is as old as the medium itself. Lenin once called cinema “the most important of all the arts;” Trotsky “a weapon for collective education.” For Bolivian director Jorge Sanjinés,...
- 6/7/2021
- MUBI
Despite the proliferation of streaming services, it’s becoming increasingly clear that any cinephile only needs subscriptions to a few to survive. Among the top of our list are The Criterion Channel and Mubi and now they’ve each unveiled their stellar April line-ups.
Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.
At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...
Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.
At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...
- 3/26/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Among the Oscar nominations surprises every year is the Best Director lineup. Remember when Steven Spielberg (“The Color Purple”), Ron Howard (“Apollo 13”) and Ben Affleck (“Argo”) all won at the Directors Guild of America Awards but were snubbed by the directors branch of the academy. This year DGA nominee Aaron Sorkin (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”) was likewise left off the list of Oscar contenders. He was replaced by Danish director Thomas Vinterberg for his superb “Another Round,” which also picked up a bid for Best International Feature. He joins a long roster of Best Director nominees for films other than in English.
The academy first embraced international filmmakers in the 1960s. Italian auteur Federico Fellini was nominated for his 1961 classic “La Dolce Vita.” He contended again two years later for “8 1/2.” He reaped two more bids for “Fellini Satyricon” (1970) and “Amarcord’ (1975).
Predict the 2021 Oscars winners through...
The academy first embraced international filmmakers in the 1960s. Italian auteur Federico Fellini was nominated for his 1961 classic “La Dolce Vita.” He contended again two years later for “8 1/2.” He reaped two more bids for “Fellini Satyricon” (1970) and “Amarcord’ (1975).
Predict the 2021 Oscars winners through...
- 3/18/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was assassinated by the FBI, who coerced a petty criminal named William O’Neal to help them silence him and the Black Panther Party. But 50 years later, Hampton’s words about revolution still echo, maybe louder than ever. Shaka King’s “Judas and the Black Messiah” aims to tell his story.
Produced by Ryan Coogler, King’s second feature is unlike his first in terms of scope and scale, as he makes the leap from indie stoner comedy “Newlyweeds” to his first studio picture. But King’s original idea for the film was even more ambitious. The touchstone for him was Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1966 masterpiece “The Battle of Algiers,” telling a story that would’ve been broader, encompassing almost the entire Black Panther Party narrative.
“It would’ve had to be a TV series if we went that route, because it was just was too much and we tried,...
Produced by Ryan Coogler, King’s second feature is unlike his first in terms of scope and scale, as he makes the leap from indie stoner comedy “Newlyweeds” to his first studio picture. But King’s original idea for the film was even more ambitious. The touchstone for him was Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1966 masterpiece “The Battle of Algiers,” telling a story that would’ve been broader, encompassing almost the entire Black Panther Party narrative.
“It would’ve had to be a TV series if we went that route, because it was just was too much and we tried,...
- 2/5/2021
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Italian film producer Alberto Grimaldi, whose credits include The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Gangs of New York, has died. He was 95.
His death from natural causes on Saturday in Miami was confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by one of his sons, Maurizio Grimaldi. “We loved him, he was a big presence, and he leaves behind a remarkable film legacy,” his son said in a statement.
Grimaldi produced more than 80 movies, working with such directors as Federico Fellini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Gillo Pontecorvo, Martin Scorsese and Sergio Leone, mostly during the 1960s and ’70s....
His death from natural causes on Saturday in Miami was confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by one of his sons, Maurizio Grimaldi. “We loved him, he was a big presence, and he leaves behind a remarkable film legacy,” his son said in a statement.
Grimaldi produced more than 80 movies, working with such directors as Federico Fellini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Gillo Pontecorvo, Martin Scorsese and Sergio Leone, mostly during the 1960s and ’70s....
- 1/25/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Italian film producer Alberto Grimaldi, whose credits include The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Gangs of New York, has died. He was 95.
His death from natural causes on Saturday in Miami was confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by one of his sons, Maurizio Grimaldi. “We loved him, he was a big presence, and he leaves behind a remarkable film legacy,” his son said in a statement.
Grimaldi produced more than 80 movies, working with such directors as Federico Fellini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Gillo Pontecorvo, Martin Scorsese and Sergio Leone, mostly during the 1960s and ’70s....
His death from natural causes on Saturday in Miami was confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter by one of his sons, Maurizio Grimaldi. “We loved him, he was a big presence, and he leaves behind a remarkable film legacy,” his son said in a statement.
Grimaldi produced more than 80 movies, working with such directors as Federico Fellini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Gillo Pontecorvo, Martin Scorsese and Sergio Leone, mostly during the 1960s and ’70s....
- 1/25/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The star from Sid & Nancy, Terminator 2, Candyman, Gattaca, Leaving Las Vegas and the new chiller The Dark And The Wicked takes us on a journey through some of his favorite foreign films.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Candyman (1992)
Frankenstein (1931)
Sid and Nancy (1986)
The Dark And The Wicked (2020)
The Wall of Mexico (2019)
La Dolce Vita (1961)
Il Bidone (1955)
Day For Night (1973)
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1967)
8 ½ (1963)
Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939)
Rififi (1955)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Z (1969)
The Sleeping Car Murders (1965)
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
Burn! (1969)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
The Italian Job (1969)
The Italian Job (2003)
The Magician (1958)
Wild Strawberries (1957)
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Persona (1966)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
The Last House On The Left (1972)
The Virgin Spring (1960)
Paperhouse (1988)
The Strangers (2008)
The Monster (2016)
Andrei Rublev (1966)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Nostalghia (1983)
Son of Frankenstein (1939)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Zorba The Greek (1964)
Pollyanna (1960)
Other Notable Items
Lon...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Candyman (1992)
Frankenstein (1931)
Sid and Nancy (1986)
The Dark And The Wicked (2020)
The Wall of Mexico (2019)
La Dolce Vita (1961)
Il Bidone (1955)
Day For Night (1973)
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1967)
8 ½ (1963)
Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939)
Rififi (1955)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Z (1969)
The Sleeping Car Murders (1965)
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
Burn! (1969)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
The Italian Job (1969)
The Italian Job (2003)
The Magician (1958)
Wild Strawberries (1957)
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Persona (1966)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
The Last House On The Left (1972)
The Virgin Spring (1960)
Paperhouse (1988)
The Strangers (2008)
The Monster (2016)
Andrei Rublev (1966)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Nostalghia (1983)
Son of Frankenstein (1939)
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Zorba The Greek (1964)
Pollyanna (1960)
Other Notable Items
Lon...
- 12/15/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
In 1952, Warner Bros. released a version of “The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima” that boasted, “To the best of human knowledge, and according to the testimony of 100,000 witnesses … This Is A True Story!” That film, hokey in some ways, inspirational in others, purported to be a fact-based account of a faith-based story, one that occurred in 1917 against the backdrop of a world war, wherein three Portuguese shepherd children experienced several visits by the Virgin Mary, who bestowed certain insights upon them before unleashing a spectacular solar light show so as to convince all those assembled.
Director Marco Pontecorvo revisits these events in the superficially suspicious “Fatima,” which arrives at a moment when faith and facts find themselves in direct opposition, when claims of “fake news” render the very notion of “a true story” all but meaningless. The film releases in theaters and on demand amid a global crisis — not just the pandemic,...
Director Marco Pontecorvo revisits these events in the superficially suspicious “Fatima,” which arrives at a moment when faith and facts find themselves in direct opposition, when claims of “fake news” render the very notion of “a true story” all but meaningless. The film releases in theaters and on demand amid a global crisis — not just the pandemic,...
- 8/27/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Guest reviewer Lee Broughton tackles Tonino Valerii’s Spaghetti Western-cum-political conspiracy thriller. By brazenly transposing key aspects of John F. Kennedy’s assassination onto the assassination of James A. Garfield in 1881, Valerii gives both western and conspiracy film fans much food for thought. A career best performance by Giuliano Gemma, repurposed sets from Once Upon a Time in the West and great turns by a plethora of Sergio Leone’s regular supporting actors bring a sense of gravitas to this intriguing show.
A Bullet for the President
Region Free Blu-ray
Wild East
1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 112 min. / Il prezzo del potere, The Price of Power / Street Date November 25, 2019 / 18.45
Starring: Giuliano Gemma, Warren Vanders, Van Johnson, Maria Cuadra, Ray Saunders, Fernando Rey, Antonio Casas, Benito Stefanelli, Jose Suarez, Jose Calvo, Manuel Zarzo, Michael Harvey, Norma Jordan, Angel Alvarez.
Cinematography: Stelvio Massi
Film Editor: Franco Fraticelli
Original Music: Luis Bacalov
Production Designer: Carlo Leva...
A Bullet for the President
Region Free Blu-ray
Wild East
1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 112 min. / Il prezzo del potere, The Price of Power / Street Date November 25, 2019 / 18.45
Starring: Giuliano Gemma, Warren Vanders, Van Johnson, Maria Cuadra, Ray Saunders, Fernando Rey, Antonio Casas, Benito Stefanelli, Jose Suarez, Jose Calvo, Manuel Zarzo, Michael Harvey, Norma Jordan, Angel Alvarez.
Cinematography: Stelvio Massi
Film Editor: Franco Fraticelli
Original Music: Luis Bacalov
Production Designer: Carlo Leva...
- 7/18/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“Music is an experience, not a science.” — Ennio Morricone
Hollywood is reeling at the death of composer Ennio Morricone, who died unexpectedly on July 6 at age 91. In the global film community, he’s as revered as any screen composer from Nino Rota and Bernard Herrmann to John Williams and Hans Zimmer, who credits “Once Upon a Time in the West” for inspiring him to become a film composer. “Ennio taught me that the simplest, purest and honest melody is the hardest,” tweeted Zimmer.
Rip. Morricone. An artist who changed everything. Yes, appropriating elements of jazz & rock & electronica in film scores but at the same time, asserting a level of romantic expression & assertiveness that had almost entirely vanished from soundtracks when he burst on scene. https://t.co/ybdKKuT34R
— Mangold (@mang0ld) July 6, 2020
Arguably Morricone’s greatest scores were for director Sergio Leone, with whom he went to elementary school.
Hollywood is reeling at the death of composer Ennio Morricone, who died unexpectedly on July 6 at age 91. In the global film community, he’s as revered as any screen composer from Nino Rota and Bernard Herrmann to John Williams and Hans Zimmer, who credits “Once Upon a Time in the West” for inspiring him to become a film composer. “Ennio taught me that the simplest, purest and honest melody is the hardest,” tweeted Zimmer.
Rip. Morricone. An artist who changed everything. Yes, appropriating elements of jazz & rock & electronica in film scores but at the same time, asserting a level of romantic expression & assertiveness that had almost entirely vanished from soundtracks when he burst on scene. https://t.co/ybdKKuT34R
— Mangold (@mang0ld) July 6, 2020
Arguably Morricone’s greatest scores were for director Sergio Leone, with whom he went to elementary school.
- 7/7/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
“Music is an experience, not a science.” — Ennio Morricone
Hollywood is reeling at the death of composer Ennio Morricone, who died unexpectedly on July 6 at age 91. In the global film community, he’s as revered as any screen composer from Nino Rota and Bernard Herrmann to John Williams and Hans Zimmer, who credits “Once Upon a Time in the West” for inspiring him to become a film composer. “Ennio taught me that the simplest, purest and honest melody is the hardest,” tweeted Zimmer.
Rip. Morricone. An artist who changed everything. Yes, appropriating elements of jazz & rock & electronica in film scores but at the same time, asserting a level of romantic expression & assertiveness that had almost entirely vanished from soundtracks when he burst on scene. https://t.co/ybdKKuT34R
— Mangold (@mang0ld) July 6, 2020
Arguably Morricone’s greatest scores were for director Sergio Leone, with whom he went to elementary school.
Hollywood is reeling at the death of composer Ennio Morricone, who died unexpectedly on July 6 at age 91. In the global film community, he’s as revered as any screen composer from Nino Rota and Bernard Herrmann to John Williams and Hans Zimmer, who credits “Once Upon a Time in the West” for inspiring him to become a film composer. “Ennio taught me that the simplest, purest and honest melody is the hardest,” tweeted Zimmer.
Rip. Morricone. An artist who changed everything. Yes, appropriating elements of jazz & rock & electronica in film scores but at the same time, asserting a level of romantic expression & assertiveness that had almost entirely vanished from soundtracks when he burst on scene. https://t.co/ybdKKuT34R
— Mangold (@mang0ld) July 6, 2020
Arguably Morricone’s greatest scores were for director Sergio Leone, with whom he went to elementary school.
- 7/7/2020
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Versatile film, avant-garde classical, jazz and pop composer Ennio Morricone died in a Rome hospital after falling and breaking his leg, his lawyer Giorgio Assumma announced, according to Variety. He was 91.
Known as “the Maestro,” Morricone is best known as the composer of the scores and themes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, and his Academy Award winning soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He also toured frequently, and expanded his sonic visions to reflect contemporary sounds. Besides his collaborations on the spaghetti Western films of Sergio Leone, Morricone composed for Bernardo Bertolucci, Dario Argento, Don Siegel, Brian De Palma, and John Carpenter. He composed for such diverse artists as Andrea Bocelli, Sting, k.d. lang, and Pet Shop Boys. Morricone never became fluent in English. When he won his 2007 honorary Oscar, his speech was translated by Clint Eastwood.
Morricone...
Known as “the Maestro,” Morricone is best known as the composer of the scores and themes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, and his Academy Award winning soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He also toured frequently, and expanded his sonic visions to reflect contemporary sounds. Besides his collaborations on the spaghetti Western films of Sergio Leone, Morricone composed for Bernardo Bertolucci, Dario Argento, Don Siegel, Brian De Palma, and John Carpenter. He composed for such diverse artists as Andrea Bocelli, Sting, k.d. lang, and Pet Shop Boys. Morricone never became fluent in English. When he won his 2007 honorary Oscar, his speech was translated by Clint Eastwood.
Morricone...
- 7/6/2020
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
Antonio Banderas, Edgar Wright, Jean Michel Jarre, Chance the Rapper and even the Italian prime minister were among the people paying to legendary film composer Ennio Morricone early Monday, who died following complications from a fall. He was 91.
Over seven decades, Morricone contributed to over 520 scores including, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” “The Hateful Eight,” “Cinema Paradiso” and “Once Upon a Time in the West.” Morricone won the Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score Academy Award in 2016 for “The Hateful Eight.”
Director Edgar Wright led the tributes on social media saying, “Where to even begin with iconic composer Ennio Morricone? He could make an average movie into a must-see, a good movie into art, and a great movie into legend. He hasn’t been off my stereo my entire life. What a legacy of work he leaves behind. Rip.”
Where to even begin with iconic composer Ennio Morricone?...
Over seven decades, Morricone contributed to over 520 scores including, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” “The Hateful Eight,” “Cinema Paradiso” and “Once Upon a Time in the West.” Morricone won the Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score Academy Award in 2016 for “The Hateful Eight.”
Director Edgar Wright led the tributes on social media saying, “Where to even begin with iconic composer Ennio Morricone? He could make an average movie into a must-see, a good movie into art, and a great movie into legend. He hasn’t been off my stereo my entire life. What a legacy of work he leaves behind. Rip.”
Where to even begin with iconic composer Ennio Morricone?...
- 7/6/2020
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
“If you scroll through all the movies I’ve worked on, you can understand how I was a specialist in westerns, love stories, political movies, action thrillers, horror movies and so on,” said Ennio Morricone. “So in other words, I’m no specialist, because I’ve done everything. I’m a specialist in music.”
The specialist and legendary maestro has passed away at the age of 91, leaving behind an incredibly prolific body of work that included over 400 scores made for movies and television as well as classic work and many journeys across the world performing his music. While it’s impossible to encapsulate such a towering career––considering he began writing his first compositions at the age of six––if you’re looking to revisit or discover some of his finest scores in remembrance, we’ve gathered our twenty favorites below.
The round-up includes some of his most iconic scores,...
The specialist and legendary maestro has passed away at the age of 91, leaving behind an incredibly prolific body of work that included over 400 scores made for movies and television as well as classic work and many journeys across the world performing his music. While it’s impossible to encapsulate such a towering career––considering he began writing his first compositions at the age of six––if you’re looking to revisit or discover some of his finest scores in remembrance, we’ve gathered our twenty favorites below.
The round-up includes some of his most iconic scores,...
- 7/6/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
With his brilliant, haunting scores for Sergio Leone, Quentin Tarantino and dozens more, Morricone was the master of film music
The film industry has its elite squad of composers who can produce a complete orchestral score at the request of a director – and if necessary conduct it too – intuiting almost by magic what is needed and doing this with miraculous fluency and speed. These are composers who are sometimes trusted simply to compose the music without sight of any screenplay draft, composers whose work really is the screenplay, and around whose music the film is partly shaped in the edit suite. There are great names like Hans Zimmer, Alexandre Desplat, John Williams, Mica Levi and Lesley Barber.
But the great ancestor of the modern film music is the Italian master Ennio Morricone, who created a staggering 500 scores over a passionate and inexhaustibly creative career spanning 50 years – working with directors such as Gillo Pontecorvo,...
The film industry has its elite squad of composers who can produce a complete orchestral score at the request of a director – and if necessary conduct it too – intuiting almost by magic what is needed and doing this with miraculous fluency and speed. These are composers who are sometimes trusted simply to compose the music without sight of any screenplay draft, composers whose work really is the screenplay, and around whose music the film is partly shaped in the edit suite. There are great names like Hans Zimmer, Alexandre Desplat, John Williams, Mica Levi and Lesley Barber.
But the great ancestor of the modern film music is the Italian master Ennio Morricone, who created a staggering 500 scores over a passionate and inexhaustibly creative career spanning 50 years – working with directors such as Gillo Pontecorvo,...
- 7/6/2020
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Oscar winner Ennio Morricone, composer of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and “The Mission” and among the most prolific and admired composers in film history, has died. He was 91.
Morricone died early Monday in a Rome clinic, where he was taken shortly after suffering a fall that caused a hip fracture, his lawyer Giorgio Asumma told Italian news agency Ansa.
Shortly after Morricone’s death was confirmed, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte tweeted: “We will always remember, with infinite gratitude, the artistic genius of the Maestro #EnnioMorricone. It made us dream, feel excited, reflect, writing memorable notes that will remain indelible in the history of music and cinema.”
The Italian maestro’s estimated 500 scores for films and television, composed over more than 50 years, are believed to constitute a record in Western cinema for sheer quantity of music.
At least a dozen of them became film-score classics, from the...
Morricone died early Monday in a Rome clinic, where he was taken shortly after suffering a fall that caused a hip fracture, his lawyer Giorgio Asumma told Italian news agency Ansa.
Shortly after Morricone’s death was confirmed, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte tweeted: “We will always remember, with infinite gratitude, the artistic genius of the Maestro #EnnioMorricone. It made us dream, feel excited, reflect, writing memorable notes that will remain indelible in the history of music and cinema.”
The Italian maestro’s estimated 500 scores for films and television, composed over more than 50 years, are believed to constitute a record in Western cinema for sheer quantity of music.
At least a dozen of them became film-score classics, from the...
- 7/6/2020
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
John Landis struck gold with his madcap 1980 comedy, a masterpiece of choreographed destruction with a killer soundtrack
One of the longstanding hallmarks of a John Landis production are cameos from other film directors, which explains the fun incongruity of Jonathan Demme and David Cronenberg passing through Into the Night or the highbrow/lowbrow cognitive dissonance of Atom Egoyan, Gillo Pontecorvo, and Costa-Gavras appearing in The Stupids. But when Steven Spielberg turns up as the Cook county tax accessor near the end of Landis’ blowout comedy The Blues Brothers, it feels less like a hat-tip than a statement.
Related: I've never seen ... The Blues Brothers...
One of the longstanding hallmarks of a John Landis production are cameos from other film directors, which explains the fun incongruity of Jonathan Demme and David Cronenberg passing through Into the Night or the highbrow/lowbrow cognitive dissonance of Atom Egoyan, Gillo Pontecorvo, and Costa-Gavras appearing in The Stupids. But when Steven Spielberg turns up as the Cook county tax accessor near the end of Landis’ blowout comedy The Blues Brothers, it feels less like a hat-tip than a statement.
Related: I've never seen ... The Blues Brothers...
- 6/22/2020
- by Scott Tobias
- The Guardian - Film News
The rage and anger at police violence and systemic racism is not just a week, a year, or even decades old. It is centuries in the making. And in order to understand and meaningfully contribute to the movement, audiences will need to educate themselves on the racist and socioeconomic inequities that nurture the environment that allows these injustices to thrive.
From Oscar Micheaux’s “Within Our Gates” (1920), to Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” filmmakers have tackled this subject with tense and angry films made in reaction to the status quo. They unpack the onscreen racist ideology that began with D.W. Griffith’s incendiary “The Birth of a Nation” (1915), and highlight the realities of a society in which racial disparities permeate and undermine an entire system’s effectiveness.
These are bold and provocative films that serve as overdue tonic for a society that has long been saturated with incomplete depictions of black people,...
From Oscar Micheaux’s “Within Our Gates” (1920), to Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” filmmakers have tackled this subject with tense and angry films made in reaction to the status quo. They unpack the onscreen racist ideology that began with D.W. Griffith’s incendiary “The Birth of a Nation” (1915), and highlight the realities of a society in which racial disparities permeate and undermine an entire system’s effectiveness.
These are bold and provocative films that serve as overdue tonic for a society that has long been saturated with incomplete depictions of black people,...
- 6/3/2020
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Should you be one of the many who’ve signed up for HBO Max, you’ll have access to a deep bench of popular TV dramas and sitcoms, plenty of HBO’s greatest hits (Game of Thrones, The Sopranos), some oonly-available-here original programming, the bulk of Studio Ghibli’s animated work, and a good deal of blockbusters (the D.C. Universe movies, the James Bond films, etc.). It’s a lot of bang for your buck, and a major push from WarnerMedia to enter the streaming space, if not try to dominate it.
- 5/27/2020
- by David Fear and Alan Sepinwall
- Rollingstone.com
The ceremony was run from an empty studio with winners acknowledging awards via video-link.
Marco Bellocchio’s mafia drama The Traitor swept Italy’s top David di Donatello awards on Friday evening (May 8), winning six prizes including best film, director and lead actor.
The biopic, which premiered in Competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, captures the life of Tommaso Buscetta, the late infamous mafia turncoat who began his organised crime career in Sicily and died in Florida incognito under the Us witness protection programme in 2000.
It marked the first time Bellocchio has won best film at the awards although he...
Marco Bellocchio’s mafia drama The Traitor swept Italy’s top David di Donatello awards on Friday evening (May 8), winning six prizes including best film, director and lead actor.
The biopic, which premiered in Competition at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, captures the life of Tommaso Buscetta, the late infamous mafia turncoat who began his organised crime career in Sicily and died in Florida incognito under the Us witness protection programme in 2000.
It marked the first time Bellocchio has won best film at the awards although he...
- 5/11/2020
- by 14¦Screen staff¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Giuseppe Tornatore is directing the film, Ennio: The Maestro, about the life and works of the legendary composer.
Block 2 Distribution, the sales arm of Wong Kar Wai’s Jet Tone Films, is handling international sales on Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary, Ennio: The Maestro, about composer Ennio Morricone.
Wong Kar Wai was also a producer film, along with Peter De Maegd and San Fu Maltha, with Gianni Russo and Gabriele Costa as both producers and executive producers. Block 2 has worldwide rights outside of several territories that were pre-sold or set up as co-production territories and will commence sales at the European Film Market (Efm) in Berlin.
Block 2 Distribution, the sales arm of Wong Kar Wai’s Jet Tone Films, is handling international sales on Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary, Ennio: The Maestro, about composer Ennio Morricone.
Wong Kar Wai was also a producer film, along with Peter De Maegd and San Fu Maltha, with Gianni Russo and Gabriele Costa as both producers and executive producers. Block 2 has worldwide rights outside of several territories that were pre-sold or set up as co-production territories and will commence sales at the European Film Market (Efm) in Berlin.
- 2/18/2020
- by 89¦Liz Shackleton¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Giuseppe Tornatore is directing the film, Ennio: The Maestro, about the life and works of the legendary composer.
Block 2 Distribution, the sales arm of Wong Kar Wai’s Jet Tone Films, is handling international sales on Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary, Ennio: The Maestro, about composer Ennio Morricone.
Wong Kar Wai was also a producer film, along with Peter De Maegd and San Fu Maltha, with Gianni Russo and Gabriele Costa as both producers and executive producers. Block 2 has worldwide rights outside of several territories that were pre-sold or set up as co-production territories and will commence sales at the European Film Market (Efm) in Berlin.
Block 2 Distribution, the sales arm of Wong Kar Wai’s Jet Tone Films, is handling international sales on Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary, Ennio: The Maestro, about composer Ennio Morricone.
Wong Kar Wai was also a producer film, along with Peter De Maegd and San Fu Maltha, with Gianni Russo and Gabriele Costa as both producers and executive producers. Block 2 has worldwide rights outside of several territories that were pre-sold or set up as co-production territories and will commence sales at the European Film Market (Efm) in Berlin.
- 2/18/2020
- by 89¦Liz Shackleton¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Hotel Mumbai movie review is here. The action thriller directed by Anthony Maras is inspired by the 2009 documentary Surviving Mumbai which is based on the 2008 Mumbai attacks at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in India. Releasing in India on November 29, 2019, the movie stars Dev Patel, Armie Hammer and Anupam Kher in pivotal roles.
Hotel Mumbai was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and Adelaide Film Festival, does it makes the right noise?!, Let?s find out in the movie review of Hotel Mumbai.
Immediate reaction when the end credits roll
How can such disturbing global tragedies like the 26/11 in Mumbai, India, such human suffering can be called ?entertainment? in the disclaimer. Hotel Mumbai is a tense and explosive dramatization of The Taj Mahal seize in Mumbai, the makers should have said that it?s a dramatized ?homage? to the survivors of the inhumanly horrific incident, not something based on true events dramatized for ?entertainment?...
Hotel Mumbai was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and Adelaide Film Festival, does it makes the right noise?!, Let?s find out in the movie review of Hotel Mumbai.
Immediate reaction when the end credits roll
How can such disturbing global tragedies like the 26/11 in Mumbai, India, such human suffering can be called ?entertainment? in the disclaimer. Hotel Mumbai is a tense and explosive dramatization of The Taj Mahal seize in Mumbai, the makers should have said that it?s a dramatized ?homage? to the survivors of the inhumanly horrific incident, not something based on true events dramatized for ?entertainment?...
- 11/27/2019
- GlamSham
100 year ago today in Pisa, Italy, the director Gillo Pontecorvo was born.
He only made five narrative features in his career, which is surely one of the reasons that he's overshadowed in cultural memory by the far more prolific mid 20th century Italian giants Vittorio de Sica and Federico Fellini. Still Pontecorvo's two best known films were both nominated for the Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards, the concentration camp drama Kapò (1960) and the resistance/war drama The Battle of Algiers (1966). The latter, which won the Golden Lion at Venice in its year, is still revered as a masterpiece. Have you seen either of these classics?...
He only made five narrative features in his career, which is surely one of the reasons that he's overshadowed in cultural memory by the far more prolific mid 20th century Italian giants Vittorio de Sica and Federico Fellini. Still Pontecorvo's two best known films were both nominated for the Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards, the concentration camp drama Kapò (1960) and the resistance/war drama The Battle of Algiers (1966). The latter, which won the Golden Lion at Venice in its year, is still revered as a masterpiece. Have you seen either of these classics?...
- 11/19/2019
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
In a surprise move, New York Film Festival’s director and selection committee chair of seven years Kent Jones will step down following this year’s 57th edition, which runs Sept. 27-Oct. 13.
The departure comes as Jones’ feature filmmaking career is taking off. Issues of potential conflicts of interest have arisen as his work has moved from mostly cineaste-oriented documentaries such as the 2015 doc “Hitchcock/Truffaut” to narrative features including his 2019 drama “Diane.” That film’s exec producer and Jones’ friend of nearly three decades, Martin Scorsese, is the director of Nyff’s opening-night film, “The Irishman.”
Jones tells Variety that this move has been in the discussion phase with the Film at Lincoln Center board for many months. “It developed kind of organically from the whole experience and reception of ‘Diane,’” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2018 and was released by IFC films in March 2019. He will...
The departure comes as Jones’ feature filmmaking career is taking off. Issues of potential conflicts of interest have arisen as his work has moved from mostly cineaste-oriented documentaries such as the 2015 doc “Hitchcock/Truffaut” to narrative features including his 2019 drama “Diane.” That film’s exec producer and Jones’ friend of nearly three decades, Martin Scorsese, is the director of Nyff’s opening-night film, “The Irishman.”
Jones tells Variety that this move has been in the discussion phase with the Film at Lincoln Center board for many months. “It developed kind of organically from the whole experience and reception of ‘Diane,’” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2018 and was released by IFC films in March 2019. He will...
- 9/19/2019
- by Gregg Goldstein
- Variety Film + TV
Bill Murray, Wes Anderson, Ron Howard, Bret Easton Ellis and Hirokazu Kore-eda all confirmed for masterclasses.
Bill Murray will receive the lifetime achievement award from this year’s Rome Film Fest (Oct 17-27) in an accolade to be presented by longtime collaborator Wes Anderson with whom he has worked on films including The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou and Moonrise Kingdom.
Anderson will also host a masterclass with Murray.
Additionally, the festival will host the a screening of Ron Howard’s documentary Pavarotti and a masterclass with the Us director.
The complete line-up of the festival will be unveiled onf...
Bill Murray will receive the lifetime achievement award from this year’s Rome Film Fest (Oct 17-27) in an accolade to be presented by longtime collaborator Wes Anderson with whom he has worked on films including The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou and Moonrise Kingdom.
Anderson will also host a masterclass with Murray.
Additionally, the festival will host the a screening of Ron Howard’s documentary Pavarotti and a masterclass with the Us director.
The complete line-up of the festival will be unveiled onf...
- 6/24/2019
- by Gabriele Niola
- ScreenDaily
The Rome Film Festival has revealed a sneak peak of its 2019 edition, which will include a lifetime achievement award for Bill Murray, presented by director Wes Anderson.
Murray will take part in an “in conversation” session hosted by his regular collaborator Anderson. Also giving talks at the Italian festival will be Hirokazu Kore-eda, Olivier Assayas, Bertrand Tavernier, and writer Bret Easton Ellis.
The event, which runs October 17-27, also revealed Monday that its Official Selection will include Pavarotti by Ron Howard, who will be on hand to present the film. The lineup will feature around 40 films that will compete for the Bnl People’s Choice Award.
Also on the wider programm lineup will be a restored version of Fellini Satyricon on the 50th anniversary of its release, and a tribute to Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo, one century after his birth, with the restored version of Kapò. There will also be...
Murray will take part in an “in conversation” session hosted by his regular collaborator Anderson. Also giving talks at the Italian festival will be Hirokazu Kore-eda, Olivier Assayas, Bertrand Tavernier, and writer Bret Easton Ellis.
The event, which runs October 17-27, also revealed Monday that its Official Selection will include Pavarotti by Ron Howard, who will be on hand to present the film. The lineup will feature around 40 films that will compete for the Bnl People’s Choice Award.
Also on the wider programm lineup will be a restored version of Fellini Satyricon on the 50th anniversary of its release, and a tribute to Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo, one century after his birth, with the restored version of Kapò. There will also be...
- 6/24/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The Rome Film Festival will celebrate Bill Murray with its lifetime achievement award, which will be presented to him by Wes Anderson.
Anderson, who has directed Murray in some of his most iconic roles, most notably in “The Royal Tenenbaums,” and in several other films such as “The Darjeeling Limited,” “Moonrise Kingdom” and “Grand Budapest Hotel,” is also scheduled to take part in an onstage conversation in Rome with Murray about the actor’s career.
The fest’s artistic director Antonio Monda also announced Monday that Oscar-winning director Ron Howard will be coming to the Eternal City to launch his “Pavarotti” documentary, which will be screening in the official selection. Howard will hold an onstage conversation.
Other prominent film personalities booked for Rome’s Close Encounters onstage chats, which are becoming one of the fest’s trademarks under Monda’s guidance, are French filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Bertrand Tavernier and American writer Bret Easton Ellis.
Anderson, who has directed Murray in some of his most iconic roles, most notably in “The Royal Tenenbaums,” and in several other films such as “The Darjeeling Limited,” “Moonrise Kingdom” and “Grand Budapest Hotel,” is also scheduled to take part in an onstage conversation in Rome with Murray about the actor’s career.
The fest’s artistic director Antonio Monda also announced Monday that Oscar-winning director Ron Howard will be coming to the Eternal City to launch his “Pavarotti” documentary, which will be screening in the official selection. Howard will hold an onstage conversation.
Other prominent film personalities booked for Rome’s Close Encounters onstage chats, which are becoming one of the fest’s trademarks under Monda’s guidance, are French filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Bertrand Tavernier and American writer Bret Easton Ellis.
- 6/24/2019
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Given the allusions to literal and thematic Trojan Horses that pepper its third act, one probably shouldn’t be surprised that “Captive State” — which opened cold on March 14 after Focus mysteriously canceled screenings for critics — actually is something of a purposefully camouflaged interloper. Although the TV ads and other promotional material appear to promise a megaplex-ready thrill ride about space invaders and rebellious Earthlings, this rigorously intelligent, cunningly inventive, and impressively suspenseful drama plays more like a classic tale about a disparate group of resistance fighters united in a guerrilla campaign against an occupying force.
The big difference here, of course, is that the occupiers are extraterrestrials, not German troops or British colonialists. But, truth to tell, director Rupert Wyatt (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) and scriptwriter Erica Beeney (“The Battle of Shaker Heights”) don’t seem terribly interested in those intergalactic beasties, which appear only fleetingly on scattered occasions,...
The big difference here, of course, is that the occupiers are extraterrestrials, not German troops or British colonialists. But, truth to tell, director Rupert Wyatt (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) and scriptwriter Erica Beeney (“The Battle of Shaker Heights”) don’t seem terribly interested in those intergalactic beasties, which appear only fleetingly on scattered occasions,...
- 3/15/2019
- by Joe Leydon
- Variety Film + TV
Captive State could very well be set in an alternate timeline of Arrival, one where the communication tactics of Louise Banks (Amy Adams) failed and the aliens stayed put to govern over humans. While this has happened worldwide, Rupert Wyatt’s grounded new sci-fi thriller specifically hones in on Chicago, where top government officials work with the alien forces in hopes of eventually getting off the “dying rock” that is Earth. Meanwhile, nearly-eradicated factions of the resistance aim to hold on to a semblance of hope that humanity will prevail as they fight back.
We spoke with the director–who broke out in Hollywood with another sci-fi film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes–about crafting this sci-fi world, being influenced by Jean-Pierre Melville and Gillo Pontecorvo, how the film looks at timely issues, some ingenious casting, the film’s unusual structure, and more.
The world-building in this film is impressive.
We spoke with the director–who broke out in Hollywood with another sci-fi film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes–about crafting this sci-fi world, being influenced by Jean-Pierre Melville and Gillo Pontecorvo, how the film looks at timely issues, some ingenious casting, the film’s unusual structure, and more.
The world-building in this film is impressive.
- 3/13/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Who’s to blame for popularizing reenactments of real-life terrorist attacks? Should we point the finger at “United 93” director Paul Greengrass, or maybe Steven Spielberg’s morally gray “Munich” a year earlier? The entire genre traces back to Gillo Pontecorvo’s game-changing “The Battle of Algiers” in 1966, which challenged our ideas of on-screen realism by posing as a cinema vérité newsreel. Even so, such re-creations didn’t become chic until after 9/11, when action movies in which folks such as Sean Connery and Arnold Schwarzenegger saved the day from terrorist plots gave way to those in which successful attacks became the focus.
There’s little doubt that “Hotel Mumbai” director Anthony Maras has seen all these movies and then some, although what’s not so clear is why he felt compelled to tell the story of the 2008 Mumbai attacks — a series of 12 separate terror incidents that culminated in the bloody siege...
There’s little doubt that “Hotel Mumbai” director Anthony Maras has seen all these movies and then some, although what’s not so clear is why he felt compelled to tell the story of the 2008 Mumbai attacks — a series of 12 separate terror incidents that culminated in the bloody siege...
- 9/9/2018
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
The first Esposizione d’Arte Cinematografica, later to be known as the Venice Intl. Film Festival, kicked off Aug. 6, 1932, with a screening of Rouben Mamoulian’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” on the terrace of the Lido’s Hotel Excelsior, followed by a grand ball.
The pic, produced by Paramount, went on to win an acting Oscar for Fredric March in an auspicious start, at least as an awards tastemaker, for the world’s oldest international film fest. It kicks off its 75th edition on Aug. 29.
Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night,” above, Edmund Goulding’s “Grand Hotel,” King Vidor’s “The Champ” and “A Nous la liberté” by René Clair are among other titles, now classics, that screened during that first edition. The fest was born from Italy’s desire to be seen as the center of art and culture in the wake of the disastrous World War I,...
The pic, produced by Paramount, went on to win an acting Oscar for Fredric March in an auspicious start, at least as an awards tastemaker, for the world’s oldest international film fest. It kicks off its 75th edition on Aug. 29.
Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night,” above, Edmund Goulding’s “Grand Hotel,” King Vidor’s “The Champ” and “A Nous la liberté” by René Clair are among other titles, now classics, that screened during that first edition. The fest was born from Italy’s desire to be seen as the center of art and culture in the wake of the disastrous World War I,...
- 8/28/2018
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Guest reviewer Lee Broughton is back with an in-depth look at Sergio Corbucci’s grand ‘Zapata’ Spaghetti Western. Set in post-1900 Mexico, Tony Musante’s rebellious peon wants to be a hero of the revolution but he primarily robs the rich in order to pay the extortionate wages that are demanded by Franco Nero’s interloping Polish mercenary-cum-military advisor. The resultant political allegory is played out on an almost epic scale and is suitably enlivened by the presence of a villainous Jack Palance, a plethora of large scale action scenes, an imaginatively used period car and biplane and a rousing soundtrack score by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai.
The Mercenary (Il mercenario)
Region B Blu-ray
88 Films The Italian Collection
1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 106 min. / A Professional Gun, Il mercenario / Street Date, 8 Jan 2018 / £15.99
Starring: Franco Nero, Tony Musante, Jack Palance, Giovanna Ralli, Franco Giacobini, Eduardo Fajardo, Franco Ressel, Raf Baldassarre, Tito Garcia.
The Mercenary (Il mercenario)
Region B Blu-ray
88 Films The Italian Collection
1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 106 min. / A Professional Gun, Il mercenario / Street Date, 8 Jan 2018 / £15.99
Starring: Franco Nero, Tony Musante, Jack Palance, Giovanna Ralli, Franco Giacobini, Eduardo Fajardo, Franco Ressel, Raf Baldassarre, Tito Garcia.
- 2/20/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Criterion Reflections is David Blakeslee’s ongoing project to watch all of the films included in the Criterion Collection in chronological order of their original release. Each episode features panel conversations and 1:1 interviews offering insights on movies that premiered in a particular season of a year in the past, which were destined to eventually bear the Criterion imprint. In this episode, David is joined by William Remmers, Bryan Fernandez, Josh Hornbeck, and Douglas McCambridge to discuss three titles from the Autumn of 1969: Ken Loach’s Kes, Ishiro Honda’s All Monsters Attack, and Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Color of Pomegranates.
Episode Time Markers Introduction: 0:00:00 – 0:04:22 Kes: 0:04:23 – 1:00:51 All Monsters Attack: 1:00:52 – 1:35:42 Burn: 1:35:43 – 2:25:21 Kes (11/15/69)
Guests: Bryan Fernandez and William Remmers
Criterion Cinehouse Cinema’s Fringes Combustible Celluloid Common Sense Media Criterion Confessions Derek Winnert Gone With...
Episode Time Markers Introduction: 0:00:00 – 0:04:22 Kes: 0:04:23 – 1:00:51 All Monsters Attack: 1:00:52 – 1:35:42 Burn: 1:35:43 – 2:25:21 Kes (11/15/69)
Guests: Bryan Fernandez and William Remmers
Criterion Cinehouse Cinema’s Fringes Combustible Celluloid Common Sense Media Criterion Confessions Derek Winnert Gone With...
- 1/25/2018
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
French screen icon joins writer-directors Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon for one of her final appearances
Here is one of the final screen appearances of Emmanuelle Riva, icon of movies from Michael Haneke’s Amour to Gillo Pontecorvo’s Kapò and Alain Resnais’s Hiroshima Mon Amour, who died in January at the age of 89. It is a delectably gentle, elegant, self-effacing performance. Riva plays a lovably scatty old lady called Marthe in this Tati-esque comedy from French writer-directors Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon. The movie they have jointly devised, and in which they star, is a clever, funny and distinctly unworldly comedy with an insouciant line in visual humour.
Fiona (Fiona Gordon) is a young goof from Canada who comes to Paris to visit her similarly away-with-the-fairies aunt Marthe (Riva). A mishap on the banks of, and then in, the Seine leads to an encounter with a romantic tramp...
Here is one of the final screen appearances of Emmanuelle Riva, icon of movies from Michael Haneke’s Amour to Gillo Pontecorvo’s Kapò and Alain Resnais’s Hiroshima Mon Amour, who died in January at the age of 89. It is a delectably gentle, elegant, self-effacing performance. Riva plays a lovably scatty old lady called Marthe in this Tati-esque comedy from French writer-directors Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon. The movie they have jointly devised, and in which they star, is a clever, funny and distinctly unworldly comedy with an insouciant line in visual humour.
Fiona (Fiona Gordon) is a young goof from Canada who comes to Paris to visit her similarly away-with-the-fairies aunt Marthe (Riva). A mishap on the banks of, and then in, the Seine leads to an encounter with a romantic tramp...
- 11/24/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Above: Polish poster for The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy/Algeria, 1965). Designer: Jerzy Flisak.As the 55th New York Film Festival winds down this weekend, I thought I’d look back half a century at the films of the 5th edition. That 1967 festival, programmed by Amos Vogel, Richard Roud, Arthur Knight, Andrew Sarris and Susan Sontag, featured 21 new films, all but three of which were from Europe (six of them from France, 2 and 1/7 of them directed by Godard), all of which showed at Lincoln Center’s Philharmonic Hall. (They also programmed Gance’s Napoleon, Mamoulian’s Applause and King Vidor’s Show People in the retrospective slots). The only director to have a film in both the 1967 festival and the 2017 edition is Agnès Varda, who was one of the directors of the omnibus Far From Vietnam and was then already 12 years into her filmmaking career.It will come as...
- 10/13/2017
- MUBI
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)
This week’s question: In honor of Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk,” what is the best war movie ever made?
Read More‘Dunkirk’ Review: Christopher Nolan’s Monumental War Epic Is The Best Film He’s Ever Made Richard Brody (@tnyfrontrow), The New Yorker
Howard Hawks’ “The Dawn Patrol,” from 1930, shows soldiers and officers cracking up from the cruelty of their missions — and shows the ones who manage not to, singing and clowning with an exuberance that suggests the rictus of a death mask. There’s courage and heroism, virtue and honor — at a price that makes the words themselves seem foul. John Ford’s “The Lost Patrol,...
This week’s question: In honor of Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk,” what is the best war movie ever made?
Read More‘Dunkirk’ Review: Christopher Nolan’s Monumental War Epic Is The Best Film He’s Ever Made Richard Brody (@tnyfrontrow), The New Yorker
Howard Hawks’ “The Dawn Patrol,” from 1930, shows soldiers and officers cracking up from the cruelty of their missions — and shows the ones who manage not to, singing and clowning with an exuberance that suggests the rictus of a death mask. There’s courage and heroism, virtue and honor — at a price that makes the words themselves seem foul. John Ford’s “The Lost Patrol,...
- 7/24/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
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