For as long as “teenager” has been a demographic, there have been stories about teens breaking free from the status quo. While a lot of the modern great teen rebellion media is confined to the world of TV — where shows like “Euphoria” attract constant buzz — the archetypal troubled teen story remains 1955’s “Rebel Without a Cause.” Starring James Dean in unquestionably his defining role, a rebellious teen struggling with his demons in L.A., Nicholas Ray’s film spoke to young people at the time with its story of high schoolers struggling with, and going against, the social pressures that bring them down. Over the years it became a touchstone because its themes and its honesty transcends generations.
As the teen film has evolved and morphed as a genre, there’s always been room for stories of iconoclastic youth who don’t fit in with the status quo. Oftentimes, these...
As the teen film has evolved and morphed as a genre, there’s always been room for stories of iconoclastic youth who don’t fit in with the status quo. Oftentimes, these...
- 4/23/2024
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
This week started on a high for director Jonathan Glazer, after his Cannes Grand Prix-winner The Zone of Interest took Best Film and Best Director at the 44th London Film Critics’ Awards on Sunday. Glazer has been sparing in his appearances since the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, presumably keeping his powder dry for the BAFTAs and the Oscars, where his film is seen as a dark horse in the International Feature Film category (being a rare submission from the UK).
Last week, he broke that silence at great length, in an extensive interview conducted at London’s BFI Southbank by four-time Oscar winner — and 11-time nominee — Alfonso Cuarón.
During the chat, which preceded a last-minute UK preview screening of Zone of Interest on Thursday, Cuarón frequently praised the film, describing it as “probably the most important film in this century, both from the standpoint of his cinematic...
Last week, he broke that silence at great length, in an extensive interview conducted at London’s BFI Southbank by four-time Oscar winner — and 11-time nominee — Alfonso Cuarón.
During the chat, which preceded a last-minute UK preview screening of Zone of Interest on Thursday, Cuarón frequently praised the film, describing it as “probably the most important film in this century, both from the standpoint of his cinematic...
- 2/5/2024
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Over the course of "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back," and "Return of the Jedi," the masked character of Boba Fett only has four lines of dialogue and six and a half minutes of screentime. Add in "The Star Wars Holiday Special," and the character suddenly had 20 additional lines. Either way, he was not a major player in "Star Wars," and ultimately fell into the mouth of a Shai Hulud on Arrakis a Sarlacc on Tattooine. It wasn't until the decade-and-a-half following the release of 1983's "Jedi" that Boba Fett would come to be admired by Starwoids who watched the "Star Wars" movies dozens of times each. In the "Star Wars" prequel films released from 1999 to 2005, Boba Fett was given a mythic backstory, and in 2021, he became the star of his own TV series.
But for many years, outside of the old Expanded Universe, he was merely the "four lines...
But for many years, outside of the old Expanded Universe, he was merely the "four lines...
- 1/2/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Based on the novel by Anthony Burgess, Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film "A Clockwork Orange" is set in the not-too-distant future when roving British teenage gangs have mutated into bizarre, ultra-violent, morals-free hedonists who commit crimes to their hearts' content. The protagonist is Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) a 15-year-old punk who drinks drug-laced milk before taking to the street with his gang of droogs to savagely and gleefully beat and assault anyone who passes into their field of vision. Alex is eventually arrested and put into prison where the government subjects him to bizarre new rehabilitation techniques in an attempt to turn his mind away from violence.
Throughout, Alex is depicted as clearly beyond redemption. He has no compassion and will never have compassion. When he reads about Jesus Christ being crucified, he imagines himself to be the Roman soldier whipping him. The government's brainwashing techniques only instill in him a...
Throughout, Alex is depicted as clearly beyond redemption. He has no compassion and will never have compassion. When he reads about Jesus Christ being crucified, he imagines himself to be the Roman soldier whipping him. The government's brainwashing techniques only instill in him a...
- 12/4/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
The Story: H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) does the impossible – after writing about a time machine he actually builds one. Too bad then that one of his dearest friends is secretly Jack the Ripper (David Warner) and uses the machine to escape justice by going into the future – 1979 San Francisco to be exact. Left with no choice and believing that he’s unleashed a monster upon a utopia (ha!), Wells pursues him through time, but winds up being a lot more out of his element than his nemesis.
The Players: Starring Malcolm McDowell, David Warner & Mary Steenburgen. Written and directed by Nicholas Meyer.
Oh, I love that part. I love that film, actually. Well of course, I was in love during the filmmaking—how could you not love the damn film? And I’ve always loved San Francisco since. – Malcolm McDowell – Random Roles
The History: Long before he became the colorful...
The Players: Starring Malcolm McDowell, David Warner & Mary Steenburgen. Written and directed by Nicholas Meyer.
Oh, I love that part. I love that film, actually. Well of course, I was in love during the filmmaking—how could you not love the damn film? And I’ve always loved San Francisco since. – Malcolm McDowell – Random Roles
The History: Long before he became the colorful...
- 11/19/2023
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
Rereleased for its 30th anniversary, this is a seemingly aimless but actually brilliantly controlled movie about Texan kids in 1976
Richard Linklater’s graduating class for his breakout 1993 hit – now rereleased for its 30th anniversary – featured baby-faced high-schoolers Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Milla Jovovich, Rory Cochrane, Cole Hauser and Adam Goldberg. Then there is Matthew McConaughey, who does not look all that much different from the way he does now, playing the older guy with a dodgy pudding bowl hairstyle and a pack of cigarettes stuffed into one of his T-shirt sleeves, creepily hanging out with kids from the school he is supposed to have left some years ago.
This is a film which drew on Altman’s Nashville – like that movie, this is set during the bicentennial of 1976, and is now nearer in time to that year than to 2023 – and Lucas’s American Graffiti. It features kids in Austin, Texas...
Richard Linklater’s graduating class for his breakout 1993 hit – now rereleased for its 30th anniversary – featured baby-faced high-schoolers Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Milla Jovovich, Rory Cochrane, Cole Hauser and Adam Goldberg. Then there is Matthew McConaughey, who does not look all that much different from the way he does now, playing the older guy with a dodgy pudding bowl hairstyle and a pack of cigarettes stuffed into one of his T-shirt sleeves, creepily hanging out with kids from the school he is supposed to have left some years ago.
This is a film which drew on Altman’s Nashville – like that movie, this is set during the bicentennial of 1976, and is now nearer in time to that year than to 2023 – and Lucas’s American Graffiti. It features kids in Austin, Texas...
- 9/15/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
”It’s all about enthusiam, stubborness and determination,” he says.
Aged 85, Roger Gibson is preparing for his final edition as artistic director of the Chichester International Film Festival. He has built it into one of the UK’s leading regional film festivals since launching it in 1992.
Over the years guests travelling to the south of England festival have included Alec Guinness, Stephen Poliakoff, Kathleen Turner, Ken Russell, Mike Leigh and Ralph Fiennes. This year’s guest list is equally impressive: the festival has programmed retrospectives of work by Cate Blanchett and Hugh Bonneville, and both actors are set to attend,...
Aged 85, Roger Gibson is preparing for his final edition as artistic director of the Chichester International Film Festival. He has built it into one of the UK’s leading regional film festivals since launching it in 1992.
Over the years guests travelling to the south of England festival have included Alec Guinness, Stephen Poliakoff, Kathleen Turner, Ken Russell, Mike Leigh and Ralph Fiennes. This year’s guest list is equally impressive: the festival has programmed retrospectives of work by Cate Blanchett and Hugh Bonneville, and both actors are set to attend,...
- 8/1/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
The British pop stars hired the Palme d’Or winner to record their groundbreaking shows in east Asia. After it all ended in tears, the unseen film was locked up in a Scottish university
It’s hard to imagine a stranger pairing: Lindsay Anderson, the pioneering director acclaimed for his provocative leftwing critiques of postwar Britain, and Wham!, the young pop duo behind Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Last Christmas.
Yet the two parties came together in 1985, when Anderson, then 61, was hired to direct a documentary about George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s groundbreaking tour of China, which made the 21- and 22-year-olds the first western pop act to play in the country.
It’s hard to imagine a stranger pairing: Lindsay Anderson, the pioneering director acclaimed for his provocative leftwing critiques of postwar Britain, and Wham!, the young pop duo behind Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Last Christmas.
Yet the two parties came together in 1985, when Anderson, then 61, was hired to direct a documentary about George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s groundbreaking tour of China, which made the 21- and 22-year-olds the first western pop act to play in the country.
- 7/7/2023
- by Chris Tryhorn
- The Guardian - Film News
Glenda Jackson, the two-time Oscar winner who walked away from a hugely successful acting career to spend nearly a quarter-century in the U.K. parliament, only to make a comeback on the stage, died Thursday. She was 87.
Jackson died peacefully after a brief illness at her home in Blackheath, London, and her family was at her side, her agent Lionel Larner said in a statement. “Today we lost one of the world’s greatest actresses, and I have lost a best friend of over 50 years,” he said.
She recently completed filming The Great Escaper opposite Michael Caine, Larner noted.
The British actress collected a slew of honors that included best actress Academy Awards for Women in Love (1969) and A Touch of Class (1973); two Emmys for her performance as Elizabeth I in the BBC miniseries Elizabeth R (a role she also played in the 1971 film Mary, Queen of Scots); and a...
Jackson died peacefully after a brief illness at her home in Blackheath, London, and her family was at her side, her agent Lionel Larner said in a statement. “Today we lost one of the world’s greatest actresses, and I have lost a best friend of over 50 years,” he said.
She recently completed filming The Great Escaper opposite Michael Caine, Larner noted.
The British actress collected a slew of honors that included best actress Academy Awards for Women in Love (1969) and A Touch of Class (1973); two Emmys for her performance as Elizabeth I in the BBC miniseries Elizabeth R (a role she also played in the 1971 film Mary, Queen of Scots); and a...
- 6/15/2023
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jackson won Academy Awards for ’Women In Love’ and ’A Touch Of Class’.
UK actress Glenda Jackson, known for her Oscar-winning performances in Women In Love and A Touch Of Class, has died aged 87.
Jackson, who was also a former Labour MP, ”died peacefully at her home in Blackheath, London this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side,” according to her agent Lionel Larner.
Born in Birkenhead, UK, Jackson’s acting career began in theatre in the late 1950’s before she made her big screen debut with an uncredited role in Lindsay Anderson’s This Sporting Life...
UK actress Glenda Jackson, known for her Oscar-winning performances in Women In Love and A Touch Of Class, has died aged 87.
Jackson, who was also a former Labour MP, ”died peacefully at her home in Blackheath, London this morning after a brief illness with her family at her side,” according to her agent Lionel Larner.
Born in Birkenhead, UK, Jackson’s acting career began in theatre in the late 1950’s before she made her big screen debut with an uncredited role in Lindsay Anderson’s This Sporting Life...
- 6/15/2023
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
Oh my brothers and sisters, gather 'round! We're here to celebrate the 80th birthday of the one and only Malcolm McDowell– an actor whose talent knows no boundaries, and whose presence in the horror, sci-fi, and dystopian thriller sub-genre is simply a droog's dream come true.
From his iconic role as Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange to his chilling portrayals in other blood-soaked delights, we present to you the 10 best Malcolm Mcdowell horror movies! Brace yourself, dear reader, for a journey into the macabre with our witty, fun, and oh-so-horrorshow listicle!
Warner Bros. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Let's kick things off with the mother of all cult classics, Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. McDowell's charismatic and devilishly mischievous portrayal of the charismatic delinquent Alex DeLarge is a straight-up punch to the gulliver. With his nadsat slang and a thirst for the old ultraviolence, McDowell set the benchmark for memorable horror performances.
From his iconic role as Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange to his chilling portrayals in other blood-soaked delights, we present to you the 10 best Malcolm Mcdowell horror movies! Brace yourself, dear reader, for a journey into the macabre with our witty, fun, and oh-so-horrorshow listicle!
Warner Bros. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Let's kick things off with the mother of all cult classics, Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. McDowell's charismatic and devilishly mischievous portrayal of the charismatic delinquent Alex DeLarge is a straight-up punch to the gulliver. With his nadsat slang and a thirst for the old ultraviolence, McDowell set the benchmark for memorable horror performances.
- 6/13/2023
- by Jonathan Dehaan
Exclusive: Malcolm McDowell is saddling up with James Paxton, Bernadette Peters and Laura Marano for Adam Rifkin’s Western Last Train to Fortune.
Last Train to Fortune also reteams McDowell with his former wife, Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen, the duo previously starring together in the 1979 sci-fi drama Time After Time and the 1983 Martin Ritt drama Cross Creek.
In the pic, McDowell plays Cecil Peachtree, a stuffed-shirt schoolmaster who misses the last train to Fortune and meets an outlaw named Dooley (Paxton), at which point they strike a deal: The gunslinger will ride the book-loving Cecil to Fortune in exchange for his teacher’s stipend awaiting him. Along the way there are gunfights, jailbreaks and saloon gals, and our mismatched heroes form an unlikely bond. The pic, which is produced by Michael Gerstein, Paxton, Matt Williams, Rifkin and Brad Wyman (the Oscar-winning Charlize Theron drama Monster) is said to be in the spirit of True Grit,...
Last Train to Fortune also reteams McDowell with his former wife, Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen, the duo previously starring together in the 1979 sci-fi drama Time After Time and the 1983 Martin Ritt drama Cross Creek.
In the pic, McDowell plays Cecil Peachtree, a stuffed-shirt schoolmaster who misses the last train to Fortune and meets an outlaw named Dooley (Paxton), at which point they strike a deal: The gunslinger will ride the book-loving Cecil to Fortune in exchange for his teacher’s stipend awaiting him. Along the way there are gunfights, jailbreaks and saloon gals, and our mismatched heroes form an unlikely bond. The pic, which is produced by Michael Gerstein, Paxton, Matt Williams, Rifkin and Brad Wyman (the Oscar-winning Charlize Theron drama Monster) is said to be in the spirit of True Grit,...
- 4/24/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
With films such as O Lucky Man! and Britannia Hospital, the British auteur portrayed his country as a bleak dystopia in decline – what would he make of today’s Britain?
‘No film can be too personal,” declared Lindsay Anderson in the Free Cinema manifesto of 1956. A decade later he lived up to this slogan when he shot his elegy to youth rebellion If…. at his old school, Cheltenham College. Winning the Palme d’Or at the 1969 Cannes film festival, it was the first in a loose trilogy of films that held up a mirror to a contemporary Britain that Anderson considered to be in a state of moral decline.
O Lucky Man! followed in 1973. Malcolm McDowell, who had played the chief rebel in If…., returned as a modern-day Candide who discovers that 1970s society offers very little grounds for his natural optimism. A brilliant score from Alan Price underpins the film’s bleak viewpoint.
‘No film can be too personal,” declared Lindsay Anderson in the Free Cinema manifesto of 1956. A decade later he lived up to this slogan when he shot his elegy to youth rebellion If…. at his old school, Cheltenham College. Winning the Palme d’Or at the 1969 Cannes film festival, it was the first in a loose trilogy of films that held up a mirror to a contemporary Britain that Anderson considered to be in a state of moral decline.
O Lucky Man! followed in 1973. Malcolm McDowell, who had played the chief rebel in If…., returned as a modern-day Candide who discovers that 1970s society offers very little grounds for his natural optimism. A brilliant score from Alan Price underpins the film’s bleak viewpoint.
- 4/17/2023
- by Charles Drazin
- The Guardian - Film News
In his bold 1990 interpretation of Luigi Pirandello’s “Henry IV,” the late and legendary Irish stage, screen and music star Richard Harris utters the immortal lines, “Woe to him who doesn’t know how to wear his mask.”
Even before his breathtaking big-screen triumph 60 years ago as the rugby ruffian Frank Machin in Lindsay Anderson’s film directing debut, “This Sporting Life,” Harris proved adept at juggling personal and professional personas. He swaggered with macho gusto and great thesping chops through the London stage scene and quickly found key roles in action epics such as “Guns of Navarone” and “Mutiny on the Bounty.”
Then his stunning 1963 breakthrough in “Life” made the showbiz side of the equation easy.
A Cannes lead actor award, an Oscar nomination and reams of reviews such as Variety’s quickly put Harris at the top tier of international leading men. Variety’s London critic at the...
Even before his breathtaking big-screen triumph 60 years ago as the rugby ruffian Frank Machin in Lindsay Anderson’s film directing debut, “This Sporting Life,” Harris proved adept at juggling personal and professional personas. He swaggered with macho gusto and great thesping chops through the London stage scene and quickly found key roles in action epics such as “Guns of Navarone” and “Mutiny on the Bounty.”
Then his stunning 1963 breakthrough in “Life” made the showbiz side of the equation easy.
A Cannes lead actor award, an Oscar nomination and reams of reviews such as Variety’s quickly put Harris at the top tier of international leading men. Variety’s London critic at the...
- 2/27/2023
- by Steven Gaydos
- Variety Film + TV
Cinematographer who brought his imaginative sensibilities to films such as Trainspotting, Billy Elliot and Quadrophenia
The cultural aesthetic of the Britpop and New Labour years was shaped partly by the cinematographer Brian Tufano, who has died aged 83. In films such as Trainspotting (1996), East Is East (1999) and Billy Elliot (2000), he combined social realism and absurdist fantasy, smudging the joins between the two. A typical Tufano production, said the film-maker Saul Metzstein, had “technical polish and a cinematic ambition at odds with its financially modest status”.
He worked for the BBC throughout the 1960s and 70s with directors including Lindsay Anderson, Ken Russell, Stephen Frears, Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. But it was in his work with a younger generation in the 90s that his imaginative cinematic sensibility was most strongly felt. For Danny Boyle, with whom he had already made the BBC period drama series Mr Wroe’s Virgins (1993), he shot the...
The cultural aesthetic of the Britpop and New Labour years was shaped partly by the cinematographer Brian Tufano, who has died aged 83. In films such as Trainspotting (1996), East Is East (1999) and Billy Elliot (2000), he combined social realism and absurdist fantasy, smudging the joins between the two. A typical Tufano production, said the film-maker Saul Metzstein, had “technical polish and a cinematic ambition at odds with its financially modest status”.
He worked for the BBC throughout the 1960s and 70s with directors including Lindsay Anderson, Ken Russell, Stephen Frears, Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. But it was in his work with a younger generation in the 90s that his imaginative cinematic sensibility was most strongly felt. For Danny Boyle, with whom he had already made the BBC period drama series Mr Wroe’s Virgins (1993), he shot the...
- 1/26/2023
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
“You never stop learning. I can pretty much do most things but there are some that are much more difficult, and those are the things I want to do,” Malcolm McDowell tells Variety at the Torino Film Festival. The British actor will receive the Stella della Mole Award at a ceremony Wednesday at Italy’s National Film Museum in Turin.
McDowell is looking forward to new acting challenges. “I’m not playing just the regular stuff. I’m looking forward to doing this Western early next year – and that should be fun, I’ve never done one – and then I think I’m doing a vampire movie. This year, I’ve played serial killers, rapists and old grandpas.”
McDowell particularly enjoys working with younger directors “at the start of their journey.” “That, I get a big kick out of, I love that… I also worked with some great directors and,...
McDowell is looking forward to new acting challenges. “I’m not playing just the regular stuff. I’m looking forward to doing this Western early next year – and that should be fun, I’ve never done one – and then I think I’m doing a vampire movie. This year, I’ve played serial killers, rapists and old grandpas.”
McDowell particularly enjoys working with younger directors “at the start of their journey.” “That, I get a big kick out of, I love that… I also worked with some great directors and,...
- 11/30/2022
- by Davide Abbatescianni
- Variety Film + TV
With films such as 1960’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Karel Reisz was a pioneer in reshaping perceptions of ordinary Britons. I think there’s still lots to learn from them
Twenty years ago on Friday my father, the film-maker Karel Reisz, died at the age of 76. Along with Lindsay Anderson and Tony Richardson, he was a leading figure of the British new wave. Unlike Anderson, who cultivated an outspokenly cantankerous persona, he disliked being interviewed about his work and was never really a public figure. Yet, rather like Ken Loach today, his films were widely admired for compassionately exploring the parts of British society that most earlier directors had ignored. At a time of economic turmoil and intense disillusion with politics, they remain urgently relevant.
Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Czechoslovakia, my father escaped to Britain on a kindertransport at the age of 12 (both my paternal grandparents...
Twenty years ago on Friday my father, the film-maker Karel Reisz, died at the age of 76. Along with Lindsay Anderson and Tony Richardson, he was a leading figure of the British new wave. Unlike Anderson, who cultivated an outspokenly cantankerous persona, he disliked being interviewed about his work and was never really a public figure. Yet, rather like Ken Loach today, his films were widely admired for compassionately exploring the parts of British society that most earlier directors had ignored. At a time of economic turmoil and intense disillusion with politics, they remain urgently relevant.
Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Czechoslovakia, my father escaped to Britain on a kindertransport at the age of 12 (both my paternal grandparents...
- 11/24/2022
- by Matthew Reisz
- The Guardian - Film News
Actor / Filmmaker Alex Winter joins Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss movies featuring a cog in the machine – the individual struggling to exist within the system.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s Bill and Ted character power rankings
Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)
Bill And Ted Face The Music (2020)
The Game (1997)
Showbiz Kids (2020)
The Panama Papers (2018)
Zappa (2020)
200 Motels (1971)
Modern Times (1936)
Metropolis (1927) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Avatar (2009)
Things To Come (1936) – Jesus Trevino’s trailer commentary
M (1931)
M (1951)
The Last Laugh (1924) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Brazil (1985)
Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness
City Lights (1931)
Goin’ Down The Road (1970)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The Young And The Damned (1950)
Shock Corridor (1963) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary
The Naked Kiss (1964)
Stroszek (1977)
Even Dwarves Started Small (1970)
Ikiru (1952) – Glenn Erickson’s trailer...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s Bill and Ted character power rankings
Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)
Bill And Ted Face The Music (2020)
The Game (1997)
Showbiz Kids (2020)
The Panama Papers (2018)
Zappa (2020)
200 Motels (1971)
Modern Times (1936)
Metropolis (1927) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Avatar (2009)
Things To Come (1936) – Jesus Trevino’s trailer commentary
M (1931)
M (1951)
The Last Laugh (1924) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Brazil (1985)
Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness
City Lights (1931)
Goin’ Down The Road (1970)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The Young And The Damned (1950)
Shock Corridor (1963) – Katt Shea’s trailer commentary
The Naked Kiss (1964)
Stroszek (1977)
Even Dwarves Started Small (1970)
Ikiru (1952) – Glenn Erickson’s trailer...
- 10/11/2022
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Though it sets out on a ghost hunt, Adrian Sibley’s fitfully fascinating documentary works better as an exploration of its subject’s public and private personas, charting Richard Harris’ rise from local sports star to screen legend via an unexpected heyday as a chart-topping pop star in 1968.
Rather than start with a séance, however, The Ghost of Richard Harris, screening in the Classics section of the Venice Film Festival, opens with the more prosaic sight of the actor’s three sons — Damien, Jared and Jamie — going through their late mother’s lock-up, where they find journals full of poetry, King Arthur’s crown (a prop from 1967’s Camelot) and trinkets from the Harry Potter franchise, in which their father played Dumbledore until his death in 2002, aged 72.
This set-up proves to be somewhat self-defeating, as the three middle-aged men, while reminiscing, then admit that they were packed away to boarding...
Rather than start with a séance, however, The Ghost of Richard Harris, screening in the Classics section of the Venice Film Festival, opens with the more prosaic sight of the actor’s three sons — Damien, Jared and Jamie — going through their late mother’s lock-up, where they find journals full of poetry, King Arthur’s crown (a prop from 1967’s Camelot) and trinkets from the Harry Potter franchise, in which their father played Dumbledore until his death in 2002, aged 72.
This set-up proves to be somewhat self-defeating, as the three middle-aged men, while reminiscing, then admit that they were packed away to boarding...
- 9/4/2022
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Venice film festival: There are some memorable moments in this documentary about the great Irish actor, but too many inconvenient truths are dismissed for it to be definitive
Adrian Sibley’s documentary is a genial, if sometimes incurious film about the legendary Irish actor and singer, who began his screen career as a pressure-cooker of rage on the rugby field in Lindsay Anderson’s This Sporting Life and finally became the beatific face of snowy-haired wisdom as Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies.
This watchable film goes easy on Harris’s boozing and brawling: in fact, it takes an almost a counter-revolutionary approach to the whole subject. In recent years, talk of Ollie and Peter and Richard’s hell-raising has usually been countered with a frowning diagnosis of alcoholism, and this film simply quotes Harris’s own roistering dismissal of all that: (“I drank because I loved it!
Adrian Sibley’s documentary is a genial, if sometimes incurious film about the legendary Irish actor and singer, who began his screen career as a pressure-cooker of rage on the rugby field in Lindsay Anderson’s This Sporting Life and finally became the beatific face of snowy-haired wisdom as Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies.
This watchable film goes easy on Harris’s boozing and brawling: in fact, it takes an almost a counter-revolutionary approach to the whole subject. In recent years, talk of Ollie and Peter and Richard’s hell-raising has usually been countered with a frowning diagnosis of alcoholism, and this film simply quotes Harris’s own roistering dismissal of all that: (“I drank because I loved it!
- 9/4/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Feature documentary “The Ghost of Richard Harris,” which premieres Sunday at the Venice Film Festival, looks to answer the question: “Who was Richard Harris?” The film also contains the revelation that Harris was offered the role of Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” movies, but chose to take the part of Dumbledore in the “Harry Potter” franchise instead.
Variety spoke to director Adrian Sibley and Richard Harris’ son Jared Harris – a distinguished actor himself, and one of the originators of the project – about how the documentary came to be made.
Sibley first broached the subject of making a film about Richard Harris some 20 years ago with the man himself, who responded: “I’ll do it, but only if I can tell the truth half the time,” Jared Harris recalls.
“This Sporting Life”
Sibley liked this idea but the BBC – who he pitched it to – were less keen.
Variety spoke to director Adrian Sibley and Richard Harris’ son Jared Harris – a distinguished actor himself, and one of the originators of the project – about how the documentary came to be made.
Sibley first broached the subject of making a film about Richard Harris some 20 years ago with the man himself, who responded: “I’ll do it, but only if I can tell the truth half the time,” Jared Harris recalls.
“This Sporting Life”
Sibley liked this idea but the BBC – who he pitched it to – were less keen.
- 9/3/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Taking a break from shooting a movie in the late Sixties, Richard Harris chartered a private plane. The actor and his entourage travelled to Hamburg to visit the brothels, and then went on a day trip to Ireland, spending an afternoon at one of Harris’s favourite pubs. They weren’t sober for a moment of the jaunt, which was chronicled by a photographer sent along for the ride.
The story of their antics is told in Adrian Sibley’s new feature documentary The Ghost of Richard Harris, a world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this week. What is most extraordinary about this particular episode is that it was nothing out of the ordinary for the Limerick-born star. Zigzagging across Europe in search of adventure, sex and alcohol was simply what Harris – at that stage of his life, at least – did.
His various paramours could likely attest to that.
The story of their antics is told in Adrian Sibley’s new feature documentary The Ghost of Richard Harris, a world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this week. What is most extraordinary about this particular episode is that it was nothing out of the ordinary for the Limerick-born star. Zigzagging across Europe in search of adventure, sex and alcohol was simply what Harris – at that stage of his life, at least – did.
His various paramours could likely attest to that.
- 9/2/2022
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- The Independent - Film
Cinematography retrospectives are the way to go—more than a thorough display of talent, it exposes the vast expanse a Dp will travel, like an education in form and business all the same. Accordingly I’m happy to see the Criterion Channel give a 25-film tribute to James Wong Howe, whose career spanned silent cinema to the ’70s, populated with work by Howard Hawks, Michael Curtz, Samuel Fuller, Alexander Mackendrick, Sydney Pollack, John Frankenheimer, and Raoul Walsh.
Further retrospectives are granted to Romy Schneider (recent repertory sensation La piscine among them), Carlos Saura (finally a chance to see Peppermint frappe!), the British New Wave, and groundbreaking distributor Cinema 5, who brought to U.S. shores everything from The Man Who Fell to Earth and Putney Swope to Pumping Iron and Scenes from a Marriage.
September also yields streaming premieres for the recently restored Bronco Bullfrog, Ang Lee’s Pushing Hands,...
Further retrospectives are granted to Romy Schneider (recent repertory sensation La piscine among them), Carlos Saura (finally a chance to see Peppermint frappe!), the British New Wave, and groundbreaking distributor Cinema 5, who brought to U.S. shores everything from The Man Who Fell to Earth and Putney Swope to Pumping Iron and Scenes from a Marriage.
September also yields streaming premieres for the recently restored Bronco Bullfrog, Ang Lee’s Pushing Hands,...
- 8/22/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Maybe she was kidding, but director Clio Barnard recently described “Ali & Ava” as her shot at making a “social-realist musical.” The phrase, which slipped out during an interview from the BFI London Film Festival, struck me as some kind of oxymoron at first: How could a rugged, true-to-life depiction of a struggling working-class English couple possibly coexist with that most surreal of cinematic genres? But in light of the end result, Barnard’s ambition makes perfect sense. The film’s two title characters don’t burst into song out of the blue but rather, listen to music as an escape from their everyday stresses. It’s the force that brings them together.
Embodied with equal parts weariness and good cheer by British Bengali actor Kamal Kaan (“Four Lions”), Ali is a Yorkshire-based ex-radio DJ who gravitates to dance and electronic music. An Irish transplant to the region, Ava (Claire Rushbrook...
Embodied with equal parts weariness and good cheer by British Bengali actor Kamal Kaan (“Four Lions”), Ali is a Yorkshire-based ex-radio DJ who gravitates to dance and electronic music. An Irish transplant to the region, Ava (Claire Rushbrook...
- 10/28/2021
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
“I think I’ve always been my own kind of person, and you know sometimes to my detriment,” says Malcolm McDowell, chatting to Den of Geek via Zoom, 50 years after the release of A Clockwork Orange.
“I’ve never really played the Hollywood card, I’m not really an insider, that’s just not my thing. And I like to be able to say no. And that’s it.That’s not probably a politically correct thing to do. However, too bad. I’m still here 50 years later.”
McDowell is talking to us from LA, his accent a soft mix of Yorkshire, where he grew up, and California where he has resided for much of his professional life. He is funny and charismatic, with a hint of the mischievous, he says people still find him “a little intimidating” – traits which he brought out in spades for his breakout roles, first...
“I’ve never really played the Hollywood card, I’m not really an insider, that’s just not my thing. And I like to be able to say no. And that’s it.That’s not probably a politically correct thing to do. However, too bad. I’m still here 50 years later.”
McDowell is talking to us from LA, his accent a soft mix of Yorkshire, where he grew up, and California where he has resided for much of his professional life. He is funny and charismatic, with a hint of the mischievous, he says people still find him “a little intimidating” – traits which he brought out in spades for his breakout roles, first...
- 10/4/2021
- by Rosie Fletcher
- Den of Geek
Ronald Pickup, the British actor best known for his roles in “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” films and “The Crown,” died on Feb. 24. He was 80.
Pickup’s agent said he “passed away peacefully yesterday after a long illness surrounded by his wife and family,” per the BBC. “He will be deeply missed.”
Born on June 7, 1940 in Chester, England, Pickup was an actor that performed across film, television, radio and theater. He is best known internationally for his role in the 2011 film “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” and its 2015 sequel. Pickup also played the archbishop of Canterbury in the first season of The Crown in 2016. In the following year, he portrayed Neville Chamberlain in the Winston Churchill film “Darkest Hour.”
After graduating the University of Leeds in 1962 with a degree in English, Pickup had his big break after landing his first television role as a physician in an episode of “Doctor Who.
Pickup’s agent said he “passed away peacefully yesterday after a long illness surrounded by his wife and family,” per the BBC. “He will be deeply missed.”
Born on June 7, 1940 in Chester, England, Pickup was an actor that performed across film, television, radio and theater. He is best known internationally for his role in the 2011 film “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” and its 2015 sequel. Pickup also played the archbishop of Canterbury in the first season of The Crown in 2016. In the following year, he portrayed Neville Chamberlain in the Winston Churchill film “Darkest Hour.”
After graduating the University of Leeds in 1962 with a degree in English, Pickup had his big break after landing his first television role as a physician in an episode of “Doctor Who.
- 2/26/2021
- by Antonio Ferme
- Variety Film + TV
Brian Cox
Brian Cox is Emmy-nominated for his memorable work in HBO’s “Succession” as patriarch Logan Roy, the head of a ruthless and viewer-addictive family of power-brokers.
Cox, born in Dundee, Scotland, has created many memorable characters in his six-decade career, including roles in such works as HBO’s “Deadwood,” blockbuster films such as “Braveheart” and “Troy,” and cult faves like “Rushmore,” “Zodiac,” “Super Troopers” and “Adaptation.” He was also the screen’s first Hannibal Lecktor in Michael Mann’s 1986 “Manhunter.” (The film changed Thomas Harris’ spelling of Lecter in his book.)
The actor talks about important lessons he’s learned in life, from Michael Elliott, director Lindsay Anderson (“In Celebration”), and fellow Scottish actor Fulton Mackay. But the most important piece of advice he got was from his mother.
‘It’s a journey’
“When I was much younger, two directors who were major influences in my acting life...
Brian Cox is Emmy-nominated for his memorable work in HBO’s “Succession” as patriarch Logan Roy, the head of a ruthless and viewer-addictive family of power-brokers.
Cox, born in Dundee, Scotland, has created many memorable characters in his six-decade career, including roles in such works as HBO’s “Deadwood,” blockbuster films such as “Braveheart” and “Troy,” and cult faves like “Rushmore,” “Zodiac,” “Super Troopers” and “Adaptation.” He was also the screen’s first Hannibal Lecktor in Michael Mann’s 1986 “Manhunter.” (The film changed Thomas Harris’ spelling of Lecter in his book.)
The actor talks about important lessons he’s learned in life, from Michael Elliott, director Lindsay Anderson (“In Celebration”), and fellow Scottish actor Fulton Mackay. But the most important piece of advice he got was from his mother.
‘It’s a journey’
“When I was much younger, two directors who were major influences in my acting life...
- 8/20/2020
- by Tim Gray and Steven Gaydos
- Variety Film + TV
Few actors can boast a career quite like Malcolm McDowell, and he’s still working, prolifically, in the present day. His latest is the Anglo-American gangster flick The Big Ugly, written and director by Scott Wiper. We had the immense pleasure of speaking to them both, on seperate occasions, to discuss this collaboration.
“I’m only involved because of Vinnie,” McDowell said of co-star Vinnie Jones, when as asked what attracted him to this project. “I love Vinnie. He’s a great guy. I knew him a bit because of golf, and he came up to play in my tournament, and he’s such a fun character and I’ve always liked his work and I know that he’s the cockney heavy, the gangster, but when he explained to me that this was his chance to do something more interesting and not just be the heavy, I brought into...
“I’m only involved because of Vinnie,” McDowell said of co-star Vinnie Jones, when as asked what attracted him to this project. “I love Vinnie. He’s a great guy. I knew him a bit because of golf, and he came up to play in my tournament, and he’s such a fun character and I’ve always liked his work and I know that he’s the cockney heavy, the gangster, but when he explained to me that this was his chance to do something more interesting and not just be the heavy, I brought into...
- 7/22/2020
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
He was once the embodiment of youthful rage and rebellion. Now, the Clockwork Orange star is reconciled to a life of golf, gangster flicks and the odd glimpse of genius
Malcolm McDowell was the insolent prince of early-70s cinema, the Liverpool salesman who stormed the establishment’s barricades. You can see him on screen in Lindsay Anderson’s If…., kickstarting a bloody revolution inside an English public school. You can see him in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, hanging with his droogs at the Korova milk-bar, making up his rassoodock what to do with the night. The sky was the limit. The world was his oyster. One felt he could achieve pretty much anything.
If McDowell’s life was a movie, he would either have gone on to be crowned king or he would have exploded and vanished, ideally before he turned 30. But real life has a way of monkeying with the script,...
Malcolm McDowell was the insolent prince of early-70s cinema, the Liverpool salesman who stormed the establishment’s barricades. You can see him on screen in Lindsay Anderson’s If…., kickstarting a bloody revolution inside an English public school. You can see him in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, hanging with his droogs at the Korova milk-bar, making up his rassoodock what to do with the night. The sky was the limit. The world was his oyster. One felt he could achieve pretty much anything.
If McDowell’s life was a movie, he would either have gone on to be crowned king or he would have exploded and vanished, ideally before he turned 30. But real life has a way of monkeying with the script,...
- 7/17/2020
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
Lindsay Anderson’s third ‘Mick Travis’ movie is a crazy comedy eager to overstep lines of cinematic decorum. Britain in 1982 is a country at war with itself, torn by elitist snobbery and working-class revolt. Union grievances cripple the functioning of a major public hospital, on a day when the Queen is set to visit. A huge comic cast grapples with satire that reaches beyond cynicism to express total dysfunction. And the comedy has a wicked sting in its tail: Graham Crowden’s mad-as-a-hatter scientist has diverted National Health funds into grisly experiments with human body parts. The ‘visionary’ maniac spills more blood than Peter Cushing and Sam Peckinpah, put together.
Britannia Hospital
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1982 / Color / 1:85 widescreen/ 117 (111) min. / Street Date June 29, 2020 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring: Leonard Rossiter, Vivian Pickles, Graham Crowden, Jill Bennett,
Marsha A. Hunt, Joan Plowright, Malcolm McDowell, Mark Hamill.
Cinematography: Mike Fash...
Britannia Hospital
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1982 / Color / 1:85 widescreen/ 117 (111) min. / Street Date June 29, 2020 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99
Starring: Leonard Rossiter, Vivian Pickles, Graham Crowden, Jill Bennett,
Marsha A. Hunt, Joan Plowright, Malcolm McDowell, Mark Hamill.
Cinematography: Mike Fash...
- 7/7/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
For producer-director John Ford Columbia Studios was apparently a calm port in a hostile movie climate. Away from the bankability guaranteed by John Wayne, Ford never quite regained the power of his earlier triumphs, from the silent era to his socially conscious classics at Fox. The four Columbia-controlled pictures presented on Powerhouse Indicator’s lavishly appointed disc set consist of two winners and (for this viewer) a pair of odd ducks. But the quality of his filmmaking remained consistent.
John Ford at Columbia 1935-1958
The Whole Town’s Talking, The Long Gray Line, Gideon’s Day, The Last Hurrah
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1935-1958 / Color & B&w / 1:37 Academy, 2:55 widescreen, 1:85 widescreen / / Street Date April 27, 2020 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £ 42.99
Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Jean Arthur; Tyrone Power, Maureen O’Hara; Jack Hawkins, Anna Massey; Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter.
Cinematography: Joseph August; Charles Lawton Jr., Charles Lang; Frederick A.
John Ford at Columbia 1935-1958
The Whole Town’s Talking, The Long Gray Line, Gideon’s Day, The Last Hurrah
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1935-1958 / Color & B&w / 1:37 Academy, 2:55 widescreen, 1:85 widescreen / / Street Date April 27, 2020 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £ 42.99
Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Jean Arthur; Tyrone Power, Maureen O’Hara; Jack Hawkins, Anna Massey; Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter.
Cinematography: Joseph August; Charles Lawton Jr., Charles Lang; Frederick A.
- 5/5/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Acclaimed stuntman and action director extraordinaire Jesse V. Johnson joins us to discuss the U.S. based action films and filmmakers that have influenced him the most.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
On The Waterfront (1954)
Fultah Fisher’s Boarding House (1922)
Undisputed (2002)
Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006)
Undisputed III: Redemption (2010)
Boyka: Undisputed (2016)
The Killer Elite (1975)
Convoy (1978)
The Osterman Weekend (1983)
Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
Straw Dogs (1971)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Birdcage (1996)
Cross of Iron (1977)
Electra Glide in Blue (1973)
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974)
Easy Rider (1969)
Fail Safe (1964)
The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
Ride The High Country (1962)
Major Dundee (1965)
Jinxed! (1982)
Beowulf (2007)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
The Girl Hunters (1963)
Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)
Point Blank (1967)
Falling Down (1993)
M (1951)
M (1931)
The Black Vampire (1953)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Scum (1979)
Elephant (1989)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), possibly Joe’s favorite John Ford...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
On The Waterfront (1954)
Fultah Fisher’s Boarding House (1922)
Undisputed (2002)
Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006)
Undisputed III: Redemption (2010)
Boyka: Undisputed (2016)
The Killer Elite (1975)
Convoy (1978)
The Osterman Weekend (1983)
Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
Le Cercle Rouge (1970)
Straw Dogs (1971)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The Birdcage (1996)
Cross of Iron (1977)
Electra Glide in Blue (1973)
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974)
Easy Rider (1969)
Fail Safe (1964)
The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
Ride The High Country (1962)
Major Dundee (1965)
Jinxed! (1982)
Beowulf (2007)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
The Girl Hunters (1963)
Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)
Point Blank (1967)
Falling Down (1993)
M (1951)
M (1931)
The Black Vampire (1953)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Scum (1979)
Elephant (1989)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), possibly Joe’s favorite John Ford...
- 3/24/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Versatile actor known for his TV role in The Army Game and as the producer of British film classics including If...
Best known for countless character roles in films and as the wide-boy Corporal Springer in the highly acclaimed 1950s TV series The Army Game, the actor Michael Medwin, who has died aged 96, also enjoyed success in other areas of show business across seven decades.
He began his career in the theatre and co-scripted several of the films in which he appeared, including My Sister and I (1948), Children of Chance (1949) and the musical Scrooge (1970), in which he was nephew to a Scrooge played by Albert Finney. He founded a production company, Memorial, with Finney and produced several British classics, including Lindsay Anderson’s If… (1968).
Best known for countless character roles in films and as the wide-boy Corporal Springer in the highly acclaimed 1950s TV series The Army Game, the actor Michael Medwin, who has died aged 96, also enjoyed success in other areas of show business across seven decades.
He began his career in the theatre and co-scripted several of the films in which he appeared, including My Sister and I (1948), Children of Chance (1949) and the musical Scrooge (1970), in which he was nephew to a Scrooge played by Albert Finney. He founded a production company, Memorial, with Finney and produced several British classics, including Lindsay Anderson’s If… (1968).
- 2/28/2020
- by Brian Baxter
- The Guardian - Film News
Italian film-maker and author who became a founding member of the British Free Cinema movement
The Italian film-maker and author Lorenza Mazzetti, who has died aged 91, declared herself to be a genius on her first day at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, and she made good on her promise. She unleashed a capacity to tell stories in film and literature that evoked a childhood trauma in Italy that she found too painful to discuss in person. Living in Britain after the second world war, she became a founding member of the British Free Cinema movement alongside Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson.
Her most acclaimed movie, made in 1956 with the support of the BFI’s Experimental Film Fund, was Together, a heartbreaking depiction of urban isolation. In this largely dialogue-free film, the painter Michael Andrews and the sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi appear as two brothers, both deaf and without speech,...
The Italian film-maker and author Lorenza Mazzetti, who has died aged 91, declared herself to be a genius on her first day at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, and she made good on her promise. She unleashed a capacity to tell stories in film and literature that evoked a childhood trauma in Italy that she found too painful to discuss in person. Living in Britain after the second world war, she became a founding member of the British Free Cinema movement alongside Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson.
Her most acclaimed movie, made in 1956 with the support of the BFI’s Experimental Film Fund, was Together, a heartbreaking depiction of urban isolation. In this largely dialogue-free film, the painter Michael Andrews and the sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi appear as two brothers, both deaf and without speech,...
- 1/20/2020
- by Pamela Hutchinson
- The Guardian - Film News
The British Film Institute has launched Svod service BFI Player Classics in the U.S. on Roku. Streaming device maker Roku added Svod to its Roku Channel service earlier this year with the likes of Showtime and Starz among the first to roll out paid-for content.
The BFI will now join that roster. It said the BFI Player Classics will feature quintessentially British films from “Brighton Rock” to “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” The U.S. launch marks the first time the BFI has launched a streaming service internationally.
BFI Player Classics launches with about 140 British or British co-produced films, picked by BFI experts. Among the filmmakers featured are Alfred Hitchcock, John Schlesinger, Ken Russell, Lindsay Anderson, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Nicolas Roeg, Ridley Scott, Sally Potter and Terence Davies.
As is the norm with streaming services, there will be a one-month trial period. After that a $5.99 per-month fee kicks in.
The BFI will now join that roster. It said the BFI Player Classics will feature quintessentially British films from “Brighton Rock” to “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” The U.S. launch marks the first time the BFI has launched a streaming service internationally.
BFI Player Classics launches with about 140 British or British co-produced films, picked by BFI experts. Among the filmmakers featured are Alfred Hitchcock, John Schlesinger, Ken Russell, Lindsay Anderson, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Nicolas Roeg, Ridley Scott, Sally Potter and Terence Davies.
As is the norm with streaming services, there will be a one-month trial period. After that a $5.99 per-month fee kicks in.
- 6/6/2019
- by Stewart Clarke
- Variety Film + TV
The UK’s leading organization for film, the BFI, has launched its first overseas streaming service in the U.S.
BFI Player Classics, a version of which is already available in the UK, will showcase Brit classics such as The Third Man, Brighton Rock, The Wicker Man and The Man Who Fell to Earth on The Roku Channel. The offering launches with approximately 140 British or British co-production films, picked by BFI experts.
Among the prestige filmmakers with films on the service are Alfred Hitchcock, John Schlesinger, Ken Russell, Lindsay Anderson, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Nicolas Roeg, Ridley Scott, Sally Potter and Terence Davies. The launch programme includes films from distributors BFI, Lionsgate and Studiocanal.
Customers will have access to a seven-day free trial, after which it will automatically turn into a paid subscription for $5.99/month. After the initial launch phase, the BFI says it will look to work with more U.
BFI Player Classics, a version of which is already available in the UK, will showcase Brit classics such as The Third Man, Brighton Rock, The Wicker Man and The Man Who Fell to Earth on The Roku Channel. The offering launches with approximately 140 British or British co-production films, picked by BFI experts.
Among the prestige filmmakers with films on the service are Alfred Hitchcock, John Schlesinger, Ken Russell, Lindsay Anderson, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Nicolas Roeg, Ridley Scott, Sally Potter and Terence Davies. The launch programme includes films from distributors BFI, Lionsgate and Studiocanal.
Customers will have access to a seven-day free trial, after which it will automatically turn into a paid subscription for $5.99/month. After the initial launch phase, the BFI says it will look to work with more U.
- 6/6/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Classic and cult British films including Brighton Rock, The Third Man, The Wicker Man and The Man Who Fell to Earth are heading to the U.S. on a new streaming service from the British Film Institute.
BFI Player Classics — the first Svod service to launch internationally by the BFI — is now available on the Roku Channel.
Distinct from BFI Player’s U.K. offering, BFI Player Classics launches with a collection of approximately 140 British or U.K. co-produced films, picked by BFI experts. Among the prestige filmmakers showcased are Alfred Hitchcock, John Schlesinger, Ken Russell, Lindsay Anderson, Michael Powell ...
BFI Player Classics — the first Svod service to launch internationally by the BFI — is now available on the Roku Channel.
Distinct from BFI Player’s U.K. offering, BFI Player Classics launches with a collection of approximately 140 British or U.K. co-produced films, picked by BFI experts. Among the prestige filmmakers showcased are Alfred Hitchcock, John Schlesinger, Ken Russell, Lindsay Anderson, Michael Powell ...
Classic and cult British films including Brighton Rock, The Third Man, The Wicker Man and The Man Who Fell to Earth are heading to the U.S. on a new streaming service from the British Film Institute.
BFI Player Classics — the first Svod service to launch internationally by the BFI — is now available on the Roku Channel.
Distinct from BFI Player’s U.K. offering, BFI Player Classics launches with a collection of approximately 140 British or U.K. co-produced films, picked by BFI experts. Among the prestige filmmakers showcased are Alfred Hitchcock, John Schlesinger, Ken Russell, Lindsay Anderson, Michael Powell ...
BFI Player Classics — the first Svod service to launch internationally by the BFI — is now available on the Roku Channel.
Distinct from BFI Player’s U.K. offering, BFI Player Classics launches with a collection of approximately 140 British or U.K. co-produced films, picked by BFI experts. Among the prestige filmmakers showcased are Alfred Hitchcock, John Schlesinger, Ken Russell, Lindsay Anderson, Michael Powell ...
The Cannes Competition line-up of 50 years ago was an extraordinary one; a who’s who of iconic filmmakers. Among the 26 competing for the Palme d’Or were Sidney Lumet, Louis Malle, Andrzej Wajda, Pierre Étaix, Lindsay Anderson, Volker Schlöndorff, Costa-Gavras, Éric Rohmer, Glauber Rocha, Ronald Neame and Dennis Hopper.
While it wouldn’t have seemed unusual at the time, today the maleness of that line-up really stands out. Festival selections hold a mirror up to those who select them as well as the society and culture within which they exist.
50 years on, a zero count of women filmmakers in Competition has haltingly increased to four—a joint-record for the festival, which has still only once awarded its main prize to a woman. Just 86 women directors have played in Competition compared to more than 1,600 men. And it’s not only in Competition that Cannes struggles. Of 24 films in Directors’ Fortnight this year,...
While it wouldn’t have seemed unusual at the time, today the maleness of that line-up really stands out. Festival selections hold a mirror up to those who select them as well as the society and culture within which they exist.
50 years on, a zero count of women filmmakers in Competition has haltingly increased to four—a joint-record for the festival, which has still only once awarded its main prize to a woman. Just 86 women directors have played in Competition compared to more than 1,600 men. And it’s not only in Competition that Cannes struggles. Of 24 films in Directors’ Fortnight this year,...
- 5/16/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
‘The eyelid clamps kept slipping off and scratching my corneas. I was in so much pain I was banging my head against a wall’
Stanley Kubrick had put aside his adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s novel because he couldn’t find the right actor to play Alex, the violent thug. Then he saw Lindsay Anderson’s If …, in which I played another victim of institutionalisation. He turned to his wife and said: “We’ve found our Alex.”...
Stanley Kubrick had put aside his adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s novel because he couldn’t find the right actor to play Alex, the violent thug. Then he saw Lindsay Anderson’s If …, in which I played another victim of institutionalisation. He turned to his wife and said: “We’ve found our Alex.”...
- 4/2/2019
- by Interviews by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
Spying on Michael Douglas, telling Nic Cage how to play drunk, pretending he was gay to Audrey Hepburn … two giants of cinema remember their hero Albert Finney
The first time I met Albert, he shook my hand and said: “You have a very interesting face,” in that famous Northern lilt of his. I’ll never forget it as long as I live. It was in 1968, on the set of Lindsay Anderson’s If…, which Albert produced and which was my breakthrough. I didn’t tell him then but he was my hero: when I saw him in Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, as a young man in Liverpool, it made me realise that I could could be an actor, too.
The first time I met Albert, he shook my hand and said: “You have a very interesting face,” in that famous Northern lilt of his. I’ll never forget it as long as I live. It was in 1968, on the set of Lindsay Anderson’s If…, which Albert produced and which was my breakthrough. I didn’t tell him then but he was my hero: when I saw him in Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, as a young man in Liverpool, it made me realise that I could could be an actor, too.
- 2/11/2019
- by Malcolm McDowell and Mike Figgis
- The Guardian - Film News
Award-winning film-maker committed to shining a light on the lives of the disenfranchised
The film-maker Peter Gordon, who has died aged 74 after suffering from cancer, was a committed documenter of the disenfranchised, gaining a trust from his interviewees that resulted in moving films revealing the social fabric of our lives and society.
His award-winning films were understated and elegant, and gave his subjects the space to tell their stories, going against the prevailing convention of the dominating commentary telling viewers what to think. According to the director Lindsay Anderson, Peter produced, “remarkable films, that challenged the limitations of documentary”.
The film-maker Peter Gordon, who has died aged 74 after suffering from cancer, was a committed documenter of the disenfranchised, gaining a trust from his interviewees that resulted in moving films revealing the social fabric of our lives and society.
His award-winning films were understated and elegant, and gave his subjects the space to tell their stories, going against the prevailing convention of the dominating commentary telling viewers what to think. According to the director Lindsay Anderson, Peter produced, “remarkable films, that challenged the limitations of documentary”.
- 2/4/2019
- by Michael Whyte
- The Guardian - Film News
Academic institutions are often said to be the making of us. Whether it is the rough and tumble of Grange Hill, the magic of Hogwarts, the threat of Oates Military Academy in Bill & Ted or to ponder on the Theory of everything with the promise of an Oxford Summer School, school life is ripe for the dramatic narrative. Many writers and directors have plundered the chaos and camaraderie of their school days for inspiration and, as most of us have our own early years’ education to compare, they will remain a popular choice for filmmakers.
To register our interest in this subject we aim to take a tour of some of the finest cinematic campuses. Though we’ll be holding our fists airward in solidarity with the American high schools of Ferris Bueller, The Breakfast Club, Ridgemont High and so on, we aim to take a look at those closer to home.
To register our interest in this subject we aim to take a tour of some of the finest cinematic campuses. Though we’ll be holding our fists airward in solidarity with the American high schools of Ferris Bueller, The Breakfast Club, Ridgemont High and so on, we aim to take a look at those closer to home.
- 12/11/2018
- by Michael Walsh
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Lindsay Anderson’s savage satire about a gun-happy insurrection at one of Britain’s public schools plays out like a blood-drenched version of Zero for Conduct. Malcolm McDowell stars as Mick Travis, a persecuted student who turns his violent revenge fantasies into fact. McDowell’s character returned in the far more sweet-tempered (but no less surreal) O Lucky Man! in 1972 and Brittania Hospital in 1982, thus completing the “Mick Travis Trilogy”.
The post If… appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post If… appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 11/12/2018
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Danny Boyle’s abrupt exit last week from the new James Bond sequel upset many Bond fans, who now face a longer wait for Bond 25, but my own reaction was one of relief. Boyle is too interesting a filmmaker to be making franchises rather than films — the Bond business had already consumed another talented Brit, Sam Mendes, for a few years (Skyfall and Spectre). Bond is surely a damn good business (the last four iterations grossed over $3 billion worldwide) but, by and large, British filmmakers haven’t been creating the sort of truly and innovate fare that they contributed in years past.
I was reminded of this yesterday when I spoke at a 50th anniversary salute to Midnight Cowboy at the Coronado Island Film Festival. Screening Cowboy pinpointed that extraordinary mid-1960s moment when the Brits essentially annexed the film world. John Schlesinger’s movie created a sort of...
I was reminded of this yesterday when I spoke at a 50th anniversary salute to Midnight Cowboy at the Coronado Island Film Festival. Screening Cowboy pinpointed that extraordinary mid-1960s moment when the Brits essentially annexed the film world. John Schlesinger’s movie created a sort of...
- 8/30/2018
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Caleb Landry Jones would like you to know he’s not a tortured artist. The confusion is understandable: A decade into his career, the Texas native has been the guy selling viruses for fun and profit (“Antiviral”), the homeless heroin addict (“Heaven Knows What”), a ruined soldier (“Queen and Country”), the even-creepier son in a racist family (“Get Out”), and the dude who gets thrown out a window by Sam Rockwell in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” To be fair, he also made a 2010 appearance on the Nickelodeon show “Victorious,” in which he played “Adorable Guy.”
Those characters, however, are not Jones.
“I think people want to put that on [me], because it’s easier. I don’t know, but maybe there is a bit of it,” Jones told IndieWire when asked about the perception that he’s that kind of dude in real life. “I think it’s easy for people to do that,...
Those characters, however, are not Jones.
“I think people want to put that on [me], because it’s easier. I don’t know, but maybe there is a bit of it,” Jones told IndieWire when asked about the perception that he’s that kind of dude in real life. “I think it’s easy for people to do that,...
- 7/10/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Boots Riley was on his way to MTV’s “Total Request Live” when he said, “I don’t care if people know about the music.” It was a stunning admission after spending more than 25 years as frontman for socially conscious hip-hop band The Coup, but its last album, “Sorry To Bother You,” is also the name of Riley’s filmmaking debut. And now, it’s the only thing that matters.
Wearing a shiny black robe (he’d favored a tie-dye variation at the New York premiere the night before), Riley’s bushy afro consumed about a quarter of the backseat. He waved his hands in steady half circles, as if composing his words in real time. “I’ve never been on a nostalgia trip about what I used to do,” he said, peering out at the midtown Manhattan crowds. “It’s always been about right now. Is this working?”
Riley...
Wearing a shiny black robe (he’d favored a tie-dye variation at the New York premiere the night before), Riley’s bushy afro consumed about a quarter of the backseat. He waved his hands in steady half circles, as if composing his words in real time. “I’ve never been on a nostalgia trip about what I used to do,” he said, peering out at the midtown Manhattan crowds. “It’s always been about right now. Is this working?”
Riley...
- 7/2/2018
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Sri Lankan film-maker whose work was suffused with ‘Chekhovian grace’
The Sri Lankan film-maker Lester James Peries, who has died aged 99, was, like his Indian contemporary Satyajit Ray, more highly regarded abroad than in his native country. His career was dominated by a constant struggle to obtain finance and, during 50 years directing features, he completed only 18 films. These were described by his friend and champion Lindsay Anderson as “works of Chekhovian grace”.
In 1970, I had the good fortune to programme the inaugural seasons for the National Film Theatre’s NFT2 screens, with the brief that they should reflect important yet neglected areas of cinema. Among those seasons was a modest one devoted to five features by Peries. Only a quintet but enough to convince those who saw them in London – and a little later at the Paris Cinémathèque and the New York Museum of Modern Art – that here was a director of special character,...
The Sri Lankan film-maker Lester James Peries, who has died aged 99, was, like his Indian contemporary Satyajit Ray, more highly regarded abroad than in his native country. His career was dominated by a constant struggle to obtain finance and, during 50 years directing features, he completed only 18 films. These were described by his friend and champion Lindsay Anderson as “works of Chekhovian grace”.
In 1970, I had the good fortune to programme the inaugural seasons for the National Film Theatre’s NFT2 screens, with the brief that they should reflect important yet neglected areas of cinema. Among those seasons was a modest one devoted to five features by Peries. Only a quintet but enough to convince those who saw them in London – and a little later at the Paris Cinémathèque and the New York Museum of Modern Art – that here was a director of special character,...
- 4/30/2018
- by Brian Baxter
- The Guardian - Film News
(Author Gabriel Hershman has written "Black Sheep: the Authorized Biography of Nicol Williamson" (The History Press). Williamson, who passed away in 2011 at age 75, was an enormous talent. John Osborne called him "The greatest actor since Brando". However, he had many personal demons that sidetracked what should have been a far more successful career. Hershman explores the peaks and valleys of this temperamental man's dramatic life and career and in this article reminds us of why his talents and work should be rediscovered.)
By Gabriel Hershman
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Peter O’Toole, Richard Harris, Oliver Reed, Alan Bates, Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay and … Nicol Williamson. Just a few of the most influential actors of their generation.
Were you surprised when I mentioned Nicol’s name? He was, at the time of his death, the least well known of that generation of actors. And yet, in my opinion,...
By Gabriel Hershman
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Peter O’Toole, Richard Harris, Oliver Reed, Alan Bates, Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay and … Nicol Williamson. Just a few of the most influential actors of their generation.
Were you surprised when I mentioned Nicol’s name? He was, at the time of his death, the least well known of that generation of actors. And yet, in my opinion,...
- 3/23/2018
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
The screenwriter David Sherwin was a special friend. We went through many girlfriends, marriages, triumphs and disasters together. I even wore his father’s demob coat from after the second world war in the opening shot of If…. It was perfect. It was my entrance into film. It has become a rather iconic image.
David and I had a unique relationship: my first film as an actor was his first screenplay. I met him in 1967 at the audition of If….. The actress I was playing with, Christine Noonan, punched me rather hard in the face. I was knocked to the floor, my script flew everywhere. There was stunned silence and my eyes welled with tears from the shock of being hit so hard. When I regained my composure the energy between us became electric. It made for good drama. Lindsay Anderson, the director, called for the audition to end. David...
David and I had a unique relationship: my first film as an actor was his first screenplay. I met him in 1967 at the audition of If….. The actress I was playing with, Christine Noonan, punched me rather hard in the face. I was knocked to the floor, my script flew everywhere. There was stunned silence and my eyes welled with tears from the shock of being hit so hard. When I regained my composure the energy between us became electric. It made for good drama. Lindsay Anderson, the director, called for the audition to end. David...
- 2/2/2018
- by Malcolm McDowell
- The Guardian - Film News
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