There are obscure treasures and there are holy grails. Of the latter, none is more mythic than the original 131-minute cut of Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons, believed by many to be lost somewhere in Brazil. All others arguably belong to Erich von Stroheim. Born in Vienna in 1885 into a Jewish household, von Stroheim is mostly remembered for playing evil Germans in films like Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion. Cinephiles, though, know him as the unluckiest auteur in the history of cinema.
Intended to run anywhere between six and 10 hours, many of von Stroheim’s films, from Greed to the Gloria Swanson vehicle Queen Kelly, were severely bastardized by studio heads upon their release. In this context, the iris shot that opens 1922’s Foolish Wives feels especially poignant. This is no ordinary “fade into” effect, but an entrancing reinforcement of the sinister, insular, and constrictive nature of the film’s milieu.
Intended to run anywhere between six and 10 hours, many of von Stroheim’s films, from Greed to the Gloria Swanson vehicle Queen Kelly, were severely bastardized by studio heads upon their release. In this context, the iris shot that opens 1922’s Foolish Wives feels especially poignant. This is no ordinary “fade into” effect, but an entrancing reinforcement of the sinister, insular, and constrictive nature of the film’s milieu.
- 6/27/2023
- by Ed Gonzalez
- Slant Magazine
Agnès Varda, the late New Wave cinema legend, is the subject of “Viva Varda!,” a documentary boasting exclusive archive footage and interviews by filmmakers such as Atom Egoyan and Audrey Diwan. Mk2 Films is co-representing the documentary feature with Cinétévé Sales.
“Viva Varda!” will be first portrait of the Honorary Oscar recipient that’s not directed by Varda herself. The last film she directed was “Varda par Agnes,” a documentary shedding light on her own experiences as a filmmaker. Her sprawling career and legacy will be celebrated this fall at the French Cinémathèque.
Pierre-Henri Gibert, a film buff who’s made several documentaries about filmmakers, including Jacques Audiard, explored different aspects of Varda’s life and body of work and conducted insightful interviews with friends, family, and collaborators, including Varda’s children, Rosalie Varda and Mathieu Demy, along with Sandrine Bonnaire, Patricia Mazuy and Jonathan Romney, among others.
“Viva Varda!
“Viva Varda!” will be first portrait of the Honorary Oscar recipient that’s not directed by Varda herself. The last film she directed was “Varda par Agnes,” a documentary shedding light on her own experiences as a filmmaker. Her sprawling career and legacy will be celebrated this fall at the French Cinémathèque.
Pierre-Henri Gibert, a film buff who’s made several documentaries about filmmakers, including Jacques Audiard, explored different aspects of Varda’s life and body of work and conducted insightful interviews with friends, family, and collaborators, including Varda’s children, Rosalie Varda and Mathieu Demy, along with Sandrine Bonnaire, Patricia Mazuy and Jonathan Romney, among others.
“Viva Varda!
- 2/16/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The world may be crumbling, but at least a handful of stellar films are coming to The Criterion Collection this summer. They’ve announced their June slate which includes their first Neon release, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, with Parasite to come at a later date. Also among the slate is Elem Klimov’s anti-war masterpiece Come and See, which we recently explored in-depth here. Also including work from Buster Keaton, Kon Ichikawa, and Paul Mazursky, check out the full slate and special feature details below.
The Cameraman
Buster Keaton is at the peak of his slapstick powers in The Cameraman— the first film that the silent-screen legend made after signing with MGM, and his last great masterpiece. The final work over which he maintained creative control, this clever farce is the culmination of an extraordinary, decade-long run that produced some of the most innovative and enduring comedies of all time.
The Cameraman
Buster Keaton is at the peak of his slapstick powers in The Cameraman— the first film that the silent-screen legend made after signing with MGM, and his last great masterpiece. The final work over which he maintained creative control, this clever farce is the culmination of an extraordinary, decade-long run that produced some of the most innovative and enduring comedies of all time.
- 3/19/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
“Big Top Hilarity”
By Raymond Benson
Finally! Chaplin fans can rejoice that The Criterion Collection has at last released the long-awaited missing entry in their run of excellent Blu-ray and DVD editions of the filmmaker’s feature films. For a while it appeared that The Circus, one of the auteur’s best and certainly, arguably, his funniest picture, was forgotten, as it’s been a few years since Criterion’s last Chaplin release. Now… here it is.
The Circus was made just as Hollywood was beginning the transition from silents to talkies. There were still plenty of silent pictures being produced in 1928, and the move to sound wouldn’t be seriously completed until 1930. Ironically, Chaplin chose to make an additional silent comedy in 1931, City Lights, and a semi-silent movie, Modern Times, in 1936!
Charlie is The Tramp, of course. Broke and penniless, he wanders near a traveling circus and, while eluding...
By Raymond Benson
Finally! Chaplin fans can rejoice that The Criterion Collection has at last released the long-awaited missing entry in their run of excellent Blu-ray and DVD editions of the filmmaker’s feature films. For a while it appeared that The Circus, one of the auteur’s best and certainly, arguably, his funniest picture, was forgotten, as it’s been a few years since Criterion’s last Chaplin release. Now… here it is.
The Circus was made just as Hollywood was beginning the transition from silents to talkies. There were still plenty of silent pictures being produced in 1928, and the move to sound wouldn’t be seriously completed until 1930. Ironically, Chaplin chose to make an additional silent comedy in 1931, City Lights, and a semi-silent movie, Modern Times, in 1936!
Charlie is The Tramp, of course. Broke and penniless, he wanders near a traveling circus and, while eluding...
- 10/9/2019
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Buster Keaton’s landmark career gets further exploration from Cohen Film Collection with the July 9 release of Sherlock Jr. and The Navigator on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital.
The two films, featured in The Buster Keaton Collection Volume 2, underwent a 4K restoration and contain modern orchestra scores by Timothy Brock and Robert Israel. Cohen Film Collection’s [...]
The post Buster Keaton Classics ‘Sherlock Jr.’ And ‘The Navigator’ Land July Release On Blu-Ray appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.
The two films, featured in The Buster Keaton Collection Volume 2, underwent a 4K restoration and contain modern orchestra scores by Timothy Brock and Robert Israel. Cohen Film Collection’s [...]
The post Buster Keaton Classics ‘Sherlock Jr.’ And ‘The Navigator’ Land July Release On Blu-Ray appeared first on Hollywood Outbreak.
- 6/12/2019
- by Hollywood Outbreak
- HollywoodOutbreak.com
One thing that distinguished this year's Il Cinema Ritrovato festival of rare, rediscovered or restored cinema from around the world was the air-conditioning. In previous years, the "cinephile's heaven" had seen people falling asleep at films they'd waited their whole lives to see, struck down by stifling midsummer heat. Now, even that beloved cinematic sweatbox the Jolly can cool its customers enough to mostly stave off somnolence, and if a hardboiled cinephage does pass out, it's more likely to be due to the unforgiving schedule of nine-to-midnight viewings.The doughty traveler can concentrate on seeing everything in one or two strands—retrospectives on the cinema of 1898 and 1918, the work of directors John M. Stahl, Marcello Pagliero, Luciano Emmer and Ylmaz Guney, the studio Fox, the countries China and Russia in the early thirties, and so on... or they can do as I did, sampling almost randomly from across the goodies on offer.
- 7/23/2018
- MUBI
The cream of German Expressionist filmmaking of the 1920s is increasingly accessible to modern audiences. The curated restoration of F.W. Murnau’s expressionist masterpiece is a beauty — we finally can experience the film in its full original form.
The Last Laugh
Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Kino Classics
1924 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 90 min. / Der letze mann / Street Date November 14, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring: Emil Jannings, Georg John.
Cinematography: Karl Freund
Film Editor: Elfi Böttrich
Production Design: Edgar G. Ulmer
Original Music: Giuseppe Becce
Written by Carl Mayer
Produced by Erich Pommer
Directed by F. W. Murnau
Back in the early 1970s film school professors had limited resources. They lectured, assigned readings from a short list of authoritative film scholars and screened 16mm prints of renowned world classics. The only problem is that it was often difficult to correlate the classics described in the texts with the ragged film prints available.
The Last Laugh
Blu-ray
Kino Lorber Kino Classics
1924 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 90 min. / Der letze mann / Street Date November 14, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring: Emil Jannings, Georg John.
Cinematography: Karl Freund
Film Editor: Elfi Böttrich
Production Design: Edgar G. Ulmer
Original Music: Giuseppe Becce
Written by Carl Mayer
Produced by Erich Pommer
Directed by F. W. Murnau
Back in the early 1970s film school professors had limited resources. They lectured, assigned readings from a short list of authoritative film scholars and screened 16mm prints of renowned world classics. The only problem is that it was often difficult to correlate the classics described in the texts with the ragged film prints available.
- 11/14/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
By Lee Pfeiffer
One of the great joys any retro movie lover can experience is to view a screening of a classic film with a world-class orchestra playing the musical score as live accompaniment. Many acclaimed orchestras are now doing just that and delighting movie lovers across the globe. Among the most impressive performances, not surprisingly, are those presented by the New York Philharmonic, which has a very popular film-related series that is as diversified as it is irresistible. On May 19, the the Nyp presented a superb tribute to Charlie Chaplin with a screening of his 1931 masterpiece, "City Lights". Conductor Timothy Brock informed that audience that by 1931 silent film was already dead. The new era of sound was all the rage but Chaplin's clout and popularity were such that he could still find financing for his films despite his insistence that they would be shot and presented as silent movies.
One of the great joys any retro movie lover can experience is to view a screening of a classic film with a world-class orchestra playing the musical score as live accompaniment. Many acclaimed orchestras are now doing just that and delighting movie lovers across the globe. Among the most impressive performances, not surprisingly, are those presented by the New York Philharmonic, which has a very popular film-related series that is as diversified as it is irresistible. On May 19, the the Nyp presented a superb tribute to Charlie Chaplin with a screening of his 1931 masterpiece, "City Lights". Conductor Timothy Brock informed that audience that by 1931 silent film was already dead. The new era of sound was all the rage but Chaplin's clout and popularity were such that he could still find financing for his films despite his insistence that they would be shot and presented as silent movies.
- 5/21/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
All hail Buster Keaton! The Great Stone Face's pre-feature output is a comedic treasure trove that allows us to watch a performing genius perfect his filmic persona. Lobster's all-new restorations debut some alternate scenes and fix a number of broken jump cuts. It's the whole shebang -- the earlier Fatty Arbuckle shorts and Buster's later solo efforts. Buster Keaton The Shorts Collection 1917-1923 Blu-ray Kino Classics 1917-1923 / B&W / 1:37 flat Silent Ap / 738 min. / Street Date May 24, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 59.95 Starring Buster Keaton, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. . Original Music Robert Israel, Donald Sosin, Stephen Horne, Timothy Brock, Neil Brand, The Mont Alto Orchestra, Sandra Wong, Günther Buchwald, Dennis Scott Directed by Roscoe Arbuckle & Buster Keaton
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
What's this, a full compilation of Buster Keaton Shorts? Kino has released sets of these before, including a 3-disc Blu-ray package from back in the summer of 2011 and overseen by Kino's Bret Wood.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
What's this, a full compilation of Buster Keaton Shorts? Kino has released sets of these before, including a 3-disc Blu-ray package from back in the summer of 2011 and overseen by Kino's Bret Wood.
- 5/21/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Outfitted with a new score and title sequence, reedited sans several scenes involving the woman, and rereleased in 1972, Charlie Chaplin’s first feature length film The Kid has finally made its way to home video in HD thanks to the Cineteca di Bologna’s gloriously meticulous restoration and 4k digital transfer. Originally released back in 1921 after about a half decade of acting and eventually directing wildly popular shorts for Keystone Studios, the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company and finally the Mutual Film Corporation, the film endured a year long production amidst personal and professional crisis. It was thought that Chaplin’s signature brand of comedic slapstick, which typically ran just two reels of film, could not support the length of a six reel feature, but as is evidenced within, the film perfectly fuses Chaplin’s penchant for melodrama with his masterful vaudevillian humor to create an astonishingly emotional comedy that plumbs...
- 2/16/2016
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Though he would actually direct other features, including the ill received 1967 A Countess From Hong Kong, wherein Marlon Brando decided to be a mean girl to co-star Sophia Loren, and the neglected A King in New York (1957), many read the 1952 Limelight as Charles Chaplin’s ‘enduring’ final film. An appropriate approximation of his immortal Tramp character after fame has fallen away, the bittersweet tragicomedy wasn’t well-received at the time (though Bosley Crowther raved in The New York Times, hailing the film as “eloquent, tearful, and beguiling with supreme virtuosity”). McCarthyism succeeded in thwarting the film’s distribution, limiting the release to New York City and those labeling Chaplin a Communist picketed screenings where it did play. In the UK, the film’s release was less harried, with newcomer Claire Bloom securing a BAFTA win for Most Promising Newcomer. The film would receive a theatrical release for the first in Los Angeles twenty years later,...
- 5/27/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Above: Max Ophüls' Komedie om geld. Image courtesy of Cineteca di Bologna.
The 26th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato is over—like the end of a dream. If you are lucky enough, and not so fond of sleeping and eating, and also have little social bonds that allow you the minimum of lingering with fellow cinephiles, then you would be able to see only 10 percent of the films shown at the festival. As much as it's a festival of discovery and cinephilia, it’s also a festival of guilt and regrets since you ineluctably miss many things.
Il Cinema Ritrovato is a miniature of life that among all the beautiful things you have to choose, and every decision grants you a piece of the truth. But all the images, all the pieces of this broken mirror in which we see ourselves is as valid as what the person next to me,...
The 26th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato is over—like the end of a dream. If you are lucky enough, and not so fond of sleeping and eating, and also have little social bonds that allow you the minimum of lingering with fellow cinephiles, then you would be able to see only 10 percent of the films shown at the festival. As much as it's a festival of discovery and cinephilia, it’s also a festival of guilt and regrets since you ineluctably miss many things.
Il Cinema Ritrovato is a miniature of life that among all the beautiful things you have to choose, and every decision grants you a piece of the truth. But all the images, all the pieces of this broken mirror in which we see ourselves is as valid as what the person next to me,...
- 7/6/2012
- MUBI
Chicago – There are certain filmmakers who just seem to make perfect fits for The Criterion Collection. Wes Anderson’s films have been given stellar editions. David Fincher. Akira Kurosawa. And, of course, Charlie Chaplin. The Criterion editions of “Modern Times” and “The Great Dictator” are two of my personal faves and a third Chaplin classic entered the collection this month when the company inducted “The Gold Rush,” one of the most popular silent films of all time.
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
There was a time where Charlie Chaplin was arguably the biggest celebrity in the entire world. And he was possibly at the peak of his fame when 1925’s “The Gold Rush” hit theaters and became one of the most beloved films of all time. Not only did it make millions worldwide but Chaplin himself considered the film to be his masterpiece. He loved it so much that he went back to it in 1942 and added narration,...
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
There was a time where Charlie Chaplin was arguably the biggest celebrity in the entire world. And he was possibly at the peak of his fame when 1925’s “The Gold Rush” hit theaters and became one of the most beloved films of all time. Not only did it make millions worldwide but Chaplin himself considered the film to be his masterpiece. He loved it so much that he went back to it in 1942 and added narration,...
- 6/19/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: June 12, 2012
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
The classic 1925 film The Gold Rush—the first feature-length comedy by Charlie Chaplin (Modern Times)—forever cemented the iconic status of Chaplin and his Little Tramp character.
Charting a hapless prospector’s (Chaplin) search for fortune in the Klondike and his discovery of romance (with the beautiful Georgia Hale), The Gold Rush was shot partly on location in the Sierra Nevadas and featured such timeless gags as Chaplin’s dance of the dinner rolls and a meal of boiled shoe leather. And, damn, it’s all still hilarious.
This Criterion special edition features both Chaplin’s definitive 1942 version, for which the director added new music and narration, and a new restoration of the original silent 1925 film.
The Blu-ray and two-disc DVD contain the following features:
• New high-definition digital restoration of the 1942 sound version, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray...
Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
The classic 1925 film The Gold Rush—the first feature-length comedy by Charlie Chaplin (Modern Times)—forever cemented the iconic status of Chaplin and his Little Tramp character.
Charting a hapless prospector’s (Chaplin) search for fortune in the Klondike and his discovery of romance (with the beautiful Georgia Hale), The Gold Rush was shot partly on location in the Sierra Nevadas and featured such timeless gags as Chaplin’s dance of the dinner rolls and a meal of boiled shoe leather. And, damn, it’s all still hilarious.
This Criterion special edition features both Chaplin’s definitive 1942 version, for which the director added new music and narration, and a new restoration of the original silent 1925 film.
The Blu-ray and two-disc DVD contain the following features:
• New high-definition digital restoration of the 1942 sound version, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray...
- 3/30/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
The 49th New York Film Festival has announced their Masterworks and Special Anniversary screenings that will show between the festival’s seventeen days, September 30th – October 16th. The Masterworks program and the festival’s additional programming will provide audiences with exciting opportunities to explore new film-making styles and storytelling events. To learn more about the Masterworks and Anniversary films, please check out below for full synopsis and details.
Masterworks And Special Anniversary Screenings
Masterworks: The Gold Rush
Chaplin’s personal favorite among his own films, The Gold Rush (1925), is a beautifully constructed comic fable of fate and perseverance, set in the icy wastes of the Alaskan gold fields. Re-released by Chaplin in 1942 in a recut version missing some scenes, and with added narration and musical score, The Gold Rush will be presented in a new restoration of the original, silent 1925 version. In this frequently terrifying and always unpredictable universe of...
Masterworks And Special Anniversary Screenings
Masterworks: The Gold Rush
Chaplin’s personal favorite among his own films, The Gold Rush (1925), is a beautifully constructed comic fable of fate and perseverance, set in the icy wastes of the Alaskan gold fields. Re-released by Chaplin in 1942 in a recut version missing some scenes, and with added narration and musical score, The Gold Rush will be presented in a new restoration of the original, silent 1925 version. In this frequently terrifying and always unpredictable universe of...
- 8/28/2011
- by Christopher Clemente
- SoundOnSight
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced more titles to the 49th New York Film Festival, including Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky‘s Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, with the much publicized new ending that surrounds the release of the West Memphis 3 (pictured). Oliver Stone will also have a sneak peak preview of his 10-part documentary for Showtime, The Untold History of the United States, which will air in 2012.
Also announced are Masterworks and Special Anniversary screenings. Read the new slate of titles below.
Nyff will take place this year Sept. 30 – Oct. 16. See closing night and Nyff main slate.
Masterworks And Special Anniversary Screenings
Masterworks: The Gold Rush
Chaplin’s personal favorite among his own films, The Gold Rush (1925), is a beautifully constructed comic fable of fate and perseverance, set in the icy wastes of the Alaskan gold fields. Re-released by Chaplin in 1942 in a recut version missing some scenes,...
Also announced are Masterworks and Special Anniversary screenings. Read the new slate of titles below.
Nyff will take place this year Sept. 30 – Oct. 16. See closing night and Nyff main slate.
Masterworks And Special Anniversary Screenings
Masterworks: The Gold Rush
Chaplin’s personal favorite among his own films, The Gold Rush (1925), is a beautifully constructed comic fable of fate and perseverance, set in the icy wastes of the Alaskan gold fields. Re-released by Chaplin in 1942 in a recut version missing some scenes,...
- 8/24/2011
- by Jason Guerrasio
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
This weekend is a special one in Los Angeles, because on Sunday night the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra is holding its annual Silent Film Gala at UCLA’s glorious Royce Hall. Chaplin, Edna Purviance, and friend in A Dog’s Life. This year’s offering is a Charlie Chaplin double-bill: Shoulder Arms and A Dog’s Life, with silent-film score specialist Timothy Brock conducting. The curtain-raiser will be Walt Disney’s Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon Trolley Troubles, with a score by Alex Rannie. For ticket information, click Here. I look forward to the Laco’s annual program not only because it’s wonderful to see great…...
- 5/18/2011
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
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