Beta Cinema has added Andres Veiel’s upcoming documentary film “Riefenstahl,” about controversial filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, to its Cannes lineup.
The film is an exploration of Riefenstahl’s legacy, delving deep into her complex relationship with the Nazi regime. With unprecedented access to Riefenstahl’s 700-box personal archive, the documentary navigates between her sanitized narrative and incriminating evidence regarding her knowledge of the regime’s atrocities.
Veiel is a multi-award-winning writer and director of both narrative feature films and documentaries. His documentary about the aftermath of the Raf campaign of terror, “Black Box Germany,” was honored with the German Film Award and the European Film Award in 2002. In 2011, he presented the feature film “If Not Us, Who?” in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, winning the Alfred Bauer Award. The film was also nominated for five German Film Awards and brought Sevilla’s best actor award to August Diehl for his leading performance.
The film is an exploration of Riefenstahl’s legacy, delving deep into her complex relationship with the Nazi regime. With unprecedented access to Riefenstahl’s 700-box personal archive, the documentary navigates between her sanitized narrative and incriminating evidence regarding her knowledge of the regime’s atrocities.
Veiel is a multi-award-winning writer and director of both narrative feature films and documentaries. His documentary about the aftermath of the Raf campaign of terror, “Black Box Germany,” was honored with the German Film Award and the European Film Award in 2002. In 2011, he presented the feature film “If Not Us, Who?” in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, winning the Alfred Bauer Award. The film was also nominated for five German Film Awards and brought Sevilla’s best actor award to August Diehl for his leading performance.
- 4/29/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
In the "Star Trek" episode "Patterns of Force", Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) visit the pre-warp planet of Ekos to find out what happened to John Gill (David Brian), an old history professor of Kirk's. Ekos, they find, has been culturally contaminated by Gill, as he taught them all about Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and the Ekosians have rearranged their society to match. They wear Nazi uniforms, praise John Gill as their Führer, and plan to exterminate their peaceful neighbor planet Zeon. The Zeon characters have names like Izak and Abrom.
There is also a secret resistance that Kirk and Spock can hide out with, and they eventually find a way to confront John Gill. Gill, they find, has been propped up by one of the more zealously Nazi Ekosians, and has been kept in line with drugs. Gill admits that he landed on Ekos finding it to be disorganized and chaotic,...
There is also a secret resistance that Kirk and Spock can hide out with, and they eventually find a way to confront John Gill. Gill, they find, has been propped up by one of the more zealously Nazi Ekosians, and has been kept in line with drugs. Gill admits that he landed on Ekos finding it to be disorganized and chaotic,...
- 4/7/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
The stormtroopers of "Star Wars" are named for soldiers who fought for Imperial Germany during World War 1 — though the Galactic Empire they serve has a lot more in common with the German government of the Second World War.
Rather than the brown and green cloth uniforms the historical stormtroopers wore, those in "Star Wars" wear white polymer armor with face-concealing helmets. It's easier to make the costumes when you only need multiple copies of one design and in-universe, the uniformity reinforces the Empire as a military dictatorship.
The stormtroopers' look is one of the most well-remembered parts of "Star Wars" — it's up there with lightsabers, Darth Vader, and the Millennium Falcon. The prequel and sequel trilogies only touched up the designs for the stormtroopers and clone troopers, opting not to reinvent the wheel. It's not just the films where their influence reigns either; Jonathan "Jony" Ive, chief design officer at Apple,...
Rather than the brown and green cloth uniforms the historical stormtroopers wore, those in "Star Wars" wear white polymer armor with face-concealing helmets. It's easier to make the costumes when you only need multiple copies of one design and in-universe, the uniformity reinforces the Empire as a military dictatorship.
The stormtroopers' look is one of the most well-remembered parts of "Star Wars" — it's up there with lightsabers, Darth Vader, and the Millennium Falcon. The prequel and sequel trilogies only touched up the designs for the stormtroopers and clone troopers, opting not to reinvent the wheel. It's not just the films where their influence reigns either; Jonathan "Jony" Ive, chief design officer at Apple,...
- 1/8/2024
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
Devo are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their formation with 50 Years of De-Evolution (1973-2023), a new box set compiling the best music of their career. The project arrives in full October 20th, while the 7-inch version of their 1988 single “Disco Dancer” is on streaming services for the first time today.
50 Years of De-Evolution (1973-2023) comes in a 50-song 4xLP and 2xCD set, as well as a 25-song 2xLP version. Both offerings include the biggest tracks from all nine of Devo’s albums, while the super deluxe package features rarities like the 1974 demo for “I’m A Potato” and single mixes for “Come Back Jonee,” “Snowball,” and “What We Do.” The 4xLP set is pressed on clear vinyl and limited to 3,000 copies worldwide; it also features a 28-page book, a Devo air freshener, a lithograph of the album artwork, and a foldable hat matching the band’s iconic red energy domes.
50 Years of De-Evolution (1973-2023) comes in a 50-song 4xLP and 2xCD set, as well as a 25-song 2xLP version. Both offerings include the biggest tracks from all nine of Devo’s albums, while the super deluxe package features rarities like the 1974 demo for “I’m A Potato” and single mixes for “Come Back Jonee,” “Snowball,” and “What We Do.” The 4xLP set is pressed on clear vinyl and limited to 3,000 copies worldwide; it also features a 28-page book, a Devo air freshener, a lithograph of the album artwork, and a foldable hat matching the band’s iconic red energy domes.
- 9/6/2023
- by Carys Anderson
- Consequence - Music
It's getting weird out there. We almost seem to be living in a post-satire era, where fact and fiction feel so interchangeable that it can be hard to tell what's news and what's a well-written joke. When The Onion starts feeling more accurate than The New York Times, it's hard to tell which end is up, and media literacy is at an all-time low. That means satire is being read completely straight, and while that's nothing new (remember "Fight Club"?), it does feel pretty scary. Then again, one of the greatest satires of all time was originally taken at face value (and still is by some viewers) — that's right, I'm talking about Paul Verhoeven's "Starship Troopers."
The 1997 sci-fi action flick was based on the very straight-faced novel of the same name by Robert Heinlein. Heinlein's novel depicts a fascist futuristic society where citizenship is inherent but something that must be earned,...
The 1997 sci-fi action flick was based on the very straight-faced novel of the same name by Robert Heinlein. Heinlein's novel depicts a fascist futuristic society where citizenship is inherent but something that must be earned,...
- 5/6/2023
- by Danielle Ryan
- Slash Film
Charlie Kaufman isn’t waiting for Hollywood to adapt any longer.
The “Adaptation” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” screenwriter was honored with the top film award at the 2023 Writers Guild of America (WGA) Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday. Kaufman used the platform to call for a much-needed change in the perspective of screenwriters throughout the industry during his acceptance speech.
“We are trained to believe that what we do is secondary to what they do,” Kaufman said, referencing executives (via Variety). “I have dropped the ball, I have wasted years seeking the approval of people with money. Don’t get trapped in their world of box office numbers. You don’t work for the world of box office numbers. You work for the world. Just make your story honest and tell it.”
Kaufman continued, “Our work is to reflect the world, say what is true in the face of so much lying.
The “Adaptation” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” screenwriter was honored with the top film award at the 2023 Writers Guild of America (WGA) Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday. Kaufman used the platform to call for a much-needed change in the perspective of screenwriters throughout the industry during his acceptance speech.
“We are trained to believe that what we do is secondary to what they do,” Kaufman said, referencing executives (via Variety). “I have dropped the ball, I have wasted years seeking the approval of people with money. Don’t get trapped in their world of box office numbers. You don’t work for the world of box office numbers. You work for the world. Just make your story honest and tell it.”
Kaufman continued, “Our work is to reflect the world, say what is true in the face of so much lying.
- 3/6/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Being John Malkovich” screenwriter Charlie Kaufman took dead aim at Hollywood’s power structure in his remarks at Sunday’s Writers Guild Awards, where he was feted with the top honorary film award.
“We are trained to believe that what we do is secondary to what they do,” Kaufman said, with quiet intensity, referencing executives who make decisions out of fear in order to preserve their jobs.
“Our work is to reflect the world, say what is true in the face of so much lying. The rest is window dressing at best, ‘Triumph of the Will’ at worst,” he said.
Kaufman didn’t elaborate about the guild itself or the tense contract negotiations that are expected to start on March 20 with Hollywood’s largest employers.
Kaufman invoked the work of poet Adrienne Rich. “Adrienne Rich wrote, ‘I do know that art means nothing...
“We are trained to believe that what we do is secondary to what they do,” Kaufman said, with quiet intensity, referencing executives who make decisions out of fear in order to preserve their jobs.
“Our work is to reflect the world, say what is true in the face of so much lying. The rest is window dressing at best, ‘Triumph of the Will’ at worst,” he said.
Kaufman didn’t elaborate about the guild itself or the tense contract negotiations that are expected to start on March 20 with Hollywood’s largest employers.
Kaufman invoked the work of poet Adrienne Rich. “Adrienne Rich wrote, ‘I do know that art means nothing...
- 3/6/2023
- by Cynthia Littleton
- Variety Film + TV
Opening with a clip 0f Donald Trump is a rare unwise choice made in “The March on Rome,” the latest film from Irish author and documentarian Mark Cousins. That’s not because Trump isn’t a fascist (where you have been?), it’s just that Cousins can, and will, tell the story of far-right politics’ inherent illusions — spring-boarding off Mussolini’s famous, semi-fictional voyage 100 years ago in October — with a little more grace than that.
Maybe grace isn’t the point. “A Noi!” (“To Us”) made for newsreels nationwide, Cousins entertainingly brings history, cinema, and the manipulative power of the movies together in just the way we’ve come to expect from him. If you’re at all intrigued by a movie called “The March on Rome,” you won’t be disappointed.
But don’t be fooled, either; trust no one, illusions are everywhere. Cousins’ title gives away the game,...
Maybe grace isn’t the point. “A Noi!” (“To Us”) made for newsreels nationwide, Cousins entertainingly brings history, cinema, and the manipulative power of the movies together in just the way we’ve come to expect from him. If you’re at all intrigued by a movie called “The March on Rome,” you won’t be disappointed.
But don’t be fooled, either; trust no one, illusions are everywhere. Cousins’ title gives away the game,...
- 8/31/2022
- by Adam Solomons
- Indiewire
Just before the Cannes Film Festival midnight-show premiere of the David Bowie documentary “Moonage Daydream,” the film’s writer, director, and editor, Brett Morgen, didn’t simply stroll down the red carpet. As Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” blared from the promenade speakers, Morgen danced — and pranced and pogo-ed, and flashed a cheeky madman grin, and by the time he entered the theater, the crowd, taking all this in on a giant video screen, gave him an even more rapturous than usual Cannes ovation. Morgen had the right look for these antics. He started off his career as a documentary geek, but around the time of “Montage of Heck,” his 2015 film about Kurt Cobain, he began to style his hair in a fashionably disheveled wet-look mane. Tall and aggressive, he entered the Lumière like a would-be rock star.
The reason I bring this up is that I think it’s relevant...
The reason I bring this up is that I think it’s relevant...
- 5/26/2022
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
David Bowie unquestionably became a great rock star—the greatest ever, according to a tribute published by Rolling Stone after his death in 2016. Yet, it comes closer to the truth to call Bowie a “rock star,” the quotation marks suggesting that what Bowie created was a persona of the rock god, in much the same way that Cary Grant manufactured the quintessential image of the glamorous “movie star.”
This is not to take away from his genuine accomplishments as a singer, songwriter and musician—he couldn’t have forged such a compelling persona without those gifts. Bowie’s real project was making art, and rock music and performance are best understood as just some of his modes of artistic expression.
Brett Morgen’s documentary Moonage Daydream, which premiered in the Cannes Midnight Screenings section, does supreme justice to Bowie by presenting him above all as an artist intent on exploring not only popular music,...
This is not to take away from his genuine accomplishments as a singer, songwriter and musician—he couldn’t have forged such a compelling persona without those gifts. Bowie’s real project was making art, and rock music and performance are best understood as just some of his modes of artistic expression.
Brett Morgen’s documentary Moonage Daydream, which premiered in the Cannes Midnight Screenings section, does supreme justice to Bowie by presenting him above all as an artist intent on exploring not only popular music,...
- 5/24/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
When a documentary is called “The Meaning of Hitler,” there are two things you know off the bat. One is that the film probably won’t live up to that title — and doesn’t have to, because how could it? The other thing you know is that it’s trying for something audacious, placing itself on the high bar of who-was-Adolf-Hitler? meditation. And that’s a good thing, since for all the mystery that still surrounds Hitler we do know a great deal about him, and we want a movie like this one to jolt us with the shock of the new. The author Martin Amis, who’s one of the most compelling people interviewed here, says that if you can expand our knowledge of Hitler by just a millimeter, you’ve done something. We go into “The Meaning of Hitler” craving that millimeter of insight, of intrigue and revelation.
- 11/26/2020
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s ever more timely The Meaning Of Hitler, a Doc NYC highlight, features Saul Friedländer and Francine Prose on Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph Of The Will, Martin Amis on political tactics and characterology, Klaus Theweleit on strangers, Deborah Lipstadt, Beate Klarsfeld, Serge Klarsfeld, Ute Frevert, and Yehuda Bauer. The filmmakers start in 2017 with a commuter train ride into New York City, and then on to a subway - Epperlein is seen reading books that mark the moment by the likes of Timothy Snyder, Hannah Arendt, George Orwell, Theweleit, and the one by Sebastian Haffner that gives the film its name.
A little avalanche of movie clips, from Mel Brooks’s [film id=10451]The...
A little avalanche of movie clips, from Mel Brooks’s [film id=10451]The...
- 11/22/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Francine Prose will join Roger Berkowitz, head of the Hannah Arendt Center, Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker for a conversation on Doc NYC Facebook Live this Monday at 2:00pm (Est) Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s kaleidoscopic investigation into the past and our future takes us on the road of history and the state of the world at this moment in time, featuring interviews with Saul Friedländer and Francine Prose on Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph Of The Will, Martin Amis on political tactics and characterology, Deborah Lipstadt, Beate Klarsfeld, Serge Klarsfeld, and 94-year-old Yehuda Bauer getting the last word. We enter with books by Timothy Snyder, Hannah Arendt, George Orwell, Klaus Theweleit, and the one by Sebastian Haffner that gives the film its name.
Clips from Mel Brooks’s The Producers to Bruno Ganz in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Downfall to Anthony Hopkins in George Schaefer’s...
Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s kaleidoscopic investigation into the past and our future takes us on the road of history and the state of the world at this moment in time, featuring interviews with Saul Friedländer and Francine Prose on Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph Of The Will, Martin Amis on political tactics and characterology, Deborah Lipstadt, Beate Klarsfeld, Serge Klarsfeld, and 94-year-old Yehuda Bauer getting the last word. We enter with books by Timothy Snyder, Hannah Arendt, George Orwell, Klaus Theweleit, and the one by Sebastian Haffner that gives the film its name.
Clips from Mel Brooks’s The Producers to Bruno Ganz in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Downfall to Anthony Hopkins in George Schaefer’s...
- 11/15/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Robert Yapkowitz and Rich Peete’s In My Own Time: A Portrait Of Karen Dalton executive producer Wim Wenders on Nick Cave and Karen Dalton: “Just like Nick, Karen’s music had a profound effect on me.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Victor Kossakovsky’s Gunda, co-written with Ainara Vera, executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix, co-produced by Anita Rehoff Larsen from Sant & Usant with Joslyn Barnes and Susan Rockefeller of Louverture Films and a Main Slate selection of the 58th New York Film Festival; Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s ever more timely The Meaning Of Hitler; Malia Scharf and Max Basch’s intimate portrait, Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, produced with David Koh (featuring remembrances from Kenny of Keith Haring, Klaus Nomi, <a...
Victor Kossakovsky’s Gunda, co-written with Ainara Vera, executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix, co-produced by Anita Rehoff Larsen from Sant & Usant with Joslyn Barnes and Susan Rockefeller of Louverture Films and a Main Slate selection of the 58th New York Film Festival; Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s ever more timely The Meaning Of Hitler; Malia Scharf and Max Basch’s intimate portrait, Kenny Scharf: When Worlds Collide, produced with David Koh (featuring remembrances from Kenny of Keith Haring, Klaus Nomi, <a...
- 11/15/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Time has a tendency to flatten history’s darkest chapters, reducing panic and persecution to footnotes and caricature. So it goes with Adolf Hitler, whose outsized image as a cartoon villain often obscures the horrifying endurance of Nazi ideology today. “The Meaning of Hitler” sets the record straight. , directors Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s eerie and insightful essay film burrows into the nexus of Hitler’s mythology in a remarkable attempt to determine whether it makes more sense to understand its resilience or tune it out. As it meanders through a parade of talking heads, pensive narration, fragments of biography, and genocidal sightseeing, the movie assembles a trenchant argument against shrugging aside the specter of Nazism, and makes it clear that the fascism of the past can happen just as easily today.
This is not uncharted terrain. “The Meaning of Hitler” takes its title from Sebastian Haffner’s 1978 German bestseller,...
This is not uncharted terrain. “The Meaning of Hitler” takes its title from Sebastian Haffner’s 1978 German bestseller,...
- 11/14/2020
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Albert Hughes takes us on a wild journey through the movies that made him, then explains why he’s not a cinephile (Spoiler: He is). Heads up – you’re going to hear some words you’ve never heard on our show before, and only one of them is Metropolis.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Gremlins (1984)
A Christmas Story (1983)
The Candidate (1972)
Menace II Society (1993)
Die Hard (1988)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Scarface (1983)
Goodfellas (1990)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Raging Bull (1980)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Alpha (2018)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Metropolis (1927)
True Romance (1993)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
The Matrix (1999)
Man Bites Dog (1992)
Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003)
A Serbian Film (2010)
Scarface (1932)
The Book of Eli (2010)
The Departed (2006)
Infernal Affairs (2002)
The Godfather (1972)
Casino (1995)
JFK (1991)
Dead Presidents (1996)
Eve’s Bayou (1997)
Basic Instinct (1992)
Psycho (1960)
The Cremator (1969)
The Firemen’s Ball (1967)
Halloween (2018)
From Hell (2001)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Hoffa (1992)
V For Vendetta (2005)
Spartacus (1960)
You Were Never Really Here...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Gremlins (1984)
A Christmas Story (1983)
The Candidate (1972)
Menace II Society (1993)
Die Hard (1988)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Scarface (1983)
Goodfellas (1990)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Raging Bull (1980)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Alpha (2018)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Metropolis (1927)
True Romance (1993)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
The Matrix (1999)
Man Bites Dog (1992)
Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003)
A Serbian Film (2010)
Scarface (1932)
The Book of Eli (2010)
The Departed (2006)
Infernal Affairs (2002)
The Godfather (1972)
Casino (1995)
JFK (1991)
Dead Presidents (1996)
Eve’s Bayou (1997)
Basic Instinct (1992)
Psycho (1960)
The Cremator (1969)
The Firemen’s Ball (1967)
Halloween (2018)
From Hell (2001)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Hoffa (1992)
V For Vendetta (2005)
Spartacus (1960)
You Were Never Really Here...
- 9/29/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
According to acclaimed filmmaker and black activist Spike Lee, Gone With The Wind is an absolute must-watch for white audiences. While appearing on the talk show The View to promote his new film, Da 5 Bloods, Lee said that seeing this one-time Hollywood darling could help open people’s eyes to the racism that has pervaded not only the history of America, but the American film industry as well.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the source material – which, unless you’re a film buff, is quite plausible considering this picture came quite a few decades ago – Gone With The Wind is a love story that spans both the American Civil War and the Reconstruction eras. Though widely regarded as a classic, it’s also been criticized for romanticizing the American South and downplaying issues like the abolition of slavery and the disenfranchisement of blacks to make...
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the source material – which, unless you’re a film buff, is quite plausible considering this picture came quite a few decades ago – Gone With The Wind is a love story that spans both the American Civil War and the Reconstruction eras. Though widely regarded as a classic, it’s also been criticized for romanticizing the American South and downplaying issues like the abolition of slavery and the disenfranchisement of blacks to make...
- 6/13/2020
- by Tim Brinkhof
- We Got This Covered
Lgbtq YouTubers are suing the company, which is owned by Google, claiming YouTube suppresses their content. The suit alleges the site regularly culls subscriber lists for Lgbtq creators, affecting their ability to sell advertising, which is the primary way to monetize content on YouTube. With almost 2 billion monthly viewers, YouTube is by far the world’s largest video streaming site. The lawsuit was filed in federal court on Tuesday August 13, as originally reported by The Washington Post.
Led by five Lgbtq creators, the suit claims YouTube engages in “unlawful content regulation, distribution, and monetization practices that stigmatize, restrict, block, demonetize, and financially harm the Lgbt Plaintiffs and the greater Lgbt Community.”
YouTube spokesperson Alex Joseph responded to requests for comment with this emailed statement:
“We’re proud that so many Lgbtq creators have chosen YouTube as a place to share their stories and build community. All content on our site...
Led by five Lgbtq creators, the suit claims YouTube engages in “unlawful content regulation, distribution, and monetization practices that stigmatize, restrict, block, demonetize, and financially harm the Lgbt Plaintiffs and the greater Lgbt Community.”
YouTube spokesperson Alex Joseph responded to requests for comment with this emailed statement:
“We’re proud that so many Lgbtq creators have chosen YouTube as a place to share their stories and build community. All content on our site...
- 8/14/2019
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
YouTube hovers in paradox: It’s a platform for expression that vacillates on the kinds of expression it wants to support. Even when the site makes constructive changes in the content it promotes or prohibits, the outcomes raise questions about censorship and curation. On Wednesday YouTube revealed extensive new policies around hate speech in a move to “reduce more hateful and supremacist content from YouTube,” as the company announced in a blog post.
The policy also meant the removal of Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 Nazi propaganda epic “Triumph of the Will,” which left the site hours after YouTube announced its new standards. After all, “Triumph of the Will” falls under the rubric of “videos that promote or glorify Nazi ideology, which is inherently discriminatory,” as YouTube explains one prohibited category. The movie is also regarded as one with major historical value, raising essential questions about the nature of the film medium.
The policy also meant the removal of Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 Nazi propaganda epic “Triumph of the Will,” which left the site hours after YouTube announced its new standards. After all, “Triumph of the Will” falls under the rubric of “videos that promote or glorify Nazi ideology, which is inherently discriminatory,” as YouTube explains one prohibited category. The movie is also regarded as one with major historical value, raising essential questions about the nature of the film medium.
- 6/6/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Regardless of your opinion of what went down, nobody can deny that Game of Thrones did in fact end. Long-running plotlines were resolved and Westeros was left in a state of relative stability now that most of your favorite characters have been variously pierced with arrows, crushed by rocks, beheaded and burnt alive. One of the more controversial developments in the final two episodes though was Daenerys Targaryen’s quick evolution from spunky desert princess to a genocidal maniac who lost her mind and wiped out a city.
Perhaps as an indication of how far Daenerys has come since her earliest days on the show, Emilia Clarke recently revealed a surprising inspiration for her big moment in the finale. This comes when she’s delivering a thunderous speech to her gathered army, assuring them that their conquest will not stop with King’s Landing and that she’ll go on...
Perhaps as an indication of how far Daenerys has come since her earliest days on the show, Emilia Clarke recently revealed a surprising inspiration for her big moment in the finale. This comes when she’s delivering a thunderous speech to her gathered army, assuring them that their conquest will not stop with King’s Landing and that she’ll go on...
- 5/22/2019
- by David James
- We Got This Covered
Would you like to blame Bill Gates for Roger Ailes creating Fox News? You could harbor that grudge if you so desired after watching Alexis Bloom’s bracing biopic documentary “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” because it’s one of the fascinating tidbits of speculative psychology in the grand narrative of a dark-hearted, power-thirsty mogul’s stranglehold on our divisive political discourse.
It seems that in the mid-90s, flush from his many years helping Republican candidates like Mitch McConnell get elected, Ailes was content to be a talk-show magnate, running his brainchild America’s Talking, a CNBC spinoff network that was the first real attempt to launch an all-chat-show channel with a wide audience reach.
But when NBC partnered with Bill Gates to start MSNBC, they gave the software billionaire the transponder used for America’s Talking, effectively ending Ailes’ baby. Steamed and spiteful, according to the documentary,...
It seems that in the mid-90s, flush from his many years helping Republican candidates like Mitch McConnell get elected, Ailes was content to be a talk-show magnate, running his brainchild America’s Talking, a CNBC spinoff network that was the first real attempt to launch an all-chat-show channel with a wide audience reach.
But when NBC partnered with Bill Gates to start MSNBC, they gave the software billionaire the transponder used for America’s Talking, effectively ending Ailes’ baby. Steamed and spiteful, according to the documentary,...
- 12/6/2018
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
The following essay was produced as part of the 2018 Nyff Critics Academy, a workshop for aspiring film critics that took place during the 56th edition of the New York Film Festival.
The appeal of a film like “American Dharma,” Errol Morris’s new documentary on Steve Bannon is obvious in many ways. Aside from the valid (if excusatory) arguments some may have against subjecting themselves to a film about one of the figures responsible for making the alt-right palatably mainstream — aren’t things depressing enough!? — we are still bound by an irrefutable desire to see notorious and nefarious people flounder on screen. It taps into a voyeuristic thrill; a deeply human intrigue with the morbid. It is one thing to speak of this in relation to fiction film, but it becomes far more complex in documentary cinema,a mode inextricably enmeshed with questions of ethics and veracity, and burdened by...
The appeal of a film like “American Dharma,” Errol Morris’s new documentary on Steve Bannon is obvious in many ways. Aside from the valid (if excusatory) arguments some may have against subjecting themselves to a film about one of the figures responsible for making the alt-right palatably mainstream — aren’t things depressing enough!? — we are still bound by an irrefutable desire to see notorious and nefarious people flounder on screen. It taps into a voyeuristic thrill; a deeply human intrigue with the morbid. It is one thing to speak of this in relation to fiction film, but it becomes far more complex in documentary cinema,a mode inextricably enmeshed with questions of ethics and veracity, and burdened by...
- 11/11/2018
- by Naomi Keenan O'Shea
- Indiewire
Roger Ailes — presidential media consultant, creator and guru of Fox News, serial sexual harasser brought low by his ruthless appetites — may have been the most revolutionary image maker in the history of American politics. His legacy is there every time someone in the political arena or the media kaleidoscope tells a lie so shameless you wonder how they sleep at night and a shockingly sizable percentage of the public laps up that lie as if it were ice cream on a summer’s day. That’s called “the way America now works,” and if Roger Ailes didn’t invent it…well, why nitpick his dark achievement? He more or less did invent it, or perfect it, or bring it to a new pitch of down-is-up Orwellian malevolence. There have been many hucksters in the history of this country, but Ailes, who died in 2017, was the visionary of attack dogs, the...
- 9/29/2018
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Retro-active: The Best From The Cinema Retro Archives.
By Lee Pfeiffer
Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will" has long posed a conundrum for film critics and historians. How do you assess a film that is brilliantly made but which promotes a hateful message? The 1934 production which was created as a love letter to Adolf Hitler and his rapidly-rising National Socialist movement has been relatively shunned at film festivals and the art house circuit over the decades. It's undoubtedly been most widely seen in classrooms and on home video. Yet the passing of time has allowed the film to be more actively shown in recent years and it is nearly always accompanied by an introduction that rightly explains its relevance both to the period in which it was made but also as it pertains to today's world. Director Riefenstahl had been a popular actress in German cinema who had caught the eye of Adolf Hitler,...
By Lee Pfeiffer
Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will" has long posed a conundrum for film critics and historians. How do you assess a film that is brilliantly made but which promotes a hateful message? The 1934 production which was created as a love letter to Adolf Hitler and his rapidly-rising National Socialist movement has been relatively shunned at film festivals and the art house circuit over the decades. It's undoubtedly been most widely seen in classrooms and on home video. Yet the passing of time has allowed the film to be more actively shown in recent years and it is nearly always accompanied by an introduction that rightly explains its relevance both to the period in which it was made but also as it pertains to today's world. Director Riefenstahl had been a popular actress in German cinema who had caught the eye of Adolf Hitler,...
- 9/12/2018
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
The task now appears that much more daunting for the Lifeboat crew (or the Time Team, as NBC has dubbed them. That phrase won't appear again.)
The crusade of Rittenhouse was unveiled by its philosopher, Nicholas Keynes, on Timeless Season 2 Episode 2. And it's not a pretty concept.
Surely historian Lucy would recognize the striving for a master race when she sees it. You would think her historian mother Carolyn would also. But I guess you overlook things such as mass murder when it benefits you.
That final scene, in which Keynes laid out his vision of Rittenhouse, had a real "Triumph of the Will' feel to it. Even Carolyn looked a little uneasy, and she set the whole thing in motion.
A scrappy sextet versus all the agents of Rittenhouse hidden among the powerful through U.S. history really doesn't seem like a fair fight, does it?
Related: Timeless...
The crusade of Rittenhouse was unveiled by its philosopher, Nicholas Keynes, on Timeless Season 2 Episode 2. And it's not a pretty concept.
Surely historian Lucy would recognize the striving for a master race when she sees it. You would think her historian mother Carolyn would also. But I guess you overlook things such as mass murder when it benefits you.
That final scene, in which Keynes laid out his vision of Rittenhouse, had a real "Triumph of the Will' feel to it. Even Carolyn looked a little uneasy, and she set the whole thing in motion.
A scrappy sextet versus all the agents of Rittenhouse hidden among the powerful through U.S. history really doesn't seem like a fair fight, does it?
Related: Timeless...
- 3/19/2018
- by Dale McGarrigle
- TVfanatic
Star Wars Dialogue is a 5-part dialog between Mike Thorn, Isiah Medina, Chelsea Phillips-Carr, Isaac Goes, and Neil Bahadur about George Lucas's first six films in the Star Wars franchise.Mike Thorn: Considering the influence of silent cinema on the Star Wars films, how might we read Lucas’s series as it relates to D.W. Griffith’s work? I’m thinking very broadly here about some of the formal echoes between the climatic finale of The Birth of a Nation (1915) and that of A New Hope. Isiah Medina: In principle, there is nothing that cannot be reversed, there is no cinematic tactic or strategy that cannot be re-appropriated. Or, as Lucas would have it, there’s nothing that cannot be revised for and with future technological breaks. Okay, let’s say we have a Birth of a Nation ending mixed in with a Triumph of the Will (1935) award ceremony in A New Hope.
- 1/17/2018
- MUBI
A long time ago, a grade-schooler got his hands on a spaceship. He followed the assembly instructions as best he could, snapping on the cannons, the landing gear, the tiny interstellar-chess table. Soon enough, Rian Johnson was holding his very own Millennium Falcon. "The first thing I did," he recalls, "was throw it across the room, to see how it would look flying." He grins. "And it broke."
Johnson grew up, went to film school, made some good stuff, including the entertainingly twisted 2012 sci-fi drama Looper. He's nearly 44 now, though...
Johnson grew up, went to film school, made some good stuff, including the entertainingly twisted 2012 sci-fi drama Looper. He's nearly 44 now, though...
- 11/29/2017
- Rollingstone.com
President Donald Trump started his speech in front of a huge crowd of Boy Scouts at a national jamboree Monday by asking, “Who the hell wants to speak about politics when I’m in front of the Boy Scouts?”
Turns out, he did.
During his 35-minute speech, Trump attacked former president Barack Obama, mocked his former rival Hillary Clinton and threatened to fire Human Services Secretary Tom Price if he doesn’t deliver votes for the Gop’s health care bill.
“By the way, just a question. Did President Obama ever come to a jamboree?” Trump asked the crowd of...
Turns out, he did.
During his 35-minute speech, Trump attacked former president Barack Obama, mocked his former rival Hillary Clinton and threatened to fire Human Services Secretary Tom Price if he doesn’t deliver votes for the Gop’s health care bill.
“By the way, just a question. Did President Obama ever come to a jamboree?” Trump asked the crowd of...
- 7/25/2017
- by Stephanie Petit
- PEOPLE.com
On this day (April 20th) in history as it relates to showbiz...
1893 Harold Lloyd, silent comedian of excellence, born in Nebraska
1889 Adolf Hitler born. The German Führer has been played in movies by literally hundreds of actors including in recent years Robert Carlyle, Udo Keir, Noah Taylor, and Bruno Ganz. On this awful subject let's consider it a shame that Jodie Foster never made that rumored Leni Reifenstahl (Triumph of the Will) biopic she was interested in doing. That would have made an interesting less covered piece of the ever-harrowing Nazi puzzle.
⇱ 1924 Oscar nominated actress Nina Foch (Executive Suite, An American in Paris, Spartacus) is born in The Netherlands. She was awesome.
1937 Modern gay hero George Takei born in Los Angeles. Becomes famous as Lt. Sulu in the Star Trek TV series in the 60s.
1893 Harold Lloyd, silent comedian of excellence, born in Nebraska
1889 Adolf Hitler born. The German Führer has been played in movies by literally hundreds of actors including in recent years Robert Carlyle, Udo Keir, Noah Taylor, and Bruno Ganz. On this awful subject let's consider it a shame that Jodie Foster never made that rumored Leni Reifenstahl (Triumph of the Will) biopic she was interested in doing. That would have made an interesting less covered piece of the ever-harrowing Nazi puzzle.
⇱ 1924 Oscar nominated actress Nina Foch (Executive Suite, An American in Paris, Spartacus) is born in The Netherlands. She was awesome.
1937 Modern gay hero George Takei born in Los Angeles. Becomes famous as Lt. Sulu in the Star Trek TV series in the 60s.
- 4/20/2017
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Ryan Lambie Apr 6, 2017
Adverts and TV form an integral part in Paul Verhoeven's classic sci-fi films, RoboCop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers...
"I looked at American society in a kind of dazed way when I was doing RoboCop," director Paul Verhoeven told us earlier this year. Back in the mid-80s, when he was better known for his Dutch films like Soldier Of Orange and The Fourth Man, Verhoeven was still getting used to the pace and tone of American culture - and his outsider status arguably fed into the wry, spikily satirical edge in all three sci-fi films he made while in Hollywood.
See related Deadpool: Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick interview Deadpool: Ryan Reynolds on channeling the character
"It was all so different from living in Holland," Verhoeven recalled. "A lot of my, let's say, amazement, at American society is in RoboCop; in the commercials, in...
Adverts and TV form an integral part in Paul Verhoeven's classic sci-fi films, RoboCop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers...
"I looked at American society in a kind of dazed way when I was doing RoboCop," director Paul Verhoeven told us earlier this year. Back in the mid-80s, when he was better known for his Dutch films like Soldier Of Orange and The Fourth Man, Verhoeven was still getting used to the pace and tone of American culture - and his outsider status arguably fed into the wry, spikily satirical edge in all three sci-fi films he made while in Hollywood.
See related Deadpool: Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick interview Deadpool: Ryan Reynolds on channeling the character
"It was all so different from living in Holland," Verhoeven recalled. "A lot of my, let's say, amazement, at American society is in RoboCop; in the commercials, in...
- 3/31/2017
- Den of Geek
Robert Keeling Apr 19, 2017
Kevin Costner headlined an all-star cast in Oliver Stone's JFK. It was a film that led to an act of Congress being passed...
Oliver Stone’s epic conspiracy-thriller JFK, surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the case brought about by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison in relation to his murder, was released in 1991 to an astonishing level of critical backlash. Even before JFK arrived in theatres it was being pilloried and attacked by many in the media. The attacks were kick-started by Washington Post correspondent George Lardner, an investigative reporter who wrote a piece called On the Set: Dallas In Wonderland; How Oliver Stone’s Version Of The Kennedy Assassination Exploits The Edge Of Paranoia, which was actually based solely on a leaked copy of Stone’s first draft of the script.
See related The Last Kingdom series 2 episode 5 review The Last Kingdom...
Kevin Costner headlined an all-star cast in Oliver Stone's JFK. It was a film that led to an act of Congress being passed...
Oliver Stone’s epic conspiracy-thriller JFK, surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the case brought about by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison in relation to his murder, was released in 1991 to an astonishing level of critical backlash. Even before JFK arrived in theatres it was being pilloried and attacked by many in the media. The attacks were kick-started by Washington Post correspondent George Lardner, an investigative reporter who wrote a piece called On the Set: Dallas In Wonderland; How Oliver Stone’s Version Of The Kennedy Assassination Exploits The Edge Of Paranoia, which was actually based solely on a leaked copy of Stone’s first draft of the script.
See related The Last Kingdom series 2 episode 5 review The Last Kingdom...
- 3/29/2017
- Den of Geek
The beloved sci-fi saga Starship Troopers is in line for a reboot from Columbia Pictures, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The studio tapped screenwriters Mark Swift and Damian Shannon to write the film with the hopes that it could become a new franchise. The pair previously wrote the 2003 horror mash-up Freddy vs. Jason, as well as the 2009 Friday the 13th remake. They're currently at work on a Baywatch movie and were reportedly tapped to write Disney's live-action Aladdin prequel, Genie.
Starship Troopers first arrived in 1997 and starred Casper Van Dien,...
The studio tapped screenwriters Mark Swift and Damian Shannon to write the film with the hopes that it could become a new franchise. The pair previously wrote the 2003 horror mash-up Freddy vs. Jason, as well as the 2009 Friday the 13th remake. They're currently at work on a Baywatch movie and were reportedly tapped to write Disney's live-action Aladdin prequel, Genie.
Starship Troopers first arrived in 1997 and starred Casper Van Dien,...
- 11/3/2016
- Rollingstone.com
Recently, I've found myself having to discuss some very difficult moments from history with my oldest son because I am deeply frustrated by the history he's being taught in school. It's the same history I was taught, whitewashed and sanitized and, unfortunately, not true. It's hard to explain to him that he has to regurgitate the bullshit version of things in order to pass his tests, and he's getting angry about the vast differences between what he's taught and what actually happened. When I emerged from today's screening of Nate Parker's exceptional The Birth Of A Nation today at Sundance, I overheard an exasperated "How many movies do they have to make about slavery?", and it almost stopped me in my tracks. It's not my job to get into an angry argument with anyone about a movie, but that sentiment almost did it. The correct answer to that question...
- 1/27/2016
- by Drew McWeeny
- Hitfix
This week on Off The Shelf, Ryan is joined by Brian Saur to take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for the month of December 2015, and chat about some follow-up and home video news.
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Follow-Up Black Friday / Holiday Disc Purchases Mystery Science Theater Kickstarter Star Wars: The Force Awakens DVD Beaver Blu-ray and DVD of the Year: 2015 News CES: Ultra HD Blu-ray News Disney: Snow White Signature Collection Warner Archive Blu-ray releases January 2016: The Ice Pirates, The Wrong Man, A Mighty Wind, Flicker Alley: L’inhumaine Thunderbean: Yuletide Flickers Arrow Video: Waking Life, Cult Cinema: An Arrow Video Companion Twilight Time: March/April titles. January pre-orders Olive Films: March Titles Disney Movie Club: Blackbeard’s Ghost Milestone: Martin Scorsese Presents Masterpieces of Polish Cinema, Volume 1 Episode Links & Notes
12/1
Downhill Racer Fear the Walking Dead: Season 1 Fort Massacre...
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Follow-Up Black Friday / Holiday Disc Purchases Mystery Science Theater Kickstarter Star Wars: The Force Awakens DVD Beaver Blu-ray and DVD of the Year: 2015 News CES: Ultra HD Blu-ray News Disney: Snow White Signature Collection Warner Archive Blu-ray releases January 2016: The Ice Pirates, The Wrong Man, A Mighty Wind, Flicker Alley: L’inhumaine Thunderbean: Yuletide Flickers Arrow Video: Waking Life, Cult Cinema: An Arrow Video Companion Twilight Time: March/April titles. January pre-orders Olive Films: March Titles Disney Movie Club: Blackbeard’s Ghost Milestone: Martin Scorsese Presents Masterpieces of Polish Cinema, Volume 1 Episode Links & Notes
12/1
Downhill Racer Fear the Walking Dead: Season 1 Fort Massacre...
- 1/6/2016
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Triumph of the Will
Written by Leni Riefenstahl, Walter Ruttmann, Eberhard Taubert
Directed by Leni Riefenstahl
Germany, 1935
It is never easy to look at Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will as anything other than what Dr. Anthony Santoro quite rightly calls a “supreme propaganda film.” As that, it is nearly unparalleled in the dubious annals of film history. Contributing to its difficulty in terms of analysis, however, is the fact that it is, at the same time, more than simply a notorious document of evil in bloom. For all the troublesome features that recurrently arise through the course of this film—the domineering presence of Adolf Hitler being just one obvious example—this is one remarkably well-crafted motion picture. Its status as the ultimate work of cinematic propaganda is, indeed, a direct result of just how superbly powerful, sadly persuasive, and expertly realized the documentary is, for better or worse.
Written by Leni Riefenstahl, Walter Ruttmann, Eberhard Taubert
Directed by Leni Riefenstahl
Germany, 1935
It is never easy to look at Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will as anything other than what Dr. Anthony Santoro quite rightly calls a “supreme propaganda film.” As that, it is nearly unparalleled in the dubious annals of film history. Contributing to its difficulty in terms of analysis, however, is the fact that it is, at the same time, more than simply a notorious document of evil in bloom. For all the troublesome features that recurrently arise through the course of this film—the domineering presence of Adolf Hitler being just one obvious example—this is one remarkably well-crafted motion picture. Its status as the ultimate work of cinematic propaganda is, indeed, a direct result of just how superbly powerful, sadly persuasive, and expertly realized the documentary is, for better or worse.
- 1/3/2016
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
Every week we dive into the cream of the crop when it comes to home releases, including Blu-ray and DVDs, as well as recommended deals of the week. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best (or most interesting) films one can take home. Note that if you’re looking to support the site, every purchase you make through the links below helps us and is greatly appreciated.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie)
Nineteen years in and the Mission: Impossible franchise shows no signs of slowing down. Much of the credit goes to the unbreakable Tom Cruise, a movie star who continues to succeed and persevere where fellow movie star contemporaries (Will Smith, Tom Hanks) have begun to falter. As written and directed by frequent Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation works simultaneously as a direct sequel to Brad Bird’s fourth Mission installment Ghost Protocol,...
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie)
Nineteen years in and the Mission: Impossible franchise shows no signs of slowing down. Much of the credit goes to the unbreakable Tom Cruise, a movie star who continues to succeed and persevere where fellow movie star contemporaries (Will Smith, Tom Hanks) have begun to falter. As written and directed by frequent Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation works simultaneously as a direct sequel to Brad Bird’s fourth Mission installment Ghost Protocol,...
- 12/15/2015
- by TFS Staff
- The Film Stage
Since any New York cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Perhaps the year’s most intriguing retrospective is “Lynch/Rivette,” and it begins this weekend. Pairing seven films from David Lynch with eight from Jacques Rivette, it seeks to find commonalities between two thoroughly unique film artists. Things begin with Friday’s double-billing of The Duchess of Langeais and Blue Velvet...
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Perhaps the year’s most intriguing retrospective is “Lynch/Rivette,” and it begins this weekend. Pairing seven films from David Lynch with eight from Jacques Rivette, it seeks to find commonalities between two thoroughly unique film artists. Things begin with Friday’s double-billing of The Duchess of Langeais and Blue Velvet...
- 12/11/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Attention Deadites, a marathon hosted by Bruce Campbell featuring the first three installments in The Evil Dead franchise will air on October 30th on Starz. Also: a Murder in the Dark clip, Gentle Giant Ltd.'s Morgan Jones mini bust details, A Nightmare on Elm Street screening, and Synapse Films on Vhx.TV.
Evil Dead Marathon: Press Release: "Beverly Hills, Calif., October 20, 2015 – Setting the stage for the premiere of the highly anticipated Starz Original series “Ash vs Evil Dead,” Starz presents a marathon of the cult classic Evil Dead horror franchise on Friday, October 30 beginning at 8:00 p.m. Et/Pt hosted by Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell (Ash). The marathon will conclude with a sneak peek of the first episode of “Ash vs Evil Dead” at 12:15 a.m. Et/Pt.
The Evil Dead marathon kicks off with the original 1981 cult classic, The Evil Dead at 8:00 pm Et/Pt on Starz.
Evil Dead Marathon: Press Release: "Beverly Hills, Calif., October 20, 2015 – Setting the stage for the premiere of the highly anticipated Starz Original series “Ash vs Evil Dead,” Starz presents a marathon of the cult classic Evil Dead horror franchise on Friday, October 30 beginning at 8:00 p.m. Et/Pt hosted by Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell (Ash). The marathon will conclude with a sneak peek of the first episode of “Ash vs Evil Dead” at 12:15 a.m. Et/Pt.
The Evil Dead marathon kicks off with the original 1981 cult classic, The Evil Dead at 8:00 pm Et/Pt on Starz.
- 10/21/2015
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
This week on Off The Shelf, Ryan is joined by Brian Saur to take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for the week of October 29th, 2015, and chat about some follow-up and home video news.
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Episode Links & Notes Follow-up Iron Giant on iTunes Apple TV Wireless Headphones (recommended by Rebecca Wright at Movie Gazette Online) link John Carpenter’s Vampires low-quantity Army Of Darkness correction News Scream Factory October Sale Twilight Time January / February 2016 titles Ralph Bakshi’s Last Days Of Coney Island on Vimeo on October 29th Aladdin II & III 2-Movie Collection Blu-ray Synapse: Triumph Of The Will New Releases
October 13th
Aladdin: Diamond Edition Bates Motel: Season 3 The Brood Call Me Lucky Company Business Cry of the Hunted Dope Edward Scissorhands Escape from Alcatraz Flaxy Martin The Land Before Time Mad Men: The Final Season, Part 2 Malone (1987) Manos: The Hands of Fate...
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Episode Links & Notes Follow-up Iron Giant on iTunes Apple TV Wireless Headphones (recommended by Rebecca Wright at Movie Gazette Online) link John Carpenter’s Vampires low-quantity Army Of Darkness correction News Scream Factory October Sale Twilight Time January / February 2016 titles Ralph Bakshi’s Last Days Of Coney Island on Vimeo on October 29th Aladdin II & III 2-Movie Collection Blu-ray Synapse: Triumph Of The Will New Releases
October 13th
Aladdin: Diamond Edition Bates Motel: Season 3 The Brood Call Me Lucky Company Business Cry of the Hunted Dope Edward Scissorhands Escape from Alcatraz Flaxy Martin The Land Before Time Mad Men: The Final Season, Part 2 Malone (1987) Manos: The Hands of Fate...
- 10/21/2015
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Runner Jesse Owens takes his place in history in the trailer for upcoming biopic Race.
Director Stephen Hopkins's film dramatises Owens's Olympic triumph at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, in the face of Nazi Germany's might.
Owens is portrayed by Stephan James, who most recently played civil rights activist John Lewis in the acclaimed drama Selma.
Game of Thrones star Carice van Houten portrays Nazi-backed filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, creator of the controversial Olympics documentary Triumph of the Will.
The cast also includes Jeremy Irons, Jason Sudeikis and William Hurt.
Race opens on February 19, 2016 in the Us.
Director Stephen Hopkins's film dramatises Owens's Olympic triumph at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, in the face of Nazi Germany's might.
Owens is portrayed by Stephan James, who most recently played civil rights activist John Lewis in the acclaimed drama Selma.
Game of Thrones star Carice van Houten portrays Nazi-backed filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, creator of the controversial Olympics documentary Triumph of the Will.
The cast also includes Jeremy Irons, Jason Sudeikis and William Hurt.
Race opens on February 19, 2016 in the Us.
- 10/15/2015
- Digital Spy
Taken as a straight-faced, just-the-facts account of one great man’s amazing achievements, Steve Jobs is a bit daft. For as much as the structure of Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin‘s biopic — divided into three sections, each set backstage right before a product’s announcement (those being the Apple Lisa in 1984, the NeXTcube in 1988, and the iMac in 1998) — is receiving attention, that bit of pre-release hype, like all pre-release hype, should be questioned. To my mind, this is all a reductive bit of enthusiasm: what happens when anyone does anything different with the format, thus saving us from having to (gasp!) sit through “yet another biopic.” The reaction is premature, surely, but none too surprising. There’s a vocal and too-large section of viewers for whom the genre indicates that what they’re seeing — no matter the talent of its creators or the fascination that comes with its subject — is unquestionably an inferior product,...
- 10/4/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Continued from this article
Part I. Denazifying Leni
After World War II, Leni Riefenstahl couldn’t escape the Fuhrer’s shadow. Arrested first by American, then French troops, her property and money seized, she endured interrogations about her ties to the regime. Riefenstahl argued she’d been coerced into making propaganda and wasn’t aware of Nazi atrocities. The image stuck: three denazification tribunals acquitted her (one cautiously branding her a “fellow traveler”), and Riefenstahl began the road to rehabilitation.
More diligent investigators challenged her self-portrait. In 1946, American journalist Budd Schulberg interviewed Riefenstahl for the Saturday Evening Post. Riefenstahl claimed she didn’t know about Nazi concentration camps. Later, asked why she made Triumph of the Will, Riefenstahl claimed Joseph Goebbels threatened her with a concentration camp. Disgusted with Riefenstahl’s self-serving contradictions, Schulberg labeled her a “Nazi Pin-Up Girl.”
Then the German tabloid Revue published a damning article in...
Part I. Denazifying Leni
After World War II, Leni Riefenstahl couldn’t escape the Fuhrer’s shadow. Arrested first by American, then French troops, her property and money seized, she endured interrogations about her ties to the regime. Riefenstahl argued she’d been coerced into making propaganda and wasn’t aware of Nazi atrocities. The image stuck: three denazification tribunals acquitted her (one cautiously branding her a “fellow traveler”), and Riefenstahl began the road to rehabilitation.
More diligent investigators challenged her self-portrait. In 1946, American journalist Budd Schulberg interviewed Riefenstahl for the Saturday Evening Post. Riefenstahl claimed she didn’t know about Nazi concentration camps. Later, asked why she made Triumph of the Will, Riefenstahl claimed Joseph Goebbels threatened her with a concentration camp. Disgusted with Riefenstahl’s self-serving contradictions, Schulberg labeled her a “Nazi Pin-Up Girl.”
Then the German tabloid Revue published a damning article in...
- 7/18/2015
- by Christopher Saunders
- SoundOnSight
Part I. A Filmmaker’s Apotheosis
April 20th, 1938 marked Adolf Hitler’s 49th birthday. In the past five years, he’d rebuilt Germany from destitute anarchy into a burgeoning war machine, repudiated the Versailles Treaty and, that March, incorporated Austria into his Thousand-Year Reich. In Nazi Germany, fantasy co-mingled with ideology, expressing an obsession with Germany’s mythical past through propaganda and art. Fittingly, Hitler celebrated at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin, Germany’s most prestigious cinema.
There, Nazi officials and foreign diplomats joined dignitaries of German kultur. Present were Wilhelm Furtwangler, conductor of Berlin’s Philharmonic Orchestra; Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect and confidante; actor Gustaf Grundgens, transformed from Brechtian Bolshevik to director of Prussia’s State Theater; and movie star Emil Jannings, Oscar-winner of The Lost Command and The Blue Angel, now an Artist of the State. Also Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, who nationalized German cinema in...
April 20th, 1938 marked Adolf Hitler’s 49th birthday. In the past five years, he’d rebuilt Germany from destitute anarchy into a burgeoning war machine, repudiated the Versailles Treaty and, that March, incorporated Austria into his Thousand-Year Reich. In Nazi Germany, fantasy co-mingled with ideology, expressing an obsession with Germany’s mythical past through propaganda and art. Fittingly, Hitler celebrated at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin, Germany’s most prestigious cinema.
There, Nazi officials and foreign diplomats joined dignitaries of German kultur. Present were Wilhelm Furtwangler, conductor of Berlin’s Philharmonic Orchestra; Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect and confidante; actor Gustaf Grundgens, transformed from Brechtian Bolshevik to director of Prussia’s State Theater; and movie star Emil Jannings, Oscar-winner of The Lost Command and The Blue Angel, now an Artist of the State. Also Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, who nationalized German cinema in...
- 7/8/2015
- by Christopher Saunders
- SoundOnSight
Time to give away some Blu-rays!To celebrate the Blu-ray and DVD release of Killers by Indonesian madmen The Mo Brothers, Well Go USA and TwitchFilm have teamed up to give away a pair of discs to some lucky readers. Killers was one of my favorite films from the Asian Film Festival of Dallas in 2014, and I can't wait to share the perverse joy of this film with others. Our Jason Gorber reviewed the film following its premiere at Sundance last year and had lots of great things to say, like this:Killers is to the likes of Dexter what Starship Troopers is to Triumph of the Will, a sly and extremely erudite examination of the horrors of horror. It reminds of the likes of Kim-Ki...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 4/7/2015
- Screen Anarchy
• Benjamin Walker will part with his presidential past as the male lead in the adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel The Choice. The Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson star will play Travis Parker in the story that spans a decade long love affair in a small coastal town. Bryan Sipe (A Million Miles) wrote the screenplay with no director currently attached. [Deadline] • Rosa Salazar has just joined the cast of another Ya trilogy. The Parenthood actress will play Brenda in the sequel Maze Runner: Scorch Trials, which will once again be directed by Wes Ball and star Dylan O'Brien.
- 9/30/2014
- by Jake Perlman
- EW - Inside Movies
Defiance manages to surprise Billy this week, even if it's with implausibility. Here's his review of Painted From Memory...
This review contains spoilers.
2.9 Painted From Memory
I’m not sure if I’m happy or really infuriated after watching Painted From Memory. Part of me liked that I’d got it wrong last week when I’d concluded that the masked assailant was Niles, because I’d forgotten about another missing character. But what was transplanted into its place made very little sense at times, and was as close as the show has come to a true shark-jumping moment.
It started well enough, with Kenya trying to fill the narrative holes in what happened to her, and failing miserably. Instinctively Nolan doesn’t like incomplete stories, and it soon becomes apparent that he’s not overreacting.
Meanwhile, Kenya’s inability to stay dead sends poor Stahma into a complete tailspin,...
This review contains spoilers.
2.9 Painted From Memory
I’m not sure if I’m happy or really infuriated after watching Painted From Memory. Part of me liked that I’d got it wrong last week when I’d concluded that the masked assailant was Niles, because I’d forgotten about another missing character. But what was transplanted into its place made very little sense at times, and was as close as the show has come to a true shark-jumping moment.
It started well enough, with Kenya trying to fill the narrative holes in what happened to her, and failing miserably. Instinctively Nolan doesn’t like incomplete stories, and it soon becomes apparent that he’s not overreacting.
Meanwhile, Kenya’s inability to stay dead sends poor Stahma into a complete tailspin,...
- 8/18/2014
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
I am mostly against the critical valuation of real people in documentaries. I’ve written about this in the past, specifically in response to the reviews of The Imposter that judged subject Frederic Bourdin more than the film itself. I also wondered last fall whether it is okay to highlight the “best” characters of a given year in the form of the Cinema Eye Honors recognition of “The Unforgettables.” On that, I eventually came around to agreeing that memorable documentary characters deserve recognition if not a competitive prize that puts one above the rest (and the Ceh don’t mean for them to be “the best,” just unforgettable). Even calling them characters makes me conflicted at times, but within the film space and narrative, that is what they are. Ranking these characters, though, or calling them “best” or “worst,” isn’t something I feel comfortable doing. However, it is more acceptable to discuss a documentary character positively...
- 5/9/2014
- by Nonfics.com
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Day Three of Ebertfest began much like Day Two, with panels at the Illini Union, the first titled “Remembering Roger Ebert” and the second “Film & Cultural Politics”. The former was an hour-long opportunity for the panelists (critics and Far-Flung Correspondents) and the audience to share their memories of and experiences with Ebert and express what he meant to them. Everyone had lovely, very personal stories to tell and the sense of loss, but more importantly love, was palpable in the room.
Krishna Shenoi relayed how he first got to know Ebert, through an out-of-the-blue comment at his blog Shenoi assumed was a prank, and how Ebert’s encouragement prompted his parents to support his decision to enter film school. Matt Zoller Seitz talked about his friendly rivalry with Ebert, as they tried to one-up each other with their discoveries of up and coming bloggers from around the world, Jana Monji...
Krishna Shenoi relayed how he first got to know Ebert, through an out-of-the-blue comment at his blog Shenoi assumed was a prank, and how Ebert’s encouragement prompted his parents to support his decision to enter film school. Matt Zoller Seitz talked about his friendly rivalry with Ebert, as they tried to one-up each other with their discoveries of up and coming bloggers from around the world, Jana Monji...
- 4/26/2014
- by Kate Kulzick
- SoundOnSight
From the very first opening titles, written in a Germanic font that immediately conjures everything from “Triumph of the Will” to images of big-busted ladies screaming in campy close-up in 1970s cheapie horrors (it may be the only time in Cannes that a film got a big laugh for a typeface) it’s perfectly clear that the Jim Jarmusch in whose company we’re about to spend a couple of hours is not the wilfully obscure surrealist of “The Limits of Control,” nor the considered, melancholic philosopher behind “Dead Man,” nor even the oddball ragtag troubadour of “Down By Law." In fact, “Only Lovers Left Alive,” Jarmusch’s take on the vampire myth starring recent muse Tilda Swinton and Tom “fast becoming everyone’s favorite actor” Hiddleston, finds the maverick filmmaker in playful, referential and mischievous form with hugely enjoyable, if not exactly weighty or important, results. It’s an offbeat,...
- 4/10/2014
- by Jessica Kiang
- The Playlist
This story first appeared in the Feb. 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. It's where Fritz Lang premiered Metropolis and where Leni Riefenstahl premiered Triumph of the Will. When it opened in 1915, it was called Filmpalast am Zoo -- because it was located next to the zoo -- then changed to the Ufa Palast and finally Zoo Palast. By any name, though, it's been the center of German cinema for nearly a century. Story: How George Clooney Faked Da Vinci's 'Last Supper' for 'Monuments Men' Allied bombings flattened the theater in 1943, but it was rebuilt in 1955 and became a symbol of
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- 2/6/2014
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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