Exclusive: Antonio Díaz, one of Europe’s highest grossing illusionists, will bring his El Mago Pop show to Broadway this summer, with a limited two-week engagement set for August.
El Mago Pop – which is also Díaz’s alter ego stage name – will begin two weeks of performances at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Thursday, August 17.
“Performing on Broadway has been a lifelong dream,” Díaz said in a statement, “and it will undoubtedly be the biggest challenge of my career. I am certain it will be a life altering experience that I will remember for the rest of time.”
Díaz is one of the most successful illusionists in Europe and is among Spain’s top grossing performers. Nearly three million theater-goers have seen Díaz in performance, and his Netflix shows Magic for Humans and La Gran Ilusion are broadcast in nearly 200 countries.
El Mago Pop features Diaz’s close-up magic and,...
El Mago Pop – which is also Díaz’s alter ego stage name – will begin two weeks of performances at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Thursday, August 17.
“Performing on Broadway has been a lifelong dream,” Díaz said in a statement, “and it will undoubtedly be the biggest challenge of my career. I am certain it will be a life altering experience that I will remember for the rest of time.”
Díaz is one of the most successful illusionists in Europe and is among Spain’s top grossing performers. Nearly three million theater-goers have seen Díaz in performance, and his Netflix shows Magic for Humans and La Gran Ilusion are broadcast in nearly 200 countries.
El Mago Pop features Diaz’s close-up magic and,...
- 3/27/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
While we’ve known the results of Jeanne Dielman Tops Sight and Sound‘s 2022 Greatest Films of All-Time List”>Sight & Sound’s once-in-a-decade greatest films of all-time poll for a few months now, the recent release of the individual ballots has given data-crunching cinephiles a new opportunity to dive deeper. We have Letterboxd lists detailing all 4,400+ films that received at least one vote and another expanding the directors poll, spreadsheets calculating every entry, and now a list ranking how many votes individual directors received for their films.
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below,...
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below,...
- 3/5/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
In the marketing for the notorious 1981 horror film "The Evil Dead," director Sam Raimi skewed happily away from modesty, describing his film as "The ultimate experience in grueling terror." As there would be two sequels, it proved to be the antepenultimate experience in grueling terror.
Given the size and power of the cult behind it, it seems almost churlish to put a film like "Evil Dead II" (called "Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn" on the posters) into an introductory context. "Evil Dead II" remains one of the finest horror comedies cinema has yet offered, presenting extreme horror visuals with the slapstick timing of Buster Keaton or the Three Stooges. "Evil Dead II" has long been standard viewing for any ninth grade would-be horror fanatic, eager to chuckle at death, and persists at midnight screenings the world over.
Raimi and his crew famously made the "Evil Dead" movies on the cheap.
Given the size and power of the cult behind it, it seems almost churlish to put a film like "Evil Dead II" (called "Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn" on the posters) into an introductory context. "Evil Dead II" remains one of the finest horror comedies cinema has yet offered, presenting extreme horror visuals with the slapstick timing of Buster Keaton or the Three Stooges. "Evil Dead II" has long been standard viewing for any ninth grade would-be horror fanatic, eager to chuckle at death, and persists at midnight screenings the world over.
Raimi and his crew famously made the "Evil Dead" movies on the cheap.
- 8/21/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Catalog
In January of 2022, Studiocanal is set to regain distribution rights to more than 200 high-profile feature films, ending its long-term distribution deal with NBCUniversal, and will be adding the films to its current catalog of prestige titles available to TV and SVOD players. Key names among the returning titles take in Carolco films “Terminator 2,” the “Rambo” trilogy and “Basic Instinct”; Working Title comedies “Love Actually” and the “Bridget Jones” and “Johnny English” films; as well as American classics including “The Elephant Man,” “Mulholland Drive,” “Apocalypse Now,” “The Graduate” and “The Outsiders.” Several high-profile European titles are also included in the package, such as Alejandro Amenabar’s “The Others,” Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist” and French classics “Le Professionnel,” “La Grande Illusion” and “La Grande Vadrouille.”
Factual
Production-distribution company Earth Touch has closed a raft of deals for titles from its slate of wildlife programming with broadcasters around the world...
In January of 2022, Studiocanal is set to regain distribution rights to more than 200 high-profile feature films, ending its long-term distribution deal with NBCUniversal, and will be adding the films to its current catalog of prestige titles available to TV and SVOD players. Key names among the returning titles take in Carolco films “Terminator 2,” the “Rambo” trilogy and “Basic Instinct”; Working Title comedies “Love Actually” and the “Bridget Jones” and “Johnny English” films; as well as American classics including “The Elephant Man,” “Mulholland Drive,” “Apocalypse Now,” “The Graduate” and “The Outsiders.” Several high-profile European titles are also included in the package, such as Alejandro Amenabar’s “The Others,” Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist” and French classics “Le Professionnel,” “La Grande Illusion” and “La Grande Vadrouille.”
Factual
Production-distribution company Earth Touch has closed a raft of deals for titles from its slate of wildlife programming with broadcasters around the world...
- 10/13/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Bertrand Tavernier breaks the barrier between fans of European movies and 101 classic French pictures that most of us have never gotten a peek at. The key to this eight-hour film clip excerpt round-up is the hosting-curatorship of Tavernier — the fascinating miniseries has plenty to offer both fans that have never seen an old French movie, and some of us that thought (until now) that we knew something about them. The author and director is also a great storyteller, presenting his favorite underrated directors, actors & composers and putting them, in historical context. Tavernier is a deft film clip picker — all are riveting, none are spoilers, and you’ll come out learning fifty new French words, most of them clean. Highly, highly recommended.
Journeys Through French Cinema
Blu-ray
Cohen Media Group
2017 / Color + B&w / 1:78 widescreen + 1:33 flat / 459 min. without beating any particular bias-drum.
Even when championing directors he dubs The Forgotten Ones,...
Journeys Through French Cinema
Blu-ray
Cohen Media Group
2017 / Color + B&w / 1:78 widescreen + 1:33 flat / 459 min. without beating any particular bias-drum.
Even when championing directors he dubs The Forgotten Ones,...
- 3/27/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
27 January 1939: He has refused to make films in Hollywoood, or indeed anywhere save in France, because he insists that a nation’s films must not have foreigners at their head
Fleet Street, Thursday
M Jean Renoir may be one of the four or five French directors who are making their nation’s films the best in the world, yet when one spoke with him to-day he was concerned much less about films than about “the disaster of Barcelona.” That realist attitude seemed, somehow, typical of a man of the French cinema – a man who does not regard himself as of a race apart, like the film lords in other countries so often do.
M Renoir is a burly sandy-haired, vigorous Parisian. His experience of film direction goes back to Nana and the silent days. La Chienne – prohibited in Britain – was his first talkie, and a fine one. La Grande Illusion...
Fleet Street, Thursday
M Jean Renoir may be one of the four or five French directors who are making their nation’s films the best in the world, yet when one spoke with him to-day he was concerned much less about films than about “the disaster of Barcelona.” That realist attitude seemed, somehow, typical of a man of the French cinema – a man who does not regard himself as of a race apart, like the film lords in other countries so often do.
M Renoir is a burly sandy-haired, vigorous Parisian. His experience of film direction goes back to Nana and the silent days. La Chienne – prohibited in Britain – was his first talkie, and a fine one. La Grande Illusion...
- 1/27/2021
- by From our London correspondent
- The Guardian - Film News
The Covid-19 crisis has devastated cinema attendance. Several major cinema chains have closed around the world. In the face of adversity, this year’s 12th edition of the Lumière Festival in France’s Lyon, which runs Oct. 10-18, aims to fly the flag of cinema even more forcefully than ever, through its on site mix of career tributes, restored classics, world premieres of new films and a classic film market.
Veteran French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier (“My Journey through French Cinema”) has played a key role in organizing this year’s line-up, including the tribute to the classic French screenwriter Michel Audiard, who would have turned 100 this year, the award of the Lumière Award to Belgian directing duo, the Dardenne brothers, tributes to Oliver Stone and Viggo Mortensen, and a career tribute to French actress Sabine Azéma, who starred in two films by Tavernier. The Festival also pays homage to American...
Veteran French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier (“My Journey through French Cinema”) has played a key role in organizing this year’s line-up, including the tribute to the classic French screenwriter Michel Audiard, who would have turned 100 this year, the award of the Lumière Award to Belgian directing duo, the Dardenne brothers, tributes to Oliver Stone and Viggo Mortensen, and a career tribute to French actress Sabine Azéma, who starred in two films by Tavernier. The Festival also pays homage to American...
- 10/13/2020
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Mubi's double bill Renoir, Beginnings and Endings is showing September 15 - October 15, 2020 in the United States.Above: NanaJean Renoir, one of the greatest French filmmakers, if not the greatest, was a passionate raconteur. Not only did he write his expansionist memoir, My Life and My Films (1974), and rendered some of his life in prose in his late novels, but, according to his biographer, Pascal Merigeau, he also had a prodigious talent for molding fact into myth.Renoir’s dramatic story begins with his second feature, Nana (1927). Renoir adapted the tale about a striving actress from Émile Zola’s novel, to launch the career of his wife, Catherine Hessling. Hessling dreamed of Hollywood, as eventually did Renoir. Some ten years later, he moved to Los Angeles, where he lived till his death, in 1979. The film’s Nana plays hussies but dreams of a tragic role. When a theater director humiliates her,...
- 9/11/2020
- MUBI
World War II has been a favorite subject of Hollywood since 1940, before the U.S. even entered the fighting. But the industry has been less interested in World War I, aka The Great War or The War to End All Wars (as it was sadly/optimistically dubbed).
In the past 25 years, there have been 16 best-picture Oscar nominees set during WWII. In those same years, there was only one set in World War I: Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse.” This is just one of many reasons why Universal-DreamWorks’ “1917,” a strong Oscar contender this year, seems so remarkable.
Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who co-wrote “1917” with director Sam Mendes, says she’s not surprised filmmakers have gravitated to the later war. “The Second World War was about countries uniting to fight the tyranny of the Nazis; it seemed like the only option to save humanity. But with the First World War, the motivations are obscure.
In the past 25 years, there have been 16 best-picture Oscar nominees set during WWII. In those same years, there was only one set in World War I: Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse.” This is just one of many reasons why Universal-DreamWorks’ “1917,” a strong Oscar contender this year, seems so remarkable.
Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who co-wrote “1917” with director Sam Mendes, says she’s not surprised filmmakers have gravitated to the later war. “The Second World War was about countries uniting to fight the tyranny of the Nazis; it seemed like the only option to save humanity. But with the First World War, the motivations are obscure.
- 1/2/2020
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
There is, in the Oscar prognostication game, no such thing as a sure bet. But as close as we’re likely to get this year is Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” receiving South Korea’s first-ever best international film (formerly best foreign language film) Academy Award nomination. In 2018, Lee Chang-dong’s brilliant “Burning” was the first South Korean film in 57 years and 30 submissions to get as far as the nine-film December shortlist, but it fell out of the final five in a competitive year.
The success of “Parasite” as a quadruple threat — domestically and internationally it has garnered both critical acclaim (and a Palme d’Or) and extraordinary box office returns of $112 million worldwide and counting — all but guarantees it will be spared “Burning’s” fate. Most commentators have filed that question under “asked and answered” and moved on to consider whether Bong’s deliciously dark class inequality satire has a shot,...
The success of “Parasite” as a quadruple threat — domestically and internationally it has garnered both critical acclaim (and a Palme d’Or) and extraordinary box office returns of $112 million worldwide and counting — all but guarantees it will be spared “Burning’s” fate. Most commentators have filed that question under “asked and answered” and moved on to consider whether Bong’s deliciously dark class inequality satire has a shot,...
- 12/5/2019
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Films designed to look like one uninterrupted take — whether they’re really one long shot, or just cleverly edited to appear that way — can be sweeping and engrossing or merely a novelty. At their worst, they inspire sentiments similar to what a friend of mine once wrote on social media: “Hey directors, I don’t buy a ticket to your movies so I can be your editor.”
The premise of crafting a feature that appears to be a single camera movement gets a boost from Sam Mendes’ “1917,” which follows two British soldiers during WWI on a life-or-death mission through No Man’s Land to the front lines. Under the guidance of legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, that camerawork leads to moments of genuine suspense and wartime horror, with only occasional instances of gimmickry.
Bookended by sequences involving people running through crowded trenches of soldiers — the obvious lack of tracks for the moving...
The premise of crafting a feature that appears to be a single camera movement gets a boost from Sam Mendes’ “1917,” which follows two British soldiers during WWI on a life-or-death mission through No Man’s Land to the front lines. Under the guidance of legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, that camerawork leads to moments of genuine suspense and wartime horror, with only occasional instances of gimmickry.
Bookended by sequences involving people running through crowded trenches of soldiers — the obvious lack of tracks for the moving...
- 11/25/2019
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
(Welcome to Pop Culture Imports, a column that compiles the best foreign movies and TV streaming right now.) The best foreign movies and TV streaming now are a grab-bag of movies and TV from all over the globe. Well, two continents, to be specific. But vastly different genres and levels of prestige. From French anti-war masterpieces, […]
The post Pop Culture Imports: ‘La Grande Illusion,’ New Seasons of ‘Elite,’ ‘Terrace House,’ and More appeared first on /Film.
The post Pop Culture Imports: ‘La Grande Illusion,’ New Seasons of ‘Elite,’ ‘Terrace House,’ and More appeared first on /Film.
- 9/20/2019
- by Hoai-Tran Bui
- Slash Film
Paris — A True Renaissance Man of French cinema, director, historian and film preservationist Bertrand Tavernier can now claim another title – maestro.
For the past several months, the filmmaker has been working on a project honoring several pioneering French composers, restoring several pieces and putting together a program that he presents on Saturday January 19 in conjunction with UniFrance’s Rendez-Vous With French Cinema.
To be held in Paris’ Maison de la Radio, the concert, called “May the Music Begin!” will pay tribute to several classic French films and their composers. As an added lure, the show will premiere three restorations of scores never before played in concert.
The director sat down with Variety to explain both his process and goals on this new venture.
What are the roots of this project?
This project sprung from my passion for music and from the two documentaries that I made, the feature film “My...
For the past several months, the filmmaker has been working on a project honoring several pioneering French composers, restoring several pieces and putting together a program that he presents on Saturday January 19 in conjunction with UniFrance’s Rendez-Vous With French Cinema.
To be held in Paris’ Maison de la Radio, the concert, called “May the Music Begin!” will pay tribute to several classic French films and their composers. As an added lure, the show will premiere three restorations of scores never before played in concert.
The director sat down with Variety to explain both his process and goals on this new venture.
What are the roots of this project?
This project sprung from my passion for music and from the two documentaries that I made, the feature film “My...
- 1/15/2019
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
In 1961, Shirley Clarke finished directing her first feature film and debuted The Connection at the Cannes Film Festival to much acclaim.
Previously, Clarke had begun her creative career as a dancer before moving on to direct many well-respected short experimental films, such as 1958’s Bridges-Go-Round. Clarke had always aimed her sights high with her career and, despite the improbability of a woman directing an independent feature film in the early 1960s, she accomplished just that.
The Connection was originally a play written by Jack Gelber and performed by New York City’s Living Theatre in 1959. The plot revolves around a group of junkies waiting around one afternoon for their drug dealer to arrive.
Clarke had seen and loved the play, but it was her brother-in-law — theater critic Kenneth Tynan — who convinced her to make a film of it. Money was raised through Lewis Allen, a theater investor who wanted to move into producing films.
Previously, Clarke had begun her creative career as a dancer before moving on to direct many well-respected short experimental films, such as 1958’s Bridges-Go-Round. Clarke had always aimed her sights high with her career and, despite the improbability of a woman directing an independent feature film in the early 1960s, she accomplished just that.
The Connection was originally a play written by Jack Gelber and performed by New York City’s Living Theatre in 1959. The plot revolves around a group of junkies waiting around one afternoon for their drug dealer to arrive.
Clarke had seen and loved the play, but it was her brother-in-law — theater critic Kenneth Tynan — who convinced her to make a film of it. Money was raised through Lewis Allen, a theater investor who wanted to move into producing films.
- 9/9/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Above: Italian 1960s re-release poster for Touchez pas au grisbi. Artist: Renato Casaro. In Bertrand Tavernier’s wonderful cine-memoire My Journey Through French Cinema (2016), he opens the film talking about the first film scene he remembers having an impact on him as a child: a chase scene of two motorcycle cops pursuing gangsters through a tunnel. It wasn’t until 25 years later that he discovered that the film was Jacques Becker’s debut Dernier atout (1942) and marvels at the fact that “the film that so impressed me was the work of one of France’s greatest filmmakers, one that I would worship. At age 6 I could have made a worse choice.” He goes on to devote the next 15 minutes of the film to Becker whom he describes as “the French director who best understood and mastered American filmmaking”—“Like many American directors he knew that pace is everything, and pace...
- 8/3/2018
- MUBI
M.F.A. touches a very sensitive subject. And the timing of the release comes at a time where rape and sexual assualt is now making the headlines in Hollywood more than ever. It’s a subject that needs to be talked about more and an act that should never have to be committed against anyone. To any victims out there, we sympathize with you. This film is a film that fantasizes on the consequences of those horrific actions. Aside from that, a star is born in the process.
M.F.A. is a powerful thriller about a young woman forced to take action to protect herself. Noelle (Francesca Eastwood, Final Girl, Outlaws and Angels), an art student struggling to find her voice, is sexually assaulted by a fellow classmate. Attempting to cope with her trauma, she impulsively confronts her attacker, leading to a violent altercation that culminates in his accidental death. Noelle tries to return to normalcy,...
M.F.A. is a powerful thriller about a young woman forced to take action to protect herself. Noelle (Francesca Eastwood, Final Girl, Outlaws and Angels), an art student struggling to find her voice, is sexually assaulted by a fellow classmate. Attempting to cope with her trauma, she impulsively confronts her attacker, leading to a violent altercation that culminates in his accidental death. Noelle tries to return to normalcy,...
- 10/13/2017
- by Chris Salce
- Age of the Nerd
As scary as a cabin in the woods can be, one of the most disturbing backdrops for a film can be the college campus culture, where horrors all too real take place all too often. Such is the case in Natalie Leite’s M.F.A., which made its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival (read Heather's review here) and is now teased in a new trailer from Dark Sky Films ahead of its release this October:
Press Release: Dark Sky Films proudly announces the release date of M.F.A., a critically acclaimed powerful thriller starring Francesca Eastwood in a stand out role. The film, from female director and female screenwriter, takes on the searing current issue of sexual violence on campus. M.F.A. will be released on October 13th.
M.F.A., which was nominated for the Grand Jury Award at the 2017 SXSW festival, tells a gripping story of a young woman forced to...
Press Release: Dark Sky Films proudly announces the release date of M.F.A., a critically acclaimed powerful thriller starring Francesca Eastwood in a stand out role. The film, from female director and female screenwriter, takes on the searing current issue of sexual violence on campus. M.F.A. will be released on October 13th.
M.F.A., which was nominated for the Grand Jury Award at the 2017 SXSW festival, tells a gripping story of a young woman forced to...
- 9/22/2017
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
City of Tiny Lights (Pete Travis)
Small-time private detective Tommy Akhtar (Riz Ahmed) has all the swagger of a hard-boiled snoop: leather jacket on his shoulders and cigarette in his mouth, leaning against London architecture in the darkened night. His office resides above some shops, he makes friendly with local convenience store owner Mrs. Elbaz (Myriam Acharki), and asks new clients where they found him because he’s not advertising in the paper.
City of Tiny Lights (Pete Travis)
Small-time private detective Tommy Akhtar (Riz Ahmed) has all the swagger of a hard-boiled snoop: leather jacket on his shoulders and cigarette in his mouth, leaning against London architecture in the darkened night. His office resides above some shops, he makes friendly with local convenience store owner Mrs. Elbaz (Myriam Acharki), and asks new clients where they found him because he’s not advertising in the paper.
- 7/28/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Grand Illusion (1937) is showing July 27 - August 26, 2017 in the United States as part of the retrospective Jean Renoir.Considering Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion today in no small part involves an awareness of status and stature, the most prominent (or maybe just the most intimidating) aspect of which surely being the cherished status the film continues to enjoy in the canon of film history. To this day, it remains a singular achievement, not only as one of Renoir's foundational masterpieces, but also as a film of its time whose contents have remained timeless. Released in 1937 to great acclaim, it bid farewell to one era of European history and warfare as another, far darker one was about to begin; thus, more than the grimly comical The Rules of the Game (made and released two years closer to the brink...
- 7/27/2017
- MUBI
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)
This week’s question: In honor of Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk,” what is the best war movie ever made?
Read More‘Dunkirk’ Review: Christopher Nolan’s Monumental War Epic Is The Best Film He’s Ever Made Richard Brody (@tnyfrontrow), The New Yorker
Howard Hawks’ “The Dawn Patrol,” from 1930, shows soldiers and officers cracking up from the cruelty of their missions — and shows the ones who manage not to, singing and clowning with an exuberance that suggests the rictus of a death mask. There’s courage and heroism, virtue and honor — at a price that makes the words themselves seem foul. John Ford’s “The Lost Patrol,...
This week’s question: In honor of Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk,” what is the best war movie ever made?
Read More‘Dunkirk’ Review: Christopher Nolan’s Monumental War Epic Is The Best Film He’s Ever Made Richard Brody (@tnyfrontrow), The New Yorker
Howard Hawks’ “The Dawn Patrol,” from 1930, shows soldiers and officers cracking up from the cruelty of their missions — and shows the ones who manage not to, singing and clowning with an exuberance that suggests the rictus of a death mask. There’s courage and heroism, virtue and honor — at a price that makes the words themselves seem foul. John Ford’s “The Lost Patrol,...
- 7/24/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This July will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.
To sign up for a free two-week trial here.
Saturday, July 1 Changing Faces
What does a face tell us even when it’s disguised or disfigured? And what does it conceal? Guest curator Imogen Sara Smith, a critic and author of the book In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, assembles a series of films that revolve around enigmatic faces transformed by masks, scars, and surgery, including Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960) and Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another (1966).
Tuesday, July 4 Tuesday’s Short + Feature: Premature* and Ten*
Come hitch a ride with Norwegian director Gunhild Enger and the late Iranian master...
To sign up for a free two-week trial here.
Saturday, July 1 Changing Faces
What does a face tell us even when it’s disguised or disfigured? And what does it conceal? Guest curator Imogen Sara Smith, a critic and author of the book In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, assembles a series of films that revolve around enigmatic faces transformed by masks, scars, and surgery, including Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960) and Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another (1966).
Tuesday, July 4 Tuesday’s Short + Feature: Premature* and Ten*
Come hitch a ride with Norwegian director Gunhild Enger and the late Iranian master...
- 6/26/2017
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
No longer out of reach, Marcel Pagnol’s stunning 3-feature saga of love and honor in a French seaport is one of the great movie experiences — and the most emotional workout this viewer has seen in years. The tradition of greatness in the French sound cinema began with gems like these, starring legendary actors that were sometimes billed only with their last names: Raimu, Charpin. Those two, Pierre Fresnay and Orane Demazis are simply unforgettable — it’s 6.5 hours of dramatic wonderment.
Marcel Pagnol’s The Marseille Trilogy
Marius * Fanny * César
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 881-884
1931 – 1936 / B&W / 1:19 flat full frame, 1:19 flat full frame, 1:37 flat full frame / 127 * 127 * 141 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 20, 2017 / 79.96
Starring: Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis, Fernand Charpin, Alida Rouffe, Paul Dullac, Robert Vattier, André Fouché.
Cinematography: Ted Pahle, Nicolas Toporkoff, Willy Faktorovitch
Original Music: ?, Vincent Scotto, Vincent Scotto
Written by Marcel Pagnol
Produced by Ted Pahle,...
Marcel Pagnol’s The Marseille Trilogy
Marius * Fanny * César
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 881-884
1931 – 1936 / B&W / 1:19 flat full frame, 1:19 flat full frame, 1:37 flat full frame / 127 * 127 * 141 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 20, 2017 / 79.96
Starring: Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis, Fernand Charpin, Alida Rouffe, Paul Dullac, Robert Vattier, André Fouché.
Cinematography: Ted Pahle, Nicolas Toporkoff, Willy Faktorovitch
Original Music: ?, Vincent Scotto, Vincent Scotto
Written by Marcel Pagnol
Produced by Ted Pahle,...
- 6/16/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Burbank, CA (May 22, 2017) – Unlock the mystery and dive into small town secrets as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment releases Riverdale: The Complete First Season on DVD on August 15, 2017. Premiering with 2.4 million viewers, The CW’s top new show across all major demos* is created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Glee, Big Love), produced by Greg Berlanti (The Flash, Supergirl, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Blindspot), and stars Kj Apa (Shortland Street), Lili Reinhart (The Kings of Summer), Camila Mendes (Randy Doe), Cole Sprouse (The Suite Life of Zack and Cody), Marisol Nichols (Big Momma’s House 2), Madelaine Petsch (The Curse of Sleeping Beauty), Ashleigh Murray (Deidra & Laney Rob a Train), Mädchen Amick (Twin Peaks), and Luke Perry (Beverly Hills 90210). Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is also an executive producer, along with Sarah Schechter (Arrow, Blindspot, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow), and Jon Goldwater (Publisher/CEO, Archie Comics). The release contains all 13 gripping episodes from the first season,...
- 5/22/2017
- by ComicMix Staff
- Comicmix.com
Although it isn’t an exact mirror of what’s to be found in the pages of Archie Comics’ various periodicals, Arrowverse mastermind Greg Berlanti and the rest of the folks over at The CW once again found the winning formula for comic book adaptations on the small screen with the critically acclaimed Riverdale.
Aside from boasting live action versions of Archie Andrews (Kj Apa), Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart), Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) and Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) that each looked like they leapt from a comic book, Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) was slightly reimagined yet felt as though he became the voice of young intellectual misfits, allowing the product to have an authentic feel.
But even with a stellar cast, the writing has to be there in order to make an unfolding series work. In addition to the high school drama aspects that remain a tried and true formula for prime time television,...
Aside from boasting live action versions of Archie Andrews (Kj Apa), Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart), Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes) and Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch) that each looked like they leapt from a comic book, Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse) was slightly reimagined yet felt as though he became the voice of young intellectual misfits, allowing the product to have an authentic feel.
But even with a stellar cast, the writing has to be there in order to make an unfolding series work. In addition to the high school drama aspects that remain a tried and true formula for prime time television,...
- 5/22/2017
- by Eric Joseph
- We Got This Covered
Author: Stefan Pape
Given he’s one of our very favourite directors working today, it’s of great relief that Francois Ozon is such a prolific filmmaker, moving on from one project to the next in rapid fashion. This also means he releases a lot of films, which in turn, means we get to interview him a lot. Our latest meeting with the creative auteur was in Paris, to mark the release of Frantz…
So why the black and white aesthetic?
Actually the film was supposed to be shot in colour, but I decided one month before the shoot to change everything because after the location scouting, we found some very good places, especially in Germany, but it was full of colour, and I realised walking in the city, I saw some pictures of the place in black and white from the beginning of the century, and realised nothing had changed,...
Given he’s one of our very favourite directors working today, it’s of great relief that Francois Ozon is such a prolific filmmaker, moving on from one project to the next in rapid fashion. This also means he releases a lot of films, which in turn, means we get to interview him a lot. Our latest meeting with the creative auteur was in Paris, to mark the release of Frantz…
So why the black and white aesthetic?
Actually the film was supposed to be shot in colour, but I decided one month before the shoot to change everything because after the location scouting, we found some very good places, especially in Germany, but it was full of colour, and I realised walking in the city, I saw some pictures of the place in black and white from the beginning of the century, and realised nothing had changed,...
- 5/11/2017
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Author: Stefan Pape
There are few filmmakers working today quite as consistent as French auteur Francois Ozon and his latest, Frantz, is emblematic of this notion. Remaining faithful to his own sensibilities as a storyteller, each passing endeavour remains unique of its own accord, and where previous offerings such as In the House and The New Girlfriend thrived in their light and witty tendencies, Frantz represents a far more solemn, dramatic affair, highlighting the director’s noteworthy range.
Set during the aftermath of the First World War, we meet German widow Anna (Paula Beer), grieving the loss of her fiancé Frantz, living in the residency of his parents Hans (Ernst Stotzner) and Magda Hoffmeister (Marie Gruber). One morning when laying flowers on his deceased partner’s grave, she notices an elusive stranger doing the same, the Frenchman Adrien Rivoire (Pierre Niney). Intrigued as to what his connection could’ve been with Frantz,...
There are few filmmakers working today quite as consistent as French auteur Francois Ozon and his latest, Frantz, is emblematic of this notion. Remaining faithful to his own sensibilities as a storyteller, each passing endeavour remains unique of its own accord, and where previous offerings such as In the House and The New Girlfriend thrived in their light and witty tendencies, Frantz represents a far more solemn, dramatic affair, highlighting the director’s noteworthy range.
Set during the aftermath of the First World War, we meet German widow Anna (Paula Beer), grieving the loss of her fiancé Frantz, living in the residency of his parents Hans (Ernst Stotzner) and Magda Hoffmeister (Marie Gruber). One morning when laying flowers on his deceased partner’s grave, she notices an elusive stranger doing the same, the Frenchman Adrien Rivoire (Pierre Niney). Intrigued as to what his connection could’ve been with Frantz,...
- 5/8/2017
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Director Luc Besson came out swinging against far right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen in a lengthy statement posted today to his Facebook account. In the statement, entitled “La Grande Illusion,” Besson was unflinching in his assessment of Le Pen, leader of the Front National political party and recently second runner-up in the first round of the French presidential election. “The devil is the devil and when he pretends to change,” he said, “it’s to abuse us better.” “It’s easy to lay the blame for everything on ‘others.’ Personally, I would like to thank all the North Africans,...
- 4/29/2017
- by Umberto Gonzalez
- The Wrap
Is this a match made in dysfunctional heaven? There's some potential here.
Even if the reasons were less than true, Cheryl and Archie did get a bit cozy on Riverdale Season 1 Episode 9.
The two redheaded hotties make a cute couple. I'd ship it. (Yes, you can judge me for this later...)
The Blossoms may be a devious family, and "Chapter Nine: La Grande Illusion" highlighted this even further. They know how to manipulate people to get what they want. However, I always thought Cheryl was just misunderstood.
She's being judged and used by not only her family but the people around her. The Blossom family board were ready to tear her down. It's no wonder she's a bit eccentric.
Archie: Cheryl, you okay?
Cheryl: What did my dad say to you? That I'm a trainwreck? Jason was the golden boy, but me...people hate me, Archie. At school,...
Even if the reasons were less than true, Cheryl and Archie did get a bit cozy on Riverdale Season 1 Episode 9.
The two redheaded hotties make a cute couple. I'd ship it. (Yes, you can judge me for this later...)
The Blossoms may be a devious family, and "Chapter Nine: La Grande Illusion" highlighted this even further. They know how to manipulate people to get what they want. However, I always thought Cheryl was just misunderstood.
She's being judged and used by not only her family but the people around her. The Blossom family board were ready to tear her down. It's no wonder she's a bit eccentric.
Archie: Cheryl, you okay?
Cheryl: What did my dad say to you? That I'm a trainwreck? Jason was the golden boy, but me...people hate me, Archie. At school,...
- 4/7/2017
- by Justin Carreiro
- TVfanatic
Riverdale has only been around for nine episodes but it has managed to throw Archie Andrews into several romantic relationships. Whether they are age appropriate or not, every single lady living in Riverdale has a thing for Archie, which is about the only thing the dark TV reimagining is keeping from the wholesome family-friendly comics. In "La Grande Illusion" Riverdale went in depth to explore the Cheryl and Archie relationship. While the episode confirmed that they would be truly terrible romantic partners for one another, there was something compelling between them. Riverdale needs more of Archie and Cheryl together.
- 4/7/2017
- by editor@buddytv.com
- buddytv.com
Need to catch up? Check out our previous Riverdale recap here.
Riverdale‘s aw-shucks golden boy Archie gets manipulated by the cunning Blossom family this week… and everyone with a functioning brain stem can see it but him.
The town of Riverdale revolves around the Blossoms’ lucrative maple-syrup business. (It’s kinda like Pawnee’s Sweetums factory on Parks and Rec… which would make Jason Riverdale‘s version of Bobby Newport?) Now that the primary heir is dead, the family vultures are descending, hoping to wrest control of the business away from Cheryl’s dad Cliff. Cheryl needs support at...
Riverdale‘s aw-shucks golden boy Archie gets manipulated by the cunning Blossom family this week… and everyone with a functioning brain stem can see it but him.
The town of Riverdale revolves around the Blossoms’ lucrative maple-syrup business. (It’s kinda like Pawnee’s Sweetums factory on Parks and Rec… which would make Jason Riverdale‘s version of Bobby Newport?) Now that the primary heir is dead, the family vultures are descending, hoping to wrest control of the business away from Cheryl’s dad Cliff. Cheryl needs support at...
- 4/7/2017
- TVLine.com
Over the next two Riverdale episodes, the red heads will rule! In "Chapter Nine: La Grande Illusion," Cheryl Blossom makes the moves on Archie during her family's annual maple syrup tapping event. That will certainly be overshadowed by the arrival of Mary Andrews' played by Molly Ringwald in next week's "Chapter Ten: The Lost Weekend."
BuddyTV caught up with Kj Apa (Archie Andrews), Luke Perry (Fred Andrews) and Executive Producers Sarah Schechter, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and Jon Goldwater during Wondercon to find out about Archie's new relationship with Cheryl and Mary's appearance in town.
BuddyTV caught up with Kj Apa (Archie Andrews), Luke Perry (Fred Andrews) and Executive Producers Sarah Schechter, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, and Jon Goldwater during Wondercon to find out about Archie's new relationship with Cheryl and Mary's appearance in town.
- 4/6/2017
- by editor@buddytv.com
- buddytv.com
Nobody puts Ethel in a corner. The wronged and mysterious Riverdale High student (played by Stranger Things's Shannon Purser) is back on Riverdale Season 1 Episode 9.
After the takedown of Chuck's playbook on Riverdale Season 1 Episode 3, Ethel has been majorly Mia. She faded into living a quiet high school life after her name was cleared. Everything was looking good, but now she's back.
From the photos below, Ethel and Veronica are going to have a heart-to-heart...and Veronica isn't going to take it well. What could their talk be about? And what is going on between Cheryl and Archie?
Check out the photos below from "Chapter Nine: La Grande Illusion", which airs Thursday, April 6 on The CW.
And don't forget, you can watch Riverdale online via TV Fanatic to catch-up on past episodes.
1. Ethel Returns - Riverdale Season 1 Episode 9 The quiet Riverdale High classmate is making her return after the football team scandal.
After the takedown of Chuck's playbook on Riverdale Season 1 Episode 3, Ethel has been majorly Mia. She faded into living a quiet high school life after her name was cleared. Everything was looking good, but now she's back.
From the photos below, Ethel and Veronica are going to have a heart-to-heart...and Veronica isn't going to take it well. What could their talk be about? And what is going on between Cheryl and Archie?
Check out the photos below from "Chapter Nine: La Grande Illusion", which airs Thursday, April 6 on The CW.
And don't forget, you can watch Riverdale online via TV Fanatic to catch-up on past episodes.
1. Ethel Returns - Riverdale Season 1 Episode 9 The quiet Riverdale High classmate is making her return after the football team scandal.
- 4/5/2017
- by Justin Carreiro
- TVfanatic
Dev Patel in ‘Lion’ (Courtesy: Long Way Productions)
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
Aside from the amazing characters, acting, and storytelling in Lion, the film had another unique aspect to it: just how much non-English is spoken. The Garth Davis-directed drama is considered a frontrunner by most critics in the best picture at the 2017 Oscars — but will language hold it back in the long run? Let’s take a look at history and see what we can learn.
While a large part of Lion is in English, there is also a substantial part of it that is in Bengali and Hindi. That’s because the plot — based on a 2013 memoir titled A Long Way Home — follows the true story of Saroo Brierley from becoming lost at the age of five, surviving many challenges, getting adopted by an Australian couple, and finding his birth family 25 years later. With the five-year-old...
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
Aside from the amazing characters, acting, and storytelling in Lion, the film had another unique aspect to it: just how much non-English is spoken. The Garth Davis-directed drama is considered a frontrunner by most critics in the best picture at the 2017 Oscars — but will language hold it back in the long run? Let’s take a look at history and see what we can learn.
While a large part of Lion is in English, there is also a substantial part of it that is in Bengali and Hindi. That’s because the plot — based on a 2013 memoir titled A Long Way Home — follows the true story of Saroo Brierley from becoming lost at the age of five, surviving many challenges, getting adopted by an Australian couple, and finding his birth family 25 years later. With the five-year-old...
- 12/15/2016
- by Carson Blackwelder
- Scott Feinberg
Grand Illusion to 2012's Amour, have made the cut. And three animated movies — 1991's Beauty and the Beast, 2009's Up and 2010's Toy Story 3 — have been so anointed.
But the Academy, which instituted a separate, if not quite equal, category for feature documentaries in 1942, never has seen fit to invite doc filmmakers to sit at the main table — even as Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 won Cannes' Palme d'Or in 2004, and other docs regularly...
But the Academy, which instituted a separate, if not quite equal, category for feature documentaries in 1942, never has seen fit to invite doc filmmakers to sit at the main table — even as Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 won Cannes' Palme d'Or in 2004, and other docs regularly...
- 12/2/2016
- by Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Whether you wanted to or not, you probably learned a lot of people’s seven favorite films yesterday. #fav7films was the hashtag du jour, presumably because a standard top 10 would have been more likely to go over Twitter’s 140-character limit, and among the many civvies chiming in were a number of actors and filmmakers. Here, for your perusing pleasure, is a sampling of their favorites.
Read More: Emmy Nominees React To Snubs And Surprises On Twitter
#fav7films
(I can’t resist)
24 hr Party People
The Man Who Would Be King
Diner
Sound of Music
Office Space
Kung Fu Hustle
La Dolce Vita
— Adam McKay (@GhostPanther) August 16, 2016
#fav7films Jesus’s son. Shortcuts. Royal tenenbaums. Best in show. City of God. Personal Velocity. The big Lebowski.
— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) August 16, 2016
#fav7films
Singin’ in the Rain
Squid and the Whale
Broadcast News
Hannah and Her Sisters
Bob & Carol...
Read More: Emmy Nominees React To Snubs And Surprises On Twitter
#fav7films
(I can’t resist)
24 hr Party People
The Man Who Would Be King
Diner
Sound of Music
Office Space
Kung Fu Hustle
La Dolce Vita
— Adam McKay (@GhostPanther) August 16, 2016
#fav7films Jesus’s son. Shortcuts. Royal tenenbaums. Best in show. City of God. Personal Velocity. The big Lebowski.
— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) August 16, 2016
#fav7films
Singin’ in the Rain
Squid and the Whale
Broadcast News
Hannah and Her Sisters
Bob & Carol...
- 8/16/2016
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Popular discussions of Jean Renoir tend to highlight his most renowned titles from particular periods of his career, though his greatest contributions and considerable reputation rest mainly on a handful of iconic titles from the 1930s, such as his early masterpiece Boudu Saved From Drowning (1932, remade several times in French and English, including by Paul Mazursky with Slums of Beverly Hills), and Grand Illusion (1937, notably the very first entry in Criterion’s esteemed collection).
Continue reading...
Continue reading...
- 6/21/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
“The Streetwalker And The Sucker”
By Raymond Benson
Fans of Fritz Lang’s film noir of 1945, Scarlet Street, may do well to take a look at this little French gem from 1931. Lang’s film was a Hollywood remake of La Chienne, which was based on a novel by Georges de La Fouchardière (it was also adapted into a stage play by André Mouëzy-Éon). More significantly, La Chienne was the second—and first feature length—sound film by the great Jean Renoir.
Renoir had done well in the silent era, but the invention of talkies presented the filmmaker with a larger palette of tools with which to craft some of his greatest works. Beginning with La Chienne, Renoir became France’s premiere director, a position he held for a decade.
La Chienne translates as “The Bitch,” and viewers may question which woman in the picture the title is referring to—the lead, Lulu, a beautiful blonde “street woman” (a con artist and often a prostitute), who serves as the femme fatale of the story (and wonderfully played by Janie Marèze)... or the wife of our protagonist, such a shrew of a woman that there’s no wonder why we sympathize with the poor schmuck, Maurice (portrayed by the brilliant Michel Simon), a banker and part-time painter who does everything he can to get away from his marriage and set up Lulu as his mistress. Of course, Lulu is really being played by her lover and pimp, the nasty Andre (played by real-life Parisian gangster Georges Flamant, who was also an amateur actor). Maurice is merely the mark, the sucker who is seduced by lust and led to his ruin.
Unlike Scarlet Street, La Chienne is more melodrama than film noir. Renoir handles the material well without making it overwrought, and he succeeds in developing fine character studies of the three leads. Those familiar with the director’s later masterpieces such as Grand Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939) will find this early work fascinating. Renoir’s signature mise-en-scène is easily identifiable, even in its baby steps. Also impressive are the street scenes shot on location—this was the real Paris of 1931, displayed in glorious black and white.
Michel Simon, like Renoir, was one of France’s biggest film artists. Originally Swiss, Simon made French silent films and later had a long run as an actor in talkies. He has a distinctive Bassett Hound face, perfect for betraying first the joy and then the pain Lulu puts him through. According to Renoir scholar Christopher Faulkner, who talks about the movie in one of the disk’s supplements, apparently Simon fell in love with the actress playing Lulu off-screen. But, like in the film, Janie Marèze was seeing Flamant, and this relationship was encouraged by Renoir. Not long after production was completed, Marèze was killed in an automobile accident with Flamant at the wheel. At the funeral, Simon allegedly threatened Renoir with a gun, but he must have calmed down, for Simon starred in a subsequent Renoir feature, the excellent Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932; incidentally, this was remade in Hollywood in 1986 as Down and Out in Beverly Hills).
The Criterion Collection’s release features a new, restored 4K digital transfer that looks so pristine and sharp you might think the film was made last week. There’s an uncompressed monaural soundtrack and a new English subtitles translation. Supplements include an introduction to the film by Renoir himself, shot in 1961; the aforementioned interview with Faulkner on the movie; a sparkling new restoration of Renoir’s first sound film, the short On purge bébé (also 1931), a comic bauble based on a one-act play by Georges Feydeau and also starring Michel Simon; and a ninety-five minute 1967 French TV program featuring a conversation between Renoir and Simon. An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau adorns the booklet.
A fine, notable release, and a must for lovers of European cinema.
Click Here To Order From Amazon...
By Raymond Benson
Fans of Fritz Lang’s film noir of 1945, Scarlet Street, may do well to take a look at this little French gem from 1931. Lang’s film was a Hollywood remake of La Chienne, which was based on a novel by Georges de La Fouchardière (it was also adapted into a stage play by André Mouëzy-Éon). More significantly, La Chienne was the second—and first feature length—sound film by the great Jean Renoir.
Renoir had done well in the silent era, but the invention of talkies presented the filmmaker with a larger palette of tools with which to craft some of his greatest works. Beginning with La Chienne, Renoir became France’s premiere director, a position he held for a decade.
La Chienne translates as “The Bitch,” and viewers may question which woman in the picture the title is referring to—the lead, Lulu, a beautiful blonde “street woman” (a con artist and often a prostitute), who serves as the femme fatale of the story (and wonderfully played by Janie Marèze)... or the wife of our protagonist, such a shrew of a woman that there’s no wonder why we sympathize with the poor schmuck, Maurice (portrayed by the brilliant Michel Simon), a banker and part-time painter who does everything he can to get away from his marriage and set up Lulu as his mistress. Of course, Lulu is really being played by her lover and pimp, the nasty Andre (played by real-life Parisian gangster Georges Flamant, who was also an amateur actor). Maurice is merely the mark, the sucker who is seduced by lust and led to his ruin.
Unlike Scarlet Street, La Chienne is more melodrama than film noir. Renoir handles the material well without making it overwrought, and he succeeds in developing fine character studies of the three leads. Those familiar with the director’s later masterpieces such as Grand Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939) will find this early work fascinating. Renoir’s signature mise-en-scène is easily identifiable, even in its baby steps. Also impressive are the street scenes shot on location—this was the real Paris of 1931, displayed in glorious black and white.
Michel Simon, like Renoir, was one of France’s biggest film artists. Originally Swiss, Simon made French silent films and later had a long run as an actor in talkies. He has a distinctive Bassett Hound face, perfect for betraying first the joy and then the pain Lulu puts him through. According to Renoir scholar Christopher Faulkner, who talks about the movie in one of the disk’s supplements, apparently Simon fell in love with the actress playing Lulu off-screen. But, like in the film, Janie Marèze was seeing Flamant, and this relationship was encouraged by Renoir. Not long after production was completed, Marèze was killed in an automobile accident with Flamant at the wheel. At the funeral, Simon allegedly threatened Renoir with a gun, but he must have calmed down, for Simon starred in a subsequent Renoir feature, the excellent Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932; incidentally, this was remade in Hollywood in 1986 as Down and Out in Beverly Hills).
The Criterion Collection’s release features a new, restored 4K digital transfer that looks so pristine and sharp you might think the film was made last week. There’s an uncompressed monaural soundtrack and a new English subtitles translation. Supplements include an introduction to the film by Renoir himself, shot in 1961; the aforementioned interview with Faulkner on the movie; a sparkling new restoration of Renoir’s first sound film, the short On purge bébé (also 1931), a comic bauble based on a one-act play by Georges Feydeau and also starring Michel Simon; and a ninety-five minute 1967 French TV program featuring a conversation between Renoir and Simon. An essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau adorns the booklet.
A fine, notable release, and a must for lovers of European cinema.
Click Here To Order From Amazon...
- 6/12/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
This summer, Grindhouse Releasing will unleash a three-disc Blu-ray of Cat in the Brain—directed by and starring Lucio Fulci—and they will also bring the horror film to cities nationwide with a theatrical re-release beginning in June and ending in August:
Press Release: Hollywood, Calif. — Grindhouse Releasing has set a July 12 street date for the new deluxe 3-disc Blu-ray edition of Lucio Fulci’s nightmare classic Cat In The Brain. The movie will be touring theaters all over the U.S. this summer, starting June 2.
Cat In The Brain is a psychological masterpiece in the tradition of such cinematic classics as Psycho, Strait-jacket, Eraserhead and Fellini’s 8 1/2. Acclaimed Italian horror maestro Lucio Fulci, director of Zombie and The Beyond, stars in this blood-soaked epic as a director being driven insane by his own movies. Fulci is thrust into an ultra-violent nightmare of death and depravity where murder and madness...
Press Release: Hollywood, Calif. — Grindhouse Releasing has set a July 12 street date for the new deluxe 3-disc Blu-ray edition of Lucio Fulci’s nightmare classic Cat In The Brain. The movie will be touring theaters all over the U.S. this summer, starting June 2.
Cat In The Brain is a psychological masterpiece in the tradition of such cinematic classics as Psycho, Strait-jacket, Eraserhead and Fellini’s 8 1/2. Acclaimed Italian horror maestro Lucio Fulci, director of Zombie and The Beyond, stars in this blood-soaked epic as a director being driven insane by his own movies. Fulci is thrust into an ultra-violent nightmare of death and depravity where murder and madness...
- 5/24/2016
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
A retrospective at San Sebastian Film Festival will show all 13 of Jacques Becker's features. Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival San Sebastian Film Festival has announced that it will dedicate a retrospective to French filmmaker Jacques Becker.
The Parisian-born director, who was born in 1906, only made 13 features - from his first Dernier Atout, in 1942, to his final film The Hole (Le Trou), released in 1960, the month after he died.
Born into money, he considered himself a Communist and trained in the cinema of the Popular Front, working as Jean Renoir's assistant on films including The Grand Illusion, Madame Bovary and The Marseillaise.
His work includes Casque d’Or, Edward and Caroline (Édouard et Caroline) and Hands Off The Loot (Touchez pas au grisbi) and he was a key name in the evolution of French Cinema. The Cahiers du cinéma critics saw in him the modernity that they...
The Parisian-born director, who was born in 1906, only made 13 features - from his first Dernier Atout, in 1942, to his final film The Hole (Le Trou), released in 1960, the month after he died.
Born into money, he considered himself a Communist and trained in the cinema of the Popular Front, working as Jean Renoir's assistant on films including The Grand Illusion, Madame Bovary and The Marseillaise.
His work includes Casque d’Or, Edward and Caroline (Édouard et Caroline) and Hands Off The Loot (Touchez pas au grisbi) and he was a key name in the evolution of French Cinema. The Cahiers du cinéma critics saw in him the modernity that they...
- 5/4/2016
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
For a man who created forward-thinking, boundary-pushing cinema embraced by small, devoted sects of cinephiles, Andrzej Żuławski‘s Sight & Sound list of favorite films is, in so many words, surprisingly traditional. Few would look upon it and say it contains a single bad film on it, but those who’ve experienced his work might expect something other than Amarcord; maybe, in its place, an underground Eastern European horror film that’s gained no real cachet since the Soviet Union’s collapse.
That isn’t to suggest something inexplicable, however. The Gold Rush‘s fall-down comedy could be detected in some of Possession‘s more emphatic moments of physical exhaustion, and, while we’re at it, visual connections between On the Silver Globe and 2001‘s horror-ish stretches aren’t so out-of-bounds. So while this selection may not open your eyes once more to cinema’s many reaches, one might use it...
That isn’t to suggest something inexplicable, however. The Gold Rush‘s fall-down comedy could be detected in some of Possession‘s more emphatic moments of physical exhaustion, and, while we’re at it, visual connections between On the Silver Globe and 2001‘s horror-ish stretches aren’t so out-of-bounds. So while this selection may not open your eyes once more to cinema’s many reaches, one might use it...
- 3/7/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
“Can’T Buy Me Love”
By Raymond Benson
Frank Capra was a superstar Hollywood director in the 1930s. He had a string of critically-acclaimed and successful pictures after joining Columbia Pictures and elevating the studio from “poverty row” to a force that competed with the big leagues. Two of Capra’s Columbia movies won the Oscar for Best Picture, and Capra became the first filmmaker to win the Oscar for Best Director three times, all within five years. You Can’t Take it With You was Capra’s second Best Picture winner and his third Best Director achievement.
Sometimes his films have been called “Capra-corn,” because they are usually steeped in Americana, explore themes of social class inequality, feature casts of eccentric—but lovable—protagonists and greedy, heartless villains, and contain stories about the Everyman’s struggle against the Establishment. Capra was also one of the developers of the screwball comedy,...
By Raymond Benson
Frank Capra was a superstar Hollywood director in the 1930s. He had a string of critically-acclaimed and successful pictures after joining Columbia Pictures and elevating the studio from “poverty row” to a force that competed with the big leagues. Two of Capra’s Columbia movies won the Oscar for Best Picture, and Capra became the first filmmaker to win the Oscar for Best Director three times, all within five years. You Can’t Take it With You was Capra’s second Best Picture winner and his third Best Director achievement.
Sometimes his films have been called “Capra-corn,” because they are usually steeped in Americana, explore themes of social class inequality, feature casts of eccentric—but lovable—protagonists and greedy, heartless villains, and contain stories about the Everyman’s struggle against the Establishment. Capra was also one of the developers of the screwball comedy,...
- 12/23/2015
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Before its flame was extinguished, New York’s legendary Kim’s Video contributed further to the world of cinephilia by polling better-known customers about their favorite films. One of these customers happened to be Allen Ginsberg, a figure whose relative lack of experience in cinema certainly won’t stand as any sort of qualifier. Thanks to The Allen Ginsberg Project (via Open Culture), we can now get a wider — and, to our eyes, more immediately understandable — grasp of what made this generation-defining voice tick.
Two interests — French Poetic Realism and the work of (or at least work heavily relating to) his fellow Beat poets — announce themselves rather clearly, given the fact that they arguably occupy 90% of the final list. The sole “outsider” is Battleship Potemkin, a picture that, with fierce political intentions and poetic inclinations in its cutting, nevertheless makes perfect sense as a Ginsberg favorite. Some of these are...
Two interests — French Poetic Realism and the work of (or at least work heavily relating to) his fellow Beat poets — announce themselves rather clearly, given the fact that they arguably occupy 90% of the final list. The sole “outsider” is Battleship Potemkin, a picture that, with fierce political intentions and poetic inclinations in its cutting, nevertheless makes perfect sense as a Ginsberg favorite. Some of these are...
- 12/7/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
“Son of Saul,” Hungary’s official entry to the Oscars, is the early frontrunner to win Best Foreign Language Film. This compelling drama tells the harrowing story of a guard at an Auschwitz death camp who, believing a young boy’s corpse to be that of his son, becomes determined to give him a proper burial. This Sony Pictures Classics release was a senation at Cannes, winning the Grand Prix. And it well could be that rare foreign-language film to cross over into the Best Picture race. -Break- Only nine films in languages other than English have been deemed worthy of a Best Picture bid -- “Grand Illusion” (1938); “Z” (1969); “The Emigrants” (1972); “Cries and Whispers” (1973); “Il Postino” (1995); “Life is Beautiful” (1998); “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000); “Letters from Iwo Jima” (2006); and “Amour” (2012) -- and none won. Whethe...
- 10/27/2015
- Gold Derby
One of art cinema’s great champions, William Becker, died on Saturday after complication from kidney failure. He was 88.
Starting out his career as a theater critic, Becker purchased legendary art cinema label and Criterion Collection backer Janus Films in 1965, in turn helping it evolve into the brand that it has become today. Overseeing expansion into realms like university education and eventually home video, Becker was a man with an affinity for intellectual discussion of cinema (he himself was a Rhodes scholar) and also an early adopter of the auteur theory, focusing on legendary filmmakers ranging from Luis Bunuel to Yasujiro Ozu.
He purchased the company with Saul J. Turell, going on to nab rights to films like Citizen Kane and King Kong, putting them alongside legendary art house films and pieces of world cinema, like Renoir’s Grand Illusion. This itself will be his lasting legacy.
I’m not normally one to write obituaries,...
Starting out his career as a theater critic, Becker purchased legendary art cinema label and Criterion Collection backer Janus Films in 1965, in turn helping it evolve into the brand that it has become today. Overseeing expansion into realms like university education and eventually home video, Becker was a man with an affinity for intellectual discussion of cinema (he himself was a Rhodes scholar) and also an early adopter of the auteur theory, focusing on legendary filmmakers ranging from Luis Bunuel to Yasujiro Ozu.
He purchased the company with Saul J. Turell, going on to nab rights to films like Citizen Kane and King Kong, putting them alongside legendary art house films and pieces of world cinema, like Renoir’s Grand Illusion. This itself will be his lasting legacy.
I’m not normally one to write obituaries,...
- 9/14/2015
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
After making two high profile movies set during the Hitler years, Downfall director Oliver Hirschbiegel is hatching plans for a new film that will unfold during the First World War.
The German filmmaker’s latest feature 13 Minutes dramatises the real-life story of small town carpenter Georg Elser who, in 1939, came close to assassinating Adolf Hitler with a homemade bomb.
The Oscar-nominated Downfall was set at the end of the Second World War, with the Nazi regime in its dying throes. Now, Hirschbiegel wants to turn his attention toward the ‘Great War’ of 1914-18.
“It is very much in the wake of Jean Renoir and of (Stanley) Kubrick,” the German director told ScreenDaily of the project, which is at a very early stage.
Two of its points of reference are Renoir’s La Grande Illusion (1937), the First World War classic about three French prisoners in German captivity, and Kubrick’s anti-war movie, Paths Of Glory (1957).
“For...
The German filmmaker’s latest feature 13 Minutes dramatises the real-life story of small town carpenter Georg Elser who, in 1939, came close to assassinating Adolf Hitler with a homemade bomb.
The Oscar-nominated Downfall was set at the end of the Second World War, with the Nazi regime in its dying throes. Now, Hirschbiegel wants to turn his attention toward the ‘Great War’ of 1914-18.
“It is very much in the wake of Jean Renoir and of (Stanley) Kubrick,” the German director told ScreenDaily of the project, which is at a very early stage.
Two of its points of reference are Renoir’s La Grande Illusion (1937), the First World War classic about three French prisoners in German captivity, and Kubrick’s anti-war movie, Paths Of Glory (1957).
“For...
- 7/2/2015
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
In this morning's round-up, we have details on not one, not two, but three slasher films. Savage Weekend, Angst, and The Mutilator are set to be released on Blu-ray between late summer and early fall.
Savage Weekend: From Kino Lorber: "Coming September 29th! On Blu-ray and DVD! From a Brand New 2015 HD Master!
Savage Weekend (1979) Starring Christopher Allport, David Gale, Caitlin O'Heaney, Jeff Pomerantz, William Sanderson and Yancy Butler. Written and Directed by David Paulsen.
Blu-ray, packaging, and extras all produced by Walt Olsen (Scorpion Releasing). Another one of his recommendations!
Special Features:
On camera interview with star William Sanderson On camera interview with star Caitlin O'Heaney On camera interview with star Jeff Pomeranz Original Theatrical Trailer"
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Angst: Gerald Kargl's Angst will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 18th.
Blu-ray.com reports that "Independent U.S. distributors Cult Epics will release on...
Savage Weekend: From Kino Lorber: "Coming September 29th! On Blu-ray and DVD! From a Brand New 2015 HD Master!
Savage Weekend (1979) Starring Christopher Allport, David Gale, Caitlin O'Heaney, Jeff Pomerantz, William Sanderson and Yancy Butler. Written and Directed by David Paulsen.
Blu-ray, packaging, and extras all produced by Walt Olsen (Scorpion Releasing). Another one of his recommendations!
Special Features:
On camera interview with star William Sanderson On camera interview with star Caitlin O'Heaney On camera interview with star Jeff Pomeranz Original Theatrical Trailer"
---------
Angst: Gerald Kargl's Angst will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 18th.
Blu-ray.com reports that "Independent U.S. distributors Cult Epics will release on...
- 6/15/2015
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
Criterion repackages Jean Renoir’s 1951 classic The River for Blu-ray, one of the master filmmaker’s several titles in the collection (fans may recall that Renoir’s Grand Illusion was the very first Criterion title). A title significant in many respects, being the first Technicolor film in India and Renoir’s first color feature, it’s simplistic beauty has gone on to influence future generations of filmmakers, including its prominently vocal champion Martin Scorsese. It also served as a launching pad for Satyajit Ray, who worked as an assistant on the film, and who would go on to create his own stunning debut four years later with the first chapter of his Apu trilogy, Pather Panchali (1955).
We experience the childhood of Harriet (Patricia Walters) in retrospect, her off-screen adult voice recounting one particular stretch of time while growing up in India with her mother (Nora Swinburne) and father (Esmond Knight...
We experience the childhood of Harriet (Patricia Walters) in retrospect, her off-screen adult voice recounting one particular stretch of time while growing up in India with her mother (Nora Swinburne) and father (Esmond Knight...
- 4/21/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Marc Allégret: From André Gide lover to Simone Simon mentor (photo: Marc Allégret) (See previous post: "Simone Simon Remembered: Sex Kitten and Femme Fatale.") Simone Simon became a film star following the international critical and financial success of the 1934 romantic drama Lac aux Dames, directed by her self-appointed mentor – and alleged lover – Marc Allégret.[1] The son of an evangelical missionary, Marc Allégret (born on December 22, 1900, in Basel, Switzerland) was to have become a lawyer. At age 16, his life took a different path as a result of his romantic involvement – and elopement to London – with his mentor and later "adoptive uncle" André Gide (1947 Nobel Prize winner in Literature), more than 30 years his senior and married to Madeleine Rondeaux for more than two decades. In various forms – including a threesome with painter Théo Van Rysselberghe's daughter Elisabeth – the Allégret-Gide relationship remained steady until the late '20s and their trip to...
- 2/28/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Orson Welles indisputably made a huge impact on the film industry, both in terms of technical proficiency and storytelling sophistication. However, Welles was never the biggest fan of films themselves. He just saw it as a way to tell stories he wanted to. That makes sense to me of how he approached filmmaking. Had he been a movie fan, I don't know if he would have thought so much outside of the box about to make them than he did. That isn't to say he didn't like all movies. In the early 1950s, Welles managed to cobble together a list of his ten favorite films for Sound on Sight (via Open Culture). As he had only been exposed to a couple of decades of cinema, I think this is a very interesting list, and one that makes a lot of sense for someone like Welles. City Lights (dir. Charles Chaplin) Greed (dir.
- 2/20/2015
- by Mike Shutt
- Rope of Silicon
A Day in the Country
Written and directed by Jean Renoir
France, 1936
Jean Renoir’s A Day in the Country comes at a curious point in the director’s career. In 1936, he had several exceptional silent films to his credit, as well as such classics of early French sound cinema as La Chienne (1931), Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932), and The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936), among others. But he had still not yet achieved his singular place on world cinema’s pre-war stage. That he would do just a year later, with La Grande Illusion (1937). As noted on the new Criterion Blu-ray, A Day in the Country was “conceived as a short feature…[and] nearly finished production in 1936 when Renoir was called away for The Lower Depths. Shooting was abandoned then, but the film was completed with the existing footage by Renoir’s team and released in its current form in 1946, after the...
Written and directed by Jean Renoir
France, 1936
Jean Renoir’s A Day in the Country comes at a curious point in the director’s career. In 1936, he had several exceptional silent films to his credit, as well as such classics of early French sound cinema as La Chienne (1931), Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932), and The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936), among others. But he had still not yet achieved his singular place on world cinema’s pre-war stage. That he would do just a year later, with La Grande Illusion (1937). As noted on the new Criterion Blu-ray, A Day in the Country was “conceived as a short feature…[and] nearly finished production in 1936 when Renoir was called away for The Lower Depths. Shooting was abandoned then, but the film was completed with the existing footage by Renoir’s team and released in its current form in 1946, after the...
- 2/17/2015
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
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