Marie Kreutzer and Vicky Krieps (holding Patti’s A Book of Days) with Patti Smith, the host of a preview screening of Corsage (Austria’s shortlisted Oscar entry) at the Crosby Street Hotel in New York Photo: IFC Films
In the second instalment with Marie Kreutzer, we discuss Sisi with King Ludwig II of Bavaria (Manuel Rubey), Louis Le Prince played by Finnegan Oldfield, and the chocolate scene in Corsage, Luchino Visconti’s Ludwig, riding in the dark, how biographies speak of their own time, undefinable friendships with men, the representational, the functional, and the omnipresence of golden chairs.
Vicky Krieps as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Corsage Photo: Felix Vratny, courtesy of IFC Films
Last week Patti Smith hosted a screening of Corsage (Best Film at the London Film Festival), attended by Sarita Choudhury, Hailey Gates, Annie Leibovitz, Piper Perabo, Dolly Wells, Sunita Mani, Diana Silvers, Olivia Luccardi, Bree Elrod,...
In the second instalment with Marie Kreutzer, we discuss Sisi with King Ludwig II of Bavaria (Manuel Rubey), Louis Le Prince played by Finnegan Oldfield, and the chocolate scene in Corsage, Luchino Visconti’s Ludwig, riding in the dark, how biographies speak of their own time, undefinable friendships with men, the representational, the functional, and the omnipresence of golden chairs.
Vicky Krieps as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Corsage Photo: Felix Vratny, courtesy of IFC Films
Last week Patti Smith hosted a screening of Corsage (Best Film at the London Film Festival), attended by Sarita Choudhury, Hailey Gates, Annie Leibovitz, Piper Perabo, Dolly Wells, Sunita Mani, Diana Silvers, Olivia Luccardi, Bree Elrod,...
- 12/22/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Whether you are religious or not, there is no denying that Jesus Christ is one of the most influential and important figures in human history. His life and teachings have inspired billions of people worldwide, and have been the subject of many movies over the years. The crucifixion is undeniably the most significant event in the short but meaningful life of Jesus.
In this blog post, we will take a look at 10 of the best movies about Jesus Christ. We’ve ranked these Biblical epics based on an aggregate of viewers’ ratings.
10/10
Risen (2016)
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Starring: Joseph Fiennes, Tom Felton, Peter Firth
IMDb User Rating 6.3/10 29K Rt Audience Score 70 10K Meta User Score 6.9 Votes 85
“Risen” is a 2016 historical drama about the aftermath of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. With a budget of 20 million, “Risen” is a 2016 American epic biblical drama film directed by Kevin Reynolds.
The story follows Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), a high-ranking Roman soldier,...
In this blog post, we will take a look at 10 of the best movies about Jesus Christ. We’ve ranked these Biblical epics based on an aggregate of viewers’ ratings.
10/10
Risen (2016)
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Starring: Joseph Fiennes, Tom Felton, Peter Firth
IMDb User Rating 6.3/10 29K Rt Audience Score 70 10K Meta User Score 6.9 Votes 85
“Risen” is a 2016 historical drama about the aftermath of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. With a budget of 20 million, “Risen” is a 2016 American epic biblical drama film directed by Kevin Reynolds.
The story follows Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), a high-ranking Roman soldier,...
- 10/28/2022
- by Buddy TV
- buddytv.com
Richard Fleischer’s Biblical epic is a class act all the way, and one of producer Dino De Laurentiis’s greatest accomplishments. Anthony Quinn’s guilty, perplexed bandit survives and subsists but never understands the importance of the man crucified in his place; the view of early Christianity is respectful and free of pious clichés. It’s an excellent image of the ancient world, with gladiator scenes that are possibly the best ever. Fleisher does exceedingly well with the enormous sets and a well-chosen international cast: Ernest Borgnine, Valentina Cortese, Vittorio Gassman, Katy Jurado, Arthur Kennedy, Silvana Mangano, Jack Palance.
Barabbas
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 132
1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 137 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / au 39.95
Starring: Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Arthur Kennedy, Katy Jurado, Harry Andrews, Vittorio Gassman, Norman Wooland, Valentina Cortese, Jack Palance, Ernest Borgnine, Arnoldo Foa’, Michael Gwynn, Laurence Payne, Douglas Fowley, Robert Hall, Joe Robinson, Friedrich von Ledebur,...
Barabbas
Blu-ray
Viavision [Imprint] 132
1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 137 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / au 39.95
Starring: Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Arthur Kennedy, Katy Jurado, Harry Andrews, Vittorio Gassman, Norman Wooland, Valentina Cortese, Jack Palance, Ernest Borgnine, Arnoldo Foa’, Michael Gwynn, Laurence Payne, Douglas Fowley, Robert Hall, Joe Robinson, Friedrich von Ledebur,...
- 10/4/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Orson Welles in fine form! This lavishly produced costume drama, beautifully cast and directed, was filmed on location in gorgeous Italian palazzos, churches and villas. Welles is cast to type as the literally mesmerizing mountebank Cagliostro, who aids Madame du Barry in a scheme to seize the throne of France. Welles almost certainly ‘helped’ the credited director; the highly theatrical goings-on look exactly like Orson’s style. Super performances from Nancy Guild, Akim Tamiroff, Valentina Cortese, Margot Grahame and Charles Goldner turn Alexandre Dumas’ tale into swashbuckling mind-control excitement; the disc tops it off with a sensationally good restoration.
Black Magic
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 105 min. / Street Date January 25, 2022 / Available from ClassicFlix / 19.99
Starring: Orson Welles, Nancy Guild, Akim Tamiroff, Charles Goldner, Stephen Bekassy, Valentina Cortese, Margot Grahame, Frank Latimore, Gregory Gaye, Berry Kroeger, Robert Atkins, Raymond Burr, Harriet White Medin, Silvana Mangano, Milly Vitale.
Cinematography: Ubaldo Arata, Anchise Brizzi
Art Directors: Jean d’Eaubonne,...
Black Magic
Blu-ray
ClassicFlix
1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 105 min. / Street Date January 25, 2022 / Available from ClassicFlix / 19.99
Starring: Orson Welles, Nancy Guild, Akim Tamiroff, Charles Goldner, Stephen Bekassy, Valentina Cortese, Margot Grahame, Frank Latimore, Gregory Gaye, Berry Kroeger, Robert Atkins, Raymond Burr, Harriet White Medin, Silvana Mangano, Milly Vitale.
Cinematography: Ubaldo Arata, Anchise Brizzi
Art Directors: Jean d’Eaubonne,...
- 2/1/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Ignored, maligned and hammered out into an ‘Alan Smithee’ extended cut for TV, David Lynch’s outstanding Sci-fi epic arrives on 4K Ultra HD, finally achieving the visual opulence on home video that it had in 70mm prints at the end of 1984. The fractured, de-Lynched storyline can be argued over, but the amazing design and arresting characterizations never fail to impress — Lynch attracted a world-class cast of movie stars and used them well. Even if it’s described as a hundred fragmented scenes from a larger narrative, they’re superlative fragments. Lynch should have been authorized to make an alternate cut, his own completely personal ‘impressionist’ version of the Frank Herbert story.
Dune
4K Ultra HD
Arrow Video
1984 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 137 min. / Street Date August 31, 2021 / 59.95
Starring (alphabetically): Francesca Annis, Leonardo Cimino, Brad Dourif, José Ferrer, Linda Hunt, Freddie Jones, Richard Jordan, Kyle MacLachlan, Virginia Madsen, Silvana Mangano, Everett McGill,...
Dune
4K Ultra HD
Arrow Video
1984 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 137 min. / Street Date August 31, 2021 / 59.95
Starring (alphabetically): Francesca Annis, Leonardo Cimino, Brad Dourif, José Ferrer, Linda Hunt, Freddie Jones, Richard Jordan, Kyle MacLachlan, Virginia Madsen, Silvana Mangano, Everett McGill,...
- 8/31/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
No, it’s not the story of the 18th President of the United States. Kirk Douglas must have been a big hit in Rome, starring in one of the first and best of the Italo epic ‘classics,’ before the musclemen cornered the market. Homer’s tale of the husband who took ten years to come back from Troy is given real star power, a splendid production and best of all, an intelligent script. This disc looks a lot better than the ragged earlier DVD, plus it offers a superior Italian language soundtrack. And don’t forget Gary Teetzel’s recommendation: as an adaptation of The Odyssey, it’s right up there with O Brother Where Art Thou!
Ulysses
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1954 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 94 104 117 min. / Street Date November 17, 2020 / Ulisse / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Silvana Mangano, Anthony Quinn, Rossana Podestà, Jacques Dumesnil, Daniel Ivernel, Sylvie, Franco Interlenghi,...
Ulysses
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1954 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 94 104 117 min. / Street Date November 17, 2020 / Ulisse / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Kirk Douglas, Silvana Mangano, Anthony Quinn, Rossana Podestà, Jacques Dumesnil, Daniel Ivernel, Sylvie, Franco Interlenghi,...
- 11/21/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Here’s a first look at the trailer for director Denis Villeneuve’s highly anticipated Dune, the big-screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal bestseller.
A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, “Dune” tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
And gosh, is this a great cast or what?!
Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac (the “Star Wars” franchise) Oscar nominee Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, Chang Chen, David Dastmalchian, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, with Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling,...
A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, “Dune” tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive.
And gosh, is this a great cast or what?!
Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac (the “Star Wars” franchise) Oscar nominee Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, Chang Chen, David Dastmalchian, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, with Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling,...
- 9/10/2020
- by Michelle Hannett
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Long gone are the days when a vignette styled filmed would be crafted for the purposes of showcasing a talented performer, at least to the auteur spangled heights which matched many such items out of Italy. Anna Magnani was the muse of Rossellini’s Amore (1948) and then Silvana Mangano was the scintillating subject spearheading 1967’s The Witches.
The very same year, Vittorio De Sica would command all seven segments of Woman Times Seven, each featuring the talented Shirley MacLaine as an American in Paris.…...
The very same year, Vittorio De Sica would command all seven segments of Woman Times Seven, each featuring the talented Shirley MacLaine as an American in Paris.…...
- 5/5/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The saga continues, featuring Adam Rifkin, Robert D. Krzykowski, John Sayles, Maggie Renzi, Mick Garris and Larry Wilmore with special guest star Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.
Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Key Largo (1948)
I Don’t Want to Talk About It (1993)
Camila (1984)
I, the Worst of All (1990)
The Wages of Fear (1953)
Le Corbeau (1943)
Diabolique (1955)
Red Beard (1965)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Ikiru (1952)
General Della Rovere (1959)
The Gold of Naples (1959)
Bitter Rice (1949)
Pickup On South Street (1953)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
Viva Zapata! (1952)
Panic In The Streets (1950)
Yellow Sky (1948)
Ace In The Hole (1951)
Wall Street (1987)
Women’s Prison (1955)
True Love (1989)
Mean Streets (1973)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
The Abyss (1989)
The China Syndrome (1979)
Big (1988)
Splash (1984)
The ’Burbs (1989)
Long Strange Trip (2017)
Little Women (2019)
Learning To Skateboard In A War Zone (If You’re A Girl) (2019)
The Guns of Navarone...
Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Key Largo (1948)
I Don’t Want to Talk About It (1993)
Camila (1984)
I, the Worst of All (1990)
The Wages of Fear (1953)
Le Corbeau (1943)
Diabolique (1955)
Red Beard (1965)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Ikiru (1952)
General Della Rovere (1959)
The Gold of Naples (1959)
Bitter Rice (1949)
Pickup On South Street (1953)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
Viva Zapata! (1952)
Panic In The Streets (1950)
Yellow Sky (1948)
Ace In The Hole (1951)
Wall Street (1987)
Women’s Prison (1955)
True Love (1989)
Mean Streets (1973)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
The Abyss (1989)
The China Syndrome (1979)
Big (1988)
Splash (1984)
The ’Burbs (1989)
Long Strange Trip (2017)
Little Women (2019)
Learning To Skateboard In A War Zone (If You’re A Girl) (2019)
The Guns of Navarone...
- 4/17/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
This week at Tfe we're celebrating the centennial of one of cinema’s most prolific and legendary producers, Dino De Laurentiis. We’ll start with three of his key influential early films. Here's Eric Blume...
Bitter Rice was De Laurentiis breakthrough international hit. He married its star
De Laurentiis, born outside of Naples, set up his own company in 1946 when he was just 27 years old. He produced four smaller films before making a huge splash onto the international scene with 1949’s Bitter Rice, a film currently available through the Criterion Collection. Bitter Rice serves up an arresting and hypnotic blend of melodrama, sexuality, and social commentary. The film is set in northern Italy during a typical spring where hundreds of poor women travel to the rice fields to work to the bone for forty days. There are workers with a legal contract and then the “illegals” who come in hopes of getting an opportunity.
Bitter Rice was De Laurentiis breakthrough international hit. He married its star
De Laurentiis, born outside of Naples, set up his own company in 1946 when he was just 27 years old. He produced four smaller films before making a huge splash onto the international scene with 1949’s Bitter Rice, a film currently available through the Criterion Collection. Bitter Rice serves up an arresting and hypnotic blend of melodrama, sexuality, and social commentary. The film is set in northern Italy during a typical spring where hundreds of poor women travel to the rice fields to work to the bone for forty days. There are workers with a legal contract and then the “illegals” who come in hopes of getting an opportunity.
- 8/5/2019
- by Eric Blume
- FilmExperience
Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Björn Andrésen, Marisa Berenson, Mark Burns, Silvana Mangano | Written by Nicola Badalucco, Luchino Visconti | Directed by Luchino Visconti
Thomas Mann’s 1912 novella Der Tod in Venedig focused on a German writer named Gustav von Aschenbach, who decides to take a holiday to Venice, where he falls in love. The greatest change in Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film adaptation, Death in Venice, is the fact that Gustav (Dirk Bogarde) is instead a composer. The troubling scenario concerning the main character’s paedophilic intentions remains, and is perhaps intensified in this, the best-regarded screen adaptation.
Through flashbacks we learn that Gustav has come to Venice to recover from an illness, possibly brought about by the death of his young daughter. His wife (Marisa Berenson) will not be joining him. Gustav enters a world of aged, crumbling architecture, bathed in a light that always seems to be dwindling – a reflection of...
Thomas Mann’s 1912 novella Der Tod in Venedig focused on a German writer named Gustav von Aschenbach, who decides to take a holiday to Venice, where he falls in love. The greatest change in Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film adaptation, Death in Venice, is the fact that Gustav (Dirk Bogarde) is instead a composer. The troubling scenario concerning the main character’s paedophilic intentions remains, and is perhaps intensified in this, the best-regarded screen adaptation.
Through flashbacks we learn that Gustav has come to Venice to recover from an illness, possibly brought about by the death of his young daughter. His wife (Marisa Berenson) will not be joining him. Gustav enters a world of aged, crumbling architecture, bathed in a light that always seems to be dwindling – a reflection of...
- 3/19/2019
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
High class Italo filmmaking slips into the ’70s with Luchino Visconti still on top. This handsomely appointed period drama recreates Venice of 1910. Make that a highly stylized recreated Venice. As curiously enacted by Dirk Bogarde, Thomas Mann’s story of a composer’s inner turmoil over a maddeningly attractive teenaged boy becomes a one-man ordeal.
Death in Venice
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 962
1971 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 131 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 25, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Romolo Valli, Mark Burns, Nora Ricci, Marisa Berenson,
Carole André, Björn Andrésen, Silvana Mangano.
Cinematography: Pasquale De Santis
Costume Designer: Piero Tosi
Art Direction: Ferdinando Scarfiotti
Music selections: Gustav Mahler, Beethoven, Mussorgsky
Film Editor: Ruggero Mastroianni
Written by Luchino Visconti, Nicola Badalucco from the novel by Thomas Mann
Produced by Robert Gordon Edwards, Mario Gallo, Luchino Visconti
Directed by Luchino Visconti
See Venice and die… or isn’t it supposed to be ‘see Rome and die?...
Death in Venice
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 962
1971 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 131 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 25, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Dirk Bogarde, Romolo Valli, Mark Burns, Nora Ricci, Marisa Berenson,
Carole André, Björn Andrésen, Silvana Mangano.
Cinematography: Pasquale De Santis
Costume Designer: Piero Tosi
Art Direction: Ferdinando Scarfiotti
Music selections: Gustav Mahler, Beethoven, Mussorgsky
Film Editor: Ruggero Mastroianni
Written by Luchino Visconti, Nicola Badalucco from the novel by Thomas Mann
Produced by Robert Gordon Edwards, Mario Gallo, Luchino Visconti
Directed by Luchino Visconti
See Venice and die… or isn’t it supposed to be ‘see Rome and die?...
- 2/23/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“I wasn’t a real person,” Letizia Battaglia says of the days before she took to photography. As an unhappily married housewife stifled and abused by Italy’s dominant patriarchy, picking up a camera opened up her life to realms she’d never otherwise have accessed; as a photojournalist specializing in the crimes and rituals of the Cosa Nostra in her hometown of Palermo, she turned her personal vocation into boundary-breaking activism. It’s easy to see why Kim Longinotto, herself one of Britain’s trailblazing female documentarians, would warm to Battaglia’s story. Palpable affection for her subject permeates the otherwise plain, brisk framework of “Shooting the Mafia,” a potted chronicle of Battaglia’s life and career.
Oddly, that apparent artistic empathy hasn’t made for one of Longinotto’s more essential works. Hampered by an interviewee who seems genial but unwilling to give much of herself away, it...
Oddly, that apparent artistic empathy hasn’t made for one of Longinotto’s more essential works. Hampered by an interviewee who seems genial but unwilling to give much of herself away, it...
- 2/6/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Luigi Comencini's The Scientific Cardplayer is an unusual entry in both the commedia all-Italiana genre, and the careers of its two American stars, Bette Davis and Joseph Cotten. Times were hard for many of the Forties biggest stars by 1972: Cotten would appear in Mario Bava's cheap-and-cheerful Baron Blood the same year, and Bette Davis had already taken the unusual—for a star—step of advertising for work ten years earlier. Happily, the film offers the pair dignified and entertaining roles which build on their status rather than demeaning it.The true heroes of the film, however, are Italian comedy legend Alberto Sordi and glamor icon Silvana Mangano, incidentally the wife of producer Dino De Laurentiis. They play an unbelievably impoverished couple with four kids to support, who supplement their various awful jobs (the youngest son literally scrapes a living shaving corpses at the local funeral parlor) in...
- 8/1/2018
- MUBI
The strangest Italian portmanteau picture of the sixties features glorious Silvana Mangano in dozens of costume changes, directed by big names (Visconti, De Sica, Pasolini) and paired with a woefully miscast Clint Eastwood. The other major attraction is a delightful music score by Piero Piccioni, with an assist from Ennio Morricone.
The Witches
Special Edition Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1967 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 120 (?) 111 105 min. / Le streghe / Street Date January 30, 2018 / 34.95
Starring: Silvana Mangano, Clint Eastwood, Annie Girardot, Francisco Rabal, Massimo Girotti, Véronique Vendell, Elsa Albani, Clara Calamai, Marilù Tolo, Nora Ricci, Dino Mele Dino Mele, Helmut Berger, Bruno Filippini, Leslie French, Alberto Sordi, Totò, Ciancicato Miao, Ninetto Davoli, Laura Betti, Luigi Leoni, Valentino Macchi, Corinne Fontaine, Armando Bottin, Gianni Gori, Paolo Gozlino, Franco Moruzzi, Angelo Santi, Pietro Torrisi.
Cinematography: Giuseppe Rotunno
Film Editors: Nino Baragli, Adriana Novelli, Mario Serandrei, Giorgio Serrallonga
Original Music: Ennio Morricone, Piero Piccioni
Written by Mauro Bolognini, Fabio Carpi,...
The Witches
Special Edition Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1967 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 120 (?) 111 105 min. / Le streghe / Street Date January 30, 2018 / 34.95
Starring: Silvana Mangano, Clint Eastwood, Annie Girardot, Francisco Rabal, Massimo Girotti, Véronique Vendell, Elsa Albani, Clara Calamai, Marilù Tolo, Nora Ricci, Dino Mele Dino Mele, Helmut Berger, Bruno Filippini, Leslie French, Alberto Sordi, Totò, Ciancicato Miao, Ninetto Davoli, Laura Betti, Luigi Leoni, Valentino Macchi, Corinne Fontaine, Armando Bottin, Gianni Gori, Paolo Gozlino, Franco Moruzzi, Angelo Santi, Pietro Torrisi.
Cinematography: Giuseppe Rotunno
Film Editors: Nino Baragli, Adriana Novelli, Mario Serandrei, Giorgio Serrallonga
Original Music: Ennio Morricone, Piero Piccioni
Written by Mauro Bolognini, Fabio Carpi,...
- 2/13/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Review by Roger Carpenter
In a day and age when video distribution companies are mostly concerned with the bottom dollar and release or re-release films they know are guaranteed to sell (anyone care to count the number of Us releases of The Evil Dead series or Night of the Living Dead?), one of my favorite things about Arrow Video USA is their apparent fearlessness in releasing films and box sets that are probably only going to appeal to a very small niche audience.
Along with Arrow Academy, Arrow Video USA’s arthouse imprint, the company has released a good portion of Walerian Borowcyzk’s films and is busily releasing the early works of Seijun Suzuki as well as other, relatively obscure, 50’s and 60’s Japanese films. While I applaud Arrow for releasing these films and enjoy them all immensely, I’m just not sure the typical movie fan has a...
In a day and age when video distribution companies are mostly concerned with the bottom dollar and release or re-release films they know are guaranteed to sell (anyone care to count the number of Us releases of The Evil Dead series or Night of the Living Dead?), one of my favorite things about Arrow Video USA is their apparent fearlessness in releasing films and box sets that are probably only going to appeal to a very small niche audience.
Along with Arrow Academy, Arrow Video USA’s arthouse imprint, the company has released a good portion of Walerian Borowcyzk’s films and is busily releasing the early works of Seijun Suzuki as well as other, relatively obscure, 50’s and 60’s Japanese films. While I applaud Arrow for releasing these films and enjoy them all immensely, I’m just not sure the typical movie fan has a...
- 2/12/2018
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Witches (1967) is now available on Blu-ray from Arrow Academy. It can be ordered Here
In the mid-sixties, famed producer Dino De Laurentiis brought together the talents of five celebrated Italian directors for an anthology film. Their brief was simple: to direct an episode in which Silvana Mangano (Bitter Rice, Ludwig) plays a witch.
Luchino Visconti (Ossessione, Death in Venice) and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini (Bicycle Thieves) open the film with The Witch Burned Alive, about a famous actress and a drunken evening that leads to unpleasant revelations. Civic Sense is a lightly comic interlude from Mauro Bolognini (The Lady of the Camelias) with a dark conclusion, and The Earth as Seen from the Moon sees Italian comedy legend Totò team up with Pier Paolo Pasolini (Theorem) for the first time for a tale of matrimony and a red-headed father and son. Franco Rosso (The Woman in the Painting) concocts a...
In the mid-sixties, famed producer Dino De Laurentiis brought together the talents of five celebrated Italian directors for an anthology film. Their brief was simple: to direct an episode in which Silvana Mangano (Bitter Rice, Ludwig) plays a witch.
Luchino Visconti (Ossessione, Death in Venice) and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini (Bicycle Thieves) open the film with The Witch Burned Alive, about a famous actress and a drunken evening that leads to unpleasant revelations. Civic Sense is a lightly comic interlude from Mauro Bolognini (The Lady of the Camelias) with a dark conclusion, and The Earth as Seen from the Moon sees Italian comedy legend Totò team up with Pier Paolo Pasolini (Theorem) for the first time for a tale of matrimony and a red-headed father and son. Franco Rosso (The Woman in the Painting) concocts a...
- 1/10/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Even though everyone is pretty much amped that Pennywise and the newest adaptation of It are making their home entertainment debuts this Tuesday, we also have more great Blu-rays and DVD releases to look forward to as well. It’s a big week for Troma, as not only their latest feature, Hectic Knife, comes home on Blu this week, but Troma alum Trent Haaga’s wickedly wild crime caper 68 Kill is being released by Scream Factory and IFC Midnight.
Arrow Academy has put together a Special Edition release of The Witches, and a film that I really enjoyed out of Sundance 2017—Bad Day for the Cut—gets released this week via the fine folks over at Well Go USA. Other notable releases for January 9th include Friend Request and Nails.
68 Kill (Scream Factory/IFC Midnight, Blu-ray & DVD)
Trailer-dwelling, sewage-pumping Chip (Matthew Gray Gubler, Criminal Minds) may not lead the most glamorous life,...
Arrow Academy has put together a Special Edition release of The Witches, and a film that I really enjoyed out of Sundance 2017—Bad Day for the Cut—gets released this week via the fine folks over at Well Go USA. Other notable releases for January 9th include Friend Request and Nails.
68 Kill (Scream Factory/IFC Midnight, Blu-ray & DVD)
Trailer-dwelling, sewage-pumping Chip (Matthew Gray Gubler, Criminal Minds) may not lead the most glamorous life,...
- 1/9/2018
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
We all, on some level, regret aging because we fear dying, but there’s something especially poignant about watching artists who celebrated vitality grapple with their mortality. It’s one thing to watch Bergman or Woody Allen settle into their later years, having seen them grapple with those subjects their entire careers. It’s quite another when an artist who once seemed to defy death’s grip can no longer avoid it.
Conversation Piece was Luchino Visconti’s penultimate film, released a little more than a year before his death. He was only 67, and had already suffered a stroke. Remarkable in its formal construction, you can nevertheless feel his regrets, his fears, his very life coming to the fore through his protagonist, a retired professor played by Burt Lancaster. So solitary is his existence that he isn’t even given a name. He’s content in his Italian apartment, taking...
Conversation Piece was Luchino Visconti’s penultimate film, released a little more than a year before his death. He was only 67, and had already suffered a stroke. Remarkable in its formal construction, you can nevertheless feel his regrets, his fears, his very life coming to the fore through his protagonist, a retired professor played by Burt Lancaster. So solitary is his existence that he isn’t even given a name. He’s content in his Italian apartment, taking...
- 7/30/2017
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
The Barefoot Contessa
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1954 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien, Marius Goring, Rossano Brazzi, Valentina Cortese, Elizabeth Sellars, Warren Stevens, Enzo Staiola, Mari Aldon, Bessie Love.
Cinematography: Jack Cardiff
Original Music: Mario Nascimbene
Written, Produced and Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
As a teenager, many of my first and strongest movie impressions came not from the movies, but from certain critics. I memorized Robin Wood’s analysis before getting a look at Hitchcock’s Psycho. Raymond Durgnat introduced me to Georges Franju and Luis Buñuel, and I first learned to appreciate a number of great movies including The Barefoot Contessa from Richard Corliss, a terrific critic who championed writers over director-auteurs.
The Barefoot Contessa is a classically structured story, in that it could work as a novel; it’s told from several points of view.
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1954 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien, Marius Goring, Rossano Brazzi, Valentina Cortese, Elizabeth Sellars, Warren Stevens, Enzo Staiola, Mari Aldon, Bessie Love.
Cinematography: Jack Cardiff
Original Music: Mario Nascimbene
Written, Produced and Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
As a teenager, many of my first and strongest movie impressions came not from the movies, but from certain critics. I memorized Robin Wood’s analysis before getting a look at Hitchcock’s Psycho. Raymond Durgnat introduced me to Georges Franju and Luis Buñuel, and I first learned to appreciate a number of great movies including The Barefoot Contessa from Richard Corliss, a terrific critic who championed writers over director-auteurs.
The Barefoot Contessa is a classically structured story, in that it could work as a novel; it’s told from several points of view.
- 1/6/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Rome festival has also revealed its first raft of guests, including Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.
The line-up for this year’s Alice In The City (Alice nella Citta) – the sidebar dedicated to younger generations at Rome Film Festival (Oct 13-23) – has been revealed.
Now in its 14th edition, the event will present a total of 42 titles across five programmes.
The Competition Young/Adult programme will screen films including Matt Ross’s Captain Fantastic, which premiered in Cannes, Taika Waitit’s Hunt For The Wilderpeople, New Zealand’s highest-grossing local film, and Travis Knight’s Kubo And The Two Strings. A 27-strong jury aged 14-18 will select a winner from the 12-strong line-up.
The Alice Panorama programme will feature ten titles including Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama [pictured], which recently played at Toronto International Film Festival, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Sundance premiere Swiss Army Man, with Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano, and [link=nm...
The line-up for this year’s Alice In The City (Alice nella Citta) – the sidebar dedicated to younger generations at Rome Film Festival (Oct 13-23) – has been revealed.
Now in its 14th edition, the event will present a total of 42 titles across five programmes.
The Competition Young/Adult programme will screen films including Matt Ross’s Captain Fantastic, which premiered in Cannes, Taika Waitit’s Hunt For The Wilderpeople, New Zealand’s highest-grossing local film, and Travis Knight’s Kubo And The Two Strings. A 27-strong jury aged 14-18 will select a winner from the 12-strong line-up.
The Alice Panorama programme will feature ten titles including Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama [pictured], which recently played at Toronto International Film Festival, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s Sundance premiere Swiss Army Man, with Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano, and [link=nm...
- 9/23/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Oscar-winner Meryl Streep to also attend this year’s festival.
Oscar-winning actor Tom Tanks is to attend the 11th Rome Film Fesival (Oct 13-26), where he will receive the festival’s lifetime achievement award.
The star of Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump and last year’s Bridge of Spies will also be the subject of a 15-strong retrospective, including Hanks’ work as a director on That Thing You Do! (1996) and Larry Crowne (2011).
“I consider Tom Hanks to be one of the greatest actors of all time,” said the festival’s artistic director Antonio Monda.
“His extraordinary talent and profound humanity make him a classic but always contemporary actor: his films and his performances will never be dated.”
Fellow Oscar-winner Meryl Streep is also set to attend the festival where she will talk about the great Italian actresses who influenced her, including Silvana Mangano.
In addition, screenwriter and director David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross) will be the subject...
Oscar-winning actor Tom Tanks is to attend the 11th Rome Film Fesival (Oct 13-26), where he will receive the festival’s lifetime achievement award.
The star of Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump and last year’s Bridge of Spies will also be the subject of a 15-strong retrospective, including Hanks’ work as a director on That Thing You Do! (1996) and Larry Crowne (2011).
“I consider Tom Hanks to be one of the greatest actors of all time,” said the festival’s artistic director Antonio Monda.
“His extraordinary talent and profound humanity make him a classic but always contemporary actor: his films and his performances will never be dated.”
Fellow Oscar-winner Meryl Streep is also set to attend the festival where she will talk about the great Italian actresses who influenced her, including Silvana Mangano.
In addition, screenwriter and director David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross) will be the subject...
- 6/22/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Bitter Rice
Written by Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani, Gianni Puccini
Directed by Giuseppe De Santis
Italy, 1949
The opening credits of Bitter Rice parade an array of Italian film industry luminaries, figures who would help redefine the country’s national cinema, picking up where neorealism left off and setting the stage for the remarkable work that would emerge in the decades to come. Screenwriters Carlo Lizzani and Giuseppe De Santis (who also directed) were two of eight individuals contributing in one way or another to the script, though they were the two who would share an Academy Award nomination for its story. Cinematographer Otello Martelli had nearly 50 films under his belt by the time of Bitter Rice, but in the years that followed he would most memorably man the camera for Federico Fellini’s finest films. And producing the movie was the venerable Dino De Laurentiis, really just at the start of his legendary career.
Written by Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani, Gianni Puccini
Directed by Giuseppe De Santis
Italy, 1949
The opening credits of Bitter Rice parade an array of Italian film industry luminaries, figures who would help redefine the country’s national cinema, picking up where neorealism left off and setting the stage for the remarkable work that would emerge in the decades to come. Screenwriters Carlo Lizzani and Giuseppe De Santis (who also directed) were two of eight individuals contributing in one way or another to the script, though they were the two who would share an Academy Award nomination for its story. Cinematographer Otello Martelli had nearly 50 films under his belt by the time of Bitter Rice, but in the years that followed he would most memorably man the camera for Federico Fellini’s finest films. And producing the movie was the venerable Dino De Laurentiis, really just at the start of his legendary career.
- 1/19/2016
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
This week the Criterion Collection released Giuseppe De Santis’s 1949 film, Bitter Rice.
Both a socially conscious look at the hardships endured by underpaid field workers and a melodrama tinged with sex and violence, this early smash for producer extraordinaire Dino De Laurentiis and director Giuseppe De Santis is neorealism with a heaping dose of pulp.
Bitter Rice is currently available to stream on Hulu Plus. Order the Blu-ray from Amazon.
Throughout the year, Press Notes will collect various links to reviews of new Criterion Collection releases from around the web, published on the release date and updated as new reviews are posted.
Blu-ray.com
The new transfer is very good. I did some direct comparisons with the old R2 Italian DVD release and can confirm that the improvements in terms of detail, clarity, and especially depth are quite remarkable. Even in areas where it is obvious that time has...
Both a socially conscious look at the hardships endured by underpaid field workers and a melodrama tinged with sex and violence, this early smash for producer extraordinaire Dino De Laurentiis and director Giuseppe De Santis is neorealism with a heaping dose of pulp.
Bitter Rice is currently available to stream on Hulu Plus. Order the Blu-ray from Amazon.
Throughout the year, Press Notes will collect various links to reviews of new Criterion Collection releases from around the web, published on the release date and updated as new reviews are posted.
Blu-ray.com
The new transfer is very good. I did some direct comparisons with the old R2 Italian DVD release and can confirm that the improvements in terms of detail, clarity, and especially depth are quite remarkable. Even in areas where it is obvious that time has...
- 1/14/2016
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Forget the proletarian messages, this Italian Neorealist classic is really an exploitation film about ogling brazen, buxom babes in short-shorts, up to their knees in a rice paddy. Hollywood actress Doris Dowling is the nominal star but new discovery Silvana Mangano became the knockout dream of every Italian male suffering from postwar shortages (cough). Giuseppe De Santis delivered the perfect combo -- an art film that pulled in every lonely guy nella cittá. Bitter Rice Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 792 1949 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 109 min. / Riso amaro / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 12, 2016 / 29.95 Starring Vittorio Gassman, Doris Dowling, Silvana Mangano, Raf Vallone. Cinematography Otello Martelli Film Editor Gabriele Varriale Original Music Goffredo Petrassi Written by Corrado Alvaro, Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani, Franco Monicelli, Carlo Musso, Ivo Perilli, Gianni Puccini Produced by Dino De Laurentiis Directed by Giuseppe De Santis
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Way back in...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Way back in...
- 1/12/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Criterion digs Bitter Rice out of obscurity this month, a pulpy mix of social drama and dime store pathos from director and screenwriter Giuseppe De Santis. Premiering at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival, the title was also nominated for an Oscar in 1950 for Best Story. Lumped in with the neo-realism movement, it’s been a well-regarded minor title, but its problematic noir elements seem to have denied it prominent classification, at least compared to De Santis’ contemporary, Roberto Rossellini, whose Rome, Open City (1945) birthed the movement (and had just finished his notable war trilogy the year prior to release of this title). But De Santis creates something a bit stranger with this hybrid, a darker examination of sex and violence from the perspective of two central female characters. In its native language, the title is a pun since the Italian word for rice can also be substituted for the word laughter,...
- 1/12/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Honorary Award: Gloria Swanson, Rita Hayworth among dozens of women bypassed by the Academy (photo: Honorary Award non-winner Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Blvd.') (See previous post: "Honorary Oscars: Doris Day, Danielle Darrieux Snubbed.") Part three of this four-part article about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Honorary Award bypassing women basically consists of a long, long — and for the most part quite prestigious — list of deceased women who, some way or other, left their mark on the film world. Some of the names found below are still well known; others were huge in their day, but are now all but forgotten. Yet, just because most people (and the media) suffer from long-term — and even medium-term — memory loss, that doesn't mean these women were any less deserving of an Honorary Oscar. So, among the distinguished female film professionals in Hollywood and elsewhere who have passed away without...
- 9/4/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Rossana Podestà dead at 79: ‘Helen of Troy’ actress later featured in sword-and-sandal spectacles, risqué sex comedies (photo: Jacques Sernas and Rossana Podestà in ‘Helen of Troy’) Rossana Podestà, the sensual star of the 1955 epic Helen of Troy and other sword-and-sandal European productions of the ’50s and ’60s — in addition to a handful of risqué sex comedies of the ’70s — died earlier today, December 10, 2013, in Rome according to several Italian news outlets. Podestà was 79. She was born Carla Dora Podestà on August 20, 1934, in, depending on the source, either Zlitan or Tripoli, in Libya, at the time an Italian colony. According to the IMDb, the renamed Rossana Podestà began her film career in 1950, when she was featured in a small role in Dezsö Ákos Hamza’s Strano appuntamento ("Strange Appointment"). However, according to online reports, she was actually discovered by director Léonide Moguy, who cast her in a small role in...
- 12/10/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Italian neorealist film director and screenwriter who made Last Days of Mussolini, starring Rod Steiger
Carlo Lizzani, who has died aged 91, after falling from a balcony at his home, was a screenwriter and director of Italian neorealist cinema who made more than 40 feature films, as well as documentaries and television series.
His first professional experiences in the film world were as an actor, playing cameos in two powerful neorealist films: Il Sole Sorge Ancora (The Sun Still Rises, 1946), directed by Aldo Vergano; and Caccia Tragica (Tragic Hunt, 1947), Giuseppe De Santis's first feature film.
In 1947 Roberto Rossellini summoned Lizzani to Berlin where he was preparing to shoot Germania Anno Zero (Germany Year Zero). Lizzani did research with East German locals which Rossellini would find useful when the film was being made without a definitive shooting script. Lizzani said later: "Rossellini filmed the story of the boy [Edmund] as if growing up...
Carlo Lizzani, who has died aged 91, after falling from a balcony at his home, was a screenwriter and director of Italian neorealist cinema who made more than 40 feature films, as well as documentaries and television series.
His first professional experiences in the film world were as an actor, playing cameos in two powerful neorealist films: Il Sole Sorge Ancora (The Sun Still Rises, 1946), directed by Aldo Vergano; and Caccia Tragica (Tragic Hunt, 1947), Giuseppe De Santis's first feature film.
In 1947 Roberto Rossellini summoned Lizzani to Berlin where he was preparing to shoot Germania Anno Zero (Germany Year Zero). Lizzani did research with East German locals which Rossellini would find useful when the film was being made without a definitive shooting script. Lizzani said later: "Rossellini filmed the story of the boy [Edmund] as if growing up...
- 10/15/2013
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★☆ However disposable our current trends are, there's still a desperate need to classify what digital culture means to us. Trolling, outrage on social media, hacktivism - is it just iconoclasm writ large across the web? Some argue that these actions represent the mutilation of community, the loss of social value, worth and privacy. If so, we haven't travelled far from a 1960s culture which wrestled with the emptiness of bourgeois living. So we revisit 1968: stumbling towards the end of a tumultuous decade which united the student population and liberated many attitudes towards sex, politics and money.
All across Italy (and indeed much of the West), undergraduates rioted against police, supported by the convictions of left-wing organisations. But Pier Paolo Pasolini, openly an anti-consumerist along with communist comrades, opposed the students, arguing that policemen were the real proletariat. The same year, Pasolini delivered his sixth feature film, Theorem (Teorema, 1968), which...
All across Italy (and indeed much of the West), undergraduates rioted against police, supported by the convictions of left-wing organisations. But Pier Paolo Pasolini, openly an anti-consumerist along with communist comrades, opposed the students, arguing that policemen were the real proletariat. The same year, Pasolini delivered his sixth feature film, Theorem (Teorema, 1968), which...
- 5/28/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★☆ Rereleased in selected UK cinemas this week by the BFI ahead of the second half of their Pier Paolo Pasolini season, the Italian provocateur's 1968 film Theorem (Teorema) sees British actor Terence Stamp (Billy Budd, The Limey) star as a divine young bachelor who enters the lives of a well-to-do Milanese household, only to suddenly leave them in complete disarray. Banned in its native Italy for its overt sexual nature - tame, of course, by today's standards - Theorem remains one of Pasolini's most satisfying works, thanks in no small part to a magnificent supporting cast, including a quite sublime Silvana Mangano. Read more »...
- 4/11/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Italian composer of film scores and musicals
Armando Trovajoli, who has died aged 95, was a prolific composer for Italian films and stage musicals. He worked with many of Italy's leading directors, including Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Ettore Scola and Vittorio De Sica, for whom he composed music for La Ciociara (Two Women, 1960) and Matrimonio all'Italiana (Marriage Italian Style, 1964), both of which starred Sophia Loren, who became a friend. When Loren was going to Hollywood for the first time in the mid-1950s, Trovajoli composed and recorded with his orchestra a song in Neapolitan for her, Che M'è Mparato a Ffà (What Did You Teach Me to Do?), which did much to launch her in the Us.
Trovajoli was born into an upper-middle-class family in Rome. He learned to play the violin as a boy and, in the 1930s, studied piano at the Santa Cecilia conservatory. By 1939 he was playing with a leading jazz band.
Armando Trovajoli, who has died aged 95, was a prolific composer for Italian films and stage musicals. He worked with many of Italy's leading directors, including Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Ettore Scola and Vittorio De Sica, for whom he composed music for La Ciociara (Two Women, 1960) and Matrimonio all'Italiana (Marriage Italian Style, 1964), both of which starred Sophia Loren, who became a friend. When Loren was going to Hollywood for the first time in the mid-1950s, Trovajoli composed and recorded with his orchestra a song in Neapolitan for her, Che M'è Mparato a Ffà (What Did You Teach Me to Do?), which did much to launch her in the Us.
Trovajoli was born into an upper-middle-class family in Rome. He learned to play the violin as a boy and, in the 1930s, studied piano at the Santa Cecilia conservatory. By 1939 he was playing with a leading jazz band.
- 3/10/2013
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
Giada De Laurentiis is a celebrity in her own right, and she feels she owes it in large part to her ancestors in the entertainment world.
The Food Network and Cooking Channel personality is the granddaughter of the late film producer Dino De Laurentiis, whom she says "made something like over 600 movies in 60 years" including "Serpico," "Death Wish" and the Jessica Lange-introducing 1976 remake of "King Kong." And actress Silvana Mangano, who starred in such epics as "Ulysses" and "Barabbas," was her maternal grandmother.
"Honestly, when the show 'Everyday Italian' started, I wanted to shoot it like Grandfather shot movies," De Laurentiis explains to Zap2it, "and really tell a story from beginning to end. The cinematography, the lighting and everything else in that show really set me up for what I have today, and I don't think I would have had that knowledge had I not come...
The Food Network and Cooking Channel personality is the granddaughter of the late film producer Dino De Laurentiis, whom she says "made something like over 600 movies in 60 years" including "Serpico," "Death Wish" and the Jessica Lange-introducing 1976 remake of "King Kong." And actress Silvana Mangano, who starred in such epics as "Ulysses" and "Barabbas," was her maternal grandmother.
"Honestly, when the show 'Everyday Italian' started, I wanted to shoot it like Grandfather shot movies," De Laurentiis explains to Zap2it, "and really tell a story from beginning to end. The cinematography, the lighting and everything else in that show really set me up for what I have today, and I don't think I would have had that knowledge had I not come...
- 5/4/2012
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
A retired, unnamed professor (American icon Burt Lancaster) in his palatial home in the middle of Rome is intruded on by a sordid, post-aristocratic family headed by the Marchesa Brumonti (Silvana Mangano), a manipulative woman with a taste for expensive wine and young men. Somehow this isn't a farce but a character study — the Professor is a stand-in for director Luchino Visconti, in one of his last films, and his attraction to, as well as his desire to stay away from, the troubles of being alive and being with other people.
Read more...
Read more...
- 4/11/2012
- by David M. DeLeon
- JustPressPlay.net
While the future of home entertainment may be rapidly moving towards a digital streaming-led future, we can't be the only movie nerds who still love owning a physical copy of something. Sure, BluRay and DVD might be scratchable, easily lost and adorned by terrible box art, but there's something about the feeling of finding an undiscovered gem in the depths of a store, or getting a rarity in the post, that doesn't quite compare to clicking and watching something on Netflix.
As such, starting with this column, every month we're going to pick out five BluRays or DVDs new to the market that no self-respecting cinephile's shelves could do without. Some are shiny new versions of stone-cold classics, some are obscurities, some might even be brand new releases (although less often: those are covered pretty well elsewhere). Read on for more.
"Chinatown" (1974)
Why You Should Care: Simply put, it's one...
As such, starting with this column, every month we're going to pick out five BluRays or DVDs new to the market that no self-respecting cinephile's shelves could do without. Some are shiny new versions of stone-cold classics, some are obscurities, some might even be brand new releases (although less often: those are covered pretty well elsewhere). Read on for more.
"Chinatown" (1974)
Why You Should Care: Simply put, it's one...
- 4/4/2012
- by Drew Taylor
- The Playlist
Blu-ray Release Date: April 10, 2011
Price: Blu-ray $29.98
Studio: Raro Video
Burt Lancaster stars in Luchino Visconti's 1974 drama Conversation Piece.
Italian DVD label Raro Video releases the 1974 drama Conversation Piece, Luchino Visconti’s (Senso) penultimate film, one month after issuing the film on DVD in early March, 2012.
Entitled Gruppo di famiglia in un interno in its native Italian, the movie examines the solitary life of a retired American professor (Burt Lancaster, Sweet Smell of Success) who lives alone in a luxurious palazzo in Rome. When he is confronted by a vulgar Italian marchesa Silvana Mangano, Dune) and her companions – her lover (Helmut Berger, The Romantic Englishwoman), her daughter (Claudia Marsani, The Hired Gun), and jer daughter’s boyfriend (Stefano Patrizi, Lion of the Desert) – he is forced to rent them an apartment on the upper floor of his home. Before long, the introverted professor’s routine is turned upside down and...
Price: Blu-ray $29.98
Studio: Raro Video
Burt Lancaster stars in Luchino Visconti's 1974 drama Conversation Piece.
Italian DVD label Raro Video releases the 1974 drama Conversation Piece, Luchino Visconti’s (Senso) penultimate film, one month after issuing the film on DVD in early March, 2012.
Entitled Gruppo di famiglia in un interno in its native Italian, the movie examines the solitary life of a retired American professor (Burt Lancaster, Sweet Smell of Success) who lives alone in a luxurious palazzo in Rome. When he is confronted by a vulgar Italian marchesa Silvana Mangano, Dune) and her companions – her lover (Helmut Berger, The Romantic Englishwoman), her daughter (Claudia Marsani, The Hired Gun), and jer daughter’s boyfriend (Stefano Patrizi, Lion of the Desert) – he is forced to rent them an apartment on the upper floor of his home. Before long, the introverted professor’s routine is turned upside down and...
- 3/23/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Kevin Kline, Tom Selleck kiss, In & Out Following my Valentine's Day post featuring lots of male-female kisses and embraces (and a few shapely legs, bare breasts, and sensuous lips, courtesy of, respectively, Silvana Mangano, Clara Calamai, and Jane Russell), here's the gay/lesbian version. This Gay Kiss Montage post was originally published in June 2007, when Turner Classic Movies ran a couple of dozen films featuring gay/lesbian/bi/etc. characters as part of their Screened Out series. Created in late 2006 by Robert Eldredge, the video was inspired by the finale of Giuseppe Tornatore's Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winner Cinema Paradiso, in which Jacques Perrin watches clips — kisses, hugs, embraces, nudity, sensuality, expressions of human desire — that, decades earlier, had been cut from the films screened at his Italian village's old movie house. The local Catholic priest had found those bits of celluloid harmful to the town's morals and family values.
- 2/15/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Anna Magnani in (what looks like) Luchino Visconti's Bellissima At the end of Giuseppe Tornatore's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner Cinema Paradiso, small-town projectionist Philippe Noiret has died and the Nuovo Cinema Paradiso has become a pile of rubble. The bratty Italian boy Salvatore Cascio has grown into the classy Frenchman Jacques Perrin (like Noiret, dubbed in Italian), a filmmaker who sits to watch a mysterious reel of film the deceased projectionist had left him. It turns out the reel contains clips from films censored by the prudish local parish priest, whose family values found kisses, embraces, and bare breasts and legs a danger to society. Now, who's doing all that kissing, embracing, and breast/leg-displaying in that film reel? (Please scroll down for the Cinema Paradiso clip.) Here are the ones I recognize: Silvana Mangano and Vittorio Gassman in Giuseppe De Santis' Bitter Rice (1949); Mangano...
- 2/14/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Miriam Hopkins, Bette Davis, The Old Maid Bette Davis, Warner Bros.' top female box-office attraction from the mid-'30s to the late '40s, is Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" performer-of-the-day this Wednesday, August 3. TCM will be presenting 12 Bette Davis movies, in addition to the 2005 documentary Stardust: The Bette Davis Story. [Bette Davis Movie Schedule.] Unfortunately, none of TCM's Bette Davis movies is a local premiere. So, don't expect anything rare like The Bad Sister, Seed, The Menace, or Way Back Home. Or, for that matter, Connecting Rooms, Bunny O'Hare, The Scientific Cardplayer, or Wicked Stepmother. (Luigi Comencini's The Scientific Cardplayer, co-starring Alberto Sordi, Joseph Cotten, and Silvana Mangano, is an interesting film; hopefully TCM will get a hold of it one of these days.) Anyhow, at least there's the little-known The Working Man (1933), a perfectly enjoyable Depression Era comedy-drama starring a surprisingly effective George Arliss as a big businessman who,...
- 8/3/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The larger-than-life Italian film producer always went for broke with his films – even if it didn't always pay off
Only the other day I was talking to a documentary film-maker who was looking for a new subject. He wondered if there were any of the old guard movie moguls left, the dinosaurs who once had young directors and starlets for dinner, monsters of ego, money and dreaming talk, but guys who were wild about movies and who had found a handful of gold in a sack of garbage.
"Dino De Laurentiis," I said, without a second thought.
"Is he still alive?" asked the guy.
I said I thought he was because the Guardian hadn't asked me to write about him yet. So I looked it up and the book said he was 91. "Likely coming into his prime," I hoped. But I went too far. Within days the news was in: Dino was dead.
Only the other day I was talking to a documentary film-maker who was looking for a new subject. He wondered if there were any of the old guard movie moguls left, the dinosaurs who once had young directors and starlets for dinner, monsters of ego, money and dreaming talk, but guys who were wild about movies and who had found a handful of gold in a sack of garbage.
"Dino De Laurentiis," I said, without a second thought.
"Is he still alive?" asked the guy.
I said I thought he was because the Guardian hadn't asked me to write about him yet. So I looked it up and the book said he was 91. "Likely coming into his prime," I hoped. But I went too far. Within days the news was in: Dino was dead.
- 11/12/2010
- by David Thomson
- The Guardian - Film News
Some will remember Dino De Laurentiis, who died in Los Angeles at the age of 91, as the producer of Serpico (1973), King Kong (1976), and Dune (1984). The Sidney Lumet-directed Serpico, which stars Al Pacino as a New York cop battling widespread corruption within the police force, remains one the most important Hollywood productions of the '70s. King Kong, for its part, introduced Jessica Lange to the world of filmmaking, while Dune, though one of the biggest critical and box-office disappointments of the 1980s, featured a bald Silvana Mangano — a sight nearly as disturbing as all the weird stuff that goes on in another De Laurentiis production, David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986). But when I think of De Laurentiis, what comes to mind — in addition to Mangano's bald head — are Giuseppe De Santis' Bitter Rice (1949), which sealed Mangano's stardom as the pre-Sophia Loren Earth Mother of [...]...
- 11/12/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Dino De Laurentiis, acclaimed producer of many films including the Hannibal Lecter franchise, sadly passed away on Wednesday, surrounded by his family at his Beverley Hills home. He was 91 years old.
Earlier in his career, De Laurentiis worked with some of Italy’s most famous directors, including Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini, however in the 1970′s he made the move to Hollywood, going on to work on films as well-known and eclectic as Dune, Flash Gordon, Conan the Barbarian, Serpico, Death Wish, Breakdown, The Bounty, King Kong (1976) and U-571.
It was perhaps for Manhunter, Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon, Hannibal and Hannibal Rising that he became best known and he was awarded the Irving Thalberg Award at the Oscars in 2001, to go with his Best Foreign Language Film Oscar from 1957 for La Strada.
Brett Ratner, who directed Red Dragon, said on Twitter that De Laurentiis “was a mentor and friend…...
Earlier in his career, De Laurentiis worked with some of Italy’s most famous directors, including Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini, however in the 1970′s he made the move to Hollywood, going on to work on films as well-known and eclectic as Dune, Flash Gordon, Conan the Barbarian, Serpico, Death Wish, Breakdown, The Bounty, King Kong (1976) and U-571.
It was perhaps for Manhunter, Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon, Hannibal and Hannibal Rising that he became best known and he was awarded the Irving Thalberg Award at the Oscars in 2001, to go with his Best Foreign Language Film Oscar from 1957 for La Strada.
Brett Ratner, who directed Red Dragon, said on Twitter that De Laurentiis “was a mentor and friend…...
- 11/12/2010
- by Dave Roper
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
When I was a kid, I devoured the kitschy fun of producer Dino De Laurentiis' films such as the 1976 "King Kong" remake. His name got branded in my feeble mind. When you see his "Dino De Laurentiis Presents" before a trailer, you know that film would be fun!
So the death of the Oscar-winning Italian film producer saddened me. The Italian media was reporting that Laurentiis, who gave the world nearly 500 films including "La Strada," "Serpico," and "Three Days of the Condor" died in Los Angeles. He was 91.
Here's a lengthy but absolutely wonderful snap shot of Laurentiis' life written by John Gallagher from film reference:
One of the most colorful, prolific, and successful producers in the contemporary motion picture business, Dino De Laurentiis has proven his entrepreneurial skills time and again, growing from an independent Italian producer into an international conglomerate. His product, from low-budget neorealist works to multimillion dollar spectacles,...
So the death of the Oscar-winning Italian film producer saddened me. The Italian media was reporting that Laurentiis, who gave the world nearly 500 films including "La Strada," "Serpico," and "Three Days of the Condor" died in Los Angeles. He was 91.
Here's a lengthy but absolutely wonderful snap shot of Laurentiis' life written by John Gallagher from film reference:
One of the most colorful, prolific, and successful producers in the contemporary motion picture business, Dino De Laurentiis has proven his entrepreneurial skills time and again, growing from an independent Italian producer into an international conglomerate. His product, from low-budget neorealist works to multimillion dollar spectacles,...
- 11/11/2010
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Italian movie tycoon whose list of credits featured as many disasters as hits
The Italian-born film producer Dino De Laurentiis, who has died aged 91, will perhaps go down in movie history as the last "transatlantic" tycoon. Over a career spanning more than 60 years, producing films on both sides of the ocean, he had as many flops as hits. But De Laurentiis almost always succeeded in staying afloat.
In Rome, he produced Federico Fellini's Oscar-winning La Strada (1954) and the grandiose spectacular War and Peace (1956), but also made The Bible: In the Beginning (1966) and Waterloo (1970), which never recovered their costs. Relocating to the Us, he enjoyed success with Serpico (1973), Death Wish (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Conan the Barbarian (1982), but had financial disasters including Year of the Dragon (1985) and a failed food emporium, which he opened in New York. De Laurentiis was also a starmaker, both in Italy, where...
The Italian-born film producer Dino De Laurentiis, who has died aged 91, will perhaps go down in movie history as the last "transatlantic" tycoon. Over a career spanning more than 60 years, producing films on both sides of the ocean, he had as many flops as hits. But De Laurentiis almost always succeeded in staying afloat.
In Rome, he produced Federico Fellini's Oscar-winning La Strada (1954) and the grandiose spectacular War and Peace (1956), but also made The Bible: In the Beginning (1966) and Waterloo (1970), which never recovered their costs. Relocating to the Us, he enjoyed success with Serpico (1973), Death Wish (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Conan the Barbarian (1982), but had financial disasters including Year of the Dragon (1985) and a failed food emporium, which he opened in New York. De Laurentiis was also a starmaker, both in Italy, where...
- 11/11/2010
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
Dino De Laurentiis, one of the last of the cigar-chomping movie moguls, died Thursday in Los Angeles, his daughter Raffaella De Laurentiis has confirmed. He was 91. Colorful, bold and tough, De Laurentiis produced some 500 movies that spanned the works of Italian masters Federico Fellini and Roberto Rossellini to, starting in the 1960s, Hollywood's Serpico, Three Days of the Condor, Death Wish, Blue Velvet and the much-maligned, but still entertaining, 1976 remake of King Kong. "My grandfather was a true inspiration. He was my biggest champion in life and a constant source for wisdom and advice. I will miss him dearly," Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis,...
- 11/11/2010
- by Stephen M. Silverman
- PEOPLE.com
Film legend produced more than 500 films, including 'Serpico,' 'Barbarella' and 'Red Dragon.'
By Eric Ditzian and Tom Dichiara
Dino De Laurentiis with Anthony Quinn in 1962
Photo: Terry Disney/ Hulton Archive
Dino De Laurentiis, the Oscar-winning Italian producer of films including "Serpico," "Death Wish" and "Red Dragon," died in Los Angeles on Thursday (November 11) at the age of 91.
The prolific De Laurentiis began his career in the 1940s and produced more than 500 films over the next seven decades. Following World War II, he produced two Federico Fellini films, "La Strada," which won a Foreign Language Oscar, and "Nights of Cabiria." He went on to produce high-profile projects on both sides of the Atlantic, notably Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda's "War and Peace," Anthony Perkins' "This Angry Age" and Kirk Douglas' "Ulysses." He also had a taste for the lowbrow genre flick, producing...
By Eric Ditzian and Tom Dichiara
Dino De Laurentiis with Anthony Quinn in 1962
Photo: Terry Disney/ Hulton Archive
Dino De Laurentiis, the Oscar-winning Italian producer of films including "Serpico," "Death Wish" and "Red Dragon," died in Los Angeles on Thursday (November 11) at the age of 91.
The prolific De Laurentiis began his career in the 1940s and produced more than 500 films over the next seven decades. Following World War II, he produced two Federico Fellini films, "La Strada," which won a Foreign Language Oscar, and "Nights of Cabiria." He went on to produce high-profile projects on both sides of the Atlantic, notably Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda's "War and Peace," Anthony Perkins' "This Angry Age" and Kirk Douglas' "Ulysses." He also had a taste for the lowbrow genre flick, producing...
- 11/11/2010
- MTV Movie News
Film legend produced more than 500 films, including 'Serpico,' 'Barbarella' and 'Red Dragon.'
By Eric Ditzian and Tom Dichiara
Dino De Laurentiis with Anthony Quinn in 1962
Photo: Terry Disney/ Hulton Archive
Dino De Laurentiis, the Oscar-winning Italian producer of films including "Serpico," "Death Wish" and "Red Dragon," died in Los Angeles on Thursday (November 11) at the age of 91.
The prolific De Laurentiis began his career in the 1940s and produced more than 500 films over the next seven decades. Following World War II, he produced two Federico Fellini films, "La Strada," which won a Foreign Language Oscar, and "Nights of Cabiria." He went on to produce high-profile projects on both sides of the Atlantic, notably Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda's "War and Peace," Anthony Perkins' "This Angry Age" and Kirk Douglas' "Ulysses." He also had a taste for the lowbrow genre flick, producing...
By Eric Ditzian and Tom Dichiara
Dino De Laurentiis with Anthony Quinn in 1962
Photo: Terry Disney/ Hulton Archive
Dino De Laurentiis, the Oscar-winning Italian producer of films including "Serpico," "Death Wish" and "Red Dragon," died in Los Angeles on Thursday (November 11) at the age of 91.
The prolific De Laurentiis began his career in the 1940s and produced more than 500 films over the next seven decades. Following World War II, he produced two Federico Fellini films, "La Strada," which won a Foreign Language Oscar, and "Nights of Cabiria." He went on to produce high-profile projects on both sides of the Atlantic, notably Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda's "War and Peace," Anthony Perkins' "This Angry Age" and Kirk Douglas' "Ulysses." He also had a taste for the lowbrow genre flick, producing...
- 11/11/2010
- MTV Music News
Legendary film producer Dino De Laurentiis, who has more than 500 films on his resume, has died. He was 91.
His daughter, Raffaella, released a statement, confirming: "Dino De Laurentiis, patriarch of the De Laurentiis family, Academy Award-winning producer and film legend, died on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 10Pm (Pst) at his home in Beverly Hills, California surrounded by family. He was 91."
De Laurentiis' impressive career stretches from the early days of Italian cinema with greats such as "La Strada" (for which he won a best foreign language film Oscar), "Nights of Cabiria" and "Bitter Rice" to American films such as "Barbarella," "Serpico," "Flash Gordon," "Dune," "Army of Darkness" and "Hannibal."
De Laurentiis was first married to "Bitter Rice" actress Silvana Mangano, with whom he had four children. Through his daughter Veronica, he's the grandfather of Food Network personality Giada De Laurentiis. Dino later married Martha Schumacher and had two daughters.
"My grandfather was a true inspiration,...
His daughter, Raffaella, released a statement, confirming: "Dino De Laurentiis, patriarch of the De Laurentiis family, Academy Award-winning producer and film legend, died on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 10Pm (Pst) at his home in Beverly Hills, California surrounded by family. He was 91."
De Laurentiis' impressive career stretches from the early days of Italian cinema with greats such as "La Strada" (for which he won a best foreign language film Oscar), "Nights of Cabiria" and "Bitter Rice" to American films such as "Barbarella," "Serpico," "Flash Gordon," "Dune," "Army of Darkness" and "Hannibal."
De Laurentiis was first married to "Bitter Rice" actress Silvana Mangano, with whom he had four children. Through his daughter Veronica, he's the grandfather of Food Network personality Giada De Laurentiis. Dino later married Martha Schumacher and had two daughters.
"My grandfather was a true inspiration,...
- 11/11/2010
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Warner Brothers is set to “release the kraken” this Friday, April 2… so, Wamg is set to release the Movie Geeks, wielding their swords of cinematic heroism to establish the most epic Top Ten list of Mythological Masterpieces… ever! This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is devoted to the great Greek mythological stories of heroes, gods and monsters.
10. Hercules (1997)
You know why this movie is on this list? It’s not because it was Disney’s last, great, hand-drawn, animated film of the ’90s. It wasn’t. The film’s not great, but you have to hand it to whatever genius decided the perfect voice for Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, would be James Woods. Best. Voice casting. Ever. Rip Torn voicing Zeus? Another stroke of genius. This was also probably the first time many kids born in the early ’90s became privy to the voice of Charlton Heston, who does the narration.
10. Hercules (1997)
You know why this movie is on this list? It’s not because it was Disney’s last, great, hand-drawn, animated film of the ’90s. It wasn’t. The film’s not great, but you have to hand it to whatever genius decided the perfect voice for Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, would be James Woods. Best. Voice casting. Ever. Rip Torn voicing Zeus? Another stroke of genius. This was also probably the first time many kids born in the early ’90s became privy to the voice of Charlton Heston, who does the narration.
- 3/30/2010
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, adapted by Linda Woolverton, and starring Mia Wasikowska (Alice), Johnny Depp (the Mad Hatter), Anne Hathaway (the White Queen), and Helena Bonham Carter (above, as the Red Queen, and looking quite a bit like Silvana Mangano in Dune), opens today in the United States and several other countries. The costly 2D-turned-3D fantasy has had some distribution problems in Europe thanks to Disney’s decision to release it on DVD in less than the usual four-month window. (One report claims Alice in Wonderland cost $250 million, but it’s hard to know who to believe. Avatar’s production costs, for instance, have ranged between $180-$500 million, depending on who is doing the reporting.) Critical reaction, for its part, has [...]...
- 3/5/2010
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
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