Jules Dassin’s powerful picture was a hit in Europe but remained mostly obscure here, despite featuring the great Melina Mercouri and a score of Continental stars. Adapted by two blacklistees in exile it doesn’t try to hide its revolutionary aims — Nikos Kazantzakis’s uncompromised storyline places The Church as a main obstruction to social progress, justice, and life & liberty. It’s no wonder it wasn’t ‘movie of the week’ in 1957. It’s been beautifully remastered at its original CinemaScope width, uncut.
He Who Must Die
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1957 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 128 122 min. / Street Date September 6, 2022 / Celui qui doit mourir / Available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, Grégoire Aslan, Gert Fröbe, René Lefèvre, Lucien Raimbourg, Melina Mercouri, Roger Hanin, Pierre Vaneck, Nicole Berger, Maurice Ronet, Fernand Ledoux.
Cinematography: Gilbert Chain, Jacques Natteau
Production Designer: Max Douy
Film Editors: Roger Dwyre, Pierre Gillette
Original Music: Georges Auric
Written by Ben Barzman,...
He Who Must Die
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1957 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 128 122 min. / Street Date September 6, 2022 / Celui qui doit mourir / Available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jean Servais, Carl Möhner, Grégoire Aslan, Gert Fröbe, René Lefèvre, Lucien Raimbourg, Melina Mercouri, Roger Hanin, Pierre Vaneck, Nicole Berger, Maurice Ronet, Fernand Ledoux.
Cinematography: Gilbert Chain, Jacques Natteau
Production Designer: Max Douy
Film Editors: Roger Dwyre, Pierre Gillette
Original Music: Georges Auric
Written by Ben Barzman,...
- 8/30/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Fifteen years have passed since Penélope Cruz broke new ground as the first Spanish woman to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Although her performance in Pedro Almodóvar’s Spanish-language film “Volver” was passed over in favor of Helen Mirren’s in “The Queen,” she bounced back two years later by triumphing in the supporting category for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” Now, based on her work in Almodóvar’s “Parallel Mothers” (their seventh collaboration), she may have another shot at lead glory. If she does land in the lineup, she will join an exclusive club as the fifth leading lady to be recognized for two non-English language performances.
The first woman to accomplish this feat was Sophia Loren, who was nominated for “Marriage Italian Style” (1965) after winning for “Two Women” (1962). Both are Italian-language films directed by Vittorio De Sica. After losing on her second outing to Julie Andrews (“Mary Poppins...
The first woman to accomplish this feat was Sophia Loren, who was nominated for “Marriage Italian Style” (1965) after winning for “Two Women” (1962). Both are Italian-language films directed by Vittorio De Sica. After losing on her second outing to Julie Andrews (“Mary Poppins...
- 2/6/2022
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
If “Io Sì (Seen)” wins the song Oscar on April 25, it will mark only the fourth time in Oscar history that a foreign-language lyric has taken the prize. Diane Warren’s song for “The Life Ahead,” which co-lyricist Laura Pausini sings in Italian, is the 10th song not in the English language to be nominated.
The winners were the title song from 1960’s “Never on Sunday,” in Greek; “Al Otro Lado Del Rio,” from 2004’s “The Motorcycle Diaries,” in Spanish; and “Jai Ho,” from 2008’s “Slumdog Millionaire,” a mix of Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi languages.
One of its strongest competitors is “Husavik,” from “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga,” which is sung partly in Icelandic.
A non-English lyric is not necessarily a handicap. Multiple factors go into an Oscar song win, and it isn’t always just the competition. Manos Hadjidakis’ song “Never on Sunday” — from Jules Dassin...
The winners were the title song from 1960’s “Never on Sunday,” in Greek; “Al Otro Lado Del Rio,” from 2004’s “The Motorcycle Diaries,” in Spanish; and “Jai Ho,” from 2008’s “Slumdog Millionaire,” a mix of Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi languages.
One of its strongest competitors is “Husavik,” from “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga,” which is sung partly in Icelandic.
A non-English lyric is not necessarily a handicap. Multiple factors go into an Oscar song win, and it isn’t always just the competition. Manos Hadjidakis’ song “Never on Sunday” — from Jules Dassin...
- 4/9/2021
- by Jon Burlingame
- Variety Film + TV
7 random things that happened on this day, October 18th, in showbiz history. If it's your birthday, happy birthday!
1910 E.M. Forster's masterpiece Howards End is published. It will later become another masterpiece in a different medium with the Oscar-winning Merchant Ivory film version in 1992.
1920 Greek superstar Melina Mercouri born on this day in Athens 100 years ago. Happy Melina Mercouri Centennial...
1910 E.M. Forster's masterpiece Howards End is published. It will later become another masterpiece in a different medium with the Oscar-winning Merchant Ivory film version in 1992.
1920 Greek superstar Melina Mercouri born on this day in Athens 100 years ago. Happy Melina Mercouri Centennial...
- 10/18/2020
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
The Lumiere Film Festival paid homage to Greek actress, singer and politician Melina Mercouri this week with a mini-retrospective on what would have been the centenary of her birth.
The centerpiece event was a screening Thursday of “Never on Sunday,” the 1960 musical drama directed by and co-starring her regular collaborator, husband Jules Dassin, who was put on the Hollywood Blacklist for being a member of the Communist Party, and moved to Europe.
Mercouri and Dassin met at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955 when Dassin was starring in “Rififi,” and Mercouri in “Stella,” a retelling of “Carmen.” They would work together many times, most famously on “Pheadra” (1962), “Topkapi” (1964), and “10:30 P.M. Summer” (1966).
Their 1960 collaboration, “Never on Sunday,” remains their most famous partnership. They would reprise their roles of Ilya and Homer in a Broadway production, “Ilya Darling,” that opened in April 1967.
Set in the Greek port city of Piraeus, the...
The centerpiece event was a screening Thursday of “Never on Sunday,” the 1960 musical drama directed by and co-starring her regular collaborator, husband Jules Dassin, who was put on the Hollywood Blacklist for being a member of the Communist Party, and moved to Europe.
Mercouri and Dassin met at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955 when Dassin was starring in “Rififi,” and Mercouri in “Stella,” a retelling of “Carmen.” They would work together many times, most famously on “Pheadra” (1962), “Topkapi” (1964), and “10:30 P.M. Summer” (1966).
Their 1960 collaboration, “Never on Sunday,” remains their most famous partnership. They would reprise their roles of Ilya and Homer in a Broadway production, “Ilya Darling,” that opened in April 1967.
Set in the Greek port city of Piraeus, the...
- 10/16/2020
- by Kaleem Aftab
- Variety Film + TV
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. The shut-in can’t end until you’ve seen these films, so get moving.
We find ourselves this week pandemically pondering movies which are so far off the radar, air traffic controllers believe them to be gnats in their peripheral vision, not full-scale blips. Holiday hits? Summertime smashes? Not this time, I’m afraid. This week is for movie – and wine – nerds.
The 1970 psychological thriller Road to Salina was taken from a novel entitled, “Sur la Route de Salina.” If my high school French still works, I think that translates to, “On the road to Salina,” which sounds too much like a Hope/Crosby flick. The book’s author, Maurice Cury, is so invisible in a Google search that he appears to be about one step away from witness protection.
We find ourselves this week pandemically pondering movies which are so far off the radar, air traffic controllers believe them to be gnats in their peripheral vision, not full-scale blips. Holiday hits? Summertime smashes? Not this time, I’m afraid. This week is for movie – and wine – nerds.
The 1970 psychological thriller Road to Salina was taken from a novel entitled, “Sur la Route de Salina.” If my high school French still works, I think that translates to, “On the road to Salina,” which sounds too much like a Hope/Crosby flick. The book’s author, Maurice Cury, is so invisible in a Google search that he appears to be about one step away from witness protection.
- 6/25/2020
- by Randy Fuller
- Trailers from Hell
This story originally appeared in the May 13, 1971 issue of Rolling Stone with Peter Fonda on the cover
Scene 1—’The Young Lovers’ (1964—produced and directed by Sam Goldwyn Jr.; Peter’s first film on a bike; he gets a coed pregnant; “mildly touching but without any great insight into the prob-lems of today’s youth.”)
It started out as simple as this: I wanted to take a vacation. No sooner had I arrived in Lahaina, Maui — Hawaii’s first capital and former whaling center (see Michener’s Hawaii) — than I wandered...
Scene 1—’The Young Lovers’ (1964—produced and directed by Sam Goldwyn Jr.; Peter’s first film on a bike; he gets a coed pregnant; “mildly touching but without any great insight into the prob-lems of today’s youth.”)
It started out as simple as this: I wanted to take a vacation. No sooner had I arrived in Lahaina, Maui — Hawaii’s first capital and former whaling center (see Michener’s Hawaii) — than I wandered...
- 8/18/2019
- by Howard Junker
- Rollingstone.com
A version of this story on Marina de Tavira and “Roma” first appeared in the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap’s Oscar magazine.
When Marina de Tavira found herself in a movie alongside a group of fellow cast members who’d never before acted, she probably wasn’t expecting that the film would end up tying the record for the most Oscar acting nominations ever for a foreign-language film.
But Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” did just that, becoming only the second foreign-language film to score a pair of acting nominations — de Tavira for Best Supporting Actress and newcomer Yalitza Aparicio for Best Actress. In the 58 years that actors have been nominated for foreign-language performances — the first being Melina Mercouri for the 1960 Italian film “Never On Sunday” — Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s 2006 drama “Babel” is the only other movie to contain two acting nominees, with Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi...
When Marina de Tavira found herself in a movie alongside a group of fellow cast members who’d never before acted, she probably wasn’t expecting that the film would end up tying the record for the most Oscar acting nominations ever for a foreign-language film.
But Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” did just that, becoming only the second foreign-language film to score a pair of acting nominations — de Tavira for Best Supporting Actress and newcomer Yalitza Aparicio for Best Actress. In the 58 years that actors have been nominated for foreign-language performances — the first being Melina Mercouri for the 1960 Italian film “Never On Sunday” — Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s 2006 drama “Babel” is the only other movie to contain two acting nominees, with Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi...
- 2/15/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Among my predictions so far, two of the surest Oscar bets are that “The Favourite” and its director, Yorgos Lanthimos, will both make the ballot cut. Besides wooing the critics and earning an enviable 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, the bawdy art-house costume drama went from four venues to 34 this past weekend and has already grossed $1 million. Not bad on a budget of $15 million.
It doesn’t hurt that “The Favourite” ruled over the the British Independent Film Awards, winning a record 10 categories, including Best British Independent Film and Best Director.
Not since Stanley Kubrick or Alfred Hitchcock has a filmmaker exhibited such a rich vein of nasty black humor. Apparently, moviegoers are eager to witness the likes of Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz as 18th-century English cousins who viciously vie for the affections of Olivia Colman’s sickly Queen Anne. There is something quite satisfying about observing these ladies as they engage in naughty name-calling,...
It doesn’t hurt that “The Favourite” ruled over the the British Independent Film Awards, winning a record 10 categories, including Best British Independent Film and Best Director.
Not since Stanley Kubrick or Alfred Hitchcock has a filmmaker exhibited such a rich vein of nasty black humor. Apparently, moviegoers are eager to witness the likes of Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz as 18th-century English cousins who viciously vie for the affections of Olivia Colman’s sickly Queen Anne. There is something quite satisfying about observing these ladies as they engage in naughty name-calling,...
- 12/3/2018
- by Susan Wloszczyna
- Gold Derby
This article marks Part 8 of the Gold Derby series analyzing 84 years of Best Original Song at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at the timeless tunes recognized in this category, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the Academy Awards winners.
The 1960 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:
“The Green Leaves of Summer” from “The Alamo”
“The Facts of Life” from “The Facts of Life”
“The Second Time Around” from “High Time”
“Never on Sunday” from “Never on Sunday”
“Faraway Part of Town” from “Pepe”
Won: “Never on Sunday” from “Never on Sunday”
Should’ve won: “The Green Leaves of Summer” from “The Alamo”
1960 Best Original Song is a mostly enjoyable affair and remarkable in at least one regard – it produced the first winner to hail from a foreign language film, the Melina Mercouri vehicle “Never on Sunday,” which also garnered a boatload of other nominations that year,...
The 1960 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:
“The Green Leaves of Summer” from “The Alamo”
“The Facts of Life” from “The Facts of Life”
“The Second Time Around” from “High Time”
“Never on Sunday” from “Never on Sunday”
“Faraway Part of Town” from “Pepe”
Won: “Never on Sunday” from “Never on Sunday”
Should’ve won: “The Green Leaves of Summer” from “The Alamo”
1960 Best Original Song is a mostly enjoyable affair and remarkable in at least one regard – it produced the first winner to hail from a foreign language film, the Melina Mercouri vehicle “Never on Sunday,” which also garnered a boatload of other nominations that year,...
- 9/25/2018
- by Andrew Carden
- Gold Derby
Or, “Never on Sunday with Your Stepson.” Director Jules Dassin’s monument to his beloved Melina Mercouri transposes a Greek tragedy to a modern setting. The pampered wife of a shipping magnate is like a queen of old — she can fling a priceless gem into the Thames on just a whim, and she goes in whatever direction her heart takes her. When her attractive stepson Anthony Perkins enters the picture, there will be Hell to Pay.
Phaedra
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1962 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 116 min. / Street Date March 21, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95
Starring: Melina Mercouri, Anthony Perkins, Raf Vallone, Elisabeth Ercy.
Cinematography: Jacquest Natteau
Film Editor: Roger Dwyre
Original Music: Mikis Theodorakis
Written by Jules Dassin, Margarita Lymberaki from the play Hippolytus by Euripides
Produced and Directed by Jules Dassin
Anyone into amour fou, the romantic notion of a love without limits, beyond the harsh constraints of reality?...
Phaedra
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1962 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 116 min. / Street Date March 21, 2017 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95
Starring: Melina Mercouri, Anthony Perkins, Raf Vallone, Elisabeth Ercy.
Cinematography: Jacquest Natteau
Film Editor: Roger Dwyre
Original Music: Mikis Theodorakis
Written by Jules Dassin, Margarita Lymberaki from the play Hippolytus by Euripides
Produced and Directed by Jules Dassin
Anyone into amour fou, the romantic notion of a love without limits, beyond the harsh constraints of reality?...
- 3/21/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Killer Greek scenery in CinemaScope graces Jean Negulesco's relaxed thriller about art theft in the Aegean. But viewers are more likely to remember Sophia Loren's sexy wet diving costume that insured that her American debut didn't go unnoticed. Boy on a Dolphin Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 111 min. / Street Date October 25, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Alan Ladd, Clifton Webb, Sophia Loren, Alexis Minotis, Jorge Mistral, Laurence Naismith, Piero Giagnoni, Gertrude Flynn, Marni Nixon (voice), Scilla Gabel (Loren underwater). Cinematography Milton R. Krasner Film Editor William Mace Original Music Hugo Friedhofer Written by Ivan Moffat, Dwight Taylor from the novel by David Divine Produced by Samuel G. Engel Directed by Jean Negulesco
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Back when working on extras for The Guns of Navarone we saw documentation showing that Columbia Pictures had to jump through a lot of hoops with the Greek Royal Family...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Back when working on extras for The Guns of Navarone we saw documentation showing that Columbia Pictures had to jump through a lot of hoops with the Greek Royal Family...
- 10/22/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. The Law is playing on Mubi in the Us through January 21, 2016.For those who like nice touches, keep your eye on the bird. In Jules Dassin's The Law (1959), it's the first character we meet, where, in a town square under the hot Mediterranean sun, a group of men are watching a pigeon. The men are out of work and squarely at the bottom of the socioeconomic totem pole. The pigeon is an idiot, one man says—why would anything that could fly choose to stay here? Because sometimes people throw it crumbs, a man answers. And if you had any doubts what this all symbolizes, another of the men hastily adds: just like us. This is a film very much about hierarchy, and the forces or illusions that keep everyone in their place. The air is soon...
- 12/23/2015
- by Duncan Gray
- MUBI
Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson on the Oscars' Red Carpet Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson at the Academy Awards Eli Wallach and wife Anne Jackson are seen above arriving at the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony, held on Sunday, Feb. 27, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. The 95-year-old Wallach had received an Honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards in November 2010. See also: "Doris Day Inexplicably Snubbed by Academy," "Maureen O'Hara Honorary Oscar," "Honorary Oscars: Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo Among Rare Women Recipients," and "Hayao Miyazaki Getting Honorary Oscar." Delayed film debut The Actors Studio-trained Eli Wallach was to have made his film debut in Fred Zinnemann's Academy Award-winning 1953 blockbuster From Here to Eternity. Ultimately, however, Frank Sinatra – then a has-been following a string of box office duds – was cast for a pittance, getting beaten to a pulp by a pre-stardom Ernest Borgnine. For his bloodied efforts, Sinatra went on...
- 4/24/2015
- by D. Zhea
- Alt Film Guide
Love in the Afternoon: Levin’s Gallic Flavored Romantic Drama Lacks Sense of Amour Fou
Writer and producer Victor Levin makes a patiently observed portrait of unconventional romance in the heterosexual realm with the warmly performed 5 to 7, so named for the French saying “Le cinq a sept,” which basically means happy hour but carries playful connotations of extramarital romance in the hazy, undocumented hours afforded the working class before reporting for duties on the domestic hearth. Playful, observant, and provoking to those who’ve never considered the possibility (or worthiness) of such an arrangement as the romantic involvement suggested here, the film feels calibrated towards the type of American conservatism that can only begin to fathom such quandaries through the guise of a pronounced European influence.
Here, it is a French couple suggesting that monogamy has little to do with a successful marriage, and a series of intellectual Manhattan...
Writer and producer Victor Levin makes a patiently observed portrait of unconventional romance in the heterosexual realm with the warmly performed 5 to 7, so named for the French saying “Le cinq a sept,” which basically means happy hour but carries playful connotations of extramarital romance in the hazy, undocumented hours afforded the working class before reporting for duties on the domestic hearth. Playful, observant, and provoking to those who’ve never considered the possibility (or worthiness) of such an arrangement as the romantic involvement suggested here, the film feels calibrated towards the type of American conservatism that can only begin to fathom such quandaries through the guise of a pronounced European influence.
Here, it is a French couple suggesting that monogamy has little to do with a successful marriage, and a series of intellectual Manhattan...
- 4/2/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
abstew here. Only 15 women in the 87 year history of the Academy have scored a Best Actress nomination for a foreign language performance. In contrast, British actresses have won Best Actress 14 times. While the Academy has always warmed to Brits, their European neighbors have had to struggle to breakthrough with recognition in the acting races. (There has still never been a Best Actress nominee for a performance in any language outside of a European origin.) The first actress to even score a nomination for a foreign language performance was Melina Mercouri for Never on a Sunday in 1960, over 30 years into the Academy's history. Only two women have actually won Best Actress for a foreign language performance and both those women have the even rarer distinction of being honored twice with nominations for foreign language performances. The first was Sophia Loren who won for 1961's Two Women and was nominated again for...
- 2/15/2015
- by abstew
- FilmExperience
Luis Buñuel movies on TCM tonight (photo: Catherine Deneuve in 'Belle de Jour') The city of Paris and iconoclastic writer-director Luis Buñuel are Turner Classic Movies' themes today and later this evening. TCM's focus on Luis Buñuel is particularly welcome, as he remains one of the most daring and most challenging filmmakers since the invention of film. Luis Buñuel is so remarkable, in fact, that you won't find any Hollywood hipster paying homage to him in his/her movies. Nor will you hear his name mentioned at the Academy Awards – no matter the Academy in question. And rest assured that most film critics working today have never even heard of him, let alone seen any of his movies. So, nowadays Luis Buñuel is un-hip, un-cool, and unfashionable. He's also unquestionably brilliant. These days everyone is worried about freedom of expression. The clash of civilizations. The West vs. The Other.
- 1/27/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Maximilian Schell dead at 83: Best Actor Oscar winner for ‘Judgment at Nuremberg’ (photo: Maximilian Schell ca. 1960) Actor and filmmaker Maximilian Schell, best known for his Oscar-winning performance as the defense attorney in Stanley Kramer’s 1961 political drama Judgment at Nuremberg died at a hospital in Innsbruck, Austria, on February 1, 2014. According to his agent, Patricia Baumbauer, Schell died overnight following a "sudden and serious illness." Maximilian Schell was 83. Born on December 8, 1930, in Vienna, Maximilian Schell was the younger brother of future actor Carl Schell and Maria Schell, who would become an international film star in the 1950s (The Last Bridge, Gervaise, The Hanging Tree). Immy Schell, who would be featured in several television and film productions from the mid-’50s to the early ’90s, was born in 1935. Following Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938, Schell’s parents, Swiss playwright Hermann Ferdinand Schell and Austrian stage actress Margarete Schell Noé,...
- 2/2/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Anthony Perkins in Goodbye Again
Happy birthday to the man I call my Time Machine Husband (Tm), Anthony Perkins. The effete, beautiful actor best known for his astonishing performance as Norman Bates in Psycho would've been 81 today, and without even reading Charles Winecoff's gripping biography Split Image, you can tell in Mr. Perkins' performances that he was enigmatic, complicated, and conflicted. Though Perkins died of AIDS in 1992, his silver screenlegacy endures thanks to his lengthy, strange filmography.
Hollywood wanted Perkins to be the next James Dean, but his vulnerability and (frankly) apparent gayness stood at odds with that demand. As I like to say, we can't rewrite cinematic history to include all the wonderful gay characters we deserve, so we as gay entertainment anthropologists have to find our stories in the nuances, innuendos, and otherwise untold stories hidden right onscreen (perhaps unintentionally), right within all the stated heterosexuality. Though...
Happy birthday to the man I call my Time Machine Husband (Tm), Anthony Perkins. The effete, beautiful actor best known for his astonishing performance as Norman Bates in Psycho would've been 81 today, and without even reading Charles Winecoff's gripping biography Split Image, you can tell in Mr. Perkins' performances that he was enigmatic, complicated, and conflicted. Though Perkins died of AIDS in 1992, his silver screenlegacy endures thanks to his lengthy, strange filmography.
Hollywood wanted Perkins to be the next James Dean, but his vulnerability and (frankly) apparent gayness stood at odds with that demand. As I like to say, we can't rewrite cinematic history to include all the wonderful gay characters we deserve, so we as gay entertainment anthropologists have to find our stories in the nuances, innuendos, and otherwise untold stories hidden right onscreen (perhaps unintentionally), right within all the stated heterosexuality. Though...
- 4/4/2013
- by virtel
- The Backlot
I had a ball with a 10 Greatest Best Actress Victories list, and now it's time to reveal my dark side: Here are my five least favorite wins for Best Actress, and you'll notice they're all pretty fabulous actresses doing subpar work in subpar fare. Maybe I'm just mad at them for getting rewarded for the wrong work. Maybe I'm contrarian. T'any rate, here are the five offenders:
5. Jodie Foster, The Accused
This is not my way of damning Jodie for that cryptic, near-Dada speech she gave at the Golden Globes. This is my way of acknowledging that The Accused is unimportant Oscar bait full of teary monologues that just don't work. Jodie Foster is a commanding actress, and I consider her work in The Silence of the Lambs one of the most justified wins of the '90s. (Love the '91 Oscars so, so much. Thelma, Louise, Rambling Rose, Mercedes Ruehl,...
5. Jodie Foster, The Accused
This is not my way of damning Jodie for that cryptic, near-Dada speech she gave at the Golden Globes. This is my way of acknowledging that The Accused is unimportant Oscar bait full of teary monologues that just don't work. Jodie Foster is a commanding actress, and I consider her work in The Silence of the Lambs one of the most justified wins of the '90s. (Love the '91 Oscars so, so much. Thelma, Louise, Rambling Rose, Mercedes Ruehl,...
- 1/21/2013
- by virtel
- The Backlot
Jules Dassin had established himself as a very capable, smart genre filmmaker in Hollywood by the time the blacklist kicked him out. In Britain, he made Night and the City (1950), which continued his winning streak, and in France Rififi (1955) not only anticipated the direction Jean-Pierre Melville's career was about to take (translating American crime movie tropes to the French idiom), it spawned a whole sub-genre of unofficial sequels. Dassin's own Topkapi (1964) was a colorful spoof of the heist movie.
But the other strand of Dassin's European filmmaking is not so popular: his attempts at being an arthouse director have inspired considerable derision: David Thomson recommends The Law, Phaedra and 10:30 P.M. Summer as cures for suicidal depression; their earnestness strikes him as irresistibly preposterous.
Well, I can resist the temptation to laugh, up to a point: Anthony Perkins' torrid love scene with Dassin's wife, Melina Mercouri, in...
But the other strand of Dassin's European filmmaking is not so popular: his attempts at being an arthouse director have inspired considerable derision: David Thomson recommends The Law, Phaedra and 10:30 P.M. Summer as cures for suicidal depression; their earnestness strikes him as irresistibly preposterous.
Well, I can resist the temptation to laugh, up to a point: Anthony Perkins' torrid love scene with Dassin's wife, Melina Mercouri, in...
- 11/8/2012
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Shailene Woodley, George Clooney Shailene Woodley and George Clooney speak onstage during the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards broadcast on TNT/TBS from the Shrine Auditorium on January 29, 2012, in Los Angeles, California. Clooney and Woodley introduced their film, Alexander Payne's family drama The Descendants, up for the SAG Award for Best Cast. (Photo by John Shearer/WireImage.) The nominated The Descendants' cast consisted of: Robert Forster, George Clooney, Matthew Lillard, Shailene Woodley, Judy Greer, and veteran Beau Bridges, who starred opposite Melina Mercouri in Norman Jewison's Gaily, Gaily back in 1969. Additionally, Clooney was a Best Actor nominee. As it happened, Clooney lost to The Artist's Jean Dujardin. His other competitors were Demián Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life, Brad Pitt for Bennett Miller's Moneyball, and Leonardo DiCaprio for Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar. As for the Descendants cast, they lost to the cast...
- 2/1/2012
- by D. Zhea
- Alt Film Guide
Eiji Okada, Emmanuelle Riva in DGA (but not Oscar) nominee Alain Resnais' Hiroshima, mon amour (top); Melina Mercouri, Jules Dassin in Dassin's Oscar- (but not DGA-) nominated Never on Sunday (bottom) DGA Awards vs. Academy Awards 1953-1959: Odd Men Out Jack Clayton, David Lean, Stanley Donen 1960 DGA (14)Vincente Minnelli, Bells Are RingingWalter Lang, Can-CanDelbert Mann, The Dark at the Top of the StairsRichard Brooks, Elmer GantryAlain Resnais, Hiroshima, mon amourVincente Minnelli, Home from the HillCarol Reed, Our Man in HavanaCharles Walters, Please Don't Eat the DaisiesLewis Gilbert, Sink the Bismarck!Vincent J. Donehue, Sunrise at Campobello AMPASJules Dassin, Never on Sunday DGA/AMPASBilly Wilder, The ApartmentJack Cardiff, Sons and LoversAlfred Hitchcock, PsychoFred Zinnemann, The Sundowners 1961 DGA (21)Robert Stevenson, The Absent Minded ProfessorBlake Edwards, Breakfast at Tiffany'sWilliam Wyler, The Children's HourAnthony Mann, El CidJoshua Logan, FannyHenry Koster, Flower Drum SongRobert Mulligan, The Great ImpostorPhilip Leacock, Hand in HandJack Clayton,...
- 1/10/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
From Turkish versions of Tarzan and Dracula to wintry weepies, via (whisper it) Midnight Express, Fiachra Gibbons picks out the best films shot in Istanbul
• As featured in our Istanbul city guide
From Russia with Love, Terence Young, 1963
"They dance for him, they yearn for him, they die for him …" From Russia with Love is not only arguably the best of the Bond films, it set the template for all that followed, right down to the corny one-liners. This is Tatiana, the Russian double-agent love interest succumbing to Sean Connery's charms: "The mechanism is… Oh James… Will you make love to me all the time in England?" "Day and night, darling… Go on about the mechanism…" The film was shot when the city's population was less than two million (it has mushroomed to more than 13 million today), and it's a magic carpet ride back to a time when Istanbul teemed with hamals,...
• As featured in our Istanbul city guide
From Russia with Love, Terence Young, 1963
"They dance for him, they yearn for him, they die for him …" From Russia with Love is not only arguably the best of the Bond films, it set the template for all that followed, right down to the corny one-liners. This is Tatiana, the Russian double-agent love interest succumbing to Sean Connery's charms: "The mechanism is… Oh James… Will you make love to me all the time in England?" "Day and night, darling… Go on about the mechanism…" The film was shot when the city's population was less than two million (it has mushroomed to more than 13 million today), and it's a magic carpet ride back to a time when Istanbul teemed with hamals,...
- 9/14/2011
- by Fiachra Gibbons
- The Guardian - Film News
Director best known for the visually splendid and energetic Zorba the Greek
Although the first Greek films appeared in 1912, long periods of war and instability crippled any attempts at forming a national film industry. This meant that few features were produced until the 1950s, when the director Michael Cacoyannis, who has died aged 90, became the embodiment of Greek cinema, giving it an international reputation which reached a peak of popularity with his Zorba the Greek (1964).
Based on Nikos Kazantzakis's novel, the film burst on to the screen with extraordinary energy and visual splendour. It brilliantly combined the rhythmic music of Mikis Theodorakis and the Oscar-winning black-and-white cinematography of Walter Lassally with indelible performances by Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas and Lila Kedrova (who won the Oscar for best supporting actress).
The film celebrated joie de vivre, yet there was an underlying pessimism and an echo of Greek tragedy...
Although the first Greek films appeared in 1912, long periods of war and instability crippled any attempts at forming a national film industry. This meant that few features were produced until the 1950s, when the director Michael Cacoyannis, who has died aged 90, became the embodiment of Greek cinema, giving it an international reputation which reached a peak of popularity with his Zorba the Greek (1964).
Based on Nikos Kazantzakis's novel, the film burst on to the screen with extraordinary energy and visual splendour. It brilliantly combined the rhythmic music of Mikis Theodorakis and the Oscar-winning black-and-white cinematography of Walter Lassally with indelible performances by Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas and Lila Kedrova (who won the Oscar for best supporting actress).
The film celebrated joie de vivre, yet there was an underlying pessimism and an echo of Greek tragedy...
- 7/25/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Michael Cacoyannis, best known for the 1964 Oscar-nominated drama Zorba the Greek, died of complications from a heart attack and chronic respiratory problems early Monday at an Athens hospital. He was either 89 or 90, depending on the source. Born in Limassol, Cyprus, on June 11, 1921 or 1922, the young Cacoyannis (Mihalis Kakogiannis in Greek) was sent to London to study Law, but later turned to the theater, studying Drama at the Old Vic and playing various roles on the British stage, including the lead in Albert Camus' Caligula. Unable to find work in the British film industry, he eventually moved to Athens. Cacoyannis' directorial debut took place in the early '50s, with the breezy comedy Windfall in Athens (1955), whose production lasted two years. International acclaim followed the release of Stella (1955), which was screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. This drama about a free-spirited young woman (Melina Mercouri) torn by her...
- 7/25/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Cypriot film-maker – real name Mihalis Kakogiannis – behind 1964 smash Zorba the Greek has passed away, according to reports
Multi-award-winning Cypriot film-maker Mihalis Kakogiannis, best known for the 1964 hit Zorba the Greek starring Anthony Quinn, has died at the age of 90, it has been reported. Kakogiannis, who was billed under the name Michael Cacoyannis for his English-language productions, was nominated in three separate Oscar categories for Zorba (including best director), and became a regular in competition at Cannes.
Born in Limassol in 1922, Kakogiannis learned his craft in the UK at the Old Vic, before travelling to Greece to shoot his first film, Windfall in Athens. His follow-up, Stella, starring a young Melina Mercouri, became an international hit and set Kakogiannis on his way. Zorba the Greek, adapted from a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, eventually won three Oscars (though none for Kakogiannis himself).
Thereafter Kakogiannis found it hard to match Zorba's success. His follow-up,...
Multi-award-winning Cypriot film-maker Mihalis Kakogiannis, best known for the 1964 hit Zorba the Greek starring Anthony Quinn, has died at the age of 90, it has been reported. Kakogiannis, who was billed under the name Michael Cacoyannis for his English-language productions, was nominated in three separate Oscar categories for Zorba (including best director), and became a regular in competition at Cannes.
Born in Limassol in 1922, Kakogiannis learned his craft in the UK at the Old Vic, before travelling to Greece to shoot his first film, Windfall in Athens. His follow-up, Stella, starring a young Melina Mercouri, became an international hit and set Kakogiannis on his way. Zorba the Greek, adapted from a novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, eventually won three Oscars (though none for Kakogiannis himself).
Thereafter Kakogiannis found it hard to match Zorba's success. His follow-up,...
- 7/25/2011
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Is the IRS making you feel a poorer? As today is tax day, Disc Dish is celebrating with some great films in which characters use not-so-legal ways to fill their wallets (not that we’re advocating any, but they’re so much fun to watch.)
The question is, how well do you know your cinematic capers? Below are some of the best heist movies.
How many film titles can you match with the prize the characters are trying to steal? If you get tripped up, steal a peak at the answers.
The Movie The Loot 1. Larceny, Inc. (1942) – Ex-cons J. Chalmers Maxwell (Edward G. Robinson), Jug Martin (Broderick Crawford) and Weepy Davis (Edward Brophy) launch an elaborate scheme to get to this enticing jackpot. But there’s one problem – the fake luggage shop they set up to mask their criminal goings-on is doing a booming business and taking them away from the task at hand.
The question is, how well do you know your cinematic capers? Below are some of the best heist movies.
How many film titles can you match with the prize the characters are trying to steal? If you get tripped up, steal a peak at the answers.
The Movie The Loot 1. Larceny, Inc. (1942) – Ex-cons J. Chalmers Maxwell (Edward G. Robinson), Jug Martin (Broderick Crawford) and Weepy Davis (Edward Brophy) launch an elaborate scheme to get to this enticing jackpot. But there’s one problem – the fake luggage shop they set up to mask their criminal goings-on is doing a booming business and taking them away from the task at hand.
- 4/18/2011
- by Chris
- Disc Dish
Screenwriter and father of contemporary Greek theatre whose work blended mysticism and realism
Outside his native Greece, the playwright Iakovos Kambanellis, who has died of renal failure aged 89, was perhaps best known as a screenwriter on films, including Stella (1955), directed by Michael Cacoyannis. Kambanellis, who was always attracted to contemporary versions of classic tales, had first written the script as a play, Stella With the Red Gloves, based on Carmen, but it was never produced on the Greek stage because of its sexual frankness. Shot in the streets of Athens, the film follows a man-hungry singer (Melina Mercouri) who refuses to marry her lover, and begins a passionate affair with a football player. The film made Mercouri into a star and boosted Greek cinema's international reputation.
Although he did not consider himself a poet, Kambanellis also wrote some fine lyric poems that were turned into memorable songs by Greece's leading composers.
Outside his native Greece, the playwright Iakovos Kambanellis, who has died of renal failure aged 89, was perhaps best known as a screenwriter on films, including Stella (1955), directed by Michael Cacoyannis. Kambanellis, who was always attracted to contemporary versions of classic tales, had first written the script as a play, Stella With the Red Gloves, based on Carmen, but it was never produced on the Greek stage because of its sexual frankness. Shot in the streets of Athens, the film follows a man-hungry singer (Melina Mercouri) who refuses to marry her lover, and begins a passionate affair with a football player. The film made Mercouri into a star and boosted Greek cinema's international reputation.
Although he did not consider himself a poet, Kambanellis also wrote some fine lyric poems that were turned into memorable songs by Greece's leading composers.
- 4/4/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
Innovative costume designer for stage and screen, she won an Oscar and three Tonys
Theoni V Aldredge, who has died aged 88, could and did do anything with clothes, on Broadway stage or film; outfit Joe Papp's earliest Romeo and Juliet for $120 or promise embarrassed guys cast as showgirls in La Cage Aux Folles that they would never have to shave their chests or legs. More than 1,000 performers wore Aldredge clothes nightly on Broadway in 1984, in five different productions, and she raided each show impromptu, "policing", she called it, "to make sure the kids are all Ok". Broadway dimmed its lights on Tuesday to mark her death.
She was born Theoni Vachliotis, the daughter of the Greek army surgeon-general in Salonika, but emigrated to the Us, wanting to be "where there hadn't been a war". She had begun her lifelong doll collection, and maintenance of its wardrobe, as a child.
Theoni V Aldredge, who has died aged 88, could and did do anything with clothes, on Broadway stage or film; outfit Joe Papp's earliest Romeo and Juliet for $120 or promise embarrassed guys cast as showgirls in La Cage Aux Folles that they would never have to shave their chests or legs. More than 1,000 performers wore Aldredge clothes nightly on Broadway in 1984, in five different productions, and she raided each show impromptu, "policing", she called it, "to make sure the kids are all Ok". Broadway dimmed its lights on Tuesday to mark her death.
She was born Theoni Vachliotis, the daughter of the Greek army surgeon-general in Salonika, but emigrated to the Us, wanting to be "where there hadn't been a war". She had begun her lifelong doll collection, and maintenance of its wardrobe, as a child.
- 1/28/2011
- by Veronica Horwell
- The Guardian - Film News
There's no need to focus all your attention on new releases, particularly not when spring is studded with enough fantastic repertory scheduling to fill your every evening. Here's a look at what's been planned in New York and L.A.
New York:
Anthology Film Archives
Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra returns to the Anthology Film Archives from Feb. 25-March 3 to present his latest film, "Birdsong," an atmospheric retelling of biblical Three Wise Men story with an eye towards the desert landscape they were traveling [pictured left], in addition to Mark Peranson's experimental making-of "Birdsong" doc, "Waiting for Sancho," which will show on Feb. 28 and March 1... On March 4, '60s underground filmmaker Jose Rodriguez Soltero will get a double feature of two newly restored prints of his 1965 exploration of narcissism, "Jerovi," and the 1966 celebration of Mexican Hollywood star Lupe Velez, "Lupe."... From March 5 through 15, one of America's finest character actors gets a retrospective...
New York:
Anthology Film Archives
Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra returns to the Anthology Film Archives from Feb. 25-March 3 to present his latest film, "Birdsong," an atmospheric retelling of biblical Three Wise Men story with an eye towards the desert landscape they were traveling [pictured left], in addition to Mark Peranson's experimental making-of "Birdsong" doc, "Waiting for Sancho," which will show on Feb. 28 and March 1... On March 4, '60s underground filmmaker Jose Rodriguez Soltero will get a double feature of two newly restored prints of his 1965 exploration of narcissism, "Jerovi," and the 1966 celebration of Mexican Hollywood star Lupe Velez, "Lupe."... From March 5 through 15, one of America's finest character actors gets a retrospective...
- 2/18/2009
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
Filmmaker Jules Dassin has died following a short illness. He was 96.
The American director passed away in an Athens, Greece hospital on Monday.
Dassin, who is best known for his Oscar-winning 1960 movie Never On Sunday, was married to the late Greek actress and culture minister Melina Mercouri.
Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis says, "Greece grieves the loss of a rare human being, an important creator and a true friend. His passion, energy, fighting spirit and nobility will never be forgotten."
Dassin started his career as an actor and theatre producer; his breakthrough came when he became an assistant to legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock in 1940.
He moved to France in the early 1950s after he was named as part of Hollywood's "communist faction" during a House Of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee (Huac) hearing.
Dassin went on to marry Mercouri, who starred in his Never On Sunday, which won the Oscar for Best Original Song and for which Dassin received two Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Writing, Story And Screenplay.
The American director passed away in an Athens, Greece hospital on Monday.
Dassin, who is best known for his Oscar-winning 1960 movie Never On Sunday, was married to the late Greek actress and culture minister Melina Mercouri.
Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis says, "Greece grieves the loss of a rare human being, an important creator and a true friend. His passion, energy, fighting spirit and nobility will never be forgotten."
Dassin started his career as an actor and theatre producer; his breakthrough came when he became an assistant to legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock in 1940.
He moved to France in the early 1950s after he was named as part of Hollywood's "communist faction" during a House Of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee (Huac) hearing.
Dassin went on to marry Mercouri, who starred in his Never On Sunday, which won the Oscar for Best Original Song and for which Dassin received two Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Writing, Story And Screenplay.
- 4/1/2008
- WENN
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