Filmax has acquired international rights to Spanish thriller “Nina,” the new feature written and directed by Andrea Jaurrieta (“Ana by Day”) that bows at this week’s Málaga Film Festival as one of its higher profile titles in main competition.
Loosely based on the play of the same name by José Ramón Fernández, which borrows elements of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” “Nina” tells the story of a woman, an actress, who returns to her home town on Spain’s rugged northern coast seeking to take revenge on a celebrated writer. As she encounters past acquaintances, including a once close childhood friend, and faces dark memories, she begins to question whether vengeance is the only way forward.
“Nina” stars Goya-winning actress Patricia López Arnaiz (“Ane is Missing”) as the titular character and San Sebastián Silver Shell winner Darío Grandinetti, famed for his performance in Pedro Almodovar’s “Talk to Her,...
Loosely based on the play of the same name by José Ramón Fernández, which borrows elements of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” “Nina” tells the story of a woman, an actress, who returns to her home town on Spain’s rugged northern coast seeking to take revenge on a celebrated writer. As she encounters past acquaintances, including a once close childhood friend, and faces dark memories, she begins to question whether vengeance is the only way forward.
“Nina” stars Goya-winning actress Patricia López Arnaiz (“Ane is Missing”) as the titular character and San Sebastián Silver Shell winner Darío Grandinetti, famed for his performance in Pedro Almodovar’s “Talk to Her,...
- 3/4/2024
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Pedro Almodóvar has never done Westerns. Not unless you count the winks at “Johnny Guitar” in “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” (1988) or “Duel in the Sun” in “Matador” (1985). Likely the most American and the most masculine of genres, the Western and the onscreen cowboy are foundational figures of manhood.
Continue reading ‘Strange Way Of Life’ Review: Pedro Pascal & Ethan Hawke Pine For Their Unlived Romance in Pedro Almodóvar’s Terrific Western [Cannes] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Strange Way Of Life’ Review: Pedro Pascal & Ethan Hawke Pine For Their Unlived Romance in Pedro Almodóvar’s Terrific Western [Cannes] at The Playlist.
- 5/17/2023
- by Anna Bogutskaya
- The Playlist
Raquel Welch, the actor who became an icon and sex symbol thanks to films like “One Million Years B.C.” and “Three Musketeers,” died Wednesday in Los Angeles after a brief illness, her manager confirmed to Variety. She was 82.
She came onto the movie scene in 1966 with the sci-fi film “Fantastic Voyage” and the prehistoric adventure “One Million Years B.C.,” the latter of which established Welch as a sex symbol. The actor went on to appear in the controversial adaptation of Gore Vidal’s “Myra Beckrinridge,” “Kansas City Bomber” and Richard Lester’s delightful romps “The Three Musketeers” (1973), for which she won a Golden Globe, and “The Four Musketeers: Milady’s Revenge” (1974). She was one of the first women to play the lead role — not the romantic interest — in a Western, 1971 revenge tale “Hannie Caulder” — an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” (2003), according to the director.
(Earlier, Marlene Dietrich and Joan Crawford...
She came onto the movie scene in 1966 with the sci-fi film “Fantastic Voyage” and the prehistoric adventure “One Million Years B.C.,” the latter of which established Welch as a sex symbol. The actor went on to appear in the controversial adaptation of Gore Vidal’s “Myra Beckrinridge,” “Kansas City Bomber” and Richard Lester’s delightful romps “The Three Musketeers” (1973), for which she won a Golden Globe, and “The Four Musketeers: Milady’s Revenge” (1974). She was one of the first women to play the lead role — not the romantic interest — in a Western, 1971 revenge tale “Hannie Caulder” — an inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” (2003), according to the director.
(Earlier, Marlene Dietrich and Joan Crawford...
- 2/15/2023
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
While he may not be as well-known today as Alfred Hitchcock or Billy Wilder, director Nicholas Ray had a fantastic run during the '50s working across a range of genres from film noir ("In a Lonely Place") to war saga ("Flying Leathernecks"), coming-of-age teen angst ("Rebel Without a Cause") to westerns, the strangest of which is undoubtedly "Johnny Guitar." Shot in gaudy Trucolor, it stands apart from other studio westerns of the day, maybe because it isn't really a western at all -- It's more like a twisted gothic psychodrama that just happens to be set in the Old West.
Although the title refers to Sterling Hayden's nonchalant protagonist, Mr. Guitar takes a back seat for much of the movie, just one of many of Ray's subversive twists to the standard western formula. Instead, the main focus is the bitter rivalry between Vienna (Joan Crawford), a steely saloon keeper,...
Although the title refers to Sterling Hayden's nonchalant protagonist, Mr. Guitar takes a back seat for much of the movie, just one of many of Ray's subversive twists to the standard western formula. Instead, the main focus is the bitter rivalry between Vienna (Joan Crawford), a steely saloon keeper,...
- 9/5/2022
- by Lee Adams
- Slash Film
Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" is an elegy for a genre that has died countless deaths. The Western has passed in and out of favor many times since the advent of the motion picture, and is currently ticking anew thanks to Taylor Sheridan's "Yellowstone" franchise. But as the 1970s approached, there was a realization that the stars and filmmakers who'd transformed the oater into the most American of movie genres were on their way out. John Ford had been driven into retirement. John Wayne was dying. Anthony Mann was dead. A glorious, yet complicated era was drawing to a close.
This was the perfect moment for Sergio Leone to go once more to the Western well with a mythic send-off to the films on which he'd built his international reputation. But his scope wasn't limited to "A Fistful of Dollars," "For a Few Dollars More...
This was the perfect moment for Sergio Leone to go once more to the Western well with a mythic send-off to the films on which he'd built his international reputation. But his scope wasn't limited to "A Fistful of Dollars," "For a Few Dollars More...
- 8/19/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Director Ron Underwood discusses a few of his favorite westerns with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Pearl Harbor (2001)
Mighty Joe Young (1998)
Speechless (1994)
Heart and Souls (1993)
Stealing Sinatra (2003)
City Slickers (1991)
Tremors (1990) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Tourist Trap (1979) – David DeCoteau’s trailer commentary
The Seduction (1982)
Puppet Master (1989)
The Boondock Saints (1999)
Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952)
Capricorn One (1977) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary
Panic In The Streets (1950) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing
Back When We Were Grownups (2004)
Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell (2018)
Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020)
The Howling (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing
Red River (1948) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary
Johnny Guitar (1954) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The Searchers (1956)
Seven Samurai (1954) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary
The Magnificent Seven (1960) – Jesus Treviño’s trailer commentary
The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Westworld...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Pearl Harbor (2001)
Mighty Joe Young (1998)
Speechless (1994)
Heart and Souls (1993)
Stealing Sinatra (2003)
City Slickers (1991)
Tremors (1990) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Tourist Trap (1979) – David DeCoteau’s trailer commentary
The Seduction (1982)
Puppet Master (1989)
The Boondock Saints (1999)
Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952)
Capricorn One (1977) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary
Panic In The Streets (1950) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing
Back When We Were Grownups (2004)
Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell (2018)
Tremors: Shrieker Island (2020)
The Howling (1981) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairing
Red River (1948) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary
Johnny Guitar (1954) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
The Searchers (1956)
Seven Samurai (1954) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary
The Magnificent Seven (1960) – Jesus Treviño’s trailer commentary
The Magnificent Seven (2016)
Westworld...
- 2/1/2022
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Based upon the kudos count to date, Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” clearly ranks as one of the top awards-contending films of 2021. For those fascinated by that raucous, rowdy, storm-the-barricades Hollywood moment known as the “New Hollywood,” which started roughly in the mid-’60s and was exhausted or vanquished — depending upon who’s telling the history — by the end of the 1970s, it’s also the perfect embodiment of that era’s fondness for revisionism, both historical and cinematic, as well as sexual frankness wherever the filmmakers could find it.
Which shouldn’t be surprising, given that the film’s taut, deadly source material is Thomas Savage’s piercing 1967 modern Western, “The Power of the Dog.” Set in 1925, a little over a decade past the 1913 setting of Sam Peckinpah’s revolutionary 1969 revisionist Western, “The Wild Bunch,” “Dog,” like “Bunch,” skewers the American Dream along with myths of...
Which shouldn’t be surprising, given that the film’s taut, deadly source material is Thomas Savage’s piercing 1967 modern Western, “The Power of the Dog.” Set in 1925, a little over a decade past the 1913 setting of Sam Peckinpah’s revolutionary 1969 revisionist Western, “The Wild Bunch,” “Dog,” like “Bunch,” skewers the American Dream along with myths of...
- 1/3/2022
- by Steven Gaydos
- Variety Film + TV
This colorful gangland drama was made by a studio in transition, in the middle of a crippling musician’s strike. Robert Taylor and Cyd Charisse were MGM’s last contract stars; her costumes and dance numbers are wildly anachronistic for the period setting and she refused to take direction from Nicholas Ray, whose career was coming apart at the seams. Yet the maverick director must have done something right, as the show has remained a favorite of audiences and critics. Co-starring Lee J. Cobb, John Ireland and Corey Allen. The Wac’S remastered Blu-ray is a beauty.
Party Girl
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1958 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 99 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date November 30, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Robert Taylor, Cyd Charisse, Lee J. Cobb, John Ireland, Kent Smith, Claire Kelly, Corey Allen, David Opatoshu, Barbara Lang, Myrna Hansen, Betty Utey.
Cinematography: Robert Bronner
Art Director: John McSweeney Jr.
Original Music: Jeff Alexander
Written...
Party Girl
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1958 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 99 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date November 30, 2021 / 21.99
Starring: Robert Taylor, Cyd Charisse, Lee J. Cobb, John Ireland, Kent Smith, Claire Kelly, Corey Allen, David Opatoshu, Barbara Lang, Myrna Hansen, Betty Utey.
Cinematography: Robert Bronner
Art Director: John McSweeney Jr.
Original Music: Jeff Alexander
Written...
- 11/27/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
As he glancingly returns to the genre with his new film, Cry Macho, it’s worth taking a look at the last Western that Clint Eastwood made, 1992’s Unforgiven. While he’s circled back to certain themes and concepts endemic to the Western in films since then, Unforgiven was his last film specifically and explicitly set in the Old West and was — as he said at the time — his final word on the subject.
Eastwood has pretty much stayed true to that, even as Unforgiven stands nearly 30 years later as a masterpiece in its own right and arguably one of the greatest Westerns of all time.
Much as Cry Macho attempts to strip away modern myths about what it means to be a man or “macho,” Unforgiven tears down the longstanding mythology built around the American Old West and propagated through scores of Westerns that Hollywood pumped out for decades.
Eastwood has pretty much stayed true to that, even as Unforgiven stands nearly 30 years later as a masterpiece in its own right and arguably one of the greatest Westerns of all time.
Much as Cry Macho attempts to strip away modern myths about what it means to be a man or “macho,” Unforgiven tears down the longstanding mythology built around the American Old West and propagated through scores of Westerns that Hollywood pumped out for decades.
- 9/16/2021
- by Don Kaye
- Den of Geek
In the 1954 film, Johnny Guitar, Joan Crawford’s Vienna says to the titular Johnny, “A man can lie, steal, even kill. But as long as he hangs on to his pride, he’s still a man. All a woman has to do is slip once and she’s a tramp.” In Till Death, Megan Fox’s Emma slips, having an affair with another man. The film’s horrors lie in what follows. Men cheat and it’s treated with a shoulder shrug. If women cheat, it’s the Salem Witch Trials all over again. Those double standards are damaging. In the case of Emma, it’s hypocritical because, no matter how many times her husband came home with lipstick on his shirt collars, he never would have been met with the kind of twisted game he puts her through. She simply washes the lipstick off. S.K. Dale’s feature debut...
- 6/28/2021
- by Sara Clements
- DailyDead
Josh Braun, producer of some of the best documentaries in the world, joins Josh and Joe to discuss the movies that have influenced him throughout his life.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Man On Wire (2008)
The Cove (2009)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
Encounters At The End of the World (2007)
Winnebago Man (2009)
Spellbound (2002)
Supersize Me (2004)
Tell Me Who I Am (2019)
Apollo 11 (2019)
The Edge of Democracy (2019)
Finding Vivian Maier (2013)
Searching For Sugarman (2012)
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Frat House (1998)
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (2003)
The Exorcist (1973)
Go West (1940)
A Night In Casablanca (1946)
Hello Down There (1974)
What’s Up Doc? (1972)
El Topo (1970)
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Female Trouble (1974)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969)
Gimme Shelter (1970)
Monterey Pop (1968)
Grey Gardens (1975)
Grey Gardens (2009)
Titicut Follies (1967)
To Have And Have Not (1944)
All About Eve...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Man On Wire (2008)
The Cove (2009)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)
Encounters At The End of the World (2007)
Winnebago Man (2009)
Spellbound (2002)
Supersize Me (2004)
Tell Me Who I Am (2019)
Apollo 11 (2019)
The Edge of Democracy (2019)
Finding Vivian Maier (2013)
Searching For Sugarman (2012)
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)
A History Of Violence (2005)
Frat House (1998)
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (2003)
The Exorcist (1973)
Go West (1940)
A Night In Casablanca (1946)
Hello Down There (1974)
What’s Up Doc? (1972)
El Topo (1970)
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Female Trouble (1974)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969)
Gimme Shelter (1970)
Monterey Pop (1968)
Grey Gardens (1975)
Grey Gardens (2009)
Titicut Follies (1967)
To Have And Have Not (1944)
All About Eve...
- 7/21/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Editor’s note: Filmmaker Nancy Kelly made her feature directorial debut in 1990 with the Western drama “Thousand Pieces of Gold.” A new 4K restoration by IndieCollect can currently be seen in virtual theaters via Kino Marquee. On the occasion of its new release, Kelly (along with IndieCollect’s Sandra Schulberg) wanted to share her reflections on her career both before and after its release.
Three years before I discovered Ruthanne Lum McCunn’s novel “Thousand Pieces of Gold,” I was making my living as a ranch hand. What was it that impelled me — from a working class background in a Massachusetts textile town — to pack up and head West? I had never even ridden a horse before, but I wanted an adventure. It was an impromptu decision that changed my life forever.
The cowboys didn’t know what to make of me — not much. But I broke my own horse,...
Three years before I discovered Ruthanne Lum McCunn’s novel “Thousand Pieces of Gold,” I was making my living as a ranch hand. What was it that impelled me — from a working class background in a Massachusetts textile town — to pack up and head West? I had never even ridden a horse before, but I wanted an adventure. It was an impromptu decision that changed my life forever.
The cowboys didn’t know what to make of me — not much. But I broke my own horse,...
- 4/30/2020
- by Nancy Kelly
- Indiewire
Stuart Whitman, a star of Westerns alongside John Wayne like “The Comancheros” and the war movie “The Longest Day,” died in his home Monday, his son told TMZ. Whitman was 92.
“Old Hollywood lost another one of its true stars. Stuart Whitman was known for his rugged roles and handsome charm. We were proud of him for his TV, film roles and his Oscar nomination, but what we will really remember is his exuberant love of his family and friends,” Whitman’s son Justin told TMZ.
TMZ says that Whitman had recently been in and out of the hospital due to skin cancer that seeped into his bloodstream.
Though Whitman played across many genres, he was nominated for an Oscar for the 1961 drama “The Mark,” in which he played a man convicted of attempting to commit...
“Old Hollywood lost another one of its true stars. Stuart Whitman was known for his rugged roles and handsome charm. We were proud of him for his TV, film roles and his Oscar nomination, but what we will really remember is his exuberant love of his family and friends,” Whitman’s son Justin told TMZ.
TMZ says that Whitman had recently been in and out of the hospital due to skin cancer that seeped into his bloodstream.
Though Whitman played across many genres, he was nominated for an Oscar for the 1961 drama “The Mark,” in which he played a man convicted of attempting to commit...
- 3/17/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Ben Cooper, an film icon who starred in dozens of Westerns and starred as the bandit Turkey Ralston in Johnny Guitar, has died. He was 86.
Cooper’s death was confirmed by his nephew Pete Searls to The Hollywood Reporter. Cooper died in Memphis, Tennessee after a long battle with an undisclosed illness.
A native of Hartford, Connecticut, his career first started on Broadway at the age of 9 when he starred in Life with Father in 1942, where he went on to play two of the central family’s sons after growing enough to star as an older brother.
He went on...
Cooper’s death was confirmed by his nephew Pete Searls to The Hollywood Reporter. Cooper died in Memphis, Tennessee after a long battle with an undisclosed illness.
A native of Hartford, Connecticut, his career first started on Broadway at the age of 9 when he starred in Life with Father in 1942, where he went on to play two of the central family’s sons after growing enough to star as an older brother.
He went on...
- 2/26/2020
- by Ale Russian
- PEOPLE.com
Ben Cooper, a Western star of films and TV like “Johnny Guitar,” “Bonanza,” “Rawhide” and more, died in his sleep on Monday according to his nephew on the actor’s Facebook fan page. He was 86.
Cooper got his start in radio serials and on stage as a child actor before finding work as a boyish looking lead and supporting player on Westerns in both film and TV. He was best known for his role in the Nicholas Ray Western “Johnny Guitar” from 1954, where he played the bandit Turkey Ralston alongside Ernest Borgnine and Scott Brady.
Cooper’s first screen role came when he was 18 in the “Armstrong Circle Theatre,” and he followed that up with several TV appearances and roles in films from Republic Pictures such as “Thunderbirds,” “The Last Command” and “Duel at Apache Wells.”
Also Read: David Roback, Co-Founder of Mazzy Star, Dies at 61
He also appeared in...
Cooper got his start in radio serials and on stage as a child actor before finding work as a boyish looking lead and supporting player on Westerns in both film and TV. He was best known for his role in the Nicholas Ray Western “Johnny Guitar” from 1954, where he played the bandit Turkey Ralston alongside Ernest Borgnine and Scott Brady.
Cooper’s first screen role came when he was 18 in the “Armstrong Circle Theatre,” and he followed that up with several TV appearances and roles in films from Republic Pictures such as “Thunderbirds,” “The Last Command” and “Duel at Apache Wells.”
Also Read: David Roback, Co-Founder of Mazzy Star, Dies at 61
He also appeared in...
- 2/26/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Ben Cooper, who portrayed the bandit Turkey Ralston in the Joan Crawford drama Johnny Guitar, just one of his many appearances in Westerns on television and the big screen, has died. He was 86.
Cooper died Monday after a long illness in Memphis, Tennessee, his nephew, Pete Searls, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The boyish Cooper also worked opposite Audie Murphy in Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1963) and Arizona Raiders (1965), and stood out in Rebel in Town (1956), Duel at Apache Wells (1957), Waco (1966), Roy Orbison's The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967), Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) and ...
Cooper died Monday after a long illness in Memphis, Tennessee, his nephew, Pete Searls, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The boyish Cooper also worked opposite Audie Murphy in Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1963) and Arizona Raiders (1965), and stood out in Rebel in Town (1956), Duel at Apache Wells (1957), Waco (1966), Roy Orbison's The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967), Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) and ...
- 2/26/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Ben Cooper, who portrayed the bandit Turkey Ralston in the Joan Crawford drama Johnny Guitar, just one of his many appearances in Westerns on television and the big screen, has died. He was 86.
Cooper died Monday after a long illness in Memphis, Tennessee, his nephew, Pete Searls, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The boyish Cooper also worked opposite Audie Murphy in Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1963) and Arizona Raiders (1965), and stood out in Rebel in Town (1956), Duel at Apache Wells (1957), Waco (1966), Roy Orbison's The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967), Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) and ...
Cooper died Monday after a long illness in Memphis, Tennessee, his nephew, Pete Searls, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The boyish Cooper also worked opposite Audie Murphy in Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1963) and Arizona Raiders (1965), and stood out in Rebel in Town (1956), Duel at Apache Wells (1957), Waco (1966), Roy Orbison's The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967), Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) and ...
- 2/26/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ann Crumb, the stage’s Aspects of Love star who became the first American actress chosen by Andrew Lloyd Webber to originate a starring role, died yesterday of ovarian cancer at her parents’ home in Pennsylvania. She was 69.
Her death, which followed a nearly five-year battle with the disease, was announced by her press spokesman Kevin McAnarney.
The musical theater actress and singer created numerous leading roles on Broadway and London’s West End, including roles in The Goodbye Girl, Nine, Les Miserables, Chess, and, in a 1992 Broadway performance that earned her a Best Actress Tony Award nomination, Anna Karenina.
Lloyd Webber had personally chosen Crumb, born in Charleston, West Virginia, to originate the lead role of Rose Vibert when his musical Aspects of Love opened in London in 1989 and on Broadway a year later. She would also star opposite John Cullum in the National tour of Man Of La Mancha...
Her death, which followed a nearly five-year battle with the disease, was announced by her press spokesman Kevin McAnarney.
The musical theater actress and singer created numerous leading roles on Broadway and London’s West End, including roles in The Goodbye Girl, Nine, Les Miserables, Chess, and, in a 1992 Broadway performance that earned her a Best Actress Tony Award nomination, Anna Karenina.
Lloyd Webber had personally chosen Crumb, born in Charleston, West Virginia, to originate the lead role of Rose Vibert when his musical Aspects of Love opened in London in 1989 and on Broadway a year later. She would also star opposite John Cullum in the National tour of Man Of La Mancha...
- 11/1/2019
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Jean-Luc Godard’s “The Image Book” is a sprawling mash-up of movies from across the history of the medium, set to the legendary filmmaker’s lyrical voiceover, and many audiences at the Cannes premiere were caught off guard by the overload of reference points. While not as much of a conversation-starter as his innovative 3D effort “Goodbye to Language,” the 87-year-old Swiss-French director has certainly crafted a provocative, boundary-bursting cinematic achievement as only he could. Cineastes will get chills from the mere glimpses of “Johnny Guitar,” which Godard first celebrated in references to the movie from the first decade of his work over 50 years ago.
But one clip struck some viewers as strange even by Godardian standards: a fleeting, lo-res shot from “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” Michael Bay’s 2016 war movie about the attack on the American compound. Like much of what we see in “The Image Book,...
But one clip struck some viewers as strange even by Godardian standards: a fleeting, lo-res shot from “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” Michael Bay’s 2016 war movie about the attack on the American compound. Like much of what we see in “The Image Book,...
- 5/13/2018
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Passeio com Johnny Guitar (“A Walk with Johnny Guitar”) conjures up a chapter in João César Monteiro’s own histoire(s) du cinéma. Occurring at that insomniac, delirious hour at which night gives way to day, this short film manages to travel a great distance in only three and a half minutes. Tracing the relations between sound and image, body and memory, gesture and affect, Monteiro unfolds a vast cinephiliac constellation that gravitates around one scene of Nicholas Ray’s Johnny Guitar (1954). *** A lanky old man, preceded by his cough, walks home alone. He smokes a cigarette and advances through a typical cobblestoned Lisboan street, biding good night to another solitary smoker. Installed in his head, the soundtrack of the most famous scene of Johnny Guitar—the re-encounter between Vienna (Joan Crawford) and Johnny (Sterling Hayden)—starts playing out. Viewers familiar with Monteiro’s œuvre know that this slightly hunched man,...
- 3/8/2018
- MUBI
In this edition of Canon Of Film, we look at the James Dean classic, ‘Rebel Without a Cause‘. For the story behind the genesis of the Canon, you can click here.
Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
Director: Nicholas Ray
Screenplay: Stewart Stern; adapted by Irving Shulman, from a story by Nicholas Ray
When I was 12-years old, I don’t know exactly what it was that possessed me to do so, but I sat down one night and watched ‘Rebel Without a Cause.’ I was into old-time 50s nostalgia, such as ‘Grease,’ and ‘Happy Days,’ and decided to see this movie and the James Dean persona/image that influenced many of that decade. Yet, what I found was something else that day. the realization that a film could reveal hidden messages, meanings, and metaphors that aren’t just what the film is about. I remember it distinctly, Jim Backus, who you...
Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
Director: Nicholas Ray
Screenplay: Stewart Stern; adapted by Irving Shulman, from a story by Nicholas Ray
When I was 12-years old, I don’t know exactly what it was that possessed me to do so, but I sat down one night and watched ‘Rebel Without a Cause.’ I was into old-time 50s nostalgia, such as ‘Grease,’ and ‘Happy Days,’ and decided to see this movie and the James Dean persona/image that influenced many of that decade. Yet, what I found was something else that day. the realization that a film could reveal hidden messages, meanings, and metaphors that aren’t just what the film is about. I remember it distinctly, Jim Backus, who you...
- 10/25/2017
- by David Baruffi
- Age of the Nerd
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Arthur Riplye's The Chase (1946) is playing from September 30 - October 30, 2017 in the United States.“It’s happened again.” This almost throwaway admission by the protagonist of The Chase, Arthur Ripley’s way-out 1946 noir, comes just after the film’s jolting third act twist. It sets the viewer up for the unexpected, but is delivered with such exasperation that, at least for the beleaguered hero of the picture, the situation may perhaps be all too familiar, a possibility that in itself makes the occurrence that much more significant. Prior to this point, The Chase had been a solid, atmospheric thriller, with sufficient quirkiness to keep it in thoroughly fresh territory. But with this derailing revelation, there is really no preparing for how The Chase plays out, and what that, in turn, means for the preceding story. On its surface set-up,...
- 10/16/2017
- MUBI
Jason from Mnpp here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" entertainment - I don't know if you've noticed by now that I will take any opportunity to talk about Alfred Hitchcock, but I will take any opportunity to talk about Alfred Hitchcock, and his birthday (which was yesterday) offers one of the best. Thankfully we've still plenty of choices - not many directors adored their villains like Hitch did, and so this series is a perfect fit.
And here's a good one! 1951's Strangers on a Train offers up one of Hitch's greatest bad guys in Bruno Antony, murder theorist and gay icon, played with giddy panache by Robert Walker. And Farley Granger's no slouch as the clearly-enticed-no-matter-how-hard-he-pretends-otherwise tennis-pro Guy Haines.
Previously It's one of her greatest roles so I'm not surprised that Joan Crawford stampeded her way to a win with last week's Johnny Guitar contest - she...
And here's a good one! 1951's Strangers on a Train offers up one of Hitch's greatest bad guys in Bruno Antony, murder theorist and gay icon, played with giddy panache by Robert Walker. And Farley Granger's no slouch as the clearly-enticed-no-matter-how-hard-he-pretends-otherwise tennis-pro Guy Haines.
Previously It's one of her greatest roles so I'm not surprised that Joan Crawford stampeded her way to a win with last week's Johnny Guitar contest - she...
- 8/14/2017
- by JA
- FilmExperience
Jason from Mnpp here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast." On this day in 1911 was born the writer-director Nicholas Ray, whose movies have come to seem fairly ahead of their time. His biggest success would of course be 1955's Rebel Without a Cause (his only Oscar nomination was for that film's script) but several of his other works have grown in reputation over the decades, and we're here to look at maybe the weirdest of them all - 1954's technicolor acid-western Johnny Guitar. (See Also: Tfe's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" entry for this movie.)
Guitar stars Joan Crawford as the "railroad tramp" Vienna, who runs a saloon and is drawn to bad men, and her cowgirl nemesis Emma Small, played by an enthusiastically hateful Mercedes McCambridge. The actresses apparently tore it up behind the scenes (everybody who's spoken of the filming of this film makes it sound like...
Guitar stars Joan Crawford as the "railroad tramp" Vienna, who runs a saloon and is drawn to bad men, and her cowgirl nemesis Emma Small, played by an enthusiastically hateful Mercedes McCambridge. The actresses apparently tore it up behind the scenes (everybody who's spoken of the filming of this film makes it sound like...
- 8/7/2017
- by JA
- FilmExperience
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Best in Show (Christopher Guest)
Christopher Guest has had an exceptionally strong ’00s with A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration, and it remains to be seen how his upcoming Mascots will be received, but his arguable peak is still the gloriously funny mockumentary Best in Show. Guest’s other films have lovingly skewered egotistical oddballs and the insanity of subjective or objective criticism, so Best in Show is...
Best in Show (Christopher Guest)
Christopher Guest has had an exceptionally strong ’00s with A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration, and it remains to be seen how his upcoming Mascots will be received, but his arguable peak is still the gloriously funny mockumentary Best in Show. Guest’s other films have lovingly skewered egotistical oddballs and the insanity of subjective or objective criticism, so Best in Show is...
- 7/7/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
With Nicholas Ray’s first film, “They Live By Night” recently restored by the Criterion Collection – after the company did a remarkable job with his “Bigger Than Life” and “In a Lonely Pace” – and “Johnny Guitar” set to get it’s streaming debut this weekend on Hulu (July 1), it’s a good time to review the career of one of Hollywood’s greatest mavericks.
Unlike most legendary auteurs, Ray’s career is incredibly uneven. He was a square peg trying to fit into the cylinder of Hollywood, but completely unwilling to round his sharp corners. It wasn’t that his style couldn’t adapt to Hollywood, as his mastery of storytelling through the use of space, composition and performance was readymade for the studio era. However, his uncompromising view of life and the existential struggle of his characters never fit neatly in stories with a clear resolution. His ability to...
Unlike most legendary auteurs, Ray’s career is incredibly uneven. He was a square peg trying to fit into the cylinder of Hollywood, but completely unwilling to round his sharp corners. It wasn’t that his style couldn’t adapt to Hollywood, as his mastery of storytelling through the use of space, composition and performance was readymade for the studio era. However, his uncompromising view of life and the existential struggle of his characters never fit neatly in stories with a clear resolution. His ability to...
- 6/30/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place (1950) is playing June 2 - July 2, 2017 on Mubi in the United Kingdom as part of the series The American Noir.Although mostly remembered now by the public for his 1955 classic Rebel Without a Cause, Nicholas Ray left behind him a legacy of over twenty feature films. A veritable cinematic explorer, Ray traversed genres ranging from noir, western (most notably his 1954 gender-bending cult Trucolor extravaganza Johnny Guitar), melodrama, epic and experimental film. He dared as few would to shoot in remote and forbidding locations such as the Arctic and Everglades National Park. What are Ray’s films about? As in his signature piece Rebel, despite Ray’s wide-ranging endeavors in genre and subject matter we are often met with anti-hero protagonists who struggle and rail against authority while lamenting their meaningless and circumscribed existences.
- 6/2/2017
- MUBI
With the new release of Mildred Pierce, the Criterion Collection appears to be solidifying a trend over the past couple years of providing a showcase for some of the greatest female actors from Hollywood’s Golden Age. Since late 2014, stars like Claudette Colbert (It Happened One Night, The Palm Beach Story), Rita Hayworth (Gilda, Only Angels Have Wings) and Rosalind Russell (His Girl Friday) have made their first appearances in the Collection, in what can be considered career-defining roles. These additions seem to be addressing a notable blind spot for Criterion. As impressive as their reach has been in bringing many of the most iconic women from the past hundred years of world cinema to the forefront, the continuing absence of silver screen legends like Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Greta Garbo and Elizabeth Taylor, just to name a few, seems like a lingering oversight, a problem yet to be...
- 2/21/2017
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 855
1988 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 89 min. / Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 21, 2017 / 39.95
Starring Carmen Maura, Fernando Guillén, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, Rossy de Palma, María Barranco, Kiti Manver, Guillermo Montesinos, Chus Lampreave, Yayo Calvo, Loles León, Ángel de Andrés López, José Antonio Navarro.
Cinematography: José Luis Alcaine
Film Editor: José Salcedo
Original Music: Bernardo Bonezzi
Produced by: Augustin Almodóvar
Written and Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Connected film festival attendees learned about Pedro Almodóvar before everybody else, especially if they had an understanding of new developments in Spanish cinema. Film school had shown us nothing but the very exceptional work of Luis Buñuel, most of which is really from Mexico and France. In the 1980s we Angelenos were just getting access to films by the old-school ‘traditional’ rebel Spaniards Carlos Saura and Juan Antonio Bardem.
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 855
1988 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 89 min. / Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 21, 2017 / 39.95
Starring Carmen Maura, Fernando Guillén, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, Rossy de Palma, María Barranco, Kiti Manver, Guillermo Montesinos, Chus Lampreave, Yayo Calvo, Loles León, Ángel de Andrés López, José Antonio Navarro.
Cinematography: José Luis Alcaine
Film Editor: José Salcedo
Original Music: Bernardo Bonezzi
Produced by: Augustin Almodóvar
Written and Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Connected film festival attendees learned about Pedro Almodóvar before everybody else, especially if they had an understanding of new developments in Spanish cinema. Film school had shown us nothing but the very exceptional work of Luis Buñuel, most of which is really from Mexico and France. In the 1980s we Angelenos were just getting access to films by the old-school ‘traditional’ rebel Spaniards Carlos Saura and Juan Antonio Bardem.
- 1/31/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Mildred Pierce
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 860
1945 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 111 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date , 2017 /
Starring Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Bruce Bennett, Lee Patrick, Moroni Olsen, Veda Ann Borg, Jo Ann Marlowe, Butterfly McQueen.
Cinematography: Ernest Haller
Art Direction: Anton Grot
Film Editor: David Weisbart
Original Music: Max Steiner
Written by: Ranald MacDougall from the novel by James M. Cain
Produced by: Jerry Wald, Jack L. Warner
Directed by Michael Curtiz
James M. Cain’s 1941 novel Mildred Pierce offers a venal and self-destructive view of America not with a story of respectable bourgeois society, not the criminal underworld. A de-classed, suburb-dwelling nobody fights her way onto the social register by using men and by hard work… and then watches as her obsessive goals blow up in her face In Cain’s worldview it’s every woman for herself. He drags in an odd personal theme,...
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 860
1945 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 111 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date , 2017 /
Starring Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Bruce Bennett, Lee Patrick, Moroni Olsen, Veda Ann Borg, Jo Ann Marlowe, Butterfly McQueen.
Cinematography: Ernest Haller
Art Direction: Anton Grot
Film Editor: David Weisbart
Original Music: Max Steiner
Written by: Ranald MacDougall from the novel by James M. Cain
Produced by: Jerry Wald, Jack L. Warner
Directed by Michael Curtiz
James M. Cain’s 1941 novel Mildred Pierce offers a venal and self-destructive view of America not with a story of respectable bourgeois society, not the criminal underworld. A de-classed, suburb-dwelling nobody fights her way onto the social register by using men and by hard work… and then watches as her obsessive goals blow up in her face In Cain’s worldview it’s every woman for herself. He drags in an odd personal theme,...
- 1/28/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Don’t mess with the one-armed man — did you know that at 56 years, Spencer Tracy could whup Ernest Borgnine to a frazzle? John Sturges knocked this one out of the ballpark and booted his career into high gear. It’s well remembered… but does anyone remember that the subject is the murder of a Japanese-American? It’s a combo social issue film And a tough guy western.
Bad Day at Black Rock
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1955 / Color / 2:40:1 widescreen / 81 min. / Street Date January 17, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, Russell Collins, Walter Sande, Robert Griffin, Harry Harvey.
Cinematography William C. Mellor
Film Editor Newell P. Kimlin
Original Music André Previn
Written by Millard Kaufman, Don McGuire story by Howard Breslin
Produced by Dore Schary
Directed by John Sturges
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Warning to...
Bad Day at Black Rock
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1955 / Color / 2:40:1 widescreen / 81 min. / Street Date January 17, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, Russell Collins, Walter Sande, Robert Griffin, Harry Harvey.
Cinematography William C. Mellor
Film Editor Newell P. Kimlin
Original Music André Previn
Written by Millard Kaufman, Don McGuire story by Howard Breslin
Produced by Dore Schary
Directed by John Sturges
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Warning to...
- 12/24/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Joan Crawford controls every aspect of this glamorous, Oscar nominated noir about a murderous marriage double-cross. Good acting enlivens a by-the-book, gimmick-laden plot, with every moment designed to flatter the star.
Sudden Fear
Blu-ray
The Cohen Film Collection
1952 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 110 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / 34.99
Starring Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame, Bruce Bennett, Virginia Huston, Touch Connors, Bess Flowers, Taylor Holmes, Lewis Martin, Arthur Space.
Cinematography Charles Lang
Film Editor Leon Barsha
Art Director Boris Leven
Original Music Elmer Bernstein
Written by Lenore Coffee, Robert Smith from a novel by Edna Sherry
Produced by Joseph Kaufman
Directed by David Miller
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Joan Crawford movie Sudden Fear is an efficient and stylish thriller. Although it’s technically film noir, its story of a two-way murder frame-up is sublimated to the actress’s overpowering personality. It’s the first movie where Crawford was able to...
Sudden Fear
Blu-ray
The Cohen Film Collection
1952 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 110 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / 34.99
Starring Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame, Bruce Bennett, Virginia Huston, Touch Connors, Bess Flowers, Taylor Holmes, Lewis Martin, Arthur Space.
Cinematography Charles Lang
Film Editor Leon Barsha
Art Director Boris Leven
Original Music Elmer Bernstein
Written by Lenore Coffee, Robert Smith from a novel by Edna Sherry
Produced by Joseph Kaufman
Directed by David Miller
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Joan Crawford movie Sudden Fear is an efficient and stylish thriller. Although it’s technically film noir, its story of a two-way murder frame-up is sublimated to the actress’s overpowering personality. It’s the first movie where Crawford was able to...
- 12/3/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Update: The Before Trilogy on Criterion is currently $39.95. Pre-order while you can.
After The Criterion Collection hinted at it and some of the own crew confirmed it, it’s now been officially revealed that one of their most-requested releases will be arriving next year. Richard Linklater‘s Before trilogy will be joining the colelction just a few weeks after Valentine’s Day, on February 28th, featuring new 2K restorations of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset as well as Before Midnight.
Special features include a new discussion with Linklater, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke, moderated by Kent Jones, and Athina Rachel Tsangari’s documentary on the making of the most recent feature. There’s also the full feature-length documentary Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny, and more. While we’re still waiting on cover art for the Linklater set, check out the full details on February’s line-up below, also including one...
After The Criterion Collection hinted at it and some of the own crew confirmed it, it’s now been officially revealed that one of their most-requested releases will be arriving next year. Richard Linklater‘s Before trilogy will be joining the colelction just a few weeks after Valentine’s Day, on February 28th, featuring new 2K restorations of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset as well as Before Midnight.
Special features include a new discussion with Linklater, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke, moderated by Kent Jones, and Athina Rachel Tsangari’s documentary on the making of the most recent feature. There’s also the full feature-length documentary Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny, and more. While we’re still waiting on cover art for the Linklater set, check out the full details on February’s line-up below, also including one...
- 11/15/2016
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Marlon Brando put his all into this impassioned, expertly acted and crafted VistaVision western spectacle. Has it been overlooked because of the scarcity of quality presentations? Karl Malden, Katy Jurado, Pina Pellicer, Ben Johnson and Slim Pickens are unforgettable, as are the Big Sur locations. One-Eyed Jacks Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 844 1961 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 141 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date November 22, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Katy Jurado, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Pina Pellicer, Larry Duran, Sam Gilman, Míriam Colón, Timothy Carey, Margarita Cordova, Elisha Cook Jr., Rodolfo Acosta, Joan Petrone, Joe Dominguez, Tom Webb, Ray Teal, John Dierkes, Philip Ahn, Hank Worden, Clem Harvey, William Forrest, Mina Martinez. Cinematography Charles Lang. Jr. Film Editor Archie Marshek Original Music Hugo Friedhofer Written by Guy Trosper, Calder Willingham from the novel The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones by Charles Neider Produced by Frank P. Rosenberg Directed by Marlon Brando...
- 11/12/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Another release of the Kramer-Foreman-Zinnemann classic gives Savant another chance to make his argument that this supposedly 'liberal' movie is too confused to be anything but political quicksand -- if anything, its statement is bitterly hawkish. High Noon Blu-ray Olive Signature 1952 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 85 min. / Street Date September 20, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 39.95 Starring Gary Cooper, Thomas Mitchell, Grace Kelly, Katy Jurado, Lloyd Bridges, Lon Chaney Jr, Harry Morgan, Otto Kruger, Lee Van Cleef. Cinematography Floyd Crosby Production Designer Rudolph Sternad Film Editor Elmo Williams Original Music Dimitri Tiomkin Written by Carl Foreman Produced by Stanley Kramer Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
This is my fourth time out with a review of High Noon, starting fourteen years ago with a pretty miserable Artisan DVD, then a Lionsgate 'ultimate edition,' followed by Olive Film's first, quite good Blu-ray. Olive now revisits the 1952 classic as...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
This is my fourth time out with a review of High Noon, starting fourteen years ago with a pretty miserable Artisan DVD, then a Lionsgate 'ultimate edition,' followed by Olive Film's first, quite good Blu-ray. Olive now revisits the 1952 classic as...
- 10/1/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Olive's new branded line reissues the Nicholas Ray classic with a full set of authoritative extras -- plus a never-before-seen widescreen transfer, in all of its Trucolor glory. Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden never looked better -- we can all compare theories about la Crawford's color-coded costumes. Just how masculine is Vienna supposed to be? Johnny Guitar (Olive Signature widescreen edition) Blu-ray Olive Films 1954 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date September 20, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 39.95 but heavily discounted Starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Scott Brady, Ward Bond, Ben Cooper, Ernest Borgnine, John Carradine, Royal Dano, Frank Ferguson, Paul Fix, Rhys Williams. Cinematography Harry Stradling Film Editor Richard Van Enger Original Music Victor Young Written by Philip Yordan from the novel by Roy Chanslor Produced by Herbert J. Yates Directed by Nicholas Ray
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Wow, it's already been four years since Olive released a...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Wow, it's already been four years since Olive released a...
- 9/20/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The quintessential shot in Robert Aldrich’s filmography is that of a close-up, held for a smidgen longer than the normal length one would think appropriate for such a shot. The face the camera is focusing on is usually a signifier of the most central element in Aldrich’s films: tension. Whether it’s melodrama (Autumn Leaves, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?), war pictures (Too Late the Hero, Attack!), or Westerns, both sober and jocular (Ulzana’s Raid and 4 For Texas, respectively), ideological and external forces wrestle within the psyche that defines Aldrich’s cinema. Metrograph's all-35mm retrospective in New York offers us the opportunity to survey the oeuvre of the auteur who hammered out his cinematic legacy with the vigor of an undoubtedly indignant and irreverent artist. Too Late the Hero (1970)Consistency across genre and modes of filmmaking marks Aldrich as one of the last great studio auteurs,...
- 9/17/2016
- MUBI
Leave it to director William Wellman to direct the most compelling social justice movie of the 1940s. Taken from a bestselling novel, it's a wrenching examination of the workings of a natural American phenomenon, the Lynch Mob. The Ox-Bow Incident Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1942 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 75 min. / Street Date July 12, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Anthony Quinn, William Eythe, Harry Morgan, Jane Darwell, Matt Briggs, Harry Davenport, Frank Conroy, Marc Lawrence Cinematography Arthur Miller Art Direction James Basevi, Richard Day Film Editor Allen McNeil Original Music Cyril J. Mockridge Written and Produced by Lamar Trotti from a novel by Walter Van Tilburg Clark Directed by William A. Wellman
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In the first scene of this grim feature, Henry Fonda stumbles out of a saloon street and throws up in the street. Apparently that was the reaction shared...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In the first scene of this grim feature, Henry Fonda stumbles out of a saloon street and throws up in the street. Apparently that was the reaction shared...
- 8/22/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This early John Wayne oater displays the natural star quality and winning personality that sustained him through the 1930s -- it's a naïve, charming western that features some of The Duke's closest early associates. 'Neath Arizona Skies Blu-ray Olive Films 1934 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 52 min. / Street Date July 19, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 24.95 Starring John Wayne, Sheila Terry, Shirley Jane Rickert, Jack Rockwell, Yakima Canutt, Weston Edwards, Jay Wilsey, Earl Dwire, George 'Gabby' Hayes. Cinematography Archie Stout Film Editor Charles Hunt Original Music Billly Barber Written by Burl R. Tuttle from his story. Produced by Paul Malvern Directed by Harry L. Fraser
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Want to see where our western film heritage really came from? Big studios made giant wagon train movies, epics about the railroad and star-driven biographies of Billy the Kid, but the genre was sustained by a steady diet of six reel 'oaters,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Want to see where our western film heritage really came from? Big studios made giant wagon train movies, epics about the railroad and star-driven biographies of Billy the Kid, but the genre was sustained by a steady diet of six reel 'oaters,...
- 7/26/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This almost completely forgotten '50s western couldn't compete with the big productions, but it has a good cast -- James Arness, Robert J. Wilke, Emile Meyer, Harry Carey Jr. Plus early work by writer Burt Kennedy, and the debuts of actress Angie Dickinson and director Andrew V. McLaglen. Gun the Man Down Blu-ray Olive Films 1956 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 76 min. / Street Date July 19, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98 Starring James Arness, Angie Dickinson, Emile Meyer, Robert J. Wilke, Harry Carey Jr., Don Megowan, Michael Emmet, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez. Cinematography William H. Clothier Film Editor A. Edward Sutherland Original Music Henry Vars Written by Burt Kennedy, Sam Freedle Produced by Robert E. Morrison Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
When the 1950s rolled in John Wayne stopped being merely an actor and graduated to institution status, starting his own production company, Batjac, and promoting his own group of talent.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
When the 1950s rolled in John Wayne stopped being merely an actor and graduated to institution status, starting his own production company, Batjac, and promoting his own group of talent.
- 7/23/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Olive Films have been quietly releasing a huge swath of catalog titles on Blu-ray over the last few years. This has been great for cineastes still interested in growing their physical media libraries, but for folks who enjoy special features, the releases have been lacking as they are usually bare bones affairs. Perhaps as a way to rectify this, Olive have announced a new Signature Series that will highlight cult favorites, time-honored classics, and under-appreciated gems. Taking a page from the Criterion Collection, each Olive Signature edition will boast a pristine audio and video transfer, artsy cover art, and an abundance of bonus material. The Signature Series will kick off on September 20 with the release of two titles, High Noon and Johnny Guitar. High Noon features include:...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 7/11/2016
- Screen Anarchy
Well, another year spent in the company of classic cinema curated by the TCM Classic Film Festival has come and gone, leaving me with several great experiences watching favorite films and ones I’d never before seen, some already cherished memories, and the usual weary bag of bones for a body in the aftermath. (I usually come down with something when I decompress post-festival and get back to the working week, and this year has been no exception.) There have now been seven TCMFFs since its inaugural run in 2010. I’ve been lucky enough to attend them all, and this time around I saw more movies than I ever have before—18 features zipping from auditorium to queue and back to auditorium like a gerbil in a tube maze. In order to make sure I got in to see everything I wanted to see, I had to make sure I was...
- 5/7/2016
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Nicholas Ray’s 1954 gem, starring Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden, is an extraordinary psychological drama
“I intend to be buried here … in the 20th century!” Joan Crawford carries off this line with magnificent hauteur in Nicholas Ray’s extraordinary psychological western – and is there any other kind? This 1954 gem is on rerelease, starring Crawford as saloon-keeper Vienna, with a wonderful range of outfits, stark black eyes and a rectangular red slash of a mouth. Maria Callas herself couldn’t have played Vienna with more poise, more defiance, more passionate abandon. Vienna presides over a surreally upmarket establishment in the middle of the old west, offering roulette, though no customer ever bets. Her office has a bust of Beethoven, and she plays the piano herself. Vienna is waiting for the fancy eastern clientele brought by the slowly advancing railroad, or more to the point, waiting for the railroad company to buy her out,...
“I intend to be buried here … in the 20th century!” Joan Crawford carries off this line with magnificent hauteur in Nicholas Ray’s extraordinary psychological western – and is there any other kind? This 1954 gem is on rerelease, starring Crawford as saloon-keeper Vienna, with a wonderful range of outfits, stark black eyes and a rectangular red slash of a mouth. Maria Callas herself couldn’t have played Vienna with more poise, more defiance, more passionate abandon. Vienna presides over a surreally upmarket establishment in the middle of the old west, offering roulette, though no customer ever bets. Her office has a bust of Beethoven, and she plays the piano herself. Vienna is waiting for the fancy eastern clientele brought by the slowly advancing railroad, or more to the point, waiting for the railroad company to buy her out,...
- 5/5/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The Metrograph is screening all ten of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's favorite films: Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar, Howard Hawks's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter, Vasily Shukshin's The Red Snowball Tree, Josef von Sternberg's Dishonored, Max Ophuls's Lola Montes, Michael Curtiz's Flamingo Road, Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom, Raoul Walsh's The Naked and the Dead and Luchino Visconti's The Damned. Also in New York: King Hu’s A Touch of Zen and work by Luis Ospina. Screening tonight in Chicago: Nathan Silver's Riot, Mike Ott's Lancaster, CA and William Greaves's In the Company of Men. And we have a few more goings on. » - David Hudson...
- 4/22/2016
- Keyframe
The Metrograph is screening all ten of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's favorite films: Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar, Howard Hawks's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter, Vasily Shukshin's The Red Snowball Tree, Josef von Sternberg's Dishonored, Max Ophuls's Lola Montes, Michael Curtiz's Flamingo Road, Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom, Raoul Walsh's The Naked and the Dead and Luchino Visconti's The Damned. Also in New York: King Hu’s A Touch of Zen and work by Luis Ospina. Screening tonight in Chicago: Nathan Silver's Riot, Mike Ott's Lancaster, CA and William Greaves's In the Company of Men. And we have a few more goings on. » - David Hudson...
- 4/22/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
Since any New York cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Metrograph
You’ve read of Rainer Werner Fassbinder‘s ten favorite films — now you can see them. The German titan’s beloved titles are celebrated in a new series: Johnny Guitar screens this Friday; Saturday offers Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Night of the Hunter, and the rarely seen The Red Snowball Tree; on Sunday, one can...
Metrograph
You’ve read of Rainer Werner Fassbinder‘s ten favorite films — now you can see them. The German titan’s beloved titles are celebrated in a new series: Johnny Guitar screens this Friday; Saturday offers Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Night of the Hunter, and the rarely seen The Red Snowball Tree; on Sunday, one can...
- 4/22/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The Nikkatsu logo, especially in the late 1950s and early 1960s, was a bit of a promise – 80-100 minutes of wild guys, sexy ladies, mob showdowns, a handful of visually-striking locations (get ready for nothing but bars, nightclubs, and docks), and a good deal of brooding over morality before the inevitable eruption of violence. These were as programatic as they come, yet within those strictures, the filmmakers under contract to the studio found enough room to practice some pretty wild stuff, or at least have some fun in so doing. Though the true classics from the studio (especially those by Shohei Imamura and Seijun Suzuki) were definitely outliers, to the point that the directors behind them were punished or fired for making them, that baseline promise captured the imaginations of young moviegoers at the time and have remained steadfast pleasures for today’s cinephiles.
For those whose curiosity was piqued...
For those whose curiosity was piqued...
- 3/30/2016
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
Today is the Centennial of one of the most singular character actresses of the 1950s, Mercedes McCambridge, born in Joliet Illinois on this very day in 1916. We hope you've enjoyed our mini retrospective. We previousy discussed her sensational debut in All The King's Men (1949) her final Oscar nomination for the Texas epic Giant (1956) and her sorry fate in a teensy part in the Airport disaster series. (In the past, Icymi, we've amply discussed The Exorcist in which she did truly legendary voice work as well as the fiery abandon of must-see western Johnny Guitar.)
In The Concorde... Airport '79 article, Tim talked about the disaster genre's often ...um... disastrous treatment of aged film stars in cameos. But discarded stars of Old Hollywood also frequently collected paychecks through TV guest spots. On the small screen there was the same roulette wheel chances at success. In fact McCambridge was more frequently spotted on TV than in film,...
In The Concorde... Airport '79 article, Tim talked about the disaster genre's often ...um... disastrous treatment of aged film stars in cameos. But discarded stars of Old Hollywood also frequently collected paychecks through TV guest spots. On the small screen there was the same roulette wheel chances at success. In fact McCambridge was more frequently spotted on TV than in film,...
- 3/16/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Photo by Donnacha Kenny"Congratulations, Tom; you're one of the lucky eight per cent!" —Stir of Echoes (1999)Joliet, Illinois is probably the American city which more people have dreamed more fervently of escaping than any other. But after spending four hours in 'Prison Town'—long synonymous far and wide with incarceration—I was sad to leave; I'll be glad one day to return. Fortunately, such matters are questions of personal choice. Many of the area's residents, including those not serving custodial sentences, have little realistic option but to remain—trapped by personal, social and/or economic circumstances that can feel as confining as any 6-by-8 cell. "Joliet, or "J-Town", is racially diverse and is known as a crime-ridden city, although the area has shown much improvement since the 1990's... The east side is generally known as the ghetto side and the west side is known as middle class, even though...
- 2/29/2016
- by Neil Young
- MUBI
Each weekend we highlight the best repertory programming that New York City has to offer, and it’s about to get even better. Opening on February 19th at 7 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side is Metrograph, the city’s newest indie movie theater. Sporting two screens, they’ve announced their first slate, which includes retrospectives for Fassbinder, Wiseman, Eustache, and more, special programs such as an ode to the moviegoing experience, and new independent features that we’ve admired on the festival circuit (including Afternoon, Office 3D, and Measure of a Man).
Artistic and Programming Director Jacob Perlin says in a press release, “Jean Eustache in a Rocky t-shirt. This is the image we had in mind while making this first calendar. Great cinema is there, wherever you can find it. The dismissed film now recognized as a classic, the forgotten box-office hit newly resurrected, the high and the low,...
Artistic and Programming Director Jacob Perlin says in a press release, “Jean Eustache in a Rocky t-shirt. This is the image we had in mind while making this first calendar. Great cinema is there, wherever you can find it. The dismissed film now recognized as a classic, the forgotten box-office hit newly resurrected, the high and the low,...
- 1/20/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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