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
A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit.
This weekend is crunch time. Final balloting for the 93rd annual Academy Awards began Thursday, and it is likely that a majority of those ballots will have been filled out and submitted by the time we get to Monday. Technically, voters have until 5 p.m. Pt Tuesday to turn them in, and as usual there will be a lot of stragglers who wait until the last minute, a reason why some contenders still with a fighting chance will be campaigning with advertising on TV and websites like this one right up until the last moment. And there are a lot of tight races where those voters will have some tough choices. Before that happens, we still have a few precursor awards shows to go including tonight’s Annies, Saturday’s Ace Eddies and Sunday’s ASC cinematographer ceremonies, all of them virtual.
This weekend is crunch time. Final balloting for the 93rd annual Academy Awards began Thursday, and it is likely that a majority of those ballots will have been filled out and submitted by the time we get to Monday. Technically, voters have until 5 p.m. Pt Tuesday to turn them in, and as usual there will be a lot of stragglers who wait until the last minute, a reason why some contenders still with a fighting chance will be campaigning with advertising on TV and websites like this one right up until the last moment. And there are a lot of tight races where those voters will have some tough choices. Before that happens, we still have a few precursor awards shows to go including tonight’s Annies, Saturday’s Ace Eddies and Sunday’s ASC cinematographer ceremonies, all of them virtual.
- 4/16/2021
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
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
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
"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber. (Click on the images for magnified detail)
Last week’s column on Suddenly, Last Summer was a bonus sidebar to our ongoing Montgomery Clift retrospective. Today, I offer a diversion from our wall-to-wall Monty programming, in the form of a tribute to someone else’s centennial: Melina Mercouri. None of this film star's movies were nominated for Best Production Design at the Oscars, but I adore her anyway. And one of her films, made at the peak of her fame, is a perfect fit: Topkapi (1964)
Mercouri’s brand, so to speak, was one of obstinate vitality. In Stella, her film debut, she played a nightclub singer who simply refuses to be married, even at the expense of love. Her character in Never on Sunday, for which she received her only Oscar nomination, insists upon her own chipper versions of the Greek classics. Medea, who didn’t really murder her children,...
Last week’s column on Suddenly, Last Summer was a bonus sidebar to our ongoing Montgomery Clift retrospective. Today, I offer a diversion from our wall-to-wall Monty programming, in the form of a tribute to someone else’s centennial: Melina Mercouri. None of this film star's movies were nominated for Best Production Design at the Oscars, but I adore her anyway. And one of her films, made at the peak of her fame, is a perfect fit: Topkapi (1964)
Mercouri’s brand, so to speak, was one of obstinate vitality. In Stella, her film debut, she played a nightclub singer who simply refuses to be married, even at the expense of love. Her character in Never on Sunday, for which she received her only Oscar nomination, insists upon her own chipper versions of the Greek classics. Medea, who didn’t really murder her children,...
- 10/14/2020
- by Daniel Walber
- FilmExperience
The Academy has chosen its film scholars this year and is not letting the coronavirus pandemic get in the way of one of AMPAS’ most important programs, at least in terms of serious studies relating to the film industry. Fittingly, considering Oscar’s drive toward greater diversity, both projects involve issues revolving around movies and their depictions of the Black community.
Racquel Gates and Rebecca Prime have been chosen as 2020 Academy Film Scholars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Their respective book projects, Hollywood Style and the Invention of Blackness and Uptight!: Race, Revolution, and the Struggle to Make the Most Dangerous Film of 1968, explore in depth the topic of race in Hollywood. The Academy’s Educational Grants Committee will award Gates and Prime $25,000 each on the basis of their proposals.
Established in 1999, the Academy Film Scholars program is designed to support significant new works of film scholarship.
Racquel Gates and Rebecca Prime have been chosen as 2020 Academy Film Scholars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Their respective book projects, Hollywood Style and the Invention of Blackness and Uptight!: Race, Revolution, and the Struggle to Make the Most Dangerous Film of 1968, explore in depth the topic of race in Hollywood. The Academy’s Educational Grants Committee will award Gates and Prime $25,000 each on the basis of their proposals.
Established in 1999, the Academy Film Scholars program is designed to support significant new works of film scholarship.
- 7/30/2020
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
The producer of Narcos takes us on a walk through some of the movies that made him.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Contagion (2011)
Panic In The Streets (1950)
Rififi (1955)
Night And The City (1950)
Thieves’ Highway (1949)
Never on Sunday (1960)
The Karate Kid (1984)
The Game (1997)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
The Great Escape (1963)
Children of Men (2006)
Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)
If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969)
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Godfather (1972)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Animal House (1978)
An American Werewolf In London (1981)
Trading Places (1983)
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)
Fellini Satyricon (1969)
The Beastmaster (1982)
Sheena (1984)
High Risk (1981)
Ghostbusters (1984)
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Piranha (1978)
Gallipoli (1981)
Witness (1985)
The Killing Fields (1984)
Mad Max (1980)
Max Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)
The Last Wave (1978)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
The Lord of the Rings (1978)
The Hobbit (1977)
The Return of the King (1980)
Class (1983)
The Great Santini (1979)
Fast Times At Ridgemont High...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Contagion (2011)
Panic In The Streets (1950)
Rififi (1955)
Night And The City (1950)
Thieves’ Highway (1949)
Never on Sunday (1960)
The Karate Kid (1984)
The Game (1997)
The Dirty Dozen (1967)
The Great Escape (1963)
Children of Men (2006)
Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)
If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969)
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Godfather (1972)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Animal House (1978)
An American Werewolf In London (1981)
Trading Places (1983)
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)
Fellini Satyricon (1969)
The Beastmaster (1982)
Sheena (1984)
High Risk (1981)
Ghostbusters (1984)
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Piranha (1978)
Gallipoli (1981)
Witness (1985)
The Killing Fields (1984)
Mad Max (1980)
Max Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)
The Last Wave (1978)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
The Lord of the Rings (1978)
The Hobbit (1977)
The Return of the King (1980)
Class (1983)
The Great Santini (1979)
Fast Times At Ridgemont High...
- 6/16/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
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
This article marks Part 12 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 winners.
The 1973 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:
“(You’re So) Nice to Be Around” from “Cinderella Liberty”
“Live and Let Die” from “Live and Let Die”
“Love,” from “Robin Hood”
“All That Love Went to Waste” from “A Touch of Class”
“The Way We Were” from “The Way We Were”
Won and should’ve won: “The Way We Were” from “The Way We Were”
The title song from “The Way We Were,” composed by the brilliant, Egot-winning Marvin Hamlisch, alongside Alan and Marilyn Bergman, is a dreamy, haunting, immensely moving piece, performed splendidly by the incomparable Barbra Streisand. The film’s leading lady strikes just the right notes here,...
The 1973 Oscar nominees in Best Original Song were:
“(You’re So) Nice to Be Around” from “Cinderella Liberty”
“Live and Let Die” from “Live and Let Die”
“Love,” from “Robin Hood”
“All That Love Went to Waste” from “A Touch of Class”
“The Way We Were” from “The Way We Were”
Won and should’ve won: “The Way We Were” from “The Way We Were”
The title song from “The Way We Were,” composed by the brilliant, Egot-winning Marvin Hamlisch, alongside Alan and Marilyn Bergman, is a dreamy, haunting, immensely moving piece, performed splendidly by the incomparable Barbra Streisand. The film’s leading lady strikes just the right notes here,...
- 12/4/2018
- by Andrew Carden
- Gold Derby
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
Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond’s lavish movie boils down to a dirty party joke, but they struck gold just the same. Audiences flocked to see Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine reunited in a fantasy Parisian red light district, in a show that looks like Disneyland for fans of Playboy cartoons.
Irma La Douce
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1963 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date July 17, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Lou Jacobi, Herschel Bernardi, Hope Holiday, Bruce Yarnell, Joan Shawlee, Grace Lee Whitney, Paul Dubov, Howard McNear, Cliff Osmond, Diki Lerner, Ruth & Jane Earl, Tura Satana.
Cinematography: Joseph La Shelle
Art Director: Alexander Trauner
Film Editor: Daniel Mandell
Original Music: Marguerite Monnot, André Previn
Written by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond from a play by Alexandre Breffort
Produced by Edward L. Alperson, I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder
Directed by Billy Wilder
Although there’s...
Irma La Douce
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1963 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date July 17, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Lou Jacobi, Herschel Bernardi, Hope Holiday, Bruce Yarnell, Joan Shawlee, Grace Lee Whitney, Paul Dubov, Howard McNear, Cliff Osmond, Diki Lerner, Ruth & Jane Earl, Tura Satana.
Cinematography: Joseph La Shelle
Art Director: Alexander Trauner
Film Editor: Daniel Mandell
Original Music: Marguerite Monnot, André Previn
Written by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond from a play by Alexandre Breffort
Produced by Edward L. Alperson, I.A.L. Diamond, Billy Wilder
Directed by Billy Wilder
Although there’s...
- 7/14/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
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
Something Wild
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 850
1961 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen 1:37 flat Academy / 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 17, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, Mildred Dunnock, Jean Stapleton, Martin Kosleck, Charles Watts, Clifton James, Doris Roberts, Anita Cooper, Tanya Lopert.
Cinematography: Eugen Schüfftan
Film Editor: Carl Lerner
Original Music: Aaron Copland
Written by Jack Garfein and Alex Karmel from his novel Mary Ann
Produced by George Justin
Directed by Jack Garfein
After writing up an earlier Mod disc release of the 1961 movie Something Wild, I received a brief but welcome email note from its director:
“Dear Glenn Erickson,
Thank you for your profound appreciation of Something Wild.
If possible, I would appreciate if you could send
me a copy of your review by email.
Sincerely yours, Jack Garfein”
Somewhere back East (or in London), the Actors Studio legend Jack Garfein had found favor with the review. Although...
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 850
1961 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen 1:37 flat Academy / 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 17, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, Mildred Dunnock, Jean Stapleton, Martin Kosleck, Charles Watts, Clifton James, Doris Roberts, Anita Cooper, Tanya Lopert.
Cinematography: Eugen Schüfftan
Film Editor: Carl Lerner
Original Music: Aaron Copland
Written by Jack Garfein and Alex Karmel from his novel Mary Ann
Produced by George Justin
Directed by Jack Garfein
After writing up an earlier Mod disc release of the 1961 movie Something Wild, I received a brief but welcome email note from its director:
“Dear Glenn Erickson,
Thank you for your profound appreciation of Something Wild.
If possible, I would appreciate if you could send
me a copy of your review by email.
Sincerely yours, Jack Garfein”
Somewhere back East (or in London), the Actors Studio legend Jack Garfein had found favor with the review. Although...
- 1/10/2017
- 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
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
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
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
We're three-quarters through Movember, well into the styling period for any properly moustached gentleman. What movie-based style will you pick?
It's that time of year again, when the weather turns cold and normally clean-shaven men start scratching their upper lip as they try to grow the best moustache possible for a good cause. It's Movember!
Unfortunately there are some men whose efforts are classified more as extreme stubble than a moustache, but for those now successfully hairy there's a decision to make: what kind of 'tache style should you go for? Handlebar or Regent? Poirot or Einstein?
Fortunately there's always the silver screen to help you along, with dozens of different varieties to choose from. Below are some of the greatest moustaches in film. Take your pick! And then rustle up your own suggestions. Just don't complain to us if all you've got is a 5 o'clock shadow.
1) There's the classic...
It's that time of year again, when the weather turns cold and normally clean-shaven men start scratching their upper lip as they try to grow the best moustache possible for a good cause. It's Movember!
Unfortunately there are some men whose efforts are classified more as extreme stubble than a moustache, but for those now successfully hairy there's a decision to make: what kind of 'tache style should you go for? Handlebar or Regent? Poirot or Einstein?
Fortunately there's always the silver screen to help you along, with dozens of different varieties to choose from. Below are some of the greatest moustaches in film. Take your pick! And then rustle up your own suggestions. Just don't complain to us if all you've got is a 5 o'clock shadow.
1) There's the classic...
- 11/23/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
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
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
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
Fifty years ago, the Palme d'Or winner at Cannes was Fellini's "La Dolce Vita." More every year I realize that it was the film of my lifetime. But indulge me while I list some more titles.
The other entries in the official competition included "Ballad of a Soldier," by Grigori Chukhrai; "Lady with a Dog," by Iosif Kheifits; "Home from the Hill," by Vincente Minnelli; "The Virgin Spring," by Ingmar Bergman;" "Kagi," by Kon Ichikawa; "L'Avventura," by Michelangelo Antonioni; "Le Trou," by Jacques Becker; "Never on Sunday," by Jules Dassin; "Sons and Lovers," by Jack Cardiff; "The Savage Innocents," by Nicholas Ray, and "The Young One," by Luis Bunuel.
And many more. But I am not here at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival to mourn the present and praise the past.
Cannes is still the most important annual event in the world of what some of us consider good cinema. The...
The other entries in the official competition included "Ballad of a Soldier," by Grigori Chukhrai; "Lady with a Dog," by Iosif Kheifits; "Home from the Hill," by Vincente Minnelli; "The Virgin Spring," by Ingmar Bergman;" "Kagi," by Kon Ichikawa; "L'Avventura," by Michelangelo Antonioni; "Le Trou," by Jacques Becker; "Never on Sunday," by Jules Dassin; "Sons and Lovers," by Jack Cardiff; "The Savage Innocents," by Nicholas Ray, and "The Young One," by Luis Bunuel.
And many more. But I am not here at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival to mourn the present and praise the past.
Cannes is still the most important annual event in the world of what some of us consider good cinema. The...
- 5/13/2010
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
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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