Vienna-based Terra Mater Studios, a subsidiary of Red Bull, is developing its first fictional series “Salon of Sugar.”
The historical drama will focus on Berta Zuckerkandl, born in 1864: a writer, journalist and a hostess of an important literary salon in Vienna, frequented by the likes of Auguste Rodin, Gustav Klimt, director Max Reinhardt or Stefan Zweig.
“Composer Gustav Mahler actually met his wife Alma there,” says producer Nina Steiner, teasing other familiar faces bound to appear in the show, from Freud to Georges Clemenceau. Verena Puhm writes.
According to the makers, by creating an environment where revolutionary ideas and discussions flourished, Berta found herself at the very center of cultural and intellectual evolution during a “transformative” era in European history.
“I was drawn to this story because it encapsulates the timeless struggle for freedom and equality amidst a backdrop of societal change. Berta’s journey embodies the resilience and...
The historical drama will focus on Berta Zuckerkandl, born in 1864: a writer, journalist and a hostess of an important literary salon in Vienna, frequented by the likes of Auguste Rodin, Gustav Klimt, director Max Reinhardt or Stefan Zweig.
“Composer Gustav Mahler actually met his wife Alma there,” says producer Nina Steiner, teasing other familiar faces bound to appear in the show, from Freud to Georges Clemenceau. Verena Puhm writes.
According to the makers, by creating an environment where revolutionary ideas and discussions flourished, Berta found herself at the very center of cultural and intellectual evolution during a “transformative” era in European history.
“I was drawn to this story because it encapsulates the timeless struggle for freedom and equality amidst a backdrop of societal change. Berta’s journey embodies the resilience and...
- 10/17/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
“Time is all we have and every second that ticks away is one less second we’re alive,” Kenneth Anger told an interviewer from The Guardian 16 and a half years before his death this May at the age of 96. “The sands of time are going through the hourglass but it doesn’t frighten me.”
If Woody Allen’s Zelig was found rubbing elbows with the storied and famous of the ’20s and ’30s, starting in the 1950s Anger was for some decades more than a match for him. His legacy is poised between the pathbreaking cinematic auteur who made such avant-garde shorts as “Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome” (1954) and “Scorpio Rising” (1963) and the purveyor of at times fictionalized Hollywood scandal in the sensational and frequently updated “Hollywood Babylon” (1959).
He was not immune from his own brushes with dark history — the very bikers he incorporated in some of his middle-period work...
If Woody Allen’s Zelig was found rubbing elbows with the storied and famous of the ’20s and ’30s, starting in the 1950s Anger was for some decades more than a match for him. His legacy is poised between the pathbreaking cinematic auteur who made such avant-garde shorts as “Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome” (1954) and “Scorpio Rising” (1963) and the purveyor of at times fictionalized Hollywood scandal in the sensational and frequently updated “Hollywood Babylon” (1959).
He was not immune from his own brushes with dark history — the very bikers he incorporated in some of his middle-period work...
- 5/24/2023
- by Fred Schruers
- Indiewire
Ted Donaldson, who starred as Bud Anderson on the original radio version of Father Knows Best and as Neely Nolan in the beloved family drama A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the first feature directed by Elia Kazan, has died. He was 89.
Donaldson died Wednesday of complications from a fall in his Echo Park apartment in January, his friend Thomas Bruno told The Hollywood Reporter.
In his big-screen debut, Donaldson portrayed a boy who gets his pet caterpillar Curly to dance when he plays “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” on the harmonica in the comedy fantasy Once Upon a Time (1944), starring Cary Grant and Janet Blair.
He also starred as Danny Mitchell in eight B-movies from Columbia Pictures that revolved around a German shepherd named Rusty. The first one, Adventures of Rusty (1945), featured Ace the Wonder Dog.
An only child, Donaldson was born in Brooklyn on Aug. 20, 1933. His father was...
Donaldson died Wednesday of complications from a fall in his Echo Park apartment in January, his friend Thomas Bruno told The Hollywood Reporter.
In his big-screen debut, Donaldson portrayed a boy who gets his pet caterpillar Curly to dance when he plays “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” on the harmonica in the comedy fantasy Once Upon a Time (1944), starring Cary Grant and Janet Blair.
He also starred as Danny Mitchell in eight B-movies from Columbia Pictures that revolved around a German shepherd named Rusty. The first one, Adventures of Rusty (1945), featured Ace the Wonder Dog.
An only child, Donaldson was born in Brooklyn on Aug. 20, 1933. His father was...
- 3/3/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
One of the many, many, many problems with the Academy Awards is that with only five nominees in each category — and even with 10 nominees for Best Picture — there's always at least one worthy artist or movie that doesn't get recognized.
In the industry we call these "snubs," and it's a somewhat loaded term that suggests the Oscar voters are deciding, intentionally, not to honor certain filmmakers and their films. While that's certainly a possibility, and there's no denying that the Academy members are human beings full of conscious and unconscious biases, it's also true that in a year full of great artistry in a variety of cinematic fields, at least one person who did amazing work was destined to get left off the ballot, and it's always a real downer for the artist and their fans.
But what if being left off the ballot wasn't the end of their story?...
In the industry we call these "snubs," and it's a somewhat loaded term that suggests the Oscar voters are deciding, intentionally, not to honor certain filmmakers and their films. While that's certainly a possibility, and there's no denying that the Academy members are human beings full of conscious and unconscious biases, it's also true that in a year full of great artistry in a variety of cinematic fields, at least one person who did amazing work was destined to get left off the ballot, and it's always a real downer for the artist and their fans.
But what if being left off the ballot wasn't the end of their story?...
- 2/7/2023
- by William Bibbiani
- Slash Film
Warner Brothers released “Casablanca” in New York on Nov. 26, 1942, which just happened to be Thanksgiving. But the romantic World War II drama starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid was anything but a turkey. To say the New York Times review was effusive is something of an understatement: “Warners here have a picture which makes the spine tingle and the heart take a leap….And they have so combined sentiment, humor and pathos with taut melodrama and bristling intrigue that the result is a highly entertaining and even inspiring film.”
And critical praise and audiences’ adoration continued when it opened in Los Angeles and nationwide in January 1943. It went on to win three Oscars for Best Picture, director for Michael Curtiz and adapted screenplay for Julius J. and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch. Let’s take a look back on the occasion of the 80th anniversary.
As time has gone by,...
And critical praise and audiences’ adoration continued when it opened in Los Angeles and nationwide in January 1943. It went on to win three Oscars for Best Picture, director for Michael Curtiz and adapted screenplay for Julius J. and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch. Let’s take a look back on the occasion of the 80th anniversary.
As time has gone by,...
- 11/28/2022
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures announced Vienna in Hollywood, a new six-week program launching on Dec. 10 that explores the history of the predominantly Jewish, Austrian-born community of filmmakers and professionals who helped shape the classical era of Hollywood.
Jewish immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe including actor-director Erich von Stroheim and composer Max Steiner were major players in the early establishment of the American film industry in the 1920s. Due to Nazi persecution, a larger wave came in the ‘30s and ‘40s, bringing in talent such as the directors Billy Wilder and Fritz Lang; actors Hedy Lamarr and Peter Lorre; producers Eric Pleskow and Sam Spiegel; screenwriters Vicki Baum and Gina Kaus; and composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Ernest Gold. With a symposium and film series, Vienna in Hollywood will pay tribute to these artists and many more.
The two-day symposium is titled Vienna in Hollywood: The Influence and...
Jewish immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe including actor-director Erich von Stroheim and composer Max Steiner were major players in the early establishment of the American film industry in the 1920s. Due to Nazi persecution, a larger wave came in the ‘30s and ‘40s, bringing in talent such as the directors Billy Wilder and Fritz Lang; actors Hedy Lamarr and Peter Lorre; producers Eric Pleskow and Sam Spiegel; screenwriters Vicki Baum and Gina Kaus; and composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Ernest Gold. With a symposium and film series, Vienna in Hollywood will pay tribute to these artists and many more.
The two-day symposium is titled Vienna in Hollywood: The Influence and...
- 10/25/2021
- by Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
Olivia de Havilland, one of the last remaining actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age and the last surviving star of Gone With the Wind, died July 26 of natural causes at her residence in Paris, where she lived for more than six decades, according to Variety. De Havilland was 104.
De Havilland turned 104 on July 1. She was the older sister of Joan Fontaine, who died in 2013 at 96. The two Academy Award-winning actresses were estranged for most of their lives. Olivia Mary de Havilland was born in Tokyo on July 1, 1916. Her parents, Walter de Havilland, an English professor, and actress Lilian Fontaine, were British. De Havilland and her sister grew up in Saratoga, California, with their mother. Her father married the family’s housekeeper and remained in Tokyo. Havilland’s first performance was in a school production of Alice in Wonderland.
She made her stage debut in Max Reinhardt’s production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
De Havilland turned 104 on July 1. She was the older sister of Joan Fontaine, who died in 2013 at 96. The two Academy Award-winning actresses were estranged for most of their lives. Olivia Mary de Havilland was born in Tokyo on July 1, 1916. Her parents, Walter de Havilland, an English professor, and actress Lilian Fontaine, were British. De Havilland and her sister grew up in Saratoga, California, with their mother. Her father married the family’s housekeeper and remained in Tokyo. Havilland’s first performance was in a school production of Alice in Wonderland.
She made her stage debut in Max Reinhardt’s production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
- 7/27/2020
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
Olivia de Havilland in the 1946 film “To Each His Own,” for which she won her first Oscar©.
(Reuters) – “Gone With the Wind” star Olivia de Havilland, considered the last surviving actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood, died on Sunday at the age of 104, the Hollywood Reporter said.
She died of natural causes at her home in Paris, where she had lived for more than 60 years, it said, citing her publicist.
De Havilland’s acting career included two Academy Awards, a victory over Hollywood’s studio system and a long-running feud with sister Joan Fontaine that was worthy of a screenplay.
She first drew attention by playing opposite swashbuckling Errol Flynn in a series of films starting in the 1930s and made an enduring impression as the demure Southern belle Melanie in “Gone With the Wind” in 1939.
Later she would have to fight to get more challenging roles – a battle...
(Reuters) – “Gone With the Wind” star Olivia de Havilland, considered the last surviving actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood, died on Sunday at the age of 104, the Hollywood Reporter said.
She died of natural causes at her home in Paris, where she had lived for more than 60 years, it said, citing her publicist.
De Havilland’s acting career included two Academy Awards, a victory over Hollywood’s studio system and a long-running feud with sister Joan Fontaine that was worthy of a screenplay.
She first drew attention by playing opposite swashbuckling Errol Flynn in a series of films starting in the 1930s and made an enduring impression as the demure Southern belle Melanie in “Gone With the Wind” in 1939.
Later she would have to fight to get more challenging roles – a battle...
- 7/26/2020
- by Michelle Hannett
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The link to Old Hollywood gets smaller with the announcement today that Olivia de Havilland, two-time Oscar winner and the last living star of “Gone With the Wind,” passed away at 104. De Havilland, who just celebrated her birthday three weeks ago, died of natural causes, her reps confirmed.
De Havilland was a trailblazer, and became a beloved bridge between the entertainment of today and the world of yesteryear. The star of over 60 film and television roles, the British actress became immortal after playing the goodhearted Melanie Wilkes in 1939’s “Gone With the Wind” and became swashbuckler Errol Flynn’s primary leading lady, working with him seven times, most notably in “The Adventures of Robin Hood.”
Outside of her film work, she created a shakeup in Hollywood that ended up having long-standing repercussions. In 1943 she filed suit against her home studio of Warner Bros. for extending her contract for longer than the standard seven years.
De Havilland was a trailblazer, and became a beloved bridge between the entertainment of today and the world of yesteryear. The star of over 60 film and television roles, the British actress became immortal after playing the goodhearted Melanie Wilkes in 1939’s “Gone With the Wind” and became swashbuckler Errol Flynn’s primary leading lady, working with him seven times, most notably in “The Adventures of Robin Hood.”
Outside of her film work, she created a shakeup in Hollywood that ended up having long-standing repercussions. In 1943 she filed suit against her home studio of Warner Bros. for extending her contract for longer than the standard seven years.
- 7/26/2020
- by Kristen Lopez
- Indiewire
Olivia de Havilland, one of the last remaining actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age, two-time Academy Award winner and star of “Gone With the Wind,” has died. She was 104.
Her publicist Lisa Goldberg confirmed the news to Variety, saying de Havilland died from natural causes on Sunday at her residence in Paris.
De Havilland’s former lawyer Suzelle M. Smith said, “Last night, the world lost an international treasure, and I lost a dear friend and beloved client. She died peacefully in Paris.”
Numerous Hollywood figures paid tribute to de Havilland upon the news of her death. SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris extended her sympathies, saying, “Olivia de Havilland was not only beautiful and talented, she was a courageous visionary and an inspiration to generations. She was a marvel and a legend. Rest in peace.”
The striking brunette won best actress Oscars for “The Heiress” and “To Each His Own” in the late 1940s,...
Her publicist Lisa Goldberg confirmed the news to Variety, saying de Havilland died from natural causes on Sunday at her residence in Paris.
De Havilland’s former lawyer Suzelle M. Smith said, “Last night, the world lost an international treasure, and I lost a dear friend and beloved client. She died peacefully in Paris.”
Numerous Hollywood figures paid tribute to de Havilland upon the news of her death. SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris extended her sympathies, saying, “Olivia de Havilland was not only beautiful and talented, she was a courageous visionary and an inspiration to generations. She was a marvel and a legend. Rest in peace.”
The striking brunette won best actress Oscars for “The Heiress” and “To Each His Own” in the late 1940s,...
- 7/26/2020
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
(This is an update to a piece that first ran in 2016 to mark Olivia de Havilland’s 100th birthday. Happy 104th!)
In October 1932, seven years before her role in the highest-grossing film of all time, Olivia de Havilland was cast in the junior play at Los Gatos High School.
Her new stepfather, a man she and her sister called the Iron Duke, delivered an ultimatum: Give up the play or leave this house forever.
“I went off to school with my decision made,” de Havilland said in a 2001 speech for the Academy of Achievement. “I spent that night and several more with friends of my mother’s, went on with the play, and never again slept in the house.”
Also Read: Olivia de Havilland Sues Ryan Murphy, FX Over 'Feud' Portrayal on Eve of Her 101st Birthday
De Havilland, who turned 104 on Wednesday, is the last surviving female star of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
In October 1932, seven years before her role in the highest-grossing film of all time, Olivia de Havilland was cast in the junior play at Los Gatos High School.
Her new stepfather, a man she and her sister called the Iron Duke, delivered an ultimatum: Give up the play or leave this house forever.
“I went off to school with my decision made,” de Havilland said in a 2001 speech for the Academy of Achievement. “I spent that night and several more with friends of my mother’s, went on with the play, and never again slept in the house.”
Also Read: Olivia de Havilland Sues Ryan Murphy, FX Over 'Feud' Portrayal on Eve of Her 101st Birthday
De Havilland, who turned 104 on Wednesday, is the last surviving female star of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
- 7/1/2020
- by Tim Molloy
- The Wrap
At the Jan. 3 AFI Awards, Mel Brooks interrupted his speech about the American Film Institute’s women directors program to praise Taika Waititi for Searchlight’s “Jojo Rabbit.” However, he joked, the filmmaker “did not ask my permission to use Hitler!”
It got a big laugh (as Brooks usually does) for the reference to his 1968 movie “The Producers” and the 2001 musical. Brooks may be synonymous with comedic Nazis, but he hardly invented the concept.
On Aug. 14, 1940, Variety hailed the Hitler-Mussolini satire “The Great Dictator” as “probably the motion picture industry’s greatest one-man show,” because Charlie Chaplin, wrote, directed, starred and totally financed the $2.2 million film himself. The reviewer wrote, “The preaching is strong, notably in the six-minute speech at the finish, but also in the comedy.”
Two years later, Ernst Lubitsch directed (from Edwin Justus Meyer’s script) “To Be or Not to Be,” a 1942 film about Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Poland.
It got a big laugh (as Brooks usually does) for the reference to his 1968 movie “The Producers” and the 2001 musical. Brooks may be synonymous with comedic Nazis, but he hardly invented the concept.
On Aug. 14, 1940, Variety hailed the Hitler-Mussolini satire “The Great Dictator” as “probably the motion picture industry’s greatest one-man show,” because Charlie Chaplin, wrote, directed, starred and totally financed the $2.2 million film himself. The reviewer wrote, “The preaching is strong, notably in the six-minute speech at the finish, but also in the comedy.”
Two years later, Ernst Lubitsch directed (from Edwin Justus Meyer’s script) “To Be or Not to Be,” a 1942 film about Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Poland.
- 1/29/2020
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Bertrand Mandico's The Wild Boys (2017), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing September 14 – October 14, 2018 as a Special Discovery.French director Bertrand Mandico shared with us the films he thought about before, during, and after making his feature debut, The Wild Boys:ISLANDSThe Saga of AnatahanMatango: Attack of the Mushroom People: The island and its fauna and flora, the mushroom-men, the sinking. A sublime film.Lord Jim: The tempest sequence in the opening and the cowardice of Lord Jim—an amazing film.A High Wind in Jamaica: For the confusion of the captain played by Antony Quinn, the phlegm of James Coburn and the beauty of his young crew.The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Lewis John Carlino, 1976): For the erotic figure of the Captain (Kris Kristofferson) and its clique of violent boys.Remorques: A romantic and captivating film with sequences...
- 9/13/2018
- MUBI
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is purportedly the most-produced of all the Bard’s plays, but neither that nugget nor its cinematically friendly fantasy elements has done it many favors on film. Hollywood’s most famous stab was a notorious flop — stage titan Max Reinhardt’s garish 1935 Warner Bros. extravaganza featuring such unlikely (and highly variable) Shakespearean actors as Dick Powell, James Cagney, Mickey Rooney and Joe E. Brown. An almost equally starry 1999 effort, shot in Italy with Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Calista Flockhart and Christian Bale, wasn’t much better.
Since then there’s been the lamentably self-explanatory “A Midsummer Night’s Rave,” and the inexplicable “Strange Magic,” one Disney cartoon that children of all ages found easy to resist. That’s 80 years of evidence suggesting “Dream” might best be left sleeping by American filmmakers.
All the more surprising, then, that director-adapter Casey Wilder Mott’s debut feature proves...
Since then there’s been the lamentably self-explanatory “A Midsummer Night’s Rave,” and the inexplicable “Strange Magic,” one Disney cartoon that children of all ages found easy to resist. That’s 80 years of evidence suggesting “Dream” might best be left sleeping by American filmmakers.
All the more surprising, then, that director-adapter Casey Wilder Mott’s debut feature proves...
- 7/13/2018
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
The first visitor from outer space in the ’50s sci-fi boom is one very curious guy, dropping to Earth in a ship like a diving bell and scaring the bejesus out of Sally Field’s mother. Micro-budgeted space invasion fantasy gets off to a great start, thanks to the filmmaking genius of our old pal Edgar G. Ulmer.
The Man from Planet X
Blu-ray
Scream Factory / Shout! Factory
1951 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 71 min. / Street Date July 11, 2017 / 27.99
Starring: Robert Clarke, Margaret Field, Raymond Bond, William Schallert, Roy Engel, David Ormont.
Cinematography: John L. Russell
Film Editor: Fred R. Feitshans, Jr.
Original Music: Charles Koff
Written and Produced by Aubrey Wisberg, Jack Pollexfen
Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer
One of the first features of the 1950s Sci-Fi boom, 1951’s The Man from Planet X set a lot of precedents, cementing the public impression of ‘little green men from Mars’ and...
The Man from Planet X
Blu-ray
Scream Factory / Shout! Factory
1951 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 71 min. / Street Date July 11, 2017 / 27.99
Starring: Robert Clarke, Margaret Field, Raymond Bond, William Schallert, Roy Engel, David Ormont.
Cinematography: John L. Russell
Film Editor: Fred R. Feitshans, Jr.
Original Music: Charles Koff
Written and Produced by Aubrey Wisberg, Jack Pollexfen
Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer
One of the first features of the 1950s Sci-Fi boom, 1951’s The Man from Planet X set a lot of precedents, cementing the public impression of ‘little green men from Mars’ and...
- 6/16/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Olivia de Havilland picture U.S. labor history-making 'Gone with the Wind' star and two-time Best Actress winner Olivia de Havilland turns 99 (This Olivia de Havilland article is currently being revised and expanded.) Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland, the only surviving major Gone with the Wind cast member and oldest surviving Oscar winner, is turning 99 years old today, July 1.[1] Also known for her widely publicized feud with sister Joan Fontaine and for her eight movies with Errol Flynn, de Havilland should be remembered as well for having made Hollywood labor history. This particular history has nothing to do with de Havilland's films, her two Oscars, Gone with the Wind, Joan Fontaine, or Errol Flynn. Instead, history was made as a result of a legal fight: after winning a lawsuit against Warner Bros. in the mid-'40s, Olivia de Havilland put an end to treacherous...
- 7/2/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Los Angeles (AP) — Mickey Rooney, the pint-size, precocious actor and all-around talent whose more than 80-year career spanned silent comedies, Shakespeare, Judy Garland musicals, Andy Hardy stardom, television and the Broadway theater, died Sunday at age 93. Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said that Rooney was with his family when he died at his North Hollywood home. Smith said police took a death report but indicated that there was nothing suspicious and it was not a police case. He said he had no additional details on the circumstances of his passing. Rooney started his career in his parents' vaudeville act while still a toddler, and broke into movies before age 10. He was still racking up film and TV credits more than 80 years later — a tenure likely unmatched in the history of show business. "I always say, 'Don't retire — inspire,'" he told The Associated Press in March 2008. "There's a lot to be done.
- 4/7/2014
- by Anthony McCartney (AP)
- Hitfix
Anthony McCartney, AP Entertainment Writer
Los Angeles (AP) - Mickey Rooney, the pint-size, precocious actor and all-around talent whose more than 80-year career spanned silent comedies, Shakespeare, Judy Garland musicals, Andy Hardy stardom, television and the Broadway theater, died Sunday at age 93.
Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said that Rooney was with his family when he died at his North Hollywood home.
Smith said police took a death report but indicated that there was nothing suspicious and he had no additional details on the circumstances of his passing. The Los Angeles County Coroner's office said it was not their case because Rooney died a natural death.
There were no further immediate details on the cause of death, but Rooney did attend an Oscar party last month.
Rooney started his career in his parents' vaudeville act while still a toddler, and broke into movies before age 10. He was still racking...
Los Angeles (AP) - Mickey Rooney, the pint-size, precocious actor and all-around talent whose more than 80-year career spanned silent comedies, Shakespeare, Judy Garland musicals, Andy Hardy stardom, television and the Broadway theater, died Sunday at age 93.
Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said that Rooney was with his family when he died at his North Hollywood home.
Smith said police took a death report but indicated that there was nothing suspicious and he had no additional details on the circumstances of his passing. The Los Angeles County Coroner's office said it was not their case because Rooney died a natural death.
There were no further immediate details on the cause of death, but Rooney did attend an Oscar party last month.
Rooney started his career in his parents' vaudeville act while still a toddler, and broke into movies before age 10. He was still racking...
- 4/7/2014
- by The Associated Press
- Moviefone
The Berlinale has come and gone so quickly, so intensely. Everyone was catching the flu or a cold, and I was left with the sniffles. My last two days I was lucky to be able to catch some films. Before that I only saw Don Jon’s Addiction which I was charmed by. Scarlett Johanssen played the best role of her life, she is a great comedienne. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt was delightful. Upstream Color bit off more than it could chew. The reviews express my feelings about it better than I can.
A quick list of films seen by me and by other discerning women:
Concussion, starring Catherine Deneuve, a bored house wife story has been told before. This time, the two protagonists were attractive lesbian women and it was beautifully filmed, but nothing beats Belle de Jour also starring Catherine Deneuve.
The Weimar Touch is a series of films from the Weimar era in Germany which preceded the Nazi era and films which were influenced by filmmakers of the Weimar era. MoMA Chief Curator of Film, Rajendra Roy and Laurence Kardish, the former Senior Curator of Film at MoMA were members of the Curatorial Board (along with Rainer Rother, Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek, Connie Betz (Deutsche Kinemathek, Programme Coordinator Retrospective, and Hans-Michael Bock (Cinegraph, Hamburg). Maybe I could catch more of these fantastic sounding films in New York.
Hangmen Also Die! by Fritz Lang sounded so great. I got the ticket, but damn I missed the film because of a meeting. The notes written for Hangmen Also Die by Rainer Rother of the Deutsche Kinemathek, "Prague 1942. Following the assassination of Nazi Reich Protector Heydrich...a professor’s daughter hides the culprit in her parents’ apartment…sadistic, elegant and effeminate." Doesn’t that sound great? The gender bending in Vicktor Viktoria was charming and funny. Julie Andrews saw this actress and copied her style perfectly. They look like twins. Other films in the Restrospective had me going to the Film Museum to ask for the boxed set, but the prints are from so many places, the clearance on them would be nearly impossible I guess…no boxed set. Other films in The Weimar Touch were so enticing! I had seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Max Reinhardt himself and William Dieterle, (U.S. 1935) the last time when I was in high school and then didn’t know who Max Reinhardt was. Car of Dreams was a favorite of those who saw it. Casablanca in which Victor Lazlo and Ilse Lund play out their doomed love was directed by Hungarian born director Mihaly Kertesz (Michael Curtiz) and Humphrey Bogart is almost the only “real” American in the ensemble. I had never been aware of how The Weimar Touch formed that film. Others: The Chase, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Le Corbeau – what a great film that is, a film that was saved only by Sartre and Cocteau’s speaking out in favor of director Henri-Georges Clouzot. This is a film Michael Haneke saw when he created The White Ribbon. A Dutch film, Somewhere in the Netherlands by Ludwig Berger in 1940, Gerhard Lamprecht’s Einmal Eine Grosse Dame Sein, British film, First a Girl, by Victor Saville, Fury by Fritz Lang, Gado Bravo from Portugal 1934, Gluckskinder from Germany in 1936, The Golem, The Mystery of Moonlight Sonata, Hitler’s Madman, How Green Was My Valley by John Ford in 1941 which was influenced by his friend F.W. Murnau, Max Ophuls’ Comedy About Gold, Letter from an Unknown Woman by Max Ophuls, M by Joseph Losey, Mollenard by Robert Siodmak, None Shall Live by Andre de Toth, Out of the Past by Jacques Tourneur, Peter, Pieges, The Queen of Spades, The Small Back Room, Some Like it Hot, To Be or Not to Be by Lubitsch, Touch of Evil by Orson Welles, Cabaret by Bob Fosse, Dial M for Murder, On the Waterfront, The Student of Prague, Tokyo Story were all touched by The Weimar Touch. What a collection!
Tokyo Kazoku (Tokyo Story) by Yoji Yamada was sweet and sad as the parents travel from their hometown of Hiroshima to visit their grown children in Tokyo – different from Ozu’s Tokyo Story, but “the story of family estrangement and the isolation inherent in modern society” as expressed in the story notes of Rainer Rother along with the reminders of the recent tsunami and its losses make this story deeply touching.
Interesting was Dark Blood by George Sluizer. It was not as spooky as The Vanishing, but to see River Phoenix, so beautiful in this role with such a sexy Judy Davis was a treat, if a bit dated. Elle s’en va with a Catherine Deneuve, aged after Umbrellas of Cherbourg and perhaps the same character takes a funny tour through rural France that I enjoyed. I missed Pourquoi Israel, part of the Homage to Claude Lanzmann but got to see Sobibor, 14 Octobre 1943 which was astounding. The bravery of the hero who was on screen the entire time, Yehuda Lerner, looked like a movie star. The entire story was so unexpected for me; how did it happen that I had never heard the story of the uprising at Sobibor before? I know Shoah and sat through it without a minute of disinterest – but that was in college. Claude Lanzmann justifiably said that this story was too unique and special to include in Shoah.
An odd Romanian film, the comedy A Farewell to Fools directed by Goodan Dreyer and starring child actor Boodan Iancu, Gerard Depardieu, Harvey Keitel and a cruelly beautiful Laura Morante, (and dubbed!) it is being sold in the market by Shoreline. It stands out in contrast to the Golden Bear Winner, the Romanian film Child’s Pose directed by Calin Peter Netzer and produced by Ada Solomon. This feisty portrayal of the nouveau riche seems like a fictional continuation of the doc her husband directed and which she produced in 2010: Kapitalism: Our Improved Formula.
Ada Solomon’s speech at the Awards Ceremony Closing Night deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. (Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).
Child's Pose, good in the vein of Separation, went head to head with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways. The two older women were both great.
By the Way, Gloria was produced by Fabula, the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced No as well as Crystal Fairy and director Sebastian Silva’s other films.
Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."
I would like to suggest to the festival event planners that next year the Awards Ceremony’s onscreen presentation (which goes on simultaneously with the announcements of the prize winners) post the name of the winner along with the film title in its own language and in English as well as the country of origin. It’s difficult enough to follow the film with simultaneous translation in English via earphones; at least put the film titles in English for us foreigners.
A friend of mine remarks that the 2 most prestigious prizes at the festival went not to American or West European films, but to those from smaller countries with developing film cultures, Child’s Pose from Romania and Denis Tanovic’s Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker from Bosnia/ Herzogovina.
She goes on with her commentary of what she saw:
"Competition film Gold by Thomas Arslan provoked mixed response, but I liked it – Nina Hoss as the lead is excellent, plus there are long passages of the group on horseback trekking thru Alaska to the Klondike amidst spectacular landscapes. And the camerawork is wonderful. So that’s enough to keep me in my seat.
Night Train to Lisbon has been panned by virtually every trade publication critic as boring at the least. Nevertheless I enjoyed all the famous actors –Jeremy Irons, Lena Olin, Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, and yes Bruno Ganz. It is a story about the oppressive regime and a secret resistance group of in 1970s Portugal. Circles is a powerful and tough film by Srdan Folubovic about the revelations amidst survivors of a terrible event 12 years after the end of the war in Yugoslavia. Terrific performances support a complex and tough tale of how history permeates memory and behavior down thru the generations. Cold Bloom is the 4th feature of Atsushi Funahashi, who made last year’s powerful Nuclear Nation documentary about the effects if the tsunami. A drama about how the tsunami affected young workers and small businesses in the region is told thru the tragedy of a young couple. The title refers to a fantastic closing sequence under the cherry trees at night illuminated by street lamps, at once beautiful and bizarre. Gloria winner of the Golden Bear was clearly everyone’s favorite (although I could not get into the screening). Portrait of a middle aged woman in Chile (and winner of Best Actress award) it will hopefully make it across the ocean to these shores.
And finally, it is worth noting that the Forum Expanded section was extensive this year, showing diverse kinds of work including off site installations from every corner of the globe. Probably it is the single most important showcase for artists work in the film festival world. Kudos to the curators and the artist/filmmakers for keeping this exciting new work in front of the public year after year!"
Another friend who can’t decide whether to be credited here, a transplanted Los Angeleno who was born in Germany and lives in Berlin now had a very interesting insight into Two Women, wondering out loud if the two women and the two boys were transferring their homosexual feelings upon their cross parental lovers and likewise whether the two mothers were not actually acting out their lesbian affinities.
She also noted the sexual complexities of many of the films was of great interest to her. Examples she sites are the homosexual (But Not) pedophiliac feelings of a priest as depicted in In The Name Of; Gloria – not breaking news that a 58 woman is sexually alive – this film has a popular crowd pleasing charm which almost disqualifies it from the “festival” seriousness of a film like Child’s Pose, but both women are stellar.
My unnamed friend also said that, Camille Claudel failed to engage as did The Nun.
I would like to take this further, but it is very late for Berlin and now on to Guadalajara, a fascinating city and the seat of international, Iberoamerican co-productions which I think will become my obsession for the rest of the year.
Adios!
A quick list of films seen by me and by other discerning women:
Concussion, starring Catherine Deneuve, a bored house wife story has been told before. This time, the two protagonists were attractive lesbian women and it was beautifully filmed, but nothing beats Belle de Jour also starring Catherine Deneuve.
The Weimar Touch is a series of films from the Weimar era in Germany which preceded the Nazi era and films which were influenced by filmmakers of the Weimar era. MoMA Chief Curator of Film, Rajendra Roy and Laurence Kardish, the former Senior Curator of Film at MoMA were members of the Curatorial Board (along with Rainer Rother, Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek, Connie Betz (Deutsche Kinemathek, Programme Coordinator Retrospective, and Hans-Michael Bock (Cinegraph, Hamburg). Maybe I could catch more of these fantastic sounding films in New York.
Hangmen Also Die! by Fritz Lang sounded so great. I got the ticket, but damn I missed the film because of a meeting. The notes written for Hangmen Also Die by Rainer Rother of the Deutsche Kinemathek, "Prague 1942. Following the assassination of Nazi Reich Protector Heydrich...a professor’s daughter hides the culprit in her parents’ apartment…sadistic, elegant and effeminate." Doesn’t that sound great? The gender bending in Vicktor Viktoria was charming and funny. Julie Andrews saw this actress and copied her style perfectly. They look like twins. Other films in the Restrospective had me going to the Film Museum to ask for the boxed set, but the prints are from so many places, the clearance on them would be nearly impossible I guess…no boxed set. Other films in The Weimar Touch were so enticing! I had seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Max Reinhardt himself and William Dieterle, (U.S. 1935) the last time when I was in high school and then didn’t know who Max Reinhardt was. Car of Dreams was a favorite of those who saw it. Casablanca in which Victor Lazlo and Ilse Lund play out their doomed love was directed by Hungarian born director Mihaly Kertesz (Michael Curtiz) and Humphrey Bogart is almost the only “real” American in the ensemble. I had never been aware of how The Weimar Touch formed that film. Others: The Chase, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Le Corbeau – what a great film that is, a film that was saved only by Sartre and Cocteau’s speaking out in favor of director Henri-Georges Clouzot. This is a film Michael Haneke saw when he created The White Ribbon. A Dutch film, Somewhere in the Netherlands by Ludwig Berger in 1940, Gerhard Lamprecht’s Einmal Eine Grosse Dame Sein, British film, First a Girl, by Victor Saville, Fury by Fritz Lang, Gado Bravo from Portugal 1934, Gluckskinder from Germany in 1936, The Golem, The Mystery of Moonlight Sonata, Hitler’s Madman, How Green Was My Valley by John Ford in 1941 which was influenced by his friend F.W. Murnau, Max Ophuls’ Comedy About Gold, Letter from an Unknown Woman by Max Ophuls, M by Joseph Losey, Mollenard by Robert Siodmak, None Shall Live by Andre de Toth, Out of the Past by Jacques Tourneur, Peter, Pieges, The Queen of Spades, The Small Back Room, Some Like it Hot, To Be or Not to Be by Lubitsch, Touch of Evil by Orson Welles, Cabaret by Bob Fosse, Dial M for Murder, On the Waterfront, The Student of Prague, Tokyo Story were all touched by The Weimar Touch. What a collection!
Tokyo Kazoku (Tokyo Story) by Yoji Yamada was sweet and sad as the parents travel from their hometown of Hiroshima to visit their grown children in Tokyo – different from Ozu’s Tokyo Story, but “the story of family estrangement and the isolation inherent in modern society” as expressed in the story notes of Rainer Rother along with the reminders of the recent tsunami and its losses make this story deeply touching.
Interesting was Dark Blood by George Sluizer. It was not as spooky as The Vanishing, but to see River Phoenix, so beautiful in this role with such a sexy Judy Davis was a treat, if a bit dated. Elle s’en va with a Catherine Deneuve, aged after Umbrellas of Cherbourg and perhaps the same character takes a funny tour through rural France that I enjoyed. I missed Pourquoi Israel, part of the Homage to Claude Lanzmann but got to see Sobibor, 14 Octobre 1943 which was astounding. The bravery of the hero who was on screen the entire time, Yehuda Lerner, looked like a movie star. The entire story was so unexpected for me; how did it happen that I had never heard the story of the uprising at Sobibor before? I know Shoah and sat through it without a minute of disinterest – but that was in college. Claude Lanzmann justifiably said that this story was too unique and special to include in Shoah.
An odd Romanian film, the comedy A Farewell to Fools directed by Goodan Dreyer and starring child actor Boodan Iancu, Gerard Depardieu, Harvey Keitel and a cruelly beautiful Laura Morante, (and dubbed!) it is being sold in the market by Shoreline. It stands out in contrast to the Golden Bear Winner, the Romanian film Child’s Pose directed by Calin Peter Netzer and produced by Ada Solomon. This feisty portrayal of the nouveau riche seems like a fictional continuation of the doc her husband directed and which she produced in 2010: Kapitalism: Our Improved Formula.
Ada Solomon’s speech at the Awards Ceremony Closing Night deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. (Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).
Child's Pose, good in the vein of Separation, went head to head with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways. The two older women were both great.
By the Way, Gloria was produced by Fabula, the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced No as well as Crystal Fairy and director Sebastian Silva’s other films.
Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."
I would like to suggest to the festival event planners that next year the Awards Ceremony’s onscreen presentation (which goes on simultaneously with the announcements of the prize winners) post the name of the winner along with the film title in its own language and in English as well as the country of origin. It’s difficult enough to follow the film with simultaneous translation in English via earphones; at least put the film titles in English for us foreigners.
A friend of mine remarks that the 2 most prestigious prizes at the festival went not to American or West European films, but to those from smaller countries with developing film cultures, Child’s Pose from Romania and Denis Tanovic’s Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker from Bosnia/ Herzogovina.
She goes on with her commentary of what she saw:
"Competition film Gold by Thomas Arslan provoked mixed response, but I liked it – Nina Hoss as the lead is excellent, plus there are long passages of the group on horseback trekking thru Alaska to the Klondike amidst spectacular landscapes. And the camerawork is wonderful. So that’s enough to keep me in my seat.
Night Train to Lisbon has been panned by virtually every trade publication critic as boring at the least. Nevertheless I enjoyed all the famous actors –Jeremy Irons, Lena Olin, Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, and yes Bruno Ganz. It is a story about the oppressive regime and a secret resistance group of in 1970s Portugal. Circles is a powerful and tough film by Srdan Folubovic about the revelations amidst survivors of a terrible event 12 years after the end of the war in Yugoslavia. Terrific performances support a complex and tough tale of how history permeates memory and behavior down thru the generations. Cold Bloom is the 4th feature of Atsushi Funahashi, who made last year’s powerful Nuclear Nation documentary about the effects if the tsunami. A drama about how the tsunami affected young workers and small businesses in the region is told thru the tragedy of a young couple. The title refers to a fantastic closing sequence under the cherry trees at night illuminated by street lamps, at once beautiful and bizarre. Gloria winner of the Golden Bear was clearly everyone’s favorite (although I could not get into the screening). Portrait of a middle aged woman in Chile (and winner of Best Actress award) it will hopefully make it across the ocean to these shores.
And finally, it is worth noting that the Forum Expanded section was extensive this year, showing diverse kinds of work including off site installations from every corner of the globe. Probably it is the single most important showcase for artists work in the film festival world. Kudos to the curators and the artist/filmmakers for keeping this exciting new work in front of the public year after year!"
Another friend who can’t decide whether to be credited here, a transplanted Los Angeleno who was born in Germany and lives in Berlin now had a very interesting insight into Two Women, wondering out loud if the two women and the two boys were transferring their homosexual feelings upon their cross parental lovers and likewise whether the two mothers were not actually acting out their lesbian affinities.
She also noted the sexual complexities of many of the films was of great interest to her. Examples she sites are the homosexual (But Not) pedophiliac feelings of a priest as depicted in In The Name Of; Gloria – not breaking news that a 58 woman is sexually alive – this film has a popular crowd pleasing charm which almost disqualifies it from the “festival” seriousness of a film like Child’s Pose, but both women are stellar.
My unnamed friend also said that, Camille Claudel failed to engage as did The Nun.
I would like to take this further, but it is very late for Berlin and now on to Guadalajara, a fascinating city and the seat of international, Iberoamerican co-productions which I think will become my obsession for the rest of the year.
Adios!
- 3/10/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
After success in the American theatre, a few acting roles on the screen and a series of false starts as a movie director, Otto Preminger, the Austrian protege of Max Reinhardt, suddenly revealed himself as a master when he took over the direction of this classic thriller from Rouben Mamoulian in 1944. It's basically a B-feature whodunnit posing the question: who murdered the beautiful New York advertising executive Laura Hunt? But the film is raised to classic status by the witty script, David Raksin's score, Joseph Lashelle's subtle monchrome photography, and the way Preminger is more concerned with exploring the perversity of its generally dislikable characters (including the homicide detective) than in creating suspense. Preminger made darker, more characteristically noir films than this, but his only movie that's as good, or perhaps better, is Anatomy of a Murder.
CrimeDramaThrillerPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
CrimeDramaThrillerPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
- 2/26/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
In honor of Béla Tarr's The Turin Horse, three successive shots from another film of lavish absurdity, tracking shots, and gypsies, Erik Charell's Caravan (1934), with Charles Boyer and Loretta Young. The first two shots are each about two minutes long; the last about eight seconds, but in a movie that seems mostly made up of minutes-long tracks, every cut becomes more significant as Charell suggests he might have just left his camera running. In Caravan, even when the camera is still, Charell, rather than cut, tends to triangulate the composition among actors whose small gestures of hands and eyes flit about from one to another: a minute choreography that keeps the viewer's eye tracking and the point of focus fluctuating through latent lines of motion.
Other sequences in the movie are even more audacious conceptually: one follows a supporting character slipping in and out of a past memory...
Other sequences in the movie are even more audacious conceptually: one follows a supporting character slipping in and out of a past memory...
- 10/9/2011
- MUBI
Frank Capra, Luise Rainer, George Jessel at the 1937 Oscar ceremony, held at the Biltmore Hotel Luise Rainer, the 101-year-old, two-time Academy Award winner, was just recently interviewed by BBC entertainment reporter Colin Patterson. (You can listen to the interview here.) During the eight-minute chat, the Düsseldorf-born (Jan. 12, 1910) Rainer, whose speech lilt hasn't changed a bit since the 1930s, talks about her Academy Awards, and the people she once knew: Max Reinhardt, Albert Einstein, Bertolt Brecht, Greta Garbo, and Ernest Hemingway. Also mentioned are Julia Roberts and The King's Speech. Rainer came to Hollywood in the mid-1930s as one of MGM's potential threats to Garbo. The fact that Rainer looked, sounded, and acted nothing like Garbo probably didn't faze the studio heads. Rainer had a German accent; Garbo had a Swedish one. Surely American audiences wouldn't be able to differentiate one actress from the other. Rainer's first Hollywood movie was...
- 2/25/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Every Sunday, Film School Rejects presents a film that was made before you were born and tells you why you should like it. This week, Old Ass Movies presents the story of James Cagney turning into a donkey, a jealous king who wants to steal an Indian child, an amateur acting troupe trying to present the story of a wall, and a group of young lovers who need a little help from the woodland narcotics to realize their undying emotions for each other. Plus, as a bonus, little Mickey Rooney cackles like a drunken hyena to no one in particular. It’s Shakespeare, so you know it’s smart. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) Directed by: William Dieterle and Max Reinhardt Starring: Dick Powell, Ross Alexander, Olivia de Haviland, Jean Muir, Anita Louise, Mickey Rooney and James Cagney If there’s one piece of classic literature that you’re forced to read during high school, it...
- 1/9/2011
- by Cole Abaius
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Dancer who became a choreographer, actor and director for stage and screen
As a dancer, Wendy Toye, who has died aged 92, was a child prodigy. Born in Hackney, east London, the daughter of a bristle merchant, she had made her first public appearance at the Royal Albert Hall by the age of four. Aged nine, she choreographed a ballet at the London Palladium and also won the women's prize, dancing the Charleston, at a ball organised by the theatrical manager Cb Cochran and judged by Fred Astaire and Florenz Ziegfeld among others. The men's prize was won by Lew Grade.
She was always grateful for the advice she received from her tutors, including Ruby Ginner, Ninette de Valois and Anton Dolin, and regretted that when she reached the next stage of her career – choreography and direction – there were no teachers. She had to learn as she went along.
During the 1930s,...
As a dancer, Wendy Toye, who has died aged 92, was a child prodigy. Born in Hackney, east London, the daughter of a bristle merchant, she had made her first public appearance at the Royal Albert Hall by the age of four. Aged nine, she choreographed a ballet at the London Palladium and also won the women's prize, dancing the Charleston, at a ball organised by the theatrical manager Cb Cochran and judged by Fred Astaire and Florenz Ziegfeld among others. The men's prize was won by Lew Grade.
She was always grateful for the advice she received from her tutors, including Ruby Ginner, Ninette de Valois and Anton Dolin, and regretted that when she reached the next stage of her career – choreography and direction – there were no teachers. She had to learn as she went along.
During the 1930s,...
- 2/28/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
Born in Russia, raised in Berlin, Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947) was Germany's first great director. Starting out as an actor in Max Reinhardt's company and turning to the cinema in 1913, he left in 1922 to become one of Hollywood's most highly regarded film-makers, especially noted for such sophisticated comedies as Trouble in Paradise, Ninotchka and To Be or Not to Be, and practitioner of the indefinable "Lubitsch Touch". His large body of German silent films is little known, and the six in this invaluable box-set show both the extraordinary range of his work and how accomplished, subtle and innovative he had become before going to the States. Included are the elegant contemporary comedies I Wouldn't Like to Be a Man (1918) and The Oyster Princess (1919), both starring the kittenish Ossi Oswalda, as well as the Arabian Nights extravaganza Sumurun (1919) in which he himself appears with Pola Negri, and the historical epic Anne...
- 1/24/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Horton Foote, the prolific playwright and screenwriter who gave enduring voice to the values of small-town America in such movies as "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Tender Mercies" and "The Trip to Bountiful" and plays like the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Young Man From Atlanta," died Wednesday in Hartford, Conn. He was 92.
Foote died in his sleep in his apartment. He was working on "The Orphans' Home Cycle," a collection of nine plays that will be presented next fall at the Hartford Stage, where his daughter, actress Hallie Foote, is now appearing in a production of "Mockingbird."
The Texas-born writer's career spanned more than 50 years in film, TV and theater. He earned two Academy Awards -- best adapted screenplay for 1962's "Mockingbird" and best original screenplay for 1983's "Mercies" -- and was nominated for a third for 1985's "Bountiful."
Robert Duvall won the best actor Oscar for "Mercies," and Geraldine Page took...
Foote died in his sleep in his apartment. He was working on "The Orphans' Home Cycle," a collection of nine plays that will be presented next fall at the Hartford Stage, where his daughter, actress Hallie Foote, is now appearing in a production of "Mockingbird."
The Texas-born writer's career spanned more than 50 years in film, TV and theater. He earned two Academy Awards -- best adapted screenplay for 1962's "Mockingbird" and best original screenplay for 1983's "Mercies" -- and was nominated for a third for 1985's "Bountiful."
Robert Duvall won the best actor Oscar for "Mercies," and Geraldine Page took...
- 3/4/2009
- by By Gregg Kilday and Duane Byrge
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Lamarr's Hitler Romance Revealed In Shocking New Tell-all
Fans of late movie icon Hedy Lamarr are set for a major shock in a new biography - the actress once enjoyed sexual trysts with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
In What Almost Happened to Hedy Lamarr, revered film critic Devra Hill exposes all about the Samson + Delilah star's sexual secrets, including details about her cruel former lover.
The six-times-wed star, whose first husband was a Viennese munitions dealer, fled to America before the outbreak of World War II - but not before she had briefly romanced fellow Austrian Hitler, according to the new book.
The tome will be released by former Hollywood madam Jody 'Babydoll' Gibson's Corona Books publishing house.
She says, "There are some extraordinary and salacious moments that Devra discloses about Hedy and Hitler.
"Given that most of us have never spoken with anyone who's ever actually had sex with Adolf Hitler, we're quite sure you'll find it a fascinating read."
Once dubbed "the most beautiful woman in Europe" by German svengali Max Reinhardt, the irony of the Lamarr/Hitler romance revelation is the actress, real name Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, was born a Jew, but raised as a Catholic in Vienna.
What Almost Happened to Hedy Lamar is scheduled to hit book stores in September.
In What Almost Happened to Hedy Lamarr, revered film critic Devra Hill exposes all about the Samson + Delilah star's sexual secrets, including details about her cruel former lover.
The six-times-wed star, whose first husband was a Viennese munitions dealer, fled to America before the outbreak of World War II - but not before she had briefly romanced fellow Austrian Hitler, according to the new book.
The tome will be released by former Hollywood madam Jody 'Babydoll' Gibson's Corona Books publishing house.
She says, "There are some extraordinary and salacious moments that Devra discloses about Hedy and Hitler.
"Given that most of us have never spoken with anyone who's ever actually had sex with Adolf Hitler, we're quite sure you'll find it a fascinating read."
Once dubbed "the most beautiful woman in Europe" by German svengali Max Reinhardt, the irony of the Lamarr/Hitler romance revelation is the actress, real name Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, was born a Jew, but raised as a Catholic in Vienna.
What Almost Happened to Hedy Lamar is scheduled to hit book stores in September.
- 7/22/2008
- WENN
De Havilland To Be Honored by Hollywood
Two-time Academy Award-winning movie legend Olivia De Havilland is to return to Hollywood from her home in France to be honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences next summer. The Gone With The Wind star will be the subject of a feature film tribute in Beverly Hills, California in the weeks leading up to her 90th birthday. Film fans attending the event will be treated to clips of her most-admired performances and a discussion with colleagues from throughout her career. De Havilland made her film debut as Hermia in Max Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1935, and went on to star with Errol Flynn in Captain Blood and another seven films. She was nominated for five Oscars, and won two Best Actress awards for To Each His Own and The Heiress.
- 11/7/2005
- WENN
Steve Martin Shows His Underpants
Wild and crazy guy Steve Martin is returning to the Broadway stage with an adaptation of Carl Sternheim's 1911 dark comedy The Underpants. The actor-writer's previous stage works include Picasso At The Lapin Agile in 1993 and 1997's Wasp And Other Plays. Originally staged by Max Reinhardt, Underpants was the first in a Sternheim trilogy that charts a bourgeois family's decline. In the play, a civil servant's wife accidentally drops her underwear during the Kaiser's parade. Subsequently, a series of men proposition her under the guise of renting a room in the apartment she shares with her husband.
- 6/15/2001
- WENN
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.