Everyone knows Woody Allen. At least, everyone thinks they know Woody Allen. His plumage is easily identifiable: horn-rimmed glasses, baggy suit, wispy hair, kvetching demeanor, ironic sense of humor, acute fear of death. As is his habitat: New York City, though recently he has flown as far afield as London, Barcelona, and Paris. His likes are well known: Bergman, Dostoevsky, New Orleans jazz. So too his dislikes: spiders, cars, nature, Wagner records, the entire city of Los Angeles. Whether or not these traits represent the true Allen, who’s to say? It is impossible to tell, with Allen, where cinema ends and life begins, an obfuscation he readily encourages. In the late nineteen-seventies, disillusioned with the comedic success he’d found making such films as Sleeper (1973), Love and Death (1975), and Annie Hall (1977), he turned for darker territory with Stardust Memories (1980), a film in which, none too surprisingly, he plays a...
- 1/24/2015
- by Graham Daseler
- The Moving Arts Journal
Luise Rainer dies at age 104: Rainer was first consecutive Oscar winner, first two-time winner in acting categories and oldest surviving winner (photo: MGM star Luise Rainer in the mid-'30s.) The first consecutive Academy Award winner, the first two-time winner in the acting categories, and, at age 104, the oldest surviving Oscar winner as well, Luise Rainer (Best Actress for The Great Ziegfeld, 1936, and The Good Earth, 1937) died at her London apartment on December 30 -- nearly two weeks before her 105th birthday. Below is an article originally posted in January 2014, at the time Rainer turned 104. I'll be sharing more Luise Rainer news later on Tuesday. January 17, 2014: Inevitably, the Transformers movies' director Michael Bay (who recently had an on-camera "meltdown" after a teleprompter stopped working at the Consumer Electronics Show) and the Transformers movies' star Shia Labeouf (who was recently accused of plagiarism) were mentioned -- or rather, blasted, in...
- 12/30/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Best-selling author E L James doesn’t give many interviews these days, but she agreed to sit down in Beverly Hills with EW last week, as part of our cover story on the film version of the first book in her trilogy, Fifty Shades of Grey, to discuss all that casting controversy, the intensity of her fans, the criticism of Christian Grey’s backstory, and her hopes for the film. She proved to be as direct and unfiltered as her books are, beginning with how she’s feeling about the new movie.
Entertainment Weekly: The film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey...
Entertainment Weekly: The film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey...
- 11/14/2013
- by Nicole Sperling
- EW - Inside Movies
Mark Twain meets Sam Peckinpah in Jeff Nichols's exhilarating coming-of-age movie
In the early 1930s, during a lengthy safari in Tanganyika Territory, Ernest Hemingway broke off a discussion of antelope hunting to provide a German expatriate with a disquisition on American literature from colonial times to the present. During this little lecture, included in his Green Hills of Africa, Hemingway made one of his most famous statements. "All American literature," he claims, "comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. If you read it you must stop where the Nigger Jim is stolen from the boys. That is the real end. The rest is just cheating. But it's the best book we have. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."
Jeff Nichols's exhilarating third movie, Mud, concerns two 14-year-old boys growing up in a small town...
In the early 1930s, during a lengthy safari in Tanganyika Territory, Ernest Hemingway broke off a discussion of antelope hunting to provide a German expatriate with a disquisition on American literature from colonial times to the present. During this little lecture, included in his Green Hills of Africa, Hemingway made one of his most famous statements. "All American literature," he claims, "comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. If you read it you must stop where the Nigger Jim is stolen from the boys. That is the real end. The rest is just cheating. But it's the best book we have. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."
Jeff Nichols's exhilarating third movie, Mud, concerns two 14-year-old boys growing up in a small town...
- 5/11/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Sergei Loznitsa's stark parable about Soviet collaboration with the Nazis has echoes of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky
Sergei Loznitsa's My Joy, a fable about the increasingly nightmarish journey of a lorry driver lost in a violent post-communist Russia, was well received at Cannes three years ago but is yet to be released in this country. His second film, In the Fog, based on a highly regarded novel by Vasili Bykov, also received a warm welcome in Cannes and is one of the best Russian films to open in Britain over the past decade. It's set in Loznitsa's native Belarus in 1942, and the fog of the title is both literal and metaphorical, the fog of war that swirls around its three principal characters, Russians involved in the struggle against the German invaders.
In the Fog unfolds at a stately pace, beginning with a striking opening sequence shot in what appears...
Sergei Loznitsa's My Joy, a fable about the increasingly nightmarish journey of a lorry driver lost in a violent post-communist Russia, was well received at Cannes three years ago but is yet to be released in this country. His second film, In the Fog, based on a highly regarded novel by Vasili Bykov, also received a warm welcome in Cannes and is one of the best Russian films to open in Britain over the past decade. It's set in Loznitsa's native Belarus in 1942, and the fog of the title is both literal and metaphorical, the fog of war that swirls around its three principal characters, Russians involved in the struggle against the German invaders.
In the Fog unfolds at a stately pace, beginning with a striking opening sequence shot in what appears...
- 4/29/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Writers often worry about the dangers of outside influence, but what about the non-literary inspirations they are far more comfortable admitting to? Andrew O'Hagan talks to six novelists about their passion for a second artform
The divine counsels decided, once upon a time, that influence is bad and that too much agency is the enemy of invention. Harold Bloom can't be blamed for that: he certainly pointed to the danse macabre of influence and anxiety, but to him the association was perfectly creative. Elsewhere, writers have always been blamed for being too much like other writers, or too much like themselves, and even now, in the crisis of late postmodernism, we find it hard to believe that writers might live happily in a state of influence and cross-reference. Yet anybody who knows anything about writers knows that they love their sweet influences.
What I've noticed, though, is that the influences...
The divine counsels decided, once upon a time, that influence is bad and that too much agency is the enemy of invention. Harold Bloom can't be blamed for that: he certainly pointed to the danse macabre of influence and anxiety, but to him the association was perfectly creative. Elsewhere, writers have always been blamed for being too much like other writers, or too much like themselves, and even now, in the crisis of late postmodernism, we find it hard to believe that writers might live happily in a state of influence and cross-reference. Yet anybody who knows anything about writers knows that they love their sweet influences.
What I've noticed, though, is that the influences...
- 4/27/2013
- by Andrew O'Hagan, Lavinia Greenlaw, John Lanchester, Alan Warner, Sarah Hall, Colm Tóibín
- The Guardian - Film News
Novelist, playwright and essayist with a complete mastery of the scene he described
Gore Vidal, the American writer, controversialist and politician manqué, who has died aged 86, was celebrated both for his caustic wit and his mandarin's poise. His public career spanned seven decades and included 25 novels, numerous collections of essays on literature and politics, a volume of short stories, five Broadway plays, dozens of television plays and film scripts, and even three mystery novels written under the pseudonym Edgar Box. After 9/11 and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, he returned to centre stage with a series of blistering pamphlets and public pronouncements that led many, including his former friend Christopher Hitchens, to pounce on him. But Vidal never looked back.
Despite his output as a novelist and playwright, many critics considered Vidal's witty and acerbic essays his best work. Often published first in such journals as the New York Review...
Gore Vidal, the American writer, controversialist and politician manqué, who has died aged 86, was celebrated both for his caustic wit and his mandarin's poise. His public career spanned seven decades and included 25 novels, numerous collections of essays on literature and politics, a volume of short stories, five Broadway plays, dozens of television plays and film scripts, and even three mystery novels written under the pseudonym Edgar Box. After 9/11 and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, he returned to centre stage with a series of blistering pamphlets and public pronouncements that led many, including his former friend Christopher Hitchens, to pounce on him. But Vidal never looked back.
Despite his output as a novelist and playwright, many critics considered Vidal's witty and acerbic essays his best work. Often published first in such journals as the New York Review...
- 8/1/2012
- by Jay Parini
- The Guardian - Film News
The CW’s entertainment president loves the idea of doing a Battle Royale TV show.
But isn’t a faithful adaptation of the brutal novel sort of impossible for a broadcast network?
“We’d love to do it,” CW chief Mark Pedowitz told reporters at the TCA press tour in Beverly Hills. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to make a deal with the producers, and we’ll see where it goes.”
Pedowitz emphasized that at this point there’s only been “a phone call” looking into the Japanese cult hit novel’s rights.
For those who are unfamiliar with Koushun Takami’s bestseller,...
But isn’t a faithful adaptation of the brutal novel sort of impossible for a broadcast network?
“We’d love to do it,” CW chief Mark Pedowitz told reporters at the TCA press tour in Beverly Hills. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to make a deal with the producers, and we’ll see where it goes.”
Pedowitz emphasized that at this point there’s only been “a phone call” looking into the Japanese cult hit novel’s rights.
For those who are unfamiliar with Koushun Takami’s bestseller,...
- 7/30/2012
- by James Hibberd
- EW - Inside TV
As the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe's death approaches, Lois Banner argues in this extract from her new book that the star – complex and powerful – had many qualities associated with the women's movement
In one of the most famous photos of the 20th century, Marilyn Monroe stands on a subway grate, trying to hold her skirt down as a gust of wind blows it up, exposing her underpants. The photo was taken in New York on 15 September, 1954, in a photoshoot during the filming of The Seven Year Itch.
Marilyn is a vision in white, suggesting innocence and purity. Yet she exudes sexuality and transcends it; poses for the male gaze and confronts it. The photoshoot was a publicity stunt, one of the greatest in the history of film. Its time and location were published in New York newspapers; it attracted a crowd of 100 male photographers and 1,500 male spectators, even...
In one of the most famous photos of the 20th century, Marilyn Monroe stands on a subway grate, trying to hold her skirt down as a gust of wind blows it up, exposing her underpants. The photo was taken in New York on 15 September, 1954, in a photoshoot during the filming of The Seven Year Itch.
Marilyn is a vision in white, suggesting innocence and purity. Yet she exudes sexuality and transcends it; poses for the male gaze and confronts it. The photoshoot was a publicity stunt, one of the greatest in the history of film. Its time and location were published in New York newspapers; it attracted a crowd of 100 male photographers and 1,500 male spectators, even...
- 7/21/2012
- by Lois Banner
- The Guardian - Film News
We know you're probably preparing yourselves for the season finales of some of your favorite shows, but there's plenty of new and returning series premiering this summer to not just tide you over until the fall, but completely entertain you.
From "True Blood" Season 5 to the premiere of TNT's new "Dallas" reboot to the TV return of Charlie Sheen in FX's "Anger Management" to the beginning of the end of fan-favorite shows "The Closer" and "Damages," we've got you covered with all of the most important summer TV premiere dates.
For those who think summer TV is just filler, this lineup proves otherwise: HBO's new Aaron Sorkin series "The Newsroom" will make its debut, as will USA's ambitious and star-studded "Political Animals"; comedy fans have new seasons of "Episodes," "Louie" and MTV's "Awkward."; and reality TV addicts will get more "Big Brother," "The Bachelorette" and "Bachelor Pad," "Snooki & JWoww" and...
From "True Blood" Season 5 to the premiere of TNT's new "Dallas" reboot to the TV return of Charlie Sheen in FX's "Anger Management" to the beginning of the end of fan-favorite shows "The Closer" and "Damages," we've got you covered with all of the most important summer TV premiere dates.
For those who think summer TV is just filler, this lineup proves otherwise: HBO's new Aaron Sorkin series "The Newsroom" will make its debut, as will USA's ambitious and star-studded "Political Animals"; comedy fans have new seasons of "Episodes," "Louie" and MTV's "Awkward."; and reality TV addicts will get more "Big Brother," "The Bachelorette" and "Bachelor Pad," "Snooki & JWoww" and...
- 5/4/2012
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
We know you're probably preparing yourselves for the season finales of some of your favorite shows, but there's plenty of new and returning series premiering this summer to not just tide you over until the fall, but completely entertain you.
From "True Blood" Season 5 to the premiere of TNT's new "Dallas" reboot to the TV return of Charlie Sheen in FX's "Anger Management" to the beginning of the end of fan-favorite shows "The Closer" and "Damages," we've got you covered with all of the most important summer TV premiere dates.
For those who think summer TV is just filler, this lineup proves otherwise: HBO's new Aaron Sorkin series "The Newsroom" will make its debut, as will USA's ambitious and star-studded "Political Animals"; comedy fans have new seasons of "Episodes," "Louie" and MTV's "Awkward."; and reality TV addicts will get more "Big Brother," "The Bachelorette" and "Bachelor Pad," "Snooki & JWoww" and...
From "True Blood" Season 5 to the premiere of TNT's new "Dallas" reboot to the TV return of Charlie Sheen in FX's "Anger Management" to the beginning of the end of fan-favorite shows "The Closer" and "Damages," we've got you covered with all of the most important summer TV premiere dates.
For those who think summer TV is just filler, this lineup proves otherwise: HBO's new Aaron Sorkin series "The Newsroom" will make its debut, as will USA's ambitious and star-studded "Political Animals"; comedy fans have new seasons of "Episodes," "Louie" and MTV's "Awkward."; and reality TV addicts will get more "Big Brother," "The Bachelorette" and "Bachelor Pad," "Snooki & JWoww" and...
- 5/4/2012
- by The Huffington Post
- Aol TV.
Welcome to our live blog of the 2012 Golden Globe Awards where myself and Laremy Legel will be providing running commentary and up-to-the-minute winner announcements over the course of nearly five straight hours of Golden Globe excitement. This is the sixth year in a row we have provided a live blog of the events and hopefully this will be our best yet.
Over the course of the evening Laremy and I will be providing commentary, quotes, winners and anything else that comes to mind. I will be breaking things up on an hourly basis, providing a page break at the end of each hour to hopefully keep things manageable.
Also, in the right hand column you will notice I have placed a list of the winners, which will update live as they are announced, and if you feel as if you need a breather from the live blog, you can also...
Over the course of the evening Laremy and I will be providing commentary, quotes, winners and anything else that comes to mind. I will be breaking things up on an hourly basis, providing a page break at the end of each hour to hopefully keep things manageable.
Also, in the right hand column you will notice I have placed a list of the winners, which will update live as they are announced, and if you feel as if you need a breather from the live blog, you can also...
- 1/15/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
In Trust, Clive Owen and Liana Liberato play a father and daughter struggling to mend their relationship after an online predator threatens to tear their family apart. We sat down with the actors at their recent Beverly Hills press day to talk about the weighty subject matter, building a believable parent-child relationship, and their upcoming projects. Clive was still sporting the mustache for his role as literary icon Ernest Hemingway in Hemingway and Gellhorn. The HBO movie tells the story of the writer's relationship with war correspondent Martha Gellhorn, played by Nicole Kidman, and Liana also talked about working with the Oscar-winning actress in Trespass. Plus, check back soon to see our chat with director David Schwimmer and catch Trust in theaters this Friday, April 1.
- 3/29/2011
- by PopSugar
- Popsugar.com
Start your weekend with a few bites of TV news.
Jason Priestley is joining Syfy's series "Haven," both in front of and behind the camera. The former "Beverly Hills, 90210" star will guest in four episodes of the show's second season and direct another. Season 2 begins filming in April and will premiere in the summer. [Syfy]
The 25th edition of "The Real World" got off to a decent start in the ratings. While hardly at "Jersey Shore" levels, the Las Vegas-set season debuted to 1.7 million viewers and led all of TV in its timeslot among MTV's target 12-34 demographic. Both the total viewers and 12-34 rating (1.8) were up significantly over the previous season premiere. [MTV]
HBO has added several people to the cast of its movie "Hemingway & Gellhorn," about the romance between Ernest Hemingway (Clive Owen) and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn (Nicole Kidman). The cast also includes Tony Shalhoub, Molly Parker, David Strathairn,...
Jason Priestley is joining Syfy's series "Haven," both in front of and behind the camera. The former "Beverly Hills, 90210" star will guest in four episodes of the show's second season and direct another. Season 2 begins filming in April and will premiere in the summer. [Syfy]
The 25th edition of "The Real World" got off to a decent start in the ratings. While hardly at "Jersey Shore" levels, the Las Vegas-set season debuted to 1.7 million viewers and led all of TV in its timeslot among MTV's target 12-34 demographic. Both the total viewers and 12-34 rating (1.8) were up significantly over the previous season premiere. [MTV]
HBO has added several people to the cast of its movie "Hemingway & Gellhorn," about the romance between Ernest Hemingway (Clive Owen) and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn (Nicole Kidman). The cast also includes Tony Shalhoub, Molly Parker, David Strathairn,...
- 3/11/2011
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
A previously unreleased project from filmmaking legend Orson Welles may soon see the silver screen.
The Guardian reports that Welles’ "The Other Side of the Wind" is closer to a resolving an ownership dispute that has kept it from exhibition. The film itself began shooting in 1969.
Oscar winner John Huston stars as Jake Hannaford, an aging Hollywood director modeled on Ernest Hemingway. The story uses Hannaford's 70th birthday party and conversations there as the central framing device for a non-linear narrative exploring his life.
Most of the film was shot in Peter Bogdanovich's own Beverly Hills house. Producer Jacqueline Boushehri, and co-star/co-writer/Welles’ former lover, Oja Kodar, are both now prepared to sell their interests in the film, giving hope it will see an eventual release.
The Guardian reports that Welles’ "The Other Side of the Wind" is closer to a resolving an ownership dispute that has kept it from exhibition. The film itself began shooting in 1969.
Oscar winner John Huston stars as Jake Hannaford, an aging Hollywood director modeled on Ernest Hemingway. The story uses Hannaford's 70th birthday party and conversations there as the central framing device for a non-linear narrative exploring his life.
Most of the film was shot in Peter Bogdanovich's own Beverly Hills house. Producer Jacqueline Boushehri, and co-star/co-writer/Welles’ former lover, Oja Kodar, are both now prepared to sell their interests in the film, giving hope it will see an eventual release.
- 1/24/2011
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
There are few more tantalizing stories than those of unfinished films from the greatest of directors. When it’s a director of Orson Welles’ stature, the stories only get bigger, the films more legendary.
According to the Guardian, an unfinished film by Orson Welles (described as a masterpiece) will finally see a theatrical release nearly four decades later. The movie titled, The Other Side of the Wind, portrays the last hours of an ageing film director. Welles is said to have told John Huston, who plays the lead role: “It’s about a bastard director… full of himself, who catches people and creates and destroys them. It’s about us, John.”
Like many of Welles’s movies, the film had a troubled production history and was funded by him personally. Welles spent several years between 1969 and 1972 filming and editing the production. The majority of the film was shot in Peter Bogdanovich...
According to the Guardian, an unfinished film by Orson Welles (described as a masterpiece) will finally see a theatrical release nearly four decades later. The movie titled, The Other Side of the Wind, portrays the last hours of an ageing film director. Welles is said to have told John Huston, who plays the lead role: “It’s about a bastard director… full of himself, who catches people and creates and destroys them. It’s about us, John.”
Like many of Welles’s movies, the film had a troubled production history and was funded by him personally. Welles spent several years between 1969 and 1972 filming and editing the production. The majority of the film was shot in Peter Bogdanovich...
- 1/24/2011
- by Kyle Reese
- SoundOnSight
Robert Siodmak’s The Killers (1946), the film noir that catapulted Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner (above) to stardom, will be screened as the next feature in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ series “Oscar Noir: 1940s Writing Nominees from Hollywood’s Dark Side.” The Killers will be shown on Monday, June 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Screenwriter Billy Ray (Shattered Glass, State of Play) will introduce the screening. (The Killers is sold out. More info below.) Screenwriter Anthony Veiller turned Ernest Hemingway’s classic short story into a classic film noir. The Killers, about a former boxer and the men out to get him, isn’t one of my favorites noirs, but it’s great to look at thanks to Ava Gardner and cinematographer Elwood Bredell. Also in the cast: Edmond O’Brien, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene, Virginia Christine,...
- 6/16/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Director Sydney Pollack 1934-2008.
Director Sydney Pollack passed two years ago today. I had the good fortune to meet and interview Sydney Pollack twice, both of which are included here: first in 1999 for his well-made but ill-fated romantic drama "Random Hearts," and again in 2006 for what would be his final film, "Sketches of Frank Gehry," a masterful documentary look at the eponymous architect's life, work and process. It was also in many respects a personal investigation for Pollack himself, which he spoke quite candidly about during our conversation.
This has been a tough year for those of us who were weaned on the films of the so-called "Easy Riders and Raging Bulls" who made the iconic films of the late 1960s and 1970s, with the loss of such figures as Pollack, Roy Scheider, and others of the era. Pollack was certainly among the lions of that pack, but was perhaps...
Director Sydney Pollack passed two years ago today. I had the good fortune to meet and interview Sydney Pollack twice, both of which are included here: first in 1999 for his well-made but ill-fated romantic drama "Random Hearts," and again in 2006 for what would be his final film, "Sketches of Frank Gehry," a masterful documentary look at the eponymous architect's life, work and process. It was also in many respects a personal investigation for Pollack himself, which he spoke quite candidly about during our conversation.
This has been a tough year for those of us who were weaned on the films of the so-called "Easy Riders and Raging Bulls" who made the iconic films of the late 1960s and 1970s, with the loss of such figures as Pollack, Roy Scheider, and others of the era. Pollack was certainly among the lions of that pack, but was perhaps...
- 5/26/2010
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
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