Category Archives: Films

Interview: James Bond 007 Series Producers Barbara Broccoli, 59 And Michael G. Wilson, 77 (Variety UK)

From a Variety.com online interview (January 17, 2020):

Variety The U.K. Issue Family Bond 007 magazine cover January 2020“He brought flesh and blood to the character,” she says. “Bond in the novel is a silhouette. Daniel has given him depth and an inner life. We were looking for a 21st-century hero, and that’s what he delivered. He bleeds; he cries; he’s very contemporary.”

(On Daniel Craig)

“For better or worse, we are the custodians of this character,” says Barbara Broccoli, who oversees the franchise with her half-brother Michael G. Wilson. “We take that responsibility seriously.”

Eon Productions James Bond 007 Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli

It’s an arrangement that was first hammered out by Broccoli’s father, the producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, when John F. Kennedy was president and the Twist was all the rage. Miraculously, that pact has prevailed through the decades and generations, enduring everything from corporate mergers and bankruptcies to shifting consumer tastes and geopolitical upheavals. The elder Broccoli died in 1996. but not before ceding control to his two children with the 1995 release of “GoldenEye,” a film that proved a sexist superspy, conceived by novelist Ian Fleming in the 1950s, still had a role to play in post-Cold War cinema.

Read full article

Classical Music Films: “In Search Of Mozart” (Video)

Pianist Ronald Brautigam explains Beethoven unique and revolutionary ability to appeal to both the masses and the connoisseurs of his time.

Pianist Lada Valešová and historian Cliff Eisen discuss Mozart earliest composition, written when he was just five years old.

Website

“David Attenborough – A Life On Our Planet” Recounts 93-Year Old’s Life In Nature (Trailer)

Sir David Attenborough has warned that “human beings have overrun the world” in a trailer for his new film.

The feature-length documentary, titled David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet, looks back on the defining moments of his life and the environmental devastation that has taken place during that time. As well as highlighting some of the issues that climate change poses, he also explores some of the potential solutions.

In the trailer, the veteran broadcaster, 93, said: “I’ve had the most extraordinary life. It is only now that I appreciate how extraordinary.”

For the full story click here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020…

2020: Major Books, Films And Music From 1924 Enter U.S. Public Domain

From Duke Law “Center For The Study of the Public Domain”:

Center for the Study of the Public Domain Duke LawOn January 1, 2020, works from 1924 will enter the US public domain, where they will be free for all to use and build upon, without permission or fee. These works include George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, silent films by Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, and books such as Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India, and A. A. Milne’s When We Were Very Young. These works were supposed to go into the public domain in 2000, after being copyrighted for 75 years. But before this could happen, Congress hit a 20-year pause button and extended their copyright term to 95 years.

Films

  • Buster Keaton’s Sherlock, Jr. and The Navigator
  • Harold Lloyd’s Girl Shy and Hot Water
  • The first film adaptation of Peter Pan
  • The Sea Hawk
  • Secrets
  • He Who Gets Slapped
  • Dante’s Inferno

Books

  • A Passage To India E.M. Forster 1924Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain
  • E.M. Forster, A Passage to India
  • Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not… (the first volume of his “Parade’s End” tetralogy)
  • Eugene O’Neill, Desire Under the Elms
  • Edith Wharton, Old New York (four novellas)
  • Yevgeny Zamyatin, We (the English translation by Gregory Zilboorg)
  • A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young
  • Hugh Lofting, Doctor Dolittle’s Circus
  • Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan and the Ant Men
  • Agatha Christie, The Man in the Brown Suit
  • Lord Dunsany (Edward Plunkett), The King of Elfland’s Daughter

Music

  • Rhapsody in Blue, George Gershwin
  • Fascinating Rhythm and Oh, Lady Be Good, music George Gershwin, lyrics Ira Gershwin
  • Lazy, Irving Berlin
  • Jealous Hearted Blues, Cora “Lovie” Austin (composer, pianist, bandleader) (recorded by Ma Rainey)
  • Santa Claus Blues, Charley Straight and Gus Kahn (recorded by Louis Armstrong)
  • Nobody’s Sweetheart, music Billy Meyers and Elmer Schoebel, lyrics Gus Kahn and Ernie Erdman

(Only the musical compositions referred to above are entering the public domain. Subsequent arrangements, orchestrations, or recordings of those compositions, such as Yuja Wang’s performance of Rhapsody in Blue, might still be copyrighted. You are free to copy, perform, record, or adapt Gershwin’s composition, but may need permission to use a specific recording of it.)

Film Actor Profiles: “An Essay On (64-Year Old) Willem Dafoe’s Face…” (Gentleman’s Journal)

From a Gentleman’s Journal online article:

Willem Dafoe Gentleman's Journal photo Dec 2019Thankfully, Willem Dafoe and Willem Dafoe’s face have used this innate recognisability to their joint advantage. To date, the actor has appeared in well over 100 films, and his prolific career can be charted through the cracks and comments — some nice, some not so nice — that those in the industry have made about his looks.

In fact, in the intervening decades, Hollywood has called many, many times — as have independent filmmakers, foreign studios, animation houses, video game developers and scores of theatres. On the big screen, Dafoe has taken roles in PlatoonMississippi BurningBorn on the Fourth of JulyThe English PatientAmerican Psycho and Shadow of the Vampire. He flew into The Aviator for a cameo, swung into the Spider-Man trilogy as the villainous Green Goblin and dipped his toe in voiceover work with Finding Nemo. He’s taken on John CarterJohn Wick and narrated films from Vox Lux to The Great Wall. He’s been Oscar-nominated several times, for playing characters as wild and disparate as hammy vampires, Floridian motel managers and Vincent van Gogh. The man is a chameleon — and has managed to become one despite having Willem Dafoe’s face.

To read entire article: https://www.thegentlemansjournal.com/article/willem-dafoe-interview-face-hollywood-cover/

Interviews: Director Martin Scorsese On “The Irishman” (Netflix Video)

Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci star in Martin Scorsese’s THE IRISHMAN, a saga of organized crime in post-war America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hustler and hitman who worked alongside some of the most notorious figures of the 20th century. Academy Award winning Director Martin Scorsese on his vision and the making-of THE IRISHMAN. Now playing in theaters and on Netflix.

Top New Short Films: “Maestro” By French Animation Collective Illogic Is “Remarkable”

Animated and Directed by: Illogic http://illogic.fr/portfolio/maestro/

Produced by: Bloom Pictures https://www.bloompictures.tv/portfolio/maestro/

Maestro short film by Illogic 2019

For decades, Disney has been the de facto master of the animated animal orchestra — as seen in classics like FantasiaThe Little Mermaid, and The Lion King. However, this week’s Staff Pick Premiere, “Maestro,” from animation collective Illogic, sets out to change the tune. The film features a photo-realistic rendition of forest animals belting out songs from a Vincenzo Bellini war opera. And it’s remarkable.

Maestro short film by Illogic 2019

Best known for their 2018 Oscar-nominated short “Garden Party,” which features impressive amphibian animation, Illogic expands their animal exploration with “Maestro” to include birds, squirrels, hedgehogs, and deer. As in their previous work, the collective continues to explore the question of what animals do when humans aren’t watching, and the animations continue to be surprising.

Maestro short film by Illogic 2019

 

Movie Nostalgia: It’s Been 60 Years Since “Best Ever” Big-Screen Comedy “Some Like It Hot” Opened (1959)

From a BBC.com cuture article:

Some Like It Hot movie sceneFaced with the question of why Some Like It Hot has topped BBC Culture’s poll of the best ever big-screen comedies, it’s tempting to say something similar. Wilder’s glittering masterpiece doesn’t just use the handsomest kid in town (and a terrific actor, to boot), but its most radiant sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe, and one of its most dexterous comedians, Jack Lemmon. It also has a bevy of bathing beauties, a crowd of sinister mafiosi, a glamorous seaside setting in the roaring ‘20s, and a sizzling selection of songs.

It is structured so meticulously that it glides from moment to moment with the elegance of an Olympic figure skater, and the consummate screwball dialogue, by Wilder and IAL Diamond, is so polished that every line includes either a joke, a double meaning, or an allusion to a line elsewhere in the film. To quote one character, it’s a riot of “spills, thrills, laughs and games”. To quote another, it deserves to be “the biggest thing since the Graf Zeppelin”. So why was it chosen as the best comedy ever made? Simple. What else were we going to choose?

To read more click on the following link: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170817-why-some-like-it-hot-is-the-greatest-comedy-ever-made

Iconic Movies: Film Noir Thriller “Double Indemnity” (1944) Directed By Billy Wilder Turns 75

Feom a Wall Street Journal Arts & Entertainment article:

Double_Indemnity_publSeventy-five years ago, “Double Indemnity” opened in theaters across America. It was an instant hit, and remains to this day a staple offering of revival houses and on cable TV and streaming video. Yet little journalistic notice has been taken of the birthday of Billy Wilder’s first great screen drama, a homicidal thriller that nonetheless had—and has—something truly unsettling to say about the dark crosscurrents of middle-class American life.

Directed by Wilder and co-written by him and Raymond Chandler, the celebrated mystery novelist, “Double Indemnity” is the story of a restless insurance salesman who helps a sexy, frustrated housewife murder her husband for profit. Though neither Wilder nor Chandler realized it at the time, it would later be acknowledged by critics and scholars as the first fully developed example of film noir, in which a flawed but basically innocent protagonist is presented with a moral choice, makes the wrong call, and is plunged into a violent after-hours world of passion and crime.

To read more click on following link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-film-noir-icon-turns-75-11565637941

Restaurant Nostalgia: “Musso & Frank Grill” Featured In “Once Upon A Time In…Hollywood”

From a NY Times article by Jill Cowan and 

history-img-2If you are among the significant number of people who’ve seen Quentin Tarantino’s latest love letter to a bygone era, “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” then you’ve seen the Musso & Frank Grill.

It’s the spot where Leonardo DiCaprio’s and Brad Pitt’s characters commiserate about their lives over a whiskey sour and a bloody Mary. They also share an emotional moment in the restaurant’s parking lot as they wait for the valet, and a Musso & Frank sign looms prominently over their heads.

It’s clear Mr. Tarantino has an affection for the place, which will have been open for a century on Sept. 27, and has been a favored industry haunt for almost that entire time.

To read more click on the following link: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/02/us/california-today-musso-frank-grill.html