Category Archives: Movies

Movies: ‘West Side Story’ Reimagined By Director Steven Spielberg (2021)

EGOT winner Rita Moreno, who was an original cast member of the 1961 film, joins Spielberg’s film as a consultant and opens up about years of battling colorism in Hollywood.

Film Previews: “The Real Charlie Chaplin” (DEC 2021)

Combining unheard audio recordings, dramatic reconstructions and personal archives, The Real Charlie Chaplin traces Charlie Chaplin’s meteoric rise from the slums of Victorian London to the heights of Hollywood superstardom, before his scandalous fall from grace. Watch the premiere on Saturday, December 11 at 8/7c on SHOWTIME.

Inside Views: Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures In Los Angeles

Actor and academy trustee Tom Hanks opens the long-awaited Academy Museum of Motion Pictures to members of the media for a preview. (Sept. 22)

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is a museum in Los Angeles, California being constructed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which will be devoted to the history, science, and cultural impact of the film industry. It will be the first large-scale museum of its kind in the United States.

Video Trailers: ‘The Maltese Falcon (1941) – 80th Anniversary Edition

The new trailer for the landmark film noir starring Humphrey Bogart and directed by John Huston – back in cinemas UK-wide from 17 September to celebrate its 80th anniversary.

John Huston’s directorial debut, this year celebrating its 80th anniversary, turned Bogart into a major star. Adapted from Dashiell Hammett’s novel about a San Francisco detective’s investigations into the murder of his business partner, Huston’s snappily witty script retains the plot’s labyrinthine complexity while revelling in colourful characterisations of the villains Sam Spade encounters during his quest. Inspired casting includes Lorre as volatile Joel Cairo, Greenstreet as menacingly amiable Kasper Gutman, and Cook as his gunman. But it’s the fraught, febrile relationship between Bogart’s Spade and Mary Astor’s femme fatale – who persuaded his partner to take on her case – that shapes the deep, dark core of desire, doubt and duplicity pervading the film from beginning to memorable end.

Views: Places Inspiring ‘Lord Of The Rings’ & ‘The Hobbit’ By J.R.R. Tolkien

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings – If you’ve read the British author J.R.R. Tolkien’s books before, or seen the movies, you’ll be familiar with the fantasy worlds he created. But where did the inspiration for these creations come from? To this day, this question is still widely debated. British author and Tolkien expert John Garth has embarked on a journey to find out.

Views: 74th Cannes Film Festival Returns In 2021

After skipping a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the world’s premier film festival returns to the French Riviera for a bumper edition running through July 6-17. FRANCE 24 lifts the curtain on the crucial – and trivial – things you need to know about the 74th Cannes Film Festival. 

1970’s Books: ‘Rock Me On The Water’- How Movies, TV & Music Changed Culture

A new book argues the 1970’s was a moment when TV, movies, and music all shifted into a new gear, changing the cultural landscape in ways that continue to today. Jeffrey Brown has a conversation with author Ron Brownstein about his book “Rock Me on the Water: 1974-The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics.” This segment is part of our arts and culture series, CANVAS.

Great Movie Themes: ‘How The West Was Won’ (1962)

How the West Was Won is a 1962 American  epic  Western  adventure film directed by Henry Hathaway (who directs three out of the five chapters involving the same family), John Ford, and George Marshall, produced by Bernard Smith, written by James R. Webb, and narrated by Spencer Tracy. Originally filmed in true three-lens Cinerama with the according three-panel panorama projected onto an enormous curved screen, the film stars an ensemble cast consisting of (in alphabetical order) Carroll BakerLee J. CobbHenry FondaCarolyn JonesKarl MaldenGregory PeckGeorge PeppardRobert PrestonDebbie ReynoldsJames StewartEli WallachJohn Wayne, and Richard Widmark. The supporting cast features Brigid BazlenWalter BrennanDavid BrianKen CurtisAndy DevineJack LambertRaymond Massey as Abraham LincolnAgnes MooreheadHarry Morgan as Ulysses S. GrantThelma RitterMickey ShaughnessyHarry Dean StantonRuss Tamblyn and Lee Van Cleef.

How the West Was Won is widely considered one of Hollywood‘s greatest epics.[1] The film received widespread critical acclaim and was a box office success, grossing $50 million on a budget of $15 million.[2] At the 36th Academy Awards, it earned eight nominations, including Best Picture, and won three, for Best Story and Screenplay Written Directly for the ScreenBest Sound, and Best Film Editing. In 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Reviews: ‘Nomadland’ – Jessica Bruder Book Now An Award-Winning Movie

The latest selection for our “Now Read This” book club, Jessica Bruder’s “Nomadland,” documents a growing phenomenon in the country — a “wandering tribe” of seasonal workers. It has inspired a new movie of the same name. The film was the big winner at the British Academy Film Awards, and has multiple Oscar nominations. Jeffrey Brown has the latest for our ongoing arts and culture series, CANVAS.