Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando star in Elia Kazan’s acclaimed adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ landmark play – back in UK cinemas from 7 February.
Category Archives: Movies
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):
“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.”
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.
Interviews: Director Martin Scorsese On Filmmaking & Death (NYT)
From a New York Times online article (01/02/20):
In ways both subtle and substantial, Scorsese sees the world changing and becoming less familiar to him. He gratefully accepted a deal with Netflix, which covered the reported $160 million budget for “The Irishman.” But the bargain meant that, after the movie received a limited theatrical release, it would be shown on the company’s streaming platform.
Scorsese has other aspirations but they have nothing to do with moviemaking. “I would love to just take a year and read,” he said. “Listen to music when it’s needed. Be with some friends. Because we’re all going. Friends are dying. Family’s going.”
Martin Scorsese is the most alive he’s been in his work in a long time, brimming with renewed passion for filmmaking and invigorated by the reception that has greeted his latest gangland magnum opus, “The Irishman.”
And what he wants to talk about is death.
Just to be clear, he’s not talking about the deaths in his movies or anyone else’s. “You just have to let go, especially at this vantage point of age,” he said one Saturday afternoon last month.
Film History: Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” (1960) At 60 Years (Video)
La Dolce Vita (“the sweet life” or “the good life”) is a 1960 comedy-drama film directed and co-written by Federico Fellini. The film follows Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni), a journalist writing for gossip magazines, over seven days and nights on his journey through the “sweet life” of Rome in a fruitless search for love and happiness. La Dolce Vita won the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival[ nd the Oscar for Best Costumes. The film was a worldwide box-office success.
From Wikipedia
Interviews: 80-Year Old Lily Tomlin Opens Up On Her Long Career (NY Times)
From a New York Times interview (12/30/19):
Has comedy evolved since you started? I think a lot more is allowed. When I was first starting out and was on “Laugh-In,” around ’71, I was trying to keep a low profile when I’d be working on something new.
Did you have that sense early in your career that your approach to comedy was different from most comedians? No. I just wanted to do the person, and more than likely the character would be self-confident and secure in her world. for instance. She mostly was looking out for herself and skewering pomposity, if I was going to be true to a child, the humor would take on a different quality.
1960’s Cinema Icons: Remembering French “Bond Girl” Claudine Auger (1941 -2019)
From a France24.com online release:
The film’s trailer introduced Auger as: “Young. Beautiful. Trapped. Could be dangerous”.
French actress Claudine Auger, best known to international audiences playing alongside Sean Connery in the 1965 James Bond film “Thunderball”, has died aged 78, her agent said Thursday.
She played the character “Domino” in the film, the fourth in the Bond franchise, which was set in the Bahamas providing ample opportunity for swimsuit action scenes.
To read more: https://www.france24.com/en/20191219-auger-thunderball-bond-girl-dies-aged-78
1970’s Movie Nostalgia: Soundtrack Music From “American Graffiti” (1973)
Soundtrack/theme music from the 1973 George Lucas film “American Graffiti,” with Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Bo Hopkins, Harrison Ford, Suzanne Somers, Kathleen Quinlan & Wolfman Jack.
Movie Insider: “Every Starfighter In Star Wars Explained By Lucasfilm” (WIRED Video)
Lucasfilms’ Doug Chiang and Amy Beth Christenson explain each and every type of starfighter from the Star Wars movie franchise. These small, combat-focused spacecrafts have become a canvas for some of the most iconic designs in all of cinema.
Ever wondered why the “snout” of the X-Wing is so pronounced, or why the Y-Wing’s paneling is so bare? Amy Beth and Doug offer all these insights and much more!
1960’s Icons: Remembering French New Wave Actress Anna Karina (1940-2019)
From a Hollywood Reporter online article:
It was during a run-in with Coco Chanel in 1958 that Hanne-Karine changed her name to Anna Karina, which the fashion designer told her sounded better. She used the moniker for her movie career, which began in earnest in 1960 with A Woman Is a Woman— just Godard’s second feature to be released —and lasted until 2008 with Victoria, a road movie she directed as well as starred in.
Anna Karina, the French New Wave starlet who rose to international acclaim in films directed by her then-husband Jean-Luc Godard, has died. She was 79.
She and Godard were married from 1961-64, and she served as his muse in such memorable works as A Woman Is a Woman (1961) — for which she received a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival — Vivre sa vie (1962), Band of Outsiders (1964), Pierrot le Fou (1965) and Alphaville (1965).
The actress’ productive career was not limited to the movies of Godard, however. She accumulated more than 50 feature credits, working with other major auteurs like Jacques Rivette, Luchino Visconti, Chris Marker, Volker Schlöndorff and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Top New Films: “A Hidden Life” Written & Directed By Terrence Malick (Dec 2019)
The arresting visual beauty of “A Hidden Life,” which was shot by Joerg Widmer, is essential to its own argument, and to Franz’s ethical and spiritual rebuttal to the concerns of his persecutors and would-be allies. The topography of the valley is spectacular, but so are the churches and cathedrals. Even the cells and offices are infused with an aesthetic intensity at once sensual and picturesque.
The hallmarks of Malick’s later style are here: the upward tilt of the camera to capture new vistas of sky and landscape; the brisk gliding along rivers and roads; the elegant cutting between the human and natural worlds; the reverence for music and the mistrust of speech. (The score is by James Newton Howard.)
To read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/movies/a-hidden-life-review.html
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