Jan Haag, who a half-century ago founded the landmark Directing Workshop for Women at the American Film Institute, has died. She was 90.
The remarkable Haag, who also was an actress, painter, poet, novelist, playwright, writer of travel stories and creator of needlepoint canvases, some of which required hundreds of hours to complete, died Monday in Shoreline, Washington, according to the AFI and the Mb Abram agency.
Haag had directed dozens of educational films for the John Tracy Clinic and the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare when she became the first woman accepted into the Academy Intern Program at the AFI in 1970, three years after it was founded by George Stevens Jr.
She was assigned to Paramount’s Harold and Maude (1971), directed by Hal Ashby, then joined the AFI staff in 1971, and among her duties was to administer the nonprofit’s film grant program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The remarkable Haag, who also was an actress, painter, poet, novelist, playwright, writer of travel stories and creator of needlepoint canvases, some of which required hundreds of hours to complete, died Monday in Shoreline, Washington, according to the AFI and the Mb Abram agency.
Haag had directed dozens of educational films for the John Tracy Clinic and the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare when she became the first woman accepted into the Academy Intern Program at the AFI in 1970, three years after it was founded by George Stevens Jr.
She was assigned to Paramount’s Harold and Maude (1971), directed by Hal Ashby, then joined the AFI staff in 1971, and among her duties was to administer the nonprofit’s film grant program funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
- 5/2/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Taylor Swift may or may not be aligned with the interests of the U.S. government (she’s definitely not), but she does wield immense cultural power. Every time the 14-time Grammy winner includes an obscure lyrical reference in her songs, it creates an opportunity for the nerds who recognize it to say something like, oh, “But do you know what’s really cool about Clara Bow?”
So … do you know what’s really cool about Clara Bow?
Until this week, Clara Bow was just another silent movie star whose career got reduced to a persona in popular culture (the hedonistic “It Girl” both in the movie “It” and in her real life). But now that her name is revealed as inspiring a track on Swfit’s upcoming album “The Tortured Poets Department,” expect Bow to become a sensation all over again, 100 years after her heyday.
New Yorkers have the chance...
So … do you know what’s really cool about Clara Bow?
Until this week, Clara Bow was just another silent movie star whose career got reduced to a persona in popular culture (the hedonistic “It Girl” both in the movie “It” and in her real life). But now that her name is revealed as inspiring a track on Swfit’s upcoming album “The Tortured Poets Department,” expect Bow to become a sensation all over again, 100 years after her heyday.
New Yorkers have the chance...
- 2/9/2024
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
The first 2024 issue of Film Junior magazine is available now – the film magazine for young film fans (and they write lots of it too!)
Introducing issue 15 of Film Junior magazine that’s now available for purchase. This time, we’re looking forward to the movie year ahead, celebrating the cream of upcoming family movies, and letting our young reporter interrogate the director of Aardman’s latest Chicken Run film!
If you’re new to the publication, it’s a 52 page print magazine aimed at younger film fans (around 7 to 14 years old), and it’s also mainly written by them too. The young writers come up with the majority of the ideas, the words are theirs, and they’re paid for their work.
We sell this magazine via subscription and mail order. We’re going to have news on the digital version shortly.
If there’s a young film fan in...
Introducing issue 15 of Film Junior magazine that’s now available for purchase. This time, we’re looking forward to the movie year ahead, celebrating the cream of upcoming family movies, and letting our young reporter interrogate the director of Aardman’s latest Chicken Run film!
If you’re new to the publication, it’s a 52 page print magazine aimed at younger film fans (around 7 to 14 years old), and it’s also mainly written by them too. The young writers come up with the majority of the ideas, the words are theirs, and they’re paid for their work.
We sell this magazine via subscription and mail order. We’re going to have news on the digital version shortly.
If there’s a young film fan in...
- 1/23/2024
- by Simon Brew
- Film Stories
Exclusive: Laura Karpman was drip-fed jazz notes when she was a baby. Her mother’s turn-table featured a playlist that included Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Wes Montgomery and Thelonious Monk, the virtuoso pianist, whose music informs and underpins her own jazz-infused score for Cord Jefferson’s scorching American Fiction.
“So I remember in her painting studio, my mother had a record player and she would play everything,” Karpman recalls, and for good measure her mother would spin Beethoven’s violin concerto and a piece by Stravinsky.
Karpman lapped it all up, just as her mother had planned, because Mrs.Karpman had preordained “that I would be a composer when she was pregnant,” she tells me.
Her mother was a painter and sculptor “and she always, I think probably inappropriately, thought that music was the highest art. And so she wanted me to be an artist and she wanted me to be a musician.
“So I remember in her painting studio, my mother had a record player and she would play everything,” Karpman recalls, and for good measure her mother would spin Beethoven’s violin concerto and a piece by Stravinsky.
Karpman lapped it all up, just as her mother had planned, because Mrs.Karpman had preordained “that I would be a composer when she was pregnant,” she tells me.
Her mother was a painter and sculptor “and she always, I think probably inappropriately, thought that music was the highest art. And so she wanted me to be an artist and she wanted me to be a musician.
- 12/18/2023
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
Has any young actress ever had a year Katharine Hepburn experienced in 1933? After making her film debut in 1932’s “Bill of Divorcement” with John Barrymore, the 26-year-old with the preternatural cheekbones demonstrated her versatility in three exceptional motion pictures 90 years ago. The great Kate soared high as famed aviatrix who has a tragic affair with a married member of Parliament in Dorothy Arzner’s daring pre-code romantic drama “Christopher Strong.” Next up was “Morning Glory,” for which she won her first of four best actress Oscars-and of course was a no-show at the ceremony- as an eager young actress. And Hepburn ended the year with “Little Women,” the acclaimed box office hit which made $100,000 during its first week at Radio City Music Hall, based on Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel.
Most “little women” have read Alcott’s autobiographical coming-of-age novel that was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. Set...
Most “little women” have read Alcott’s autobiographical coming-of-age novel that was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. Set...
- 10/2/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Back in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Hollywood operated with a different set of rules. Before the Hays Code cracked down on content in the middle of 1934, films were brushed with hot topics such as sex, female liberation, alcoholism, and depression. These movies are the Pre-Code films.
Working within this realm was just one female director – the Queen, Dorothy Arzner. This director not only created films at a time where men dictated and controlled the industry, she also produced films that had a clear feminist voice. With snappy and head-strong female leads dominating her movies, Arzner helped change the landscape with these incredible films. She was so popular that she was the first woman to be included in the Directors Guild of America.
Thanks to the BFI Film On Film Festival, audiences got to see a newly restored print of her nifty comedy, Working Girls (1931).
Written by Zoe Akins...
Working within this realm was just one female director – the Queen, Dorothy Arzner. This director not only created films at a time where men dictated and controlled the industry, she also produced films that had a clear feminist voice. With snappy and head-strong female leads dominating her movies, Arzner helped change the landscape with these incredible films. She was so popular that she was the first woman to be included in the Directors Guild of America.
Thanks to the BFI Film On Film Festival, audiences got to see a newly restored print of her nifty comedy, Working Girls (1931).
Written by Zoe Akins...
- 6/14/2023
- by Sarah Cook
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux unveiled the bulk of the Official Selection for the 76th edition of the festival at a packed press conference Thursday morning in Paris.
In a lineup mixing established auteurs with rising directors, Palme d’Or winners Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Nanni Moretti, Ken Loach, Wim Wenders and Hirokazu Kore-eda return to the main competition alongside first-time contenders Kaouther Ben Hania and Ramata-Toulaye Sy.
Talking points include the record number of women-directed films in competition, whether Martin Scorsese might segue out of competition to compete for the Palme d’Or with Killers of the Flower Moon and the selection of Euphoria creator Sam Levinson’s reportedly challenged series The Idol.
Deadline sat down with Frémaux after the press conference to drill down on the Selection and the process of bringing it together this year.
Deadline: The selection process always goes up to the wire ahead of the main lineup announcement.
In a lineup mixing established auteurs with rising directors, Palme d’Or winners Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Nanni Moretti, Ken Loach, Wim Wenders and Hirokazu Kore-eda return to the main competition alongside first-time contenders Kaouther Ben Hania and Ramata-Toulaye Sy.
Talking points include the record number of women-directed films in competition, whether Martin Scorsese might segue out of competition to compete for the Palme d’Or with Killers of the Flower Moon and the selection of Euphoria creator Sam Levinson’s reportedly challenged series The Idol.
Deadline sat down with Frémaux after the press conference to drill down on the Selection and the process of bringing it together this year.
Deadline: The selection process always goes up to the wire ahead of the main lineup announcement.
- 4/13/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
It is my experience that one gets a far richer, stranger cinema education in pursuing the careers of actors, that group defined first by (assuming luck shines upon them) two or three era-defining films and then so much that dictates their industry—pet projects, contractual obligations, called-in favors alimony payments, auteur one-offs, and on and on. Few embody that deluge of circumstance better than Michelle Yeoh and Isabelle Huppert, both of whom are receiving spotlights in March. The former’s is a who’s-who of Hong Kong talent, new favorites (The Heroic Trio), items we can at least say are of interest (Trio‘s not-great sequel Executioners), etc.
Huppert’s series runs longer, and notwithstanding certain standards that have long sat on the channel it adds some heavy hitters: Hong’s In Another Country, Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. And, of course,...
Huppert’s series runs longer, and notwithstanding certain standards that have long sat on the channel it adds some heavy hitters: Hong’s In Another Country, Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness, Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come. And, of course,...
- 2/22/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Nina Menkes’ bracing 1991 feature Queen of Diamonds is one of a group of notable films by female auteurs that have recently been restored and brought back into wider circulation. But rather than using the momentum as of yet to get another fictional film in production, Menkes has adapted a lecture presentation she began giving in 2018 entitled “Sex and Power: The Visual Language of Oppression” into Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power, the first solo-directed non-fiction work in her filmography.
Surveying how the male gaze, as theorized by Laura Mulvey in her pathbreaking essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” has influenced and hamstrung the medium across its history, Menkes has received some critical pushback for this film, including from those who were supportive of her more experimental fiction work, which is considered ahead-of-its-time and certainly would’ve received greater attention in today’s more egalitarian independent film climate. Yet the documentary still alights on an...
Surveying how the male gaze, as theorized by Laura Mulvey in her pathbreaking essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” has influenced and hamstrung the medium across its history, Menkes has received some critical pushback for this film, including from those who were supportive of her more experimental fiction work, which is considered ahead-of-its-time and certainly would’ve received greater attention in today’s more egalitarian independent film climate. Yet the documentary still alights on an...
- 10/25/2022
- by David Katz
- The Film Stage
In the 94-year history of the Oscars, there is only one category, besides Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, that has never been won by a woman. That would be Best Cinematography, which honors a movie’s lighting, framing and camerawork.
Those are hardly gender-specific achievements, though the Oscars, for better or worse, are a reflection of the opportunities offered in the film industry. And as such, there are deep institutional reasons why this specific category has such a poor track record for women.
The trivia stat could change on Sunday night. Ari Wegner, the Australian cinematographer of Jane Campion’s nomination-leader “The Power of the Dog,” is nominated for her thoughtful, intuitive work on the film. TheWrap’s Steve Pond predicts that Wegner will take home the trophy, giving her the edge over “Dune” Dp Greig Fraser (the cinematographer of Campion’s previous movie “Bright Star”), who has scored the BAFTA and ASC precursors.
Those are hardly gender-specific achievements, though the Oscars, for better or worse, are a reflection of the opportunities offered in the film industry. And as such, there are deep institutional reasons why this specific category has such a poor track record for women.
The trivia stat could change on Sunday night. Ari Wegner, the Australian cinematographer of Jane Campion’s nomination-leader “The Power of the Dog,” is nominated for her thoughtful, intuitive work on the film. TheWrap’s Steve Pond predicts that Wegner will take home the trophy, giving her the edge over “Dune” Dp Greig Fraser (the cinematographer of Campion’s previous movie “Bright Star”), who has scored the BAFTA and ASC precursors.
- 3/24/2022
- by Joe McGovern
- The Wrap
For the first time in Academy history in 2021, two women (Chloe Zhao and Emerald Fennell) were nominated for Best Director. For the 2022 Oscars, a female director (Jane Campion) received a second nomination in the same category for the first time. Although women have often been overlooked in the Best Director category, there is a rich history of filmmaking from women throughout the history of the industry, with many taking charge of their production by multitasking in various areas of the filmmaking process.
To celebrate March as Women’s History Month, let’s look back at some of the contributions of female filmmakers, and the recognition their films have received from the Academy.
One of the first directors in history was a French woman named Alice Guy-Blache, who directed over 400 shorts beginning in 1896. In 1911, Lois Weber became the first prominent American female director, and was one of the most successful filmmakers...
To celebrate March as Women’s History Month, let’s look back at some of the contributions of female filmmakers, and the recognition their films have received from the Academy.
One of the first directors in history was a French woman named Alice Guy-Blache, who directed over 400 shorts beginning in 1896. In 1911, Lois Weber became the first prominent American female director, and was one of the most successful filmmakers...
- 3/11/2022
- by Susan Pennington and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
For the first time in Academy history in 2021, two women (Chloe Zhao and Emerald Fennell) were nominated for Best Director. For the 2022 Oscars, a female director (Jane Campion) received a second nomination in the same category for the first time. Although women have often been overlooked in the Best Director category, there is a rich history of filmmaking from women throughout the history of the industry, with many taking charge of their production by multitasking in various areas of the filmmaking process.
To celebrate March as Women’s History Month, let’s look back at some of the contributions of female filmmakers, and the recognition their films have received from the Academy.
One of the first directors in history was a French woman named Alice Guy-Blache, who directed over 400 shorts beginning in 1896. In 1911, Lois Weber became the first prominent American female director, and was one of the most successful filmmakers...
To celebrate March as Women’s History Month, let’s look back at some of the contributions of female filmmakers, and the recognition their films have received from the Academy.
One of the first directors in history was a French woman named Alice Guy-Blache, who directed over 400 shorts beginning in 1896. In 1911, Lois Weber became the first prominent American female director, and was one of the most successful filmmakers...
- 3/9/2022
- by Susan Pennington, Chris Beachum and Misty Holland
- Gold Derby
Rarely one finds a friend on the Criterion Channel—discounting the parasitic relationship we form with filmmakers, I mean—but it’s great seeing their March lineup give light to Sophy Romvari, the <bias>exceptionally talented</bias> filmmaker and curator whose work has perhaps earned comparisons to Agnès Varda and Chantal Akerman but charts its own path of history and reflection. It’s a good way to lead into an exceptionally strong month, featuring as it does numerous films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, the great Japanese documentarian Kazuo Hara, newfound cult classic Arrebato, and a number of Criterion editions.
On the last front we have The Age of Innocence, Bull Durham, A Raisin in the Sun, The Celebration, Merrily We Go to Hell, and Design for Living. There’s always something lingering on the watchlist, but it might have to wait a second longer—March is an opened floodgate.
See the full...
On the last front we have The Age of Innocence, Bull Durham, A Raisin in the Sun, The Celebration, Merrily We Go to Hell, and Design for Living. There’s always something lingering on the watchlist, but it might have to wait a second longer—March is an opened floodgate.
See the full...
- 2/21/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Oscar certainly loves mothers. All five of this year’s Best Actress nominees — Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”), Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”), Penelope Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”), Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”) and Kirsten Stewart (“Spencer”) — play mothers. Ditto four out of five supporting nominees: Jessie Buckley (“The Lost Daughter”), Judi Dench (“Belfast”), Kirsten Dunst (“The Power of the Dog”) and Aunjanue Ellis (“King Richard”); the fifth contender is Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”).
Actresses love getting maternal sinking their teeth-and sometimes claws-into mother roles whether they be good, bad, ugly or downright evil. Here’s a look at some early memorable mother performances that made Oscars history.
The mother of all mothers was Ruth Chatterton. Though she is not as well-remembered as other actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood, she was extremely popular in the late 1920s and early ‘30s. Though no nominations were officially announced for the second annual Oscars,...
Actresses love getting maternal sinking their teeth-and sometimes claws-into mother roles whether they be good, bad, ugly or downright evil. Here’s a look at some early memorable mother performances that made Oscars history.
The mother of all mothers was Ruth Chatterton. Though she is not as well-remembered as other actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood, she was extremely popular in the late 1920s and early ‘30s. Though no nominations were officially announced for the second annual Oscars,...
- 2/18/2022
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Revisiting last year's introduction when putting together 2021's favorites, it is with a shock to realize how little has changed in the wildly disrupted world of cinema under the shroud of the pandemic. The urge to copy-and-paste the whole shebang is quite tempting indeed.What can we say about this year, 2021? We got a little more used to long-term instability. Cinemas and festivals re-opened, only for some to close again. We, like many, ventured carefully out into the world to finally see films again with audiences, all kinds: nervous ones, uproarious ones, spartan ones, and delighted ones. It was an experience both anxious and joyous. We also doubled down on the challenges, but also the pleasures, of home viewing: of virtual cinemas and virtual festivals, of straight to streaming premieres, of trying to capture a social joy in semi-isolation by connecting with others over experiences shared and disparate.The long...
- 12/27/2021
- MUBI
If you weren’t around at the time, it’s hard to communicate just what a splashy, dominating place the Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller occupied during the 1970s. Wertmüller, who died on Thursday at 93, was far from the first celebrated woman director — just think of Agnès Varda, Shirley Clarke, Elaine May, Lois Weber, Ida Lupino, Dorothy Arzner, or Barbara Loden. But apart from the infamous Leni Riefenstahl, it’s fair to say that Wertmüller was the first woman filmmaker to become a household name. She was the first to receive an Academy Award nomination for best director, the first to adorn the cover of major magazines, the first to rule and own the zeitgeist.
And rule it she did. “Swept Away,” Wertmüller’s controversial 1974 drama about a wealthy snob (Mariangela Melato) and one of her lowly yacht crew members (Giancarlo Giannini), who wind up swapping roles after the two are stranded on a desert island,...
And rule it she did. “Swept Away,” Wertmüller’s controversial 1974 drama about a wealthy snob (Mariangela Melato) and one of her lowly yacht crew members (Giancarlo Giannini), who wind up swapping roles after the two are stranded on a desert island,...
- 12/10/2021
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
The first film has several names, all variations on a theme: Workers Leaving the Lumières Factory, Lunch Hour at the Lumière Factory, Dinner Hour at the Factory Gate of M. Lumière at Lyon. In the short clip of workers streaming out the doors of the Lumières’ factory in Lyon, France, we see men and women and one dog bursting from the doors of the factory. In all but one of the film’s titles, the fact that most of the workers leaving the factory are women is not mentioned. Most often, both men and women are folded into one gender-neutral term: worker. In the century since, another theme formed particularly in American films. It was a variation on a title about workers, but with a significant qualifier. Working Girl (1988), Match Factory Girl (1990), Working Girls (1931 and 1986), Working Woman (2019), Support the Girls (2018). While women being in the workplace were a given in the Lumières’ film,...
- 11/29/2021
- MUBI
Marriage, social pressure, professional disappointment — and if you want to be really unhappy, add alcohol to that mix. Fredric March and Sylvia Sidney are convincing sophisticates but also vulnerable people negotiating fragile lives. What can be done when one’s mate is dissolving in booze and drawn to the arms of another? Dorothy Arzner’s best picture shows us a woman who won’t give up on her marriage, for the right reasons. It’s a serious and adult pre-Code drama, the kind that sounds more salacious than it is. Sylvia Sydney crafts a portrait of a fine woman under pressure, who maintains her dignity even in an attempt at an ‘open marriage.’ The unusual title is a light-hearted toast reflecting inner despair. The disc comes with excellent extras on director Dorothy Arzner.
Merrily We Go to Hell
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1076
1932 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 83 min. / available through...
Merrily We Go to Hell
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1076
1932 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 83 min. / available through...
- 6/15/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Too many of the women who made their mark in the early years of cinema have been forgotten; lost to time, lack of proper archiving, and sexism, we know at least from some sources that women contributed to vitrually all fields of cinematic creation. As well, due to the power of the Hays Code over the early years of sound pictures, we tend to think of early black and white films as being rather chaste in outlook and situation. Happily, on both fronts, Criterion has issued its second film directed by Dorothy Arzner, Merrily We Go to Hell (1932). Arzner was the only women director working in Hollywood in this decade, and this film, a story of love, betrayal, alcoholism, polyamory, and hedonism was both...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 5/21/2021
- Screen Anarchy
All products and services featured by IndieWire are independently selected by IndieWire editors. However, IndieWire may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
May has arrived! And this month’s offering of Criterion releases contain the collection’s signature mix of high and lowbrow content, with an ‘80s high school sex comedy sharing space with a nearly 10-hour Japanese drama. Each release has been remastered, so you know you’ll be getting the best video quality available.
In honor of Asian American Heritage month, Asian cinema is particularly well represented in May’s Criterion drops with the Taiwanese classic “Flowers of Shanghai,” and the Japanese epic “The Human Condition,” among the most notable releases. Plus, Criterion’s bonus features and interviews with the cast and directors serve as indispensable pieces of film history.
All of Criterion...
May has arrived! And this month’s offering of Criterion releases contain the collection’s signature mix of high and lowbrow content, with an ‘80s high school sex comedy sharing space with a nearly 10-hour Japanese drama. Each release has been remastered, so you know you’ll be getting the best video quality available.
In honor of Asian American Heritage month, Asian cinema is particularly well represented in May’s Criterion drops with the Taiwanese classic “Flowers of Shanghai,” and the Japanese epic “The Human Condition,” among the most notable releases. Plus, Criterion’s bonus features and interviews with the cast and directors serve as indispensable pieces of film history.
All of Criterion...
- 5/3/2021
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Building up a towering body of work over the last four decades, it’s remarkable that Hou Hsiao-hsien hadn’t had a film in The Criterion Collection––until now. Their May 2021 lineup features the stunning new restoration of his 1998 masterpiece Flowers of Shanghai, which I had the opportunity to see at last year’s New York Film Festival and features one of Tony Leung’s most dashing performances.
Also arriving in the collection is the original of the brilliantly dark noir Nightmare Alley, well-timed before Guillermo del Toro’s new adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham novel, as well Amy Heckerling’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Dorothy Arzner’s Merrily We Go to Hell, and Ahmed El Maanouni’s Trances.
See the cover art below for each title, and more details on each release on Criterion’s site.
The post Hou Hsiao-hsien Joins The Criterion Collection for the First Time...
Also arriving in the collection is the original of the brilliantly dark noir Nightmare Alley, well-timed before Guillermo del Toro’s new adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham novel, as well Amy Heckerling’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Dorothy Arzner’s Merrily We Go to Hell, and Ahmed El Maanouni’s Trances.
See the cover art below for each title, and more details on each release on Criterion’s site.
The post Hou Hsiao-hsien Joins The Criterion Collection for the First Time...
- 2/15/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Whether a viewer in 1896 or 2020, cinema has always been a dynamic and variable experience. Cinema as an event—as a manifestation of a meeting point between the art of moving images and an audience, big or small—has never fit any one definition, and this last year, so severely disrupted by a global pandemic, has deeply underscored the versatility and resilience of our great love.Our viewing this year, like that of so many, has been strange: compromised, confrontational, escapist, euphoric, painful, revelatory—encompassing all of the reactions one can have to film. How we encountered our favorite movies and most meaningful cinematic experiences of the year was hardly new: A by-now-normal mix of festivals, theatres, various subscription and transactional streaming services, as well as private screener links and gems buried on over-stuffed hard drives. But for most of the year, the communal experience shrunk to living rooms and glowing screens.
- 12/23/2020
- MUBI
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Creepy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
One has to appreciate Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s winking self-awareness in calling his new feature Creepy. It’s as if the Coen brothers released a film entitled Snarky, or Eli Roth named his next stomach-churner Gory. Kurosawa, who’s still best known for Cure (1997) and Pulse (2001), two rare outstanding examples of the highly variable J-Horror genre, instills a sense of creepiness into virtually anything he does, regardless of subject matter. His latest, which sees him return to the realm of horror after excursions into more arthouse territory, certainly lives up to its name and has a lot of fun doing so. – Giovanni M.C. (full review)
Where...
Creepy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
One has to appreciate Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s winking self-awareness in calling his new feature Creepy. It’s as if the Coen brothers released a film entitled Snarky, or Eli Roth named his next stomach-churner Gory. Kurosawa, who’s still best known for Cure (1997) and Pulse (2001), two rare outstanding examples of the highly variable J-Horror genre, instills a sense of creepiness into virtually anything he does, regardless of subject matter. His latest, which sees him return to the realm of horror after excursions into more arthouse territory, certainly lives up to its name and has a lot of fun doing so. – Giovanni M.C. (full review)
Where...
- 10/16/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
[Editor’s note: The below piece was originally published on February 26, 2019. It has been expanded from the 100 greatest films directed by women of all time to the 111 greatest, as of October 3, 2020.]
For as long as there have been movies, there have been women making them. When the Lumière brothers were shocking audiences with their unbelievable depiction of a running train, Alice Guy-Blaché was pioneering her own techniques in the brand-new artform. When D.W. Griffith was pioneering advances in the art, and building his own studio to make his work, Lois Weber was doing, well, the exact same thing.
When Hollywood was deep in its Golden Age, Dorothy Arzner, Dorothy Davenport, Tressie Souders, and many more women were right there, making their own films. It’s not even a trend that really abated, because it was never a trend. For so long, women being filmmakers was simply part of the norm, and while recent studies have made it clear that the industry needs a wake-up call when it comes to the skills of some of our finest working filmmakers (who just so...
For as long as there have been movies, there have been women making them. When the Lumière brothers were shocking audiences with their unbelievable depiction of a running train, Alice Guy-Blaché was pioneering her own techniques in the brand-new artform. When D.W. Griffith was pioneering advances in the art, and building his own studio to make his work, Lois Weber was doing, well, the exact same thing.
When Hollywood was deep in its Golden Age, Dorothy Arzner, Dorothy Davenport, Tressie Souders, and many more women were right there, making their own films. It’s not even a trend that really abated, because it was never a trend. For so long, women being filmmakers was simply part of the norm, and while recent studies have made it clear that the industry needs a wake-up call when it comes to the skills of some of our finest working filmmakers (who just so...
- 10/3/2020
- by Kate Erbland, Eric Kohn, Christian Blauvelt, Anne Thompson, David Ehrlich, Chris O'Falt, Zack Sharf, Jude Dry, Tom Brueggemann, Bill Desowitz, Tambay Obenson and Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
The Criterion Channel’s stellar offerings are continuing next month with a selection of new releases, retrospective, series, and more. Leading the pack is, of course, a horror lineup perfectly timed for Halloween, featuring ’70s classics and underseen gems, including Abel Ferrara’s The Driller Killer (pictured above), Tobe Hopper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, early films by David Cronenberg, Wes Craven, and Brian De Palma, Bill Gunn’s Ganja & Hess, and more.
Also of note is a New Korean Cinema retrospective, featuring a new introduction by critic Grady Hendrix and a conversation between directors Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook, whose Barking Dogs Never Bite, The Host, Mother, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Lady Vengeance are part of the lineup, as well as Lee Myung-se’s Nowhere to Hide, and more titles to be announced. Bong’s short Influenza will also arrive, paired with Michael Haneke’s Caché.
Also of note is a New Korean Cinema retrospective, featuring a new introduction by critic Grady Hendrix and a conversation between directors Bong Joon Ho and Park Chan-wook, whose Barking Dogs Never Bite, The Host, Mother, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and Lady Vengeance are part of the lineup, as well as Lee Myung-se’s Nowhere to Hide, and more titles to be announced. Bong’s short Influenza will also arrive, paired with Michael Haneke’s Caché.
- 9/29/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
“Women Make Film.” The title of Irish film savant Mark Cousins’ sprawling 14-hour follow-up to “The Story of Film” serves both as a statement of fact and, if punctuated slightly differently, a call to action: “Women, Make Film!”
Where the earlier documentary was a monumental survey of the medium, attempting to cram its entire history into a single project, with footage shot through the windshields of cars on nearly every continent. He and editor Timo Langer have assembled montage upon montage of magic moments, the vast majority plucked from films even I was unfamiliar with, amounting to an invaluable film appreciation workshop. It’s ideal for those with open minds and eclectic tastes, such as festival audiences and subscribers of Turner Classic Movies and The Criterion Channel, where the film can be absorbed in bite-size chunks.
“This is a film school of sorts in which all the teachers are women,...
Where the earlier documentary was a monumental survey of the medium, attempting to cram its entire history into a single project, with footage shot through the windshields of cars on nearly every continent. He and editor Timo Langer have assembled montage upon montage of magic moments, the vast majority plucked from films even I was unfamiliar with, amounting to an invaluable film appreciation workshop. It’s ideal for those with open minds and eclectic tastes, such as festival audiences and subscribers of Turner Classic Movies and The Criterion Channel, where the film can be absorbed in bite-size chunks.
“This is a film school of sorts in which all the teachers are women,...
- 9/1/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
The Criterion Channel’s September 2020 Lineup Includes Sátántangó, Agnès Varda, Albert Brooks & More
As the coronavirus pandemic still rages on, precious few remain skeptical about going to the movies. But while your AMCs and others claim some godlike safety from Covid, there remains a chunk of people still uncomfortable hitting up theaters. To them, we bring you the September 2020 Criterion Channel lineup.
It starts off with quite the swath of content too. Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó hits the service on September 1, and its seven-plus hours should take up a large chunk of your day. Coming soon after is a collection of more than a dozen Joan Blondell starrers from the pre-Code era, including Howard Hawks’ The Crowd Roars, three collaborations with Mervyn LeRoy, and Ray Enright & Busby Berkeley’s Dames.
For some stuff released almost a century later, the service also sees the addition of documentary bender Robert Greene. His Actress, Kate Plays Christine, and Bisbee ’17 join soon after. Janicza Bravo, director of Lemon,...
It starts off with quite the swath of content too. Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó hits the service on September 1, and its seven-plus hours should take up a large chunk of your day. Coming soon after is a collection of more than a dozen Joan Blondell starrers from the pre-Code era, including Howard Hawks’ The Crowd Roars, three collaborations with Mervyn LeRoy, and Ray Enright & Busby Berkeley’s Dames.
For some stuff released almost a century later, the service also sees the addition of documentary bender Robert Greene. His Actress, Kate Plays Christine, and Bisbee ’17 join soon after. Janicza Bravo, director of Lemon,...
- 8/25/2020
- by Matt Cipolla
- The Film Stage
Dorothy Arzner was the first woman in the Director's Guild of America. She was also the Only woman director working within the Hollywood studio system in the late 1920s and throughout most of the 1940s. To be more specific, that's 1927 through 1943, when she retired from making films. I wish I could say that things have improved for gender parity in this industry --- and they have just a bit --- but we're still on the margins for the most part. Arzner also invented the boom mic by attaching a mic to a fishing rod so that her star, Clara Bow, could move around set. Later in the 1960s, she taught at UCLA, and one of her most promising students was Francis Ford Coppola....
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 6/8/2020
- Screen Anarchy
Tribeca Studios is dipping its toe into podcasting in partnership with iHeartMedia, teaming up on a new series called Fierce about formidable women from history.
The branded entertainment and production arm of Tribeca Enterprises — parent of the flagship film festival — is launching Fierce today (May 6). New episodes post weekly through June 17 on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple and other platforms.
The series was conceived to shed light “on the fierce women to whom history has not given due weight,” Tribeca said. In each episode, journalist and author Jo Piazza tells the life story of an historical figure then connects the legacy of each subjects to a modern woman she interviews.
Episode 1, Clementine Paddleford: The Woman who Revolutionized Food Writing, celebrates a forgotten food journalist who elevated the craft from the mundane to an art form and taught herself to fly a plane so she could report on food across the country and around the world.
The branded entertainment and production arm of Tribeca Enterprises — parent of the flagship film festival — is launching Fierce today (May 6). New episodes post weekly through June 17 on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple and other platforms.
The series was conceived to shed light “on the fierce women to whom history has not given due weight,” Tribeca said. In each episode, journalist and author Jo Piazza tells the life story of an historical figure then connects the legacy of each subjects to a modern woman she interviews.
Episode 1, Clementine Paddleford: The Woman who Revolutionized Food Writing, celebrates a forgotten food journalist who elevated the craft from the mundane to an art form and taught herself to fly a plane so she could report on food across the country and around the world.
- 5/6/2020
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Editor’s note: Filmmaker Nancy Kelly made her feature directorial debut in 1990 with the Western drama “Thousand Pieces of Gold.” A new 4K restoration by IndieCollect can currently be seen in virtual theaters via Kino Marquee. On the occasion of its new release, Kelly (along with IndieCollect’s Sandra Schulberg) wanted to share her reflections on her career both before and after its release.
Three years before I discovered Ruthanne Lum McCunn’s novel “Thousand Pieces of Gold,” I was making my living as a ranch hand. What was it that impelled me — from a working class background in a Massachusetts textile town — to pack up and head West? I had never even ridden a horse before, but I wanted an adventure. It was an impromptu decision that changed my life forever.
The cowboys didn’t know what to make of me — not much. But I broke my own horse,...
Three years before I discovered Ruthanne Lum McCunn’s novel “Thousand Pieces of Gold,” I was making my living as a ranch hand. What was it that impelled me — from a working class background in a Massachusetts textile town — to pack up and head West? I had never even ridden a horse before, but I wanted an adventure. It was an impromptu decision that changed my life forever.
The cowboys didn’t know what to make of me — not much. But I broke my own horse,...
- 4/30/2020
- by Nancy Kelly
- Indiewire
The denizens of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences need to get their eyesight checked. 2019 was another watershed year for women on and off-screen, even if the accolades accrued at the Golden Globes and Oscars did not reflect it. Greta Gerwig released her highly anticipated Little Women, Olivia Wilde made her directorial debut with the sassy, Gen Z Booksmart, Big Little Lies Season 2 aired on HBO, and a slew of films ushered in a horror renaissance featuring astonishing female leads including Florence Pugh in Midsommar and Lupita Nyong’o in Us. But 2019 also marked a year of great loss: the prolific filmmaker Barbara Hammer passed away, as did luminary Agnès Varda and the performance artist and experimental filmmaker, Carolee Schneemann. Which is to say, women were in the news when it came to cinema; some of us just had to know where to look.
While feminist film theory from...
While feminist film theory from...
- 3/8/2020
- by jbindeck2015
- Den of Geek
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Recommended VIEWINGFrom the Criterion Collection, an excerpted clip from B. Ruby Rich's overview of pioneering female (and openly gay) filmmaker Dorothy Arzner's career and feminist reshaping of the woman's-picture. A trailer for Les Blank's recently restored Chulas Fronteras, which documents the lives of the Norteño musicians from the Texas-Mexican border and the social protests of their songs. Recommended READINGOn the set of Eyes Wide Shut.Indiewire has gathered an invaluable set of reflections on the state and the future of moviegoing from the perspective of exhibitors. Bilge Ebiri delves into the oral history of the notorious orgy scene from Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, from its lengthy planning period to a more improvised shoot.Francis Ford Coppola, Spike Lee, Paul Schrader, and more, have published a letter in response to...
- 7/3/2019
- MUBI
Note: Following this week’s feature, New to Streaming will be taking a two-week hiatus and return on June 28.
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’re highlighting the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.
All Good (Eva Trobisch)
What immense health German cinema has found itself in lately. Since the turn of the decade, audiences of a certain ilk have grown accustomed to seeing names like Ade, Petzold, Grisebach, Schanelec, and Köhler show up on art-house and festival screens. We may soon need to add Eva Trobisch to that list. Yes, if All Good (Alles ist gut)–her snare drum taut and timely feature debut–is anything to go by, the East Berlin-born writer-director should provide that rich vein of deutsche Regisseure will its latest transfusion.
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’re highlighting the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.
All Good (Eva Trobisch)
What immense health German cinema has found itself in lately. Since the turn of the decade, audiences of a certain ilk have grown accustomed to seeing names like Ade, Petzold, Grisebach, Schanelec, and Köhler show up on art-house and festival screens. We may soon need to add Eva Trobisch to that list. Yes, if All Good (Alles ist gut)–her snare drum taut and timely feature debut–is anything to go by, the East Berlin-born writer-director should provide that rich vein of deutsche Regisseure will its latest transfusion.
- 6/7/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Netflix may get most of the attention, but it’s hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles who are looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms — and there are more of them all the time — caters to its own niche of film obsessives. From chilling horror fare on Shudder, to the boundless wonders of the Criterion Channel, and esoteric (but unmissable) festival hits on the newly launched Ovid.tv, IndieWire’s monthly guide will highlight the best of what’s coming to every major streaming site, with an eye towards exclusive titles that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.
Here’s the best of the best for June 2019.
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime isn’t offering its subscribers much in the way of exclusives this month, and — for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — the brunt of the platform...
Here’s the best of the best for June 2019.
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime isn’t offering its subscribers much in the way of exclusives this month, and — for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — the brunt of the platform...
- 6/3/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
A Month Of Female Filmmakers At The New Bev | 7165 Beverly Blvd.
In a welcome change of pace, the New Beverly Cinema is devoting nearly the entirety of their May calendar to films directed by women. Selections range from the enshrined to the obscure, and likewise run the gamut from comedy to romance to drama to all points in between. Alongside a spotlight on pioneering Hollywood filmmaker Dorothy Arzner, highlights include a trio of two-night double bills, including, on May 8 and 9, the under-recognized Claudia Weill films Girlfriends and It’s My Turn; on May 15 and 16, Elaine May’s ...
In a welcome change of pace, the New Beverly Cinema is devoting nearly the entirety of their May calendar to films directed by women. Selections range from the enshrined to the obscure, and likewise run the gamut from comedy to romance to drama to all points in between. Alongside a spotlight on pioneering Hollywood filmmaker Dorothy Arzner, highlights include a trio of two-night double bills, including, on May 8 and 9, the under-recognized Claudia Weill films Girlfriends and It’s My Turn; on May 15 and 16, Elaine May’s ...
A Month Of Female Filmmakers At The New Bev | 7165 Beverly Blvd.
In a welcome change of pace, the New Beverly Cinema is devoting nearly the entirety of their May calendar to films directed by women. Selections range from the enshrined to the obscure, and likewise run the gamut from comedy to romance to drama to all points in between. Alongside a spotlight on pioneering Hollywood filmmaker Dorothy Arzner, highlights include a trio of two-night double bills, including, on May 8 and 9, the under-recognized Claudia Weill films Girlfriends and It’s My Turn; on May 15 and 16, Elaine May’s ...
In a welcome change of pace, the New Beverly Cinema is devoting nearly the entirety of their May calendar to films directed by women. Selections range from the enshrined to the obscure, and likewise run the gamut from comedy to romance to drama to all points in between. Alongside a spotlight on pioneering Hollywood filmmaker Dorothy Arzner, highlights include a trio of two-night double bills, including, on May 8 and 9, the under-recognized Claudia Weill films Girlfriends and It’s My Turn; on May 15 and 16, Elaine May’s ...
We invite you to join us walking in the footsteps of the women pioneers in writing, directing and producing, Mary Pickford, Alice Guy Blache, Dorothy Arzner, Ida Lupino, Hedy Lamar, Lucille Ball, Marion Davies, Tressie Souders, Lillian Gish, Marion Wong and all the women film pioneers.
In Their Footsteps: Women Pioneers of Old Hollywood — Light the Way For the Women of New Hollywood
The Hollywood Women’s Film Festival is presented by The Hollywood Women’s Film Institute. Keeping the vision of the women pioneers of Hollywood’s golden era alive by re-inventing Hollywood is a homage to their genius.
The Institute
The Hollywood Women’s Film Institute is a non-profit feminist organization created to support and facilitate programs and opportunities for women filmmakers and student filmmakers in film, TV, and media. Together with our sponsors and celebrity hosts, our goals include helping women to create, distribute, screen and promote...
In Their Footsteps: Women Pioneers of Old Hollywood — Light the Way For the Women of New Hollywood
The Hollywood Women’s Film Festival is presented by The Hollywood Women’s Film Institute. Keeping the vision of the women pioneers of Hollywood’s golden era alive by re-inventing Hollywood is a homage to their genius.
The Institute
The Hollywood Women’s Film Institute is a non-profit feminist organization created to support and facilitate programs and opportunities for women filmmakers and student filmmakers in film, TV, and media. Together with our sponsors and celebrity hosts, our goals include helping women to create, distribute, screen and promote...
- 4/2/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Agnès was an artist. And like all artists, she made our lives different. She captured life through the most normal lens to reveal what is beautiful and strange about it, while also working tirelessly to expose the false truths. Her presence in the world was absolutely unique but also intuitive, such that nothing surprised us coming from her: an idea, a phrase, a photograph, a documentary.
It’s thanks to her film “The Gleaners and I” — which I saw at Cannes in 2000 as a simple festivalgoer — that, when I became artistic director a year later, I made it a point to program documentaries and essay films in the official selection. And what an extraordinary moment it was, in 2017, to welcome her for “Faces Places” in the grande salle of the Palais!
Agnès was the vital link in an invisible chain of women filmmakers, rubbing elbows with Alice Guy Blaché and Germaine Dulac,...
It’s thanks to her film “The Gleaners and I” — which I saw at Cannes in 2000 as a simple festivalgoer — that, when I became artistic director a year later, I made it a point to program documentaries and essay films in the official selection. And what an extraordinary moment it was, in 2017, to welcome her for “Faces Places” in the grande salle of the Palais!
Agnès was the vital link in an invisible chain of women filmmakers, rubbing elbows with Alice Guy Blaché and Germaine Dulac,...
- 4/2/2019
- by Thierry Frémaux
- Variety Film + TV
Many filmmakers have taught me how to look at the world, but Agnès Varda is teaching me how to age. She died this week at the age of 90, leaving behind an example we should all strive to meet as we get on in years.
One of the legendary filmmakers who made up the Nouvelle Vague, France’s influential cinematic New Wave of the 1960s, she continually embraced life and a changing world, even after losing her beloved husband and fellow New Wave icon, Jacques Demy, in 1990. In the years when one might have expected her to grow more home-bound, perhaps venturing forth to publish a memoir or pick up the occasional award, she instead continued to plunge into the ever-changing technology of cinema.
As a filmmaker, she constantly experimented with digital cameras and editing, never afraid to step into the arena of the young and always open to completely upending...
One of the legendary filmmakers who made up the Nouvelle Vague, France’s influential cinematic New Wave of the 1960s, she continually embraced life and a changing world, even after losing her beloved husband and fellow New Wave icon, Jacques Demy, in 1990. In the years when one might have expected her to grow more home-bound, perhaps venturing forth to publish a memoir or pick up the occasional award, she instead continued to plunge into the ever-changing technology of cinema.
As a filmmaker, she constantly experimented with digital cameras and editing, never afraid to step into the arena of the young and always open to completely upending...
- 3/29/2019
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
‘Tis the season for holiday shopping — and People has you covered with a gift guide tailored for the film lovers in your life. From special edition DVDs to a high-quality projector, you’ll find the perfect present here.
Die Hard holiday edition." />
1. Die Hard holiday-themed DVD
Arguments over whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not have been officially put to rest. The 30th anniversary edition features a Blu-ray case that looks exactly like an ugly Christmas sweater — and works perfectly as a holiday gift too. Welcome to the party, pal.
Buy it! $5; amazon.com
Black Panther." />
2. Black Panther...
Die Hard holiday edition." />
1. Die Hard holiday-themed DVD
Arguments over whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie or not have been officially put to rest. The 30th anniversary edition features a Blu-ray case that looks exactly like an ugly Christmas sweater — and works perfectly as a holiday gift too. Welcome to the party, pal.
Buy it! $5; amazon.com
Black Panther." />
2. Black Panther...
- 12/7/2018
- by Helen Murphy
- PEOPLE.com
Mark Cousins is captivated by film. The director-film historian’s 15-hour documentary “The Story of Film” traversed the globe for a comprehensive look at cinema as an art form. His latest feature documentary, “The Eyes of Orson Welles,” digs into helmer-actor Orson Welles’ highly visual world, exploring his now legendary life and work. And debuting at Venice Classics Documentary Film section (it also played for press and industry at Toronto), a four-hour peek at Cousins’ next docuseries: “Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Film,” a 16-hour voyage covering the mostly omitted and unrecognized contribution of women directors. Executive produced and narrated by Tilda Swinton, the series aims to challenge the ignorance surrounding women filmmakers.
Edited as a master class, the cinematic lesson features only female teachers. Forty thematic chapters answer 40 questions on how films are made from dissecting topics like openings to tone to believability. Scenes from works by Hollywood’s established,...
Edited as a master class, the cinematic lesson features only female teachers. Forty thematic chapters answer 40 questions on how films are made from dissecting topics like openings to tone to believability. Scenes from works by Hollywood’s established,...
- 9/9/2018
- by Kathy A. McDonald
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Francesa Gregorini, whose directing credits include the films Tanner Hall and the Sundance pic The Truth About Emanuel and TV series from AMC’s Humans to Amazon’s Electric Dreams, has signed with ICM Partners.
The move comes as Gregorini, also a writer, is developing with producing partners Wendy Haines and Olga Segura a limited series titled The Delivery Girl, about the life of director Dorothy Arzner. She also is adapting the 1959 Dorothy Strachey novel Olivia to direct as a feature film.
Also on the TV side, she is set to direct upcoming episodes of BBC America’s newly Emmy-nominated Killing Eve, Netflix’s Chambers and Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle.
Gregorini remains managed by David Unger of Artist International Group and repped in the UK by Cynthia Okoye of Curtis Brown. Her attorney is Jennifer Gray at Bloom Hergott.
The move comes as Gregorini, also a writer, is developing with producing partners Wendy Haines and Olga Segura a limited series titled The Delivery Girl, about the life of director Dorothy Arzner. She also is adapting the 1959 Dorothy Strachey novel Olivia to direct as a feature film.
Also on the TV side, she is set to direct upcoming episodes of BBC America’s newly Emmy-nominated Killing Eve, Netflix’s Chambers and Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle.
Gregorini remains managed by David Unger of Artist International Group and repped in the UK by Cynthia Okoye of Curtis Brown. Her attorney is Jennifer Gray at Bloom Hergott.
- 7/12/2018
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Anybody’s Woman by Bette Gordon (1981)
Starring Nancy Reilly and Spalding Gray
In the 1970s, filmmaker Bette Gordon was associated with the Structuralist style of experimental filmmaking. For example, there is a review in the first issue of Idiolects of a screening event she shared with James Benning at the Millennium Film Workshop on June 12, 1976. The only film of Gordon’s noted in the review was Noyes (1976). Both Gordon and Benning were teaching filmmaking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the time. (A letter by Gordon in the 2nd issue of Idiolects takes umbrage at the mostly negative review.)
Anybody’s Woman represents Gordon’s shift into narrative filmmaking in the 1980s while not totally abandoning her experimental film roots. The film is clearly not a traditional narrative, but is a collection of short monologues — delivered on and off screen — interspersed with purely visual sequences of mostly New York City’s seedy Times Square neighborhood.
Starring Nancy Reilly and Spalding Gray
In the 1970s, filmmaker Bette Gordon was associated with the Structuralist style of experimental filmmaking. For example, there is a review in the first issue of Idiolects of a screening event she shared with James Benning at the Millennium Film Workshop on June 12, 1976. The only film of Gordon’s noted in the review was Noyes (1976). Both Gordon and Benning were teaching filmmaking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the time. (A letter by Gordon in the 2nd issue of Idiolects takes umbrage at the mostly negative review.)
Anybody’s Woman represents Gordon’s shift into narrative filmmaking in the 1980s while not totally abandoning her experimental film roots. The film is clearly not a traditional narrative, but is a collection of short monologues — delivered on and off screen — interspersed with purely visual sequences of mostly New York City’s seedy Times Square neighborhood.
- 4/8/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Recently completing one of the longest shoots of his career with The Irishman, most other directors would consider that an accomplishment enough, but in between takes, Martin Scorsese somehow found time to construct a new curriculum as part of his “The Story of Movies” film course, produced with his company Film Foundation. This latest edition is “Portraits of America: Democracy on Film” and is free for students. However, if one would just like to follow along with their own personal screenings, the full list is available.
“We all need to make sense of what we’re seeing. For young people born into this world now, it’s absolutely crucial that they get guided,” Scorsese says (via IndieWire). “They have to learn how to sort the differences between art and pure commerce, between cinema and content, between the secrets of images that are individually crafted and the secrets of images that are mass-produced.
“We all need to make sense of what we’re seeing. For young people born into this world now, it’s absolutely crucial that they get guided,” Scorsese says (via IndieWire). “They have to learn how to sort the differences between art and pure commerce, between cinema and content, between the secrets of images that are individually crafted and the secrets of images that are mass-produced.
- 3/29/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Martin Scorsese and his nonprofit organization The Film Foundation have announced their brand-new film curriculum, “Portraits of America: Democracy on Film.” The curriculum is the latest addition to the group’s ongoing film course “The Story of Movies,” which aims to teach students how to read the language of film and place motion pictures in the context of history, art, and society. Both “Democracy on Film” and the course are completely free for schools and universities.
“Portraits of America: Democracy on Film” is broken down into eight different sections, all of which include in-depth looks at some of the most important American films ever made, from Chaplin to Ford, Coppola, Spielberg, and ultimately Scorsese himself. The program is presented in partnership with Afscme. Scorsese announced the curriculum at a March 27 press conference in New York City.
“We all need to make sense of what we’re seeing,” Scorsese explained. “For...
“Portraits of America: Democracy on Film” is broken down into eight different sections, all of which include in-depth looks at some of the most important American films ever made, from Chaplin to Ford, Coppola, Spielberg, and ultimately Scorsese himself. The program is presented in partnership with Afscme. Scorsese announced the curriculum at a March 27 press conference in New York City.
“We all need to make sense of what we’re seeing,” Scorsese explained. “For...
- 3/27/2018
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
On March 9, 1933, the Rko Radio production of Christopher Strong, featuring a star-turn by Katharine Hepburn, premiered in New York. The Hollywood Reporter's original review of the film is below.
The Radio production of Christopher Strong will act as a stepping stone to higher stardom for Katharine Hepburn. As a picture, it is solely interesting because of her acting and some exceedingly fine direction by Dorothy Arzner.
Where Hepburn is off the screen, the proceedings become rather dull, not because of anything particularly, except that you miss that gal and find yourself wondering what she is going ...
The Radio production of Christopher Strong will act as a stepping stone to higher stardom for Katharine Hepburn. As a picture, it is solely interesting because of her acting and some exceedingly fine direction by Dorothy Arzner.
Where Hepburn is off the screen, the proceedings become rather dull, not because of anything particularly, except that you miss that gal and find yourself wondering what she is going ...
On March 9, 1933, the Rko Radio production of Christopher Strong, featuring a star-turn by Katharine Hepburn, premiered in New York. The Hollywood Reporter's original review of the film is below.
The Radio production of Christopher Strong will act as a stepping stone to higher stardom for Katharine Hepburn. As a picture, it is solely interesting because of her acting and some exceedingly fine direction by Dorothy Arzner.
Where Hepburn is off the screen, the proceedings become rather dull, not because of anything particularly, except that you miss that gal and find yourself wondering what she is going ...
The Radio production of Christopher Strong will act as a stepping stone to higher stardom for Katharine Hepburn. As a picture, it is solely interesting because of her acting and some exceedingly fine direction by Dorothy Arzner.
Where Hepburn is off the screen, the proceedings become rather dull, not because of anything particularly, except that you miss that gal and find yourself wondering what she is going ...
Dorothy Arzner was a major director in the 30s. Where are all the women who ought to have followed in her steps?
As the Oscars prepare to make history by considering Greta Gerwig in the best director category, making that five times in total in the 88 years since the Oscars began that a woman has been considered for that award, there’s a quiet aptness to Hollywood paying tribute to Dorothy Arzner, who died in 1979.
This week Paramount named a building after Arzner in a ceremony attended by her former student Francis Ford Coppola. The Godfather director remembered his teacher telling him not to worry about his career with the fabulous advice: “You’ll make it. I’ve been around. I know.”...
As the Oscars prepare to make history by considering Greta Gerwig in the best director category, making that five times in total in the 88 years since the Oscars began that a woman has been considered for that award, there’s a quiet aptness to Hollywood paying tribute to Dorothy Arzner, who died in 1979.
This week Paramount named a building after Arzner in a ceremony attended by her former student Francis Ford Coppola. The Godfather director remembered his teacher telling him not to worry about his career with the fabulous advice: “You’ll make it. I’ve been around. I know.”...
- 3/4/2018
- by Rebecca Nicholson
- The Guardian - Film News
On Thursday afternoon Paramount dedicated its Dressing Room building on the Melrose Ave. lot to one of the industry’s pioneers: Dorothy Arzner who to this day continues to count the most directing credits at 20 for any female director. Paramount reserves this honor for the most respected of its industry professionals, and Arzner is in excellent company on the lot with other edifices named after such female legends as Lucille Ball, Clara Bow, Marlene Dietrich, Edith Head…...
- 3/2/2018
- Deadline
Dorothy Arzner now has a permanent place on the Paramount lot.
On Thursday afternoon, the studio named an office building facing Production Park after the woman who directed Paramount’s first talking feature, 1929’s box-office hit The Wild Party starring Clara Bow. (Among Arzner’s other “firsts” was being the first woman admitted to the Directors Guild of America and the first film editor to receive a screen credit.)
The naming ceremony began with a small reception in the Park with guests including Betty Thomas, Mimi Leder, Eleanor Coppola, Leonard Maltin, Paramount execs Wyck Godfrey and Liz Raposo plus Academy of Motion...
On Thursday afternoon, the studio named an office building facing Production Park after the woman who directed Paramount’s first talking feature, 1929’s box-office hit The Wild Party starring Clara Bow. (Among Arzner’s other “firsts” was being the first woman admitted to the Directors Guild of America and the first film editor to receive a screen credit.)
The naming ceremony began with a small reception in the Park with guests including Betty Thomas, Mimi Leder, Eleanor Coppola, Leonard Maltin, Paramount execs Wyck Godfrey and Liz Raposo plus Academy of Motion...
- 3/2/2018
- by Bill Higgins
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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