Every week we dive into the cream of the crop when it comes to home releases, including Blu-ray and DVDs, as well as recommended deals of the week. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best (or most interesting) films one can take home. Note that if you’re looking to support the site, every purchase you make through the links below helps us and is greatly appreciated.
Boy & the World (Alê Abreu)
Crayon-like scribblings and simple geometric patterns meticulously complicate themselves like a fractal over the course of this child’s-eye odyssey through the global struggle between humankind and the forces that oppress it. Kaleidoscopic visuals use repetition to explore the communal nature of both work and celebration. This film continually pulls back to show the larger picture of society, its visuals becoming more complex in kind, before it reduces to a more intimate view...
Boy & the World (Alê Abreu)
Crayon-like scribblings and simple geometric patterns meticulously complicate themselves like a fractal over the course of this child’s-eye odyssey through the global struggle between humankind and the forces that oppress it. Kaleidoscopic visuals use repetition to explore the communal nature of both work and celebration. This film continually pulls back to show the larger picture of society, its visuals becoming more complex in kind, before it reduces to a more intimate view...
- 7/5/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
The Groundhog Day stage musical will receive its world premiere in London.
The production will open at the Old Vic in June 2016 ahead of its Broadway transfer.
Matthew Warchus has included the musical in the lineup for his first season as the Old Vic's artistic director.
Warchus has already signed up to direct the musical, which will have a script penned by the film's original writer Danny Rudin and music by Matilda composer Tim Minchin.
Speaking about the musical, Warchus told BBC News: "It needs a large audience and a large stage, and I wanted to start it in this country, so it's the perfect match."
Groundhog Day starred Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, and centred on a grumpy weatherman named Phil Connors who found himself stuck in a seemingly never-ending time-loop.
He is forced to relive the same day over and over again, while having to report on...
The production will open at the Old Vic in June 2016 ahead of its Broadway transfer.
Matthew Warchus has included the musical in the lineup for his first season as the Old Vic's artistic director.
Warchus has already signed up to direct the musical, which will have a script penned by the film's original writer Danny Rudin and music by Matilda composer Tim Minchin.
Speaking about the musical, Warchus told BBC News: "It needs a large audience and a large stage, and I wanted to start it in this country, so it's the perfect match."
Groundhog Day starred Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, and centred on a grumpy weatherman named Phil Connors who found himself stuck in a seemingly never-ending time-loop.
He is forced to relive the same day over and over again, while having to report on...
- 4/21/2015
- Digital Spy
Stage and screen actor best known for his roles in Only Fools and Horses, The Vicar of Dibley and Harry Potter
The talented and idiosyncratic character actor Roger Lloyd Pack, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 69, achieved national recognition, and huge popularity, as Colin "Trigger" Ball, the lugubrious Peckham road sweeper in John Sullivan's brilliantly acted comedy series Only Fools and Horses. He appeared alongside David Jason's Del Boy and Nicholas Lyndhurst's "plonker" Rodney from 1981 for 10 years, with many a seasonal "special" for another decade.
This success cemented a career in which, up to that point, he had played important roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the Almeida theatre in north London – he was a notably anguished Rosmer in Ibsen's Rosmersholm at the National in 1987, opposite Suzanne Bertish – without recognition any wider than usually appreciative reviews.
His enhanced status led to another...
The talented and idiosyncratic character actor Roger Lloyd Pack, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 69, achieved national recognition, and huge popularity, as Colin "Trigger" Ball, the lugubrious Peckham road sweeper in John Sullivan's brilliantly acted comedy series Only Fools and Horses. He appeared alongside David Jason's Del Boy and Nicholas Lyndhurst's "plonker" Rodney from 1981 for 10 years, with many a seasonal "special" for another decade.
This success cemented a career in which, up to that point, he had played important roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the Almeida theatre in north London – he was a notably anguished Rosmer in Ibsen's Rosmersholm at the National in 1987, opposite Suzanne Bertish – without recognition any wider than usually appreciative reviews.
His enhanced status led to another...
- 1/17/2014
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
It took me a while to watch something in tribute to the late Peter O'Toole—too upsetting—and I still haven't been able to face Joan Fontaine on the screen since her recent passing, though when I do perhaps I'll go for September Affair (1950) or Something to Live For (1952), neither of which I've ever seen.
With O'Toole, I eventually plumped for Rogue Male (1977): the title seemed to fit him to a tee. This is a television adaptation of Geoffrey Household's excellent thriller, previously filmed by Fritz Lang under the title Man Hunt, back in 1941 when the events were current.
A hunter (O'Toole) called Hunter takes aim at Hitler, but is apprehended before he can pull the trigger. Tortured by the Gestapo, he miraculously escapes and now Hunter becomes the hunted, pursued all the way back to England and run to earth in a self-made burrow, trapped like a rat.
With O'Toole, I eventually plumped for Rogue Male (1977): the title seemed to fit him to a tee. This is a television adaptation of Geoffrey Household's excellent thriller, previously filmed by Fritz Lang under the title Man Hunt, back in 1941 when the events were current.
A hunter (O'Toole) called Hunter takes aim at Hitler, but is apprehended before he can pull the trigger. Tortured by the Gestapo, he miraculously escapes and now Hunter becomes the hunted, pursued all the way back to England and run to earth in a self-made burrow, trapped like a rat.
- 1/9/2014
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Introducing our look at the year that defined the modern era, the veteran writer recalls the extraordinary collision of politics, culture and social upheaval that he witnessed as a student
Was it a prefigurative year? I think so. Not that one thought of it as such at the time or even a few years later, when it was totally forgotten in the turbulence that engulfed the world. I am trying to recall that year, to find deep down some memories, even a few impressions on the basis of which I could reconstruct a misted-up past without too many distortions.
When I arrived to study at Oxford in October 1963, the bohemian style was black plastic or leather jackets for women and black leather or navy donkey jackets for men. I stuck to cavalry twills and a duffle coat, at least for a few months. The Cuban missile crisis had temporarily boosted...
Was it a prefigurative year? I think so. Not that one thought of it as such at the time or even a few years later, when it was totally forgotten in the turbulence that engulfed the world. I am trying to recall that year, to find deep down some memories, even a few impressions on the basis of which I could reconstruct a misted-up past without too many distortions.
When I arrived to study at Oxford in October 1963, the bohemian style was black plastic or leather jackets for women and black leather or navy donkey jackets for men. I stuck to cavalry twills and a duffle coat, at least for a few months. The Cuban missile crisis had temporarily boosted...
- 5/7/2013
- by Tariq Ali
- The Guardian - Film News
What chilled most about murder mystery Mayday was the claim of an ancestral right to wear green man makeup
You'd naturally think Aidan Gillen killed Hattie, the 14-year-old May Queen, in the woods above the village. Ever since he played transgressive super-hottie Stuart in Queer as Folk, he's worked sneering lips and leering eyes as a series of reptiles, chancers and scumbags – dodgy mayor in The Wire, slimy counsellor in Game of Thrones, venal banker in credit-crunch drama Freefall. Why not add murderer to the list?
In Mayday (BBC1), he's similarly sinister: a bad dad who thumps his son for nothing and buries his grief over his dead wife in video game marathons. Plus he has a mysterious bag locked in a cupboard. Could it be a body-bag full of May Queen? Possibly. Harold Pinter called Gillen "dangerous" when he was in The Caretaker, which is damning evidence. The prosecution rests,...
You'd naturally think Aidan Gillen killed Hattie, the 14-year-old May Queen, in the woods above the village. Ever since he played transgressive super-hottie Stuart in Queer as Folk, he's worked sneering lips and leering eyes as a series of reptiles, chancers and scumbags – dodgy mayor in The Wire, slimy counsellor in Game of Thrones, venal banker in credit-crunch drama Freefall. Why not add murderer to the list?
In Mayday (BBC1), he's similarly sinister: a bad dad who thumps his son for nothing and buries his grief over his dead wife in video game marathons. Plus he has a mysterious bag locked in a cupboard. Could it be a body-bag full of May Queen? Possibly. Harold Pinter called Gillen "dangerous" when he was in The Caretaker, which is damning evidence. The prosecution rests,...
- 3/4/2013
- by Stuart Jeffries
- The Guardian - Film News
Director and team behind Olympic opening ceremony scoop prize, Nick Payne becomes youngest ever playwright to take the award for best play, and Hattie Morahan triumphs over Cate Blanchett
The team behind the Olympic opening ceremony, led by director Danny Boyle, was honoured at the Evening Standard theatre awards on Sunday night, winning the second Beyond Theatre award, which "celebrates theatricality outside the confines of the auditorium".
Boyle was presented the award by cyclist Victoria Pendleton at the ceremony, which took place at the Savoy Hotel in London, for an event that the Evening Standard's editor, Sarah Sands, said "managed to find a way of showing us who we are" as a nation.
Elsewhere, it was Nicholas Hytner's night, as the National theatre's artistic director, who recently teamed up with Boyle to spearhead a campaign against arts-funding cuts outside of London, scooped both the Lebedev special award and best...
The team behind the Olympic opening ceremony, led by director Danny Boyle, was honoured at the Evening Standard theatre awards on Sunday night, winning the second Beyond Theatre award, which "celebrates theatricality outside the confines of the auditorium".
Boyle was presented the award by cyclist Victoria Pendleton at the ceremony, which took place at the Savoy Hotel in London, for an event that the Evening Standard's editor, Sarah Sands, said "managed to find a way of showing us who we are" as a nation.
Elsewhere, it was Nicholas Hytner's night, as the National theatre's artistic director, who recently teamed up with Boyle to spearhead a campaign against arts-funding cuts outside of London, scooped both the Lebedev special award and best...
- 11/26/2012
- by Matt Trueman
- The Guardian - Film News
Actor known for his roles as clergymen, favourite uncles and tragic-comic characters
There is a great tradition in the rotundity of actors, and Roger Hammond, who has died aged 76 of cancer, stands proudly in a line stretching from Francis L Sullivan and Willoughby Goddard through to Roy Kinnear, Desmond Barrit and Richard Griffiths, though he was probably more malleably benevolent on stage than any of them.
He reeked of kindness, consideration and imperturbability, with a pleasant countenance and a beautiful, soft voice, qualities ideal for unimpeachable clergymen, favourite uncles and tragic-comic characters such as Waffles in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (whom he played in a 1991 BBC TV film, with David Warner and Ian Holm), a man whose wife left him for another man on his wedding day but who has remained faithful to her and forgiving ever since.
Hammond grew up in Stockport, Lancashire. His chartered accountant father was managing director of his own family firm,...
There is a great tradition in the rotundity of actors, and Roger Hammond, who has died aged 76 of cancer, stands proudly in a line stretching from Francis L Sullivan and Willoughby Goddard through to Roy Kinnear, Desmond Barrit and Richard Griffiths, though he was probably more malleably benevolent on stage than any of them.
He reeked of kindness, consideration and imperturbability, with a pleasant countenance and a beautiful, soft voice, qualities ideal for unimpeachable clergymen, favourite uncles and tragic-comic characters such as Waffles in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (whom he played in a 1991 BBC TV film, with David Warner and Ian Holm), a man whose wife left him for another man on his wedding day but who has remained faithful to her and forgiving ever since.
Hammond grew up in Stockport, Lancashire. His chartered accountant father was managing director of his own family firm,...
- 11/14/2012
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
He was the swaggering star of Queer as Folk and cocky young mayor in The Wire, but the real Aidan Gillen is the exact opposite. The shy Dubliner talks (a little) about lunch with Pinter, party-pooping in Baltimore and his latest, taciturn film role
Although it's almost a showbusiness cliche, the notion of the performer grappling with shyness is hard to reconcile with some of the attention-grabbers who make loudest use of the old line. Aidan Gillen, the Irish actor who made his name as the outlandish Stuart in Queer as Folk, is different. He is shy, and not remotely in a self-dramatising way.
His arms form a protective tangle when he sits down in a Soho hotel, and his gaze flits back and forth to a spot awkwardly adjacent to my own. Then there's the conversation. Originally from Dublin, Gillen is the very opposite of the blarney-spouting Irishman. As he once put it,...
Although it's almost a showbusiness cliche, the notion of the performer grappling with shyness is hard to reconcile with some of the attention-grabbers who make loudest use of the old line. Aidan Gillen, the Irish actor who made his name as the outlandish Stuart in Queer as Folk, is different. He is shy, and not remotely in a self-dramatising way.
His arms form a protective tangle when he sits down in a Soho hotel, and his gaze flits back and forth to a spot awkwardly adjacent to my own. Then there's the conversation. Originally from Dublin, Gillen is the very opposite of the blarney-spouting Irishman. As he once put it,...
- 8/4/2012
- by Andrew Anthony
- The Guardian - Film News
Jonathan Pryce is a living example of the old adage that work begets work. The acclaimed Welsh actor is in the midst of performing in Harold Pinter's "The Caretaker" at Bam in New York City, following its 2009 production in Liverpool and runs in London and some U.S. cities. It is his heralded performance as the mysterious drifter Davies that led to his upcoming stage role-one of Shakespeare's greatest characters, "King Lear," opening August 3 at the Alameida Theatre in London. "When I was doing 'Caretaker' in London, the reviews kept mentioning how Lear-like I was, or how much they would like to see my Lear one day," Pryce explains. "And that inspired a few people to ask me if I did actually want to play Lear. And one of those people was Michael Attenborough, the artistic director at the Almeida." Those who can't cross the pond to see the.
- 6/4/2012
- by help@backstage.com (Jenelle Riley)
- backstage.com
More casualties on Broadway this week as the musicals Leap of Faith and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying both posted closing notices; the former is a reported $14 million flop, while the latter is a giant hit that simply ran out of steam after the departure of its original star, Daniel Radcliffe. (While Radcliffe’s replacement Nick Jonas initially drew smaller but steady crowds after arriving in January, the show has struggled at the box office in recent weeks.)
Looking forward, Tony-nominated musical hits Once and Nice Work If You Can Get It both set national tours — and...
Looking forward, Tony-nominated musical hits Once and Nice Work If You Can Get It both set national tours — and...
- 5/12/2012
- by Thom Geier
- EW.com - PopWatch
From an illicit Pixies gig to a Mesopotamian ziggurat, Guardian critics recall their biggest moment of inspiration in their respective fields
How to enter this year's competition
Pop: Alexis Petridis
Can any gig you see as a critic ever match the ones you saw as a teenager? Bizarrely, going to a gig when I was 17 was harder work than writing reviews has ever been. It involved not merely getting to London, but lying to my parents about where I was going, lying to my friend's parents about where my parents thought I was going, bunking off school, and then convincing somebody who looked 18 to go to the bar on my behalf.
But none of that mattered the night I saw the Pixies supported by My Bloody Valentine, in September 1988. It's not every night you see arguably the two most important guitar bands of the era on the same stage at...
How to enter this year's competition
Pop: Alexis Petridis
Can any gig you see as a critic ever match the ones you saw as a teenager? Bizarrely, going to a gig when I was 17 was harder work than writing reviews has ever been. It involved not merely getting to London, but lying to my parents about where I was going, lying to my friend's parents about where my parents thought I was going, bunking off school, and then convincing somebody who looked 18 to go to the bar on my behalf.
But none of that mattered the night I saw the Pixies supported by My Bloody Valentine, in September 1988. It's not every night you see arguably the two most important guitar bands of the era on the same stage at...
- 6/20/2011
- by Alexis Petridis, Adrian Searle, Erica Jeal, Jonathan Glancey, Peter Bradshaw, Michael Billington, Judith Mackrell, Sam Wollaston
- The Guardian - Film News
Miriam Karlin, A Clockwork Orange Miriam Karlin, best known outside the United Kingdom as the woman killed by a giant phallus in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, died earlier today at a British hospital. Karlin, who had been suffering from cancer, was 85. Born Miriam Samuels to an Orthodox Jewish family on June 23, 1925, in North London, Miriam Karlin began her acting career after training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. She acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company and was the first woman to play the (until then) male lead in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker. Another notable stage role was Golde in [...]...
- 6/4/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Harold Pinter occassionally worked in film. I say this to justify it's inclusion in the Screen, but it should be allowed simply for being all kinds of awesome. In 1966 a group of high school students sent Pinter a list of questions about his play The Caretaker. Now this is not surprising, as Pinter's plays are known for being challenging, what is surprising is that he wrote back. And his letter just is one more pst-humous feather in his cap of genius. Seriously this is too great not to share.
"I assure you that these answers to your questions are not meant to be funny"...
"I assure you that these answers to your questions are not meant to be funny"...
- 9/30/2010
- by Jack Moore
- Filmology
Mark Gordon, a veteran actor on film, TV and stage who was a key figure in the improvisational theater movement, died Aug. 12 of lung cancer in New York. He was 84.
Gordon's credits include the Woody Allen films "Take the Money and Run" (1969), "Don't Drink the Water" (1969) and "Sleeper" (1973), roles on such soap operas as "The Edge of Night" and "As the World Turns" and a one-episode stint on "Mary Tyler Moore" as Chuckles the Clown.
Gordon was workshop director and an actor in the famed Chicago-based Compass Players (which later became Second City), working alongside the likes of Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Barbara Harris and his wife of 52 years, Barbara Glenn Gordon.
With May, he continued in New York at the Premise, whose improvisational company that included Peter Boyle and Louise Lasser. Gordon also appeared in "A New Leaf," a 1971 comedy written and directed by May, and had the lead...
Gordon's credits include the Woody Allen films "Take the Money and Run" (1969), "Don't Drink the Water" (1969) and "Sleeper" (1973), roles on such soap operas as "The Edge of Night" and "As the World Turns" and a one-episode stint on "Mary Tyler Moore" as Chuckles the Clown.
Gordon was workshop director and an actor in the famed Chicago-based Compass Players (which later became Second City), working alongside the likes of Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Barbara Harris and his wife of 52 years, Barbara Glenn Gordon.
With May, he continued in New York at the Premise, whose improvisational company that included Peter Boyle and Louise Lasser. Gordon also appeared in "A New Leaf," a 1971 comedy written and directed by May, and had the lead...
- 9/8/2010
- by By Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
"Clive Donner, who helped launch the careers of actors such as Sir Ian McKellen and Alan Bates, has died at the age of 84," reports the BBC. "He was best known for a series of 1960s films including Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush and What's New Pussycat," which, "released in 1965, featured Peter Sellers, Peter O'Toole, Woody Allen and Ursula Andress in the leading roles. Allen also wrote the screenplay, while Burt Bacharach composed the music."
The BFI's screenonline has a fine biography; let's pick it up in the early 60s, when he's just had a surprise box office hit, Some People (1962). "Despite this success Donner was unable to find a backer for a film version of The Caretaker (1963 [clip above]), written by his friend Harold Pinter, but a private consortium, headed by Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Noël Coward and Peter Sellers, agreed to put up a minimum of £1000 each. The film...
- 9/7/2010
- MUBI
Director who captured swinging London's zeitgeist and remade classics for television
For a few years in the 1960s, Clive Donner, who has died aged 84 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was among the leading film directors of swinging London. Unfortunately, when London stopped swinging, so did Donner. The four films that made his name were a low-budget adaptation of Harold Pinter's play The Caretaker (1963); Nothing But the Best (1964), a wicked satire on the British class structure; the farcical What's New Pussycat? (1965); and the coming-of-age comedy Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1968).
Already in his 30s when he started directing, Donner gained a reputation for being tuned in to "youth". His debut movie, The Secret Place (1957), a heist drama shot on location in the East End, had David McCallum as a Brandoesque leather-jacketed "crazy mixed-up kid".
The Heart of a Child (1958) concerned a boy and his St Bernard dog, Rudi,...
For a few years in the 1960s, Clive Donner, who has died aged 84 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was among the leading film directors of swinging London. Unfortunately, when London stopped swinging, so did Donner. The four films that made his name were a low-budget adaptation of Harold Pinter's play The Caretaker (1963); Nothing But the Best (1964), a wicked satire on the British class structure; the farcical What's New Pussycat? (1965); and the coming-of-age comedy Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1968).
Already in his 30s when he started directing, Donner gained a reputation for being tuned in to "youth". His debut movie, The Secret Place (1957), a heist drama shot on location in the East End, had David McCallum as a Brandoesque leather-jacketed "crazy mixed-up kid".
The Heart of a Child (1958) concerned a boy and his St Bernard dog, Rudi,...
- 9/7/2010
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
The actor's fame was assured in a clinging wet shirt in Pride and Prejudice and now he has an Oscar nomination for his starring role in A Single Man. His true passion, however, is far removed from the trappings of stardom
The idea of being a minority taste appealed to Colin Firth. It was a comfortable place to be. There would be fans around, of course, but not banks of adoring hoi polloi lining the pavement when he went out for a stroll.
"There are some actors who, wherever they go, people show up because they think they are fantastic," he once mused. "Then there are slightly marginalised people who are like somebody's secret. I feel like a Second Division football team that has this following who are more into it for the fellowship of each other."
An Oscar nomination for his lead role in Tom Ford's debut feature, A Single Man,...
The idea of being a minority taste appealed to Colin Firth. It was a comfortable place to be. There would be fans around, of course, but not banks of adoring hoi polloi lining the pavement when he went out for a stroll.
"There are some actors who, wherever they go, people show up because they think they are fantastic," he once mused. "Then there are slightly marginalised people who are like somebody's secret. I feel like a Second Division football team that has this following who are more into it for the fellowship of each other."
An Oscar nomination for his lead role in Tom Ford's debut feature, A Single Man,...
- 2/7/2010
- by Vanessa Thorpe
- The Guardian - Film News
Harold Pinter, one of the most acclaimed and innovative playwrights of the 20th century, passed away on Christmas Eve at age 78 after a battle with cancer. Pinter's plays took England by storm in the 1960s and his popularity rapidly expanded around the world. He was credited with bringing intimacy back into theatrical productions. His plays, such as The Caretaker, No Man's Land, The Homecoming and The Birthday Party, were generally claustrophobic affairs that dealt with tensions within dysfunctional families. The British-born Nobel Prize winner was often a lightening rod for controversy due to his radical, left-wing politics. Pinter once refused a knighthood from Prime Minister John Major's government because he so loathed conservative policies. In recent years, he publicly lambasted both the British and American governments over the Iraq War. Pinter was multi-talented and also wrote screenplays for such films as The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Quiller Memorandum...
- 12/26/2008
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
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