Tonight in Hollywood, and across the globe, it's all about "Parasite." “Parasite” by the Korean director Bong Joon-Ho, netted four Academy Awards on Sunday, winning in the Best Film, Best Director (Bong Joon-ho), Best Foreign Film and Best Screenplay categories. What a winning streak! Joon-Ho made history, too, in the process. This is the first time that a non-English-language film won for Best Film at the Academy
Is Covid19, a.k.a. novel coronavirus, going to spell the death of the Cannes Festival this year? I say, I sure hope not. And, I really don't think so. But the signs, they're worrisome. According to the powers-that-be, France is currently in what is known as Phase Two. That's when a virus has entered the country and efforts are underway at containing it. Sibeth Ndiaye, President Macron's spokesperson, has hinted that a French coronavirus
We remember him as Vincent Van Gogh in “Lust for Life” (1957). In Stanley Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory,” (1957), he plays an officer during WWI who fights to overturn an unjust death sentence against three soldiers by his commanding officer; in “Spartacus,” (1960), again by Stanley Kubrick, he is the legendary slave who would not be cowed. (of the director, with whom he had differences, Douglas had this to say, "He'll be a fine director
In the last decade twin sisters Jen and Sylvia Soska have doggedly pursued film ventures in the horror genre. Armed with ingenuity, a DYI ethos and a pledge to frighten honest, hard-working people, the Soskas have acted in, directed, screenwritten and produced movies that would give Lloyd Kaufman and Eli Roth a run for their money.
The Soskas have directed such films as “Dead Hooker
Introducing in a narrative flashbacks, fragments of dreams, partially remembered scenes has always been part and parcel of cinema. Examples abound. Look at classic films. The childhood sled scenes in “Citizen Kane” are indispensable. As is the famous flashback explaining the Gregory Peck character’s trauma in “Spellbound." The process works, when it is used within reasonable limits. When repeated endlessly
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) earlier this week announced the lineup for the 35th edition, which will run January 15 to 25, 2020. The festival will feature forty-seven world premieres and seventy-one U.S. premieres from fifty countries.
During a press conference SBIFF’s executive director Roger Durling said, “for 35 years, SBIFF has been a reflection of the city
2019 started out as a bumpy road. By summer I worried that I wouldn’t be able to make a full top ten. By year’s end, however, some fine work started to shine.
1. (an absolute tie of the two most original and cinematically pleasing films of the year!): “The Irishman” (directed by Martin Scorsese) / “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood” (directed by Quentin Tarantino). Both films
This Israeli film by Sameh Zoabi, an Arab Israeli, comes to us boasting a number of awards but that doesn’t prepare us for the treat of this thoroughly enjoyable and unpretentious story. “Tel Aviv on Fire” is one of those gems––think “The Band’s Visit” or “Tony Erdmann”––that grab and delight from the opening scene to the very end, with nary a slackening of rhythm. Salam (Kais Nashif, a well-known Palestinian actor) works
Sue Lyon was born in Davenport, IA. When she was ten months-old the Lyon family moved to L.A., hoping that Sue could help them financially working as a model. She got jobs modeling for J.C. Penney and shot a commercial that featured her bleached-blonde hair. She also got small parts on "Dennis the Menace" (1959) and "The Loretta Young Show" (1953). Stanley Kubrick saw Sue on the show
All week our film critics weigh in on a year that (almost) was by naming their favorite films. The filmmaker Michael Apted has been checking in on a group of British folks every seven years since they were children of seven, with the initial mission being to discover both A) if Great Britain still had a class system; and B) if the aphorism “give me a child and I’ll show you the man” still holds true. Those fresh-faced English youths