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Sally Rooney recently stunned the entertainment world when in a newspaper interview, she said her experience of adapting her much-loved coming-of-age novel Normal People for the BBC and Hulu left her feeling like TV was “not a world where I belonged.” Accordingly, the in-demand writer has since said no to offers to option her third book, 2021’s Beautiful World, Where Are You. The same will be likely for her latest, Intermezzo.

Rooney’s decision was especially surprising given the TV market has been so driven by book IP, with option prices rising sharply and demand bigger than ever. In fact, around a year ago, we hear drama commissioners put out a call to TV makers. The broad message was “IP over original ideas as often as possible.” While books have long been the engine of television and film, the notion everything must come with proof of concept has shifted the dial.

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Sally Rooney’s latest novel, Intermezzo, was all but guaranteed to be a hit, but the book’s rollout has pushed excitement to stratospheric levels. The buzz around the advanced reader copies (ARCs) has turned copies of the book into status symbols, with TikToks explaining how to get your hands on an Arc and Booktok and Bookstagram influencers showing off their copies. Now, Rooney’s latest is finally hitting shelves,...

Despite Sally Rooney having two of her novels adapted into television series, fans can’t expect her third novel to hit the screen anytime soon.

In a conversation with The New York Times, the Normal People author revealed that she is not accepting any offers to adapt her 2021 third book, Beautiful World, Where Are You, following the success of adaptations Normal People and Conversations With Friends, both of which aired on BBC Three/Hulu.

“So far I have decided not to accept any offers to option the rights for that book,” Rooney told the publication. “I felt like it was just time to take a break from that and let the book be its own thing for a while.”

Rooney, who has been described as a generational literary voice previously dubbed the “first great millennial novelist” or “Salinger for the Snapchat generation,” received critical acclaim for her 2018 novel Normal People.

Sorry, Sally Rooney fans: There won’t be more TV adaptations of her work anytime soon.

After the success of “Normal People” and “Conversations With Friends,” author Rooney told the New York Times that she has “decided not to accept any offers to option the rights” for her third book, “Beautiful World, Where Are You?.” The novel was released in 2021; Rooney’s fourth book “Intermezzo” is being released in September 2024.

“I felt like it was just time to take a break from that and let the book be its own thing for a while,” Rooney said of opting out of bringing “Beautiful World, Where Are You?” to the screen.

“The experience of working on [‘Normal People’] had been, in so many ways, amazing — the team of people involved in it. But it did also feel like a really big job,” Rooney said. “Then, when the show was broadcast, that felt...

Sally Rooney, who penned the novels-turned-series “Normal People” and “Conversations With Friends,” isn’t jumping at the chance for future TV adaptations of her work.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, the author said she has “decided not to accept any offers to option the rights” for her third book, “Beautiful World, Where Are You?,” which released in 2021. When asked why not, Rooney replied: “I felt like it was just time to take a break from that and let the book be its own thing for a while.”

“Normal People,” starring Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones in career-making turns, became a critical and commercial hit when it released in the U.S. on Hulu in April 2020. Rooney’s debut novel, “Conversations With Friends,” was then also adapted by the same team, but reviews were more mixed. Rooney told the New York Times that she wasn’t as...

Normal People writer Sally Rooney isn’t accepting options to turn her third book into a TV show. More on Rooney’s comments below.

Normal People, BBC Three and Hulu’s wildly popular adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel of the same name, felt like a major milestone in contemporary British television. The show’s approach to sex has been applauded and it also launched the careers of both Paul Mescal – due to appear in a small, independent arthouse film Gladiator II next – and Daisy Edgar-Jones, who most recently appeared in this summer’s weather-based thriller sequel, Twisters.

Despite the success of Normal People, Rooney has now said she’s not looking to option her third novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, for a TV show.

“I felt like it was just time to take a break from that and let the book be its own thing for a while,...

Sally Rooney has been reflecting on her involvement with the TV adaptations of her smash hit novels, concluding “that world was not where I belonged.”

The Normal People author revealed to the New York Times that she has decided not to accept any offers so far to adapt her third novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You, into a TV show. “I felt like it was just time to take a break from that and let the book be its own thing for a while,” she said.

Rooney co-wrote the TV version of her second book, Normal People, for the BBC, Hulu and Element Pictures, which was a huge hit with audiences and critics, launching the careers of Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones. For the subsequent TV adaptation of her first novel, Conversations with Friends, which was far less well received, she was an EP but was not part of the writers’ room.

Born in Stockholm in 1915, Ingrid Bergman was working in Swedish and German films during the 1930s, when one of her Swedish films, 1936’s “Intermezzo,” caught the eye of powerful Hollywood producer David O. Selznick. He announced that he planned to remake “Intermezzo” in English and would bring Bergman to Hollywood to star. The only problem was that Bergman didn’t speak English, but she turned out to be a fast learner, and the combination of her work ethic and her radiant beauty put Bergman well on her way to becoming an authentic movie star.

Not only did Bergman become an audience favorite, but her acting skills earned her the respect of moviegoers and Hollywood producers alike. In the course of her four-decade film career, Bergman was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning three for “Gaslight,” “Anastasia” and “Murder on the Orient Express”. She is one of only six actors in...

World War II was still raging in May 1944. The allied invasion of Normandy — aka D-Day — was just around the corner on June 6th. Americans kept the home fires burning and escaped from the global conflict by going to the movies. Two of the biggest films of the year, Leo McCarey’s “Going My Way” and George Cukor’s “Gaslight,” recently celebrated their 80th anniversaries.

Actually, “Going My Way” had a special “Fighting Front” premiere on April 27th: 65 prints were shipped to battle fronts and shown “from Alaska to Italy, and from England to the jungles of Burma.” The sentimental comedy-drama-musical arrived in New York on May 3rd.

And it was just the uplifting film audiences needed. Bing Crosby starred as Father O’Malley, a laid-back young priest who arrives at a debt-ridden New York City church that is run by the older, set-in-his ways Father Fitzgibbon (Barry Fitzgerald). The elder...

The term “gaslighting” has come to describe someone who uses manipulation and lies to gain psychological control; the terminology has gained popularity over the past few years, but its origin dates back nearly 100 years to a British play by Patrick Hamilton, “Gas Light.” In 1940, a British film adaptation was released, and four years after that, MGM produced a version that resulted in the first Oscar victory for a three-time winner, the film debut of a screen legend and a memorable storyline that remains part of our culture eight decades later. On May 4, 1944, “Gaslight” had its premiere, and it remains as haunting and thrilling as ever. Read on for more about the “Gaslight” 80th anniversary.

In “Gaslight,” which is set in 1875, Ingrid Bergman portrays Paula Alquist Anton, an orphan who had been raised by her aunt, a famous and wealthy opera singer, who had been brutally murdered years before by an unknown intruder.

Georges Bizet has been revered as one of the world’s most influential composers of all time.

His works have had a lasting impact on the music world, with some of his compositions, such as “Carmen,” remaining beloved classics to this day. Bizet’s works have a unique and timeless quality to them that make them stand out from other composers.

This article will explore the life and works of Georges Bizet and examine why his music has stood the test of time. We will look at some defining features of his works and discuss how he combined elements from different musical traditions to create music that continues to inspire new generations.

We will also explore how Bizet’s musical genius influenced other composers and how it has been utilized in film and theater productions, making him an iconic figure in classical music.

Introduction to Georges Bizet’s Life and...

When "Rocky" hit theaters in 1976, a good portion of the public was enthralled by the sport of boxing. Though some were repulsed by the violent spectacle of two human beings pounding the tar out of each other with eight-ounce gloves, heavyweight title fights drew huge television ratings worldwide, thanks in large part to the prominence of master self-promoter Muhammad Ali. His return to the sport, after being suspended for refusing to serve in the Vietnam War on religious grounds, resulted in a trilogy of unforgettable bouts with Joe Frazier and a rope-a-dope masterpiece against George Foreman. These fights were inspirational displays of intestinal fortitude fueled by searing emotional stakes. To lose the world heavyweight title on a global stage was to suffer a grievous blow to one's pride. Throwing in the towel was unthinkable. The only way Ali, Frazier or Foreman could allow themselves to lose was by knockout or decision.

A 300-year-old violin, reputed to have been played on the Oscar-winning “Wizard of Oz” score, will go on the auction block next month and could fetch as much as 20 million.

The rare Stradivarius belonged to Odessa-born Toscha Seidel, widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century, famed for his rich tone and emotional intensity.

Estimates are that the violin could bring between 16 million and 20 million at auction, partly because of its excellent condition and partly because of its history. There are about 600 Stradivarius violins in existence worldwide; the highest price paid for a Strad was 15.9 million in 2011, so the Seidel instrument could mark a new world record.

Seidel made his American debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1918 and toured the U.S., Europe and Australia throughout the 1920s. He was a frequent performer on New York-based CBS Radio in the early 1930s but moved to...

With the Emmy Awards nominations set for Tuesday, it is a good time to back at a few of the greatest Emmy-winning and Emmy-nominated performances from some of the biggest stars in Hollywood.

Ingrid Bergman, “The Turn of the Screw” (1959)

The Oscar-winning Swedish actress certainly ended the 1950s on a different note than she began the decade. After making her U.S. film debut opposite Leslie Howard in 1939’s “Intermezzo,” Bergman became one of the top Hollywood stars earning her first Oscar for 1944’s “Gaslight.” Married with a young daughter, she shocked the U.S. when she had an affair and became pregnant by famed Italian director Roberto Rossellini during the production of “Stromboli.” She was even denounced in Congress for her affair. The couple did marry, have three children including actress Isabella Rossellini and made several films together before they divorced in 1957. All was forgiven by 1956 when she won...

The market premieres of Gaël Lépingle and Amro Hamzawi’s works shine bright in a line-up which will also provide sneak-peeks of Arthur Harari and Olivier Peyon’s feature films in post-production. Young, French talent is being showcased by the international sales division of the Parisian firm Le Pacte (steered by Jean Labadie) with two premières scheduled for the Cannes Film Festival’s Online Marché du Film (running 22-26 June). Chiefly set to be unveiled to buyers is Atomic Summer, the first feature film coming courtesy of Gaël Lépingle, described by its producer Nicolas Anthomé as a mix between a teen movie and a catastrophe film. The cast stars Shaïn Boumedine (Mektoub My Love : Canto Uno and Mektoub My Love : Intermezzo), Carmen Kassovitz, Théo Augier, Constantin Vidal and Manon Valentin. Written by the director in league with Pierre Chosson, the story centres around Victor, who’s around twenty years of age.

Ann E. Todd, a child actress in the 1930s and '40s who appeared in such films as Intermezzo, All This, and Heaven Too and Three Daring Daughters, died Feb. 7 of complications from dementia, her family announced. She was 88.

Todd also worked alongside Basil Rathbone in Tower of London (1939), with Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again (1939), with Edward G. Robinson in Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940), with Maureen O'Hara in John Ford's How Green Was My Valley (1941) and with Ronald Reagan in Kings Row (1942).

Todd, whose father and future husband were composers, portrayed a young pianist and the daughter ...

Ann E. Todd, a child actress in the 1930s and '40s who appeared in such films as Intermezzo, All This, and Heaven Too and Three Daring Daughters, died Feb. 7 of complications from dementia, her family announced. She was 88.

Todd also worked alongside Basil Rathbone in Tower of London (1939), with Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again (1939), with Edward G. Robinson in Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940), with Maureen O'Hara in John Ford's How Green Was My Valley (1941) and with Ronald Reagan in Kings Row (1942).

Todd, whose father and future husband were composers, portrayed a young pianist and the daughter ...

Mektoub, My Love: Canto Tre

The conflict continues surrounding the impending theatrical release of Abdellatif Kechiche’s 2019 Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo (read review), which premiered in competition at Cannes to divisive responses and widespread critical consternation. Nevertheless, as the title of his past two Mektoub films would indicate, we have always been destined for a Mektoub, My Love: Canto Tre. While Intermezzo waits for its theatrical premiere in France, potentially a different, edited version of what was seen at Cannes (the film is apparently circulating on bootleg DVDs amongst the North-African population in France), conversations suggest Kechiche’s third chapter in the ongoing Mektoub saga is ready for a festival premiere.…...

For the few years I have known his cinema, Abdellatif Kechiche has had a formidable ability to provoke fiery conversations within the industry and the audience equally. His contentious relationship with actors, and actresses especially, has been a hot topic for quite some time and catalyzed by the success of his Palme d’Or-winning Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013). Less publicized, especially abroad, problems with his producers probably led his follow-up, Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno (2017) to a different path, initially expected to premiere at Cannes two years ago but ending up in Venice. The whole situation yet reveals an aura of struggle and conflict that could explain the unique nature of Kechiche’s new film, Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo.Since its premiere, I profoundly loathed Blue Is the Warmest Color for various reasons, ranging from its cliché social dichotomy and the lack of research and respect of the city...

The initial outcry about Abdellatif Kechiche’s film “Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo” had mainly addressed its artistic merits (or lack thereof) for including a nearly 15-minute scene of unsimulated oral sex and and a seemingly never-ending parade of butts. But a report from a French paper is alleging that Kechiche had to employ unorthodox methods to convince his unwilling actors to perform the oral sex scene.

“Intermezzo” is the sequel to “Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno,” which premiered at Venice back in 2017. Both films, based on François Bégaudeau’s novel “La Blessure, la vraie,” feature Ophélie (Ophélie Bau) and Amin (Shaïn Boumédine) at the center of a complicated web of attraction and affairs.

In the scene in question, a man performs consensual oral sex on the character Ophélie. The Midi Libre posted an account Saturday morning from a person close to production who says that Kechiche had to push his actors to create that scene.

A film that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this week reportedly caused outrage and prompted walkouts due to its lengthy and graphic sexual content.

According to IndieWire, Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo, a nearly four-hour film from Blue Is the Warmest Color director Abdellatif Kechiche, contains one long scene of what appears to be un-simulated oral sex between a man and a woman and also focuses heavily on women’s bottoms.

Intermezzo is the sequel to Kechiche’s 2017 movie Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno; both movies are based on the French novel “La Blessure, la vraie.”

Social media reactions...

Abdellatif Kechiche takes his love story sequel to a nightclub for hot sex, but blows its cinephile credentials in four hours of indulgent sweat

The heterosexual rapture of Abdellatif Kechiche goes on … and on … and on ... and on. His epic female buttock fetish stretches to the far horizon. Kechiche has reaccentuated buttocks. He has doubled down on buttocks. Almost the very first shot is of a woman’s naked bottom, massively filling the screen, like an inflatable by Terry Gilliam.

Mektoub My Love: Intermezzo is a bizarre, colossally self-indulgent, almost avant-garde followup to the Franco-Tunisian director’s previous film Mektoub My Love: Canto Uno, whose combination of hedonist 90s nostalgia with scenes of cinephile brooding on silent cinema and patient photography of farmyard animals made it, for me, a good and interesting film – and I stand by my response to that specific work. But it had its detractors, who found...

Abdellatif Kechiche is once again under the Cannes microscope for prolonged sexual content in his films. The director’s latest competition title, “Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo” premiered at the festival, inspiring largely negative responses from critics, journalists, and audience members alike.

“Intermezzo” is the sequel to “Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno,” which premiered at Venice back in 2017. Both films, based on François Bégaudeau’s novel “La Blessure, la vraie,” feature Ophélie (Ophélie Bau) and Amin (Shaïn Boumédine) at the center of a complicated web of attraction and affairs.

One scene in question from “Intermezzo” occurs roughly two-thirds of the way through the nearly four-hour film and involves a lengthy, consensual encounter in a bathroom between Ophélie and a man. The scene, which features what appears to be un-simulated oral sex, lasts much longer than the most extensive sex scene in Kechiche’s 2013 film “Blue Is the Warmest Colour.”

That film,...

No filmmaker has ever loved anything as much as Abdellatif Kechiche loves butts.

Bringing up the rear of this year’s Cannes lineup in more ways than one, Kechiche’s “Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo” — an oft-threatened but completely unsolicited sequel to his 2017 bomb, “Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno” — devotes about 60% of its runtime to extreme close-ups of jiggling female derrieres. And while that horrifyingly unexaggerated statistic may sound like a bit of a red flag to begin with, it only gets worse when you consider that “Intermezzo” is the same length as “Lawrence of Arabia”.

Of course, none of this is much of a surprise. Not anymore. As shocking as it was when Kechiche celebrated his 2013 Palme d’Or win by pivoting to posteriors, “Canto Uno” made it irrevocably clear the filmmaker has no regrets for the wanton fetishization of nubile flesh that separated “Blue Is the Warmest Color” from his earlier,...

Just when you think you’ve seen it all before, director Abdellatif Kechiche goes and drops something as toxically indulgent as “Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo,” a three-and-half-hour-long provocation that will now make the “Blue Is the Warmest Color” director the most talked-about man on the Croisette once again — and not in a good way.

This essentially narrative-free sequel to 2017’s “Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno” takes the already sporadically clothed cast of that previous film, plops them onto a beach for the initial 30 minutes, moves them to a club for the subsequent three hours, leers at every crevice of their bodies along the way and then calls it a day.

Squint hard enough and you can see what he’s going for. Instead of growing the slight narrative seeds he planted with “Canto Uno,” which followed a tight circle of Franco-Algerian young adults over the course of the summer of...

A simple but somehow atypical shot opens Abdellatif Kechiche’s new film: a serene closeup of a young woman’s face, as seen through the camera lens of Amir, a budding photographer still finding his perspective. Her expression is ambiguously tranquil, her long hair lightly rustled by a humid breeze, all softly lit by a sinking afternoon sun. It’s exquisite, the shot as much as the face, and anyone who has seen Kechiche’s last film will wonder how long the director can hold it there. But then there’s movement, and the camera gently drops and twists to close in on a different area, lower, a little lower, and yep, there it is — her toned, unblemished derrière. Welcome to the world of “Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo,” where, with apologies to Samuel Beckett, form is content and content is form: the female form, that is, and its lower half in particular.

The suspense is over: Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” will indeed have its world premiere and compete at the Cannes Film Festival, the fest announced Thursday.

“Intermezzo” from Abdellatif Kechiche, the Palme d’Or-winning director of “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” has also been added to the competition slate.

The star-studded movie has been widely anticipated as a festival highlight but wasn’t included in Cannes’ official selection announcement on April 18. Artistic director Thierry Fremaux told journalists several times that day that he hoped for post-production on Tarantino’s film to be completed in time for the film to be shown at the festival. Fremaux said Tarantino was eager to be back at Cannes and was working hard to finish the film by May, which was a challenge because it was shot in 35mm, which takes longer to edit than digital film, and is slated for a July release.

Hollywood's most elegantly natural, defiantly independent actress comes alive in a film biography about her personal life, using inside family testimony, rare film and her diaries. Sweden's Ingrid seems more radiant than ever. Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 82228 2015 / B&W-Color / 1:78 widescreen / 114 min. / Jag är Ingrid / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 16, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Pia Lindström, Roberto Rossellini, Ingrid Rossellini, Isabella Rossellini, Fiorella Mariani, Liv Ullmann, Sigourney Weaver, Jeanine Basinger. Ingrid Bergman's voice Alicia Vikander Film Editor Dominika Daubenbüchel Original Music Michael Nyman Written by Stig Björkman, Stina Gardell and Dominika Daubenbüchel Produced by Stina Gardell Directed by Stig Björkman

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Ingrid Bergman had one of the most fascinating lives of any woman of the 20th century. An ambitious actress, she let herself be guided by her desires and her heart. Although banished by Hollywood and vilified by the press,...

Alicia Vikander swept into Hollywood to do a round of interviews just ahead of the Screen Actors Guild nominations deadline. Sure enough, she landed a SAG supporting actress nomination for "The Danish Girl," as well as a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress for that film and Supporting for "Ex Machina." Friday morning, she added Best Actress ("The Danish Girl") and Best Supporting Actress ("Ex Machina") BAFTA nominations to her enviable haul—which may well expand yet again when the Oscar nominations are announced January 14. Read More: "Oscar Predictions 2016" Not since Ingrid Bergman's 1939 debut in "Intermezzo" has a young Swedish actress made such a splashy transition from her native cinema. (Vikander impersonates Bergman as she reads her letters in recent documentary "In Her Own Words.") In this case, Vikander, age 27, stars in not one but three critically-hailed 2015 films—out of seven releases in...

Dailies is a round-up of essential film writing, news bits, videos, and other highlights from across the Internet. If you’d like to submit a piece for consideration, get in touch with us in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheFilmStage.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night director Ana Lily Amirpour reveals her top 10 Criterions, topped by Mulholland Drive:

I was in film school when I first saw this film. I didn’t understand it. Or, more specifically, I watched it and then couldn’t grasp what had happened in any linear sense. I had conversations with film school friends about it, but I just couldn’t really remember anything except a girl-on-girl love scene and an audition. I watched it twenty-two times this way, not really remembering. Then one night, on an Mdma comedown, I couldn’t sleep and it was 8:00 a.m. and the movie was coming on.

Some of my favorite classic movies star Sweden's Ingrid Bergman, who acted opposite Humphrey Bogart in "Casablanca," Gary Cooper in Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious," which featured the longest screen kiss ever. Even when she was young—she hit Hollywood at age 23, in David O' Selznick's "Intermezzo"—there was something worldly about her, a natural sensuality. Movie directors loved her, in Sweden and America, because she gleamed with health and beauty even without makeup and could also play sophisticated and glamorous. In a year rife with strong archive docs, "In Her Own Words" stands out because Bergman was a pack rat who hung on to everything, from her diaries (well-read by fellow Swede Alicia Vikander) to her home movies. She was an early woman with a movie camera, and her husbands enjoyed shooting her as well. The movie tracks her tragic family life—she was orphaned.

The title of MoMA's series running through September 18, "Hasse Ekman: The Other Swede in the Room," refers, of course, to the fact that the #1 Swede in cinema is Ingmar Bergman. Who, by the way, called Ekman's Girl With Hyacinths (1950), "an absolute masterpiece." Ekman was the son of Gösta Ekman, star of F.W. Murnau's Faust (1927), and the two appeared together with Ingrid Bergman in Gustaf Molander's Intermezzo (1936). For all that, Hasse Ekman's career as a writer, director and producer has been unduly overlooked. Until now. We're gathering appreciations. » - David Hudson...

The title of MoMA's series running through September 18, "Hasse Ekman: The Other Swede in the Room," refers, of course, to the fact that the #1 Swede in cinema is Ingmar Bergman. Who, by the way, called Ekman's Girl With Hyacinths (1950), "an absolute masterpiece." Ekman was the son of Gösta Ekman, star of F.W. Murnau's Faust (1927), and the two appeared together with Ingrid Bergman in Gustaf Molander's Intermezzo (1936). For all that, Hasse Ekman's career as a writer, director and producer has been unduly overlooked. Until now. We're gathering appreciations. » - David Hudson...

There's very little written about Gregory Ratoff's movies and even less about the man himself. On the set of Black Magic (1949), it was reported that he liked to bark commands like a parody of the autocratic director in the Erich von Stroheim mold. Yet he turned out dozens of mid-budget studio pictures and was personally chosen to take over Intermezzo by Selznick, a producer who liked to control every aspect of his films. >> -Sean Axmaker...

There's very little written about Gregory Ratoff's movies and even less about the man himself. On the set of Black Magic (1949), it was reported that he liked to bark commands like a parody of the autocratic director in the Erich von Stroheim mold. Yet he turned out dozens of mid-budget studio pictures and was personally chosen to take over Intermezzo by Selznick, a producer who liked to control every aspect of his films. >> -Sean Axmaker...

A classicist using Romantic harmonies, Johannes Brahms (1833-97) was hailed at age 20 by Robert Schumann in a famous article entitled "New Paths." Yet by the time Brahms wrote his mature works, his music was thought of as a conservative compared to the daring harmonies and revolutionary dramatic theories of Richard Wagner. But in the next century, Arnold Schoenberg's 1947 essay titled "Brahms the Progressive" praised Brahms's bold modulations (as daring as Wagner's most tonally ambiguous chords), asymmetrical forms, and mastery of imaginative variation and development of thematic material.

The son of a bassist in the Hamburg Philharmonic Society, Brahms was an excellent pianist who was supporting himself by his mid-teens. His first two published works were his Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, and throughout his career he penned much fine music for that instrument, not only solo (including the later Piano Sonata No. 3) and duo but also his landmark Piano Concertos Nos.

Feature Aliya Whiteley Feb 12, 2013

Aliya celebrates the life and work of a Hollywood great - Leslie Howard, star of Gone With The Wind, Pygmalion and many, many more...

Leslie Howard is best known for playing Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind, noble and yet ineffectual against the machinations of Vivien Leigh’s Scarlett. It was a great role, but not one of his best performances; he could be funny, charming, wise, driven, intense, comedic, tragic – take your pick. He had a pale, thin face with a high forehead and a pointed jaw, giving him an intelligent look over which directors loved to throw shadows.

I always thought he was one of those actors that black and white suited better than colour; he looked more handsome, more interesting that way. I was mesmerised by the old movies of his that appeared on television on a Sunday afternoon, where he would...

Not since Ingrid Bergman's 1939 debut in "Intermezzo" has a young Swedish actress made such a splashy transition from her native cinema. In this case, Alicia Vikander, age 24, stars in not one but two award season pictures. Vikander, a trained ballerina who opted to act instead of dance, stars in Joe Wright's "Anna Karenina," in the pivotal role of Kitty, who breaks her lover Levin's heart, as well as Danish Oscar entry "A Royal Affair," in which she plays a lonely English noblewoman who marries the King of Denmark. He turns out to be awkward and distant; eventually she falls instead for the radical intellectual doctor who looks after the childish king (another trained dancer, Mads Mikkelsen). It turns out that Vikander's feat starring in a Danish film was more challenging than acting in English, in which she is fluent. "A Royal Affair" director Nicolaj Arcels "couldn't find anyone who had that regal quality,...

Ingrid Bergman, more than anyone else from the golden age of cinema, had a face made for the silvery light of black-and-white movies. The adjectives get overused -- luminescent, radiant -- but watch her in "Casablanca," "Gaslight," "Notorious," or any of her other black-and-white classics, and she really does appear to be lit from within. Maybe it was those Swedish cheekbones. Maybe it was her professed disdain for the heavy makeup worn by other screen goddesses of the era. Maybe it was the heartbreakingly pure smile of the dentist's wife. Or maybe it was some kind of inner flame -- a burning ambition, an iron will, steely courage -- that forged her character and gleamed in her eyes. Whatever it was, Ingrid Bergman -- who died 30 years ago, on August 29, 1982, and who was born on the same day, 67 years earlier -- had an inner glow that emanates from her films even now,...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: March 27, 2012

Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $64.99

Studio: Warner Home Video

“Here’s looking at you, kid.” The classic 1942 romance movie, Casablanca won three Oscars and has inspired countless love scenes for the past 70 years.

Of course, Casablanca stars Humphrey Bogart (The African Queen) as an exiled American during World War II whose life gets complicated when his former lover (Ingrid Bergman, Intermezzo) walks into his bar. She’s now with the Czech underground leader (Paul Henreid, Operation Crossbow), but he gets detained by the Nazis.

Rated PG, the drama film won Academy Awards for Best Screenplay, Best Director (Michael Curtiz, The Comancheros) and the big one, Best Picture.

Casablanca has been released on Blu-ray in a few varieties, including a Two-Disc Ultimate Collector’s Edition packed with special features from 2008. The 70th Anniversay Edition contains the extras from earlier Blu-ray and DVD releases, but it does have...

Newcomer Rooney Mara makes a superb Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's faithful remake of the gritty Swedish crime thriller

In 1936 the Hollywood mogul David O Selznick bought the Swedish movie Intermezzo, signed up its star Ingrid Bergman and remade it in 1939 under the same title with Bergman repeating her original role in an otherwise British and American cast. During pre-production he sent a three-page memo to his chief producer about such adaptations. "I want to impress on you strongly," he wrote, "that the most important saving to be effected in remaking foreign pictures – a saving that more than offsets the doubtful foreign markets that have been used up by the original version, and that makes these remakes uniquely desirable – is in the shooting, by actually duplicating, as far as possible, the [earlier] film." And he added: "Granted a good cast, direction as good as Molander's on the original, a somewhat faster tempo than his,...

Newcomer Rooney Mara makes a superb Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher's faithful remake of the gritty Swedish crime thriller

In 1936 the Hollywood mogul David O Selznick bought the Swedish movie Intermezzo, signed up its star Ingrid Bergman and remade it in 1939 under the same title with Bergman repeating her original role in an otherwise British and American cast. During pre-production he sent a three-page memo to his chief producer about such adaptations. "I want to impress on you strongly," he wrote, "that the most important saving to be effected in remaking foreign pictures – a saving that more than offsets the doubtful foreign markets that have been used up by the original version, and that makes these remakes uniquely desirable – is in the shooting, by actually duplicating, as far as possible, the [earlier] film." And he added: "Granted a good cast, direction as good as Molander's on the original, a somewhat faster tempo than his,...

Jose here, with a roundup of this week's new DVD releases.

First up we have the Oscar winning The King's Speech which surprisingly hasn't been out on DVD for decades. Doesn't it feel like one of those movies you're used to passing by on video store aisles, next to things like Around the World in 80 Days, Oliver! and all those other Best Picture winners nobody remembers anymore? Maybe I'm alone on this one, since the film was so popular it ended up making $138 million in the North American box office. Will perennial home video popularity follow?

Much less popular, but inarguably more interesting, was Sofia Coppola's Somewhere which also debuts on DVD tomorrow. The Venice Film Festival winner was supposed to reignite Stephen Dorff's career but went by almost undetected by audiences. Give it a try at home, bask in its visual richness and join Nat next...

A look at what's new on DVD this week:

"Fubar: Balls to the Wall"

Directed by Michael Dowse

Released by Screen Media Films

Following up the 2002 cult comedy about lifelong metalhead pals Terry and Dean, this sequel, which recently premiered to much acclaim at SXSW, finds the duo down on their luck when they decide to head up north to work in the oil industry, but when their best laid plans go awry, Dean attempts to get on worker's comp, leading to the kind of exploits best enjoyed with a cold beer.

"Born to Raise Hell" (2011)

Directed by Darren Shahlavi

Released by Paramount

Steven Seagal not only stars as an Interpol agent named Samuel Axel in this Dtv thriller, but also wrote the script, so you know it has to be good. In it, Axel must bring down a gun trafficking ring in the Balkans where the stakes become personal...

On April 19, Kino Lorber will release the DVD of Ingrid Bergman in Sweden, a three-film collection spotlighting the early work of one of Hollywood’s most renowned Golden Era stars and a three-time Oscar winner, to boot.

Ingrid Bergman and Olaf Widgren get scandalous in June Night.

The Swedish movies were all made only a few years prior to Ingrid Bergman’s (Casablanca) arrival in Hollywood in 1939 at the behest of producer David Selznick. He brought her to America to star in Intermezzo: A Love Story, a remake of the 1936 Swedish film Intermezzo, which is one of the films in this collection.

Here’s some info on Ingrid Bergman in Sweden’s three films:

Intermezzo (Gustaf Molander, 1936) – An aspiring classical pianist (Bergman) falls in love with a famed — but married — concert violinist.

A Woman’s Face (Gustaf Molander, 1938) – A psychological drama wherein Bergman plays a woman whose bitterness over a...

Charlie Chaplin responded to the arrival of sound by keeping his tramp mute and creating a fabulous soundtrack. Composer Carl Davis on the challenge of reconstructing his original scores

The three giants of 20th-century art are, for me, Picasso, Stravinsky and Chaplin. All three produced a tremendous amount of work – original, controversial and rewarding. Chaplin was a film-maker in complete control of his art: conceiving, scripting, acting, directing, producing, editing and, strikingly, creating his own musical scores. His stimulus, as it is with all clowns, was the creation of a character – amusing, moving, the fate of whom constantly intrigues us. Whereas Buster Keaton was a frozen-faced stoic and Harold Lloyd had his empty-framed glasses, Chaplin had his "little tramp", the ups-and-downs (mostly downs) of whose existence shaped a story of human resilience. The tramp character, with his stubby moustache, bowler hat, oversized shoes and cane appeared on screen first in...

Prolific writer who enjoyed her greatest success with the recycling Wombles

Elisabeth Beresford, who has died aged 84, enjoyed her greatest success with the creation of the Wombles. The family motto of the colourful underground creatures – "making good use of bad rubbish" – sprang from a concern of the writer's that chimed with the growing ecological awareness of the next four decades. Famously, the inspiration for the figures came on a Boxing Day walk on Wimbledon Common, south-west London, during which her daughter, Kate, misnamed it Wombledon Common.

As elsewhere with Beresford's work, the point of departure was real – here, the place and the characters, largely drawn from uncles, grandparents, siblings and her children: Marcus, her son, genial and interested in food, inspired Orinoco; Kate inspired Bungo, a strong character in the books, though not in the films.

Their underground and above-ground adventures begin simply; in The Wombles (1968) the characters do little...

No 33: Ingrid Bergman 1915-82

She was born in Stockholm 10 years after Greta Garbo. Both lost their fathers when they were in their early teens, but Bergman had a theatrical training her fellow Swede was denied. She came to international stardom in the early 1940s, when Garbo left Hollywood to live a reclusive life. Garbo had a luminous, androgynous beauty. Bergman had a fresh-faced, open-air radiance. Garbo's career was a brief European prologue, 15 years of MGM productions, and a 48-year, teasing retirement. Bergman's career unfolded in four chapters of energetic professional activity, from her mid-teens to her death.

In the first chapter she became a local star. The second chapter began with her being signed up by Hollywood tycoon David O Selznick, who brought her to the States for a remake of her big Swedish success, Intermezzo (1939). Over the next decade she played opposite Bogart, Tracy, Cooper, Boyer, Crosby,...