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Exclusive: A biopic devoted to legendary Italian Rome, Open City and The Rose Tattoo actress Anna Magnani is in development at Indiana Production, the Milan and Rome-based company behind Netflix’s upcoming period drama The Leopard.

Entitled Anna, the production will be directed by Alessio Cremonini (On My Skin), who is also co-writing the screenplay with actress Olivia Magnani, grand-daughter of the late actress and daughter of her only son Luca Magnani.

The feature will focus on Magnani in a pivotal period of her life between the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the actress’s son was coming of age and she was embracing a new role as a mother in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1962 drama Mamma Roma.

Filming for Anna is scheduled to begin in 2025, with casting in the early stages for the role of Magnani and the many other famous figures from Italy’s film and artistic...

Sidney Lumet once wrote: “While the goal of all movies is to entertain, the kind of film in which I believe goes one step further. It compels the spectator to examine one facet or another of his own conscience. It stimulates thought and set the mental juices flowing. In a film career spanning 50 years, Lumet explored conscience in such classics 1957’s “12 Angry Men,” 1973’s “Serpico,” 1976’s “Network” and 1982’ s “The Verdict.”

Lumet’s New York Times 2011 obit stated: “Social issues set his mental juices flowing and his best films not only probed the consequences of prejudice, corruption and betrayal, but also celebrated individual acts of courage.” And one should also add redemption to that list. He was always in a New York state of mind. Of the 38 films he made, 29 were shot in New York. Lumet earned four Oscar nominations for best director- “12 Angry Men,” which marked his feature debut,...

by Chad Kennerk

K.J. Relth-Miller, Director of Film Programs.

All images courtesy the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

The Academy’s annual ceremony is just one aspect of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ overall examination and recognition of film. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is the largest museum in the United States devoted to the art, science, and artists behind the magic of the movies. Through exhibitions, curated film series and extensive programming, the Academy Museum celebrates and captures the stories behind the art of moviemaking. The museum’s David Geffen and Ted Mann theatres present a year-round robust calendar of screenings, film series, member programs, panel discussions, and more. Through retrospectives and thematic film series, the artistic and cultural contributions of those in front of and behind the camera are illuminated and explored.

One of the great actors of the 20th century, Marlon Brando studied...

Italy’s Torino Film Festival will celebrate the centennial of Marlon Brando’s birth with a 24-title retrospective of films featuring the groundbreaking two-time Oscar winner, known for his naturalistic acting style and rebellious streak.

The Brando retro will be “the backbone” of the fest, according to its new artistic director, Italian actor/director Giulio Base. Accordingly, an image of Brando – photographed when he was shooting Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris” – is featured on the poster for the fest’s upcoming 42nd edition, which will run Nov. 22-30.

Torino is Italy’s preeminent event for young directors and indie cinema, and is where Matteo Garrone and Paolo Sorrentino screened their first works. The festival’s lineup will be announced at a later date.

“As an actor, Brando has always been my guiding star and I had been wondering for a while – since way before being appointed at Torino...

As predicted, Lois Smith won the Tony Award for Featured Actress in a Play for her moving turn in Matthew Lopez’s “The Inheritance.” Not only is this the veteran actress’ first career Tony win, but Smith has just become the oldest Tony winning actor in history. Talk about a victory being worth the wait!

Lois Smith is 90 years of age, having been born on November 3, 1930. This makes her two years older than the previous record holder for oldest Tony winning performer. That would be Cicely Tyson, who won a Tony for playing Carrie Watts in the 2018 revival of “The Trip To Bountiful” at age 88. That was Tyson’s only Tony nomination and win of her career, despite appearing in nine Broadway plays. Ironically, Smith also portrayed Carrie in a 2005 Off-Broadway revival of “Bountiful.” She won the Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Obie, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for that performance.

Sidney Lumet’s harrowing film is a true-life account of a NY narcotics detective- turned government informant; its length and intensity can be emotionally overpowering. Treat Williams is the idealistic cop who blows up his whole life and ends up betraying all the people he hoped to protect. He doesn’t seem to understand the ruthless, opportunistic nature of ‘systemic reform’ as he goes from good guy to the object of hate for both crooks and cops, and a target for the very same system that welcomed his help. The Wac made an excellent choice with this one — it’s one of the most deserving, underappreciated films of the early 1980s.

Prince of the City

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1981 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 167 min. / Available at Amazon.com / Street Date August 24, 2021 / 21.99

Starring: Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach, Richard Foronjy, Don Billett, Kenny Marino, Carmine Caridi, Tony Page, Norman Parker, Paul Roebling, Bob Balaban,...

Liz McCann, a groundbreaking Broadway producer who, as one of the first and most successful women to achieve a prominent leadership role in the theater industry – a term she hated, preferring “theater community” — died Thursday of cancer at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx. She was 90.

Her death was announced by her longtime associate and friend Kristen Luciani.

Elizabeth Ireland McCann — known throughout the Broadway community simply as Liz — started her career in theater as a production assistant and manager with Proscenium Productions at the Cherry Lane Theatre in the 1950s. In 1955, the company would be the first Off Broadway theater to win a Special Tony Award for its seminal productions of The Way of the World and Thieves’ Carnival.

Following a series of short-term theater jobs, McCann, who had acted in plays during her student years at Manhattanville College, completed a law degree at Fordham University. She later earned a...

Chicago – I will never forget meeting Olympia Dukakis. It was in Chicago in 2009, and among all the pomp and sequins of a Greek American awards night. it was Dukakis who was, by her natural presence, the movie star. Oh yeah, and she was slightly tipsy. Ms. Dukakis passed away in New York City on May 1st, 2021, age 89.

She was known for her high level of performance on stage and screen, and resided in both for over 60 years. She won a Golden Globe and Academy Award (Best Supporting Actress) for “Moonstruck” (1987), and garnered two Obies (Off Broadway Theater Awards) for her work in outer circle and independent theater. She also was a prominent acting instructor, a political activist (her cousin was 1988 Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis) and wrote her memoir in 2003 entitled “Ask Me Again Tomorrow: A Life in Progress.”

Olympia Dukakis in Chicago, circa 2009

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.

Olympia Dukakis, who died on Saturday at age 89, left an indelible impression with a career in film, TV and theater that spanned nearly six decades. Winning the Supporting Actress Oscar for her turn in 1987’s Moonstruck, directed by Norman Jewison, at the age of 56, she also appeared in numerous other iconic films, including Steel Magnolias. (Click on the image above to launch the photo gallery.)

In the former picture, Dukakis starred as Rose Castorini, mother to Cher’s Loretta. In the latter, she played Clairee Belcher, the cheerful widow of a Southern mayor, known for her love of gossip. On the big screen, the actress’s other major credits include Look Who’s Talking, Over the Hill, I Love Trouble and Picture Perfect.

Showbiz & Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2021 – Photo Gallery

On the TV side, she is remembered for her turn as matriarch Anna Madrigal in the PBS adaptation of...

“It’s time to speak of unspoken things,” is the tagline for a forgotten late 1960s Joseph Losey film called Secret Ceremony, an odd psychodrama starring frequent Tennessee Williams muse Elizabeth Taylor—and is perhaps a narrative born from the success and cultural obsessions with the famed playwright from the 1950s to early 1960s. But speaking of other unspoken things, the absent reverence for one of the most vibrant adaptations of a Williams text one comes to the void afforded 1960’s The Fugitive Kind, directed by Sidney Lumet and based on the play Orpheus Descending. Its origins are as interesting as the eventual execution, including how Williams re-tooled his early play Battle Angels and how it was rewritten as Orpheus and then as a film which would reunite him with his A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) star Marlon Brando and The Rose Tattoo (1955) Academy Award winner Anna Magnani.…

Continue reading.

By Brian Greene

Tennesee Williams’s play Orpheus Descending stands out among his works for being a flop at a time when the playwright could seem to do no wrong. The seemingly unstoppable commercial and critical success Williams had enjoyed for more than a decade came to a momentary halt when Orpheus Descending tanked on Broadway in 1957. Despite the unexpected failure of the stage production of the play, however, a few years later plans were made to turn the story into a major motion picture, with up-and-coming director Sidney Lumet behind the camera, and acting luminaries Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, and Joanne Woodward playing key roles. Williams, who’d been working on various versions of the play for close to 20 years, was so thrilled by this development that he signed on to co-write the screenplay.

But Williams’s beloved tale just seemed to be doomed. Despite his reputation as a writer,...

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 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 Film Movement Plus and Ovid.tv, IndieWire’s monthly guide highlights 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 January 2020.

“Midsommar”

Despite its ritualistic terrors, slasher-inspired structure, and “Hostel”-like affinity for butchering self-obsessed American tourists, “Midsommar” is clearly a film that uses horror tropes as a means to an end. The sun-blasted story of a grieving young woman...

Marlon Brando is back in an adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play Orpheus Descending. The cameraman is Boris Kaufman and the director is Sidney Lumet; Marlon’s a classic tomcat drifter in a dangerous parish, who attracts two women. Acting styles mesh, or mix without blending — Anna Magnani and Joanne Woodward each get opportunities to shine. It’s all poetics and symbolism — dig the snakeskin jacket! — in a fairly realistic setting.

The Fugitive Kind

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 515

1960 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 121 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 14, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, Maureen Stapleton, Victor Jory, R.G. Armstrong.

Cinematography: Boris Kaufman

Film Editor: Carl Lerner

Original Music: Kenyon Hopkins

Written by Meade Roberts, Tennessee Williams from his play Orpheus Descending

Produced by Martin Jurow, Richard Shepherd

Directed by Sidney Lumet

Tennessee Williams sometimes seemed a continuation of William Faulkner’s literary legacy. This story’s...

Growing up among his native Brooklyn’s brick-and-fire-escape facades in the 1930’s, production designer-to-be Albert Brenner often dreamed of the wide open spaces depicted in his favorite Saturday-matinee Westerns. At 16, he landed his first “art job”: dressing windows for a New York City department store.

Two years later, Brenner swapped mannequins for military service and flew in B-24 bombers until World War II ended in 1945. On the G.I. Bill, he attended Yale University, graduating with skills in drafting, and went into summer stock theater under designer Samuel Leve, toiling away on plays like “The Fifth Season” and gaining a union card in the process.

He developed his designer chops in New York on TV shows like “The Phil Silvers Show,” “Car 54, Where Are You?” “Captain Kangaroo” and “Playhouse 90.” His first day on the Silvers show, where he eventually earned $250 a week, was nearly his last, when he...

Something Wild

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 850

1961 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen 1:37 flat Academy / 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 17, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, Mildred Dunnock, Jean Stapleton, Martin Kosleck, Charles Watts, Clifton James, Doris Roberts, Anita Cooper, Tanya Lopert.

Cinematography: Eugen Schüfftan

Film Editor: Carl Lerner

Original Music: Aaron Copland

Written by Jack Garfein and Alex Karmel from his novel Mary Ann

Produced by George Justin

Directed by Jack Garfein

After writing up an earlier Mod disc release of the 1961 movie Something Wild, I received a brief but welcome email note from its director:

“Dear Glenn Erickson,

Thank you for your profound appreciation of Something Wild.

If possible, I would appreciate if you could send

me a copy of your review by email.

Sincerely yours, Jack Garfein”

Somewhere back East (or in London), the Actors Studio legend Jack Garfein had found favor with the review. Although...

Above: French grande for Volcano (William Dierterle, Italy, 1950). A few weeks ago, I featured the posters of Anna Karina; now it’s the turn of that other legendary Anna... La Magnani or “La Lupa”, the she-wolf, as she was known. Magnani is currently being fêted at Lincoln Center in an all-celluloid retrospective showing 24 of her films that runs through June 1 before traveling to Chicago, San Francisco, Houston and Columbus.Magnani became a star with her powerhouse performance in Rossellini’s Rome, Open City in 1945, and the indelible image of her chasing down the Nazi soldiers who have taken her resistance-hero husband, is one that seems to have informed her persona throughout her career. No sex-kitten, Magnani was the personification of the great actress, and in her posters she is almost always emoting. She is rarely shown smiling (look at her scowling at Ingrid Bergman—in real life she had good...

Sidney And The Sixties: Real-time 1957-1966

Throughout the 1950s, Hollywood’s relationship with television was fraught: TV was a hated rival but also a source of cheap talent and material, as in the case of the small-scale Marty (1955), which won the Best Picture Oscar. These contradictions were well represented by the apparently “televisual” 12 Angry Men (1957), which began life as a teleplay concerning a jury with a lone holdout who must, and eventually does, convince his fellow jurors of the defendant’s innocence. Its writer, Reginald Rose, persuaded one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Henry Fonda, to become a first-time producer of the film version. Fonda and Rose took basement-low salaries in favor of future points, and hired a TV director, Sidney Lumet, for next to nothing because Lumet wanted a first feature credit. Technically, there’s an opening bit on the courtroom steps that keeps this from being a true real-time film,...

Film producer Richard Shepherd has died, aged 86.

The filmmaker worked in the movie business for six decades, producing many films including 1961's Breakfast At Tiffany's, starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard.

His other well-known films include 1976's Robin and Marian starring Hepburn and Sean Connery, Marlon Brando's The Fugitive Kind and 1959's The Hanging Tree with Gary Cooper.

He also set up the Artists Agency, representing many top stars including Marilyn Monroe, Rex Harrison, Peter Sellers and Richard Harris.

Shepherd was credited with rescuing the song 'Moon River' for Breakfast At Tiffany's, after executive Marty Rackin wanted to remove it from the film.

He is survived by his wife and four children from his two marriages, including Miami Vice producer Scott Shepherd.

Watch Audrey Hepburn sing 'Moon River' in Breakfast At Tiffany's below:...

Washington, Jan. 16: Richard Shepherd, who is known for classic films 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' and 'The Fugitive Kind', has dies after a long illness. He was 86.

He also served as head of production at MGM and Warner Bros. and then founded the Artists Agency, the Hollywood Reporter reported.

During his six-decade career in the entertainment industry, he also produced films like 'The Hanging Tree', 'The Hunger', 'The Exorcist', 'Fame', 'Robin and Marian' and 'Love in a Goldfish Bowl'. (Ani)...

Fans of Robert Redford, Marlon Brando, John Wayne and Jason Robards rejoice! Altitude Films are releasing Seven classic films between May 27th and June 10th and to celebrate we are offering you the chance to win them all.

Two lucky winners will each receive a bundle of classic movies including a copy of The Fugitive Kind, The Hot Rock, Arabian Nights, Desiree, The Story of GI Joe, The St Valentines Massacre and McLintock!

Here’s the rundown on the films included in this fantastic classic bundle…

Arabian Nights (1942)

Filmed in glorious Technicolor and nominated for four Academy Awards®, Arabian Nights is an action-packed adventure classic.

Starring Jon Hall and Maria Montez, Arabian Nights is a grand tale of intrigue and romance. Haroun-Al-Raschid, the Caliph of Bagdad and his half-brother Kamar are in an epic battle, competing for the throne and for the affections of a beautiful dancer, Scheherazade.

Pre-order your copy now here.

To celebrate the release of the Marlon Brando classic The Fugitive Kind on May 27th, we are offering you the chance to win one of three copies of the DVD.

Oscar® Winners Marlon Brando (On the Waterfront), Anna Magnani (The Rose Tattoo), Joanne Woodward (The Three Faces of Eve) and Maureen Stapleton (Reds) lead the stellar cast of this Southern gothic “sizzler” (Los Angeles Times) based on the Tennessee Williams play Orpheus Descending.

Thanks to “brilliant” (The Film Daily) performances, The Fugitive Kind “sets one’s senses to throbbing” (The New York Times).

Valentine “Snakeskin” Xavier (Brando) is a handsome drifter with a guitar…and a past. Taking a job as a stored clerk in Two Rivers, Mississippi, his strong and silent demeanor attracts not only the local party girl (Woodward), but also the shopkeeper’s exotic wife (Magnani).

Soon, this explosive love triangle will ignite a powder keg of...

It's Andy !It's "Reader Appreciation Month". So we're talking to a reader a day. Get to know The Film Experience community. Today we're talking to Andy Hoglund a '20something living that rock star life'. He writes for The Inclusive

What's your first movie memory?

Andy: When I was 4 my dad took me to a screening of Pinocchio. I know I probably had watched movies before then (Mary Poppins on VHS), but this is my first legitimate memory of going to the movies. Sitting in a darkened theater, fully immersed -- there’s really nothing comparable to it, I’d say.

I was infatuated with the Universal Horror monster movies. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man. I still remember – at 4 – watching AMC’s 2pm Monster movie every Saturday. It is rumored that I have seen Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man over 50 times. I actually once sent Vincent Price a letter when...

Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, The Lion in Winter Martin Poll, best known for producing Anthony Harvey's 1968 Best Picture Oscar nominee The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Peter O'Toole as King Henry II, died of "natural causes" on April 14 according to various online sources. Poll was 89. An Avco Embassy release, The Lion in Winter was considered the favorite for the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars. The film had won the Best Film Award from the New York Film Critics Circle, while Harvey was the year's Directors Guild Award winner. However, Carol Reed's Columbia-distributed musical Oliver! turned out to be the winner in both categories. (Curiously, the previous year another Embassy release, Mike Nichols' The Graduate, unexpectedly lost the Best Picture Oscar to Norman Jewison's United Artists-distributed In the Heat of the Night. But at least Nichols came out victorious.

Veteran movie and TV producer Martin Poll died between Friday night and early Saturday morning of natural causes at a care facility on the Upper Westside in New York City. He was 89. Poll was nominated for an Academy Award as producer for Best Picture of 1968 for The Lion In Winter, which won three Oscars — Best Actress Katharine Hepburn (tied with Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl), Best Original Score for John Barry and Best Adapted Screenplay for James Goldman — out of seven nominations. He began his career in Europe where he served as a co-producer on feature films and produced more than three dozen half-hour episodes of the classic Flash Gordon TV series in Germany and France for international release. After moving to New York City, Poll bought and reopened the famed Biograph Studio and rechristened it Gold Medal Studios. Productions during his time at Gold Medal included Elia Kazan’s A Face In The Crowd,...

It has been a year since Sidney Lumet passed away on April 9, 2011. Here is our retrospective on the legendary filmmaker to honor his memory. Originally published April 15, 2011.

Almost a week after the fact, we, like everyone that loves film, are still mourning the passing of the great American master Sidney Lumet, one of the true titans of cinema.

Lumet was never fancy. He never needed to be, as a master of blocking, economic camera movements and framing that empowered the emotion and or exact punctuation of a particular scene. First and foremost, as you’ve likely heard ad nauseum -- but hell, it’s true -- Lumet was a storyteller, and one that preferred his beloved New York to soundstages (though let's not romanticize it too much, he did his fair share of work on studio film sets too as most TV journeyman and early studio filmmakers did).

His directing career stretched well over 50 years,...

"Cliff Robertson, who starred as John F Kennedy in a 1963 World War II drama and later won an Academy Award for his portrayal of a mentally disabled bakery janitor in the movie Charly, died Saturday, one day after his 88th birthday," reports Dennis McLellan in the Los Angeles Times, adding that Robertson " also played a real-life role as the whistle-blower in the check-forging scandal of then-Columbia Pictures President David Begelman that rocked Hollywood in the late 1970s… In a more than 50-year career in films, Robertson appeared in some 60 movies, including Pt 109, My Six Loves, Sunday in New York, The Best Man, The Devil's Brigade, Three Days of the Condor, Obsession and Star 80. More recently, he played Uncle Ben Parker in the Spider-Man films."

In Charly, "he played a lovable bakery worker with the Iq of a 5-year-old whose intelligence is raised to genius level by an experiment,...

Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, A Streetcar Named Desire Marlon Brando Movies on TCM: The Wild One, Julius Caesar, The Chase Schedule (Et) and synopses from the TCM website: 6:00 Am The Fugitive Kind (1960) A drifter ignites passions among the women of a Mississippi town. Dir: Sidney Lumet. Cast: Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward. Bw-121 mins, Letterbox Format 8:15 Am Julius Caesar (1953) An all-star adaptation of Shakespeare's classic about Julius Caesar's assassination and its aftermath. Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Cast: John Doucette, George Macready, Michael Pate. Bw-121 mins. 10:30 Am The Chase (1966) A convict's escape ignites passions in his hometown. Dir: Arthur Penn. Cast: Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford. C-133 mins, Letterbox Format 1:00 Pm Reflections In A Golden Eye (1967) A military officer becomes obsessed with an enlisted man. Dir: John Huston. Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Brian Keith. C-109 mins, Letterbox Format 3:00 Pm Teahouse Of The...

Marlon Brando is the first star in the 2011 edition of Turner Classic Movies' annual Summer Under the Stars series, which kicks off August 1. [Marlon Brando Movie Schedule.] Unfortunately, none of the 11 scheduled Marlon Brando movies is a TCM premiere; in fact, nearly all of them were shown on Brando Day three years ago. In other words, don't expect The Island of Dr. Moreau, Morituri, A Bedtime Story, Burn!, A Dry White Season, or The Appaloosa. And certainly no frolicking with Maria Schneider in Last Tango in Paris. That's too bad. But then again, those who would like to check out Julius Caesar for the 118th time will be able to do so. And perhaps they won't be sorry, as this great-looking Joseph L. Mankiewicz effort remains one of the best-liked film adaptations of a Shakespeare play. Those not into Shakespeare can take a look at The Fugitive Kind and A Streetcar Named Desire, both from Tennessee Williams' plays.

"Sidney Lumet, a director who preferred the streets of New York to the back lots of Hollywood and whose stories of conscience — 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, The Verdict, Network — became modern American film classics, died Saturday morning at his home in Manhattan. He was 86." Robert Berkvist in the New York Times: "'While the goal of all movies is to entertain,' Mr Lumet once wrote, 'the kind of film in which I believe goes one step further. It compels the spectator to examine one facet or another of his own conscience. It stimulates thought and sets the mental juices flowing.' Social issues set his own mental juices flowing, and his best films not only probed the consequences of prejudice, corruption and betrayal but also celebrated individual acts of courage."

"Nearly all the characters in Lumet's gallery are driven by obsessions or passions that range from the pursuit of justice,...

Only days ago "The Deadly Affair" arrived at my doorstep, yet another of Sidney Lumet's films I had never seen before since having been born two-thirds of the way into the director's legendary career, it's always been a game of catch-up. Then again, it was that way for most in his field, even if they were contemporaries.

After passing away far too soon at the age of 86, Lumet leaves behind a half-century-long career that will no doubt be scrutinized for being inconsistent, a richly ironic assessment given that in person and on film, he was known as a straight shooter, and perhaps one of the only filmmakers who could say their final film ("Before the Devil Knows You're Dead") was as vital and strong as their first ("12 Angry Men"). However, that certainly isn't the only reason why Lumet was a rarity.

In a world full of auteurs, Lumet was a collaborator,...

After establishing himself as a TV director, “12 Angry Men” marked Lumet’s feature debut… “12 Angry Men”? Really??? An AFI 100 ranked film, an Oscar nomination, on his first shot?

Was Lumet that good or that lucky? Really, he was that good, following up that effort with three other Oscar nominated efforts, the Pacino-led “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975), double-digit nominated “Network” (1976) and Paul Newman’s “The Verdict” (1982). While all these films are still relevant, “Network” was a tour de force. Unfortunately, so were a few other all-time classics released that same year, “All the President’s Men,” “Taxi Driver” and Sylvester Stallone’s king-hitting “Rocky.”

Just as significant to Lumet’s career are his non-Oscar’ed films that hold up against the work of any of his contemporaries, including adaptations of Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge,” and Tennessee Williams’ “The Fugitive Kind...

After establishing himself as a TV director, “12 Angry Men” marked Lumet’s feature debut… “12 Angry Men”? Really??? An AFI 100 ranked film, an Oscar nomination, on his first shot?

Was Lumet that good or that lucky? Really, he was that good, following up that effort with three other Oscar nominated efforts, the Pacino-led “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975), double-digit nominated “Network” (1976) and Paul Newman’s “The Verdict” (1982). While all these films are still relevant, “Network” was a tour de force. Unfortunately, so were a few other all-time classics released that same year, “All the President’s Men,” “Taxi Driver” and Sylvester Stallone’s king-hitting “Rocky.”

Just as significant to Lumet’s career are his non-Oscar’ed films that hold up against the work of any of his contemporaries, including adaptations of Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge,” and Tennessee Williams’ “The Fugitive Kind...

Bob Ellis on the Oscar-winning The King’s Speech (available on DVD this month), Biutiful, The Company Men and the passing of Sidney Lumet.

The Oxford scholar Peter Levi had a theory that Shakespeare was popular because he had only one theme. A man or a woman, he said, is given a task to which he or she is unequal, and comedy or tragedy follows. Thus Hamlet, an adequate joshing student, is a poor avenger, Brutus, an adequate stoic philosopher, a poor generalissimo, Othello a fine generalissimo but a dumb older husband of a young white wife, Malvolio a shambolic wooer, Viola a lousy transvestite, and so on.

This theory well fits The King’s Speech and explains its international popularity. We all of us as children have been made to recite, or sing, or perform acrobatics on stage, and have dreaded the anguished humiliation the experiment was bound to bring to us.

Prolific film director with a reputation for exploring social and moral issues

Sidney Lumet, who has died aged 86, achieved critical and commercial success with his first film, 12 Angry Men (1957), which established his credentials as a liberal director who was sympathetic to actors, loved words and worked quickly. For the bulk of his career, he averaged a film a year, earning four Oscar nominations along the way for best director, for 12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976) and The Verdict (1982).

It is arguable that, had he not been so prolific, Lumet's critical reputation would have been greater. Certainly, for every worthwhile film there was a dud, and occasionally a disaster, to match it. But Lumet loved to direct and he was greatly esteemed by the many actors – notably Al Pacino and Sean Connery – with whom he established a lasting rapport.

The majority of his films were shot not in Hollywood, but in and around New York.

Sidney Lumet wrote the book on making movies. Literally. His fascinating and wise 1995 career memoir/handbook Making Movies is unlike any other film book I know. He meticulously takes you through the process in a way even the greatest pros can learn from. It’s a must- reference to have but even greater is the remarkably fine filmography he has left behind. Although his movie career actually stretches back to 1939, Hollywood’s greatest year, when as a teen actor he made his film debut in …One Third of a Nation… , his real beginnings were throughout the 50’s as a leading director in TV’s Golden Age and most significantly in 1957 with his feature directorial debut, 12 Angry Men. This penultimate courtroom drama knocked it out of the park. It “explodes like 12 sticks of dynamite” the ads said and it did establishing Lumet’s gritty New York-based style and winning Oscar nominations...

Sidney Lumet was an impassioned director who received more than 50 Oscar nominations for films including 12 Angry Men and Dog Day Afternoon

Sidney Lumet, who died yesterday at the age of 86, was one of the most significant film directors of his time, a man dedicated to the cinema as an art form and to the pursuit of truth and social justice as a dramatic theme.

He was born in Philadelphia and raised in New York, the son of parents who worked in the Yiddish theatre. He was shaped by his experiences as a child performer and the depression, becoming known for his sympathetic handling of actors, his understanding of people in crisis, his liberal principles and his feeling for the city that was the setting for so much of his work.

Lumet made his Broadway debut at the age of 11 in 1935 in Sidney Kingsley's Dead End, a social-problem play about...

© Paramount / Courtesy: Everett Collection Sidney Lumet in 1983.

In the last scene of Sidney Lumet’s last film, “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” a father and son played by two formidable actors, Albert Finney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, grapple with each other in garish mortal combat that goes beyond Shakespearean into a realm of intensity that’s quintessentially Lumetian. The director, who died this morning at the age of 86, loved actors, loved drama, loved making movies and made a...

Filmmaking legend Sidney Lumet has passed away at the age of 86 from lymphoma. With a career spanning over five decades, Lumet has long been held high as one of the great filmmakers of all time by many of the great filmmakers of our time.

Starting out as a director of off-Broadway productions and then a highly respected TV director, he's one of the most prolific directors ever with a knack for not just working well with actors but shooting extremely quickly which allowed for a high turnover of work.

Throughout the 50's he directed hundred of episodes of television series like "Danger" and "You Are There" along with a similar amount of TV play adaptations for anthology series like "Playhouse 90" and "Studio One". Thus by the time of his first feature film, he was already extremely experienced behind the camera.

That first film also became arguably his signature work - "12 Angry Men". The 1957 drama,...

Sidney Lumet, the gifted director of crime and punishment morality tales set in New York, died earlier today of Lymphona. He was 86 years old. Out of the legends we’ve lost these past four weeks (of which have been all too frequent), for me personally this is the hardest to swallow. He was a director I felt connected with, whose movies I shared a bond with, and I can’t believe I won’t get to see him make another.

Most directors get worse with age, even those who dominated the film scene at their peak but it never really happened with Sidney Lumet. Ok – so there was a bit of downtime in the 90′s but unlike John Carpenter or many other former greats, he picked it back up in the 00′s and finished his career on a high. He was a rarity in the business that he never suffered...

Michael C. here from Serious Film to join in the Tennessee Williams festivities. When I picked a film to write about I jumped at The Fugitive Kind because

A) I'm a big Sidney Lumet fan and

B) I was curious how a second Brando/Williams collaboration could fly so far below my radar. I got my answer and then some.

The Fugitive Kind (1960) directed by Sidney Lumet based on Tennessee Williams’ play Orpheus Descending is one of the most fascinating messes I’ve ever seen. There is no getting around the fact that it just doesn’t work, yet I think I’d recommend it more readily than a lot of successful movies I’ve seen. Of all its flaws being dull is not one of them.

Williams writing was as inescapable in the fifties as Jane Austen’s was in the nineties. After burning through his major works Hollywood...

Starting Monday... it's Tennessee Williams Week! The great American playwright's centennial is on March 26th and since his stage work has had such crucial impact on the big screen especially for actors, since Nicole Kidman and James Franco will soon attempt to revive Sweet Bird of Youth on Broadway, and since his writing has influenced other legendary writers or filmmakers like John Waters, Edward Albee, Tony Kushner and Pedro Almodóvar, why not a whole week?

For those of you who haven't seen any of the movies based on his work, why not rent a couple? On Wednesday night we'll celebrate A Streetcar Named Desire with "hit me with your best shot" but other films we hope to touch on include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Fugitive Kind, The Rose Tattoo, Baby Doll, Suddenly Last Summer, Sweet Bird of Youth and Night of the Iguana. If you have a blog,...

Criterion's December release announcement is brief, but sweet. David Cronenberg's Videodrome is coming to Blu-Ray while Guillermo Del Toro's Cronos will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray. 

 

The Videodrome Blu-Ray seems to be sourced from same master as the 2004 Criterion DVD.  Extras are largely same. Cronos is newly restored and packed with extras, including a previously unreleased short film called Geometria. Check the links in the calendar for full specifications.

Finally, as mentioned in the last Criterion Column, the DVD release of the America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story comes out on December 14th. The Blu-Ray will be released on November 23rd.

 

The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (January through December 2010, up-to-date as of September 16, 2010)

 

December 2010

 

David Cronenberg, Videodrome, Bd, 12/7/2010, Us & Canada

Guillermo del Toro, Cronos, 2-disc DVD & Bd, 12/7/2010, Us & Canada

 

November 2010

 

Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times, 2-dsc DVD & Bd, 11/16/10, Us & Canada

Charles Laughton, Night Of The Hunter, 2-disc DVD & 2-disc Bd,...

In November, The Criterion Collection is set to release an eclectic mix of American classics with a bit of European transgression thrown in. A newly restored version of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times is planned for DVD and Blu-Ray. Charles Laughton's stunning black-and-white noir/horror tale Night of the Hunter (1955) is also on the schedule for DVD and Blu-Ray. Lars Von Trier's Antichrist will invade home video players everywhere.

Those are great releases, but highlight of the November list is the America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story box set, which features 6 films from Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider's production company Bbs during the 60s-70s.  Titles include: Head, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Drive He Said, The Last Picture Show, and The King Of Marvin Gardens. Think about the scope of this release for a second. This is six films by Dennis Hopper, Henry Jaglom, Jack Nicholson Bob Rafelson,...

One of the more interesting ongoing stories in the world of film, is the struggle financially of the home of The Hobbit and the Bond franchise, MGM.

The financial trouble that the mighty lion has found itself is well documented, but with each new day, apparently a new detail comes up. The most recent point in the story finds Spyglass Entertainment in the last stages of negotiations to become the partner of MGM, as well as part-owner.

That leads us to the next question: why Spyglass?

According to THR, major debtholders are pushing for the deal, because apparently, the style of deal would mark a much longer play, leading to support being gained by the hedge funds holding much of the studio’s debt. Lionsgate, the company’s other finalist, would be the polar opposite.

While this story is the epitome of inside baseball, this does hopefully mark a step forward for the company.

The October 2010 batch of Criterion titles brings a few surprises. Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory is hitting DVD and Blu-Ray as is Ingmar Bergman's film The Magician. Criterion continues its relationship with Wes Anderson by releasing The Darjeeling Limited on Blu-Ray and DVD. Ok.

Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai is headed for Blu-Ray with a new restored high-def transfer. If the quality of Criterion's other Kurosawa Blu-Ray discs (e.g. Kagemusha, Sanjuro and Yojimbo) are any indication, it is time to ditch the DVDs. This one should look spectacular.

Finally, Nobuhiko Obayashi's House is making its way to Blu-Ray and DVD just in time for Halloween. There are a few things to note here. First, the fact that Criterion is releasing this on Blu-Ray with a restored transfer and uncompressed mono sound is kind of a surprise. This is a very good thing. The other curious thing is the extras.

The Fugitive Kind (Michael Page, Artistic Director, Laura Caufield & Susan Molloy, Producers), in association with the Barrow Street Theatre, Burton T. Frey Jr., and Heather Levine, will present a new solo show, Gay Blues, by Matthew Cleaver for three performances only: July 2nd & 3rd at 10:00 p.m. and July 5th at 7:30 p.m. at the Barrow Street Theatre (27 Barrow Street)...

Chicago – One of the most recent inductees into the most esteemed collection in the history of DVD is one of the most star-powered dramas of the ’60s with four Oscar-winning actors in Maureen Stapleton, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, and Marlon Brando, working in collaboration with a script co-written by Tennesse Williams and directed by Sidney Lumet. That “The Fugitive Kind” doesn’t quite live up to that incredible pedigree shouldn’t be too surprising, but it’s still a good addition for classic film collectors.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

Wannabe film historians who have understandably become enraptured with the best of Sidney Lumet (“12 Angry Men,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “The Verdict,” many more) and theatre-driven film buffs who know masterpieces like “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” by heart should be warned that expectations for “The Fugitive Kind” must be tempered. I went in to the film expecting to find a lost classic,...

The Fugitive Kind (1960)

The Criterion Collection

Ah, the jawline among jawlines, the mandible of the gods! Take a good look at Marlon Brando in this star-packed, Tennessee Williams banquet of psychodrama, in 1960, at the height of his hunkiness, and tell me that the shape of his head, particularly his jaw line, wasn't substantially responsible for his magnetic allure. Sure, Brando was a genius, if there are too few movies in his filmography to really bear that judgment out, but he was also a nova of iconic sex appeal, and I'm guessing, not being a woman, that his uniquely robust, rock-solid-yet-gently-curved jawbone was the main attraction, more than the mumbling or shrouded eyes or even the muscly shoulders. Certainly more than the acting. Brando's jaw is one of those things you respond to without necessarily seeing it, like Charlize Theron's collarbone -- look next time.

After last week's Avatar feeding frenzy, there aren't too many high-profile releases hitting stores this week, but the good news is there are a handful of limited release films that have finally found their way to DVD and Blu-ray. It's Complicated starring Alec Baldwin and Meryl Streep is the one mainstream title out today, but beyond that we've got Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the sequel to Pierre Morel's French parkour action flick District B13: Ultimatum, and Oliver Hirschbiegel's Five Minutes of Heaven, plus The Descent: Part 2 and the horror spoof Transylmania. Blu-ray releases include Traffic, Armageddon, Dune and a Criterion edition of Ang Lee's Ride with the Devil, while TV on DVD picks include the first two seasons of the updated post-apocalyptic BBC series Survivors. See anything worth buying or renting? It's Complicated [1] (+ Blu-ray [2]) The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus [3] (+ Blu-ray [4]) The Descent: Part 2...

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The Fugitive Kind (Criterion Collection) My review of this one was rather long, but it's only because I hoped to convince as many of you as I can to buy it. This adaptation of Tennessee Williams's "Orpheus Descending" is fantastic, and a film that sets the mood in such a way there will be no question when you'll want to return to it, the moment will simply call for it and it will deliver. Ride with the Devil (Criterion Collection) Now this one, however, is a different story. It's difficult to nail down the target audience for Ang Lee's 1999 under-achiever (putting it lightly), but this new director's cut is likely to enthuse some and bore others. Give my review a read and hopefully it will help you decide exactly which camp you fall in. Out of Africa, Traffic...