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Laura Dern is probably not contributing to the UCLA alumni fund anytime soon.

On a recent visit to Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson’s podcast “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” (cue the “I understood that reference” Gif), the Oscar-winning actress remembered back to her school days, when she was advised not to participate in making David Lynch’s 1986 film “Blue Velvet.” The faculty didn’t just tell her she’d be dismissed due to the absence, but she was actually insulted for considering it a worthwhile project.

The then-17-year-old, who had already been working in films like “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains,” Peter Bogdanovich’s “Mask,” and the American Playhouse production “Smooth Talk,” was a student at UCLA for “two days,” she said, when she was offered the role for the new Lynch film, a filmmaker she revered for “The Elephant Man.”

The head of the film department...

Laura Dern has been delivering phenomenal performances that have left audiences spellbound since the mid-1980s. Like a hat trick that astonished spectators, the actress kicked off her magical journey with some acclaimed hits—Mask, Smooth Talk, and David Lync’s Blue Velvet. The latter not only set the stage but also turned it into a stepping stone for a career steeped in praise.

Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan in Blue Velvet | De Laurentiis Entertainment Group

Born to esteemed actors Diane Ladd and Bruce Dern, one might say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, yet it was her pure determination and fearlessness in stepping out of her comfort zone that truly shaped her journey.

Dern, now 57, added a feather to her cap by sharing a pivotal moment in her life on the podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name. She fondly remembered the crossroads she faced at the...

Laura Dern gave up her college education for David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. The actress recalled this week that the University of California, Los Angeles, refused to grant her a leave of absence to film the movie, meaning she left for the project and never returned.

“I was 17, so excited to get into UCLA,” Dern said on Wednesday’s installment of Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson’s podcast, Where Everybody Knows Your Name. “I was there for two days, and I had auditioned and got offered the role in Blue Velvet.”

Dern said she was “ecstatic” at the opportunity, especially given her affinity for writer-director Lynch, but the school refused to grant her a leave of absence “for any reason.”

The Big Little Lies star said she tried will all her might to change the school’s mind. “I will write papers. I’ll come back and, double up classes,...

The Sundance Film Festival is regarded as one of the most prestigious independent film festivals, where filmmakers have been premiering their movies and documentaries since 1984.

The festival was founded in 1978 by Sterling Van Wagenen, the head of Robert Redford’s company Wildwood, and John Earle of the Utah Film Commission under the name Utah/US Film Festival to attract more filmmakers to Utah.

Redford founded the Sundance Institute in 1981 to foster independence, risk-taking, and new voices in American film. That year, 10 emerging filmmakers were invited to the Sundance Resort in the mountains of Utah, where they worked with leading writers, directors and actors to develop their original independent projects.

By 1984, the festival had established itself and was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival after Redford’s character in his 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. That year, the Grand Jury Prize in Dramatics was awarded to Old Enough, an...

For four decades, Sundance has maintained a reputation as one of the most important film festivals in America for independent filmmakers from around the globe. To commemorate its 40th anniversary in 2024 and the enormity (and reciprocity) of that cultural footprint, festival leadership set a series of restoration screenings to highlight many of the most memorable films programmed throughout its history.

“When you look at the way the independent film movement has evolved and changed over the years, from the maturation of an industry and the opportunities that artists have found, to the way that an audience has been built around the work, you see a festival that has evolved alongside it,” says John Nein, senior programmer and director of strategic initiatives.

This year’s festival takes place Jan. 18-28, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, with a selection of titles available online nationwide from Jan. 25-28. The...

Colleagues, friends and fans are remembering Treat Williams, the versatile and prolific actor who died in a motorcycle crash today at 71. Have a look at a sampling of reaction posted on social media below.

The actor from Rowayton, Ct, amassed more than 125 film and TV credits during a career that spanned nearly half a century. He was the widowed brain surgeon who moves his kids from Manhattan to small-town Colorado on the WB’s 2002-06 drama Everwood. He recurred as the ex-firefighter dad of Kelly and Katie Severeid on Chicago Fire, starred opposite Shelley Long in the 1993-94 CBS sitcom Good Advice and guested or did arcs on dozens of series including Law & Order: Svu, White Collar, Hawaii Five-o, Leverage and The Simpsons.

Related: Emily VanCamp Pays Tribute To ‘Everwood’ Co-Star Treat Williams

More recently he was a series regular for the full six-season run of Hallmark Channel’s Chesapeake Shores.

Everwood and Chesapeake Shore actor Treat Williams is well-known for his long career on Broadway and in movies and TV shows. Sadly, Williams died on June 12, 2023, in a motorcycle accident in his home state of Vermont. He leaves behind a legacy that brought him great wealth during his lifetime. Here’s Treat Williams’ net worth at the time of his death.

What was Treat Williams’ net worth when he died?

Treat Williams’ net worth at the time of his death was reportedly $8 million. He has over 130 acting credits to his name and acted for several decades before his death.

Williams grew up in Rowayton, Connecticut, and he described his childhood as “idyllic.” His mother worked as an antique dealer, and his father, a WWII veteran, worked for the Merck Chemical Corporation.

“My mother had a little sailing and swimming school,” Williams told Vermont Magazine. “I taught at her school, and...

Treat Williams, a veteran screen actor who received acclaim for his lead performance in the musical “Hair” and starred in The WB series “Everwood,” died Monday afternoon after being involved in a motorcycle accident near Dorset, Vt. He was 71.

Williams’ death was confirmed by a statement by his family, released by his agency APA. Vermont State Police reported a road closure near Dorset due to a motor vehicle accident at 5:24 p.m. He was transferred to Albany Medical Center in Albany, N.Y.

“It is with great sadness that we report that our beloved Treat Williams has passed away tonight in Dorset, Vt. after a fatal motorcycle accident,” reads the statement. “As you can imagine, we are shocked and greatly bereaved at this time. Treat was full of love for his family, for his life and for his craft, and was truly at the top of his game in all of it.

Treat Williams, a prolific American actor whose career spanned nearly 50 years, died Monday of injuries sustained when he was struck by a car while riding his motorcycle. He was 71.

“It is with great sadness that we report that our beloved Treat Williams has passed away tonight in Dorset, Vermont after a fatal motorcycle accident. As you can imagine, we are shocked and greatly bereaved at this time. Treat was full of love for his family, for his life and for his craft, and was truly at the top of his game in all of it,” Williams’ family said in a statement.

“It is all so shocking right now, but please know that Treat was dearly and deeply loved and respected by his family and everyone who knew him. We are beyond devastated and ask that you respect our privacy as we deal with our grief. To all his fans, please...

Treat Williams, the versatile actor who starred as a New York City neurosurgeon who moves his family to Colorado on the WB series Everwood and in such films as Sidney Lumet’s Prince of the City and Milos Forman‘s Hair, died Monday in a motorcycle accident in Vermont. He was 71.

His agent, Barry McPherson of APA, confirmed Williams’ death in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

Williams, of Manchester Center, Vermont, was aboard a motorcycle and wearing a helmet when he collided with a car on Route 30 near Dorset, the Vermont State Police said in a statement.

An initial investigation indicated that the driver of the car “stopped, signaled a left turn and then turned into the path of a northbound 1986 Honda VT700c motorcycle operated by Williams. Williams was unable to avoid a collision and was thrown from his motorcycle. He suffered critical injuries and was airlifted to Albany Medical Center in Albany,...

Stalked By My Doctor.Recently I was flipping through the seasonal calendar at a Boston-area repertory cinema, and a program dedicated to the enterprising feminist filmmaker Joyce Chopra caught my eye. I wondered how Chopra’s six-decade career, spanning everything from short-form documentaries and TV movies to Sundance-winning features and stage plays televised for PBS, would be condensed into a curated selection of screenings. In fact it would only be two: Smooth Talk (1985), one of Chopra’s two theatrically-released features, and Joyce at 34 (1972), a short documentary that she co-directed with Claudia Weill early in her career.I’m not ignorant of the creative merits or historical importance of these films, nor the rights/access issues resolved by Criterion’s recent physical release of a 4K restoration of Smooth Talk, which includes Joyce at 34 as a special feature. But as I look at rep theater programs across the country and see...

Chopra editing with daughter Sarah on her lap.I asked Joyce Chopra about the title of her recently published memoir, Lady Director, during a Zoom interview earlier this year.She laughed. “When I was doing television movies, they’d say, ‘Well, get a woman director,’ because it’s about emotion,” she told me. We then discussed the inherent awkwardness of saying “woman director”—or is it “female director”? “Man director” just sounds weird, and “male director”…well, who would ever say that? After all, isn’t it implied? Chopra’s memoir—a brisk but lively read, spanning a long life and prodigious career, published in November 2022 by City Lights Publishers—provides firsthand insight into the inherently precarious situation of being a woman in a man’s world, from a genuine, if woefully under-recognized, trailblazer of the artform. Her films explore a range of seemingly disparate subjects, but nevertheless evince a distinct,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSNo Bears.Jafar Panahi was released on bail last Friday, two days after starting a hunger strike to protest his seven-month imprisonment. “His next fight is to have the cancellation of his sentence officially recognized,” said Michèle Halberstadt, his French distributor. “He’s outside, he’s free, and this is already great.”Recommended VIEWINGPersonal Problems.Maya Cade of the Black Film Archive has chosen 28 films for the 28 days of Black History Month in the US and compiled online streaming links for each. The lineup includes films by Saundra Sharp, Bill Gunn, and many others.Filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun (We're All Going to the World's Fair)'s A Self-Induced Hallucination, their archival documentary about the Slenderman, is available for free on Vimeo. For more on the project,...

With the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in full swing, and our own Chris Bumbray covering the event, we wanted to know what film is your favorite of Sundance’s top prize: The Grand Jury Prize- Dramatic. From the very first winner (Old Enough) in 1984 to the most recent winner (Nanny) in 2022, let us know your favorite. If you’ve been to Sundance, please share your experience(s) in the comments section.

Favorite Sundance Grand Jury Prize WinnerNanny (2022)Coda (2021)Minari (2020)Clemency (2019)The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)The Birth of a Nation (2016)Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)Whiplash (2014)Fruitvale Station (2013)Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)Like Crazy (2011)Winter's Bone (2010)Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire (2009)Frozen River (2008)Padre Nuestro (2007)Quinceañera (2006)Forty Shades of Blue (2005)Primer (2004)American Splendor (2003)Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (2002)The Believer (2001)Girlfight (2000)You Can Count on Me (2000)Three...

A humdrum thriller that clumsily digs into themes of sexual and emotional trauma, Amy Redford’s sophomore feature “What Comes Around” follows Anna (Grace Van Dien), an archetypal perceptive teenage girl on the cusp of maturity. Because she’s the observant kind who yearns for big ideas and possibilities outside of her small suburban world, it’s no surprise that it isn’t a square teenage boy from her school that romantically sweeps Anna off her feet, but a man of nearly 30 years of age she’s met online.

He’s the creepily mysterious Eric, someone who ignites Anna’s all-consuming emotions, shares her love of Emily Dickinson and notices (at least on the surface) the complexities of this young girl who wants to cross over to adulthood fast. But when he shows up at Anna’s doorstep uninvited all too abruptly after traveling hundreds of miles, he rattles the disturbed Anna,...

Another month, another Criterion Channel lineup. In accordance with Black History Month their selections are especially refreshing: seven by Melvin Van Peebles, five from Kevin Jerome Everson, and Criterion editions of The Harder They Come and The Learning Tree.

Regarding individual features I’m quite happy to see Abderrahmane Sissako’s fantastic Bamako, last year’s big Sundance winner (and Kosovo’s Oscar entry) Hive, and the remarkably beautiful Portuguese feature The Metamorphosis of Birds. Add a three-film Laura Dern collection (including the recently canonized Smooth Talk) and Pasolini’s rarely shown documentary Love Meetings to make this a fine smorgasboard.

See the full list of February titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

Alan & Naomi, Sterling Van Wagenen, 1992

All That Heaven Allows, Douglas Sirk, 1955

The Angel Levine, Ján Kadár, 1970

Babylon, Franco Rosso, 1980

Babymother, Julian Henriques, 1998

Bamako, Abderrahmane Sissako, 2006

Beat Street, Stan Lathan, 1984

Blacks Britannica, David Koff, 1978

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,...

This is an excerpt from Melissa Anderson’s Inland Empire, available to order from Fireflies Press.Like the Avenging Angel – the Nikki/Susan avatar who delivers a long soliloquy teeming with tales of imperilment – I often don’t know what was before or after in Inland Empire no matter how many times I’ve watched it. Recursive episodes proliferate in the film. At least three times Nikki/Susan dissociates, looking at another version of herself from another vantage point. At one point the Avenging Angel enters an empty movie palace, here a de facto hall of mirrors: she sees herself onscreen saying, ‘Watchin’ it, like in a dark theatre.’ That nearly vacant cinema instantly recalls Mulholland Drive’s Club Silencio, the mystical cabaret that Betty and Rita, desire-drunk after having sex, cab to in the middle of the night – and where their love story, if not their very identities, begins to unravel.

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By Todd Garbarini

Some of the best literary achievements and their respective motion picture counterparts had their genesis in real-life. Robert Bloch made the grave-robber and necrophiliac Ed Gein into the motel manager Norman Bates in Psycho (1960); William Peter Blatty took the ostensibly possessed boy in Cottage City, MD and gave him the identity of Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist (1973); and Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek breathed celluloid life into Kit and Holly respectively in Badlands (1973), based upon Waste Land: The Savage Odyssey of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate. Smooth Talk, Joyce Chopra’s brilliant 1985 film adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’s equally excellent 1966 short story “Where Have You Been, Where Are You Going?", is no exception. While it may seem odd to begin this review of what is on the surface, and for all intents and purposes, a story of a teen-age girl’s sexual awakening,...

After a hiatus as theaters in New York City and beyond closed their doors during the pandemic, we’re delighted to announce the return of NYC Weekend Watch, our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. While many theaters are still focused on a selection of new releases, there’s a handful of worthwhile repertory screenings taking place.

Cinema Village

“Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village,” a nine-title selection of films both from and beloved by the great director, is underway with tickets running only $5. Read our interview with Ferrara here.

Film at Lincoln Center

The restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk continues, while Hou Hsiao-hsien’s masterpiece Flowers of Shanghai and Muhammad Ali, the Greatest screen.

Museum of the Moving Image

Prints of Full Metal Jacket and The Shining have showings, while 2001 plays on Dcp; non-Kubrick screenings include Beau Travail and The Right Stuff.

Film Forum

Le Cercle Rouge La Piscine,...

After a hiatus as theaters in New York City and beyond closed their doors during the pandemic, we’re delighted to announce the return of NYC Weekend Watch, our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. While many theaters are still focused on a selection of new releases, there’s a handful of worthwhile repertory screenings taking place.

Film Forum

Le Cercle Rouge has been given a new 4K restoration, while La Piscine and 8½ continue.

Film at Lincoln Center

As the new restoration of In the Mood for Love continues playing daily, Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk begins a week-long run.

Museum of the Moving Image

“See It Big” has a major weekend with Daughters of the Dust, Beau Travail, The Piano, and Do the Right Thing; meanwhile, 2001 plays on 70mm this Friday.

IFC Center

The restoration of Lizzie Borden’s Working Girls continues.

Roxy Cinema

Prints of John Waters’ Polyester and...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSFilmmaker Bertrand Mandico has illustrated the 70th anniversary cover of Cahier du Cinéma, entitled "Gloria, angel of the history of the cinema." The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center have announced the lineup for the 50th edition of New Directors/New Films. Screenings will take place from April 28-May 8 through the MoMA and Flc virtual cinemas, and in-person screenings at Flc through May 13. The lineup of 27 features and 11 shorts includes Theo Anthony's All Light, Everywhere, Andreas Fontana's Azor, Alice Diop's We (Nous), and Jane Schoenbrun's We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Recommended VIEWINGAnother Gaze's free streaming project, Another Screen, has announced two new programmes: Hands Tied, about hands, and Eating the Other, about gendered notions of eating. The first official trailer for Mamoru Hosoda's Belle, which...

Despite the proliferation of streaming services, it’s becoming increasingly clear that any cinephile only needs subscriptions to a few to survive. Among the top of our list are The Criterion Channel and Mubi and now they’ve each unveiled their stellar April line-ups.

Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.

At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...

Joyce Chopra's Smooth Talk has always stood out among teenage-girl-coming-of-age films for several reasons. It was the filmmaker's fiction narrative debut after a successful career in documentary film; it was Laura Dern's first major leading role; and - though perhaps this is hindsight talking - it's one of the few films from this era in which a woman's perspective on those important formative years, and how girls learn about the predatory nature of men, takes centre stage. Based on the short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, tt's deceptively complex in presentation and layers of narrative, and long overdue for the Criterion treatment. Winner of the Grand Jury prize at Sundance, it tells the story of a fateful...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

It was the Grand Jury Prize winner of the Sundance Film Festival in its year. It launched the storied career of Laura Dern in earnest. And it opened in theaters alongside largely favorable reviews. But Joyce Chopra’s elusive, heartbreaking, and even terrifying female-centric coming-of-age movie “Smooth Talk” (1985) didn’t exactly stay top of mind as one of the prime examples of movies about teenage angst, at least not when compared to something like “Dazed and Confused” or the films of John Hughes.

Continue reading Director Joyce Chopra On The ‘Smooth Talk’ Restoration, Casting Laura Dern & The Film’s Timely Story [Interview] at The Playlist.

Director Budd Boetticher made dozens of movies ranging from romantic comedies and noirs to science fiction and prison pictures, but he’s long been known primarily for the seven Westerns he made with Randolph Scott between 1956 and 1960. While those films are all terrific and worthy of the praise bestowed upon them by the likes of Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese, and Quentin Tarantino, their canonization has kept many other worthwhile Boetticher works from discovery. I’ve always been partial to the movies he made as a contract director at Universal in 1952 and 1953, a period during which he made a […]

The post Wings of the Hawk, The Parallax View, Smooth Talk: Jim Hemphill's Home Video Recommendations first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Director Budd Boetticher made dozens of movies ranging from romantic comedies and noirs to science fiction and prison pictures, but he’s long been known primarily for the seven Westerns he made with Randolph Scott between 1956 and 1960. While those films are all terrific and worthy of the praise bestowed upon them by the likes of Paul Schrader, Martin Scorsese, and Quentin Tarantino, their canonization has kept many other worthwhile Boetticher works from discovery. I’ve always been partial to the movies he made as a contract director at Universal in 1952 and 1953, a period during which he made a […]

The post Wings of the Hawk, The Parallax View, Smooth Talk: Jim Hemphill's Home Video Recommendations first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

6 random things that happened on this day, January 17th, in showbiz history...

1976 "I Write the Songs" by Barry Manilow hits #1. Do you know any 'Fanilows'?

1986 The 3rd Sundance Film Festival kicks off. The Laura Dern led Smooth Talk wins the Grand Jury Prize in the dramatic competition prize, but two queer classics Desert Hearts and Parting Glances, also received jury recognition. Also on this day The Clan of the Cave Bear opened in movie theaters starring Daryl Hannah. I remember it vividly because the poster was cool (Oscar-nominated makeup!) and my mom was reading the best-seller it was based on but wouldn't go to see it because it was rated R...

Michel Delahaye and Ingrid Bourgoin in Marie-Claude Treilhou’s Simone Barbès Or Virtue

At the New York Film Festival in 2020, there were a number of terrific free talks, including Gianfranco Rosi on Notturno (Italy’s Oscar submission); Christian Petzold with Heinz Emigholz (The Last City and The Lobby with John Erdman); Steve McQueen with Small Axe cinematographer Shabier Kirchner and his Lovers Rock (Opening Night Gala selection) cast Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn and Micheal Ward; Laura Dern, Joyce Chopra, and Joyce Carol Oates on Smooth Talk (Revivals selection); Chloé Zhao with Nomadland (Centerpiece selection) producer Peter Spears; Dea Kulumbegashvili on Beginning, and Michelle Pfeiffer, Lucas Hedges and Azazel Jacobs on French Exit (Closing Night selection).

Serge Bozon discussed Simone Barbès Or Virtue with Marie-Claude Treilhou Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Serge Bozon (director of Madame Hyde,...

Another month begins, another announcement from the Criterion Collection, with all the wares they’ll be hocking in the new year. The company has released thousands of classic films over the years, but even deep into their massive collection, still find more masterpieces to add. Their February line-up is lead by a masterpiece of ’70s paranoia, Alan J. Pakula‘s thriller, “The Parallax View,” starring Warren Beatty and shot by one of the greatest cinematographers of all time, Gordon Willis.

Continue reading Criterion Adds ‘The Parallax View,’ ‘Smooth Talk’ & 2 Ramin Bahrani Films For February at The Playlist.

The Criterion Collection continues 2021 with a recently rediscovered classic, an established tenet of the conspiracy genre, a horribly underrepresented African filmmaker (evergreen), and two by Ramin Bahrani. Respectfully, those are: Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk; Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View; Ousmane Sembène’s Mandabi; as well as Bahrani’s Chop Shop and Man Push Cart.

Check out the cover art and special features below, and see more on Criterion’s website.

New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Joyce Chopra, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-rayConversation among Chopra, author Joyce Carol Oates, and actor Laura Dern from the 2020 New York Film Festival, moderated by TCM host Alicia MaloneNew interview with ChopraNew interview with production designer David WascoKPFK Pacifica Radio interview with Chopra from 1985Joyce at 34 (1972), Girls at 12 (1975), and Clorae and Albie (1976), three short films by ChopraAudio reading of the 1966 Life magazine article “The Pied Piper of Tucson,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe prolific, captivating Sean Connery has died. As critic Glenn Kenny writes in his obituary for Decider, Connery will always be "tied to the role of James Bond, [but] so many of Connery’s non-Bond roles were [...] fascinating, challenging, and cinematically important." Recommended VIEWINGGrasshopper Films' official trailer for the new 4k digital restoration of Manoel de Oliveira's 1981 Francisca, an adaptation of Agustina Bessa-Luís’ acclaimed novel. Oscilloscope has released the first trailer for The Twentieth Century, Matthew Rankine's dark comedy-drama that reimagines the life of former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. The film won the Fipresci prize in the Forum section of the 2019 Berlinale. The Asian Film Archive has announced Monographs 2020, a series of video essays commissioned and conceived during lockdown. Featuring a wide range of filmmakers, the series aims to offer "an...

Over 70,000 people attended the 2020 New York Film Festival, which was among the most attended ever for the festival in its 58th year, Film at Lincoln Center announced Monday.

That record number includes people who rented movies and watched screenings virtually, as well as virtual talks with filmmakers and talent, and those who came to drive-in screenings held across New York City’s five boroughs.

Film at Lincoln Center estimates that even going virtual, NYFF saw an increase of 9.15% on attendance from 2019 and reached audiences in all 50 states over the festival’s 25 days earlier this fall.

Virtual screenings in particular proved to be a big hit, with NYFF recording 40,000 rentals in all, including rentals in Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. As for the drive-in screenings, the festival estimates that approximately 8,300 people attended 33 different drive-in screenings that were held in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.

The...

Despite the hardships Covid-19 has brought upon the festival circuit, the New York Film Festival reports a historic level of attendance for its 58th edition this year. Part virtual, part drive-in experience, NYFF 2020 pulled in more than 70,000 viewers across all 50 states. The festival’s revised format earlier this fall, running longer than usual from September 17 through October 11, averaged 1.5 home viewers per virtual film rental and 2.5 attendees per drive-in ticket. According to festival presenter Film at Lincoln Center, attendance was up by 9.15% compared to 2019.

Kicking off with drive-in screenings hosting the world premiere of Steve McQueen’s “Lovers Rock,” one part of the Oscar-winning director’s five-film series “Small Axe” for Amazon Studios, NYFF overall screened 94 films from six continents and 40 countries virtually. Screenings were available nationwide for the first time in the festival’s history, and audiences responded enthusiastically — nearly 40,000 film rentals were purchased in all 50 states as well as Washington D.

One of the great, perhaps overlooked movies of the ’80s, Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk is poised to be rediscovered with a new 4K restoration. Starring Laura Dern––in one of her earliest, most impressive roles––Smooth Talk is based on a Joyce Carol Oates short story about a young girl who comes into the orbit of a mysterious, dangerous older man (Treat Williams). As Dern’s Connie becomes more and more entangled with this strange man, Smooth Talk becomes an unforgettable commentary on sexual politics and a young woman’s coming of age.

Co-starring Mary Kay Place, Margaret Welsh, and Levon Helm, while Smooth Talk opened to critical acclaim at the time (it won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival), it also feels perfect for rediscovery today for its uncompromising exploration of female sexuality and the career ascendency of Laura Dern. Get a preview of the 4K restoration by Janus Films,...

Teenagers love to rebel. When your parents want you home by a certain time, you stay out later. When they want you to dress a certain way, you do the opposite. And for 15-year-old Connie in “Smooth Talk,” that seemingly innocent rebellion takes a dark turn.

Read More: ‘Smooth Talk’ & The Dark Side Of Attraction: Unpacking Female Perspectives In The Laura Dern-Starring Overlooked ’85 Classic [NYFF]

Debuting in 1985, “Smooth Talk” would go on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and would help a young Laura Dern, a year before “Blue Velvet,” breakthrough in the lead role as a teen girl looking to explore her sexuality and independence.

Continue reading ‘Smooth Talk’ Exclusive Trailer: Award-Winning Coming-Of-Age Drama Starring Laura Dern Gets The 4K Treatment at The Playlist.

As Hollywood tries to balance the enormous gender disparity among directors, many critics and audiences are looking back with added respect on past works of female filmmakers, trying to reframe traditional notions of film history by focusing on different perspectives. One film that perfectly encapsulates the difference a female perspective can make is 1985’s “Smooth Talk,” whose new restoration is being celebrated among the revivals of the 58th New York Film Festival.

Continue reading ‘Smooth Talk’ & The Dark Side Of Attraction: Unpacking Female Perspectives In The Laura Dern-Starring Overlooked ’85 Classic [NYFF] at The Playlist.

Joyce Carol Oates on Smooth Talk: “Our species is so impressionable, we’re very vulnerable to any kind of mesmerising person …”

Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, starring Laura Dern with Treat Williams, Mary Kay Place (Diane in Kent Jones’s award-winning début feature Diane), Levon Helm, Elizabeth Berridge, Margaret Welsh, Sara Inglis, and Geoff Hoyle, is a highlight in the Revivals programme of the 58th New York Film Festival. The screenplay by Tom Cole is based on Joyce Carol Oates’ short story, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Dern’s Connie, a giggly 16-year old when out at the beach or the mall with her girlfriends Laura (Margaret Welsh) and Jill (Sara Inglis), is more sombre and a different kind of unruly at home with her parents and well-behaved sister June (Elizabeth Berridge).

Joyce Carol Oates: “I think also the movie is a brilliant, poetic work of...

Sean Donovan looks at two films from NYFF's "Revivals" section...

The major film festivals of the world, New York included, take as much responsibility for cinema’s past as its future. Alongside new hyped arthouse projects, festivals program curios from the past that may have fallen through the cracks or not received their due recognition in their day. In other instances, festivals re-deploy older films to the contemporary moment in an act of deliberate commentary, the film speaking to culture in a way that feels freshly vital for 2020 (that is certainly the case of one of the selections profiled here). Over the past weekend, New York Film Fest virtual cinema uploaded two of their revival selections, Joyce Chopra’s Sundance-winning drama Smooth Talk (1985) and a Blaxploitation cult film The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973). Both are canny, fascinating picks from the NYFF, and well worth the revisit in 2020...

Joyce Chopra and Joyce Carol Oates will discuss Smooth Talk Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Film at Lincoln Center has announced that directors Garrett Bradley (Time); Ephraim Asili (The Inheritance); Valeria Sarmiento (The Tango Of The Widower And Its Distorting Mirror); Nicolás Pereda (Fauna); John Gianvito (Her Socialist Smile); Matías Piñeiro (Isabella); Gianfranco Rosi (Notturno) Heinz Emigholz; Filip Jan Rymsza and Bob Murawski; Tsai Ming-liang (Days), Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI); John Gianvito (Her Socialist Smile), and Christian Petzold (Undine) will participate in Free Talks during the 58th New York Film Festival. In addition, Marie-Claude Treilhou talks with Serge Bozon on Simone Barbes or Virtue; Steve McQueen speaks about The Making of Small Axe, and Joyce Chopra and Joyce Carol Oates will discuss Smooth Talk.

Marie-Claude Treilhou talks with Serge Bozon on Simone Barbes or Virtue Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

“Several roundtable discussions highlight thematic trends within this year’s program: Outside the Canon,...

As the New York Film Festival readies to roll out its 58th edition tomorrow (and running through October 11), IndieWire is pleased to share an exclusive look at the many festival-sponsored Talks which will roll out during this year’s event. HBO serves as the presenting sponsor of Talks, which supplement NYFF’s screenings with a series of free and live panel discussions and in-depth conversations with a wide range of guests.

As announced by festival brass earlier this summer, this year’s NYFF is going to operate differently than it has in previous incarnations. The event will combine a brand-new virtual presence with carefully designed outdoor screenings, including two drive-ins. The Talks are taking a new shape, too, and while they are not available as in-person events, as they have been in years past, the festival is hoping to turn them into “an essential live, online meeting place for audiences,...

Wong Kar Wai’s In The Mood For Love, starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung is a Revival selection Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Film at Lincoln Center has announced the Revivals of the 58th New York Film Festival will include Terence Dixon’s Meeting The Man: James Baldwin In Paris, shot by Jack Hazan and Steve McQueen Selects: Jean Vigo’s Zero For Conduct (Zéro De Conduite) available for free 'limited rentals'. Other highlights in the program are Joyce Chopra’s adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ Smooth Talk, starring Laura Dern and Treat Williams; William Klein’s Muhammad Ali, The Greatest; Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Flowers Of Shanghai with Tony Leung, Michiko Hada and Vicky Wei; Béla Tarr’s collaboration with László Krasznahorkai on Damnation, and Wong Kar Wai’s In The Mood For Love, starring Maggie Cheung and Leung. Wong Kar Wai was the Artistic Director for The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute...

Yesterday, the New York Film Festival made another 2020 announcement, this one looking back on the past a bit. Yes, longtime festival goers know that NYFF each year has a robust Revivals lineup, and this year will be no exception. The 58th incarnation of the fest will include a ton of diverse selections, celebrating the history of cinema. At a time when the present and future of the industry is somewhat up in the air, screenings of this sort can be even more powerful, as a reminder of what has been, and what eventually can be again. Read on for more about what NYFF is cooking up here, which includes a recent classic like In the Mood for Love, among many other movies… This is the New York Film Festival press release: Film at Lincoln Center announces Revivals for the 58th New York Film Festival (September 17 – October 11). “We are thrilled with our selections for Revivals,...

The New York Film Festival is rolling out a “reshaped” version of its Revivals section for this year’s edition of the festival, with a rich assortment of repertory cinema that runs the gamut from beloved classics to rarities seeking new life. The lineup includes a Tony Leung double bill, thanks to Hou Hsiao-hsien’s “Flowers of Shanghai” and Wong Kar Wai’s “In the Mood for Love,” while Joyce Chopra’s 1986 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, “Smooth Talk,” shows off a breakout performance by a young Laura Dern.

Other highlights include Jia Zhangke’s rarely screened “Xiao Wu,” Mohammad Reza Aslani’s rediscovered “The Chess Game of the Wind,” and Béla Tarr’s black-and-white noir, “Damnation.” Opening night filmmaker Steve McQueen also had a hand in the selection: he’s opted to screen Jean Vigo’s “Zero for Conduct,” which he says inspired his latest project, a five-film anthology series,...

This year, in the chilly tent in Santa Monica the day before the Oscars, the Independent Spirit Awards went really indie. That meant that several high-profile contenders who did not land Oscar nominations scored Spirit sympathy votes. A24 dominated the field with seven Spirit Awards over three films, making up for their light showing at the Oscars.

“The Lighthouse” started off winning two awards for mustachioed veteran Willem Dafoe and cinematographer Jarin Blaschke, followed by three for the Safdie brothers’ “Uncut Gems,” for Directing, and Editing and Adam Sandler — who scored two big standing ovations and brought down the house with his hilarious speech. “The Indie Spirits are the Best Personality award,” he said.

“Being an editor I am going to try and cut this short,” said Benny Safdie. “The two of us working together we always try to stay in sync.” Editor Ronald Bronstein said that working with the...

This year, in the chilly tent in Santa Monica the day before the Oscars, the Independent Spirit Awards went really indie. That meant that several high-profile contenders who did not land Oscar nominations scored Spirit sympathy votes. A24 dominated the field with seven Spirit Awards over three films, making up for their light showing at the Oscars.

“The Lighthouse” started off winning two awards for mustachioed veteran Willem Dafoe and cinematographer Jarin Blaschke, followed by three for the Safdie brothers’ “Uncut Gems,” for Directing, and Editing and Adam Sandler — who scored two big standing ovations and brought down the house with his hilarious speech. “The Indie Spirits are the Best Personality award,” he said.

“Being an editor I am going to try and cut this short,” said Benny Safdie. “The two of us working together we always try to stay in sync.” Editor Ronald Bronstein said that working with the...

“Parasite” is poised to win top honors at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, which will be announced this Sunday, December 8. That’s according to the combined predictions of Gold Derby users who have made their forecasts here in our predictions center. Aniticipating the fickle critics prizes from year to year is always tricky (the New York Film Critics Circle defied our expectations in many categories earlier this week), but this wouldn’t be the first time Lafca looked beyond our borders for their favorite film. Scroll down to see our complete predictions.

La critics have often been more internationally minded, picking foreign-language titles for Best Picture four times since 2000: Taiwan’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000), the Japanese-language American film “Letters from Iwo Jima” (2006), the French-language Austrian film “Amour” (2012) and Mexico’s “Roma” (2018). They often go overseas for their acting winners too, picking overseas stars like Yolande Moreau...

Smooth Talk. Courtesy of Janus Films/PhotofestThe new retrospective at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Bam), "Punks, Poets, and Valley Girls" offers such an abundance of stylistic and narrative through-lines that it’s hard to distill them. This is partly the point of the Bam programmer Jesse Trussell: that if you forego focusing on commonly consecrated auteurs, suddenly the 1980s yield not a dearth or a trickle but rather a flood of films by women. If there’s one thing to be said about these films it’s that their sexual and identity politics are as rich as you’d expect them to be—from L.A Rebellion films, by filmmakers such as Monona Wali, that address communal demands for justice, to the feminist films of Lizzie Borden and Donna Deitch, to the quieter, more ambiguous works, such as Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk (1985), an assured debut, and a lean,...

Recalling the polemics of Ousman Sembène, Rungano Nyoni’s Zambian film, I Am Nota Witch is an impressively crafted comedy of manners turned tragedy. The film centers around the accusation that an 8-year old girl, Shula (Maggie Mulubwa) is engaging in witchcraft solely because people in the town say so, and because the girl refuses to confirm or deny whether she’s a witch.

The police therefore are forced to conduct an investigation which includes a test involving dancing and the ritual slaughter of a chicken. The results conclude she’s a witch and she’s sent to a camp in the middle of the dessert where witches of all ages are tied with a ribbon, connected to a giant spool to track and control their movements. The effect allows for moments where they’re surreally recoiled back on to a rig while also the subject of the tourists’ gaze.

Rungano Nyoni’s debut feature, the story of a girl in Zambia accused of witchcraft, is comic, tragic – and captivatingly beautiful

In a remote Zambian village, a nine-year-old girl (Margaret Mulubwa) is accused of being a witch and given a stark choice: to accept her supernatural branding and live a tethered life as a sorceress, or to cut her ties with local tradition and be transformed into a goat that may be killed and eaten for supper. Thus begins this bewilderingly strange yet terrifically sure-footed feature debut from writer-director Rungano Nyoni. Born in Zambia and part-raised in Wales, Nyoni first made international waves with such award-winning shorts as Mwansa the Great (2011) and Listen (2014). Now, this daringly satirical parable of magic and misogyny, superstition and social strictures confirms her promise as a film-maker of fiercely independent vision, with a bright future ahead.

Unsurprisingly opting to embrace her supernatural status, the young...

Hannah Bonner Mar 8, 2019

Gender equality continues to be an ongoing issue in Hollywood. We examine why that is and who are 26 voices you should look for.

While Green Book winning Best Picture at the 2019 Oscars was a sour surprise for many viewers, and Olivia Colman’s Best Actress win pure sweetness, the Oscars was glaringly predictable in one key area before the red carpet even unfurled. The absence of women directors (again!) in the Best Director and Best Picture category points to the sustained systematic exclusion of females from two of the most acclaimed, and coveted, prizes in Hollywood.

The Hollywood industry hasn’t cottoned much to female directors. How else do we explain that women account for 4.6 percent of directors of major studio films as of 2015? How else do we explain that it wasn’t until 2010 that a woman won an Oscar for Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker...