August, 2010 Archive
guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
Guest blogger Scott Nye writes:
A lot has been made about this year being the 50th anniversary of Psycho and Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, especially with the latter embarking on a cross-country tour, courtesy of a newly-struck 35mm print. But two other incredibly important, immeasurably influential films are also celebrating their golden anniversaries – Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Avventura and Frederico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. And what all of this has stirred in me is not a sort of wistful yearning for movies of this caliber to be made today, nor a desire to trace the many, many ways these four films changed cinema (though I won’t be considering Psycho for this), but rather a simple question – what happened to all the cool art films?
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Jay Steinberg | This Week in Film History
September 1, 1902: A milestone in the evolution of the cinema is marked with the release of George Méliès' fantastic Voyage to the Moon.
September 1, 1919: The first United Artists film, His Majesty, the American with Douglas Fairbanks, opens in New York.
September 1, 1920: After co-starring with "Fatty" Arbuckle for three years, Buster Keaton makes his solo starring debut with the short One Week.
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Chris Cummins | New Releases This Week
This week's new releases are all about classic TV shows and theatrical hits. Let's see what hot hits and cool flicks are now available on DVD and Blu-ray!
Thriller: The Complete Series
It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark. Wait, wrong Thriller! Elements of horror, mystery, and the supernatural were combined in this creepy series, which ran from 1960-1962 and was hosted by Boris Karloff. Focusing on ordinary people caught in extraordinary--and often frightening--situations, the show featured fine, young actors, top genre writers, and notable directors like Arthur Hiller, Ida Lupino, and Mitchell Leisen. All 67 episodes of the series--including "The Twisted Image," "Well of Doom," "Dark Legacy," "What Beckoning Ghost?," and "The Specialists"--are collected in a 14-disc set.
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Jason Marcewicz | Create-A-Caption
You know the drill. Below is a classic movie photo with Jason’s caption.
You’re encouraged to leave your own suggestion in the comment section below!
“You’re cute.”
“No, you’re cute.”
“You’re cuter.”
“No, you’re the cutest.”
“You’re the most cute ever!”
“Nuh uh.”
“Uh huh!”
...
Chris Cummins | Staff Notes
Have you ever wanted to be a guest blogger on Movie FanFare? Here's your shot! We are currently seeking guest contributors to have their views on movies featured on our site -- along side of such regular features as First Time Watch, Ghouly Irv and Poster Doppelgangers. Here's the submission guidelines:
Posts and Articles That Will Be Accepted
- Informative, movie related posts that offer readers some benefit.
- Posts with pictures are highly desirable.
- Posts that discuss favorite movies, old movies, rare movies, favorite actors or actresses, movie memories and or anything movie related are welcome.
- Movies Unlimited will accept submissions ONLY via email or on our Blog.
- The subject line MUST be "Blog Story Submission".
- The text of your email MUST include either your FIRST NAME or your username, and please tell Movies Unlimited what name you prefer us to use for the "written by" tagline.
- Posts may be edited for spelling, grammar, content, and length - if something is missing that you feel is important, you can always add it back via a comment.
- Not every submission will get posted. Please don't get upset if your submission is not accepted; likewise, we might hold a submission for a short time before posting (especially if it's a busy day). If something is extremely interesting but we need more details or info, you may receive a reply email.
- Posts will follow a simple format: 2-5 paragraphs in length, (1000 words max) 1-2 pictures max (but not required), all website/URLs provided in the text (no retail websites)
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Irv Slifkin | In the Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
Thanks to a mishap on Amtrak, Fatih Akin arrived over two hours late at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station from New York City. Now, in a hotel room, the 37-year-old writer-director is scrambling to move furniture around, so interviewers can find their place in a cramped hotel room to ask him questions.
“And I am supposed to be the director,” he jokes.
But Akin, a man of Turkish heritage born and raised in Hamburg, Germany, is used to scrambling. That’s the nature of independent filmmaking throughout the world.
And that’s even if you have received international praise and won awards at prestigious film festivals, as the amiable Akin has. Head-On, his heady 2004 mix of tragedy, comedy and social commentary told of the unlikely marriage of two psychiatric patients: a suicidal 40-year-old widower and a twentysomething drug-and-alcohol-addicted woman who wants to get out of her strict Turkish household. It also announced a major filmmaker arrived on the scene. The director’s 2007 effort, The Edge of Heaven, tackled three different, intense stories, shifting time and countries, and delving into the lives of such characters as a Turkish freedom fighter, an elderly man and a young prostitute. Along with taking many European awards, it won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the festival’s coveted Golden Palm Award.
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guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
Guest blogger Julie writes:
If that picture or grouping of names means anything to you, then congratulations, you have seen On the Town (1949), one of the greatest musicals ever. I watched it again recently and was struck by the fact that this film, in addition to its many other delights, features some of the most phenomenally modern female characters in cinema, even by today's standards. What's even more striking is that it's not even a film about how modern and awesome they are, which is usually where you find those types of characters (i.e. biopics), and the filmmakers don't seem like they're making a film about gender politics.
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Irv Slifkin | In the Director's Chair, Movie Buzz
Neil Marshall wanted the world to know that even though his first two features were horror films—the well-received werewolf opus Dog Soldiers and the spooky girls-in-the-cave film The Descent—he was not a “horror movie director.”
“I’m a genre director,” states Marshall, 43, from a Philadelphia hotel. “I like all sort of genres. And, yes, I was scared of being pigeonholed as a horror director after those movies.”
As his next project, Marshall tackled Doomsday, a futuristic Mad Max/Escape from New York/Resident Evil mashup which met with mixed results with critics and at the box-office. But Marshall is hoping to rectify this with Centurion, his latest effort, an historical adventure epic centering on the battle that occurred in 117 A.D. between the Picts, the savage natives of Scotland, and the Ninth Legion of invading Roman soldiers, led by General Titus Virilus (Dominic West), centurion Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender) and Amazonian mute female tracker Etain (Olga Kurylenko), who doubles as a lethal Pict assassin.
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Jerry Frebowitz | Staff Notes
Here are 10 trivia facts about M*A*S*H from 1970, which originally appeared as our Mystery Movie Quiz on our Facebook page. There are hundreds of pieces of behind-the-scenes information about this movie. Please feel free to comment and add more trivia we might have missed.
1. This movie could be considered in three genres.
M*A*S*H is primarily a dark comedy. However, it fits neatly into both the drama and war genres.
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George D. Allen | Staff Notes
With vampires all the rage and a cinema smitten with mind-bending narratives built around the generic staple of the “unreliable narrator,” what better time is there to have a look at Czech director Jaromil Jires’ provocative 1970 cult film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders?
First coming to the world’s attention with his 1963 debut feature The Cry (exhibited at Cannes), a film of documentary realism and social criticism that displeased his native government, Jires found his talents put on hold as Czechoslovakia’s state-supported film industry turned down script after script he subsequently submitted for production. It wasn’t until 1968 that Jires reappeared on the scene with The Joke, adapted from the novel by Milan Kundera as an ambitious drama attacking totalitarianism.
I’ve yet to see either of those films, but based on what I discovered with Valerie, I’d be eager to explore more of his works. While Jires is typically noted as one of the earliest directors associated with the movement known as the Czech New Wave, it’s fair to say he should also be more popularly recognized for creating this truly unique film that should be spotlighted in any history of 1970s horror.
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guest-blogs | FanFare Guests
Guest blogger Matt House writes:
Duncan Jones nostalgic sci-fi space romp, Moon, is a mostly well known film in certain circles, with those circles mainly consisting of people who are passionate fans of cinema in one form or another. Outside of those too cool for film-school film fans, Moon is not a recognizable name (unless you're talking New Moon, of course), and the general public has little to no clue about the movie. At least that is what I assume but my assumption is more than likely spot on.
That alone somewhat speaks for how the film was completely neglected by the Academy this year - in a ceremony that applauded ten films instead of five - so they could make room for movies more along the lines of the summer blockbuster. Or, to put it in simpler terms, make room for films that the general public know about, thus, drumming up better ratings from the "average person." Basically, popularity over substance becomes even more prevalent.
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