Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014)
He invented 'Selfie',
rest in peace.
Jodorowsky's Dune (2013)
The story of legendary cult film director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s staggeringly ambitious but ultimately doomed film adaptation of the seminal science fiction novel DUNE.
In 1974, Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky, whose films EL TOPO and THE HOLY MOUNTAIN launched and ultimately defined the midnight movie phenomenon, began work on his most ambitious project yet. Starring his own 12 year old son Brontis along side Orson Welles, Mick Jagger, David Carradine and Salvador Dali, featuring music by Pink Floyd and art by some of the most provocative talents of the era, including H.R. Giger and Jean ‘Mœbius’ Giraud, Jodorowsky’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel DUNE was poised to change cinema forever. For two years, Jodo and his team of “spiritual warriors” worked night and day on the massive task of creating the fabulous world of DUNE: over 3,000 storyboards, numerous paintings, incredible costumes, and an outrageous, moving and powerful script.
In the words of Jodorowsky’s producer, Michel Seydoux, “It should have been enough. But it wasn’t.” Through interviews with legends and luminaries including H.R. Giger (artist, ALIEN), Gary Kurtz (producer, STAR WARS) and Nicolas Winding Refn (director,DRIVE and ONLY GOD FORGIVES),and an intimate and honest conversation with Jodorowsky filmed over the course of three years, director Pavich’s film - featuring never-before-seen realizations of Jodo’s mind-blowing psychedelic space opera (animated by Emmy Award nominated Syd Garon) - finally unearths the full saga of ‘The Greatest Movie Never Made’.
“For me, Dune will be the coming of a god. I wanted to make something sacred, free, with new perspective. Open the mind!”
“In that time, I say, if I need to cut my arms in order to make that picture, I will cut my arms. I was even ready to die doing that.” -Alejandro Jodorowsky
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This is such an inspiring, educational and ground-breaking documentary, I highly recommend the Bluray from amazon or download from itunes.
Taps (1981)
Dir: Harold Becker.
"They want us to be good little boys now so we can fight some war for them in the future. Some war they'll decide on. We'd rather fight our own war right now."
-Cadet Major Brian Moreland.
Montgomery Clift (October 17, 1920 – July 23, 1966)
Birth Name: Edward Montgomery (Monty) Clift
At his best, Montgomery Clift was a better actor than Marlon Brando. For such a small, slightly-built man Clift had an intensity and depth to his performance that could eclipse Brando—even with all that actor’s realistic improvisations, impressive physicality and “naturalistic body language.”
I worked on this documentary about Clift some twenty years ago, it was part of a series called Post Mortem made for Channel 4 television in the UK. The idea of the series was to look at an individual’s life through their medical history and how illness, disease and addiction affected or influenced their work. The others included in the series were Virginia Woolf (bipolar), Nijinsky (schizophrenia), Francis Bacon (asthma), Beethoven (deafness). With Clift, we examined his life through his various ailments, including childhood amoebic dysentery, chronic colitis, hypothyroidism (which caused him to age prematurely), alcoholism, drug addiction, and the tragic effects relating to his car crash. The documentary includes rarely seen home movie footage of Clift taken by his actor friend Kevin McCarthy and interviews with McCarthy, Kenneth Anger, and Clift biographers Patricia Bosworth and Barney Hoskyns. - by Paul Gallagher Via dangerousminds.net
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
Dir: Russ Meyer.
When executives at Fox found out that an independent filmmaker named Russ Meyer grossed over six million dollars with Vixen, a film he made for roughly seventy five thousand dollars, all of a sudden they started paying attention to the man who had made a name for himself in the early sixties with The Immoral Mister Teas. Meyer was signed to a three picture deal with Fox, who gave him a budget of a million dollars per picture – not much by big studio standards, but a massive sum to someone used to working with budgets under a hundred grand or, more often than not, under fifty grand! Though the third film would never materialize and the second film, the poorly received The Seven Minutes failed to find the audience studio execs and Meyer himself had hoped for, the first picture Meyer made for the studio, Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, was definitely a success.
Here's two parts featurettes on this cult film. The first is Above, Beneath, And Beyond The Valley: The Making Of A Musical-Horror-Sex-Comedy. This extensive piece starts with a few people who were close to the picture talking it up over clips from the movie and from there it gives us a quick overview of who Russ Meyer was and how he got into movies courtesy of some interview clips with Meyer's production assistant, Stan Berkowitz. Roger Ebert explains how Meyer was trained during his time in the army how to use a camera and how that experience worked for him once he got out of the service. Manny Diez, Meyer's assistant, talks about how he was assigned to General Patton and was responsible for shooting some of WWII's most famous footage. Biographer Jimmy McDonaugh, author of Big Bosoms, Square Jaws details how Meyer met Ernest Hemmingway and in turn go laid by a whore. From here we learn how Meyer got into making industrial films, and from there went on to be a glamour photographer for Playboy Magazine. Dahn Cann, Meyer's editor, talks about the impact of Meyer's pin up work, and from here we learn how the success of The Immoral Mister Teas kicked the door down for Meyer to make feature films and in turn created 'the skin flick.'
John La Zar talks about Meyer's directorial style on set, and his enthusiasm for most of his projects, while David Ansen of Newsweek talks about how Meyer did so much of the work on his films from the cinematography to the editing to the casting to the writing. We get a nice overview of his career and learn of his aesthetic, his talent for editing and cinematography, and how his movies were a cut above other films in the genre. Ebert attests to Russ' popularity not only with film critics but also with the ladies, and how his films were taken seriously as often as they were dismissed as schlock. We learn how the popularity of Faster, Pussycat… Kill! Kill! and Vixen brought him to the attention of 20th Century Fox, who figured Meyer was the right man to bring in a low budget movie at a big profit for them and how ended up initially working on what the studio thought would be a sequel to Valley Of The Dolls. Ebert tells us how Meyer had him write the screenplay and the approach he took to the script he eventually turned out, while Nathan Rabin, of The Onion, covers how Meyer and Ebert were outsiders now working at the big studio and the irony of it all. Michael Musto of The Village Voice lends his thoughts on the project, while Ebert talks about how the suits at Fox were 'aghast' at the script. The documentary closes out by talking about Meyer's post production efficiency and how the film ended up getting slapped with an X-rating and how Fox ended up releasing it anyway and how it played as a comedy as Meyer intended. Ebert covers how black audiences embraced the movie, and McBroom and Page back him up on this. This is a great look back at the movie and the man behind it all, a loving tribute to Meyer (the end scroll dedicates this piece to his memory) that doesn't skimp on pre or post production details and that does a fine job of giving us the history of the film and an explanation of its origins.
The second featurette is Look On Up At The Bottom: The Music Of The Dolls. Ebert talks about how they wanted a three-piece female band for the film, which was ahead of its time, and here we learn of how the Carrie Nations came to be and the influence they would later have on bands like The Go-Go's. McBroom, Myers and Read talk about how they had to learn to lip-synch and play real chords on their guitars even though it wasn't them actually playing the music. Jeff McDonald of Red Cross attests to McBroom's realism during the scenes where she's seen drumming, and Paul Marshall of the Strawberry Alarm Clock (who have a cameo in the film and contributed some music to it) talks about how Dolly Read's lip-synching of Lynn Carey's voice was dead on. Composer Stu Phillips shows up quite a bit to talk about how he enjoyed working with three gorgeous girls on the project and how Meyer took the musical parts of the film so deadly seriously. Christopher Freeman, bassist for the queer-core pop punk outfit Pansy Division even appears here, attesting to the catchiness of the track Candy Man that his band covered. At ten minutes and fifty four seconds in length, this piece, also presented in 1.85.1 anamorphic widecreen, is a fun and factual examination of one of the most important aspects of the movie, and Phillips' input in this piece is invaluable. It's a nice blend of factual information from those involved and details on how it influenced musicians in later years. -Dvd talk.
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Army of Shadows (L'armée des Ombres) 1969.
Dir: Jean-Pierre Melville.
France, 1969. The Resistance:an escape from the Gestapo, so sudden and hairsbreadth as to leave the toughest of tough guys gasping with the icy sweat of terror and relief; two brothers remain unaware, to the end, of each other’s clandestine activities; patriots who, in relentless pursuit of traitors, must steel themselves to the most brutal of face-to-face violence. Lino Ventura (Elevator to the Gallows, Classe Tous Risques, etc.), aided by compatriots including maitresse of disguise Simone Signoret, goes underground in face of the German Occupation – but the price of heroism can be truly horrific.
Here is a documentary of two featurettes compiled into one. L'invité du dimanche and Melville et "L'armée des Ombres".
L'invité du dimanche (30:17): In March 1969, the popular French television program L'invité du dimanche dedicated an episode to Jean-Pierre Melville and his new film. This selection of the excerpts from the show, hosted by Francois Chalais Jacquels Chancel and directed by Robert Crible. And in addition to on-set footage, include interviews with Melville, his cast, and the writer of the original novel, Joseph Kessel. It's a veritable treasure trove of material, and it's too neat a treat to see and hear film of the director being as meticulous and demanding as Lhomme and Bonnot told us he could be. About a third of the included program features André Dewavrin, the real liaison between England and France during the Occupation, who plays a version of himself in Army of Shadows.
Melville et "L'armée des Ombres (27:30): A 2005 documentary (27:30) featuring Lhomme, Bonnot, Jean Pierre-Cassel, and composer Eric Demarsan, alongside filmmakers Philippe Labro and Bernard Tavernier, looking back at the history of Army of Shadows and its director. It's quite a tribute to the man, tinged with the irreverence and humor that only hindsight can bring. It's probably the best homage here, because it's the least reverential--which seems truer to Melville's spirit. These featurettes and much more are available in the Criterion Collection in Blu-ray and DVD.
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A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Director: Elia Kazan .
Won four Academy Awards (1952)
*Best Actress in a Leading Role: Vivien Leigh.
*Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Karl Malden.
*Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Kim Hunter.
*Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White: Richard Day and George James Hopkins.
" ...When she got there she met the brute Stan, and the side of New Orleans she hardly knew existed. "
Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007)
"Bilder från lekstugan" (Images From The Playground).
The Swedish veteran filmmaker and film critic Björkman has already dedicated an interview book on Sweden’s iconic filmmaker, Bergman on Bergman, as well as the 1971 documentary Ingmar Bergman. Images from the Playground is a two-part film comprising never-before-seen material from Bergman's works (from Sawdust and Tinsel to Persona), made available by The Ingmar Bergman Foundation.
Introduced by Martin Scorsese, the film also has recordings of the Swedish master's voice and interviews with actresses Harriet Andersson and Bibi Andersson. “I believe that it will be quite unexpected, especially for a foreign audience, to see such a joyful Bergman. We know that he could be like that. But abroad many regarded him as brooding, grave and immensely serious”, said Björkman.
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The film is produced by the Ingmar Bergman Foundation with the support of World Cinema Foundation and the Swedish Film Institute. The behind-the-scenes material has been registered with UNESCO's Memory of the World since 2007.
Amarcord (1973)
Comedy | Drama - 19 September 1974 (USA)
Director: Federico Fellini | Cinematography by: Giuseppe Rotunno.
Won Academy Awards (1975) - Best Foreign Language Film [Italy]
The Hustler (1961)
"They called him "Fast Eddie"... He was a winner...He was a loser... He was a hustler."
Drama | Sport - released 25 September 1961 (USA).
Director: Robert Rossen. Cinematography: Eugen Schüfftan.
Paris, Texas (1984)
Dir: Wim Wenders - released on 19 September 1984 (France).
This Wim Wender's film was released 30 years ago. Paris, Texas is a film of countless pleasures. A lone figure wanders across a beautiful but desolate wasteland in South Texas. Out of water, he stumbles into a tiny settlement not big enough to be a town - and collapses. The doctor who revives him calls a number in the man's pocket, belonging to Walter Henderson (Dean Stockwell). Walt rushes from his home in LA to collect the man - his long-lost brother Travis (Stanton). Travis doesn't talk to Walt until they are well into their drive back to LA, and even then doesn't explain his whereabouts for the four years he's been missing. All that time, he was presumed dead by Walt, his wife Anne (Aurore Clement), and Travis's son Hunter (Hunter Carson), who has lived with Walt and Anne since Travis's disappearance. Back in LA, Travis struggles to make sense of his situation, and to get to know his son, now nearly eight years old. Finally Travis decides to track down Hunter's mother, Jane (Nastassja Kinski), and takes his son on a road trip back to Texas to find her.
No part of Paris, Texas feels underdeveloped or lacking - the script, performances, photography by Müller, music by Ry Cooder, production design by Kate Altman, and sound mixing is all of a piece and part of a coherent vision. Paris, Texas is a mood piece, a character-driven narrative, a meditation, and a true romance. It's unforgettable.
Here's a two parts featurette on the film. The first is an interview with Wim Wenders (28:58) from German television in 2001. There's a lot of interesting stuff here about Wenders' experiences in and attitude toward the United States that led up to the production of Paris, Texas. The second part is Cinema Cinemas (12:12) is a segment from a French television program of that title that documents the making of the film's score. It's an interesting piece for all cinephiles. These featurettes are also included in the Paris, Texas (Criterion Collection) available in DVD and Blu-ray, get your copy now.
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Check out Peter Sellers Transform into Toulouse-Lautrec [The Revenge of the Pink Panther 1978] Hitler [Undercovers Hero (1974)] and Napoleon.
Director: Fritz Lang | Drama | Sci-Fi - [released 13 March 1927 (USA)]
Produced by: Erich Pommer | Cinematography by: Karl Freund/Günther Rittau and Walter Ruttmann.
Le Mépris aka Contempt (1963)
Dir: Jean-Luc Godard. (Released: 18 December 1964 (USA) )
The Great Escape (1963) [hi res. photo-set]
Director: John Sturges.
Released on 4 July 1963 (USA).
East of Eden (1955)
Dir: Elia Kazan.
Won Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (1956) Jo Van Fleet.
On The Waterfront (1954) [hi-res. photo-set]
Dir: Elia Kazan.
Won 8 Academy Awards (1955) Best Director: Elia Kazan / Best Picture: Sam Spiegel / Best Actor in a Leading Role: Marlon Brando / Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Eva Marie Saint / Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Lee J. Cobb & Best Writing, Story and Screenplay / Best Cinematography, Black-and-White / Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White and Best Film Editing.