News

“Marcello Mastroianni was known, all around the world, as the Latin lover, the Italian seducer, especially after he starred in La Dolce Vita, Federico Fellini’s masterpiece,” says Fabrizio Corallo, the director of the new documentary Ciao Marcello, Mastroianni l’antidivo. “Mastroianni did not like this image. He didn’t want to be seen as an icon, as a sex symbol. He didn’t care much about his public persona; what did matter to him was his personal life. So, I tried to build an intimate portrait of this unique actor.”

Corallo is a journalist and an expert on the history of Italian cinema. For state broadcaster Rai he has made a number of documentaries about the great personalities of Italian cinema: Dino Risi, Vittorio Gassman, Virna Lisi, Ennio Flaiano and Giuliano Montaldo, among others.

Ciao Marcello, which was co-written with Silvia Scola, the daughter of Italian filmmaker Ettore Scola,...

The trailer for Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary on the famed Italian film composer Ennio Morricone has been released ahead of its opening in select US theaters on February 9th, 2024. Watch it below.

Titled Ennio, the film traces Morricone’s career from his early work with Sergio Leone to his first Academy Award for Quentin Tarantino’s 2016 movie The Hateful Eight, including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Once Upon a Time in America; Days of Heaven; The Mission; and The Untouchables. It also offered the late composer, who died in 2020, an opportunity to tell his own story and break down his artistic process.

Adding to the portrait of Morricone are interviews with several of his collaborators and contemporaries, including Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, and Bruce Springsteen. Ennio also features appearances from Oliver Stone, Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Bernardo Bertolucci, Marco Bellocchio, Giuliano Montaldo, Dario Argento, Joan Baez, and more.

Italian cinema is in the spotlight at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles where the screening series “Ennio Morricone: Essential Scores from a Movie Maestro,” programmed in partnership with Cinecittà, is currently playing to sold-out audiences.

The Oct. 6-Nov. 25 event comprises 20 titles, including Sergio Leone’s “The Good the Bad and the Ugly” in a new restored print, “Once Upon a Time in the West” (pictured) and Don Siegel’s “Two Mules for Sister Sara,” plus a selection of other works hailing both from the master composer’s native Italy and the U.S.. Among these are Brian De Palma (“The Untouchables”), Terrence Malick (“Days of Heaven”) and Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight,” for which Morricone finally won the the Oscar for best original soundtrack in 2016.

“Hateful Eight” screened at the museum’s David Geffen Theatre in the 70mm “Roadshow” version with an intermission and an overture.

Cinecittà operates...

Exclusive: Music Box Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Giuseppe Tornatore’s documentary Ennio, paying tribute to the late, revered film composer Ennio Morricone.

Morricone scored a number of Tornatore’s films, beginning with his 1988 Oscar-winning Classic Cinema Paradiso.

For Ennio, the director turned the camera on his beloved collaborator to make a moving portrait of the composer featuring testimonies from artists and directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Marco Bellocchio, Giuliano Montaldo, Dario Argento, Clint Eastwood, Joan Baez, Quentin Tarantino and more.

Music Box Films will release the film in New York at the Film Forum on February 9, 2024, with a national expansion and home entertainment release to follow.

Prior to that, there will also be a special screening in New York on December 2 as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s Morricone retrospective which opens on December 1.

The show, which has been put together in collaboration with Cinecittà,...

Giuliano Montaldo, the admired Italian filmmaker who wrote and directed Sacco & Vanzetti, the John Cassavetes-starring Machine Gun McCain and every episode of the big-budget 1982 miniseries Marco Polo, has died. He was 93.

Montaldo died Wednesday at his home in Rome, his family announced.

His big-screen résumé also included The Reckless (1965), starring Renato Salvatori; Grand Slam (1967), starring Janet Leigh; Giordano Bruno (1973), starring Gian Maria Volonté and Charlotte Rampling; And Agnes Chose to Die (1976), starring Ingrid Thulin; and The Gold Rimmed Glasses (1987), starring Philippe Noiret, Rupert Everett, Stefania Sandrelli and Valeria Golino.

Of the 20 films Montaldo helmed, 16 were set to music by Ennio Morricone; no other director collaborated with the famed composer more.

Montaldo also served as president of Italy’s Rai Cinema from 1999-2004.

Montaldo’s gangster tale Machine Gun McCain (1969), which also starred Britt Ekland, Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk, and Sacco & Vanzetti (1971), about the Massachusetts trial and 1927 execution of...

Giuliano Montaldo, the prolific Italian director, actor and film industry executive, whose works comprise powerful political drama “Sacco and Vanzetti” about the Massachusetts trial and execution in 1927 of accused Italian anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, has died at his home in Rome. He was 93.

His death was announced Wednesday by his family and reported by multiple Italian media outlets. No cause of death was revealed.

Born in 1930 in Genoa, Montaldo was still a Turin university student when, in 1950, director Carlo Lizzani gave him a role in the film “Achtung Banditi!.” Montaldo then moved to Rome in 1954, where he worked as a journalist for Italian newspaper Il Tempo and after a few years decided to pursue a filmmaking career.

Montaldo cut his teeth as a director working as an assistant to Lizzani and then to Gillo Pontecorvo, Sergio Leone, and Francesco Rosi, learning the ropes from some of the masters of Italian cinema.

It’s Labor vs. Capital, in basic terms! Sean Connery is the tough, embittered miner looking to strike back against the bosses, and Richard Harris the underdog who sees a way out by becoming an agent provocateur for the Pinkertons. An admirable true-life history lesson, Walter Bernstein & Martin Ritt’s downer of a drama didn’t grab the public’s imagination. But there’s no better vision of the time and place, thanks to James Wong Howe’s realistic, nearly monochromatic cinematography.

The Molly Maguires

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 172

1970 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 124 min. / Street Date October 26, 2022 / Available from Viavision / au 34.95

Starring: Sean Connery, Richard Harris, Samantha Eggar, Frank Finlay, Anthony Zerbe, Philip Bourneuf, Anthony Costello, Bethel Leslie, Brendan Dillon.

Cinematography: James Wong Howe

Art Director: Tambi Larsen

Costumes designed by: Dorothy Jeakins

Film Editor: Frank Bracht

Original Music: Henry Mancini

Written by Walter Bernstein suggested by a book by Arthur H. Lewis

Produced by Walter Bernstein,...

Director Sergio Sollima sets the template for twenty years of violent action cinema for Rough Tough Charles Bronson. Precise stunt scenes and clever direction are at the service of a script that can’t produce a convincing line of dialogue. It’s a mishmosh of sex, bullets and car chases. Bronson is betrayed by his love for Jill Ireland, and Telly Savalas is shoehorned in as a (surprise!) nasty gangster. Much of it does play like gangbusters — the opening and closing especially — and the dynamic title instrumental is one of maestro Ennio Morricone’s best.

Violent City

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1970 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 109 + 96 min. / Città violenta, The Family, Final Shot / Street Date May 17, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Michel Constantin, Telly Savalas, Umberto Orsini.

Cinematography: Aldo Tonti

Production Design: Francesco Bronzi

Art Director: Franco Fumigalli

Film Editor: Nino Baragli

Stunts: Rémy Julienne, Goffredo Unger

Original...

Welcome to Ground Zero for ‘Committed Cinema’ Italian style. Director Giuiano Montaldo filmed his dream project on location in Ireland and a bit in Boston, with top stars Gian Maria Volontè and Riccardo Cucciolla. In one of the highest-profile American ‘media’ trials ever the famed immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti were tried for a crime but convicted by politics: even the judge asserted they were guilty by definition. Montaldo shows how wrongly justice can be served without whitewashing the defendants. UK actors Cyril Cusack and Milo O’Shea up the performance level, and the Ennio Morricone / Joan Baez songs have kept the film alive.

Sacco & Vanzetti

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1971 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 125 min. / Street Date May 3, 2022 / Sacco e Vanzetti; Intolerance (shooting title?) / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Gian Maria Volontè, Riccardo Cucciolla, Cyril Cusack, Rosanna Fratello, Geoffrey Keen, Milo O’Shea, William Prince, Claude Mann, Edward Jewesbury, Armenia Balducci, Valentino Orfeo,...

Festival

The 78th Venice International Film Festival (Sept. 1-11) will include an out of competition screening of “Ennio” by Giuseppe Tornatore, director of the Oscar winning “Cinema Paradiso.” “Ennio” is a comprehensive portrait of two time Oscar winning composer Ennio Morricone, among the most influential and prolific musicians of the twentieth century, who has scored over 500 movie soundtracks.

The documentary tells the Maestro’s story in a long interview of him with Tornatore, and with comments by artists and directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuliano Montaldo, Marco Bellocchio, Dario Argento, the Taviani brothers, Carlo Verdone, Barry Levinson, Roland Joffé, Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, Bruce Springsteen, Nicola Piovani, Hans Zimmer and Pat Metheny, and through music and archive footage.

The film also seeks to reveal Morricone’s lesser-known aspects, such as his passion for chess, and the origin of some of his musical intuitions, like the howl of a coyote that...

Venice Adds Ennio Morricone Film By Giuseppe Tornatore

The Venice Film Festival is adding an Out of Competition screening of Ennio Morricone documentary Ennio by Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso). The film is described as a comprehensive portrait of the late great composer, who was the winner of two Oscars and responsible for more than 500 movie soundtracks, many of them classics. The story is told via a long interview between the two Italians but also with comments by artists and directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuliano Montaldo, Marco Bellocchio, Dario Argento, the Taviani brothers, Carlo Verdone, Barry Levinson, Roland Joffé, Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, Bruce Springsteen, Nicola Piovani, Hans Zimmer and Pat Metheny. The film reveals lesser known aspects of the composer such as his passion for chess and the origin of some of his musical intuitions, like the howl of a coyote that inspired the theme of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

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,...

Above: Hungarian poster for The Sleeping Car Murders. Designer: Sándor Benkő.Last summer I wrote about my discovery of Hungarian movie poster design and featured a number of posters for very well known films from The Wizard of Oz to The Elephant Man. Those posters highlighted the distinctly different graphic approaches taken by Hungarian designers compared to their country-of-origin counterparts. But while delving deeper into the world of Hungarian poster design—mostly via the auction site Bedo—I have come across many even more remarkable designs for films that are less well known. The fifteen posters that I’ve chosen to highlight here were all made in the ’60s and ’70s and there is a distinct pop art sensibility at work: a lot of bold, primary colors and almost cartoonish illustrations, but always in the service of bold, striking graphics. Distinctly upbeat, while perhaps not expressly joyful, they do give...

Versatile film, avant-garde classical, jazz and pop composer Ennio Morricone died in a Rome hospital after falling and breaking his leg, his lawyer Giorgio Assumma announced, according to Variety. He was 91.

Known as “the Maestro,” Morricone is best known as the composer of the scores and themes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, and his Academy Award winning soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He also toured frequently, and expanded his sonic visions to reflect contemporary sounds. Besides his collaborations on the spaghetti Western films of Sergio Leone, Morricone composed for Bernardo Bertolucci, Dario Argento, Don Siegel, Brian De Palma, and John Carpenter. He composed for such diverse artists as Andrea Bocelli, Sting, k.d. lang, and Pet Shop Boys. Morricone never became fluent in English. When he won his 2007 honorary Oscar, his speech was translated by Clint Eastwood.

Morricone...

The lineup has been unveiled for year’s edition of the Venice International Film Festival, taking place August 28 through September 7. Aside from films previously announced as coming to Tiff, some major new announcements include Olivier Assayas’ Wasp Network, James Gray’s Ad Astra, Roy Andersson’s About Endlessness, Ciro Guerra’s Waiting for the Barbarians, David Michôd’s The King, Benedict Andrews’ Kristen Stewart-led biopic Seberg, and Roman Polanski’s J’accuse. Only two films by female directors made into the competition lineup: Haifaa Al-Mansour’s The Perfect Candidate and Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth.

Check out the lineup below (hat tip to Mubi), which also includes other sections at the festival.

Competition

The Truth (Hirokazu Kore-eda)

The Perfect Candidate (Haifaa Al-Mansour)

About Endlessness (Roy Andersson)

Wasp Network (Olivier Assayas)

Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach)

Guest of Honour (Atom Egoyan)

Ad Astra (James Gray)

A Herdade (Tiago Guedes)

Gloria Mundi (Robert Guédiguian...

Movies by Martin Scorsese, Dennis Hopper, David Cronenberg, Bernardo Bertolucci, Luis Bunuel and Federico Fellini are among the lineup of the Venice Classics section at the 76th Venice Film Festival.

A new 35mm print of Scorsese’s 1977 film “New York, New York” will be screened in honor of United Artists’ centennial. The new copy, playing courtesy of MGM, will be presented by one of the film’s producers, Irwin Winkler, who will hold a masterclass following the screening.

Among the newly restored classics will be Hopper’s 1980 film “Out of the Blue”; Cronenberg’s 1996 movie “Crash”; a double bill of Bernardo Bertolucci pics – “The Grim Reaper,” the director’s feature debut, which bowed in Venice in 1962, and “The Spider’s Stratagem,” presented at Venice in 1970; Federico Fellini’s “The White Sheik,” which premiered at Venice in 1952; and Bunuel’s 1955 film “The Criminal Life of Archibaldo De La Cruz.”

The complete...

Playboy magazine in Germany defended its story in which Ennio Morricone called Quentin Tarantino “a cretin” whose movies are “trash,” saying Monday that the comments were made by the legendary Italian composer in an interview at the end of June.

Morricone had said over the weekend that he had not spoken to Playboy and that the scathing comments about Tarantino, with whom he had worked on the film “The Hateful Eight,” were fabricated. But Hubert Burda Media, the international publishing group which owns Playboy in Germany, rejected that disavowal.

“We are surprised that composer Ennio Morricone denies giving an interview to German Playboy,” the company said in a statement issued Monday evening. “In fact, the conversation took place on June 30, 2018, at his estate in Rome. The interview, about the concert organizer Semmel Concerts, which was also present at the interview, had been agreed to with German Playboy. We also cannot...

U.K.-based ITV Studios recently bought a majority stake in top Italian production shingle Cattleya, which made “Gomorrah” for Sky and “Suburra” for Netflix. The deal marked the biggest foreign acquisition in the Italian media sphere in recent memory. Cattleya founding partner Riccardo Tozzi spoke exclusively to Variety about the vision behind the company’s increasingly international scope, what he thinks is driving the success of Italian TV dramas in the global marketplace and the next necessary steps.

What prompted the Cattleya sale to ITV Studios and what’s its significance — not just for Cattleya but perhaps for the Italian TV industry at large?

ITV Studios is the largest aggregator of production companies in Europe. Being part of it brings us into the core of the international TV production system. It’s a recognition of the quality of the products we make, but also, indirectly, of the high level achieved by Italian scripted production.

In a ceremony dominated by gender inequality speeches most of the awards went to box office disappointments.

The Manetti brothers’ Love And Bullets won five prizes at the 62nd David di Donatello awards – Italy’s equivilent to the Oscars – after starting the evening with 15 nominations.

The musical crime comedy, which first premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival, was awarded for best film, best actress in a supporting role, best score, best original song and best costumes.

Susanna Nicchiarelli’s Nico, 1988, which also premiered in Venice winning the Orizzonti competition, got four awards; best original screenplay, best sound, best make-up and best hairdressing.

In a ceremony dominated by gender inequality speeches most of the awards went to box office disappointments.

The Manetti brothers’ Love And Bullets won five prizes at the 62nd David di Donatello awards – Italy’s equivilent to the Oscars – after starting the evening with 15 nominations.

The musical crime comedy, which first premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival, was awarded for best film, best actress in a supporting role, best score, best original song and best costumes.

Susanna Nicchiarelli’s Nico, 1988, which also premiered in Venice winning the Orizzonti competition, got four awards; best original screenplay, best sound, best make-up and best hairdressing.

Ennio Morricone accepts an Honorary Academy Award during the 79th Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA, on Sunday, February 25, 2007.

The Weinstein Company has released a 7-minute video from the actual recording session of L’Ultima Diligenza per Red Rock (versione integrale) from The Hateful Eight.

Featuring the legendary composer, Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight is nominated for 3 Academy Awards this year, including Best Original Score.

In The Hateful Eight, set six or eight or twelve years after the Civil War, a stagecoach hurtles through the wintry Wyoming landscape. The passengers, bounty hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) and his fugitive Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), race towards the town of Red Rock where Ruth, known in these parts as “The Hangman,” will bring Domergue to justice. Along the road, they encounter two strangers: Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L. Jackson), a black former union soldier turned infamous bounty hunter,...

The Venice Film Festival has unveiled the 21 restored films – 18 features and 3 shorts - that will screen in its Classics section of restored films.

The section, introduced in 2012, features a selection of classic film restorations completed over the past year by film libraries, cultural institutions or production companies around the world.

Director Giuliano Montaldo will chair the jury of film students which will award the Venice Classics Award for Best Restored Film and for Best Documentary on Cinema.

The 2014 Venice Classics line up:

Features

Baisers volés (Stolen Kisses), dir François Truffaut (France, 1968, Colour) restored by : Mk2

Bez końca (No End), dir Krzysztof Kieślowski (Poland, 1984, 108’, Colour) restored by: Studio Filmowe Tor with the support of the National Audiovisual Institute (the Multiannual Government Programme Culture +) and the Polish Film Institute

Gelin (Bride), dir Omer Lütfi Akad (Turkey, 1973, 92’, Colour) restored by: Erman Film

Guys and Dolls, dir Joseph L. Mankiewicz (USA, 1955, 150’, Colour) restored by: Warner Bros. Motion Pictures Imaging and [link...

While he may have never won an Oscar, Sergio Leone was a filmmaking titan. Not only did he redefine the western genre with influential films like "Fistful Of Dollars" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly," his final film was the sweeping epic that is "Once Upon A Time In America." Fifteen years ago today, the cinema world lost the great director, and with that in mind, here's a way to get up close and personal with Leone. Giulio Reale's "Sergio Leone: The Way I See Things," brings together Leone collaborators Eli Wallach and Claudia Cardinale, along with directors Giuliano Montaldo and Vittorio Giacci and historian Christopher Frayling, to discuss the filmmaker's career, trademarks and much more. If that's not enough, be sure to check out our feature, 5 Unmade Movies From The Spaghetti Western Maestro. Watch below. [Cinephilia & Beyond] ...

After its limited theatrical release in June, The Haunting of Helena is making its way to DVD and digital platforms next month. We have the official press release, DVD details, cover art, and the trailer:

Universal City, CA – Teeth will chatter when the psychological thriller, The Haunting of Helena, arrives on DVD and Digital September 17 from Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment, Bloody Disgusting Selects, and The Collective. Starring Harriet MacMasters-Green (Parking Lot, Smile), Jarreth J. Merz (The Passion of the Christ, Taking Sides), Matt Patresi (The Passion of the Christ, The International), Giuliano Montaldo (Sacco & Vanzetti, The Entrepreneur) and Sabrina Jolie Perez in her debut role as Helena, the nightmarish film adds a whirlwind of terror to the innocent children’s lore, the tooth fairy. Directed by Christian Bisceglia (Matchmaker) and Ascanio Malgarini, The Haunting of Helena follows a little girl and her single mother as a mysterious woman transforms their dreams...

Get ready for the psychological horror thriller, "The Haunting of Helena" as it makes it's way to DVD and Digital courtesy of Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment, Bloody Disgusting Selects, and The Collective. The film stars Harriet MacMasters-Green, Jarreth J. Merz, Matt Patresi, Giuliano Montaldo, and Sabrina Jolie Perez in her debut as an actress playing the part of Helena. Synopsis: "After a divorce, Sophia moves to the south of Italy with he…...

Harriet Mac Masters Green, Sabrina Jolie Perez, Giuliano Montaldo, Jarreth Merz and Matt Patresi star in the film directed by Ascanio Malgarini and Christian Bisceglia. Here, after a divorce, Sophia moves to the south of Italy with her daughter, Helena. Their new home, an apartment within an austere building of the fascist age, is a chance for them to start a new life. But inside an old storage room hides a mysterious closet and a buried secret. After the loss of Helena’s first baby tooth, a chilling obsession begins and an apparition haunts her sleep. Dreams become nightmares. Nightmares become reality. When Helena collects her classmate’s fallen teeth with an urgent hunger, it is clear that there is far more to their new home than can be seen. Sophia finds herself in a terrifying fight to save her child while maintaining her sanity.

Check out the trailer for the upcoming horror thriller The Haunting Of Helena, a tale of a mysterious woman, a little girl, and her single mother presents a new twist on the legend of the Tooth Fairy. The film, directed by Ascanio Malgarini and Christian Bisceglia, stars Angela Presepi, Giuliano Montaldo, Harriet MacMasters-Green, Jarreth J. Merz, Lucrezia Tosi, Marco Basile, Marco Fattibene, Massimiliano Carnevale, Matt Patresi, Paolo Paoloni, Sabrina Jolie Perez, and Susanna Cornacchia. The Haunting Of Helena will be released in select theaters on June 21st, 2013. It will be available on Cable VOD in partnership with Tribeca Films and for digital streaming on June...

Christian Bisceglia and Ascanio Malgarini's Italian tooth fairy chiller 'The Haunting of Helena' (Aka 'Fairytale') has scored a Us release. The flick that has gained its new 'haunting' title, which in all honesty seems way too familiar, is set to be unleashed on VOD on 18 June and then landing in select Us theatres on 21 June. Christian Bisceglia co-directs from a script he penned telling a twisted tale of the legendary Tooth Fairy and we've been promised that there is no sign of Dwayne Johnson parading around in tights anywhere. Harriet MacMasters-Green, Sabrina Jolie Perez, Jarreth J. Merz, Matt Patresi, Paolo Paoloni, Giuliano Montaldo and Susanna Cornacchia all star. Check out the full plot rundown plus artwork below....

Janet Leigh biography final. Check out previous articles: Touch Of Evil / Orson Welles / The Manchurian Candidate and Psycho / marriaget to Tony Curtis. Leigh's movie career slowed down in the mid-60s. Among her sporadic movies from 1966 on were: Jack Smight’s Harper (1966), with Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, and others; Jerry Lewis Three on a Couch; Robert Gist's An American Dream, with Stuart Whitman and Eleanor Parker; Jack Arnold's Hello Down There with Tony Randall; Giuliano Montaldo's Grand Slam, with Robert Hoffman, Mel Stuart's One Is a Lonely Number / Two Is a Happy Number, with Trish Van Devere, Monte Markham, and Melvyn Douglas; William F. Claxton’s Night of the Lepus (1972), with Whitman and Rory Calhoun; Stephen Verona’s Boardwalk, with Ruth Gordon and Lee Strasberg; and John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980), with Jamie Lee Curtis, Adrienne Barbeau, and Hal Holbrook. On TV, Leigh was featured in,...

John Cassavetes' artistic legacy is largely built around his role as the prototypical American indie filmmaker with works like Shadows, Husbands, and The Killing of A Chinese Bookie. In spite of his directing prowess, Cassavetes mostly made his living as a film and television actor. He was in a lot of great stuff including Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen. He was also in a lot of dodgy stuff like Incubus.

One of his more obscure roles was in Machine Gun McCain, a 1969 Italian gangster film directed by Giuliano Montaldo. Blue Underground has pulled this film from the depths of obscurity with a new Blu-Ray release. It's an interesting choice because Machine Gun McCain doesn't have the punishing ruthlessness of similar films by Fernando Di Leo or Sergio Sollima. Ultimately, it is a strong but minor work whose biggest draws are the performances of Cassavettes and his cohort Peter Falk.

Chicago – It’s pretty hard for contemporary audiences to look at a title like “Machine Gun McCain,” and not immediately make a political joke out of it. The most obvious one would be, “What’s the sequel called, “‘Pistol-Packing Palin’?” Of course, this minor cult classic came out long before the 2008 election, and was playing in theaters at the same time John McCain was being held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.

The film stars legendary independent filmmaker John Cassavetes, five years after he memorably punched Ronald Reagan in “The Killers.” Cassavetes took acting roles primarily so he could fund his own projects, which were groundbreaking, audacious, uncompromising and fueled entirely by the passion and invention of their cast and crew. That same tireless passion is apparent in several of Cassavetes’s performances, even the ones he was supposedly phoning in. His work in “Machine Gun McCain” single-handedly...

DVD Playhouse—August 2010

By

Allen Gardner

Black Orpheus (Criterion) Winner of the 1959 Best Foreign Film Oscar and that same year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes, Black Orpheus is a modern-day update of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice reset in 20th century Brazil during Carnival in Rio. Director Marcel Camus offers up a visual feast with some of the decade’s most ravishing color cinematography. A classic. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Archival interviews with Camus and actress Marpessa Dawn; Interviews with Brazilian cinema scholar Robert Stam, jazz historian Gary Giddins, and Brazilian author Ruy Castro; Documentary on the film; Trailer. Full screen. Dolby 1.0 mono.

The Last Song (Touchstone) Sentimental adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ (by Sparks and Jeff Van Wie) sentimental novel about a father and daughter attempting to repair their damaged relationship. Greg Kinnear, as the dad in question, comes off best, while tween sensation Miley Cyrus...

A look at what's new on DVD today:

"$5 a Day" (2008)

Directed by Nigel Cole

Released by Image Entertainment

A refugee of the bankrupt Capitol Films, this dramedy starring Christopher Walken as a raconteur who claims he's able to live a full life on the titular Lincoln bill is finally seeing the light of day after premiering at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. Alessandro Nivola co-stars as his son who drives him to New Mexico when he falls ill. Sharon Stone and Amanda Peet are along for the ride.

"2:22" (2008)

Directed by Phillip Guzman

Released by Inception Media Group

A quartet of thieves scheme to rob a boutique hotel on New Year's Eve, but find out that what's waiting for them on the inside is even colder than the snow-caked streets outside. Just as he did for his 2006 crime thriller "Played," star/co-writer Rossi called upon famous pals Gabriel Byrne and Val Kilmer...

The Venice Film Festival has announced it's 2009 line-up this week, showing off the films that will make-up it's 66th annual fest. The significance of this announcement is in the fact that Venice, which takes place from September 2 to September 12, shares a lot of premieres with the Toronto Film Festival. And it takes place the week before, as Toronto doesn't get underway until September 10th. Audiences in Venice will be treated to the premieres of films such as Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Michael Moore's financial crisis documentary Capitalism: A Love Story, Joe Dante's The Hole, Steven Soderbergh's espionage comedy The Informant and Grant Heslov's The Men Who Stare at Goats before their potential Toronto debuts. Also notable is the premiere of John Hillcoat's post-apocalyptic thriller The Road, which is at the top of our watch-list. See below for a full listing of films for this year's Venice...

Which films are included in the 66th Venice International Film Festival's line-up have been unveiled. On Thursday, July 30, Paolo Baratta, the President of the Venice Biennale, and Marco Muller, the Director of the Cinema section, announced the festival's selection, which included 71 world premieres, at a press conference in Rome's Excelsior Hotel on the Via Veneto.

Listed among the movies vying for a Golden Lion are six U.S. feature films. They are Michael Moore's global meltdown documentary "Capitalism: A Love Story", John Hillcoat's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel "The Road", Werner Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant" remake "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans", George Romero's horror flick "Survival of the Dead", and Tom Ford's directorial debut "A Single Man".

For the out of competition section, four U.S. movies added the line-up. Steven Soderbergh's thriller comedy "The Informant!", Grant Heslov's military mind-control satire "The...

The 66th edition of the Venice Film Festival lineup includes the main festival plus the sidebar which will be playing films like Yannick Dahan's gangster zombie flick The Horde.

In competition we have the long awaited scifi awesomeness from Jaco Van Dormael, Mr. Nobody and Shinya Tsukamoto's trfiecta Tetsuo the Bulletman.

Out of competition has [Rec] 2 and the Midnight section has Nicolas Refn's long awaited Valhalla Rising which was actually made before Bronson.

Man I wish I could go! Anyone want to cover the fest for us? Use the contact link at the bottom of the page. We'd be happy to do cross-posted reviews.

Full list after the break.

66Th Annual Venice Film Festival Lineup

Competition

"36 vues du Pic Saint Loup," Jacques Rivette (France)

"Accident," Cheang Pou-Soi (China-Hong Kong)

"Baaria," Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy) – Opening Film

"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," Werner Herzog (U.S.)

"Between Two Worlds,...

Rome -- Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" will headline a 24-film competition lineup at September's Venice Film Festival, which is heavy on first and second films from up-and-coming directors.

The lineup includes five U.S. films, four each from Italy and France, four from Asia, two from the Middle East -- with all 23 films named Thursday as world premieres.

A 24th surprise competition pic to be announced during the fest would also be a world premiere, officials said. The fest will feature 71 world premieres.

"We are very pleased and very honored to announce this lineup," Venice artistic director Marco Mueller said in a briefing Thursday, where Fatih Akin's comedy "Soul Kitchen"; "Accident," a thriller from China's Cheang Pou; and "A Single Man," a drama from Tom Ford starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, were revealed as part of the lineup.

All told, the fest will feature 16 first works and nine second works.

• Can't say there are many surprises with today's list, we discussed possible spots for Jacques Rivette, Michael Moore, Werner Herzog, Michele Placido, Todd Solondz, Jaco van Dormael, Patrice Chereau, Fatih Akin, Claire Denis and John Hillcoat's The Road (yes, there is a Santa Clause) beforehand. No disrespect, but I'm surprised that George Romero's Survival of the Dead receives a competition slot. At first glance, what I notice are the number of works from China and Hong Kong, India and a pair from Egypt. We see where the whole 3D appreciation thing is leading towards (they announced a yearly 3D award would be given out at the festival - regardless if the film was even at the festival) and perhaps its not milan, but it makes sense that American fashion designer Tom Ford to preem his directorial debut A Single Man in Italy. One more inclusion that I'm pleased to see,

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From the sublime to the ridiculous, the Italian genre films from the 1960s through the 1970s still remain the gold standard, the Golden Age, the yardstick to measure bigger-than-life greatness in low budget international cult cinema. Rivaled only by the Japanese in the same time period for sheer jaw-dropping wildness, the Italian moviemakers toiled in the salt mines of debased genres - giallo (sexy suspense) thrillers, sword and sandal adventures, spaghetti sagebrush sagas, gothic horror, nunsploitation and, last but not least, polizioteschi or the action-packed crime film. That said, before delving further back in time, the American Cinematheque in L.A. is kicking off a "Grindhouse" film series with a double bill from the 1980s-'90s - Dario Argento's "Opera" and Michele Soavi's "Cemetery Man" July 9. Also screening are two sexy jet-set, giallo mindbenders with Carroll Baker (Paranoia and A Quiet Place To Kill); a peplum double bill...

Triple Oscar honors for The Pianist have prompted the film's Italian distributor -- state broadcaster RAI's film distribution unit, called 01 -- to give Roman Polanski's holocaust drama a new theatrical run five months after its original outing. The Pianist, which was first released in Italy in November of 2002 and pulled in €4.5 million ($ 4.8 million) will go back out on 60 Italian screens starting on Wednesday (March 26) boosted by a new Oscar-touting marketing campaign, RAI Cinema president Giuliano Montaldo said on Tuesday. "The prizes for the film, including its best non-original screenplay award, are very deserved and prove that quality cinema and the power of a strong story always obtain good results," Montaldo said.