Auteur! Auteur! Four of this year’s Best Director Oscar nominees — Chloe Zhao (“Nomadland”), Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”), Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”) and Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”) — have a writing credit on their films. Zhao, Fennell and Chung reaped bids for their scripting efforts.
Over the past decade, the majority of the Oscar-winning directors were also nominated for their screenplays. Last year, Boon Joon-Ho won Best Director and shared in the Original Screenplay award with Han Jan for their work on the Best Picture champ “Parasite.”
Though writer/directors getting Oscar love is the norm these days, that wasn’t always the case. When nominations were announced for the first Academy Awards, Charlie Chaplin was cited for both Best Actor and Comedy Direction for his 1928 masterpiece “The Circus,” which he also wrote and produced. But the academy decided to withdraw his name from the competitive classes and decided “that...
Over the past decade, the majority of the Oscar-winning directors were also nominated for their screenplays. Last year, Boon Joon-Ho won Best Director and shared in the Original Screenplay award with Han Jan for their work on the Best Picture champ “Parasite.”
Though writer/directors getting Oscar love is the norm these days, that wasn’t always the case. When nominations were announced for the first Academy Awards, Charlie Chaplin was cited for both Best Actor and Comedy Direction for his 1928 masterpiece “The Circus,” which he also wrote and produced. But the academy decided to withdraw his name from the competitive classes and decided “that...
- 3/28/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Peter Wollen, who wrote and directed the early Tilda Swinton movie Friendship's Death and penned Signs and Meaning in the Cinema, an influential 1969 book about film theory, has died. He was 81.
Wollen died Tuesday in Haslemere, Surrey, after a long struggle with Alzheimer's, his son, Chad Wollen, announced.
Wollen also co-wrote with Mark Peploe the screenplay for Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), starring Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider, and collaborated with fellow film theorist Laura Mulvey, his first wife, on several projects, including the documentary Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons (1974) and the features Riddles of ...
Wollen died Tuesday in Haslemere, Surrey, after a long struggle with Alzheimer's, his son, Chad Wollen, announced.
Wollen also co-wrote with Mark Peploe the screenplay for Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), starring Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider, and collaborated with fellow film theorist Laura Mulvey, his first wife, on several projects, including the documentary Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons (1974) and the features Riddles of ...
- 12/20/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Peter Wollen, who wrote and directed the early Tilda Swinton movie Friendship's Death and penned Signs and Meaning in the Cinema, an influential 1969 book about film theory, has died. He was 81.
Wollen died Tuesday in Haslemere, Surrey, after a long struggle with Alzheimer's, his son, Chad Wollen, announced.
Wollen also co-wrote with Mark Peploe the screenplay for Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), starring Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider, and collaborated with fellow film theorist Laura Mulvey, his first wife, on several projects, including the documentary Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons (1974) and the features Riddles of ...
Wollen died Tuesday in Haslemere, Surrey, after a long struggle with Alzheimer's, his son, Chad Wollen, announced.
Wollen also co-wrote with Mark Peploe the screenplay for Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975), starring Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider, and collaborated with fellow film theorist Laura Mulvey, his first wife, on several projects, including the documentary Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons (1974) and the features Riddles of ...
- 12/20/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A forgotten oddity from the early 1970s is Jacques Demy’s English language mounting of The Pied Piper, a rather bleak but mostly unequivocal version of the famed Grimm Bros. fairy tale about a titular piper who infamously lured the children of Hamelin to their assumed deaths after being rebuffed by the townsfolk when he similarly rid the town of plague carrying rats.
Set in the 1300s of northern Germany, this UK production blends bits of Robert Browning’s famed poem of the legend into the film, but the end result is unusually straightforward and unfussy, considering Demy’s predilection for inventive, colorful musicals, such as the classic confections The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort. The stunt casting of Donovan as the piper generates a certain amount of interest, although he’s whittled down to a supporting character amongst a cast of master character actors like Donald Pleasence, John Hurt, Peter Vaughan, and child star Jack Wild.
Notably, The Pied Piper is one of the few Demy films not to be built around a strong, beautiful female lead, which may also explain why there’s no center point in the film. Cathryn Harrison (daughter of Rex, who starred in Louis Malle’s Black Moon) and a gone-to-seed Diana Dors (though not featured as memorably as her swarthy turn in Skolimowski’s Deep End) are the tiny flecks of feminine representation. It was also not Demy’s first English language production, as he’d made a sequel to his New Wave entry Lola (1961) with 1969’s Los Angeles set Model Shop. So what compelled him to make this departure, which premiered in-between two of his most whimsical Catherine Deneuve titles (Donkey Skin; A Slightly Pregnant Man) is perhaps the film’s greatest mystery.
Cultural familiarity with the material tends to work against our expectations. At best, Donovan is a mere supporting accent, popping up to supply mellow, anachronistic music at odd moments before the dramatic catalyst involving his ability to conjure rats with music arrives. Prior to his demeaning, Demy’s focus is mostly on the omnipotent and aggressive power of the corrupting church (Peter Vaughan’s Bishop) and Donald Pleasence’s greedy town leader, whose son (a sniveling John Hurt) is more intent on starting wars and making counterfeit gold to pay his gullible minions than stopping the encroaching plague. Taking the brunt of their violence is the Jewish alchemist, Melius (Michael Hordern), who is wise enough to know the rats have something to do with the spread of the disease. Demy uses his tragic demise to juxtapose the piper’s designs on the children.
While Hurt and Pleasance are entertaining as a toxic father and son, Demy seems estranged from anyone resembling a protagonist. Donovan is instantly forgettable, and the H.R. Pufnstuf and Oliver! child star Jack Wild gets upstaged by a wild mop of hair and a pronounced limp (which explains why he isn’t entranced along with the other children), and the film plays as if Donovan’s role might have been edited down in post. The script was the debut of screenwriters Andrew Birkin (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, 2006) and Mark Peploe (The Passenger, 1975; The Last Emperor, 1987) who would both go on to write a number of offbeat auteur entries.
Disc Review:
Kino Lorber releases this obscurity as part of their Studio Classics label, presented in 1.66:1. Picture and sound quality are serviceable, however, the title would have greatly benefitted from a restoration. Dp Peter Suschitzky’s frames rightly capture the period, including some awesomely creepy frescoes housing Pleasence and son, but the color sometimes seems faded or stripped from some sequences. Kino doesn’t include any extra features.
Final Thoughts:
More of a curio piece for fans of Demy, The Pied Piper mostly seems a missed opportunity of the creepy legend.
Film Review: ★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Review: ★★★/☆☆☆☆☆
The post The Pied Piper | Blu-ray Review appeared first on Ioncinema.com.
Set in the 1300s of northern Germany, this UK production blends bits of Robert Browning’s famed poem of the legend into the film, but the end result is unusually straightforward and unfussy, considering Demy’s predilection for inventive, colorful musicals, such as the classic confections The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort. The stunt casting of Donovan as the piper generates a certain amount of interest, although he’s whittled down to a supporting character amongst a cast of master character actors like Donald Pleasence, John Hurt, Peter Vaughan, and child star Jack Wild.
Notably, The Pied Piper is one of the few Demy films not to be built around a strong, beautiful female lead, which may also explain why there’s no center point in the film. Cathryn Harrison (daughter of Rex, who starred in Louis Malle’s Black Moon) and a gone-to-seed Diana Dors (though not featured as memorably as her swarthy turn in Skolimowski’s Deep End) are the tiny flecks of feminine representation. It was also not Demy’s first English language production, as he’d made a sequel to his New Wave entry Lola (1961) with 1969’s Los Angeles set Model Shop. So what compelled him to make this departure, which premiered in-between two of his most whimsical Catherine Deneuve titles (Donkey Skin; A Slightly Pregnant Man) is perhaps the film’s greatest mystery.
Cultural familiarity with the material tends to work against our expectations. At best, Donovan is a mere supporting accent, popping up to supply mellow, anachronistic music at odd moments before the dramatic catalyst involving his ability to conjure rats with music arrives. Prior to his demeaning, Demy’s focus is mostly on the omnipotent and aggressive power of the corrupting church (Peter Vaughan’s Bishop) and Donald Pleasence’s greedy town leader, whose son (a sniveling John Hurt) is more intent on starting wars and making counterfeit gold to pay his gullible minions than stopping the encroaching plague. Taking the brunt of their violence is the Jewish alchemist, Melius (Michael Hordern), who is wise enough to know the rats have something to do with the spread of the disease. Demy uses his tragic demise to juxtapose the piper’s designs on the children.
While Hurt and Pleasance are entertaining as a toxic father and son, Demy seems estranged from anyone resembling a protagonist. Donovan is instantly forgettable, and the H.R. Pufnstuf and Oliver! child star Jack Wild gets upstaged by a wild mop of hair and a pronounced limp (which explains why he isn’t entranced along with the other children), and the film plays as if Donovan’s role might have been edited down in post. The script was the debut of screenwriters Andrew Birkin (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, 2006) and Mark Peploe (The Passenger, 1975; The Last Emperor, 1987) who would both go on to write a number of offbeat auteur entries.
Disc Review:
Kino Lorber releases this obscurity as part of their Studio Classics label, presented in 1.66:1. Picture and sound quality are serviceable, however, the title would have greatly benefitted from a restoration. Dp Peter Suschitzky’s frames rightly capture the period, including some awesomely creepy frescoes housing Pleasence and son, but the color sometimes seems faded or stripped from some sequences. Kino doesn’t include any extra features.
Final Thoughts:
More of a curio piece for fans of Demy, The Pied Piper mostly seems a missed opportunity of the creepy legend.
Film Review: ★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Review: ★★★/☆☆☆☆☆
The post The Pied Piper | Blu-ray Review appeared first on Ioncinema.com.
- 5/3/2017
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
By Patrick Shanley
Managing Editor
With a number of big Golden Globe wins last night, including best director and best dramatic picture for The Revenant, director Alejandro G. Inarritu finds himself once more in the thick of the Oscar hunt. The Mexican-born filmmaker won big last year with three Oscars for his avant garde drama Birdman, which scored him the best original screenplay, best director, and best picture awards.
This year, with the western revenge thriller The Revenant, Inarritu has once more directed a film that he wrote himself, this time adapting the screenplay from the novel by Michael Punke with co-writer Mark L. Smith.
Inarritu is not the only writer/director with films in the race this year, however, as a number of other contenders boast a director who also penned the film’s script. The original screenplay hopefuls include Spotlight (directed and written by Tom McCarthy with co-writer...
Managing Editor
With a number of big Golden Globe wins last night, including best director and best dramatic picture for The Revenant, director Alejandro G. Inarritu finds himself once more in the thick of the Oscar hunt. The Mexican-born filmmaker won big last year with three Oscars for his avant garde drama Birdman, which scored him the best original screenplay, best director, and best picture awards.
This year, with the western revenge thriller The Revenant, Inarritu has once more directed a film that he wrote himself, this time adapting the screenplay from the novel by Michael Punke with co-writer Mark L. Smith.
Inarritu is not the only writer/director with films in the race this year, however, as a number of other contenders boast a director who also penned the film’s script. The original screenplay hopefuls include Spotlight (directed and written by Tom McCarthy with co-writer...
- 1/12/2016
- by Patrick Shanley
- Scott Feinberg
The American Film Institute (AFI) today announced additional Centerpiece Galas and Special Screenings – comprised of a world premiere, award season contenders and highly anticipated independent and international films of the fall – for AFI Fest 2013 presented by Audi.
There will be a red carpet Gala each night of the festival.
The additional Centerpiece Galas are August: Osage County (Dir John Wells) on Friday, November 8; The Last Emperor 3D (Dir Bernardo Bertolucci) on Sunday, November 10; and the World Premiere of Lone Survivor (Dir Peter Berg) on Tuesday, November 12.
All Galas will be presented in the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre.
August: Osage County
AFI Fest’s Special Screenings are Her (Dir Spike Jonze); The Invisible Woman (Dir Ralph Fiennes); Jodorowsky’S Dune (Dir Frank Pavich); Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom (Dir Justin Chadwick); The Past (Le PASSÉ) (Dir Asghar Farhadi); Philomena (Dir Stephen Frears); and The Unknown Known: The Life And Times...
There will be a red carpet Gala each night of the festival.
The additional Centerpiece Galas are August: Osage County (Dir John Wells) on Friday, November 8; The Last Emperor 3D (Dir Bernardo Bertolucci) on Sunday, November 10; and the World Premiere of Lone Survivor (Dir Peter Berg) on Tuesday, November 12.
All Galas will be presented in the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre.
August: Osage County
AFI Fest’s Special Screenings are Her (Dir Spike Jonze); The Invisible Woman (Dir Ralph Fiennes); Jodorowsky’S Dune (Dir Frank Pavich); Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom (Dir Justin Chadwick); The Past (Le PASSÉ) (Dir Asghar Farhadi); Philomena (Dir Stephen Frears); and The Unknown Known: The Life And Times...
- 10/17/2013
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Hope you’re ready for more updates from the upcoming Cannes Film Festival line-up, because we have some great news to share: Bernardo Bertolucci‘s 1987 epic The Last Emperor is getting a 3D conversion and will be unveiled at Cannes! That means that festival’s organizers are more than ready to pay tribute to the essential work being done by copyright holders, film libraries, production companies and national archives throughout the world. Written by Bertolucci and Mark Peploe, a 1987 biopic tells the story of Puyi, the last Emperor of China, whose life is depicted from his ascent to the throne as a small boy to his...
Click to continue reading The Last Emperor 3D Conversion Will Be Unveiled At Cannes on www.filmofilia.com...
Click to continue reading The Last Emperor 3D Conversion Will Be Unveiled At Cannes on www.filmofilia.com...
- 5/3/2013
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
The official juries for the 65th Festival del film Locarno have been appointed. The jury for the International Competition will include the American screenwriter, producer and director Roger Avary (Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, 1994; The Laws of Attraction, 2002), Seoul filmmaker Sang-soo Im (A Good Lawyer’s Wife, 2003; The Housemaid, 2010), French director, screenwriter and actress Noémie Lvovsky (La vie ne me fait pas peur, Silver Leopard “Youth Cinema” at Locarno in 1999; Camille redouble, 2012; Benoît Jacquot’s Farewell, My Queen, 2012) and London-based Swiss curator and writer Hans Ulrich Obrist, co-director of the Serpentine Gallery in London since 2006.
The jury president will be Thai filmmaker, screenwriter and producer Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Palme d’or at Cannes in 2010 for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives). Around twenty feature films will screen in competition.
The president of the jury for the ‘Filmmakers of the Present’ Competition will be the director from Chad Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Saison sèche,...
The jury president will be Thai filmmaker, screenwriter and producer Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Palme d’or at Cannes in 2010 for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives). Around twenty feature films will screen in competition.
The president of the jury for the ‘Filmmakers of the Present’ Competition will be the director from Chad Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Saison sèche,...
- 6/28/2012
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
For a self-described "reactionary" filmmaker, Monte Hellman is remarkably forward-thinking. Road to Nowhere (reviewed here), his first feature since 1989, is a film shot digitally that's partly about cinema in the digital age; from its very first shot—where a character pops a DVD-r with the film's title on it into a laptop—on, Road to Nowhere is a film about the slipperiness of digitally created, manipulated and viewed images. Written by longtime Hellman collaborator Steve Gaydos, it stars Shannyn Sossammon as Laurel, an inexperienced actress who is cast in a true crime drama also called Road to Nowhere (directed by one “Mitchell Haven” and written by one “Stephen Gates”); in this film-within-a-film, Laurel plays femme-fatale-ish Velma Duran, though the whole thing is ambiguous enough (in terms of structure, characterization, aesthetics, etc.) that at least one character begins to suspect that Laurel and Duran are in fact the same person.
Hellman is erudite and easygoing.
Hellman is erudite and easygoing.
- 7/26/2011
- MUBI
An Italian film director sets out to recreate an epic Chinese story as an independent film and entirely in English and goes on to win nine Oscars. Sound unlikely? Well, in most cases it probably would be, but Bernardo Bertolucci did just that with The Last Emperor in 1987 as he set out to tell the story of a 3-year-old boy who became Emperor of China with 400 million people as his subjects on an unlikely path to becoming a gardener in Peking. The success of the film is almost as unimaginable as the story behind it and Criterion has set out to ensure you know Everything there is to know about this movie and its place in history with a Blu-ray edition that takes three (of the four) DVDs worth of material and places it all on one disc. Speak ill of the high-definition format no more as the thought of...
- 1/5/2009
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Late last week Criterion announced the first five titles they will release on Blu-ray high-definition discs and they will come loaded with bonus features and are already available for pre-order on Criterion's site. The first five titles include The Third Man and The Man Who Fell to Earth on November 18 and The Last Emperor, Bottle Rocket and Chungking Express the following week on November 25. I have included the specs and special features below as well as the cover art for three of the titles. The Third Man (1949) Will feature a restored high definition transfer in 1.37:1, and an uncompressed mono soundtrack. Video introduction by writer-director Peter Bogdanovich Two audio commentaries: one by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Tony Gilroy, and one by by film scholar Dana Polan Shadowing "The Third Man" (2005), a ninety-minute feature documentary on the making of the film Abridged recording of Graham Greene's treatment, read by...
- 8/18/2008
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The Last Emperor. (The Criterion Collection, 2008).
Red-carpet DVD producer Criterion does it again with its lavish, four-disk box set release of this Oscar winner from 1987. Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, the film is one of two films in Academy history that won all of its nominations in nine categories (Gigi being the other; only one other film won a higher number of nominations without a loss, and that was The Lord of the Rings—the Return of the King). Emperor is a magnificent and intelligent epic about Pu Yi, the last reigning emperor of Imperial China. While full of spectacle on a grand scale, the picture also manages to be an intimate human drama about a young man trapped by historical events out of his control. After all, this was a person who became the emperor of a country at the age of three. Of particular historical cinematic importance is the...
Red-carpet DVD producer Criterion does it again with its lavish, four-disk box set release of this Oscar winner from 1987. Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, the film is one of two films in Academy history that won all of its nominations in nine categories (Gigi being the other; only one other film won a higher number of nominations without a loss, and that was The Lord of the Rings—the Return of the King). Emperor is a magnificent and intelligent epic about Pu Yi, the last reigning emperor of Imperial China. While full of spectacle on a grand scale, the picture also manages to be an intimate human drama about a young man trapped by historical events out of his control. After all, this was a person who became the emperor of a country at the age of three. Of particular historical cinematic importance is the...
- 3/4/2008
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
- After struggling to bring to fruition his take on the American novel from Ann Patchett entitled Bel canto, Variety reports that Bernardo Bertolucci’s new project is an untitled English-language drama centered on the emotionally turbulent life of 16th-century Italo musician and murderer Gesualdo da Venosa. Continuing his fascination with dead people and historical figures, the tale will have a substantial musical component centered on the composer -- whose creativity soared as he suffered terribly over having killed his first wife and her lover.Mark Peploe who has written a fair amount of screenplays for Bertolucci including The Last Emperor, will pen this epic tale and longtime producer Jeremy Thomas is on board as well. Bertolucci last directed The Dreamers. ...
- 5/30/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
Film review: 'The Last Emperor'
With nearly an hour of extra footage, mostly in added shots and small sequences, Bernardo Bertolucci's much-honored "The Last Emperor" is even more impressive in distributor Artisan Entertainment's "original director's cut" -- a sumptuous feast in Los Angeles at the Nuart and for cineastes in San Francisco and Chicago.
Now running 219 minutes (and shown disappointingly without an intermission), this winner of nine Academy Awards including best picture was released in 1987 and boldly portrays the life of Pu Yi with unparalleled access to the Forbidden City, where the young emperor lived for 16 years. Few movies before or since have so successfully combined the showmanship of widescreen filmmaking with rigorous, literate storytelling and delicate psychological characterizations.
Comparing the two versions is startling, with the longer captivating one in a more satisfying, big-movie fashion -- particularly in the first two hours. Along with more exquisitely beautiful scenes from Pu Yi's youth, including the entirely new story of how his beloved wet nurse (Jade Go) came to the Forbidden City, the present version has more details of the lead's harsh transformation through imprisonment and interrogation, including his complex relationship with the prison governor (Ying Ruocheng).
While the cutting between the adult Pu Yi (John Lone) as a war criminal and his coming of age in the turbulent early years of this century is the same in both editions, this preferred length allows one to fully digest the flavors and themes of Bertolucci and Mark Peploe's Oscar-winning screenplay. Historical but dramatic and highlighted by luminous performances (Peter O'Toole, Joan Chen) and breathtaking crowd scenes, "The Last Emperor" is a masterpiece with a few reservations that are not dismissed in either case.
The interrogators themselves hurry up the story by having Pu Yi move on to his involvement with the Japanese in the 1930s and World War II. The provocative Eastern Jewel (Maggie Han) still shows up out of the blue to create a new threesome for the playboy emperor in exile, and the Cultural Revolution, near the ironic conclusion, is not as well-explained as other eras portrayed.
Also winning Academy Awards for direction, editing, art direction, cinematography, costume design, scoring and sound, "The Last Emperor" is without question a tremendously impressive work of entertainment and art that soars on the big screen and makes a handsome home-viewing collector's item.
THE LAST EMPEROR ORIGINAL DIRECTOR'S CUT
Artisan Entertainment
In association with Recorded Picture Co. Hemdale Film Corp.
A Jeremy Thomas production
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Producer: Jeremy Thomas
Screenwriters: Mark Peploe, Bernardo Bertolucci
Director of photography: Vittorio Storaro
Production designer: Ferdinando Scarfiotti
Editor: Gabriella Cristiani
Costume designer: James Acheson
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, Cong Su
Color/stereo
Cast:
Pu Yi (adult): John Lone
Wan Jung: Joan Chen
Reginald Johnston: Peter O'Toole
The Governor: Ying Ruocheng
Chen Pao Shen: Victor Wong
Eastern Jewel: Maggie Han
Ar Mo: Jade Go
Running time -- 219 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Now running 219 minutes (and shown disappointingly without an intermission), this winner of nine Academy Awards including best picture was released in 1987 and boldly portrays the life of Pu Yi with unparalleled access to the Forbidden City, where the young emperor lived for 16 years. Few movies before or since have so successfully combined the showmanship of widescreen filmmaking with rigorous, literate storytelling and delicate psychological characterizations.
Comparing the two versions is startling, with the longer captivating one in a more satisfying, big-movie fashion -- particularly in the first two hours. Along with more exquisitely beautiful scenes from Pu Yi's youth, including the entirely new story of how his beloved wet nurse (Jade Go) came to the Forbidden City, the present version has more details of the lead's harsh transformation through imprisonment and interrogation, including his complex relationship with the prison governor (Ying Ruocheng).
While the cutting between the adult Pu Yi (John Lone) as a war criminal and his coming of age in the turbulent early years of this century is the same in both editions, this preferred length allows one to fully digest the flavors and themes of Bertolucci and Mark Peploe's Oscar-winning screenplay. Historical but dramatic and highlighted by luminous performances (Peter O'Toole, Joan Chen) and breathtaking crowd scenes, "The Last Emperor" is a masterpiece with a few reservations that are not dismissed in either case.
The interrogators themselves hurry up the story by having Pu Yi move on to his involvement with the Japanese in the 1930s and World War II. The provocative Eastern Jewel (Maggie Han) still shows up out of the blue to create a new threesome for the playboy emperor in exile, and the Cultural Revolution, near the ironic conclusion, is not as well-explained as other eras portrayed.
Also winning Academy Awards for direction, editing, art direction, cinematography, costume design, scoring and sound, "The Last Emperor" is without question a tremendously impressive work of entertainment and art that soars on the big screen and makes a handsome home-viewing collector's item.
THE LAST EMPEROR ORIGINAL DIRECTOR'S CUT
Artisan Entertainment
In association with Recorded Picture Co. Hemdale Film Corp.
A Jeremy Thomas production
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Producer: Jeremy Thomas
Screenwriters: Mark Peploe, Bernardo Bertolucci
Director of photography: Vittorio Storaro
Production designer: Ferdinando Scarfiotti
Editor: Gabriella Cristiani
Costume designer: James Acheson
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, Cong Su
Color/stereo
Cast:
Pu Yi (adult): John Lone
Wan Jung: Joan Chen
Reginald Johnston: Peter O'Toole
The Governor: Ying Ruocheng
Chen Pao Shen: Victor Wong
Eastern Jewel: Maggie Han
Ar Mo: Jade Go
Running time -- 219 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 11/30/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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