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The 1940s represent the absolute pinnacle of suspense cinema. This was a decade shaped by global conflict and societal anxiety, conditions that created the perfect storm for stories of paranoia, betrayal, and psychological torment. From this crucible of uncertainty emerged the shadowy world of film noir, the sophisticated psychological thriller, and the modern spy film.

This definitive ranking showcases the ten greatest thrillers of the decade, films that entertained audiences and rewrote the rules of suspense cinema. Each entry on this list combines critical acclaim, box office success, and lasting cultural impact, representing the very best of what made 1940s thriller movies so enduringly powerful.

10. The Stranger (1946)

Director: Orson Welles

Stars: Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young

Orson Welles’s brutally effective post-war thriller operates on a premise both simple and terrifying: one of the architects of the Final Solution has escaped justice and now lives as a beloved...

The multi-talented Griffin Dunne (with his Louis Kahn hair) with Anne-Katrin Titze on his Oscar-nominated short Duke of Groove and his fabulous memoir The Friday Afternoon Club: “That was based on the thing in the book, actually, when I went to my aunt's party where Janis Joplin was going to be and Otto Preminger.”

During the 24th edition of the Tribeca Festival at their Lisboa launch party, hosted by co-founders Robert De Niro (featured in Matt Tyrnauer’s Tribeca highlight Nobu on chef Nobu Matsuhisa) and Jane Rosenthal, Griffin Dunne, who had been part of the inaugural Lisbon delegation in 2024, spoke with me about his intimate documentary on his aunt, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, the Monica Vitti Cinecittà retrospective at Film at Lincoln Center, and a possible documentary on The Dakota building in his future. We also made plans to talk in depth about his witty, thoughtful,...

Al Pacino is known as one of the all-time greats in Hollywood, with legendary roles in films like The Godfather, Scarface, and Dog Day Afternoon. He’s been part of some of the most important movies in American cinema. So, when someone like him gives their opinion on acting, people tend to listen.

While many fans and critics would say Pacino himself is one of the best to ever do it, the actor has his own list of favorites. In an interview with Playboy back in 1979, Pacino talked about the actors he looked up to the most. He mentioned names like Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, Jack Nicholson, Robert Mitchum, and Lee Marvin. About Cooper, Pacino said, “Gary Cooper was kind of a phenomenon… his ability to take something and elevate it, give it such dignity. One of the great presences.”

But when he was asked who he believed was the best actor in America,...

Al Pacino has played some of the most iconic roles in American film history. From The Godfather to Scarface and Dog Day Afternoon, his name is carved into the foundation of modern Hollywood. But while many people see Pacino himself as one of the greatest actors of all time, he once pointed to someone else when asked who truly deserves that title.

In an interview with Playboy back in 1979, Pacino shared his thoughts on the actors he admires most. He mentioned names like Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, Jack Nicholson, Lee Marvin, and Robert Mitchum. He praised Cooper in particular for his quiet strength, saying, “Gary Cooper was kind of a phenomenon… his ability to take something and elevate it, give it such dignity. One of the great presences.”

But when the question came up about who he believed was the best American actor, Pacino didn’t name Brando, Nicholson, or De Niro.

William Dozier's 1966 TV series "Batman" is a brilliant, sublime comedy series, and may easily be one of the best ever made. Its title hero (played by the genius Adam West) and his sidekick Robin (equal genius Burt Ward) delivered their lines in an ultra-earnest fashion that was clearly satire, but that never once winked or hinted to the audience that they were in on the joke. They were square-jawed stalwarts who stood for righteousness in the face of cartoon anarchists who represented counterculture, sexuality, or just good old-fashioned prankstership. The world of Batman was broad and ridiculous, and "Batman" presented a TV series that somehow both vaunted and ridiculed that universe. 

The villains on Dozier's show were typically played by well-regarded actors who took the opportunity to cut loose a little, or were hard-working professionals who loved sinking their teeth into goofy-ass comedic roles. The Joker was played...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Bonjour Tristesse (Durga Chew-Bose)

There was slight trepidation going into Bonjour Tristesse. Justifying itself as another “adaptation” of Françoise Sagan’s text rather than remake of Otto Preminger’s masterpiece of mise-en-scène, there’s still some hesitation about the chutzpah that must go into thinking you can top that great craftsman at the height of his power. As directed by writer-turned-filmmaker Durga Chew-Bose with a great deal of formal assurance, this 2024 iteration is a highly respectable effort that’ll speak to countless people the original didn’t. One major difference being that Preminger made the film as a showcase for the muse he was having an affair with, Jean Seberg, casting some leering-male element onto the whole project. Chew-Bose’s project isn...

Whether it’s because notions like truth and fairness demand more attention than ever in a chaotically unjust world, or because some cinematic traditions need revitalizing, filmmakers have been returning to the courtroom genre lately. After Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2” and the elegant, modern-day twist it put on Sidney Lumet’s 1957 classic “12 Angry Men,” it’s now the turn of writer-directors Jim Sheridan and David Merriman to revive the spirit of Lumet and Otto Preminger with the terrific “Re-Creation.”

Six-time Oscar nominee Sheridan is no stranger to the conventions of a legal thriller, having directed one of its finest examples in 1993 with “In The Name of the Father,” depicting the real-life case of the falsely accused Guildford Four in the 1974 Ira bombings. With “Re-Creation,” he and Merriman tackle another true story: the highly publicized 1996 murder of French filmmaker Toscan du Plantier, already the subject of various podcasts and documentaries.

Legendary Hollywood actress Kim Novak (Vertigo, Picnic, Bell, Book and Candle) will be awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia (Aug. 27–Sept. 6).

Venice also unveiled that the documentary Kim Novak’s Vertigo by Alexandre Philippe, “made in exclusive collaboration with the actress,” will be presented in its world premiere during the festival.

The decision about the honor was made by the board of directors of La Biennale, based on the recommendation of the artistic director of the festival, Alberto Barbera, organizers said Monday.

“I am deeply, deeply touched to receive the prestigious Golden Lion Award from such an enormously respected film festival,” said Novak. “To be recognized for my body of work at this time in my life is a dream come true. I will treasure every moment I spend in Venice. It will fill my heart with joy.

The Venice Film Festival will honor legendary “Vertigo” star Kim Novak with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Novak, 92, became the world’s top box office draw during the late ‘50s and early ‘60s thanks to films now considered classics such as Joshua Logan’s “Picnic” (1955); Otto Preminger’s “The Man with the Golden Arm” (1955); George Sidney’s Pal Joey (1957); and, of course, Alfred Hitchock’s “Vertigo” (1958) in which she plays dual characters in the role of her lifetime.

But Novak is also known as “a star who was emancipated; a rebel at the heart of Hollywood who illuminated the dreams of movie lovers before retiring to her ranch in Oregon to dedicate herself to painting and to her horses,” as a Venice fest statement put it.

As part of the tribute, Venice will world premiere the documentary biopic “Kim Novak’s Vertigo,” directed and written by Alexandre O. Philippe.

Kim Novak is to receive the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.

The festival, which runs August 27-September 6, also will screen the world premiere of documentary Kim Novak’s Vertigo by Alexandre Philippe, made in collaboration with the legendary American actress.

Known for movies including Vertigo, Picnic, and Bell Book and Candle, Novak said today: “I am deeply, deeply touched to receive the prestigious Golden Lion Award from such an enormously respected film festival. To be recognized for my body of work at this time in my life is a dream come true. I will treasure every moment I spend in Venice. It will fill my heart with joy.”

Venice’s Artistic Director Alberto Barbera declared: “Inadvertently becoming a screen legend, Kim Novak was one of the most beloved icons of an entire era of Hollywood films, from her auspicious debut during the mid-1950s until her...

“Scream queen” Kathleen Hughes Rubin thrived for nearly a century in Hollywood. Despite her image as a sexy screen siren of the 1950s, she enjoyed an enduring marriage to producer Stanley Rubin, and was the beloved mother of four children and a joy to all who knew her.

The death of Kathleen Hughes May 19 at age 96 concluded a nostalgic chapter of cinematic history for the baby boomer generation who grew up with her films. For me, her passing was also the loss of a cherished friend. Kathy’s movie career began during the late 1940s as the studio system entered its Cretaceous Period by subsequently deploying CinemaScope, Vista Vision, Cinerama and similar innovations in an attempt to lure audiences away from their television sets and back into movie theaters. Science fiction and film noir became melded with the short-lived phenomenon of 3D, with Kathy becoming prominent by her appearances in...

Arguably the worst film in competition in Cannes this year is a strong candidate for the festival’s Best Director prize, and rightfully so. The follow-up to 2018’s Un Certain Regard entry Long Day’s Journey into Night — which asked viewers to don 3D glasses for its spectacular climax, an unbroken, hourlong tracking shot — Resurrection is both breathtaking at times and airless at others. During the first press show the aisles of the screening room resembled scenes from Otto Preminger’s Exodus, and it was hard to tell how many of those who stayed in their seats were even conscious of that fact. It will have its admirers, for sure, and at least 40 minutes of it are pure visual genius, but it’s hard to imagine a more willfully obscure movie that’s been shown here since Wong Kar-wai’s 2046.

Bi Gan is certainly a stylist, and the film luxuriates in that,...

In 1983, Jim McBride attempted an English-language remake of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1959 cinema landmark, Breathless with Richard Gere. It broke one of Godard’s cardinal rules: It was in color. Although not as terrible an idea as Gus Van Sant’s disastrous shot-by-shot 1998 color remake of Hitchcock’s 1960 Psycho — which, like Godard’s forever-influential movie the year before, also broke all the rules of its genre — it is dismissed today with the original still finding new life with young audiences each generation, as France’s New Wave also continues to do.

With the truly wonderful Nouvelle Vague (New Wave), premiering today in Competition at Cannes (where else?), Richard Linklater smartly has not attempted a remake of Breathless but rather a certain regard and respect for the wildly creative cinematic period Godard and his contemporaries achieved with the French New Wave. A cinema revolutionary in spirit and deed himself — just watch his...

In “Nouvelle Vague,” Richard Linklater’s ingenious and enchanting docudrama about the making of “Breathless,” the 29-year-old Jean-Luc Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) never takes off his sunglasses. He wears them on the set and in the office, in restaurants and at the movies.

The omnipresent round dark shades serve several functions. First and foremost, they’re authentic — Godard, in the late ’50s and early ’60s, really did wear his sunglasses all the time, almost as a form of branding. They were instrumental in lending him his mystique: that of an intellectual artist who was cool, who knew how to keep his distance, who had things on his mind he was too hip to share. Yet the sunglasses also accomplish something else. In a biopic, no actor looks exactly like the person they’re playing. But the unknown French actor Guillaume Marbeck, with a bushy widow’s peak and a chiseled poker face,...

From Jean Seberg’s sideswept pixie cut to Jean-Paul Belmondo’s aviators, Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” has become more fashionable in today’s cultural imagination for its iconic looks and images than for how the jump-cut-pioneering renegade feature collapsed cinematic hierarchies as we knew them in 1960. That makes one of the greatest films of all time, and the standard bearer of the French New Wave, ripe for discovery for a younger generation — and fresher still for the older ones well familiar with it.

If the best way to criticize a movie, as Cahiers du Cinéma critic Godard once said, is to make one, then director Richard Linklater’s answer to making a tribute to “Breathless” might instead be to not quite criticize but certainly to subvert the tropes of movies about moviemaking. His black-and-white “Nouvelle Vague,” itself a meticulous recreation of a movie made in 1959 with all the celluloid, Academy-ratio crackle and pop,...

Actress Lily McInerny knows it sounds a little weird coming from a rising actress of her caliber, but it’s true, she “wasn’t a very outgoing kid.” But even her early inclination to work behind the scenes couldn’t quite kick what was always stirring in her: she wanted to tell stories. Acting? That fit the bill.

As the Indie Spirit nominee told IndieWire during a recent interview, she always loved fantasy tales, and that love for magical escapism naturally led to an interest in the theater and beyond. Also of assistance: An overall McInerny clan affection for “The Simpsons” (the gateway for her sense of humor), plus her dad’s love of sci-fi and horror.

She even made her own little films as a youngster, and by age eight, she was acting in elementary school productions. At age 13, she got into New York City’s “Fame” high school,...

Chloë Sevigny loves to work, of course, but as the mother of a five-year-old, she has other things to consider, too.

“I’m a working actress, but also having a family at home and being more rooted in New York now that I have a child, there’s a different level of consideration for what projects I take on,” the actress told Indiewire. For some performers, describing themselves as a “working actor” could seem like self-deprecation, but for Sevigny, even though many of her priorities have changed, it’s always about the work.

And the work that makes up her resume is iconic, having first come up in the indie film pipeline at 19 years old in writer Harmony Korine and director Larry Clark’s “Kids,” the controversial ’90s coming-of-age film about a group of New York teens left to their own self-destructive devices. Since then, she has been nominated for...

“Bonjour Tristesse” (2024) begins on a cozy, comforting note in a sun-drenched town in Europe. It is hard for these early moments not to remind you of Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me by Your Name,” especially with how it establishes its setting filled with warmth and a sense of relaxation. There is a clear emphasis on making us a part of this world on a sensory level with shots of mundane details around its characters, akin to Yasujirō Ozu’s pillow shots, which furthers the cushy charm of its setting. That is also how writer-director Durga Chew-Bose presents her bourgeois characters, caught in these simple joys of life.

None of them feels a sense of urgency or unrest in the conventional sense. Agreed that these people are there to spend their summer vacation, where rest might just be of the utmost priority. However, that seems unlikely in modern times, in which the film places its characters.

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published during the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Greenwich Entertainment releases “Bonjour Tristesse” in select theaters on May 2, 2025.

The German language might get plenty of admiration for its ability to articulate complicated feelings and things, but don’t discount French for its similar refinement. Consider tristesse, which translates to “sadness, gloominess, dolefulness, dreariness, gloom,” and the like, but definitely sounds better than just “sadness.” It sounds chic, winsome, so French. Bonjour, tristesse? Oh la la indeed!

Such is the title of Françoise Sagan’s 1954 novel — written when the author was just 18, and thus the perfect age to write a story literally called “Hello, Sadness” — and of both a previous (very good) Otto Preminger-directed adaptation and Durga Chew-Bose’s clever new spin on the story at hand. While remakes can feel, by their very nature, like the worst kind of retread (to say nothing...

Directing an adaptation of an iconic book that has already been successfully adapted by the legendary Otto Preminger is an ambitious task for a first-time director, yet that is precisely what Durga Chew-Bose did for her debut feature, Bonjour Tristesse. Taking advantage of her superb cast and some gorgeous scenery, Chew-Bose manages to make her version of this story worth watching despite a safe script.

Bonjour Tristesse Review

Bonjour Tristesse follows a young woman vacationing in the south of France with her father and his younger girlfriend when their seemingly idyllic getaway is disrupted by the arrival of one of her late mother’s old friends. A little bit of debauchery and a whole lot of melodrama ensue, creating a film that goes down incredibly easy.

The biggest obstacle Bonjour Tristesse has to overcome is that its characters aren’t the most approachable. They’re rich and superficial, but this...

Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2024 TIFF coverage. Bonjour Tristesse opens in theaters on May 2.

There was slight trepidation going into Bonjour Tristesse. Justifying itself as another “adaptation” of Françoise Sagan’s text rather than remake of Otto Preminger’s masterpiece of mise-en-scène, there’s still some hesitation about the chutzpah that must go into thinking you can top that great craftsman at the height of his power. As directed by writer-turned-filmmaker Durga Chew-Bose with a great deal of formal assurance, this 2024 iteration is a highly respectable effort that’ll speak to countless people the original didn’t. One major difference being that Preminger made the film as a showcase for the muse he was having an affair with, Jean Seberg, casting some leering-male element onto the whole project. Chew-Bose’s project isn’t so much feminist as feminine––that a working-out of neurosis that doesn’t provide completely easy answers.

The summer season is upon us and, per each year, we’ve dug beyond studio offerings to present an in-depth look at what should be on your radar. From festival winners of the past year to selections coming straight from Cannes to genre delights to, yes, a few blockbuster spectacles, there’s more than enough to anticipate.

Check out our picks below and return for monthly updates as more is sure to be added to the calendar. Release dates are for theatrical openings, unless otherwise noted.

Pavements (Alex Ross Perry; May 2)

If the Hollywood superhero-industrial complex is perishing, the Rolling Stone and Spin magazine extended universe is hastily being built. What better defines “pre-awareness” for the studios like the data logged by Spotify’s algorithm, where billions of track plays confirm what past popular music has stood the test of time, and also how––in the streaming era––you can gouge ancillary money from it?...

Is cinema ready for a new adaptation of “Bonjour Tristesse“? Well, it’s been 66 years since Otto Preminger‘s take on Françoise Sagan‘s classic French novel, so why not?

Read More: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2025

Durga Chew-Bose makes their narrative feature debut with “Bonjour Tristesse,” which follows a young girl in flower whose teen idyll by the French coast gets threatened when an old flame of her father’s shows up to stay with her family.

Continue reading New ‘Bonjour Tristesse’ Trailer: Chloë Sevigny, Claes Bang & Lily McInerny Star In New Take On French Family Drama On May 2 at The Playlist.

1950s and '60s "Batman" comic books produced some of the most amusingly ridiculous storylines in the Dark Knight's history. At a time when science fiction was all the rage, the comics had transformed Bob Kane and Bill Finger's "weird figure of the dark" from 1939's "Detective Comics" #27 into a campy boy scout whose adventures involved fantastical villains, aliens, and space travel.

This was the era that gave us some of the most memorably absurd "Batman" covers yet, such as 1958's "Batman" #118, which featured a version of the Caped Crusader who while trapped in a water tank exclaimed, "Yes Robin, I've become a human fish!" Then, there was 1966's "Detective Comics" #356, which came adorned with a Boy Wonder shocked by the fact he was "turning into a coffin!" 1960's "Detective Comics" #282 saw Batman battle an "interplanetary rival" in the form of a "Krajan Cave-Eel" and 1959's "Batman...

Clive Revill, the New Zealand native who after being recruited to be an actor by Laurence Olivier starred on Broadway, appeared in two films for Billy Wilder and provided the original voice of the evil Emperor Palpatine in The Empire Strikes Back, has died. He was 94.

Revill died March 11 at a care facility in Sherman Oaks after a battle with dementia, his daughter, Kate Revill, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The extremely versatile Revill played cops in Otto Preminger’s Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965), starring Olivier, and Jack Smight’s Kaleidoscope (1966), starring Warren Beatty; not one but two characters (a Scotsman and an Arab) in Joseph Losey’s Modesty Blaise (1966); and a physicist investigating strange goings-on at a haunted mansion in John Hough’s The Legend of Hell House (1973), starring Roddy McDowall.

A veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Revill also appeared seven times on Broadway and received Tony nominations for...

Following its TIFF premiere last fall, Durga Chew-Bose’s Françoise Sagan adaptation Bonjour Tristesse recently traveled to New York, opening the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look. Now, Greenwich Entertainment has set a May 2 theatrical debut for the drama starring Chloë Sevigny, Claes Bang, Lily McInerny, Nailia Harzoune, and Aliocha Schneider, and released the first trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: “At the height of summer, 18-year-old Cécile (Lily McInerny) is languishing by the French seaside with her handsome father, Raymond (Claes Bang), and his girlfriend, Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune), when the arrival of her late mother’s friend, Anne (Chloë Sevigny), changes everything. Amid the sun-drenched splendour of their surroundings, Cécile’s world is threatened and, desperate to regain control, she sets in motion a plan to drive Anne away with tragic consequences. An adaptation of Françoise Sagan’s unforgettable coming-of-age novel by the same title, Durga Chew-Bose’s...

Let it be stated up front: William Dozier's 1966 TV series "Batman" is not just the finest iteration of Bob Kane's and Bill Finger's superhero character, but it may be one of the best TV shows of all time. Using the outlandish trappings of superhero comics, "Batman" created nothing less than the wildest, most hilarious parody of conservative values in a generation. Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) were heroic, yes, but they were also unbearably square, drinking milk, going birdwatching, and supporting their local police to an unhealthy degree. We admired them and laughed at them at the same time. The show's many villains were free agents, whose villainy offered a refreshing element of chaos to the world. They were sexual, exciting, and had fun.

All of this was wrapped in a stylized, mannered, near-cartoon universe. Reality was tilted. The show purported to support heroism, but somehow,...

“I’ve been young for so long, and so old for longer.” — Durga Chew-Bose, from Too Much and Not the Mood (2017) “Certain phrases fascinate me with their subtle implications, even though I may not altogether understand their meaning.” –-From the novel Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (1954) In 1955, eighteen-year-old Françoise Sagan’s debut novel Bonjour Tristesse, about a teenager and her widowed playboy father vacationing on the French Riviera, enjoyed three months atop the New York Times bestseller list. Otto Preminger’s lush CinemaScope film adaptation followed in 1958. The director’s clinically cool approach was tepidly received, though Jean-Luc Godard, […]

The post “I Wanted to Make Sure That My Version Was Additive”: Writer-Director Durga Chew-Bose on Adapting Bonjour Tristesse first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

“I’ve been young for so long, and so old for longer.” — Durga Chew-Bose, from Too Much and Not the Mood (2017) “Certain phrases fascinate me with their subtle implications, even though I may not altogether understand their meaning.” –-From the novel Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan (1954) In 1955, eighteen-year-old Françoise Sagan’s debut novel Bonjour Tristesse, about a teenager and her widowed playboy father vacationing on the French Riviera, enjoyed three months atop the New York Times bestseller list. Otto Preminger’s lush CinemaScope film adaptation followed in 1958. The director’s clinically cool approach was tepidly received, though Jean-Luc Godard, […]

The post “I Wanted to Make Sure That My Version Was Additive”: Writer-Director Durga Chew-Bose on Adapting Bonjour Tristesse first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

A snapshot of the most exciting voices working in American and international cinema today––and with a strong focus on newcomers––the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look festival returns this week, taking place March 12-16.

As always, the festival brings together a varied, eclectic lineup of cinema from all corners of the world––including a number of films still seeking distribution, making this series perhaps one of your only chances to see these works on the big screen. Check out our top picks below.

100,000,000,000,000 (Virgil Vernier)

Virgil Vernier’s third fiction feature sees him continuing his examination of characters floating through liminal spaces borne out of capital. He follows sex worker Afine (Zakaria Bouti) spending the Christmas holidays alone in Monaco, where he befriends a woman babysitting the daughter of wealthy parents until the new year. Shooting once again on 16mm, Vernier creates a transfixing mood through...

Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, John Frankenheimer... that's a robust list of directors who've created certain films that frighten the living daylights out of us all. But there's one classic psychedelic feature that a rather special candidate made. Trailblazing graphic designer Saul Bass designed the posters and title sequences for films by those three directors and countless others, and he also released a few short films in his lifetime. However, his sole feature film is a horror offering, Phase IV, released in 1974. It grew to have a legion of fans, not only for its striking sci-fi plot about super-intelligent ants in the Arizona desert, but also for its haunting visual style and score, and its meticulous use of macro-photography.

Although this was the only feature-length film from Saul Bass, he was still a key figure in Hollywood with instantly recognizable work, famous for his distinguished posters and title sequences. Far more than a designer,...

Film historian Karina Longworth‘s “You Must Remember This” podcast has been beloved by cinephiles ever since it launched 11 years ago to explore “the secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century.” The latest season, “The Old Man Is Still Alive,” is Longworth’s most enlightening and entertaining to date. A deep dive into the late-career transformations of Hollywood legends, including Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, and Otto Preminger, “The Old Man Is Still Alive” explores how veteran directors met the challenges of an evolving industry and changing tastes with varying degrees of artistic and commercial success.

The idea for the season began with a 2023 trip to the Cinémathèque Française, where Longworth saw Vincente Minnelli’s “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” for the first time. “I thought of myself as a big Minnelli fan, and I had not even known this movie existed,” Longworth told IndieWire. “I went...

Olga James, the singer and actor who costarred with Harry Belafonte in Otto Preminger’s classic 1954 musical film Carmen Jones, died January 25 at an assisted living facility in Los Angeles. She was 95.

Her death was announced by family.

James also starred opposite Sammy Davis Jr. in Broadway’s 1956 musical Mr. Wonderful. On TV, she played Verna Kincaid in Bill Cosby’s 1969-71 sitcom The Bill Cosby Show. Her character was the sister-in-law of star Cosby’s main character.

Born February 16, 1929, in Washington D.C. into a musical family — her father played the saxophone, her mother was a dancer — James would attend Julliard in New York City where she studied opera. She made her professional debut in 1952 in Paris, performing in the opera Four Saints in Three Acts.

After returning to America, she was hired to perform in the all-Black revue at Atlantic City’s Club Harlem. It was while performing...

Quick Links The Animated Thranduil Did Not Resemble an Elf J. R. R. Tolkien Did Not Describe Thranduil in Detail

Lee Pace's portrayal of King Thranduil was one of the most popular parts of Peter Jackson's controversial The Hobbit film trilogy. He was very different from the Elven lords who appeared in The Lord of the Rings films, like Elrond. They had a touch of haughtiness, but they were mostly kind, level-headed, and wise. Thranduil, on the other hand, was arrogant, aggressive and short-sighted. Despite this, he was a sympathetic figure. He had lost his wife long ago, and his hidden scars hinted at a violent past. He was a complex and multifaceted character, which made him compelling. It was also enjoyable for fans of The Lord of the Rings to see his influence on his son, Legolas.

Jackson's trilogy was not the first cinematic adaptation of The Hobbit,...

John Wayne was quite public about his feelings towards his 1965 Western with Dean Martin titled The Sons Of Katie Elder. While not often considered among John Wayne's best movies, The Sons of Katie Elder earned a critic score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Wayne stars as John Elder, one of four brothers who reunite in their hometown of Texas for their mother's funeral. The film was shot entirely in Mexico but takes place in northeast Texas, east of Dallas.

Directed by Henry Hathaway, The Sons of Katie Elder was released in theaters in Panavision on June 24, 1965, and was distributed by Paramount Pictures. Wayne had just come off starring in Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way and George Stevens' The Greatest Storey Ever Told, which were both released in early 1965. Dean Martin, who was also a successful singer and comedian, was just coming off 1964's Kiss Me, Stupid and Robin and the 7 Hoods.

Victoria Preminger, daughter of director Otto Preminger, died Feb. 7 in Studio City, Calif. following a fall at home. She was 63.

Her mother was actress Hope Bryce Preminger and her uncle was film producer Ingo Preminger, the literary agent who represented clients such as Dalton Trumbo and Ring Lardner, who were both blacklisted throughout the McCarthy period.

Born in New York in 1960, Preminger studied at the Lycée Français de New York and later graduated with honors from Smith College. During her undergraduate career, she starred in a number of television soap operas as well as the 1988 feature “Spike of Bensonhurst,” which was directed by Paul Morrissey.

Four years later, she graduated from Pepperdine University School of Law. She spent the following six years producing audiobooks in Beverly Hills, Calif. for Dove Audio, one of the premier audio book companies nationally. She went on to produce, edit and lead celebrities including Glenda Jackson,...

If you wanted to work with the great Betty White at any point throughout her extraordinary 70-plus-year career, your best bet was to offer her a television gig. Starting with the talk show "Hollywood on Television" in 1949, White made the small screen, and America's living rooms, her home via sitcoms, game shows, and appearances on late night programs like "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson." White was a delightful presence with killer comedy timing, her secret weapon being that daffy persona that often bubbled over with surprisingly scalding wit. You never knew what was going to come out of White's mouth, and that made her one of the medium's unlikeliest stars (though her presence was once ratings poison for "Bones").

This isn't to say White didn't do movies. Her first credited appearance didn't arrive until 1962, when she played a U.S. Senator from Kansas in Otto Preminger's terrific "Advise and Consent.

January 2025 could mark a bleak month for very specific reasons, but in that month one can watch a nicely curated collection of David Bowie’s best performances. Nearly a decade since he passed, the iconic actor (who had some other trades) is celebrated with The Man Who Fell to Earth, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, The Linguini Incident, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, and Basquiat. (Note: watch The Missing Pieces under Fire Walk with Me‘s Criterion edition for about three times as much Phillip Jeffries.) It’s a retrospective-heavy month: Nicole Kidman, Cameron Crowe, Ethan Hawke, Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, Paolo Sorrentino, and Sean Baker are given spotlights; the first and last bring with them To Die For and Take Out‘s Criterion Editions, joining Still Walking, Hunger, and A Face in the Crowd.

“Surveillance Cinema” brings Thx 1138, Body Double, Minority Report, and others, while “Love in Disguise” offers films by Lubitsch,...

In the late 1960s, Paramount Pictures was getting a young-gun makeover with upstart producer Robert Evans taking the reins of the struggling studio. With the New Hollywood movement exploding thanks to provocations like "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Easy Rider," Evans was keen to hire exciting young filmmakers to apply their unique talents to the day's bestsellers. When he hit critical and commercial paydirt with Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby," he turned his attention to another hot novel owned by the studio, one that had the potential to revitalize the gangster film.

Author Mario Puzo hadn't even finished "The Godfather" when Paramount executive Peter Bart offered him $115,000 for the manuscript. His instincts proved spot-on. Within two years of its 1969 publication, "The Godfather" had become a phenomenon, selling in the neighborhood of nine million copies. A feature film adaptation was inevitable. All Evans and Bart had to do was find the right...

Greenwich Entertainment has acquired Durga Chew-Bose’s directorial debut, Bonjour Tristesse, starring Chloë Sevigny (Feud: Capote vs. The Swans), Claes Bang (The Square), and Lily McInerny (Palm Trees and Power Lines), on the heels of its premiere at this year’s Toronto Film Festival.

Based on the acclaimed 1954 novel from Françoise Sagan — which Otto Preminger previously adapted into a BAFTA-nominated feature — pic will hit U.S. theaters next summer via Greenwich as Elevation releases it in Canada. The film has sold to Spain (Filmin), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo) Mena (Falcon), Cis (Nashe Kino), Former Yugoslavia (McF MegaCom), Bulgaria (Cinelibri), and Airlines (Skeye), with Universal Pictures distributing internationally.

A Babe Nation Films and Elevation Pictures production, Bonjour Tristesse follows 18-year-old Cécile (McInerny), who at the height of summer, is languishing by the French seaside with her handsome father, Raymond (Bang), and his lover, Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune), when the arrival of her...

Quick Links Mr. Freeze Deserves Redemption After Batman & Robin He Can Work in the Dcu or The Batman Epic Crime Saga Mr. Freeze’s Backstory Is Compelling Enough

While comic book adaptations initially focused on the heroes, the explosion of the genre has made room for other different types of stories, such as team-ups and villain-centric stories. Marvel Studios, DC and Sony have all produced projects focused on villains. Sony began with Venom, which led to films like Morbius and Kraven the Hunter. For Sony, its villain films have turned the Spider-Man foes more into anti-heroes instead of true villains. Not to mention, there have been no significant ties to Spider-Man. Marvel Studios' Agatha All Along was technically a follow-up of the WandaVision villain but it failed to take advantage of the concept fully. However, Avengers: Infinity War made Thanos the main villain of the film despite many other heroes appearing in the crossover event.

Mr. Freeze is widely considered to be one of Batman's greatest, and most tragic villains. The character was originally one of the more gimmicky antagonists in DC Comics, but it all turned around for him in the 1990s when he was revamped for Batman: The Animated Series. That revamp involved giving Victor Fries a tragic origin story that instantly made him a much deeper character, and earned him (and the show) recognition that he never had before.

It's such an iconic origin that many would think the character of Mr. Freeze was a consistent cast member when it came to the show's core roster of iconic villains. But one would be wrong. Come with me into a world where vengeance is a dish best served cold, and discover how little screen time Mr. Freeze received during his tenure on Batman: The Animated Series and how he still became one of its greatest ever characters.

Françoise Sagan’s 1954 novel “Bonjour Tristesse” introduced generations of readers to a carefree summer spent along the sunny coastline of southern France. At just 18 years old, Sagan captured the melancholy joys and simmering jealousies of adolescence with insight well beyond her years. Her tale of a teenage girl navigating relationships both new and old during a family vacation quickly became a classic.

Two adaptations followed—the first a 1958 film directed by Otto Preminger. Known for his no-holds-barred approach, Preminger brought Sagan’s story of youthful passions and reckless desires to vibrant life. Over half a century later, writer-director Durga Chew-Bose took on the challenge of interpreting this beloved coming-of-age story for a new audience. Her 2024 film update seeks not just to retell Sagan’s plot but to recreate the bittersweet atmosphere and quietly profound insights of those memorable summer days.

Set along the sun-drenched Mediterranean coast that first drew readers in,...

In 1919, Hollywood was already under scrutiny. In the eyes of hanky-wringing, ultra-conservative watchdog groups, the film business had become a haven for sex and violence, presenting lascivious and salacious material to an unwitting, impressionable public. By 1921, the government was already proposing dozens of pieces of legislation to censor film content and reign in the indecency. The bulk of the proposed laws were draconian and terrible, and several states began forming specialized media censorship boards, each with their own rules. The film industry wouldn't have been able to comply with them all, as each state had a different decency standard. In response to the widespread moral panic, the film industry at large agreed to a means of self-censorship, hiring a conservative Presbyterian minister named Will H. Hays to oversee studio content and make sure no one was being naughty. 

Initially, Hays met with Hollywood muckety-mucks E.H. Allen of Paramount, Irving G.

With Janus possessing the much-needed restorations, Catherine Breillat is getting her biggest-ever spotlight in November’s Criterion Channel series spanning 1976’s A Real Young Girl to 2004’s Anatomy of Hell––just one of numerous retrospectives arriving next month. They’re also spotlighting Ida Lupino, directorial efforts of John Turturro (who also gets an “Adventures In Moviegoing”), the Coen brothers, and Jacques Audiard.

In a slightly more macroscopic view, Columbia Noir and a new edition of “Queersighting” ring in Noirvember. Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse trilogy and Miller’s Crossing get Criterion Editions, while restorations of David Bowie-starrer The Linguini Incident, Med Hondo’s West Indies, and Dennis Hopper’s Out of the Blue make streaming debuts; and Kevin Jerome Everson’s Tonsler Park arrives just in time for another grim election day.

See the full list of titles arriving in November below:

36 fillette, Catherine Breillat, 1988

Anatomy of Hell, Catherine Breillat,...

When it comes to getting into noir films, it's always worth asking, "Where should I start?" After all, the genre is so time-specific -- it existed in its purest form only in the 1940s and early '50s -- and so full of familiar signifiers -- dame with a secret, jaded investigator, corrupt systems -- that it can sometimes be tough to tell noir titles apart. Start digging into the best the genre has to offer, though, and you'll discover that film noir encompasses much more than the striking style choices and cynicism that have become its cultural shorthand over the years.

Take the two highest-rated noir films on Rotten Tomatoes, for example. According to the aggregate site, only two film noirs have a 100% score on the website, meaning that every single critic included in the site's tally reviewed the movie positively. The first, "Shadow of a Doubt," is an early,...

The following contains a mention of sexual assault.

Alfred Hitchcock was no stranger to thriller movies. He had a phenomenal gift of channeling and invoking great levels of suspense for the audience. Working with some of the greats, like Grace Kelly to Cary Grant, he sourced some of the best talents for his feature films, while executing original cinema. The strength of his films like North By Northwest and Rear Window paved the way for Hitchcock to take on his first official horror film, Psycho. When he directed Psycho, it forever changed the genre, leaving Hollywood to use it as the baseline for nearly every horror film that followed.

Alfred Hitchcock used his skills to manipulate the viewers through thrills and psychologically complex storytelling, while subverting the stringent parameters of the Hays code. The film also set the standard for all horror films to follow, leaving behind the previous styles before it.

Is that the smell of cigarette smoke filling the room? Did a thick layer of fog just descend on the city skyline? Has your inner voice started monologuing more than usual and with an air of suspicion? That’s right folks, Noir City Film Festival at Detroit’s Redford Theatre is set to return this month for it’s seventh annual showcase of murder, intrigue, trenched coats, and brimmed hats. As with every year, the festivities will be hosted by Eddie Muller of Turner Classic Movies‘ “Noir Alley” and will feature an international theme this year with foreign selections, as well as Hollywood films directed by non-American filmmakers like Otto Preminger and Hugo Fregonese.

2024’s Noir City: Detroit begins on Friday, September 20 with a double feature of “Victims of Sin” (1951) and “Night Editor” (1946). Directed by Emilio Fernández, one of the most prolific filmmakers from Mexican cinema’s Golden Age during the ’40s and ’50s,...

1958 was quite the year for French novelist Françoise Sagan, who had not one but two film versions of her works given the Hollywood treatment: A Certain Smile and Bonjour Tristesse. The latter was directed by Otto Preminger to mixed reviews despite a starry cast including David Niven, Deborah Kerr and newcomer Jean Seberg who had made her debut in Preminger’s Saint Joan the year before. She was enthralling, but the Preminger take of Sagan’s coming-of-age tale set on the French Riviera is largely forgotten today. Both studio films had the feel of a lavish soap so popular for these widescreen romantic dramas of the time. Now we have a new take.

Though Bonjour Tristesse has also since been made a couple of times for French TV, this is the first major international film version since Preminger’s, and it is a gorgeous-looking, quite lilting tale of an 18-year-old...

The 1958 version of “Bonjour Tristesse” is everything Hollywood seems to be wary of these days: a notoriously mean, allegedly misogynistic filmmaker’s interpretation of a book written by and about a French teenage girl. “He used me like a Kleenex and then threw me away,” Jean Seberg said of director Otto Preminger. Well, get out your hankies for a more sensitive (and plenty chic) take, one that asks: What might an adaptation of “Bonjour Tristesse” look like if it were a woman interpreting Françoise Sagan’s words? Better yet, how might it feel?

Montreal-born writer-director Durga Chew-Bose offers an impressionistic retelling, emphasizing tactile details: the way the Côte d’Azur sun hits the skin, the relief of sitting before an open icebox on a hot summer night, the smell of Dad’s aftershave. While promising, Chew-Bose’s attractive but ultimately hollow debut offers audiences a vicarious vacation to the south of France,...