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There are certain movie stars who have "It" the second they walk in front of a camera. It might not happen for them immediately, but all casting directors and filmmakers had to do was watch a minute or two of Cary Grant, Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard, or Paul Newman to know that they'd be topping marquees and posters for decades to come. For Gen X-ers, the same could be said of Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, and Halle Berry. For Millennials and Zoomers, you've got Michael B. Jordan, Florence Pugh, Glen Powell, and Sydney Sweeney.

Some future movie stars don't pop like this. They need seasoning and, most importantly, the right role to demonstrate that they're capable of carrying a movie. I don't think anyone envisioned Gene Hackman as a leading man until they saw him whoop it up as Buck Barrow in "Bonnie and Clyde," nor was Renée Zellweger...

The Italian mainland boasts a host of film festivals from the giants like Venice, Torino and Rome to the specialist cinephile celebrations like the Bologna Cinema Ritrovato and Pordenone’s annual celebration of silent cinema. But few of them boast as beautiful and historical a setting as the ancient amphitheater that hosts the screenings of the Taormina Film Festival, which celebrates its 71st edition this year.

The Greco-Roman theater, which once saw spectators enjoying the spectacle of gladiators fighting ferocious beasts, now serves as an open air cinema where viewers have watched the likes of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “Twisters.” Sometimes, Mount Etna will erupt in the distance, spouting plumes of molten lava and stealing the show. With such ancient history in mind, here’s a run through of some milestones in the admittedly shorter history of the Sicilian film festival:

● 1957 – The film festival, which had...

It's fair to say that Steven Spielberg knows a thing or two about movies after bringing us some of the most beloved Hollywood blockbusters of the past 50 years. Yet, no great talent exists in a vacuum, and the man behind "Jaws" and "Jurassic Park" has cited earlier legends ranging from John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock to Akira Kurosawa as his "film school" (via NPR) when he was a budding, self-taught filmmaker. Recommendation lists from top directors are always interesting, and Spielberg's picks reflect the tastes of someone who grew up in the '50s and '60s and went on to work at the forefront of the Hollywood mainstream. "Stagecoach," "Meet me in St Louis," and "Lawrence of Arabia" are all present, as is, of course, "Citizen Kane," Orson Welles' groundbreaking masterpiece that has influenced many filmmakers over the decades. Spielberg also name checks another lesser-known crime classic from...

Before all the modern day movie stars that fans obsess over on a daily basis, there was Gary Cooper. Tall, handsome, and with an (*ahem*) reputation in Hollywood for romancing starlets, he dominated the silver screen for decades. Cooper got his start during the silent era, when he made a name for himself as a romantic lead, before being one of the lucky male stars to transition successfully into talkies. Beginning in the 1930s, he hopped from genre to genre, starring in action adventure pictures and Westerns as well as showcasing a natural affinity for comedy.

During his time in Hollywood, he was nominated for five Academy Awards and took home two, in addition to earning an Academy Honorary Award just weeks before he died from cancer in 1961. His work as an actor was impressive, but his reputation and legacy are larger-than-life. There were rumors of romances between him and...

Their meet cute was 2012 in Cannes. Diane Kruger — Hollywood star of Troy, National Treasure and Inglourious Basterds — was on the jury. German director Fatih Akin had a documentary screening at the festival. Kruger had been an Akin superfan ever since his breakout Head-On — a gritty, violent love story about a young German-Turkish woman trying to break free of her religious, restrictive family — which won Berlin’s Golden Bear in 2004. “Fatih for me is the best German director we have, the most modern,” says Kruger, who was born and raised in Germany but began acting in French and then American movies. “I had to meet him, so I sort of invited myself to the afterparty for his film, where he was DJ-ing. I went up and said: ‘I’m a fan. If you ever have a role for me, it would be a dream to work together.’ ”

“I never forgot,” says Akin,...

Looks can be deceiving, especially regarding the distances between towns in the South of France. When heading out to explore, plan for an hour to be more like two because of the mountainous terrain and winding roads. Nice Côte d’Azur Airport has a good selection of electric cars ideal for daytrips and more [make sure the hotel valet keeps it charged]. Whether just going for the day or charting an overnight, follow these ABCs of the communes.

A is for Avignon

Distance from Cannes: 2 hours 30 minutes

On May 22, Louis Vuitton presents its Cruise 2026 show at Palais des Papes.

Avignon celebrates its 25th anniversary as a Unesco World Heritage Site and hosts artistic and cultural programming throughout the year. The Avignon experience centers around the Palais des Papes monument, the most important Gothic palace in the West. On May 22, Louis Vuitton gets in on the action and will present its Cruise 2026 show at the landmark, carrying on its...

Has Cannes gone all political on us? The French film festival, which used to pride itself on, sometimes to a fault, being the apolitical “cinema for cinema’s sake” festival, appears to be storming the barricades.

The 78th Festival featured one of the most political opening ceremonies in living memory. In his speech accepting an honorary Palme d’Or, Robert De Niro lambasted U.S. President Donald Trump, labeling him “America’s Philistine president” and rallying the audience to “act now…without violence, but with great passion and determination” to defend democracy. “It’s time for everyone who cares about liberty to organize, to protest, and when there are elections, vote. Vote. Tonight, and for the next 11 days, we show our strength and commitment by celebrating art in this glorious festival. Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.”

Ceremony host, French actor Laurent Lafitte, gave a similarly passionate and highly political speech, calling on...

Robert De Niro, in Cannes to receive an honorary Palme d’Or during Tuesday night’s glitzy opening ceremony, used his time in the spotlight to defend democracy and take aim at America’s commander in chief.

“In my country, we are fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted. That affects all of us here, because art is the crucible that brings people together, like tonight. Art looks for truth. Art embraces diversity. That’s why art is a threat. That’s why we are a threat to autocrats and fascists,” he said to applause inside the Grand Lumiére theater with Leonardo DiCaprio standing over his shoulder after an affecting tribute to DiCaprio’s frequent collaborator and acting icon.

“America’s Philistine president has had himself appointed head of one of our premier cultural institutions [the Kennedy Center]. He has cut funding and support to the arts, humanities and education.

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Billy Wilder is in contention for the best-director screenwriter to ever come out of Hollywood. That's not to say that every film he made sprung only from his own head -- for all the original screenplays Wilder filmed, from "Sunset Boulevard" to "Ace in the Hole," he adapted a fair few of other writers' stories as well. Wilder adapted crime novelist James M. Cain's "Double Indemnity" (itself based on a real-life murder) in 1944, and then Cain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice" in 1946. One of Wilder's later movies was 1970's "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (co-written with regular collaborator I. A. L. Diamond). But years before turning his attention to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilder adapted a different icon of the British mystery novel, Agatha Christie, when he brought her work to the silver screen in 1957's "Witness for the Prosecution.

A Look At The Top 10 Iconic Retro Actresses In Hollywood ( Photo Credit – Facebook )

No matter how much modern Hollywood dazzles us with its stars, especially the actresses, there’s hardly any doubt about the undeniable magic in the allure of its past. The iconic golden era blessed us with belles whose beauty wasn’t just admired but also became iconic. Even decades later, their effortless, natural elegance and screen presence have remained engraved in our memory, timeless in a way that transcends fashion or fame.

With all being said, this list celebrates ten of the most beautiful retro Hollywood actresses (both inside and out), whose undeniable legacy continues to enthrall viewers. From Audrey Hepburn’s graceful elegance to Marilyn Monroe’s sultry allure, these actresses remain eternal muses in the world of film and fashion alike.

1. Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993)

Audrey Hepburn 1950s pic.twitter.com/baWVQ24LIl

— Modern History...

Netflix, the streaming service famous for not streaming older movies and not bringing movies to the big screen, is – in a surprise twist – bringing a bunch of old movies to the big screen!

The Hollywood Reporter has announced this afternoon that the Netflix-owned Paris Theater in New York will be celebrating Alfred Hitchcock with screenings of 36 of his movies.

“The series — Hitch! The Original Cinema Influencer — will run May 16 to June 29 at the Paris Theater, which Netflix purchased in 2019,” THR details. “The films range from Hitchcock’s early works such as Blackmail to enduring hits such as Psycho and The Birds.”

In addition to the big screen series, a collection of classic Alfred Hitchcock films will be available to stream on Netflix in the US featuring some of his most iconic works starting June 1.

Here’s everything you need to know, straight from the Paris Theater…

The Paris Theater is proud to present Hitch!

For nearly seven decades, painter Don Bachardy has lured Hollywood luminaries — from Marlene Dietrich to Mark Ruffalo — to sit for portraits, most frequently inside his second-floor studio perched atop a converted garage at his cliffside bungalow overlooking Santa Monica Canyon. There are now 17,000 Bachardy portraits in existence, some of which have landed at the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Portrait Gallery of London. More than 100 — from his early, tightly constructed black-and-white watercolors to his more expressionistic latter-day portraits, including decades of self-portraits and paintings of his partner of three decades, the novelist and playwright Christopher Isherwood — will go on display April 12 (through August) as part of “Don Bachardy: A Life in Portraits” at the Huntington Library, which will soon be the recipient of the artist’s vast archive, perhaps the most definitive fine art rendition of Tinseltown in history.

“Don and his brother would go crash...

Few working filmmakers today combine rigor and playfulness in their approach to their art, and with such aplomb, as Miguel Gomes. Over the past two decades, the Portuguese director has enchanted both festival circuit and arthouse crowds with his inventive approaches to deconstructing cinema’s unique relationship with artifice and time.

Grand Tour finds Gomes at his most approachable yet inscrutable. The genesis of the film, which won him the best director prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, began with a small anecdote inside The Gentleman in the Parlour by Somerset Maugham, in which an English man runs away from his fiancée across Asia in the early 20th century. Gomes expands these two pages into a two-hour feature split across two distinct halves. The first follows the fleeing Edward (Gonçalo Waddington) as he hops across the continent in cowardice, while the second details his jilted lover Molly (Crista Alfaiate) in hot pursuit.

Quick! Who directed the 1950 animated version of "Cinderella?" Did they direct any other movies? Who played the voice of Peter Pan in Disney's 1953 film version? Who played Alice in "Alice in Wonderland?" Or Prince Philip in "Sleeping Beauty?" Who wrote "One Hundred and One Dalmatians?" 

Some readers may have been able to recall that famed children's book author Bill Peet wrote "Dalmatians," and other hardcore Disney Nerds might know that famed child star Bobby Driscoll played Peter Pan, but many of the actual filmmakers of early Disney-released animated features have remained obscure. One would have to look up that Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske served as the supervising directors of "Cinderella," and that they also helmed "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," and "Lady and the Tramp." Heck, they should be better known, as "Cinderella" kind of saved the company.

These people are, of course, all celebrities in the animation world,...

A film set is no place for little girls. In the fairy-tale-adjacent world of Lucile Hadžihalilović’s frigid dark fantasy “The Ice Tower,” an orphan runs away from her foster home and takes refuge in the basement of a movie studio, finding herself drawn to the production — and its star, played by Marion Cotillard — the way a child in a Hans Christian Andersen story might be lured into the clutches of a wicked enchantress. Aptly enough, the script they’re shooting is “The Snow Queen,” aspects of which echo through the ’70s-set movie’s many layers, all the way out to us, whom Hadžihalilović hopes to trap in her crystal prism.

Cotillard and Hadžihalilović collaborated once before, early in both their careers, on 2004’s “Innocence,” where the director first planted the unholy seeds she’s still harvesting all these years later: unsettling yet artful projects in which Hadžihalilović depicts the...

What are the hallmarks of a best-selling Agatha Christie novel? Crisp, accessible prose and memorable characters culminate into classic murder mysteries that have stood the test of time. There's also a sprinkling of clever sleight of hand, where subtle, essential clues are peppered right up to the big reveal hiding in plain sight. Although her stories make little space for what might be termed as morally grey, this very insistence on treating morality as an easily definable standard grants us comfort in a messy, volatile world. This is also why Christie's brand of escapist fiction makes for good adaptations, with figures like Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple steering these quasi-fantastical detective stories.

Christie's oeuvre has been adapted across mediums, including film, from 1928's mystery drama "The Passing of Mr. Quinn" to the more recent Kenneth Branagh-helmed "A Haunting in Venice." In terms of television adaptations, a chunk...

The Damned (1969), followed by Death in Venice (1971) and Ludwig (1973), is a historical drama film by Luchino Visconti and the first installment of the aforementioned German trilogy. Set in the backdrop of Hitler’s rise to power, the film portrays the steady disintegration of the affluent Essenbeck family due to the actions of one Hauptsturmführer Aschenbach, a highly influential and manipulative leader of the Schutzstaffel.

Events in the film are driven by real-life incidents that were instrumental to the transformation of the Weimar Republic (Hitler as Chancellor) to Nazi Germany (Hitler as Führer). These include the Reichstag fire and the Röhm purge, among others.

A Milanese nobleman himself, Visconti (officially The Count of Lonate Pozzolo) luxuriates in the decay of German nobility due to Nazi interference and the intrinsic decadence of the members of the Essenbeck family. As a result, The Damned presents itself as a detailed study of instability, sexual transgression,...

Sabrina Carpenter spent 2024 giving fans exactly what they didn’t know they needed — high-octane singles fueled by a singular aesthetic between camp and erotic. Forget Madonna; Carpenter might well be the modern Mae West, serving bombshell attitude while sending up the image of a sexy blonde.

Is it any wonder that Jason Sherwood landed the job as production designer of her Netflix holiday special, “A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter,” based partly on a photo of Rosemary Clooney in a black gown against a hot pink backdrop in “White Christmas”?

“ It’s Easter egged to hell and back,” Sherwood told IndieWire over Zoom. “The tiered cake is a pretty direct reference to a Busby Berkeley number that’s pretty famous. ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ was on the mood boards. Almost everything has a reference to ‘White Christmas.'” Sherwood also looked to classic holiday specials from Judy Garland and Andy Williams...

Quick Links Adriana Caselotti Was the Original Disney Princess Disney Received Push Back From Peggy Lee for Her Work on Lady and the Tramp Disney’s Live-Action Snow White Will Give Audiences a New Take On a Classic Princess

Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is well-known as a revolutionary film of its time. It was the first full-length animated feature film and was predicted to be a box office bomb by many naysayers in the industry at the time. As proved through the use of revolutionary synchronized sound in the animated Mickey Mouse short "Steamboat Willie," Walt Disney was unafraid to apply new techniques to his creative projects. And when he chose the fairy tale Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as the subject of his follow-up endeavor, even his own animators were skeptical. Still, the project moved forward.

The next difficult task for Walt would be to...

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Juror #2 is a legal thriller drama film directed by Clint Eastwood from a screenplay by Jonathan Abrams. The 2024 film follows Justin Kemp, an ordinary member who is called upon to serve as a jury member in a murder case. However, when he realizes that the suspect is not really the murderer, he tries to sway the jury without telling anyone the truth without anyone finding out the truth, because if it comes out, it will destroy his life. Juror #2 stars Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons, Chris Messina, Gabriel Basso, Zoey Deutch, and Cedric Yarbrough. So, if you loved the thrilling courtroom drama, intense twists, and compelling characters in Juror #2, here are some similar movies you should check out next.

12 Angry Men Credit – United Artists

12 Angry Men is a legal thriller drama film directed by Sidney Lumet...

A cultural icon rattles around in her Paris apartment, at loose ends without her career, and verbally jousting with a younger man there to interrogate her about her life and work. At turns crafty, seductive, imperious, and heartbroken, she inadvertently reveals far more about herself than her guarded replies would indicate.

That’s an apt summary of one subplot in Pablo Larraín’s masterful “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie as opera diva Maria Callas in the last week of her life, but it’s also true of Maximilian Schell’s Oscar-nominated 1984 documentary “Marlene,” about the once glamorous, then reclusive Marlene Dietrich.

Currently streaming on Kanopy, Schell’s documentary feels in conversation with Larraín’s portrait of a diva in freefall, though the fictional Maria is more engaged with living than the prickly, 80-year-old Dietrich seems. The interlocutor and his subject worked together in Stanley Kramer’s 1961 “Judgment at Nuremberg,” and their...

Judy Garland‘s most iconic role is Dorothy Gale in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), and her most acclaimed is Esther Blodgett/Vicky Lester in “A Star Is Born” (1954). But this Judy fan of more than 40 years picks “Meet Me in St. Louis” as her favorite. Beautifully filmed in Technicolor, with one of Garland’s best soundtracks, as well as a film that changed the actress’s life in many ways, the Vincente Minnelli-directed Christmas musical film debuted eight decades ago on Nov. 22, 1944, in St. Louis, and had its New York premiere on Nov. 28. Read on for more about the “Meet Me in St. Louis” 80th anniversary.

Based on a series of stories by Sally Benson, “Meet Me in St. Louis” depicts a year in the life of the Smith family through a series of vignettes, from the summer of 1903 until the spring of the following year, culminating at the 1904 World’s Fair in St.

Pauline Kael once called the gulf between E.T. and Poltergeist a testament to the confounding ability for one man, Steven Spielberg, to produce one enduring masterpiece and one miserable failure in the space of a year—and God forever damn her for not realizing that Poltergeist is, if anything, a more harrowing portrait of the nuclear family on the verge of dissipation, but I digress. Apparently, she hadn’t seen Mel Brooks’s 1974 one-two punch.

Young Frankenstein is so loving and charmingly goofy in spoofing one of Hollywood’s most successful early genres (the Universal monster movies of the 1930s) that it winds up as much a tribute as it is a parody. But Blazing Saddles, a burlesque about a western town standing in the way of the railroad expansion and the Black sheriff sent to discourage its citizens from deserting, is a limp, shapeless mess of a film...

Earlier this year, the Oscars held its 96th awards ceremony, honoring the best that cinema had to offer in 2023. The nominees for the 96th Academy Awards feature a mixture of legendary figures with up-and-coming newcomers looking to commence their cinematic legacies. Seasoned veterans such as Martin Scorsese and Jodie Foster look to add more trophies to their cases, while first-time nominees such as Cillian Murphy and Lily Gladstone hope to enter the pantheon of Academy Award winners.

With a new Awards Season on the way, it's worth remembering that the Academy has its favorites. Case in point, Meryl Streep has accumulated 21 acting Academy Award nominations with three wins. That is nine more nominations than the next closest performer. Streep is one of cinema's greatest stars and her nominations are well deserved. However, the excessive praise aimed at actors such as Streep seems superfluous when considering all-time greats such as Barbara Stanwyck,...

Purists will argue that film noir was born in 1941 with the release of John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon and died in 1958 with Marlene Dietrich traipsing down a long, dark, lonely road at the end of Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil. And while this period contains the quintessence of what Italian-born French film critic Nino Frank originally characterized as film noir, the genre has always been in a constant state of flux, adapting to the different times and cultures out of which these films emerged.

Noir came into its own alongside the ravages of World War II, with the gangster and detective films of the era drastically transforming into something altogether new as the aesthetics of German Expressionism took hold in America, and in large part due to the influx of German expatriates like Fritz Lang. These already dark, hardboiled films suddenly gained a newfound viciousness and sense of ambiguity,...

Confession: I’ve never cared much for “Like a Virgin.” Madonna’s 1984 hit may be the first, if not the, signature song of her career, but it’s a trifle—a novelty, really—with its plucky, noncommittal guitar licks, sub-“Billie Jean” bassline, and the singer’s helium squeak of a voice.

That last, integral element in particular has always irked me, as, from “Express Yourself” to “Don’t Tell Me,” Madonna has proven she’s capable of some deep, soulful performances. Of course, the vocals on “Like a Virgin” were allegedly employed by design, sped up to render Madonna’s voice more childlike and “virginal.”

I’m in fairly good company, though, since both producer Nile Rodgers and Madonna herself aren’t particularly fond of “Like a Virgin” either, and she’s chosen to completely reinvent the song in masterful ways nearly every time she’s performed it. The...

1939 was a massive year for Hollywood, in that it offered a long list of now-iconic movies and career stepping stones for some of the biggest stars of this era. This was especially true for the Western genre and two of its biggest icons in cinematic history. In that year alone, both James Stewart and John Wayne had their breakthrough Westerns, Destry Rides Again and Stagecoach, that shaped their images in the medium going forward.

There's no disputing Wayne and Stewart's significance to the genre. Of the two, Wayne obviously has the better resume, with leading roles in an impressive number of movies now considered to be among the greatest Westerns of all time. But Stewart, for his part, has also contributed his fair share of worthwhile entries into the world of Westerns. After all, James Stewart's Westerns also account for a few of the genre's best, with Winchester '73 being a notable example.

After eight days of shows in the City of Light, Paris Fashion Week has come to a close.

Lithuanian designer Juozas Statkevičius brought the wow factor with his collection of well-tailored and magnifying pieces, as both Statkevičius and designer Tony Ward took inspiration from cinema history this season. Wild Rose & Sparrow held a ballet-core-themed show at the Théâtre du Gymnase Marie Bell; with risqué silhouettes, the brand’s co-founder Ariana Dancu wanted to create a collection inspired by female confidence and self-expression.

Christian Siriano’s leather looks are to-die-for after coming off the New York Fashion Week runway, Chloé bohemian inspired collection is oh-so-dreamy, and Casablanca’s luxury street style collection inspired by countercultural Los Angeles is original. And let’s not lose sight of Kilian Paris’ newest fragrance launch of “Old Fashioned,” with Emily in Paris’ Lucien Laviscount as its face — the smoothest cocktail-esque perfume you’ll ever smell.

Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka is a multi-faceted journey through time and space. Released in 2023, the film brings viewers across cultures and eras with its three disconnected yet cohesive episodes. Argentinian director Alonso weaves genres like Western, crime drama, and magical realism into a thought-provoking reflection on indigenous identity.

The movie follows an unconventional structure, divided into separate storylines spanning different locations and decades. First is a black-and-white section set in the Wild West, featuring Viggo Mortensen’s search for his daughter. Next, we see modern-day Lakota country through a police officer dealing with social issues. The final rainforest tale adds mystical elements.

Though disjointed, recurring themes and characters create links between the 150-minute segments. And Alonso’s experimental style challenges typical conventions. Long takes and ambiguous transitions blur reality with imagination. Audiences are invited to immerse in each world and make their own connections.

Underneath runs a deeper exploration of colonialism’s impacts.

Despite being two of the genre's top stars, John Wayne and Randolph Scott only made one Western together. Released in 1942, The Spoilers was one of a pair of films to feature the two great Western legends. After 1942, the pair never reunited on the big screen, with their paths in Hollywood diverging away from each other, even though they remained tightly linked with the Western genre.

Randolph Scott and John Wayne starred in Westerns throughout their respective careers, with each pumping multiple films a year for a time. Wayne was responsible for several of the greatest Westerns of all time, while Scott - though not nearly as famous as Wayne - contributed a long list of quality Westerns as well, such as The Desperadoes, The Nevadan, and The Man In The Saddle. More often than not, he was the hero of his films. However, that was certainly not the case with The Spoilers,...

“Anybody got a match?” When 19-year-old Lauren Bacall cast a smoldering glance toward Humphrey Bogart in the 1944 film noir “To Have and Have Not,” she stuck the landing of her Hollywood debut with a precision few stars have achieved before or since. Chin down, eyes lifted, she eclipsed one of the most seasoned leading men in the industry. Even before she uttered one of cinema’s greatest innuendos — “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and…blow” — she had walked away with the film. Critics raved, hailing her as the next Marlene Dietrich and claiming she had better chemistry with Bogart than Ingrid Bergman had in “Casablanca.”

Director Howard Hawks had plucked the Brooklyn-born teenager from obscurity after seeing her in the pages of Harper’s Bazaar. After changing her name from Betty to Lauren and instructing her to keep her voice in its naturally low register,...

Halle Berry has stepped away from Ryan Murphy's upcoming Hulu legal drama, All's Fair. The Oscar-winning actress had been slated to star alongside Kim Kardashian and Glenn Close in the highly anticipated series, which promised to be a high-end, glossy legal procedural with a focus on an all-female law firm.

Berry's departure was confirmed just a week after her involvement in the project was announced. According to sources, the decision was attributed to scheduling conflicts, a common issue in the demanding world of Hollywood. Berry was also set to serve as an executive producer on the series, a role that she now leaves behind as well.

Related Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg's New Movie Tops Netflix Charts Despite Mixed Reviews

Netflix's new spy thriller starring acclaimed actors Halle Berry and Mark Wahlberg becomes a hit despite mixed critical reception.

Despite her sudden exit, Berry addressed the situation...

The new Batman animated series “Batman: Caped Crusader” premiered its first season on Amazon Prime Video, introducing a departure from the source material. The show’s creative leads decided to make one of Batman’s most recognizable foes, The Penguin, into a woman named Oswalda Cobblepot.

Showrunner Bruce Timm said there was a “lack of good female villains” in Batman. With characters like Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn, another option was needed. This led producers to flip The Penguin’s gender. Co-creator James Tucker said the idea sparked new story directions, comparing Oswalda to iconic actress Marlene Dietrich.

Oswalda maintains traits of the classic Penguin character. She uses a weaponized umbrella and favors formal wear inspired by Dietrich’s stage outfits, according to actress Minnie Driver. However, Oswalda also has a family dynamic not seen before with two sons. She leads a criminal empire in 1940s Gotham, willing to...

Gena Rowlands, the wife and muse of John Cassavetes whose unvarnished abilities found in such films as Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, Opening Night and Gloria put her in the pantheon of acting legends, died Wednesday. She was 94.

Rowlands died surrounded by family members at her home in Indian Wells, California, according to TMZ. A spokesperson for WME, where her son, writer-director Nick Cassavetes, has representation, confirmed her death. She had battled Alzheimer’s since 2019.

Rowlands received Oscar nominations for her performances in A Woman Under the Influence (1974), where she played an isolated, emotionally vulnerable housewife who lapses into madness, and Gloria (1980), where she sparkled as a pissed-off child protector who rails against the Mob.

She lost out to Ellen Burstyn of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and Sissy Spacek of Coal Miner’s Daughter in those Academy Award races. Her greatness wasn’t formally acknowledged by the Academy...

Bruce Timm Explains Gender-Bent Penguin in Batman: Caped Crusader - Main Image

Batman: Caped Crusader showrunner Bruce Timm recently explained his decision behind the gender-swapped Penguin in the series.

The hit Prime Video animated series notably made major changes to some of the iconic villains such as Penguin, who is introduced as a female version named Oswalda Cobblepot. She is voiced by actress Minnie Driver.

The character's gender-bent version received polarizing responses among fans as some of them welcomed the change while some believed that it was unnecessary and felt that it was pandering.

Batman: Caped Crusader's Gender-Bent Penguin Addressed by Bruce Timm

In a recent interview, Timm opened up about his decision to reimagine the Penguin as a woman in Batman: Caped Crusader.

He shared that they came up with the idea when they realized that there is a lack of good female villains in the Batman universe.

Just when you thought you were done getting excited for Batman projects in an oversaturated market, who should come strolling along but "Batman: The Animated Series" co-creator Bruce Timm? The DC animation legend's "Batman: Caped Crusader" might very well be "the best piece of Batman media in a decade," to quote Witney Seibold's glowing review for /Film. It's certainly a worthy successor to "The Animated Series." Where that beloved '90s cartoon was limited by the censors at Fox Kids, Timm's latest animated take on the Dark Knight -- which nearly died on the vine after it was dropped by Max, only for Prime Video to pick it up -- is given the space to be as emotionally mature, political, and even frightening as it wants to be.

Rather than putting a superficially grimdark or excessively violent spin on the DC Comics universe, "Caped Crusader" takes advantage of...

Batman: Caped Crusader recently premiered to widespread acclaim and has quickly surpassed The Boys in streaming popularity on Amazon.

Fans have largely embraced the show. However, leading up to its release, the show faced several controversies that some fans labeled as “woke.” These included a race-swapped Harley Quinn, who is portrayed as Asian, and a gender-swapped Penguin.

The show’s creators, Bruce Timm and James Tucker, recently discussed the show’s development with ‘The Emmys.’ One of the standout topics was the decision to gender-swap the Penguin. The creators explained that this choice was largely driven by the need for more compelling female villains.

Timm: James and I were talking about the overview of the show, and we said, “One of the problems with Batman, as he is, is there’s a lack of good villains. You’ve got Catwoman, you’ve got Poison Ivy, you’ve got Harley Quinn.

‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ recently released to universal acclaim, the show has quickly overtaken ‘The Boys’ when it comes to Amazon Platform streaming, and fans have generally liked the show.

Now, before the show was released, it’s been involved in several controversies that some fans deemed as “woke.” First, Harley Quinn was race-swapped, being Asian in the show, and The Penguin was gender-swapped.

The show’s version of the Penguin is called Oswalda and is voiced by Minnie Driver.

The show’s creators Bruce Timm and James Tucker recently talked with ‘The Emmys’ and commented on the development of the show, one of the topics that stood out was the fact that the Penguin is gender-swapped. The creators explained that this was mostly due to a lack of good, presumably, female villains:

Timm: James and I were talking about the overview of the show, and we said, “One of the problems with Batman,...

Bruce Timm’s latest Batman animated series is out and it has got fans talking. All ten episodes of Batman: Caped Crusader were out on August 01 and right from the get-go, the series received mixed reactions from die-hard fans of Batman. Why? Well, one of the biggest reasons behind the raised eyebrows was Bruce Timm’s creative decision to turn the notorious villain, Penguin, into a woman.

Bruce Timm’s Batman: Caped Crusader | DC Studios

Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot alias Penguin is one of the most popular villains in Batman’s world for all the right reasons. The man has got what it takes to give Bruce Wayne nightmares and is the epitome of a villain. Needless to say, fans love the guy. However, when Batman: Caped Crusader turned Oswald into Oswalda, fans had polarizing opinions on the decision. Here’s why Bruce Timm decided to go down this route.

Why...

Mitzi McCall, the delightful actress and sitcom writer who partnered with her husband, Charlie Brill, in a sketch comedy act that famously floundered between sets by The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, has died. She was 93.

McCall died Thursday at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, her family announced.

The pint-sized Pittsburgh native also played the dry cleaner’s wife who wears a fur coat owned by Jerry’s mom on the 1994 Seinfeld episode “The Secretary,” and she was the mother of Carol Leifer’s optometrist character on the 1997-98 WB sitcom Alright Already.

McCall had a thriving career as a voiceover artist; she played Mother Goose on Mother Goose and Grimm and worked on other animated projects including The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, Paw Paws, Darkwing Duck, Yo Yogi! and Ice Age (2002).

And she wrote for shows including 13 Queens Boulevard, Eight Is Enough, One Day at a Time,...

For jewelry aficionados, phrases like “Zip necklace” and “mystery-set stones” should instantly evoke thoughts of one heritage-steeped house: Van Cleef & Arpels. These are just two of the iconic design elements from the legendary brand that opened its first boutique on Paris’s Place Vendôme in 1906. Now a new book takes a comprehensive look at its high-wattage designs, created during the years when everyone from Hollywood icons Carole Lombard and Marlene Dietrich to Wallis Simpson, a.k.a. the Duchess of Windsor, ranked high among the house’s most ardent fans and devoted collectors.

The Van Cleef & Arpels Collection (1906-1953) is an impressive coffee-table book that explores the dazzling designs that emerged from the jeweler in the first half of the 20th century. Almost 700 jewelry and watch images are included alongside 200 archival documents, from 1920s timepieces and bracelets infused with Art Deco styling to early advertisements and mid-century jewels that...

“A fart joke is easy.”

This may be, but executed by Mel Brooks, it can get a crowd going more than anything on view at this summer’s Paris Olympics. So was the case this past weekend at a 50th anniversary screening of his western comedy classic, “Blazing Saddles,” which played at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles and was followed by a Q&a with the 98 year-old filmmaker himself. Moderated by Brooksfilms producer Kevin Salter, Brooks dazzled and enraptured the audience with tidbits on the making of the film and stories from his colorful past. One such story involved his hard-to-believe Oscar win for his first film, “The Producers.”

“I didn’t have a speech because Stanley Kubrick was in the same category for ‘2001,’” Brooks said of being nominated for Best Original Screenplay. “There was a brilliant director called Pontecorvo who did ‘The Battle of Algiers,’ a great picture...

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It often feels like movie marketing is an unimaginative, flood-the-zone proposition in our age of pre-sold, IP-driven blockbusters. But as we've recently been reminded via the carefully crafted ad campaigns for smaller genre efforts like "MaXXXine" and "Longlegs", marketing departments are still a vital part of the business. How you sell each movie has certainly changed with the evolution of the media landscape, but even the biggest films will always need some kind of push. After all, audiences aren't likely to flock to a movie that has zero presence in the marketplace.

There really isn't an exception to this rule. The closest you're liable to find might be the August 5, 1953 release of Fred Zinnemann's "From Here to Eternity." Based on James Jones' critically acclaimed novel set at the U.S. Army's Schofield Barracks in Hawaii just prior to the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor,...

Spencer Tracy leads a stellar cast in Bad Day at Black Rock, mixing film noir with western vibes. The all-star ensemble includes multiple Oscar winners and iconic actors like Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin. The film captures post-wwii tensions in an isolated town, combining the mystery of noir with vast western landscapes.

Bad Day at Black Rock is an intriguing blend of film noir and neo-western featuring one of the greatest ensemble casts Ive ever seen led by the great Spencer Tracy. Throughout his storied Hollywood career, Tracy shared the screen with many legendary actors. In his feature film debut, Up the River, he co-starred with Humphrey Bogart. In Guess Whos Coming to Dinner, he co-starred with Sidney Poitier and his real-life spouse Katharine Hepburn. In Judgment at Nuremberg, he co-starred with Burt Lancaster, Maximilian Schell, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, William Shatner, and Montgomery Clift.

Tracy appeared in the all-star ensemble of Its a Mad,...

Nico Hofmann and Jan Mojto, two leading figures in the German TV industry, on Friday unveiled the upcoming slate for their new joint venture, announced earlier this year. Their company plans to make big-budget, high-end series out of Germany for the international market.

The first slate of projects includes several novel and nonfiction adaptations. They include: Tilmann Lahme’s Die Manns – Geschichte einer Familie, a biography of the legendary Mann family, including noble prize winner Thomas Mann and his brother Heinrich Mann, which is to be produced as a six-part television series set in the 1920s and told through the eyes of the younger generation, particularly the kindred spirits and eldest siblings Klaus and Erika Mann.

The group plans to adapt European Book Prize winner Maxim Leo’s best-selling novel Wo wir zu Hause sind and his latest book, Wir werden jung sein, as a limited series. The first is...

German producer Nico Hofmann has unveiled a slate of projects he is working up as part of a partnership with Beta Film. Veteran producer Hofmann left UFA Film to strike out on his own, partnering with longtime collaborator Jan Mojto, CEO of Beta Film, and Beta Film/Intaglio Films producer Jan Wünschmann earlier this year.

The quartet of projects include a six-part series inspired by award-winning journalist Thomas Hüetlin’s soon-to-be-published novel ‘Man Lebt Sein Leben Nur Einmal’ (You Only Live Once), about film star and pioneering feminist Marlene Dietrich.

Another six-part series in prospect is an adaptation of Tilman Lahme 1920s-set novel ‘Die Manns – Geschichte Einer Familie’ (The Manns – Story of a Family). The story will be told through the eyes of the younger generation finding their place in a changing world.

There are two adaptations in the works based on European Book Prize winner Maxim Leo’s novels.

Viggo Mortensen seems tireless. On Friday night, he opened the 58th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) in the Czech Republic with his feminist western The Dead Don’t Hurt after being honored with the fest’s President’s Award. On Saturday, he discussed the film at a press conference and introduced another screening in the Czech spa town. On Sunday, Mortensen met the press for roundtable interviews.

In accepting his Kviff award, Mortensen shared that “all movies are difficult to make. But I was lucky to count on an amazing group of actors” for The Dead Don’t Hurt. He particularly lauded stars Vicky Krieps, who plays Vivienne, a strong woman who falls in love with Mortensen’s Olsen, who leaves her behind for a while to join a war, and Solly McLeod, who portrays the antagonist Weston Jeffries.

In an interview on Sunday, the star discussed his inspirations behind the film,...

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s whirlwind career of 40-plus movies made within just over a dozen years kicked off with Love Is Colder Than Death. It ended, all too soon, with a sendoff that may as well have been called Death Is Hotter Than Love. Even if it hadn’t wound up being Fassbinder’s final cinematic will and testament, Querelle, an uber-horny but otherwise unorthodox adaptation of Jean Genet’s 1947 novel Querelle of Brest, would still feel like a film precariously perched between rowdy, profane life and that liminal, insatiable zone that always follows la petite mort.

But because the timeline spanning the film’s completion to its release was bisected by Fassbinder’s death from a drug overdose, it’s nearly impossible to avoid overlaying the gorgeously wrecked glamour of his entire career onto the film, draping the virtue of his carnal vices over a package that’s already prodigiously overstuffed.

The star of La Dolce Vita and A Man and a Woman, who has died aged 92, had a unique screen presence that was at once alluring and forbidding

The superbly aquiline beauty and patrician style of Anouk Aimée made her a 60s movie icon in France, Italy and everywhere else with a presence at once alluring and forbidding. She had something of the young Joan Crawford, or Marlene Dietrich, or her contemporary, the French model and actress Capucine. Aimée radiated an enigmatic sexual aura flavoured with melancholy, sophistication and worldly reserve. Hers was not a face that could simper or pout: it was the entranced men around her who were more likely to be doing that. Hirokazu Kore-eda once wrote an amusing line that all the great French movie actresses have surnames that begin with the same letter as their first names: Danielle Darrieux, Simone Signoret, Brigitte Bardot … and of...

Ever since I heard of the TV show Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, I’ve been referring to it as Mr. Chanel, solely because that’s the legacy he’s most remembered by. Of course, the man had many successes and vices; however, nothing was as magnificent as his career at the Parisian couture house. Becoming Karl Lagerfeld tells the story of the anonymous man who spent 20 years of his life building up a career that anyone would kill for. In all honesty, the show seems to be a shallow take on the designer’s life because, despite its aggressive title, it delivers nothing about his creative process, simply his internal demons. Though I must admit, it does a rather good job at that bit. You’ve got to watch the series with a grain of salt, knowing what the man was actually like. The series begins in the spring of 1972, 10 years...