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Terry Gilliam’s grandest, most joyful fantasy is still a marvel, a fully adult adventure that will equally spark younger imaginations. Creative tricks and eye-popping Italo designs bring us a magical, satirical world of absurd wars, sultan’s hareems and a flight of fancy to the moon. John Neville’s ideal Baron is abetted by spunky Sarah Polley and a gallery of winning characterizations, from Eric Idle, Oliver Reed, Jonathan Pryce, Uma Thurman, Jack Purvis, Robin Williams, Valentina Cortese, Sting. So what if the Baron is history’s most notorious liar: we understand his complaint when performing a technically preposterous trip through outer space: “This is Precisely the sort of thing nobody Ever believes.”

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 4K

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1166

1988 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 126 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 3, 2023 / 49.95

Starring: John Neville, Eric Idle, Sarah Polley, Oliver Reed, Charles McKeown,...

Richard Fleischer’s Biblical epic is a class act all the way, and one of producer Dino De Laurentiis’s greatest accomplishments. Anthony Quinn’s guilty, perplexed bandit survives and subsists but never understands the importance of the man crucified in his place; the view of early Christianity is respectful and free of pious clichés. It’s an excellent image of the ancient world, with gladiator scenes that are possibly the best ever. Fleisher does exceedingly well with the enormous sets and a well-chosen international cast: Ernest Borgnine, Valentina Cortese, Vittorio Gassman, Katy Jurado, Arthur Kennedy, Silvana Mangano, Jack Palance.

Barabbas

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 132

1961 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 137 min. / Street Date June 29, 2022 / Available from [Imprint] / au 39.95

Starring: Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Arthur Kennedy, Katy Jurado, Harry Andrews, Vittorio Gassman, Norman Wooland, Valentina Cortese, Jack Palance, Ernest Borgnine, Arnoldo Foa’, Michael Gwynn, Laurence Payne, Douglas Fowley, Robert Hall, Joe Robinson, Friedrich von Ledebur,...

Orson Welles in fine form! This lavishly produced costume drama, beautifully cast and directed, was filmed on location in gorgeous Italian palazzos, churches and villas. Welles is cast to type as the literally mesmerizing mountebank Cagliostro, who aids Madame du Barry in a scheme to seize the throne of France. Welles almost certainly ‘helped’ the credited director; the highly theatrical goings-on look exactly like Orson’s style. Super performances from Nancy Guild, Akim Tamiroff, Valentina Cortese, Margot Grahame and Charles Goldner turn Alexandre Dumas’ tale into swashbuckling mind-control excitement; the disc tops it off with a sensationally good restoration.

Black Magic

Blu-ray

ClassicFlix

1949 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 105 min. / Street Date January 25, 2022 / Available from ClassicFlix / 19.99

Starring: Orson Welles, Nancy Guild, Akim Tamiroff, Charles Goldner, Stephen Bekassy, Valentina Cortese, Margot Grahame, Frank Latimore, Gregory Gaye, Berry Kroeger, Robert Atkins, Raymond Burr, Harriet White Medin, Silvana Mangano, Milly Vitale.

Cinematography: Ubaldo Arata, Anchise Brizzi

Art Directors: Jean d’Eaubonne,...

The star from Sid & Nancy, Terminator 2, Candyman, Gattaca, Leaving Las Vegas and the new chiller The Dark And The Wicked takes us on a journey through some of his favorite foreign films.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Candyman (1992)

Frankenstein (1931)

Sid and Nancy (1986)

The Dark And The Wicked (2020)

The Wall of Mexico (2019)

La Dolce Vita (1961)

Il Bidone (1955)

Day For Night (1973)

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1967)

8 ½ (1963)

Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939)

Rififi (1955)

Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Z (1969)

The Sleeping Car Murders (1965)

The Battle of Algiers (1966)

Burn! (1969)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

The Italian Job (1969)

The Italian Job (2003)

The Magician (1958)

Wild Strawberries (1957)

Fanny and Alexander (1982)

Persona (1966)

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

The Last House On The Left (1972)

The Virgin Spring (1960)

Paperhouse (1988)

The Strangers (2008)

The Monster (2016)

Andrei Rublev (1966)

Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

Nostalghia (1983)

Son of Frankenstein (1939)

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Zorba The Greek (1964)

Pollyanna (1960)

Other Notable Items

Lon...

Updated with Academy statement: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has responded to complaints about the exclusion of some entertainment figures from its annual In Memoriam segment on Sunday’s Oscar telecast.

“The Academy receives hundreds of requests to include loved ones and industry colleagues in the Oscars In Memoriam segment,” the organization said in a statement obtained by Deadline. “An executive committee representing every branch considers the list and makes selections for the telecast based on limited available time. All of the submissions are included on Oscar.com and will remain on the site throughout the year.”

Previously: Kobe Bryant led off the Oscar telecast’s In Memoriam segment and Kirk Douglas was the last film personality it honored.

The annual portion late in the show, introduced this time by Steven Spielberg and accompanied by a rendition of “Yesterday” by Grammy winner Billie Eilish, appeared to avoid major controversy.

For Sunday’s Oscars 2020 ceremony on ABC, producers had a difficult decision of which film industry people would make the cut and who would unfortunately be left out of the “In Memoriam.” For the segment, for the song “Yesterday” performed by Grammy champ Billie Eilish.

Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam gallery for the year of 2019 and the just launched gallery for 2020.

SEE2020 Oscars: Full list of winners (and losers) at the 92nd Academy Awards

Over 100 people in the film industry, many of them academy members, have passed away in the past 12 months. Here is a list of the some of the names included in the tribute:

Danny Aiello (actor)

Jim Alexander (sound)

Bibi Andersson (actor)

Ben Barenholtz (executive)

Kobe Bryant (producer)

Diahann Carroll (actor)

Seymour Cassel (actor)

William J. Creber (production designer)

Doris Day (actress)

Stanley Donen (director)

Kirk Douglas (actor/producer)

Robert Evans (executive)

Peter Fonda (actor)

Robert Forster (actor)

Harriet Frank,...

One of the most significant additions to the Academy Awards ceremony around 30 years ago has been the In Memoriam segment. Producers find the perfect blend of music, photos and clips for the short annual presentation.

Which of the past Oscar winners and nominees from many different branches will be featured this Sunday, February 9, on the Oscars 2020 ceremony for ABC? Some of the most likely to be included will be acting nominees Danny Aiello, Diahann Carroll, Doris Day, Kirk Douglas, Peter Fonda, Robert Forster, Sylvia Miles, Michael J. Pollard and Rip Torn. How about major creatives such as Stanley Donen, Robert Evans, Buck Henry, Andre Previn and John Singleton?

Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam gallery for the year of 2019 and the just launched gallery for 2020.

SEEWho is Performing at the Oscars 2020?: Full List of Presenters and Performers

Over 100 people in the film industry, many of them academy members, have...

Sunday’s telecast of the 2020 Screen Actors Guild Awards will feature a special In Memoriam segment devoted to many of the actors and actresses who have died since last year’s ceremony in late January. Sure to be among those saluted include Oscar-nominated actresses Diahann Carroll and Doris Day, plus nominated “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” actor Luke Perry. Visit our own Gold Derby memoriam gallery for the year of 2019.

The 26th annual ceremony will be live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, January 19, at 8:00 p.m. Et; 5:00 p.m. Pt. The SAG life achievement award will be presented to Robert De Niro.

SEE2020 SAG Awards nominations: Full list of Screen Actors Guild Awards nominees

Over 100 people in SAG/AFTRA have passed away in the past 12 months. Which of the following 50+ names will also be featured in the televised tribute?

Julie Adams

Danny Aiello

Jed Allan

Bibi Andersson...

The history of the Academy Awards is the history of outside observers complaining that the voters got it wrong. And while our perceptions of Oscar mistakes often have a lot to do with how movies age and how tastes change, sometimes it’s immediately apparent that a mistake was made. Here are some examples of choices from the major categories that seemed like flubs right out of the gate.

Best Picture: “Crash” over “Brokeback Mountain” (2005)

Fifteen years later, this one still stings. A genuinely great film, one that’s both historically significant and still emotionally powerful, gets beaten by a gimmicky movie that takes an important subject and grinds it into ham-fisted theatrics and excessively on-the-nose writing. There are many theories behind the “Crash” win — from its studio’s blanket coverage of awards voters with early DVD screeners to older Hollywood veterans refusing to watch the gay-cowboy movie — but no matter why it happened,...

Italian actor remembered for her roles in Day for Night, The Wandering Jew and The House on Telegraph Hill

When Ingrid Bergman received her Oscar as best supporting actress for Murder on the Orient Express (1974), she concluded her acceptance speech by saying: “Please forgive me, Valentina. I didn’t mean to.” She was referring to the vibrant Italian actor Valentina Cortese, who was nominated alongside her for her role in François Truffaut’s La Nuit Américaine.

In that film, Cortese, who has died aged 96, played Severine, an ageing star who quaffs champagne while working, cannot find the right door to enter or exit, and blames her failure to remember her lines on the makeup girl. Cortese was already an established actor with the best part of her career behind her at the time of Truffaut’s inspirational casting. “A real character, extremely feminine and very funny,” he remarked of her at the time.

Italian actress Valentina Cortese, Oscar-nominated for her performance in François Truffaut’s 1973 drama Day For Night, has died aged 96, according to Italian news service Ansa.

The prolific actress, whose career spanned more than 50 years, started out in Italian films of the early 1940s, leading to internationally acclaimed roles in Riccardo Freda’s 1948 Italian movie Les Misérables and the 1949 British film The Glass Mountain (1949), which led to a number of roles in American features.

Cortese starred in movies including second world war thriller Malaya with Spencer Tracy and James Stewart, Jules Dassin’s Thieves’ Highway with Richard Conte, and Joseph L Makiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa with Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner.

In Europe she later starred in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Le Amiche, Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen and Franco Zeffirelli’s Brother Sun, Sister Moon.

In 1975, Cortese received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination for her role...

Valentina Cortese, an Italian actress who held the extremely rare distinction of having been nominated for best supporting actress for her work in a foreign film, Francois Truffaut’s 1973 classic “Day for Night,” has died, according to Italian news agency Ansa. She was 96.

In Truffaut’s “Day for Night,” considered by many to be the best movie about making movies ever made, Cortese played, in the words of Roger Ebert, “the alcoholic diva past her prime.” The New York Times said: “The performances are superb. Miss Cortese and Miss Bisset are not only both hugely funny but also hugely affecting, in moments that creep up on you without warning.”

For a two-part, Carlo Ponti-produced 1948 film adaptation of “Les Miserables,” Cortese caused a sensation by playing both female leads, Fantine and Cosette. (The film was otherwise an adequate treatment of the Victor Hugo novel.)

“With Valentina Cortese’s passing, the...

Academy Award-nominated actress Valentina Cortese died Wednesday in Milan. She was 96.

Cortese, born in 1923, was one of the leading ladies of Italian cinema of the 1940s, first gaining fame with the role of Lisabetta in the 1942 film La cena delle beffeby from Alessandro Blasetti. 

Her screen presence earned her international acclaim. She starred as both Fantine and Cosette in the 1948 Italian version of Les Miserables, with Gino Cervi and a young Marcello Mastroianni. After starring in the 1949 British film The Glass Mountain, she starred in numerous American films of the time.

In 1948, she signed with ...

Academy Award-nominated actress Valentina Cortese died Wednesday in Milan. She was 96.

Cortese, born in 1923, was one of the leading ladies of Italian cinema of the 1940s, first gaining fame with the role of Lisabetta in the 1942 film La cena delle beffeby from Alessandro Blasetti. 

Her screen presence earned her international acclaim. She starred as both Fantine and Cosette in the 1948 Italian version of Les Miserables, with Gino Cervi and a young Marcello Mastroianni. After starring in the 1949 British film The Glass Mountain, she starred in numerous American films of the time.

In 1948, she signed with ...

To celebrate the release of The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire – available on Blu-ray today from Arrow Video – we’re giving away a Blu-ray and the official soundtrack on limited edition 12″ vinyl!

One of several ‘animal-in-the-title’ cash-ins released in the wake of Dario Argento’s box-office smash The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a gloriously excessive giallo that boasts a rogues gallery of perverse characters; violent, fetishized murders, and one of the genre’s most nonsensical, red-herring laden plots (which sees almost every incidental character hinted at potentially being the killer).

Benefitting from a sumptuous score by Stelvio Cipriani and exuberant supporting performances from Valentina Cortese and Dagmar Lassander, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a luridly over-the-top latter-day entry in the filmography of acclaimed director Riccardo Freda. An archetypal giallo from the genre’s heyday, Freda’s film...

To celebrate the release of The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire – available on Blu-ray April 8th from Arrow Video – we’re giving away a copy.

One of several ‘animal-in-the-title’ cash-ins released in the wake of Dario Argento’s box-office smash The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a gloriously excessive giallo that boasts a rogues gallery of perverse characters; violent, fetishized murders, and one of the genre’s most nonsensical, red-herring laden plots (which sees almost every incidental character hinted at potentially being the killer).

Benefitting from a sumptuous score by Stelvio Cipriani and exuberant supporting performances from Valentina Cortese and Dagmar Lassander, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a luridly over-the-top latter-day entry in the filmography of acclaimed director Riccardo Freda. An archetypal giallo from the genre’s heyday, Freda’s film is presented here in a stunning new...

The Iguana With The Tongue Of Fire will be available on Blu-ray April 9th From Arrow Video

One of several animal-in-the-title cash-ins released in the wake of Dario Argento s box-office smash The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire is a gloriously excessive giallo that boasts a rogues gallery of perverse characters; violent, fetishized murders, and one of the genre s most nonsensical, red-herring laden plots (which sees almost every incidental character hinted at potentially being the killer).

Set in Dublin (a rather surprising giallo setting), Iguana opens audaciously with an acid-throwing, razor-wielding maniac brutally slaying a woman in her own home. The victim s mangled corpse is discovered in a limousine owned by Swiss Ambassador Sobiesky and a police investigation is launched, but when the murdering continues and the ambassador claims diplomatic immunity, tough ex-cop John Norton is brought in to find the killer…...

Nearly a year after its surprising drop on Netflix after the Super Bowl, The Cloverfield Paradox arrives on both Blu-ray and DVD this week, making it just one of the highlights of this week’s batch of home media releases. The horror comedy You Might Be the Killer also arrives on both formats this Tuesday, and Scream Factory has Mermaid: Lake of the Dead on tap this week as well.

Other notable releases for February 5th include a Special Edition version of The Possessed from Arrow Video, Black Magic, Nazi Overlord, American Poltergeist: The Curse of Lilith Ratchet, and The Cloverfield 3-Movie Collection.

The Cloverfield Paradox

Producer J.J. Abrams takes you deeper into the Cloverfield universe than ever before with this mysterious sci-fi thriller. Orbiting Earth on the brink of a devastating energy war, scientists prepare to test a device that could provide unlimited power or trap them in a terrifying alternate reality.

The Possessed will be available on Blu-ray February 5th From Arrow Video

The Possessed is a wonderfully atmospheric proto-giallo based on one of Italy s most notorious crimes, the Alleghe killings, and adapted from the book on that case by acclaimed literary figure Giovanni Comisso.

Peter Baldwin stars as Bernard, a depressed novelist who sets off in search of his old flame Tilde, a beautiful maid who works at a remote lakeside hotel. Bernard is warmly greeted by the hotel owner Enrico and his daughter Irma, but Tilde has disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Bernard undertakes an investigation and is soon plunged into a disturbing drama of familial secrets, perversion, madness and murder…

Co-written by Giulio Questi and co-directed by Luigi Bazzoni, The Possessed masterfully combines film noir, mystery and giallo tropes, whilst also drawing on the formal innovations of 1960s art cinema (particularly the films of Michelangelo Antonioni). A uniquely dreamlike take on true crime,...

By Todd Garbarini

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Laemmle’s Royal Theatre in Los Angeles will be presenting a 45th anniversary screening of Francois Truffaut’s 1973 film Day for Night. The 115-minute film, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and known in its native France as La Nuit américaine (The American Night), stars Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, Dani, Alexandra Stewart, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Jean Champion, Jean-Pierre Léaud and François Truffaut and has been referred to as the most beloved film ever made about filmmaking. It will be screened on Thursday, May 10, 2018 at 7:30 pm.

Please Note: At press time, Actress Jacqueline Bisset is scheduled to appear in person for a discussion about the film following the screening.

From the press release:

Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.com/ac.

Day For Night

Part of our Anniversary Classics series. For details, visit: laemmle.

Though she’s not quite the household name that her contemporaries Anna Magnani and Alida Valli are, Italian actress Valentina Cortese had an impressive career both on screen and on stage. Besides her romantic and professional relationship with Italian theater legend Giorgio Strehler, she worked with such film luminaries as Robert Wise, Jules Dassin, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Terry Gilliam, William Dieterle — as well as Fellini, Antonioni and Truffaut — even garnering an Oscar nomination for her supporting part as an alcoholic and aging actress in Truffaut’s Day for Night.

Italian director Francesco Patierno pays homage to her life, talent and...

The Ninth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series started last Friday and continues the next two weekends — The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the mid-1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

All films are screened at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood).

The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations, which this year includes films by two New Wave masters: Jacques Rivette’s first feature, “Paris Belongs to Us,” and François Truffaut’s cinephilic love letter, “Day for Night.” The fest also provides one of the few opportunities available in St. Louis to see films projected the old-school, time-honored way, with both Alain Resnais’ “Last Year at Marienbad” and Robert Bresson’s “Au hasard Balthazar” screening from 35mm prints.

The Ninth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the mid-1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations, which this year includes films by two New Wave masters: Jacques Rivette’s first feature, “Paris Belongs to Us,” and François Truffaut’s cinephilic love letter, “Day for Night.” The fest also provides one of the few opportunities available in St. Louis to see films projected the old-school, time-honored way, with both Alain Resnais’ “Last Year at Marienbad” and Robert Bresson’s “Au hasard Balthazar” screening from 35mm prints. Even more traditional, we also offer a silent film with live music, and audiences are sure to delight in the Poor People of Paris...

The Barefoot Contessa

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1954 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien, Marius Goring, Rossano Brazzi, Valentina Cortese, Elizabeth Sellars, Warren Stevens, Enzo Staiola, Mari Aldon, Bessie Love.

Cinematography: Jack Cardiff

Original Music: Mario Nascimbene

Written, Produced and Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

As a teenager, many of my first and strongest movie impressions came not from the movies, but from certain critics. I memorized Robin Wood’s analysis before getting a look at Hitchcock’s Psycho. Raymond Durgnat introduced me to Georges Franju and Luis Buñuel, and I first learned to appreciate a number of great movies including The Barefoot Contessa from Richard Corliss, a terrific critic who championed writers over director-auteurs.

The Barefoot Contessa is a classically structured story, in that it could work as a novel; it’s told from several points of view.

Michelangelo Antonioni's pre-international breakthrough drama is as good as anything he's done, a flawlessly acted and directed story of complex relationships -- that include his 'career' themes before the existential funk set in. It's one of the best-blocked dramatic films ever... the direction is masterful. Le amiche Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 817 1955 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 106 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 7, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Eleonora Rossi Drago, Gabriele Ferzetti, Franco Fabrizi, Valentina Cortese, Madeleine Fischer, Yvonne Furneaux, Anna Maria Pancani, Luciano Volpato, Maria Gambarelli, Ettore Manni. Cinematography Gianni De Venanzo Film Editor Eraldo Da Roma Original Music Giovanni Fusco Written by Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Michelangelo Antonioni, Alba de Cespedes from a book by Cesare Pavese Produced by Giovanni Addessi Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

It's time to stop being so intimidated by Michelangelo Antonioni. His epics of existential alienation La notte, L'eclisse and...

We're just a week away from another gold-tinged year of speeches, upsets, and snubs. After all the hype, what ends up mattering about the Oscars? I'd argue it's the speeches, and that's why we're picking the 25 best acceptance speeches ever -- by actors only. Sorry, but glamor is a key element in any Oscar moment and I don't have time to remember if the guy who adapted The Last Emperor thanked his mom.  25. Dustin Hoffman, Kramer vs. Kramer Dustin Hoffman's seriousness initially seems worrisome, but his mix of sarcasm and sincerity is right for the ceremony.  24. Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose Cotillard's tearful speech makes you realize how rare it is than an Oscar recipient is surprised to win. As Cotillard scrambles to make sense of the honor, she comes up with an ebullient finale: "Thank you, life! Thank you, love! It is -- there are some angels in this city.

Jules Dassin didn’t do much in the way of subversion. At least not cinematically. He didn’t have many overarching themes to his work, he didn’t twist his genre films into something they weren’t. What he did was utilize every one of the handful of tools he was given, and pushed his films to their absolute breaking point. His subversion was a sort of perversion, an excess of imagination and a willingness to show the world as he saw it. If that meant creating a filmography that looked suspicious to the House Committee of Un-American Activities, well, that was just the natural result of having an eye and an ear for how the common man lived.

It can’t have helped that his last film before the blacklist order came down was Thieves’ Highway, an all-out indictment of capitalism cloaked in the noir-drenched mode of a typical Fox gritty,...

(Region B)  It's just like the film industry, I tell ya!  Director Jules Dassin teams with writer A.I. Bezzerides for one of filmdom's strongest slams at the free market system. Trucker Richard Conte fights back when cheated and robbed by Lee J. Cobb's racketeering produce czar. Thieves' Highway Region B Blu-ray + Pal DVD Arrow Video (UK) 1949 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 94 min. / Street Date October 20, 2015 / Available at Amazon UK / £14.99 Starring Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence, Jack Oakie, Millard Mitchell, Joseph Pevney, Morris Carnovsky Cinematography Norbert Brodine Art Direction Chester Gore, Lyle Wheeler Film Editor Nick DeMaggio Original Music Alfred Newman Written by A.I. Bezzerides from his novel Thieves' Market Produced by Robert Bassler Directed by Jules Dassin

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Did Jules Dassin initiate his string of studio produced films noirs, each of which has a strong element of social criticism, if not outright condemnation of 'the system?...

Stars: Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence, Jack Oakie, Millard Mitchell, Joseph Pevney, Morris Carnovsky, Tamara Shayne | Written by A.I. Bezzerides | Directed by Jules Dassin

Jules Dassin’s Thieves’ Highway was released at a time when Noir was going strong, and fits the mould of what is expected of the genre. In truth though, it is something much different and much more human, providing the audience with an insight into the dirty tricks of market life controlled by mobsters.

In this Arrow Academy release we are introduced to A.I. Bezzerides world of crooks and fall guys where the nice guy is normally the fall guy. In this case Richard Conte plays Nick Garcos a soldier returning from the war to find his father crippled by mobster Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb) in a deal gone wrong. Looking for revenge Garcos sources some apples, taking them to the...

Day for Night

Written by François Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard, and Suzanne Schiffman

Directed by François Truffaut

France, 1973

From Fellini to Fassbinder, Minnelli to Godard, some of international cinema’s greatest directors have turned their camera on their art and, by extension, themselves. But in the annals of great films about filmmaking, few movies have captured the rapturous passion of cinematic creation and the consuming devotion to film as well as François Truffaut’s Day for Night. While there are a number of stories at play in this love letter to the movies, along with several terrific performances throughout, the crux of the film, the real star of the show, is cinema itself.

Prior to Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, Truffaut was arguably the most fervent film loving filmmaker, wearing his affection for the medium on his directorial sleeve and seldom missing an opportunity to sound off in interviews or in...

“The Movie For Movie Lovers”

By Raymond Benson

François Truffaut had an all too short but certainly brilliant career as a filmmaker. He began in the world of film criticism in France, but in the late 1950s he decided to make movies himself. Truffaut quickly shot to the forefront of the French New Wave in the late 1950s and early 60s, alongside the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer, Alain Resnais, and others. By the time the 70s rolled around, Truffaut was a national treasure in France and a mainstay in art house cinemas in the U.S. and Britain.

His 1973 masterpiece, Day for Night (in France La Nuit Américaine, or “American Night”), won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of that year, the only time Truffaut picked up an Academy Award. Due to odd eligibility rules, the picture could be nominated for other categories the following year. For...

Return From the Ashes: Petzold’s Compelling Resurrection of WWII Aftermath

At the head of the cinematic movement referred to as the Berlin School of filmmaking is auteur Christian Petzold, an internationally renowned artist whose works have met with increasing critical success and notable visibility. Usually utilizing the talents of his frequent collaborator, German beauty Nina Hoss, the duo has returned with Phoenix, their follow-up to the celebrated 2012 title, Barbara, where it snagged a Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival.

While that film examined a predicament in early 80’s East Berlin, Petzold reaches farther back into the troubled tumultuousness of Germany history with his latest feature, set shortly after the end of WWII. The surviving members of Germany’s populace are forced to contend with restructuring via the help of outside military sources, as well as dealing with the returning survivors of the concentration camps. Like most of Petzold’s films,...

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

With the addition of Marion Cotillard’s lead actress nomination for the Belgian film Two Days, One Night, 32 actors and actresses have been nominated for their performances in foreign-language films. Cotillard was nominated for her role as a young mother and wife struggling to salvage her job in Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes’ film, which was chosen as Belgium’s submission to the foreign-language category but failed to secure a spot on the Oscar shortist.

Though her performance did land a Critics’ Choice Award nomination, the Oscar nomination did come as a surprise for many pundits.

Cotillard was previously nominated for the French foreign-language film La Vie En Rose (2007) and won. She is one of six actors or actresses to win for a non-English role and is also the most recent winner.

The first acting nomination for a foreign-language performance went to Sophia Loren in 1962 for...

I am ready for Oscar speeches. I am ready for badass Oscar speeches. And here are 10 that remind you what it looks like when a bad-ass wields a gold statue and tells it like it is.  1. Lee Grant remembers what Hollywood did to her. And now they will never forget. Lee Grant, who won a Best Supporting Actress for "Shampoo," was blacklisted in the '50s and had to put her entire career on hold. She eventually rebounded with an Emmy for "Peyton Place" and a couple of Oscar nominations. When the time came to approach the dais, she had reckoning on her mind. Addressing her Oscar, she said, "We had a fight 20 years ago. I think he's changed. I know I haven't." Bam. 2. George Burns was the hottest young star of '75. George Burns picked up an Oscar for "The Sunshine Boys" at the age of 80. And yet, he...

If you’ve marked your calendar in anticipation of Kino Lorber’s high-definition release of The Crimson Cult in April, then you’ll have to use your eraser, because the release of the Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee-starring film has been postponed. There’s good news for Mario Bava and John Saxon fans, though, as the same distributor has announced the upcoming release of 1963’s The Evil Eye on Blu-ray.

Originally scheduled to hit shelves on April 14th, The Crimson Cult Blu-ray has been delayed, with no new release date set at this time. Giallo fans can look forward to the release of The Evil Eye (aka The Girl Who Knew Too Much) on Blu-ray sometime in May. Special features have not yet been revealed for The Evil Eye, but you can check out the cover art below, as well as the announced bonus features for The Crimson Cult...

Maximilian Schell movie director (photo: Maximilian Schell and Maria Schell) (See previous post: “Maximilian Schell Dies: Best Actor Oscar Winner for ‘Judgment at Nuremberg.’”) Maximilian Schell’s first film as a director was the 1970 (dubbed) German-language release First Love / Erste Liebe, adapted from Igor Turgenev’s novella, and starring Englishman John Moulder-Brown, Frenchwoman Dominique Sanda, and Schell in this tale about a doomed love affair in Czarist Russia. Italian Valentina Cortese and British Marius Goring provided support. Directed by a former Best Actor Oscar winner, First Love, a movie that could just as easily have been dubbed into Swedish or Swahili (or English), ended up nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Three years later, nominated in that same category was Schell’s second feature film as a director, The Pedestrian / Der Fußgänger, in which a car accident forces a German businessman to delve deep into his past.

Five underrated Oscar speeches. Five opportunities to applaud fine podium behavior. Let's go.

1. Ingrid Bergman, Best Supporting Actress for Murder on the Orient Express

This is one of my all-time favorites: Ingrid Bergman, who had probably forgotten all about her tiny, insignificant part in Murder on the Orient Express (which, by the way, is mysteriously popular among Agatha Christie stories despite having the most ridiculous, unenjoyably stupid conclusions in her entire catalog -- how is that trash heap more well-known than the glorious Witness for the Prosecution? Tell me!) won her third Oscar in 1974 against, among other notable performances, Madeline effing Kahn in Blazing effing Saddles. But Ingrid knew how weird this win was: In her speech, she immediately announced that sometimes the Oscars' "timing is wrong" before cheering on fellow nominee Valentina Cortese, explaining how Cortese's performance in Day for Night illustrated wonderful truths about acting, and announcing that...

Jean Dujardin kissing Oscar statuette Best Actor Oscar winner Jean Dujardin kisses his Oscar statuette at the Governors Ball 2012. For his performance as a fading silent-film star in Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, Dujardin became the first Frenchman to win an Oscar in the acting categories: Charles Boyer, Maurice Chevalier, and Gérard Depardieu had all been nominated before, but none of them had ever won. (Photo: © A.M.P.A.S.) The list of Frenchwomen who either won or were nominated for Oscars in the acting categories is much more extensive. The French-born, American-raised Claudette Colbert was the Best Actress of 1934 for Frank Capra's comedy It Happened One Night. The other French Best Actress Oscar winners are Simone Signoret for Jack Clayton's 1959 British drama Room at the Top and Marion Cotillard for Olivier Dahan's French-language Edith Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose. Additionally, Juliette Binoche was a...

It still provides a chuckle

The history of The Academy Awards is littered with strange and inexplicable happenings: Revealed shortcomings, spontaneous pushups, "The winner is Paul Newman," Sandahl Bergman's interpretive dance to "Eye Of The Tiger" (admittedly, one of the highlights of my life).

And of course ... Snow White rolling on the river.

But aside from the odd ceremony moments, and the fashion drama on the red carpet, it's the Oscar errors in judgment that we remember the most.

A few weeks ago we discussed the Oscar nomination Sins Of Omission, so let's now take a look at the performers who actually won, and how The Academy still blew it.

The 2005 nominees for Best Actor were:

Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote

Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain

David Strathairn in Good Night and Good Luck

Terrence Howard in Hustle & Flow

Joaquin Phoenix in Walk The Line

And The Oscar Went...

The double Oscar winner (The Great Ziegfeld and The Good Earth) turns 102 today! She's the oldest living Oscar nominee or winner! Her most recent appearance was just four short months ago when she showed up for her star ceremony in Berlin. They now have a "Boulevard des Stars" much like Hollywood's walk of fame and as the only German Best Actress winner (Hollywood and the media who nicknamed her "The Viennese Teardrop" promoted her as Austrian for obvious reasons in the 1930s), she was a natural for inclusion.

happy birthday to you

happy birthday dear Luise,

happy birthday to you

.......and many more ♫

Odets and Rainer in Hollywood. Odets also romanced actress Frances Farmer (as seen in the Jessica Lange picture "Frances")Luise is on record as saying that she doesn't believe in the Oscar curse and her short-lived Hollywood career was her own doing.

"The Oscar jinx! There is no Oscar jinx.

Adopting another's identity is seen as a melodramatic trick of the movies, like the evil twin in soap operas – but aren't we all imposture experts?

In The Big Picture, Romain Duris plays a prosperous Parisian lawyer who accidentally kills his wife's lover. And then, because he has always yearned to be an artist, he swaps identities with the dead man and starts a new life as a boho photographer. Taking the place of a dead person (as opposed to posing as a dead person, like Shaun of the Dead and friends) is a recurring motif of the noirish thriller, most memorably in Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley, filmed by both Réné Clément (as Plein Soleil, starring Alain Delon at the peak of his male pulchritude) and Anthony Minghella.

Ripley murders the man whose identity he appropriates, but impersonators more often drift passively into imposture because circumstances enable or even demand it.

“This is essentially a story of human frailties and foibles — all wrapped up in a lovely package and scored by the great Georges Delerue”.

Day for Night (La Nuit Américaine)

Directed by François Truffaut

Written by François Truffaut

France, 1973

A clutch of in-jokes and a plethora of film references punctuate François Truffaut’s Day for Night, an insider’s view of movies and the people who make them. A decade earlier, Jean-Luc Godard directed Contempt/Le Mépris (1963), a dazzlingly shot but frustratingly opaque anti-love story, that’s also stuffed full of cinematic bric-a-brac. But while Godard gives you a semi-nude Brigitte Bardot, philosophical ramblings and (let’s be honest) a bit a of a headache, fellow New Wave auteur Truffaut just wants to enfold you in his warm and distinctly Gallic embrace.

Even if you suffer from subtitle phobia, or harbour a sneaking suspicion that the leading lights of the...

Film-makers usually come off badly when films get made about them. François Truffaut is the honourable exception

It speaks well of film-makers that movies about movies are usually black comedies. Our industry is so detestable – so filled with lies, thefts, backstabbing, blacklisting, drug dealing, and the occasional murder – that one would expect a tendency to cover things up. Instead, almost all the films I can think of which deal with the film-making process portray it in the grimmest possible light.

Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950) is a classic instance: a dark comedy in which a failed screenwriter (William Holden) attempts to gain fame on the back of a faded silent-movie star (Gloria Swanson): she ends up mad, he, shot and drowned. Even the good-hearted comedy Singin' in the Rain (1952) conversely, depicts a hierarchical system dominated by the talentless, in which people who are actually good at something (in this case dancing) are ritually humiliated,...

Jacqueline Bissett and Jean-Pierre Léaud star in François Truffaut's entertaining 1973 film about the making of a film. By Peter Bradshaw

François Truffaut's 1973 film shows us the reverse side of cinema's tapestry: the audience sees the intricately woven figures and pleasing shapes, but behind there are the ragged knots, rough-looking jumbles and loose threads. This is the farcical and chaotic story of a film being made. Truffaut himself plays Ferrand, a harassed movie director shooting a tragedy in Nice called Meet Pamela. He has hired a beautiful but highly strung Hollywood star, Julie Baker (Jacqueline Bisset), for the lead, always worried that she will have another nervous collapse. His supporting lead (Valentina Cortese) is a boozing neurotic; his leading male (Jean-Pierre Léaud) has got his fiancee hired as a script girl, but she is about to run off with the British stunt man. There are all kinds of catastrophes and intrigues,...

Eureka! are launching two Michelangelo Antonioni classics on dual playing Blu-ray and DVD through their Masters of Cinema label. The Italian director’s second feature film La Signora Senza Camelie and the later work, Le Amiche, will be released to buy from 21st March.

As with most Masters of Cinema titles they come with an excellent array of extra features for film lovers and students to pore over. Below are disc details for both pictures.

Synopsis La Signora Senza Camelie:

The second feature film by cinema master Michelangelo Antonioni, La signora senza camelie [The Lady Without Camelias], expanded the expressive palette of contemporary Italian movies, demonstrating that a personal vision could take an explicitly poetic tack; that “seriousness = neo-realism” was perhaps already turning into something of a truism; and that Antonioni would answer to no-one but himself.

It’s the story of a shopclerk named Clara (played by the captivating Lucia Bosé, also...

Happy birthday to Best Actress winner Joan Fontaine (Suspicion, 1941), also known as the second Mrs. DeWinter. She turns 93 years young today. What on earth was she thinking about when she won the Oscar. This photo to your left fascinates me on account of "who knows?" It seems so much more candid than many Oscar night photos.

I keep the following "still with us!" list, not from any morbid curiousity but from a genuine happiness that some legendary screen stars are still walking the earth even though most of them aren't walking the screens these days. This year has been rough with the losses so maybe I'm going to stop keep this list. My heart was in the right place! We want the following to know that their past accomplishments are acknowledged by new generations.

The Oldest Living Oscar Nominees

All of them were born before the movies even had sound!

One hundred years ago on this very day 30s actress Gloria Stuart was born in Santa Monica. Happy birthday Gloria! Stuart made her name on James Whale's pictures like The Old Dark House (fun movie) and The Invisible Man before her screen career petered out in the 1940s. Then, über famously, James Cameron resurrected her to play the 100 year old survivor of Titanic. And the best part... she's still with us today!

Were you confused like Britney Spears when she tossed the Heart of the Ocean back into it in Titanic? Do you think Kate Winslet hopes to grow up to look just like her? "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying."

-Woody AllenSince Gloria is not the oldest living Oscar nominee, it's list time. Who's still with us? (If I forgot anyone, do let me know in the comments.

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Basehart in Fellini's masterpiece La Strada. (Photo: Cinema Retro archives)

Cinema Retro columnist Herbert Shadrak recently spoke to Stephanie Kellerman, a friend of the Basehart family and webmaster of The Talented Richard Basehart shrine at www.richardbasehart.com

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Cinema Retro: Was Richard Basehart an actor’s actor? Was his enormous talent only truly appreciated by other actors?

Stephanie Kellerman: Several actors commented that he was an actor's actor because they did appreciate his talent, but you would find an argument from his fans saying that his talent was only appreciated by other actors. As for me... I appreciated other actors because I liked the characters they played, but I really didn't have an interest in the actors themselves. With Richard, I watched him because I...