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The brooding and brilliant Japanese actor rivalled Rudolph Valentino but battled orientalist caricature before finding solace in Zen and watercolours

This month, the Cinema Rediscovered festival in Bristol will screen a rarely seen film from 1919 that offers a glimpse of the early career of a Japanese Hollywood star. Sessue Hayakawa, Oscar-nominated for playing the tyrannical Colonel Saito in David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai in 1957, was a matinee idol back in the silent era. In fact he was one of the film industry’s first sex symbols, with a legion of female fans and a complex star persona that reflected America’s deep-seated prejudices about, and fascination with, Japanese culture. These ideas would make themselves painfully obvious throughout his career, which spanned six decades.

The Dragon Painter, from 1919, was made by Hayakawa’s own production company, and co-stars his wife, Tsuru Aoki. It is unusual among his...

Rather than fulfilling general expectations by becoming the first film since “Slumdog Millionaire” (2009) to win eight Oscars, “Oppenheimer” left the 2024 Academy Awards with seven, including the coveted Best Picture prize. Although its eventual haul was far from the most impressive ever, it still comfortably ranked as the biggest winner of the night and officially joined a stellar, eight-decade-spanning roster of 12 movies that each merited a lucky seven competitive academy honors.

In addition to the top award, “Oppenheimer” racked up victories for Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score. Of the dozen films that preceded it in winning seven Oscars, the one that comes closest to matching its exact haul is “The Bridge on the River Kwai” (1958), which took Best Adapted Screenplay rather than Best Supporting Actor (Sessue Hayakawa).

“The Bridge on the River Kwai...

Kino Lorber, at the Lumiére Festival and International Classic Film Market (Mifc) in Lyon with a number of new restorations, including Stanley Kubrick’s “Fear and Desire,” will next release Bridgett M. Davis’ 1996 drama “Naked Acts” and a complete retrospective of Oscar Micheaux, the first black filmmaker.

Also headed for release is “The Dragon Painter,” a rare, 1919 silent film with an all Asian cast, with the feel of an old Japanese film but entirely shot in the San Francisco area. It stars Sessue Hayakawa, who produced it himself, as well as his real-life wife Tsuru Aoki.

Kino Lorber is partnering with Milestone Films to release “The Dragon Painter” in 4K in 2024 with a new score.

Likewise set for a 4K release next year in partnership with Milestone is “Naked Acts,” which follows young Black actress Cicely, who is about to make her acting debut in a low budget film. As...

Like other institutions, Hollywood is built on racializing and therefore marginalizing specific groups. Jewish, Black, and Asian people, to name a few, were subjected to such horrific treatment because characters were built on stereotypes. Studios also preferred to hire Black or People of Color to be on the lots as long as they were in the background in a non-speaking role. Egregious practices such as these remain in place to this day, with several Asian America Pacific Islander actors only finally gaining recognition after being in Hollywood for over four decades.

Of course, not all the Aapi representation in Hollywood is bad. One of the first television shows that championed Aapi actors was the groundbreaking science fiction series Star Trek, starring George Takei as Lieutenant Sulu, the helmsman of the S.S. Enterprise. Sulu wasn’t a caricature or a prop, but a vital member of Captain Kirk’s team. By the 90s,...

1957's "The Bridge on the River Kwai" marked one of the finest achievements in Hollywood history by presenting both a taut, suspenseful World War II story and a tale of psychological degradation under the oppressive weight of a P.O.W. camp. Director David Lean's masterful command of pace and tone is assisted by nuanced and engaging performances from Sir Alec Guinness, William Holden, and Sessue Hayakawa. And the screenplay, based on the novel by Pierre Boulle, is beautifully structured, building to an explosive climax that's almost secondary to the implosion that's been carefully developed across the whole movie.

The screenplay was credited to Boulle, and he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. While he wrote the source material, the screenplay actually came entirely from other writers, who were kept under wraps. Between Boulle, Lean, and producer Sam Spiegel, many people officially involved with the movie would take some credit for the work.

Humphrey Bogart is practically the face of film noir. While not quite a genre, the very flexible film movement reflected America's malaise following the Great Depression and eventually World War II. There was a grimness and heightened sense of realism to the movies, often made on lower budgets and with a documentary intensity. Even when the movies ended happily, as many did, the feelings unearthed in the telling of the story would be left unresolved to gnaw at viewers indefinitely.

Bogart, the Broadway actor turned B-movie character actor turned one of the biggest stars in the world, fit the mood perfectly. His scars and trademark lisp separated him from his more conventionally beautiful peers and gave him a natural feel for the hardboiled material. His way with dialogue — spat out with ferocity or tenderness — colored the films as well. His cinematic stature, helped by his refusal to do television, also...

In the highly unlikely event that you become a major Hollywood player (if that even means anything anymore), keep this in mind: net points are for saps. Studio accounting is basically rigged to ensure that blockbusters almost never turn a significant profit. This is because lowly creatives like screenwriters and the authors who wrote the material on which the movie is based would have to get paid, which is anathema to executives.

If you want to get seriously wealthy in the film biz, get your agent to negotiate for gross points. Get that first-dollar windfall before exhibitors and what-have-you get their cut. That's funny money. And that gravy train got chugging down the track but good in 1957 when William Holden and his representation recognized his value to David Lean's big-screen adaptation of Pierre Boulle's World War II novel "The Bridge on the River Kwai."

Holden Has Columbia Over...

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The Academy Museum is dedicating November to a monthlong reflection on the history of Chinese depictions in cinema.

“Hollywood Chinese: The First 100 Years,” programmed by documentarian and longtime Academy member Arthur Dong, is a screening series of features and shorts – some classics, some obscurities – that mark both highlights and lowlights of how Chinese have been portrayed in film, particularly in the Western studio system. The series is an evolution of Dong’s 2007 documentary, which kicks off the series Nov. 4, and 2019 book of the same name.

“When people see a film like Hollywood Chinese, they’re really only seeing snippets. We really need to see the whole, because it’s not fair to the artists and the creators that we critique and examine the work based on 30 seconds,” Dong, who previewed his series Oct. 23 as part of his ongoing Hollywood Chinese exhibition at West Hollywood’s famous Formosa Café,...

Morgan Neville’s company Tremolo Productions is officially in production of an untitled Andy Kaufman documentary alongside Josh and Benny Safdie’s Elara Pictures. The Emmy-nominated Alex Braverman will direct the feature-length film.

“No matter how many times I watch Andy Kaufman’s work, I feel like I’m seeing a magic trick for the very first time,” Braverman said. “I’m excited for our project to honor that. This is the film I’ve wanted to make my entire life.”

The Safdie brothers will executive produce the project alongside Rick Rubin and Braverman’s father Chuck Braverman, who produced Kaufman’s 1980 special “Andy Kaufman Plays Carnegie Hall.” Wavelength founder and CEO Jennifer Westphal also will executive produce.

Wavelength and Tremolo had previously worked together on the 2018 Mr. Roger’s documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” directed by Neville. This documentary also marks the second time Neville and Rubin have worked together on a project,...

Actor-producer Daniel Dae Kim urged those of Asian and Pacific Islander descent to work hard at “allyship” with other underrepresented communities in order to focus on the roots of systemic racism. Kim spoke on May 20 at a half-day virtual seminar hosted by Amazon Studios to examine Api representation in film and media as part of Asian American Pacific Islander heritage month.

The rising tide of anti-Asian hate crimes underscores the urgency to act. But Asian Americans in general represent about 6% of the U.S. population, which means that Aapi advocates need to build bridges with Black and brown communities, Kim said during Amazon’s “Voices: Api Representation in Film & Media.”

“It’s going to take more than just us,” said Kim, the actor known for “Lost,” “Hawaii 5-0” and, most recently, NBC’s “New Amsterdam.” “It’s important that we find allies in every other demographic. And part of accepting allyship is being an ally.

In 1958, Sessue Hayakawa (“The Bridge on the River Kwai”) and Miyoshi Umeki (“Sayonara”) jointly blazed a new trail by becoming the first performers of East Asian descent to be nominated at the Academy Awards. Umeki made further Oscar history by winning the Best Supporting Actress award. In the six decades since, only a handful of East Asian actors have been recognized, and, until now, none had been honored with a Best Actor bid. That path has finally been forged by Steven Yeun (“Minari”), who is also the first Oscar-nominated male actor of Korean descent.

At the upcoming Academy Awards, Yeun faces off against Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”), Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”) and Gary Oldman (“Mank”) in the race for Best Actor. Like Yeun, Ahmed and the late Boseman are also first-time nominees, while Hopkins and Oldman have each triumphed in this category once before,...

We've been celebrating 1957 for a couple of weeks. Here's one more from Cláudio Alves

In 1957, Miyoshi Umeki became the first and only Asian woman to win an acting Oscar. However, the Best Supporting Actress champion wasn't the only Japanese performer to score an Academy Award nomination that year. Sessue Hayakawa, who played the ruthless Colonel Saito in the Best Picture winner The Bridge on the River Kwai, became the first male actor of Japanese descent to be nominated by the Academy. Unlike Umeki, who had less than a decade of experience in show business by the time she achieved Oscar glory, Hayakawa had a long history with Tinsel Town. Many decades before his nomination, when the American film industry was creating itself and Silent Cinema was entertainment for the masses, Sessue Hayakawa had been one of the first sex symbols…...

by Cláudio Alves

1957 was a fascinating year when it comes to the Oscars' acting categories. Thanks to the stultifying Sayonara, Miyoshi Umeki became the only Asian actress to ever win an Academy Award, while silent era Asian-American sex symbol, Sessue Hayakawa, received his first and only Oscar nomination for The Bridge on the River Kwai. In that same year, the Best Actress race saw Elizabeth Tayor receive her first nomination, and Deborah Kerr coming the closest she ever was to win an Oscar, for Heaven Knows Mr. Alison. She lost, but was, at least, nominated, unlike the cast of Best Picture nominee 12 Angry Men. It seems insane to think so, but none of that picture's astounding performances got any love from AMPAS, not even for Henry Fonda's star turn.

That being said, no snub hurt more than that of an actress so confident she had earned Oscar gold,...

PBS has been putting out some amazing documentaries over the last few years looking at the state of race and identity. Their latest is the five-part doc, “Asian Americans,” looking at the myriad and diverse groups of people who fall under that category and their struggles in the country for acceptance and recognition. The first two episodes premiered on May 11 — in the middle of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. These are the most striking facts from the series that should compel you to watch, honor, and remember:

Chinese Railroad Laborers Not Allowed in Famous Photo

The first example of discrimination in America against Asians goes all the way back to the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad. Told during a tribute to the 150th anniversary of the driving in of the golden spike at Promontory, Utah, the documentary discusses how the railroad was built by both the Irish and Chinese.

“Crazy Rich Asians” premieres Wednesday, and the film has been oft-lauded for being the first major studio film to feature a mainly Asian-American cast in 25 years, the last one being “The Joy Luck Club.” However, the history of Asian-Americans in film has spanned over a century, before even the inception of color film. Here is a chronological look at films starring Asian-Americans from the past — and the future.

“The Cheat” (1915) Asian men are rarely painted as sex symbols even in contemporary media, but Japanese-American actor Sessue Hayakawa became a veritable heartthrob, especially after starring in Cecil B. DeMille’s silent thriller, “The Cheat.” Though monumental, his role was that of a predatory antagonist, a typecast that stuck with him during the anti-Japanese sentiments of World War II.

“Daughter of Shanghai” (1937) Anna May Wong starred alongside Korean-American actor Philip Ahn, who played a government agent trying to bust an alien smuggling ring in San Francisco.

Back when interracial marriage was a shady topic (are those dark days coming back?) the U.S. military had some adjustment issues. Full integration of the ranks didn’t remove the anti- Japanese bigotry. James Michener’s novel has been transformed into a big-scale romance, with Marlon Brando coming to terms with a split in loyalty between the flag and his private life. The big shock is that the Paul Osborn’s screenplay doesn’t let the military off easy.

Sayonara

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 147 min. / Street Date November 14, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Marlon Brando, Patricia Owens, James Garner, Martha Scott, Miiko Taka, Miyoshi Umeki, Red Buttons, Kent Smith.

Cinematography: Ellsworth Fredericks

Film Editors: Philip W. Anderson, Arthur P. Schmidt

Production Design: Ted Haworth

Original Music: Irving Berlin, Franz Waxman

Written by Paul Osborn from the novel by James Michener

Produced by William Goetz...

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)

This week’s question: In honor of Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk,” what is the best war movie ever made?

Read More‘Dunkirk’ Review: Christopher Nolan’s Monumental War Epic Is The Best Film He’s Ever Made Richard Brody (@tnyfrontrow), The New Yorker

Howard Hawks’ “The Dawn Patrol,” from 1930, shows soldiers and officers cracking up from the cruelty of their missions — and shows the ones who manage not to, singing and clowning with an exuberance that suggests the rictus of a death mask. There’s courage and heroism, virtue and honor — at a price that makes the words themselves seem foul. John Ford’s “The Lost Patrol,...

On this day in history as it relates to the movies...

323 BC Alexander the Great dies of an unknown illness. Colin Farrell plays him in a movie centuries and centuries later and it's suggested that it's a combo of Typhus, Bad Wigs, and Loving Jared Leto that does him in. Who could survive that combo? (Remember when Baz Luhrmann was going to make an Alexander movie, too, but Oliver Stone beat him to it? We wish it had been the other way around.)

38 Ad Julia Drusilla dies in Rome. In the infamous Bob Guccione movie Caligula (1979) her brother Caligula (Malcom McDowell) is shown licking her corpse. Somehow that's not remotely the most perverted thing in the movie!

1692 Bridget Bishop is executed for "Detestable Arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries." She's the first victim of the notorious Salem Witch Trials that will claim many lives and inspire many works of art including The...

With the Oscars quickly approaching, here are some fun facts about the Academy Awards throughout the years.

Oscar Facts:

Q) Which films have won the most academy awards?

A) It was a three-way draw between Ben Hur, Titanic and Lord of Rings: Return of the King at 11 each.

Q) Which films have the most Oscar nominations?

A) All About Eve and Titanic are tied for the most nominations, with 14 each.

Q) What was the longest film to ever win the Best Picture Oscar?

A) Gone With the Wind at 3 hours and 56 minutes.

Q) Which was the shortest Best Picture winner?

A) Marty at 90 minutes.

Q) Which sequels have won Best Picture?

A) The Godfather Part 2, and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

Q) Which movies won best picture but were not nominated for Best Director?

A) Wings (1928), Grand Hotel (1931), Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and Argo (2012)

Q) What was the...

'Ben-Hur' 1959 with Stephen Boyd and Charlton Heston: TCM's '31 Days of Oscar.' '31 Days of Oscar': 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Ben-Hur' are in, Paramount stars are out Today, Feb. 1, '16, Turner Classic Movies is kicking off the 21st edition of its “31 Days of Oscar.” While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is being vociferously reviled for its “lack of diversity” – more on that appallingly myopic, self-serving, and double-standard-embracing furore in an upcoming post – TCM is celebrating nearly nine decades of the Academy Awards. That's the good news. The disappointing news is that if you're expecting to find rare Paramount, Universal, or Fox/20th Century Fox entries in the mix, you're out of luck. So, missing from the TCM schedule are, among others: Best Actress nominees Ruth Chatterton in Sarah and Son, Nancy Carroll in The Devil's Holiday, Claudette Colbert in Private Worlds. Unofficial Best Actor...

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the release of "Crash" (on May 6, 2005), an all-star movie whose controversy came not from its provocative treatment of racial issues but from its Best Picture Oscar victory a few months later, against what many critics felt was a much more deserving movie, "Brokeback Mountain."

The "Crash" vs. "Brokeback" battle is one of those lingering disputes that makes the Academy Awards so fascinating, year after year. Moviegoers and critics who revisit older movies are constantly judging the Academy's judgment. Even decades of hindsight may not always be enough to tell whether the Oscar voters of a particular year got it right or wrong. Whether it's "Birdman" vs. "Boyhood," "The King's Speech" vs. "The Social Network," "Saving Private Ryan" vs. "Shakespeare in Love" or even "An American in Paris" vs. "A Streetcar Named Desire," we're still confirming the Academy's taste or dismissing it as hopelessly off-base years later.

Pioneering woman director Lois Weber socially conscious drama 'Shoes' among Library of Congress' Packard Theater movies (photo: Mary MacLaren in 'Shoes') In February 2015, National Film Registry titles will be showcased at the Library of Congress' Packard Campus Theater – aka the Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation – in Culpeper, Virginia. These range from pioneering woman director Lois Weber's socially conscious 1916 drama Shoes to Robert Zemeckis' 1985 blockbuster Back to the Future. Another Packard Theater highlight next month is Sam Peckinpah's ultra-violent Western The Wild Bunch (1969), starring William Holden and Ernest Borgnine. Also, Howard Hawks' "anti-High Noon" Western Rio Bravo (1959), toplining John Wayne and Dean Martin. And George Cukor's costly remake of A Star Is Born (1954), featuring Academy Award nominees Judy Garland and James Mason in the old Janet Gaynor and Fredric March roles. There's more: Jeff Bridges delivers a colorful performance in...

Each year, the Library of Congress selects 25 films to be named to the National Film Registry, a proclamation of commitment to preserving the chosen pictures for all time. They can be big studio pictures or experimental short films, goofball comedies or poetic meditations on life. The National Film Registery "showcases the extraordinary diversity of America’s film heritage and the disparate strands making it so vibrant" and by preserving the films, the Library of Congress hopes to "a crucial element of American creativity, culture and history.” This year’s selections span the period 1913 to 2004 and include a number of films you’re familiar with. Unless you’ve never heard of "Saving Private Ryan," "The Big Lebowski," “Rosemary’s Baby” or "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Highlights from the list include the aforementioned film, Arthur Penn’s Western "Little Big Man," John Lasseter’s 1986 animated film, “Luxo Jr.," 1953’s “House of Wax,...

Spanning the years 1913-2004, the 25 films to be added to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry for 2014 include Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby, Arthur Penn’s Little Big Man, John Hughes’ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski. The annual selection helps to ensure that the movies will be preserved for all time. This year’s list brings the number of films in the registry to 650.

Also on the list are John Lasseter’s 1986 animated film, Luxo Jr; the original Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder; and Howard Hawks’ classic 1959 Western Rio Bravo. Documentaries and silent films also make up part of the selection which represents titles that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant; they must also each be at least 10 years old. Check out the rundown of all 25 movies below:

2014 National Film Registry...

Best British movies of all time? (Image: a young Michael Caine in 'Get Carter') Ten years ago, Get Carter, starring Michael Caine as a dangerous-looking London gangster (see photo above), was selected as the United Kingdom's very best movie of all time according to 25 British film critics polled by Total Film magazine. To say that Mike Hodges' 1971 thriller was a surprising choice would be an understatement. I mean, not a David Lean epic or an early Alfred Hitchcock thriller? What a difference ten years make. On Total Film's 2014 list, published last May, Get Carter was no. 44 among the magazine's Top 50 best British movies of all time. How could that be? Well, first of all, people would be very naive if they took such lists seriously, whether we're talking Total Film, the British Film Institute, or, to keep things British, Sight & Sound magazine. Second, whereas Total Film's 2004 list was the result of a 25-critic consensus,...

By Anjelica Oswald

Managing Editor

Miyavi is a relatively unknown name in the States, but this soon may change. Miyavi (real name Takamasa Ishihara) is making his English acting debut as the brutal Pow camp overseer Mutsuhiro Watanabe — known as “The Bird” — in the Angelina Jolie-directed film Unbroken. Based on the book of the same name by Laura Hillenbrand, the film tells the true story of olympian and WWII Japanese Pow survivor Louis Zamperini.

Miyavi, known to some as the samurai guitarist, is a Japanese musician known for his ‘slap style’ guitar playing.

He was 17 when he joined the band Due le Quartz (he went by Miyabi), but after that disbanded in 2002, he began to pursue a solo career. He has since gone on four world tours, the most recent which was earlier this year, and has worked with bands, including Good Charlotte.

Miyavi is the founder and CEO of J-Glam Inc,...

Today on Trailers from Hell, John Landis deep dives into David Lean's classic war drama "The Bridge on the River Kwai." David Lean's 2 hour and 41 minute war drama was a box office smash in 1957, beloved not only by critics but World War II vets as well, regardless of the fact that its hero, played by Alec Guiness, is in fact an anti-hero, a by-the-book pedant whose obsession with military protocol only succeeds in aiding his enemy. The canny screenplay (by Carl Foreman) provides two compelling counterpoints to Guiness' driven colonel in William Holden’s deadbeat sailor and Sessue Hayakawa’s weak-willed commandant. Lean’s masterful command of the widescreen action and intimate drama makes "Bridge" an endlessly rewatchable experience...

David Lean's 2 hour and 41 minute war drama was a box office smash in 1957, beloved not only by critics but World War II vets as well, regardless of the fact that its hero, played by Alec Guiness, is in fact an anti-hero, a by-the-book pedant whose obsession with military protocol only succeeds in aiding his enemy. The canny screenplay (by Carl Foreman) provides two compelling counterpoints to Guiness' driven colonel in William Holden's deadbeat sailor and Sessue Hayakawa's weak-willed commandant. Lean's masterful command of the widescreen action and intimate drama makes Bridge an endlessly rewatchable experience.

The post The Bridge on the River Kwai appeared first on Trailers From Hell.

William Holden movies: ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ William Holden is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" featured actor today, August 21, 2013. Throughout the day, TCM has been showing several William Holden movies made at Columbia, though his work at Paramount (e.g., I Wanted Wings, Dear Ruth, Streets of Laredo, Dear Wife) remains mostly off-limits. Right now, TCM is presenting David Lean’s 1957 Best Picture Academy Award winner and all-around blockbuster The Bridge on the River Kwai, the Anglo-American production that turned Lean into filmdom’s brainier Cecil B. DeMille. Until then a director of mostly small-scale dramas, Lean (quite literally) widened the scope of his movies with the widescreen-formatted Southeast Asian-set World War II drama, which clocks in at 161 minutes. Even though William Holden was The Bridge on the River Kwai‘s big box-office draw, the film actually belongs to Alec Guinness’ Pow British commander and to...

With Oscar time coming soon, everyone is talking about movies. So here's a list of Academy Awards facts and trivia to entertain film fans, you know, so you can impress all your other movie buff friends.

Oscar Facts:

* Which films have won the most academy awards?

It was a three-way draw between Ben Hur, Titanic and Lord of Rings: Return of the King at 11 each.

* Which films have the most Oscar nominations?

All About Eve and Titanic are tied for the most nominations, with 14 each.

* What was the most awards ever won by anyone?

Walt Disney won the most with 26 wins. (4 were honorary) (*Visual effects expert Dennis Muren is 2nd with 9 wins.*)

* Who has the most nominations for any single person?

Walt Disney with 59 nominations.

* Which woman had the most ever Oscar nominations?

Costume designer Edith Head with 35 nominations. (She won 8 times.)

* Who had the most Oscar wins in one year?...

Japanese film-maker best known for the sexually explicit In the Realm of the Senses and Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, starring David Bowie

In a sense, it is unfortunate that the Japanese director Nagisa Oshima, who has died aged 80, was more infamous than famous, due to one film, In the Realm of the Senses (also known as Ai No Corrida, 1976). Although it was, for many, in the realms of pornography, the film was a serious treatment of the link between the political and the sexual, eroticism and death (previously dealt with in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris), and a breakthrough in the representation of explicit sex in mainstream art cinema. Like Bertolucci, Oshima was held and acquitted on an obscenity charge.

Based on a true cause célèbre, In the Realm of the Senses tells of a married man and a geisha, who retreat from the militarist Japan of 1936 into a world of their own,...

One of the greatest female stars of Japanese cinema

Isuzu Yamada, who has died aged 95, was among the greatest female stars of Japanese cinema. In a career that lasted more than half a century, she shone in both Jidai-geki (period films) and Gendai-geki (films with modern settings) and was renowned for her appearances in films by such leading directors as Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse and Akira Kurosawa.

Yamada's range was remarkable. She was fortunate to have emerged at the time that Mizoguchi, whose focus was always on persecuted women, was changing his attitude towards them from being destroyed victims of male society to characters vital enough to fight, often in vain, for survival against the social system.

She played fallen women in her first films for Mizoguchi. These included the title roles in The Downfall of Osen (1935), in which she played an ex-geisha who pays for the education of a...

Hollywood Before the Code: Nasty-Ass Films for a Nasty-Ass World! runs from today through Thursday at the Roxie in San Francisco and Dennis Harvey has a fun preview in the Bay Guardian. A snippet: "March 4 offers a shocking double dose of pure white femininity finding themselves in, ahem, 'Yellow Peril' — miscegenation being something Hollywood could only begin to embrace a few decades later. Frank Capra's atypically erotic The Bitter Tea of General Yen, with Barbara Stanwyck alllllmost surrendering the white flag to a 'charismatic Chinese warlord' (Swede Nils Asther, eyes narrowed), has become a minor classic since flopping in 1933. No such luck for The Cheat (1931), a remake of Cecil B DeMille's 1915 shocker that was part of Paramount's brief, failed attempt to make stage sensation Tallulah Bankhead a movie star. Her gambling-addicted socialite gets branded (literally) in lieu of repayment not by the original's Far East businessman (dashing Sessue Hayakawa...

“If I could do it all over again…”

How many times have you thought that, or dreamt it, or talked about it? I think everybody does. It’s in our natures, y’know?

“If I knew then what I know now…”

What would you do?

I wouldn’t be a nurse.

I’d go to film school. UCLA or Nyu. I’d aim to be a film editor.

I love movies. So, in keeping with Mike Gold and John Ostrander’s columns about the movies, I thought I would list some of my favorite movies and why I love them. In no particular order. Because every time I pick one as my “all-time fave,” I remember another and hastily move that one to the top spot.

Casablanca: Two men. The woman they both love. And Nazis. Who doesn’t love this move? Humphrey Bogart. Ingrid Bergman. Claude Raines. Sydney Greenstreet.

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Throughout summer it has been difficult to ignore the recent Chinoiserie trend in stores and magazines, kick-started by the opulent Louis Vuitton show in Paris and merged effortlessly into autumn by Paul Smith. Cheongsam collars and qipao slits aside, this new-found interest in the East may have been partly triggered by China’s growing appetite for high-end goods, which despite recent economic setbacks, has left Western luxury brands competing for a share of this very sizable market.

This obsession with the ‘Orient’ has also seen a proliferation of Asian models on catwalks and throughout editorial spreads, which has courted controversy for some publications and raises all manner of questions regarding ethnicity and standards of beauty. Whilst researching this trend it becomes impossible not to contemplate the...

Claudette Colbert, Alla Nazimova, Marion Davies, Charles Boyer: Cinecon 2011 Thursday September 1 (photo: Alla Nazimova) 7:00 Hollywood Rhythm (1934) 7:10 Welcoming Remarks 7:15 Hollywood Story (1951) 77 min. Richard Conte, Julie Adams, Richard Egan. Dir: William Castle. 8:35 Q & A with Julie Adams 9:10 Blazing Days (1927) 60 min. Fred Humes. Dir: William Wyler. 10:20 In The Sweet Pie And Pie (1941) 18 min 10:40 She Had To Eat (1937) 75 min. Jack Haley, Rochelle Hudson, Eugene Pallette. Friday September 2 9:00 Signing Off (1936) 9:20 Moon Over Her Shoulder (1941) 68 min. Dan Dailey, Lynn Bari, John Sutton, Alan Mowbray. 10:40 The Active Life Of Dolly Of The Dailies (1914) 15 min. Mary Fuller. 10:55 Stronger Than Death (1920) 80 min. Alla Nazimova, Charles Bryant. Dir: Herbert Blaché, Charles Bryant, Robert Z. Leonard. 12:15 Lunch Break 1:45 Open Track (1916) 2:00 On The Night Stage (1915) 60 min. William S. Hart, Rhea Mitchell. Dir: Reginald Barker. 3:15 50 Miles From Broadway (1929) 23 min 3:45 Cinerama Adventure (2002). Dir: David Strohmaier. 5:18 Discussion...

 

The Motor City Theatre Organ Society is proud to present at The Redford Theatre one of the all time best World War II movies of all time: The Bridge On The River Kwai. Winner of 7 Academy Awards, (including Best Picture and Best Actor for Alec Guinness), 3 Golden Globes, and 7 other major awards, the film stars Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins, and Sessue Hayakawa. Movie times are Friday and Saturday, June 24 and 25 at 8:00 pm, with a matinee on Saturday at 2:00 pm. You'll want to arrive a half hour early so you won't miss the great music of our Barton theatre pipe organ.

Friday Evening's Performance Includes A Special Event! In keeping with the World War II theme, we will have on display a 1942 Cadillac limo that was used to escort General Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower during the European campaign. Also in attendance will be Ww II reenactment soldiers in full uniform.

Father’s day is coming and because of this a whole plethora of classic war movies coming to Blu-ray and is there a filmmaker whose work is more fitting for the format than David Lean? I already own Doctor Zhivago Blu and I am sure to pick up the newly released The Bridge on the River Kwai over the next few days. I’m greedy for more now, I want to own all of his latter day films in glorious 1080p.

Following an extensive 4K restoration from the original negative The Bridge on the River Kwai Blu-ray Disc™ is available on 6th June 2011.

We have three copies to give away. Read on to find out how;

This classic film, among the most prized in the Columbia Pictures catalogue, features William Holden (Oscar® Winner for Best Actor, Stalag 17, 1953) and Alec Guinness (Oscar® Winner for Best Actor, The Bridge on the River Kwai,...

The National Film Preservation Foundation announced today that the next volume in their invaluable series of DVD releases will be Treasures 5: The West, 1898-1938. The 10-hour, 3-disc box set celebrates "the dynamic, gender-bending, ethnically diverse West that flourished in early movies but has never before been seen on video."

The full lineup is here and today's announcement plucks out a few of the highlights: "Among the 40 selections are Mantrap (1926), the wilderness comedy starring Clara Bow in her favorite role; Ws Van Dyke's legendary The Lady of the Dugout (1918), featuring outlaw-turned-actor Al Jennings; Salomy Jane (1914), with America's first Latina screen celebrity Beatriz Michelena [image above]; Gregory La Cava's sparkling Old West–reversal Womanhandled (1925); Sessue Hayakawa in the cross-cultural drama Last of the Line (1914); one-reelers with Tom Mix and Broncho Billy, Mabel Normand in The Tourists (1912), and dozens of other rarities." The set is slated for a September release.

Speaking of the wild,...

Check out Walt Disney Studios newest featurette of Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Rob Marshall as they all talk about the upcoming blockbuster Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. To Join Jack Sparrow‘s Crew Text Pirates to Disney (347639)* *standard message rates apply

Love Hans Zimmer’s rousing score! Walt Disney Records will release the soundtrack for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides May 17, 2011. Check out the new one-sheet poster from the film courtesy of our friends over at IGN.

Pirates 4 Fun Facts:

In .Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Johnny Depp reprises his iconic role of Jack Sparrow in his greatest adventure yet.a quest to find the legendary Fountain of Youth. .Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the previous three films in the .Pirates. franchise, and is directed by Rob Marshall of...

“Prepare For Battle” with pistols drawn is the command given by Jack Sparrow in Disney’s new banner above. Plus is this Friend or Foe? Check out this latest photo of Hector Barbossa from the set of Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Pirates 4 Fun Facts

In .Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Johnny Depp reprises his iconic role of Jack Sparrow in his greatest adventure yet.a quest to find the legendary Fountain of Youth. .Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the previous three films in the .Pirates. franchise, and is directed by Rob Marshall of .Chicago. and .Memoirs of a Geisha. fame. .Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. is the first film in the .Pirates. franchise to be shot in Disney Digital 3D., and the first all live-action, epic outdoor adventure shot on Red 3D cameras.

Chicago – David Lean’s “The Bridge on the River Kwai” is one of the most beloved epics of all time and not only has the film been restored for a massive Blu-ray Collector’s Edition release but a new print will roll at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago starting Friday, November 12th, 2010. If you’ve never seen the 1957 Best Picture winner, there’s never been a better time.

Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0

“The Bridge on the River Kwai” was a massive hit when it was released in 1957, winning seven Oscars, including Director (David Lean), Actor (Alec Guiness), Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Score, Cinematography, and Picture. It beat “12 Angry Men” and “Witness For the Prosecution” for the big prize and has made multiple lists of the best films of all time. When the American Film Institute did their first list of the best 100 films ever made in 1998, “The Bridge on the River Kwai...

Alec Guinness, Sessue Hayakawa in David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai David Lean's 1957 blockbuster and multiple Oscar winner The Bridge on the River Kwai will be presented tonight at 5 p.m. Pt on Turner Classic Movies. Many consider The Bridge on the River Kwai one of the greatest war movies ever made. Whether or not you agree with that assessment, Lean's war epic is surely one of the longest, clocking in at 162 minutes. Alec Guinness deservedly won a Best Actor Oscar for his stiff-upper-lip British officer, while silent-screen veteran Sessue Hayakawa should have taken home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar as well — but lost to Red Buttons in another East Asian-set movie, Sayonara. William Holden (as box-office bait) and Jack Hawkins are the other two top members of the extensive (nearly all-male) cast. One of the major controversies regarding The Bridge on the River Kwai is...

The Scottish virtuoso makes a welcome return after eight years but a remastered David Lean classic is stealing the spotlight

This year's London film festival saw the most keenly anticipated comeback in British cinema – perhaps only the next movie by Lynne Ramsay is as impatiently awaited. Peter Mullan is the Scottish film-maker and actor whose 1997 debut picture, Orphans, was a film of intestine-tangling emotional power. Following that, The Magdalene Sisters – about the institutionalised abuse in Ireland's notorious Magdalene laundries – was a tremendous triumph, winning the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival and confirming Mullan as a directorial heavyweight.

That was back in 2002. Since then, his admirers have been left wondering when his next film would arrive, with Mullan reportedly experienced some frustration getting backing for the films he wanted to make. In the meantime, he gave some great acting performances in works such as 2006's Children Of Men and the Red Riding TV trilogy,...

The 1957 Best Picture winner The Bridge on the River Kwai will finally be released on Blu-ray on November 2. This film received a 4K restoration with the original negatives and newly-restored 5.1 audio and this new set will also include a new 32-page book with photos and information and a set of replica lobby cards. You can take a look at the packaging below. The film stars William Holden and Alec Guinness.

When British P.O.W.s build a vital railway bridge in enemy-occupied Burma, Allied commandos are assigned to destroy it in David Lean's epic World War II adventure The Bridge on the River Kwai.

A group of British POWs is forced to build a bridge in Burma for the Japanese. Led by Colonel Nicholson, they not only build the bridge but organize the whole building program and are proud of the final result. However, unbeknownst to the POWs,...

Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi in David Lean‘s Summertime (top); Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant in Howard Hawks‘ Bringing Up Baby (bottom) Katharine Hepburn having her own private day as part of Turner Classic Movies‘ "Summer Under the Stars" series doesn’t make my pulse race or my heart palpitate. I mean, Hepburn could be an outstanding actress, but her movies are always playing on TCM, and many have found their way onto DVD and, way back when, VHS. [Katharine Hepburn schedule.] (Mr./Ms. TCM, for next year, how about a John Gilbert Day or a Ramon Novarro Day or a Catherine Deneuve Day or a Sessue Hayakawa Day or a Nancy Carroll Day or a Lizabeth Scott Day? Heck, I’d gladly accept a Polly Moran Day.) Among the eleven Hepburn vehicles being presented by TCM (in addition to David Heeley‘s 1993 documentary Katharine Hepburn: All About Me), my favorite is Howard Hawks...

Ethnicity in Film: Luise Rainer, Nancy Kwan The issue of ethnicity and movie roles came up to me a few years ago, while I was working on a biography of Mexican-born actor Ramon Novarro (above), Beyond Paradise. I’d read much about white performers playing non-white roles, but basically nothing about non-white actors playing white roles. Yet, back in those days it wasn’t that uncommon. Although Novarro, for one, had a Mediterranean look, he clearly had some Indian blood as well. Dolores del Rio and Sessue Hayakawa were a couple of other non-white performers who played a varied of ethnicities — including Caucasian types — in their Hollywood films. In Novarro’s case, his Mexican background and mixed ethnicity didn’t prevent [...]...

O Mimi San (1914) Direction: Charles Miller Screenplay: Thomas H. Ince (unconfirmed) Cast: Sessue Hayakawa, Mildred Harris, Tsuru Aoki O Mimi San is historically important as Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa’s first film. In it, Hayakawa plays a prince who goes to a retreat after an attempt on his life is made; once there he falls in love with a young woman (Mildred Harris, future wife of Charles Chaplin) but then finds himself torn between love and duty as a leader of his nation. Compounding matters, an arranged marriage (with Tsuru Aoki, Hayakawa’s own future wife) awaits him. Directed by Charles Miller and allegedly written by Thomas H. Ince (a studio head best remembered for his "mysterious" death in 1924), O Mimi San [...]...

The Devil’s Claim (1920) Direction: Charles Swickard Screenplay: J. Grubb Alexander Cast: Sessue Hayakawa, Rhea Mitchell, Colleen Moore, William Buckley In The Devil’s Claim, Sessue Hayakawa plays an Indian (!) novelist who uses his experiences with women as inspiration for his novels. Next, he encounters a young American woman (Rhea Mitchell) who tells him a story about Satan-worshipping societies and evil talismans. Her real motive, however, is to reunite the novelist with Indora (future 1920s superstar Colleen Moore), a young Persian girl whom he had abandoned. Directed by Charles Swickard from a screenplay by J. Grubb Alexander, The Devil’s Claim is an excellent drama — and so is Hayakawa’s performance. Much of the plot is told in the "story within a story" mode, [...]...

Director Ken Annakin.

I knew there was something familiar about the name when I read it: "Deborah Annakin-Peters." I had been corresponding with Debby via email for nearly a year after she had started working for Home Video Publicity at Paramount, and handled all my DVD requests. Then one day it struck me. I wrote her a quick email: "Are you, by chance, related to the director Ken Annakin?" I got a quick reply "Sure am. He's my dad!" It just happened that Annakin's most famous film, "The Longest Day," was getting a special edition DVD release from 20th Century Fox in a few weeks. I asked Debby if her father, then in his early 90s, was up to doing an interview. The answer to that question lies in the conversation below.

I was lucky enough to get to know Ken Annakin quite well over the next year or so when my producing partner,...