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Among the most legendary actresses of all time, Ingrid Bergman looms large. Bergman's career extended across decades, and she was able to work with some of the greatest filmmakers of all time, from Alfred Hitchcock to Michael Curtiz to Leo McCarey. And moreover, many of the films in her filmography are widely, and correctly, considered among the best English-language films ever made, from "The Bells of St. Mary's" and "Gaslight" to one of the most iconic American and World War II films ever, "Casablanca." Bergman, unsurprisingly, was well rewarded for her immense talent and acting craft, netting three Oscars (as well as being nominated four other times). That she wasn't even nominated for "Casablanca," a film that has a near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes and walked away with the Best Picture Oscar, says something about how good she was and how not every one of her performances could get the golden statuette.

This Valentine's Day, there aren't many better ways to make the most of quality time with your loved one than by huddling up together under a blanket — or over a conference call, should you happen not to be physically together — and watching a nice, soothing, replenishing romantic film.

In fact, a good romantic movie may be a great way to spend Valentine's Day even if you're spending it single and/or all by yourself. If you doubt that, just take a gander at any of these 15 movies, which present visions of love and romance so gorgeous and seductive as to win over even the most skeptical hearts, and restore the faith in love of even the most dyed-in-the-wool cynics. From delightful romcoms to profoundly cathartic dramas to bold formal experiments, here are the best romantic movies to watch this February 14.

Read more: The 15 Best Historical Romance Movies Ranked

Sleepless In Seattle...

In the first of a new series in which writers explain their favourite mood-lifting watch, an ode to a charming 40s romance

In search of solace, I always turn to a film that will take me away from myself. I Know Where I’m Going! is, as you could absolutely guess if you didn’t know, a film about a journey. In this film from 1945, Joan (Wendy Hiller) a modern young woman with grand ideas, sets off by the sleeper train from Manchester to Scotland. Her stated destination is a Hebridean island where she plans to marry her wealthy industrialist fiance. But fate has other ideas in this magical film from the mercurial duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

The train journey is off-track from the start, tilted by Joan’s absurd bridal dreams, complete with Scottish hills draped in tartan, and the Archers’ whimsical camera trickery, which transforms a top hat into a smokestack.

In the history of the Oscars, the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw set an impressive record that stood for more than seven decades. The Oscars, also known as the Academy Awards, are recognized as the most prestigious award that can be won in the movie industry. Since its establishment nearly a century ago, many winners have set different records in Oscars history, including John Ford, who set a directing record that has lasted 72 years, and La La Land, which broke an 86-year-long Oscar record in 2017.

The Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, is often regarded as one of the greatest playwrights in history. Across his life, he wrote more than 60 plays that focused on history, education and class privilege, with some of his best works including Arms and the Man (1894), Caesar and Cleopatra (1898), and Saint Joan (1923). In 1938, he set an impressive record at the Oscars that wasn't achieved again for 77 years.

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The Substance is a satirical body horror film written and directed by Coralie Fargeat. The 2024 film follows the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a popular star renowned for an aerobics show but on her 50th birthday, she gets fired from her boss for being old. She soon finds a laboratory that offers her a drug that promises to transform her into a better and younger version of herself. The Substance stars Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley in the lead roles with Dennis Quaid, Hugo Diego Garcia, Oscar Lesage, Tiffany Hofstetter, and Alexandra Papoulias Barton starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the body horror, biting commentary, and compelling characters in The Substance here are some similar movies you should check out next.

The Neon Demon (Prime Video) Credit – Amazon Studios

The Neon Demon is a psychological horror film...

Historian Dr. Joanne Paul explains how A Man for All Seasons is one of the strongest onscreen depictions of the reign of Henry VIII and the Tudor period. Adapted from Robert Bolt's 1954 play of the same name, the 1966 period piece movie explored the career of Lord Chancellor Robert More (Paul Schofield), as he was challenged by the crisis brought about by King Henry VIII's (Robert Shaw) first divorce. The fifth-highest-grossing movie of 1966, A Man for All Seasons is acclaimed for its cast and production values, and celebrated as an influential example of filmmaking.

With YouTube channel History Hit turning its sights to Tudor England in their latest Historian Answers Google's Most Popular Questions, Dr. Paul tackled the question of which movie represents the period best.

Praising A Man for All Seasons, Paul stated that the movie offered "the best representation" of Henry VIII ever put on screen. The...

In David Hinton’s documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger, Martin Scorsese provides a semester’s worth of material to learn about two filmmakers near and dear to his artistry and life. An extended interview with Scorsese guides us through the filmography of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who made a legendary run of films within the British studio system of the 1940s and ’50s under the banner of their production company The Archers. Scorsese also breaks down what makes their films so special while also illuminating the many points of inspiration for his own body of work.

But as Made in England highlights, the connection runs deeper than anything on the screen. Scorsese befriended Powell in the ’70s after the British filmmaker had slipped into obscurity and helped rehabilitate his reputation. Scorsese also served as an unexpected matchmaker by introducing Powell to the woman he would later marry,...

Since the inception of the Academy Awards, the U.S.-based organization behind them has always strived to honor worldwide film achievements. Their extensive roster of competitive acting winners alone consists of artists from 30 unique countries, three of which first gained representation during the 2020s. The last full decade’s worth of triumphant performers hail from eight countries, while 42.1% of the individual actors nominated during that time originate from outside of America.

The academy’s history of recognizing acting talent on a global scale dates all the way back to the inaugural Oscars ceremony in 1929, when Swiss-born Emil Jannings (who was of German and American parentage) won Best Actor for his work in both “The Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh.” Over the next three years, the Best Actress prize was exclusively awarded to Canadians: Mary Pickford (“Coquette”), Norma Shearer (“The Divorcee”), and Marie Dressler (“Min and Bill...

The BBC is celebrating the art of the literary adaptation by screening a variety of classics on BBC Four. More details here.

The BBC is quite rightly celebrated for its rich history of book to screen adaptations, such as the iconic 1995 version of Jane Austen’a Pride And Prejudice to Cbbc’s hugely successful adaptation of Dame Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker series.

It has now put together a season of 14 adaptations from the BBC archive, some of which have rarely been seen since their original broadcast.

The dramas are:

The Great Gatsby

Toby Stephens, Mira Sorvino and Paul Rudd lead the cast in this 2000 BBC adaptation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel on the American dream in the jazz age.

Small Island

Naomie Harris, Ruth Wilson, David Oyelowo, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ashley Walters star in this 2009 TV version of Andrea Levy’s novel focusing on the lives and...

Clockwise from top left: This Is Me... Now: A Love Story (Prime Video), Red Rocket (A24), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Paramount)Image: The A.V. Club

Amazon’s Prime Video kicks off February with a summer blockbuster, a new “narrative-driven cinematic odyssey” from Jennifer Lopez, and a bunch of...

Paramount+ is starting September with a bang with hundreds of new film titles joining its library, from comedies like “Blazing Saddles” and “The Big Lebowski,” to award-winning dramas like “Schindler's List” and “Forrest Gump” and sci-fi thrillers like “Terminator 2” and “Annihilation.”

But the streamer isn’t stopping there, with even more TV series (including Paramount+ originals and exclusives) and sports available throughout the month on the Paramount+ Essential plan and even more titles on the Paramount+ with Showtime.

Check out The Streamable’s picks for the top five titles arriving to the streamer this month!

30-Day Free Trial $5.99+ / month paramountplus.com

For a Limited Time, Get 1 Month of Paramount+ With Code: Lioness

What are the 5 Best Shows and Movies Coming to Paramount+ in September 2023? “Blazing Saddles” | Friday, Sept. 1

Return to Rock Ridge with Mel Brooks’ fourth-wall-breaking classic that will leave you anything but tired. The satirical Western-black comedy follows...

Four years after “Black Panther” became the first Oscar-winning film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” cast member Angela Bassett has made history as the first person to achieve academy recognition for an MCU performance. Included among the numerous actors with whom she reunites in the 2022 sequel is Lupita Nyong’o, who first played her role of Nakia four years after earning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “12 Years a Slave.” If Bassett ends up prevailing in the same category this year, Nyong’o will be the 16th woman to have acted in a film that won the same Oscar she previously received.

Until this year, “12 Years a Slave” was the only acting Oscar-nominated film Nyong’o had appeared in. Two of her cast mates in the 2014 Best Picture winner – Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender – respectively competed for the male lead and supporting prizes but eventually...

After spending a couple awards cycles on the sidelines, A24 reemerged this year with more Oscar nominations than any other studio–18 between six films: “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Whale,” “Aftersun,” “Causeway,” “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On,” and “Close.” The arthouse label is positioned to set an even more staggering record, though. If Oscar night, as it did in 2022, repeats both the SAG and DGA Awards–in other words, if “Eeaao” takes Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan), Best Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis), Best Director (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), and Best Picture, while Best Actor goes to “The Whale” (Brendan Fraser)–A24 will become the first studio in history to make a clean sweep of the top categories.

See Ke Huy Quan (‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’) on a comeback 30 years in the making: ‘I don’t take for granted for a second,...

Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, creators of the new Showtime series The Man Who Fell to Earth, talk to hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante about the movies that inspired them.

Show Notes:

Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary

Dirty Pretty Things (2002)

Amistad (1997)

Love Actually (2003)

Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)

Blazing Saddles (1974) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Dennis Cozzalio’s Blazing Saddles Thanksgiving

Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The Bad News Bears (1976) – Jessica Bendinger’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Airplane! (1980) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

The Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

Bambi (1942)

Singin’ In The Rain (1952) – John Landis trailer commentary

The Asphalt Jungle (1950) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Boy Friend (1971) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Yellow Submarine (1968) – George Hickenlooper...

Martin Scorsese’s nonprofit The Film Foundation is officially launching a free virtual screening room to showcase film restorations. The Film Foundation Restoration Screening Room, which will showcase both foundation restorations as well as those from partners, will launch on Monday, May 9, with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1945 romantic comedy “I Know Where I’m Going!” starring Wendy Hiller and Roger Livesey. The restoration was overseen by The Film Foundation and BFI National Archive, in association with ITV and Park Circus.

The film and subsequent titles will be available for a 24-hour window and will feature introductions and conversations with filmmakers and archivists, providing an inside look at the restoration process. The Film Foundation Restoration Screening Room will offer “appointment viewing,” with screenings starting at a set time and available for a limited period, which is unlike other classic streaming options.

The restoration of “I Know Where I’m Going,...

“This picture is perfect, end of review.” That may not be 100 true, but Leo McCarey’s unabashed leap into romantic Nirvana really hasn’t been bettered, although his color & ‘scope remake is very good. Never was smart adult dialogue this winning — Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer’s cinematic courtship is a highlight of the Big Studio years. And Maria Ouspenskaya’s performance will send you out to pamper the nearest grandmother. The restoration for this one is a revelation, as the show has looked terrible for sixty years- plus. Serge Bromberg and Farran Smith Nehme make the extras especially valuable.

Love Affair

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1114

1939 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 88 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 15, 2022 / 39.95

Starring: Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Maria Ouspenskaya, Lee Bowman, Astrid Allwyn, Maurice Moscovitch, Ferike Boros, Scotty Beckett, Bess Flowers, Harold Miller, Dell Henderson, Frank McGlynn, Sr., Joan Leslie.

Cinematography: Rudolph Maté

Art Director: Van Nest Polglase,...

Our exclusive odds predict that Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman will both earn Oscar nominations for their roles in the Sony Pictures Classics release “The Father.” He is a strong Best Actor contender for his heartbreaking portrayal of a man dealing with dementia. And she is coming on strong in the Best Supporting Actress race for her work as the daughter struggling to come to terms with him.

Should both of these past Oscar champs prevail again this year, they’d be just the eighth pair of co-stars nominated in these categories to do so. In the 84 years since the supporting awards were introduced at the 9th Oscars, a lucky seven films can boast victories in both these races.

The last such duo from the same film to both win were Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker for “My Left Foot” in 1990. That marked the first of Day-Lewis’s three Best Actor trophies.

Why is it that, when a horror film achieves something special, both the critics and the public tend to elevate it above and beyond the ‘lowly’ horror genre? David Lynch’s most humane and sympathetic film still makes our heads spin, and this new 4K remaster renders Freddie Francis’s great cinematography at its best. Lynch extends and develops the visual nightmares of his experimental Eraserhead for this true-life classic. Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller and Freddie Jones all give indelible, emotionally-moving performances. How many horror pictures hold up hope for social decency and personal dignity?

The Elephant Man

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1051

1980 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 123 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date September 29, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Freddie Jones, Michael Elphick, Hannah Gordon, Helen Ryan, John Standing, Dexter Fletcher, Lesley Dunlop, Phoebe Nicholls, Lydia Lisle,...

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“Peachy Keen”

By Raymond Benson

David Lynch is one America’s national treasures as an artist. He is mostly known as a filmmaker, of course, but he is also a painter and sculptor, a musician, and an author. At the time of writing, Lynch is 74 years old. His filmmaking output has slowed down considerably and these days he concentrates mostly on the fine arts. Nevertheless, he is arguably the heir apparent to Luis Buñuel as the foremost surrealist of our time.

And to think… Lynch owes it all to Mel Brooks.

Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration. Lynch’s talent likely would have broken through the barriers of Hollywood for him to become David Lynch in perhaps other ways, but there is no question that Mel Brooks gave Lynch his first big break in cinema.

Lynch had made one feature film, Eraserhead (1977), a low-budget,...

“Adventure And Treachery”

By Raymond Benson

Sir Carol Reed made many fine British films, among them Odd Man Out and The Third Man in the 1940s, and the Oscar-winning Oliver! in the 60s… but among his lesser known pictures from the 1950s sits this gem of an adventure yarn based on Joseph Conrad’s novel, An Outcast of the Islands, first published in 1896.

While many interiors were filmed at Shepperton Studios, much of the picture was made on location in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon), a British colony at the time. That alone provided the contemporary audience with a view of an exotic world that few had seen. Given that the tale is a period piece that takes place in the late 1800s, Outcast of the Islands is truly of a time and place along the lines of the 1935 version of Mutiny on the Bounty, but on a smaller scale.

Lust-filled treachery in the steaming tropics! He dared to love a cannibal empress! Taglines like that suggest that it wasn’t easy to sell Carol Reed’s phenomenally good adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s classic, a tale of human self-degradation and malevolence in the tropics. Long difficult to see, it’s finally here to dazzle a generation that might appreciate its superb performances. Forget Lord Jim and Colonel Kurtz. Trevor Howard’s back-stabbing Peter Willems shows us the price of total betrayal: permanent banishment from humanity.

Outcast of the Islands

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1951 / B&w / 1:37 flat / 100 93 min. / Street Date April 29, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Trevor Howard, Ralph Richardson, Robert Morley, Wendy Hiller, Aissa, George Coulouris, Tamine, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Peter Illing, Betty Ann Davies, Frederick Valk, A.V. Bramble, Marne Maitland, James Kenney, Annabel Morley.

Cinematography: Edward Scaife, John Wilcox

Production Design: Vincent Korda

Second Unit Director: Guy Hamilton...

Four decades on, John Hurt’s performance gives this biopic a poignancy that marks it apart from the rest of director’s work

This beautiful, measured and rather atypical movie by David Lynch from 1980 is now on re-release, written for the screen by Lynch with Christopher De Vore and Eric Bergren. It tells the story of John Merrick, the “Elephant Man”, a Victorian-era person with disfigurements who was rescued from a cruel fairground show by the concerned physician Frederick Treves and established as a fashionable figure in London society, despite nagging fears that Merrick had simply become a grander and more acceptable form of freak attraction.

John Hurt, in complex and intricate prosthetics, plays Merrick with an unforgettably distinctive, gentle, quavering voice. Anthony Hopkins is Treves, the muscular Victorian man of science who rescues him; John Gielgud is the stern hospital chief Mr Carr-Gomm who becomes an advocate for Merrick,...

Netflix may get most of the attention, but it’s hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles who are looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms caters to its own niche of film obsessives.

From chilling horror fare on Shudder, to the boundless wonders of the Criterion Channel, and esoteric (but unmissable) festival hits on Film Movement Plus and Ovid.tv, IndieWire’s monthly guide highlights the best of what’s coming to every major streaming site, with an eye towards exclusive titles that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.

Here’s the best of the best for February 2020.

“Close-Up”

The Criterion Channel invariably offers the deepest and most compelling slate of any streaming service, but this month’s additions almost border on overkill; how is anyone supposed to choose where to start? The programming lineup kicks off...

Someone save Judith Hearne, for she can’t save herself. Jack Clayton’s film of Brian Moore’s novel has stunning performances by Maggie Smith and Bob Hoskins — but whew, for many of us its social cruelties will feel like traumatic emotional abuse. Not enough nasty people and clueless victims in your life? … this show will give you your fill.

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

Region B Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1987 / Color / 1:75 widescreen / 116 min. / Street Date June 24, 2019 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £15.99

Starring: Maggie Smith, Bob Hoskins, Wendy Hiller, Marie Kean, Ian McNeice, Alan Devlin, Rudi Davies, Prunella Scales.

Cinematography: Peter Hannan

Film Editor: Terry Rawlings

Original Music: Georges Delerue

Written by Peter Nelson from the novel by Brian Moore

Produced by Richard Johnson, Peter Nelson

Directed by Jack Clayton

Fine acting doesn’t get finer than that seen in The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, a book adaptation...

One film in contention at this year’s Oscars earned nominations for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress: “Vice.” How likely is it that leading man Christian Bale and supporting player Amy Adams will both win Academy Awards on Feb. 24? In the 82 years since the supporting awards were introduced at the 9th Oscars, a six lucky seven films could boast victories in both these races.

While this is the second most common of the four winningcombinations behind actress/supporting actress, it is also the one that has not happened in the longest time. The last such duo from the same film to both win were Brenda Fricker and Daniel Day-Lewis for “My Left Foor” in 1990. This was the first of Day-Lewis’s three Best Actor trophies – he could’ve repeated this pairing last year with Lesley Manville for Paul Thomas Anderson’s sublime “Phantom Thread” but, sadly, neither of them won.

10 random things that happened on this day in history (Aug 15th) as it relates to showbiz...

I am a collage of unaccounted for brush strokes...

1483 The Sistine Chapel is consecrated and holds its first mass at the Vatican. Remember that "anecdote" in Six Degrees of Separation (1993) about slapping the hand of god? What a fantastic play/film. Stockard Channing's nomination that year was so well-earned. In many years that performance would have been my gold medalist, but what a stellar Best Actress year 1993 was. Hunter, Bassett, Channing, etc...

1879 Future Oscar winner Ethel Barrymore (None but the Lonely Heart) born in Philadephia. She is one of only nine women to have ever been nominated for 4 Supporting Actress Oscars. We're discussing that list right now actually ...

1912 Amazing actress Wendy Hiller born in England on this day. She would go on to 3 Oscar nominations and a win. On the same day in Pasadena.

Judi Dench, left, and Olivia Colman star in Twentieth Century Fox’s “Murder on the Orient Express.” Photo Credit: Nicola Dove; Tm & © 2017 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Not for sale or duplication.

Murder On The Orient Express, Kenneth Branagh’s new film adaptation of the classic Agatha Christie mystery, offers a certain amount of lavish period style and mystery fun but does not measure up to the 1974 version, directed by Sidney Lumet and featuring an all-star cast. Branagh’s film also has a star-packed cast and Branagh, who plays detective Hercule Poirot as well as directs, sports an astonishing two-stage mustache that might be worth the ticket price alone.

Based on the famous Agatha Christie mystery featuring her Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, the 1974 film version had an all-star cast with Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam,

Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Anthony Perkins,...

Ben Mortimer Nov 10, 2017

Hugh Bonneville chats to us about Paddington 2, reshoots, Hugh Grant and the key to prison reform...

Rounding off our interviews for the delightful Paddington 2, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Mr Hugh Bonneville to talk about the movie. And here's how it all went...

See related Sam Mendes interview: Skyfall, stunts & cinematography

I did hear the other day that I shouldn’t trust what actors say, as they’re professional liars.

Absolutely. Some of the most devious people – what was it? Devious and dangerous people on the planet – absolutely. Spoken by Dame Julie Walters.

I’m curious how the experience differed for you from the last Paddington...

It was different in so far as, the family’s story is separate to Paddington’s really, and I thought that was interesting, and I wasn’t sure how it would fit together. And so in...

Presenting the Supporting Actresses of '63. Well well, what have we here? This year's statistical uniqueness (the only time one film ever produced three supporting actress nominees) and the character lineup reads juicier than it actually is - your Fab Five are, get this: a saucy wench, a pious auntie, a disgraced lady, a pillpopping royal, and a stubborn nun.

The Nominees 

from left to right: Cilento, Evans, Redman, Rutherford, Skalia

In 1963 Oscar voters went for an all-first-timers nominee list in Supporting Actress. The eldest contenders would soon become Dames (Margaret Rutherford and Edith Evans were both OBEs at the time). Rutherford, the eventual winner, was the only nominee with an extensive film history and she was in the middle of a hot streak with her signature role as Jane Marple which ran across multiple films from through 1961-1965. In fact, Agatha Christie had just dedicated her new book "The...

Following the explosive and emotional season 10 finale of Doctor Who, there was plenty to talk about with the cast and crew of the BBC series at Comic-Con, and in addition to speaking with Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie, Daily Dead was honored to take part in roundtable interviews with showrunner Steven Moffat, writer (and co-star) Mark Gatiss, and co-stars Michelle Gomez and Matt Lucas.

You both have really intense moments in the last episode of the series. Can you talk about the emotions going through each of your respective characters' heads while you were dealing with these really intense sequences?

Michelle Gomez: That this is the last time I'll do this, the last time I'll say this, that's the last time I'll do that, that's the last time I'll say this, and for those last few weeks, the series was a kind of sadnesses—is that a word? Sadnesses?...

'Making Love': Groundbreaking romantic gay drama returns to the big screen As part of its Anniversary Classics series, Laemmle Theaters will be presenting Arthur Hiller's groundbreaking 1982 romantic drama Making Love, the first U.S. movie distributed by a major studio that focused on a romantic gay relationship. Michael Ontkean, Harry Hamlin, and Kate Jackson star. The 35th Anniversary Screening of Making Love will be held on Saturday, June 24 – it's Gay Pride month, after all – at 7:30 p.m. at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre on Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. The movie will be followed by a Q&A session with Harry Hamlin, screenwriter Barry Sandler, and author A. Scott Berg, who wrote the “story” on which the film is based. 'Making Love' & What lies beneath In this 20th Century Fox release – Sherry Lansing was the studio head at the time – Michael Ontkean plays a...

Important dates in the RePfeiffal of 2017...

Michelle Pfeiffer as Ruth Madoff in "Wizard of Lies"

April 29th Michelle Pfeiffer's birthday. She turns 59

May 20th The HBO premiere of Wizard of Lies starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro in a TV movie about the Madoff scandal

June 19th 25th anniversary of Batman Returns (1992)

And Every Saturday ...new episodes of Pfandom

Sept 17th Emmy Night - will she be a nominee for Wizard of Lies? It premieres just before the Emmy eligibility cutoff

Oct 13th Darren Aronofsky's Mother opens in movie theaters starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, and Domnhall Gleeson

Nov 22nd The all star remake of Murder on the Orient Express opens in movie theaters starring Michelle Pfeiffer (in the Lauren Bacall role), Kenneth Branagh (in the Albert Finney role), Judi Dench (in the Wendy Hiller role), Daisy Ridley (in the Vanessa Redgrave role), Olivia Colman...

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 20: George Bernard Shaw on Film.

About the films:

The hugely influential, Nobel Prize–winning critic and playwright George Bernard Shaw was notoriously reluctant to allow his writing to be adapted for the cinema. Yet thanks to the persistence of Hungarian producer Gabriel Pascal, Shaw finally agreed to collaborate on a series of screen versions of his witty, socially minded plays, starting with the Oscar-winning Pygmalion. The three other films that resulted from this famed alliance, Major Barbara, Caesar and Cleopatra, and Androcles and the Lion, long overshadowed by the sensation of Pygmalion, are gathered here for the first time on DVD. These clever, handsomely mounted entertainments star...

Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation by Cecil Beaton

This week marks the 90th birthday of her majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born in 1926. The Queen celebrates two birthdays each year: her actual birthday on the 21st of April and her official birthday on the second Saturday in June. (Trooping of the Colours)

She is the world’s oldest reigning monarch as well as Britain’s longest-lived. In 2015, she surpassed the reign of her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, to become the longest-reigning British monarch and the longest-reigning queen regent in world history.

Looking to celebrate her Majesty’s birthday? First, everyone rise for the national anthem of the United Kingdom.

God save our gracious Queen!

Long live our noble Queen!

God save the Queen!

Send her victorious,

Happy and glorious,

Long to reign over us:

God save the Queen!

For more on the Queen’s schedule, visit the official site: www.

Ron Moody in Mel Brooks' 'The Twelve Chairs.' The 'Doctor Who' that never was. Ron Moody: 'Doctor Who' was biggest professional regret (See previous post: "Ron Moody: From Charles Dickens to Walt Disney – But No Harry Potter.") Ron Moody was featured in about 50 television productions, both in the U.K. and the U.S., from the late 1950s to 2012. These included guest roles in the series The Avengers, Gunsmoke, Starsky and Hutch, Hart to Hart, and Murder She Wrote, in addition to leads in the short-lived U.S. sitcom Nobody's Perfect (1980), starring Moody as a Scotland Yard detective transferred to the San Francisco Police Department, and in the British fantasy Into the Labyrinth (1981), with Moody as the noble sorcerer Rothgo. Throughout the decades, he could also be spotted in several TV movies, among them:[1] David Copperfield (1969). As Uriah Heep in this disappointing all-star showcase distributed theatrically in some countries.

I. The Rattigan Version

After his first dramatic success, The Winslow Boy, Terence Rattigan conceived a double bill of one-act plays in 1946. Producers dismissed the project, even Rattigan’s collaborator Hugh “Binkie” Beaumont. Actor John Gielgud agreed. “They’ve seen me in so much first rate stuff,” Gielgud asked Rattigan; “Do you really think they will like me in anything second rate?” Rattigan insisted he wasn’t “content writing a play to please an audience today, but to write a play that will be remembered in fifty years’ time.”

Ultimately, Rattigan paired a brooding character study, The Browning Version, with a light farce, Harlequinade. Entitled Playbill, the show was finally produced by Stephen Mitchell in September 1948, starring Eric Portman, and became a runaway hit. While Harlequinade faded into a footnote, the first half proved an instant classic. Harold Hobson wrote that “Mr. Portman’s playing and Mr. Rattigan’s writing...

Teresa Wright and Matt Damon in 'The Rainmaker' Teresa Wright: From Marlon Brando to Matt Damon (See preceding post: "Teresa Wright vs. Samuel Goldwyn: Nasty Falling Out.") "I'd rather have luck than brains!" Teresa Wright was quoted as saying in the early 1950s. That's understandable, considering her post-Samuel Goldwyn choice of movie roles, some of which may have seemed promising on paper.[1] Wright was Marlon Brando's first Hollywood leading lady, but that didn't help her to bounce back following the very public spat with her former boss. After all, The Men was released before Elia Kazan's film version of A Streetcar Named Desire turned Brando into a major international star. Chances are that good film offers were scarce. After Wright's brief 1950 comeback, for the third time in less than a decade she would be gone from the big screen for more than a year.

We're all used to the Oscar ceremony drawing monotonous "it's too long!" complaints. Yours truly doesn't share that view. Hell, if they wanted to do 9-hour broadcasts and include all the honoraries again and give more attention to the craft categories, and never skimp on any of the four category clip reels for the actors, I'd gladly watch each additional minute. But the super long Oscar ceremony is actually not a historic consistency. The earliest Oscars were short banquets and once they started televising them in the 50s the lengths varied.

Gigi made a clean sweep with 9 Oscars but with no acting nominations. Burl Ives (The Big Country), Susan Hayward (I Want To Live!), and David Niven and Wendy Hiller (not pictured) from Separate Tables won the acting Oscars.

The shortest of all televised ceremonies was the 1958 Oscars, broadcast live on April 6th, '59. It was only 100 minutes long. Can you imagine it?...

Honorary Award: Gloria Swanson, Rita Hayworth among dozens of women bypassed by the Academy (photo: Honorary Award non-winner Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Blvd.') (See previous post: "Honorary Oscars: Doris Day, Danielle Darrieux Snubbed.") Part three of this four-part article about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Honorary Award bypassing women basically consists of a long, long — and for the most part quite prestigious — list of deceased women who, some way or other, left their mark on the film world. Some of the names found below are still well known; others were huge in their day, but are now all but forgotten. Yet, just because most people (and the media) suffer from long-term — and even medium-term — memory loss, that doesn't mean these women were any less deserving of an Honorary Oscar. So, among the distinguished female film professionals in Hollywood and elsewhere who have passed away without...

Playwright and screenwriter Terence Rattigan was an indubitable influence on mid-century British cinema. He authored several of the era’s most notable titles, including The Browning Version (1951), Lean’s The Sound Barrier (1952) Olivier’s troubled The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) and Anatole Litvak’s The Deep Blue Sea (1952), which was recently remade by Terrence Davies in 2011. But it would be a 1958 American adaptation of his play, Separate Tables, from director Delbert Mann that would prove to be his most critically lauded work, nominated for seven Academy Awards, and snagging two (Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress). By today’s standards, it’s a film that feels painstakingly melodramatic. Reconsidered within the framework of Rattigan’s own impressive oeuvre, the material hasn’t aged well, and as time has gone on, its cramped exploration of sexual dysfunction now plays like a euthanized product crippled by censorship of the author’s own...

What’s new, what’s hot, and what you may have missed, now available to stream.

new to stream

Avengers Assemble (aka Marvel’s The Avengers): one of the best superhero movies ever made, this is funny, poignant, exciting, and involving [my review] [at Netflix] Call Me Kuchu: powerful documentary about gay men fighting for equal rights and human dignity in Uganda [at Netflix] Fright Night: 2011 update of the classic 80s comedy horror features a killer performance by David Tennant as a stage magician [my review] [at Netflix] Populaire: ridiculous charming and totally delightful, this is a sly sendup of sports movies within a hugely smart and funny nostalgic romance [my review] [at Netflix] The Queen of Versailles: entertaining look at the financial troubles of one of the wealthiest families in America… and perhaps one of the most dysfunctional [my review] [at Netflix]

streaming now, while it’s still in theaters

The Machine: the bleak chic of this Sf drama is intriguing, but the...

From Jack leching over Jennifer to John Wayne's farewell and Brando's no-show, these are just some of the greatest moments at the Oscars ceremonies ever

1. When Jack met Jennifer

This is perhaps my favourite Oscar moment ever, and it is from last year: the 85th Academy Awards in 2013. Tellingly, it does not take place up on stage, in the often tense and frozen ritual of the awards ceremony itself, but happens in the cheerful buzz of the post-show melee backstage. This single, endlessly replayed clip probably did more for Jennifer Lawrence's public profile than anything on the big screen.

Reading on mobile? Click here to see Jack Nicholson surprise Jennifer Lawrence

George Stephanopoulos, the former Bill Clinton aide who later made a career in TV, was conducting on-the-hoof interviews for ABC and had grabbed 22-year-old Lawrence to talk about her best actress Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook. The...

Marlon Brando in ‘A Dry White Season,’ James Earl Jones in ‘Cry the Beloved Country’: Apartheid movies (photo: Marlon Brando in ‘A Dry White Season’) (See previous post: “Nelson Mandela: Sidney Poitier and ‘Malcolm X’ Cameo Apperance.”) Besides the Nelson Mandela movies discussed in the previous two posts, South Africa’s apartheid has been portrayed in a number of films in the last few decades. Among the most notable ones are the following: Zoltan Korda’s Cry the Beloved Country (1951). Based on Alan Paton’s novel, this British-made film features Canada Lee and Charles Carson as two men struggling to deal with the disastrous consequences of apartheid. Ralph Nelson’s The Wilby Conspiracy (1975). Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine star as, respectively, an anti-apartheid South African activist and a British engineer on the run from South Africa’s secret police, headed by racist Nicol Williamson. Chris Menges’ A World Apart...

Next in line to inherit the throne of Royal films is Diana. The film takes audiences into the private realm of one of the world’s most iconic and inescapably public women – the Princess of Wales, Diana (two-time Oscar nominee Naomi Watts) — in the last two years of her meteoric life.

On the occasion of the 16th anniversary of her sudden death, acclaimed director Oliver Hirschbiegel (the Oscar-nominated Downfall) explores Diana’s final rite of passage: a secret love affair with Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan (Naveen Andrews, “Lost,” The English Patient), the human complications of which reveal the Princess’s climactic days in a compelling new light. Diana is in select theaters now.

As long as filmmakers have been bringing the lives of England’s Kings and Queens to the silver screen have moviegoers been going to the cinemas to be schooled in British Monarchy.

So Arise, Sirs and Ladies,...

Last week saw the release of a handful of new international films, with Jo Nesbø’s Headhunters topping the list, and this week brings with it a rather different line-up, with Peter Berg’s Battleship being the biggest name amongst the new arrivals, opposite Kevin Macdonald’s critically acclaimed documentary, Marley.

My picks of the week:

Kevin Macdonald’s Marley & Daniel Lee’s White Vengeance.

Marley Iframe Embed for Youtube

DVD and Blu-ray (inc. Digital and UltraViolet Copies)

Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) returned this year with Marley, a documentary following on from his Life in a Day project last year, bringing us a portrait of one of the most iconic figures in music of the last century.

And we’ve currently got three copies of the film on Blu-ray to give away – click here to enter the competition.

“Marley is the definitive film about one of...

(Carol Reed, 1951, Studio Canal, PG)

Carol Reed was acclaimed as an important new talent when Graham Greene, as film critic of the Spectator, reviewed his second film as a director, Midshipman Easy, in 1935. After the second world war they found fame, collaborating on The Fallen Idol and The Third Man. Reed thought they might scale new heights with a film of Joseph Conrad's 1896 novel An Outcast of the Islands. But Greene, in thrall since childhood to Conrad, had been trying to escape the Polish writer's influence and rejected Reed's invitation. A pity, because it might have been a revealing masterpiece.

Instead, it's an ambitious, deeply flawed picture, filmed on unromantically observed south- east Asian locations with a powerful performance by Trevor Howard as the self-destructive Willems and Ralph Richardson (a key exponent of Greene) providing a highly stylised portrait of the godlike Captain Lingard. A crucial film in an important,...

Gary Cooper, High Noon Fred Zinnemann: Top Oscar Directors for Actors Fred Zinnemann-directed movies: twenty acting nominations; six wins. (s) supporting category; (*) Academy Award winner 1944 Hume Cronyn (s), The Seventh Cross 1948 Montgomery Clift, The Search 1952 * Gary Cooper, High Noon Julie Harris, The Member of the Wedding 1953 Montgomery Clift, From Here to Eternity Burt Lancaster, From Here to Eternity Deborah Kerr, From Here to Eternity * Frank Sinatra (s), From Here to Eternity * Donna Reed (s), From Here to Eternity 1957 Anthony Franciosa, A Hatful of Rain 1959 Audrey Hepburn, The Nun's Story 1960 Deborah Kerr, The Sundowners Glynis Johns (s), The Sundowners 1966 * Paul Scofield (with Susanna York), A Man for All Seasons Robert Shaw (s), A Man for All Seasons Wendy Hiller (s), A Man for All Seasons 1977 Jane Fonda, Julia Maximilian Schell (s), Julia * Jason Robards (s), Julia * Vanessa Redgrave (s), Julia...

"I Simply Cannot Do Alone" might well be the theme song all lead actors should sing to their stellar supporting castI felt a list coming on so I didn't fight it. Neither did I fight the order as I slotted them in, though you know how this goes if you've ever made such insane list. The order might change with a moodswing and it would definitely change (perhaps drastically) if I had an opportunity to rewatch all these pictures back to back. 

Ten Most Deserving Best Supporting Actress Oscar Wins

Runners up: I'm crazy about Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker and Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon but they're both unarguably leading roles so I'm not voting for them. My apologies in no particular order to Ruth Gordon, Wendy Hiller, Catherine Zeta-Jones and, oh, dozens of people. Never mind. Moving on! (The one winning performance I'm most frustrated to have...

Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara, They All Laughed Ben Gazzara Dead Pt.1: Anatomy Of A Murder, Husbands, An Early Frost Long before An Early Frost, Ben Gazzara had already appeared in two (however veiled) gay-themed productions. On Broadway, he was the virile ex-football player pining for his "best friend" while ignoring wife Barbara Bel Geddes in the 1955 original staging of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. (Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor played those two roles in the bowdlerized 1958 movie version directed by Richard Brooks.) And in 1957, Gazzara made his film debut as a sexually troubled military man who gets off by viciously abusing (or watching others viciously abuse) his fellow cadets in Jack Garfein's The Strange One. Among Gazzara's other 75 or so feature films — many of which were made in Italy — are Steve Carver's Capone (1975), in the title role; Stuart Rosenberg's Voyage of the Damned...

Actor and dialect coach Robert Easton, known as the "Henry Higgins of Hollywood," died of "natural causes" on Friday, Dec. 16, in the Los Angeles suburb of Toluca Lake. Easton was 81. Even if he never coached My Fair Lady/Pygmalion's Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews, or Wendy Hiller, according to the Los Angeles Times obituary Easton's dialect students included Anne Hathaway, Liam Neeson, John Travolta, Patrick Swayze, Ben Kingsley, Charlton Heston, Arnold Schwarzenegger (who learned to talk with a Russian accent, as per the Times), and Forest Whitaker, who learned to talk like Idi Amin Dada for his Oscar-winning role in The Last King of Scotland. When not coaching, Easton taught at UCLA and USC. Additionally, he had small supporting roles in movies such as Joshua Logan's Paint Your Wagon (1969), starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin, and Jean Seberg; Mike Nichols' Working Girl (1988), with Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver, and Harrison Ford...