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There are only so many directors in the annals of cinema who audiences know by name. Yes, movie buffs can rattle off the names of plenty of filmmakers, from Guillermo del Toro to David Lean and many, many others in between. But for regular audience members, there's only a few who earn the same name recognition of big-deal movie stars. Currently, there may only be four: Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese. Think all you like about these auteurs, but they've made so many excellent, memorable, iconic films that audiences know their work and their names so well you can just list out their surnames. 

However, due to the fact that all of these men continue to make films in the era of review aggregation online, and because there are so many critics from which to select when you visit sites like Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes, it's...

Ask any actor to name a performance that made them want to become an actor, and you'll get people citing the monumental likes of Marlon Brando in "A Streetcar Named Desire," Meryl Streep in "Sophie's Choice" or Denzel Washington in "Malcolm X" -- big, deep-tissue dives that require thespians to use just about every part of their instrument. They want to leave audiences weeping and cheering as they capture the full range of the human experience. They do not want to play, say, a monotone android whose sole function in the plot is to provide the occasional information dump. This would leave them with nothing of interest to do, and, most likely, little to add to their reel.

So, when Gene Roddenberry began casting the pilot for "Star Trek" in 1964, he probably didn't have actors knocking down his door to play the Vulcan First Officer Spock, whose adherence to logic...

Reader, you have been lied to! Film history is littered with unfairly maligned classics, whether critics were too eager to review the making of rather than the finished product, or they suffered from underwhelming ad campaigns or general disinterest. Let’s revise our takes on some of these films from wrongheaded to the correct opinion.

What’s the greatest chase scene in American movies? One could easily make a convincing argument for the lengthy action sequence that anchors Buster Keaton’s “The General,” or for the kinetic urban set pieces of “Bullitt” and “The French Connection.” Movies like “Duel,” “The Driver,” and “Speed” are essentially feature-length chases broken up by occasional dialogue sequences, and for sheer scale, the final act of “The Blues Brothers” is tough to beat.

One movie that doesn’t get mentioned in this company but should is Ron Shelton’s 2003 action-comedy “Hollywood Homicide,” a film that...

He was born Archibald Alec Leach in South West England on January 18, 1904. As a teen, he became attracted to show biz at an early age, becoming friends with a troupe of acrobats and doing odd jobs while hanging out backstage at theaters. At 16, he would travel by ship to the United States, where he would eventually change his name to Cary Grant after signing his first movie contract in 1931. He became one of the most admired and beloved leading men that Hollywood would ever produce.

Grant’s suave looks and elegant voice served him well when he started acting in films, but his artistry and nuance on screen matured considerably over the years. He would work with the master Alfred Hitchcock several times, including “North by Northwest,” “Notorious” and “To Catch a Thief.” Grant was also quite deft with comedy roles, including “His Girl Friday,” “The Awful Truth,” “Arsenic and Old Lace...

“Spectacular size and complete focus across the screen,” announced a promotional advertisement in 1954. “The ultimate in film presentation that will thrill all your senses and touch all your emotions. VistaVision!”

Developed by Paramount Pictures 70 years ago, the cinematic format tempted

audiences to experience bolder, higher-resolution images in the movie theater. The process was invented by changing how the negative was fed through the camera. Instead of the celluloid strip running vertically – think of a film still with four sprocket holes on each side – the negative was fed horizontally, with eight sprocket holes on the top and bottom. Such as this:

The larger format yielded a richer, more detailed image. Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” and “Vertigo” were among the movies filmed in VistaVision before it lost popularity due to the advance of film stock technology.

“It was one of those formats, like CinemaScope, that was almost designed to draw...

Old Hollywood is associated with glamour and romance, and many of the great classics of the era are still worth watching in the 21st century. Also referred to as the Golden Age of Hollywood, Old Hollywood was classified by the studio system, which signed big-name movie stars and directors to multi-movie contracts. There's some debate over when exactly it ended, but New Hollywood emerged at some point during the 1960s.

Since the apogee of Old Hollywood took place from the 1930s to 1950s, it's only natural that some of the era's greatest movies don't hold up so well today. Modern audiences have different tastes, but there are still plenty of classics which are just as enjoyable. Movies like Casablanca, Bringing Up Baby and North By Northwest have stood the test of time, and they are still being watched by people all over the world.

Casablanca (1942) Bogart And Bergman Are Irresistible...

In the early 1950s, Hollywood introduced numerous widescreen formats in an effort to compete with the rise of television; the thinking was that the spectacle of CinemaScope, Cinerama, and other processes would give people incentive to leave their homes and return to the theater. Now, as exhibitors struggle with the rise of streaming and declining theater attendance, filmmaker Brady Corbet has revived the greatest of all widescreen formats and given today’s audiences the same reason to get off their couches that Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Curtiz, and other premier directors of their era gave in the 1950s.

Corbet opted to shoot “The Brutalist” in VistaVision, a process Paramount Pictures introduced in 1954 with the release of Michael Curtiz’s “White Christmas.” The format’s run was brief but glorious; it essentially fell out of regular use after Marlon Brando’s “One-Eyed Jacks” in 1961, but before that it was employed on several...

Whether you're getting ready to deck the halls or return to Saturnalia, the holiday season is very much underway. Don't worry, there's still plenty of time to shop for the pop culture lovers in your life, and The A.V. Club is once again here to help. Film Editor Jacob Oller,...

Kids, there was a time when you could actually own the media you loved. Long before the rise of subscription models shackled art to the servers of multinational tech corporations, we all went out and bought movies and music, amassing treasured collections and cluttering our living rooms with unsightly plastic cases in the process.

But while everyone who grew up in the pre-streaming days piled up CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes, there were plenty of physical formats that never quite took off. Take Laserdiscs, which had an undeniably cool name but were never all that popular — at least in the United States where they first hit the market in 1978. Physically, Laserdiscs looked like large CDs but were two-sided and could hold between 30 and 60 minutes of footage per side. A precursor to DVDs, these vinyl-sized optical discs were touted as superior to VHS tapes but for a variety of reasons — prohibitive...

Rue the Christmas blues no more — the Criterion Channel has you covered with plenty of great films to stream this holiday season thanks to the platform’s December lineup.

As announced on Wednesday, Criterion Channel starting December 1 will host a greatest-hits collection of “Pope of Trash” John Waters’ most iconic movies. Divine-starring classics such as “Multiple Maniacs” (1970), “Female Trouble” (1974), “Hairspray” (1988), and “Polyester” (1981) fit the bill, while you shouldn’t miss a camped-up Kathleen Turner as a murderous suburban matriarch in “Serial Mom,” a role her agents told her would ruin her career. Well, the rest is history. For a bonus, John Waters also provides interview commentary on a selection of some of his own favorite movies, including Ingmar Bergman’s 1958 “Brink of Life,” Samuel Fuller’s 1964 “The Naked Kiss,” and Barbara Loden’s influential 1970 classic “Wanda.”

Elsewhere, Criterion Channel celebrates five decades of Alfred Hitchcock’s career with a murderer’s row of all-timers,...

Now that they’ve set the year’s best film for a December 10 debut, the Criterion Channel have unveiled the rest of next month’s selection. John Waters’ films are inseparable from John Waters’ presence, making fitting Criterion’s decision to pair an eight-film retrospective (Multiple Maniacs to Cecil B. Demented) with his own “Adventures in Moviegoing” wherein the director extols virtues of Bergman, Chabrol, Barbara Loden, and Samuel Fuller. His own Polyester will have a Criterion Edition alongside the Bob Dylan doc Don’t Look Back, an iconic film in its own right and, I think, fitting companion to The Unknown with Lon Chaney, also streaming on Criterion. No Country for Old Men and Election receive likewise treatment; the latter appears in “MTV Productions,” a series featuring Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, The Original Kings of Comedy, and (coming close to Freddy Got Fingered for least-expected 2024 addition) Jackass: the Movie.

The holidays are upon us, so whether you’re looking for film-related gifts or simply want to get for yourself some of the finest this year had to offer, we have a gift guide for you. Including must-have books on filmmaking, the best from the Criterion Collection and other home-video lines, subscriptions, magazines, music, and more, dive in below.

4K & Blu-ray Box Sets

There’s no better gift than an epic film collection, and 2024 was an embarrassment of riches thanks to a number of box sets. The king of them all, especially if you’re looking for a gift for a burgeoning cinephile, is Criterion’s massive CC40, collecting 40 landmark films form their 40-year history. It’s not the only stellar set from the company, of course, as I adored the essential Chantal Akerman Masterpieces, 1968–1978, Éric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons, Gregg Araki’s Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, Three Revolutionary Films by Ousmane Sembène,...

From one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema comes the all-new Alfred Hitchcock: The Iconic Film Collection, releasing on 4K Ultra HD disc and Digital on November 26, 2024 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. This must-own collection consists of some of the most unforgettable and groundbreaking films of all time including Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North By Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds. In partnership with Warner Bros. and Paramount Home Entertainment, the collection features the newly released 4K Ultra HD remasters of North by Northwest and To Catch a Thief. It’s the very first time you can own all six films together ... Read more...

European powerhouse Studiocanal has dropped a first clip and poster of its new doc “Becoming Hitchcock – The Legacy of Blackmail” by L.A.-based filmmaker Laurent Bouzereau.

The doc feature will have its world premiere at the Lumière classic film festival in France’s Lyon on Oct. 18.

Based entirely on archive material, the film explores the famous Hitchcock touch, through the making of one of his benchmark films, “Blackmail,” released in 1929 at the dawn of the Talkies.

Often referred to as the first British sound feature film, the film also exists in a silent version. Several sequences were reshot for the sound version.

By comparing the two, Bouzereau creates a novel way of exploring Hitchcock’s trademark themes such as murder, suspense, food and sexuality, providing a taste of what was to come in masterpieces like “Psycho,” “North by Northwest” and “The Birds” 30 years later.

“I wanted to mention the...

Bubble, boil, steam, and burn, it’s time to watch those film reels turn. That’s right, it’s October, which means it’s almost Halloween, but the minute the clock struck midnight on the 1st, we here at IndieWire were already decked in black and frightening our office mates at Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. While carving pumpkins, eating candy, and donning elaborate costumes may be how most ring in this special time of year, we believe there’s no better celebration of spooky season than entering a dark theater and sharing a few collective screams with strangers.

This month, repertory theaters in New York and Los Angeles have plenty of offerings to get those lungs expanding and heart beating. From black-and-white classics like Don Siegel’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956) to modern monster favorites such as “The Mummy” (1999) starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, don’t miss...

Warner Bros. is bringing two cinematic classics to a new physical media transfer this Thanksgiving season. Blu-ray.com has announced the 4K Ultra-High Definition Blu-ray releases of Alfred Hitchcock‘s spy thriller North by Northwest and Mel Brooks‘ irreverent western satire Blazing Saddles. Both releases will be hitting retailers on November 19.

North by Northwest stars Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Jessie Royce Landis, and Leo G. Carroll. The description reads, “Cary Grant stars as an innocent man mistaken for a spy in one of director Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest thrillers. While leaving New York’s Plaza Hotel, advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Grant) has the misfortune of standing just as the name “George Kaplan” is paged–starting a lethal case of mistaken identity and a nonstop game of cat and mouse as he is pursued across North America by espionage agents trying to kill him–and by police who suspect him of murder.

North by Northwest (65th anniversary) will be released for the first time on 4K Ultra HD and Digital on November 19. North By Northwest Cary Grant stars as an innocent man mistaken for a spy in one of director Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest thrillers. While leaving New York’s Plaza Hotel, advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Grant) has the misfortune of raising his hand just as the name “George Kaplan” is paged–starting a lethal case of mistaken identity and a nonstop game of cat and mouse as he is pursued across North America by espionage agents trying to kill him–and by police who suspect him ... Read more...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Toony Terrors Figures from Neca

Neca’s latest wave of Toony Terrors, dubbed “Silver Screen,” features black-and-white versions of Nosferatu, Vincent Price, Vampira, and They Live’s Alien in Suit.

Nosferatu comes with a rat. Vincent Price includes a cat, skull, and interchangeable hand. Vampira has a skull. Alien in Suit features a piece of propaganda.

Modeled in the style of classic Saturday morning cartoons, each 6” scale figure comes on blister card packaging with a cutout backdrop. The set of four is available for $64.99.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space Neon Sign from Spirit Halloween

Spirit Halloween has added several neon signs to its arsenal this spooky season, including Killer Klowns from Outer Space‘s cotton candy gun.

Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest arrives on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray for its 65th birthday: more on the release here.

Something that’s occasionally forgotten when talking about the work of Alfred Hitchcock is just how big and mainstream his films were. Because he’s now such a revered movie director, he tends to get boxed in towards art house classics sections, when actually, so many of his films are very, very broad churches.

Which leads me to North By Northwest. It took me a while to get to the film for the first time, but this is in its own way a big, broad, blockbuster film. Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason star, in a film that’s got some ambitious set pieces in it. And, well, it’s just a hell of a rollercoaster, that really holds up. Not bad for a movie that’s celebrating its 65th birthday.

Mel Brooks’ classic western comedy Blazing Saddles is getting a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release to mark its 50th anniversary. More here.

Mel Brooks’ much-loved and groundbreaking comedy favourite Blazing Saddles is arriving at its 50th birthday this year. And just as with other anniversary films this year such as North By Northwest and A Nightmare On Elm Street, Warner Bros appears to be pulling out the stops for a posh-looking 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray collector’s set.

The film hasn’t been on the 4K disc format before, so it’s enjoying a 4K remaster for a start. The set will always include a Blu-ray disc too, to carry across previous additional features too.

Then, the 50th anniversary set will come in Steelbook casing, and include an envelope with 10 art cards inside. There’s also a double-sided bookmark, a double-sided retro art card, three double-sided behind the scenes cards,...

John Huston’s The African Queen, starring Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, is heading to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray this October.

Ah, now here’s a flat out classic vintage movie that’s now been confirmed for its 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray debut. From director John Huston comes the joyful The African Queen, a 1951 movie that paired up Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart.

Robert Morley co-stars, and the film itself is a rollicking action adventure. I’ve said this before talking about movies like North By Northwest in the past, but The African Queen is the kind of movie that I wonder gets overlooked by some because it’s a) old and b) acclaimed. In this case, it’s as fun as a summer blockbuster movie, and few people get to the end and think they’ve wasted 105 minutes of their life.

Anyway, back to the 4K release, that had been rumoured for some time.

Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch A Thief is making its 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray debut in the UK this autumn – more details here.

Here’s a very welcome treat for collectors of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format. The 1955 Alfred Hitchcock thriller To Catch A Thief will be arriving on the format for the very first time this autumn, and in a rather spanking looking set.

The movie – which is liberally doused with romance – sees Grace Kelly and Cary Grant, a string of burglaries and a whole lot of fun. Because it’s Alfred Hitchcock and nearly 70 years old, To Catch A Thief is now filed as a posh slice of cinema, and perhaps it is. But just like something such as North By Northwest (which is due on 4K disc later this year too), this is a tremendous amount of fun, a blockbuster movie in vintage clothes.

Paramount holds...

Following last year’s very successful “Big & Loud! 70mm, Atmos, and Audio-Obsessive Cinema” screening series, Netflix is launching its latest edition of what is becoming a signature late summer and early fall event at its Paris Theater in New York City. This year’s series will again boast, per the streamer, “eye-popping 70mm prints, thunderous Dolby Atmos, and cinema worth celebrating.”

The series kicks off on Friday, August 23 and will run through Thursday, October 31. Special presentations will include a new 70mm print of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” (screening for the first time in New York), plus new 70mm prints of “North by Northwest” and “The Searchers,” as well as 70mm screenings of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Boogie Nights,” “Hamlet” (1996), “The Hateful Eight,” “Inception,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Malcolm X,” “Nope,” “Phantom Thread,” “Spartacus,” and “The Untouchables.”

Other highlights (and there are many) include “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Days of Heaven,...

On August 22, 1929, only two months before the Wall Street crash that would sink the United States into the Great Depression, a movie house opened in Chicago, Illinois. Compared to theaters of the time that could hold 3,000 patrons, the Music Box Theatre only had room for 700 and was considered by many to be the little sibling to the movie palaces of the era. However, what it lacked in size, it made up for by delivering the highest quality of projection and sound. Rather than serving as a multi-purpose venue for variety performances, as well as movies, the Music Box focused exclusively on the rising popularity of motion pictures, preceding many others.

Writing for the Chicago Tribune in 1983, architectural critic Paul Gapp wrote of the Music Box, “The architectural style is an eclectic melange of Italian, Spanish and Pardon-My-Fantasy put together with passion,” but the actual style has been defined as “atmospheric.

2024 has been an extraordinary year for film preservation, with theatrical premieres of new restorations of “The Searchers” and “North by Northwest” unspooling at festivals and repertory houses while pristine new editions of essential films like Michael Powell’s “Peeping Tom” and Martha Coolidge’s “Not a Pretty Picture” become available for home viewing via 4K and Blu-ray releases. The 1952 adventure film “Bwana Devil” is not held in as high regard as those classics by most cinephiles, but its restoration and Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber are just as significant. The first color 3D feature film, “Bwana Devil” was a game changer in Hollywood history, and Kino’s Blu-ray provides the first chance in decades to see it as it was originally presented — an experience that reveals “Bwana Devil” is a far more exciting film than its tepid reputation would indicate.

“Bwana Devil” was the brainchild of writer, producer, and director Arch Oboler,...

Brady Corbet, the director of “The Brutalist,” is still trying to figure out the best way to deliver the print for his film to the Venice Film Festival, where it will debut next month. That’s because the epic 215-minute story of a Holocaust survivor forging a new life in America will be shown in 70mm, which means that all 26 reels of film will need to travel in four Pelican cases from Los Angeles to Italy, weighing in at approximately 300 pounds.

“We may have to buy a couple of plane tickets,” he said, shortly after Venice unveiled its lineup. “We have to figure out the best way to get it through customs in order to hand deliver it in time.”

But Corbet has been resisting the digital tide for years, having shot his two previous films, “Vox Lux” and “The Childhood of a Leader,” on celluloid. That’s become something...

When putting together a list of the 25 Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies, it’s like plunging into a spectacular alternate universe of wit, verve, and style. The director of “Rear Window,” “Vertigo,” “North by Northwest,” and “Psycho” has a body of work so deep there are endless ways you can parse it: Maybe you could focus on his obsession with mothers, his approach to time, or the way food and painting pop up throughout his films.

But on a basic level, you also run into a challenge with Hitchcock you face with few other filmmakers, full-stop: The Master of Suspense is one of the rare directors to have a filmography with both the volume and the quality to credibly field a Top 25. With what other filmmakers can you do that? John Ford, certainly (Ford had the most films in our recent list of the 100 Greatest Westerns). Godard or Fassbinder perhaps? They...

A glimpse at upcoming UK Steelbook release dates until early 2024: here’s what’s getting the fancy treatment and when.

The incredibly fancy Steelbook format is the only choice for those needing a physical media release that doubles as a table tennis bat in a pinch. If that’s you, this list of all the upcoming UK Steelbook releases will be right up your alley.

Releases in this list cover Blu-ray and 4K, and are marked as such. Note that some Steelbooks sell out quickly, so just because they’re listed as upcoming here, there’s no guarantee of availability. Some store exclusives are also harder to track.

Also: We’ve started adding affiliate links. If you click on those, we benefit, and can spend more money paying more people to write more things for this website. No pressure, just hugely obliged.

Obviously in the current climate everything is subject to change,...

At a time when Hollywood's long-term survival is in question and directors like Joe Russo are welcoming the arrival of an AI-driven garbage future with open arms, it might seem as though Rotten Tomatoes rankings are the least of our concerns. Quite honestly, they are. Whether a film receives the coveted "Fresh" rating or the dreaded splat really isn't all that consequential in the grand scheme of things. But for whatever reason, the Tomatometer still holds sway over our collective movie tastes, and now that movies' Rt scores are baked into many of our favorite streaming services' interfaces, it's harder than ever to avoid the all-powerful review aggregator.

It's fair to say, then, that Rotten Tomatoes is doing alright for itself, which in turn means it's probably okay to point out some of its shortcomings. As such, let me point your attention towards Rotten Tomatoes' contention that there are only...

Over the 96 years of Academy Awards history, over 900 men and women have been honored with acting nominations. On July 4, 2024, the oldest surviving acting winner (or nominee) has turned 100 years old. Our research shows that Eva Marie Saint joins a very short list of centenarians who received Oscar acting nominations, with four winning the award.

A star of stage, radio, TV and film, Saint won the Best Supporting Actress statue in 1955 for her debut movie performance in “On the Waterfront;” she is also the earliest surviving acting winner, and one of the last stars of the Golden Era. She later starred alongside Cary Grant in one of Alfred Hitchcock‘s most acclaimed films, “North by Northwest” (1959), and became known to a younger generation as Clark Kent’s adoptive mother in “Superman Returns” (2006). Although she’s never received another Oscar nomination, she’s earned five Emmy nominations, winning Best Miniseries Supporting Actress...

Just as most young actors who headed to New York post World War II, Eva Marie Saint was a staple on live television. In fact, her first TV appearance was in 1947 in a production of “A Christmas Carol” starring John Carradine as Scrooge. Saint, who celebrates her 100th birthday on July 4, told me in a 2013 L.A. Times interview that she didn’t appear on screen in her first TV gig that same year on NBC’s “The Borden Show.” She was hired to simply supply applause off-camera and called her parents to tell them the good news. “After the show, they called me and mom said, ‘Honey, we just love the show, and Dad thinks he heard you applauding.”’

Doing live TV got the lithe blonde actress a lot of exposure. One time it was way too much exposure. Between 1950-52, Saint appeared as the daughter of a high-powered San...

The oldest surviving Oscar winner is turning 100 this year! Classy, smart and with a warmth that belies her cool blonde beauty, Eva Marie Saint made a name for herself on stage, radio, television and film, earning numerous accolades over a nearly eight-decade career, and appearing alongside some of Hollywood’s most acclaimed stars.

Saint was born on July 4, 1924, in New Jersey, and raised in New York, before becoming an NBC page. After steady work on radio and TV, Saint won an Outer Critics Circle Award for her role in the 1953 play “The Trip to Bountiful.”

The following year, Saint made her movie debut opposite Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan‘s “On the Waterfront,” which garnered her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and launched an impressive film career. Over the next two decades, she co-starred alongside Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Cary Grant, Paul Newman, Warren Beatty, Angela Lansbury and...

Plenty of big-name actors were considered for the role of James Bond in Dr. No. Sean Connery was ultimately chosen for the role, and the franchise became a global phenomenon. The actors who were considered for the role could have brought unique interpretations to the iconic character, but various factors led to their exclusion or refusal to participate.

Sean Connery is still considered by many fans to be the ultimate James Bond, but producers considered plenty of other candidates for Dr. No. Connery struck the perfect chord as 007, bringing Ian Fleming's secret agent to life with charm, wit and a hint of danger. He was a tough act to follow, and he was coerced into returning to the franchise for one last ride after George Lazenby failed to live up to his portrayal in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Connery was key to establishing one of cinema's longest-running franchises,...

Martin Landau is the Oscar-winning thespian who enjoyed one of the greatest late career renaissances in cinema history, hitting his stride in his 60’s and remaining active until his death in 2017. Let’s take a look back at 12 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1928 in Brooklyn, New York, Landau first came to the attention of movie audiences with a villainous role in Alfred Hitchcock‘s “North by Northwest” (1959). He became a television star playing Rollin Hand on “Mission: Impossible,” for which he received three consecutive Emmy nominations as Best Drama Actor (1967-1968) and a Golden Globe victory in 1968.

After decades of bit roles in B-movies and guest spots on TV (including playing a bad guy on “Columbo”), Landau enjoyed a major career comeback thanks to Francis Ford Coppola‘s “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” (1988), for which he won the Golden Globe and earned his first...

2019 saw Parasite steal the show at the Oscars, taking home major awards from expected frontrunner 1917. 2010 featured a standout lineup for Best Picture, with entries like The King's Speech and Inception competing. 2007 saw No Country for Old Men dominate with multiple awards, while Ratatouille delighted families and animation fans.

Over the past century, certain years have stood out as the best in Hollywood history. This may be due to an astonishing number of amazing movies that came out that year, or significant technical advancements that were made in the industry. While the best movies of all time likely did not make their respective years of release the best on their own, several more like them can make the date a truly impressive year to remember.

The movies released during years like this likely had a lasting impact in one way or another, giving rise to new talent or filmmaking techniques. The...

On June 12, the Tribeca Film Festival will present the East Coast premiere of a new restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest,” screening in glorious 70mm thanks to Warner Bros. and Martin Scorsese‘s Film Foundation. It’s just the latest in an ongoing series of collaborations between the studio and the foundation, whose 70mm upgrade of John Ford’s “The Searchers” also premiered this year. Both films now look better than they have since their initial theatrical releases thanks to the studio going back to the original VistaVision negatives and taking full advantage of that format’s increased resolution to create the most detailed, vivid masters of Hitchcock and Ford’s classics possible.

When VistaVision was introduced in 1954 alongside other new formats like CinemaScope and Cinerama (all of which were intended to bring back the movie audience that had migrated to television), what made it special was that...

When you think of the very best Alfred Hitchcock movies, you might think of, say, "Psycho" or "Vertigo." You might consider "The Birds" — controversial though it may be — as the director's finest moment, or "Rear Window" might spring to mind. But while these are all excellent examples of Hitch's undeniable directing talent, there's an impressive array of underrated Hitchcock movies worth watching.

Take "Strangers on a Train" for example. This 1951 thriller stars Farley Granger as Guy Haines and Robert Walker as Bruno Antony, who are, believe it or not, two strangers who meet on a train. The thing about Bruno, however, is that he's also a psychopath, and suggests to Guy that they "swap murders" so as to do away with Guy's estranged wife and Bruno's overbearing father. From Bruno's perspective, because both men will essentially be killing strangers, no one will suspect either of them. When Guy laughs off this nefarious plot,...

There’s a story Alfred Hitchcock always liked to tell about how, when he was five years old, his father dropped him off at the local police station near his home in East London. William Hitchcock left a note for the coppers explaining that his son had been misbehaving. A policeman locked young Alfred in a cell for a few minutes and explained, “This is what we do to naughty boys.”

When Hitchcock recounted that story to Dick Cavett he was in his 70s, but the incident continued to leave a profound mark on the director. He said he was still “terrified of the police” because of that and drew a connection from that to the feelings of guilt and wrong-men-on-the-run paranoia that seeps into so many of his films.

The funny thing is, though, father characters are almost entirely absent from Hitchcock’s work. There are a few: Cedric Hardwicke...

The 2024 Tribeca Festival has revealed its lineup of talks and reunions with filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Judd Apatow, Kieran Culkin and more.

The premiere of HBO’s “Wise Guy David Chase and the Sopranos,” a documentary directed by Alex Gibney, will take place to celebrate the 25th anniversary of “The Sopranos.” There will also be a reunion with creator David Chase, executive producer Terence Winter and cast members Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Aida Turturro, Annabella Sciorra, Robert Iler, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Drea De Matteo, Steve Schirripa, Michele Chase, Kathrine Narducci, and Dominic Chianese.

In addition, “Mean Streets” celebrates its 50th anniversary and will include a conversation with Scorsese and De Niro. Steven Spielberg will recognize his theatrical debut, “The Sugarland Express,” and Kevin Bacon will honor “Footloose’s” 40th anniversary.

There will also be conversations with Apatow, Andy Cohen, Laverne Cox, Culkin, Michael Stipe, Kerry Washington, Gus Van Sant,...

The Tribeca Festival is celebrating the monumental anniversaries of two Italian-American classics: series “The Sopranos” and Martin Scorsese’s “Mean Streets.”

The 2024 Tribeca Festival, presented by Okx, takes place June 5 through 16 and unveiled its lineup of talks with iconic artists, critically-acclaimed directors, and multi-hyphenate entertainers, as well as reunions and retrospectives of venerable and lauded films and TV series.

The 25th anniversary of “The Sopranos” will be celebrated at the Beacon Theatre with the world premiere of Alex Gibney’s documentary “Wise Guy: David Chase and ‘The Sopranos.'” This special event, presented by City National Bank, will feature a reunion with series creator David Chase, executive producer Terence Winter, and stars Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Aida Turturro, Annabella Sciorra,Robert Iler, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Drea De Matteo, Steve Schirripa, Michele Chase, Kathrine Narducci, and Dominic Chianese.

Auteurs Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg are toasting both of their respective half-century anniversaries,...

Martin Freeman-starring series “The Responder” has revealed first-look photos of its anticipated second season.

Produced by Fremantle’s Dancing Ledge Productions, it’s set to debut on BBC iPlayer and BBC One on May 5 and will be available on BritBox this summer. Fremantle is handling global distribution. It has also released a trailer.

Written by Tony Schumacher, it will see its conflicted protagonist, police officer Chris, “trying to find his way out of the woods.”

“I am abusing this metaphor, but it’s an evolution. He thinks his life is going to be O.K.,” Schumacher told Variety.

“He has decided to take matters into his own hands,” added Freeman, as Chris finally – and reluctantly – tries therapy.

“He goes: ‘I am going to give it a go, maybe I will learn something.’ It’s about putting yourself in a situation where you can actually get some help. He is...

Watch just about any media from the mid-20th century and you'll quickly notice something: people smoked a lot more onscreen back then -- like, a lot more. Those born in the current century would no doubt be shocked to learn that even beloved cartoon icons like Donald Duck would light up a pipe or puff away on a stogie when the occasion merited (and that's to say nothing of commercials like the jaw-dropping marketing campaign where Fred Flinstone gets his buddy Barney and his wife Wilma hooked on Winston cigarettes).

Smoking was a useful visual shorthand for a variety of things. When Cruella De Vil spewed a wreath of putrid yellow smoke from her infamous cigarette holder in Disney's animated "101 Dalmatians," you just knew she was trouble, even before dog-napping entered the equation. Alternatively, when Cary Grant carefully lit Eva Marie Saint's cigarette in perhaps the ultimate Alfred Hitchcock picture,...

Pulp Fiction stars John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman and Harvey Keitel reunited Thursday to celebrate the movie’s 30th Anniversary as part of this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival.

The theme of this year’s festival, which runs through April 21, Is Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film. Besides Pulp Fiction, other movies that are included this year are Chinatown, Dirty Harry, Dog Day Afternoon, In Cold Blood, North by Northwest, and On the Waterfront.

As is tradition with the festival, all screenings include special introductions to provide context about the films. Thursday’s screening of Pulp Fiction at the Tcl Chinese Theater included a conversation with Travolta, Thurman, Jackson and Keitel. Other film stars in attendance included Rosanna Arquette, Phil Lamarr, Burr Steers, Eric Stoltz, Julia Sweeney, and Frank Whaley.

Pulp Fiction was released in 1994 and directed by Quentin Tarantino. He and Roger Avary won an Oscar for writing the screenplay.

Returning for its 15th annual edition this weekend, the TCM Classic Film Festival will turn Hollywood Blvd. into the center of the movie universe again for four days, for that very obsessive and loving subset of film fans that has the network’s vintage fare as part of their weekly and daily lives. And just what time span “classics” falls into is exemplified by the big opening and closing night films.

The gala opening night picture is 1994’s “Pulp Fiction,” which festival director Genevieve McGillicuddy says “is one of the most contemporary films that we are showing this year, along with ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ and ‘Little Women,’ the 1994 version. ‘Seven,’ I think, is the most recent film we’re screening; that’s 1995. Just like with the network, we don’t have any official cutoff in terms of the years of films that we’re showing. But, interestingly — it’s the opposite of a cutoff,...

Alfred Hitchcock is undoubtedly one of the most influential filmmakers that has ever lived and his films have made a mark on filmmakers today. He has an unusual yet affecting way of inducing suspense and intensity in his films and his works like Psycho, Rebecca, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and The Birds are proof of that.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo is one of his most acclaimed films

The latter is one of Hitchcock’ most audacious films and actress Tippi Hedren was the lead of the film. The director is known for his rigorous process of bringing his vision to life and this proved to be an excruciating experience for Hedren as she got pecked at by real birds following a last-minute switch-up made by Hitchcock.

Tippi Hedren Was Horrified At Alfred Hitchcock’s Approach While Filming The Birds

Tippi Hedren as Melanie Daniels in Alfred Hitchcock...

For movie fans young and old, Turner Classic Movies, its hosts, and its expansive archive of iconic films are a beacon for the days of thoughtful well-made movies before everything became content and IP. To celebrate the channel’s 30th anniversary, TCM will host a 24-hour movie marathon featuring some of the greatest films of all time, including “North by Northwest,” “Gone with the Wind,” “An American in Paris,” and more. The festivities kick off at 12:15 a.m. Et on Sunday, April 14, and will feature insights and introductions from TCM’s late, great host Robert Osborne. You can watch TCM with a 5-Day Free Trial of Directv Stream. You can also watch with Sling TV, Hulu Live TV, or YouTube TV.

How to Watch Turner Classic Movies 24-Hour 30th Anniversary Special When: Sunday, April 14, 2024 at 12:15 Am Edt TV: TCM Stream: Watch with a 5-Day Free Trial of Directv Stream.

The DS9 episode "Armageddon Game" establishes a strong friendship between O'Brien and Bashir, despite dropping big Hollywood influences. The episode was originally planned to have elements of chase movies like North by Northwest and Midnight Run, but budget constraints changed the script. "Armageddon Game" became a smaller character piece due to budget limitations, focusing on O'Brien and Bashir's time in an abandoned facility.

Two classic Hollywood movies inspired Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 2, episode 13, "Armageddon Game", but few of those influences appear on-screen. "Armageddon Game" is widely regarded as the DS9 episode that establishes the friendship between Chief Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) and Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) as they end up on the run from the combined forces of the Kellerun and T'Lani. Facing death bonds the two Star Trek: DS9 characters for life, creating one of the franchise's most enduring friendships. However, Bashir and O'Brien's ordeal in...

Possibly the greatest collection of films for a modern classic showcase is about to take place at the TCM Classic Film Festival. The Wrap has revealed that the channel Turner Classic Movies, which is dedicated to unaltered, unedited film broadcasts of renowned movies in the history of cinema, has revealed the list of titles and guest appearances that will be featured at this year’s festival. The festival this year will be commemorating the 30th anniversary of the network. The TCM Classic Festival will be taking place in Los Angeles on April 18-21.

The event will screen the world premiere of a brand-new restoration of the 1995 film Se7en, the dark crime thriller starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. Director David Fincher will be there personally to unveil the film in IMAX. Another big screening will be the director’s cut of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which will play...

For those of us who remember going to the movies in 1977, we were treated to Star Wars, Smokey And The Bandit, The Spy Who Loved Me, Airport 77, The Car, Orca and Capricorn One. There was a rich wealth of movies to choose from and a time when audiences in their local cinemas would cheer and clap for the heroes. Then on December 14, 1977, coming off the success of Jaws, that director Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi masterpiece graced the screens. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind was the filmmaker’s next movie and, along with star Richard Dreyfuss and the magnificent score from composer John Williams, took audiences on a journey of mankind’s first meeting with aliens and let us know we are not alone in the universe.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning for Best Cinematography by Director of Photography Vilmos Zsigmond (The Sugarland Express...

Those attending the 15th annual TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood next month will have an opportunity to engage with Mel Brooks and Vitaphone, both born in 1926. One’s extinct, the other’s still going strong.

While Brooks, 97, will be on hand for a closing-night screening of his 1987 comedy Spaceballs, six Vitaphone vaudeville shorts from the 1920s will be projected in 35mm, with sound played back from their original 16-inch discs on a turntable designed and engineered by Warner Bros.’ postproduction engineering department.

Also announced Thursday:

• Steven Spielberg will participate in a Q&a with Howard Suber — the UCLA faculty member at the center of the recent six-part TCM documentary The Power of Film — ahead of a director’s cut of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977);

• Nancy Meyers and Alexander Payne, respectively, will introduce world premiere restorations of Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959) and John Ford’s The Searchers...