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Small and mostly sweet, this film selection buoys us up in the wake of the pandemic with an upbeat view of relationships

Just as many of us grasped for connections during lockdown, the pandemic has inspired Eunic London, an umbrella organisation for EU cultural institutions, to dwell on the meaning of relationships for this year’s showcase for European short films, put together by curator Shira Macleod. Not all are – as the strand’s subtitle would have it – loving encounters: break-ups, bureaucratic frustration and unsettling alien fauna crop up, too. And the one explicitly Covid-related work, Romanian director Alina Manolache’s mesmerising I Am Here, features relationships by their absence: the social vacuum on display in CCTV footage from the Trevi Fountain, Chinese pharmacies, a British golf course and other depopulated locations around the world.

Relationships take a politicised shade in Alexandra Matheou’s A Summer Place, a lush dalliance...

What first appears to be an energetic, biographical sketch of NYU Professor and filmmaker Christine Choy becomes a film about her lost project, one that seemingly has yet to be completed and, by the conclusion of The Exiles, feels incomplete. Choy, who describes herself as “philosophically homeless,” is a half-Chinese, half-Korean 100% New Yorker, finding herself most at home in lower Manhattan—below 23rd St, distinctly. Yet she’s also proud of her Chinese heritage and had been a founding faculty member of NYU’s Shanghai program, where she stumbles across the suppression of the student movement in the late 1980s that culminated in the Tiananmen Square protests. For her, completing a film she started years ago—as many in the movement were traveling to the US—is a challenge to reckon with.

As directed by Choy’s former students Violet Columbus and Ben Klein, this isn’t a dry, neatly...

Wildly uneven but sporadically affecting, Bobby Roth’s “Pearl” is . A few abrupt narrative transitions indicate that some scenes, for whatever reason, must have been discarded during the editing process. But what remains on screen is enough to hold attention and generate rooting interest, especially if you’re amused by inside-baseball allusions to the film and TV industry.

There is an unmistakable air of autobiography to “Pearl,” along with the distinct flavor of a labor of love. Writer-director Roth first attracted notice with two well-received indie films, “The Boss’ Son” (1978) and “Heartbreakers” (a 1984 Sundance Festival prize-winner) before concentrating almost exclusively (and prolifically) on TV movies and series television. Jack Wolf, Lapaglia’s character, is a filmmaker who evidently has made some very bad, maybe unforgivable career moves, but still sells the occasional TV script.

At one point, he lands a gig teaching filmmaking to college students — which Roth has successfully...

Composer Max Steiner, whose scores for “King Kong,” “Gone With the Wind” and “Casablanca” placed him in the movie-music pantheon, isn’t much discussed today. He seems to belong to that old-school, pre-synthesizer world of orchestral scoring from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s.

But as author Steven C. Smith points out in his engrossing new biography of the three-time Oscar winner, “Music by Max Steiner” (Oxford University Press), the Austrian wunderkind pioneered the art of film scoring and ranks as “Hollywood’s most influential composer.”

His music essentially saved Rko’s “King Kong,” the 1933 giant-ape-wrecks-Manhattan fantasy, forcefully demonstrating the power of dramatic underscore to create mood, propel the action and provide emotional support (and disproving the widely held studio-executive theory that audiences of the time would “wonder where the music came from”).

Steiner went on to score some 300 films over a 35-year career, mostly for Rko and Warner Bros., although...

“To really live, you must almost die,” sings Marty Robbins, a lesson learned by Austrian import star Maria Schell. Delmer Daves’ best western puts virtue and faithfulness to the test: Gary Cooper’s distrustful, manipulative doctor hides his dark secrets and punishes those that admire and love him. Yet the ultimate reckoning demonstrates that sins can be forgiven and goodness rewarded, even in a corrupt and lawless community. That’s a fairy tale I still want to believe in.

The Hanging Tree

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1959 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 107 min. / Street Date January 23, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Gary Cooper, Maria Schell, Karl Malden, Ben Piazza, George C. Scott, Karl Swenson, Virginia Gregg, John Dierkes, King Donovan.

Cinematography: Ted McCord

Film Editor: Owen Marks

Original Music: Max Steiner

Written by Wendell Mayes, Halsted Welles from the novel by Dorothy M. Johnson

Produced by Martin Jurow, Richard Shepherd

Directed by Delmer...

Here's a brief look – to be expanded – at Turner Classic Movies' June 2017 European Vacation Movie Series this evening, June 23. Tonight's destination of choice is Italy. Starring Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue as the opposite of Ugly Americans who find romance and heartbreak in the Italian capital, Delmer Daves' Rome Adventure (1962) was one of the key romantic movies of the 1960s. Angie Dickinson and Rossano Brazzi co-star. In all, Rome Adventure is the sort of movie that should please fans of Daves' Technicolor melodramas like A Summer Place, Parrish, and Susan Slade. Fans of his poetic Westerns – e.g., 3:10 to Yuma, The Hanging Tree – may (or may not) be disappointed with this particular Daves effort. As an aside, Rome Adventure was, for whatever reason, a sizable hit in … Brazil. Who knows, maybe that's why Rome Adventure co-star Brazzi would find himself playing a Brazilian – a macho, traditionalist coffee plantation owner,...

The book was raw & dirty, and did you read what that girl did with that guy on page 167? Racking up a stack of Oscar nominations, Peyton Place became one of the big hits of its year, launched the careers of several young actors, and proved that Hollywood could pasteurize most any so-called un-filmable book. Lana Turner is the nominal star but the leading actress is Diane Varsi, in her film debut.

Peyton Place

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 157 min. / Street Date March 14, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Lana Turner, Hope Lange, Arthur Kennedy, Lloyd Nolan, Lee Philips, Terry Moore, Russ Tamblyn, Betty Field, David Nelson, Leon Ames, Mildred Dunnock.

Cinematography William Mellor

Art Direction Jack Martin Smith, Lyle R. Wheeler

Film Editor David Bretherton

Original Music Franz Waxman

Written by John Michael Hayes from the book by Grace Metalious

Produced by Jerry Wald

Directed by Mark Robson

What’s this,...

Delmer Daves and Mitchell Leisen, not to mention D. W. Griffith, would know exactly what to do with the new musical “Bright Star,” which opened Thursday at Broadway’s Cort Theatre. Those three Hollywood legends don’t have much in common except that they all directed films about unwed mothers. Daves tops the illegitimate-babies list with his great knocked-up trilogy of “Susan Slade,” “Parrish,” and “A Summer Place,” his masterpiece from 1959. In those films, Sandra Dee and Connie Stevens took turns being impregnated by either Grant Williams or Troy Donahue. Adding fuel to the fire of those young passions, Daves’ parents.

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.

For the second week of September, horror fans have a ton of Blu-ray and DVD titles they can choose from, including Stan Winston’s Pumpkinhead (the latest from Scream Factory), Synapse Films’ brand new Blu-ray of the original Prom Night, and Bobcat Goldthwait’s sasquatch tale Willow Creek.

Scorpion Releasing is also giving fans their first chance to own Oliver Stone’s directorial debut, Seizure, in stunning HD and Graduation Day is also making its Blu-ray bow this week as well. And as if all that’s not enough, we’re also getting a few re-releases as well including The Amityville Horror, a groovy 4 pack of horror movies from Image and a double DVD of House and House II: The Second Story.

Prom Night Special Edition (Synapse Films, Blu-ray & DVD)

Jamie Lee Curtis (the Halloween film series) and Leslie Nielsen (The Naked Gun film and TV series, Forbidden Planet) star...

The Grammys! They’re this coming Sunday and I almost forgot! To celebrate, here are all 55 winners of the Record of the Year Grammy ranked for your consideration. Now beat it.

55. “Don’t Worry Be Happy,” Bobby McFerrin

Finger-snapping never sounded so un-snappy.

54. “Rosanna,” Toto

You know, a Grammy windfall was bound to happen one of those exactly 1982 bands (Air Supply, Foreigner, Reo Speedwagon, etc), and Toto was the big winner. “Rosanna” is fun, but Grammy-worthy?

53. “Sunny Came Home,” Shawn Colvin

You know, a Grammy windfall was bound to happen to one of those exactly 1998 female singer-songwriters (Meredith Brooks, Natalie Imbruglia, Paula Cole, etc.), and Shawn Colvin was the big winner. “Sunny Came Home” is contemplative, but Grammy-worthy?

52. “Change the World,” Eric Clapton

Sort of annoying when a legendary artist wins for his most palatable and forgettable material. “Change the World” is merely radio-friendly, not an artistic breakthrough.

51. “We are the World,...

Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2013—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2013 to create a unique double feature.

All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2013 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.

How...

By Tom Lisanti

I admit it. I am a Troy Donahue fan. There I said it. Not surprising since I love and have been writing about Sixties starlets for over ten years. If there ever was a male version of a starlet, it was Troy. I purchased the DVD box set Warner Bros. Romance Classics Collection featuring four of his early Sixties movies and recently viewed My Blood Runs Cold (1964) from Warner Bros Archive as a DVD-on-Demand. The pairing of Troy Donahue as a loon and Joey Heatherton as the blonde he desires in this suspense film didn’t burn up the silver screens across the country and left most critics cold, but the coupling of America’s favorite bland blonde boy with the Ann-Margret wannabe made for bad cinema you just got to love.

By 1964 Troy Donahue had reached super stardom and was one of the most popular young actors at the time,...

M&C has added production stills from Turner Classic Movies: Teen Idols - which airs Thursdays in June. TCM is celebrating cinema's most popular teen idols each Thursday in June, including Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock (1957), airing June 7 at 8 p.m. (Et). TCM is celebrating cinema's most popular teen idols each Thursday in June, including Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock (1957), airing June 7 at 8 p.m. (Et). TCM is celebrating cinema's most popular teen idols each Thursday in June, including Troy Donahue, pictured here with Sandra Dee in A Summer Place (1959), airing June 14 at 9:45 p.m. (Et). TCM is celebrating cinema's most popular teen idols each Thursday in June, including Frankie Avalon, pictured here...

Mostly a Paramount star, Claudette Colbert hasn't been a frequent presence on Turner Classic Movies — that is, apart from reruns of her relatively few movies at MGM, Warner Bros., and Rko. Unfortunately, TCM's "Summer Under the Stars" day dedicated to Colbert — Friday, August 12 — won't rectify that glaring cinematic omission. [Claudette Colbert Movie Schedule.] Despite the fact that dozens of Claudette Colbert movies remain unavailable — thanks to Universal, owner of the old Paramount movie library — TCM is only presenting one Colbert premiere, Ken Annakin's British-made 1952 drama The Planter's Wife / Outpost in Malaya, co-starring Jack Hawkins. Of course, one rarely seen movie is better than none, but still… Think The Wiser Sex, The Lady Lies, Manslaughter, Young Man of Manhattan, The Phantom President (in case it's lying in some vault somewhere), The Man from Yesterday, Misleading Lady, His Woman, Zaza, Secrets of a Secretary, I Met Him in Paris, Texas Lady, Practically Yours, Skylark, Private Worlds,...

  Lest you go completely nuts following all that teen drama (A Summer Place) and singing (Grease) this evening on Turner Classic Movies, you'll get direct divine intervention by way of Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings (1927), a silent movie about the life of Jesus. The King of Kings will offer you so much solace, in fact, there's a good chance you'll fall asleep during the proceedings. The King of Kings, which opened Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, is one of DeMille's most boring movies probably because the director opted for reverence instead of salaciousness. I'm assuming it's because he was tackling the New Testament in this one, though he could have spent more time on Mary Magdalene and her many titillating temptations. (The Old Testament was never more fun than in DeMille's Samson and Delilah or The Ten Commandments.) H. B. Warner, who plays Jesus in The...

John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Grease Don't ask my why, but I used to get Randal Kleiser and Irvin Kershner confused. It's a mystery. Kershner directed The Empire Strikes Back (1980), which has nothing at all to do with Kleiser's Grease (1978) — except that both were big box-office hits in their day. Grease, which stars John Travolta at his most, huh, unisexual, is on Turner Classic Movies right now. Olivia Newton-John co-stars. The "unisexual" remark, I should add, isn't a putdown. In Grease, Travolta exudes a mix of masculine and feminine energy that is surprisingly appealing — and more than a bit daring. As for the film itself, well … let's just say that fans of the teen musical genre shouldn't be disappointed. Following Grease is another teen-worship flick, Delmer Daves' A Summer Place (1959), which has a great score by veteran Max Steiner, and some quite respectable performers in its cast: [...]...

If he's remembered at all, early 1960s teen idol Troy Donahue (1936-2001) is perhaps best known today for being name-checked in the song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" from "Grease."

The Zac Efron of his era and a one-time journalism major at Columbia University, Donahue rose to stardom opposite Dee in by far his most famous film, the romantic melodrama "A Summer Place" (1959).

Warner Bros. had signed Donahue for the TV series "Surfside Six" and utilized him as a big-screen replacement for another contract star,...

Actress Sandra Dee, best known as the irrepressible Gidget of film fame and the wife of singer Bobby Darin, died Sunday in Los Angeles; she was 62. The actress died of complications from kidney disease after spending nearly two weeks in the hospital, and had been on dialysis for the past four years. Born Alexandra Zuck, Dee was groomed for stardom from the beginning by her ambitious mother, who enrolled the young girl in school early and lied about her age in order to give her fresh-faced daughter a head start on the road to fame -- Dee was only four years old when she entered the second grade. Already a model by the age of 12, Dee worked on television commercials before landing her first movie role in 1957's Until They Sail. Two short years later, she would skyrocket to fame with the help of three extremely successful films: the teen comedy Gidget, a role for which she would be forever associated; the romantic drama A Summer Place, where her blonde good looks found their male counterpart in Troy Donahue; and the Douglas Sirk melodrama Imitation of Life, in which she played the daughter of Lana Turner. Her quintessential ingénue beauty, charismatic screen presence and bubbly personality made her an instant favorite of audiences, and she became a screen queen for Universal at the tender young age of 17.

In 1960, at the height of her fame, she married pop star Bobby Darin, whom she met while filming the romantic comedy Come September in Italy. While the marriage created a storm in the press, it did little for her career, and after a few short years . during which she replaced Debbie Reynolds in the Tammy film series . Dee found herself the victim of a failing studio system, the changing cultural tide of the 60s, and an ever-increasingly difficult marriage to Darin. Dee ended both her career and her marriage in the late 60s, and worked only a little bit through the early 70s, most notably in The Dunwich Horror and a handful of TV guest appearances; Darin, who according to many remained the love of her life after their 1967 divorce, died in 1973. Difficulty with alcoholism plagued her later years, along with the after-effects of her sudden push to fame (she also claimed to have been sexually abused by her stepfather), but she credited her son Dodd Darin with help in getting her life turned around. Dee also had a sense of humor regarding her virtuous, virginal screen persona, which was mocked (to her reported pleasure) in the song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" from the musical Grease. Her marriage to Darin was recently chronicled in Kevin Spacey's Beyond the Sea, in which Dee was played by Kate Bosworth. Dee is survived by her son and two granddaughters. --Prepared by IMDb staff...

Actress Sandra Dee, best known as the irrepressible Gidget of film fame and the wife of singer Bobby Darin, died Sunday in Los Angeles; she was 62. The actress died of complications from kidney disease after spending nearly two weeks in the hospital, and had been on dialysis for the past four years. Born Alexandra Zuck, Dee was groomed for stardom from the beginning by her ambitious mother, who enrolled the young girl in school early and lied about her age in order to give her fresh-faced daughter a head start on the road to fame -- Dee was only four years old when she entered the second grade. Already a model by the age of 12, Dee worked on television commercials before landing her first movie role in 1957's Until They Sail. Two short years later, she would skyrocket to fame with the help of three extremely successful films: the teen comedy Gidget, a role for which she would be forever associated; the romantic drama A Summer Place, where her blonde good looks found their male counterpart in Troy Donahue; and the Douglas Sirk melodrama Imitation of Life, in which she played the daughter of Lana Turner. Her quintessential ingénue beauty, charismatic screen presence and bubbly personality made her an instant favorite of audiences, and she became a screen queen for Universal at the tender young age of 17.

In 1960, at the height of her fame, she married pop star Bobby Darin, whom she met while filming the romantic comedy Come September in Italy. While the marriage created a storm in the press, it did little for her career, and after a few short years - during which she replaced Debbie Reynolds in the Tammy film series - Dee found herself the victim of a failing studio system, the changing cultural tide of the 60s, and an ever-increasingly difficult marriage to Darin. Dee ended both her career and her marriage in the late 60s, and worked only a little bit through the early 70s, most notably in The Dunwich Horror and a handful of TV guest appearances; Darin, who according to many remained the love of her life after their 1967 divorce, died in 1973. Difficulty with alcoholism plagued her later years, along with the after-effects of her sudden push to fame (she also claimed to have been sexually abused by her stepfather), but she credited her son Dodd Darin with help in getting her life turned around. Dee also had a sense of humor regarding her virtuous, virginal screen persona, which was mocked (to her reported pleasure) in the song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" from the musical Grease. Her marriage to Darin was recently chronicled in Kevin Spacey's Beyond the Sea, in which Dee was played by Kate Bosworth. Dee is survived by her son and two granddaughters. --Prepared by IMDb staff...

Former teen heartthrob actor Troy Donahue died Sunday at the age of 65. The blond, blue-eyed hunk wooed female film audiences during the 50s and 60s, after shooting to fame in the role of Sandra Dee's young lover in 1959's A Summer Place. He later encountered and overcame drug and alcohol problems. Donahue died at St. John's Hospital And Medical Center in Santa Monica, California, after suffering a heart attack on Thursday, according to family friend Bob Palmer. "He was a good-looking, blond guy who looked great on the beach," Palmer says. "He was a little more moody - he wasn't a gee-whiz guy. His character was more the brooding youth, but with heroic underpinnings." Donahue went on to star in a series of teen romances, including Parrish (1961), Rome Adventure (1962), and Palm Springs Weekend (1963).