News

From The Video Archives Podcast, writer/director Roger Avary and writer/producer Gala Avary discuss a few of their favorite movies with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Taxi Driver (1976)

Star Wars (1977)

Matinee (1993)

Dune (1984)

Terror On A Train a.k.a. Time Bomb (1953)

Licorice Pizza (2021)

Batman (1989)

Yentl (1983)

Nuts (1987)

Spaceballs (1987)

Die Hard (1988)

Top Gun (1986)

Cocksucker Blues (1972)

Mijn nachten met Susan, Olga, Albert, Julie, Piet & Sandra (1975)

Straw Dogs (1971)

The Godfather (1972)

A History Of Violence (2005)

Day Of The Dolphin (1973)

Babylon (2022)

Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (2022)

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)

Carrie (1976)

Indictment: The McMartin Trial (1995)

Blow Out (1981)

The Matrix (1999)

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Killing Zoe (1993)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

The Tenant (1976)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Bugsy Malone (1976)

Phantom Of The Paradise (1974)

The Muppet Movie (1979)

The Rules Of Attraction (2002)

The Sound Of Music (1965)

Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)

Giant (1956)

The Andromeda Strain (1971)

Babe (1995)

Time Bandits...

Moonage Daydream, a film about David Bowie, opens with “Hallo Spaceboy,” a deep cut from his 1995 album Outside. It’s clear from the use of this song that Brett Morgen isn’t making a traditional documentary about the Thin White Duke.

“I was completely trolling,” admits Morgen.

But the use of a relatively obscure industrial track from later in Bowie’s career illustrates what the director is trying to achieve. He’s looking to tell the story of Bowie’s work as an experience or a feeling, full of “chaos” and “fragmentation,” rather than a chronological, visual biography. This is something that many music documentaries don’t attempt.

Morgen says there are plenty of books and other documentaries about David Bowie that tell this version of the story.

“What can I offer that you can’t get in Wikipedia? It’s an experience. It’s something intangible. What’s great...

The Rolling Stones have been doing Rolling Stones documentaries for nearly as long as they’ve been a band, and given their early goes, it’s impressive they’ve kept at it. The first, Charlie Is My Darling (1966), was shelved for decades due to legal fights and various shenanigans; The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (1968), a trainwreck of poor planning, was also shelved for years. Jean Luc-Godard’s brilliant but befuddling docufiction One Plus One (Sympathy For The Devil) got consigned to the art film circuit that same year,...

In the spring of 1972, Stevie Wonder released Music of My Mind and the Rolling Stones put out Exile on Main Street. Both albums were instant hits, with the former’s reaching Number 21 on the Billboard 200 and Exile reaching Number One. So when the Stones recruited Wonder, then just 22, to open up their summer tour that year, it was an unstoppable combo that became even more exciting when Wonder joined the Stones at four dates for a medley of his 1966 hit “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” and the Stones’ hit from the previous year,...

Don’T Blink – Robert Frank Screens September 23rd – 25th at 7:30pm at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood).

Robert Frank, now 91 years old, is among the most influential artists of the last half-century. His seminal volume, The Americans, published in 1958, records the Swiss-born photographer’s candid reactions to peculiarly American versions of poverty and racism. Today it is a classic work that helped define the off-the-cuff, idiosyncratic elegance that are hallmarks of Frank’s artistry. Director Laura Israel (Frank’s longtime film editor) and producer Melinda Shopsin were given unprecedented access to the notably irascible artist. The assembled portrait is not unlike Frank’s own movies – rough around the edges and brimming with surprises and insights – calling to mind Frank’s quintessential underground movie, the 1959 Beat short, Pull My Daisy (co-directed by Alfred Leslie). Don’t Blink includes clips from Frank’s rarely seen movies, among them Me and My Brother...

The BAMcinématek series The Films of Robert Frank features the notorious Rolling Stones documentary Cocksucker Blues (1972) and "includes some 25 moving-image works of varying lengths and genres," notes Amy Taubin, writing for Artforum. "The series as a whole cannot be summarized, nor can the individual films except to say that they share the characteristic of having been made by someone who stubbornly insists on walking out on a high wire without a net. If you’ve not seen Pull My Daisy, it is the classic. But do not miss Conversations in Vermont (1969), Life Dances On (1980) and True Story (2008)—all of them naked in their confusion and anguish about fathering. Best of all is the seemingly casual Paper Route (2002), as close to a perfect movie as you’ll ever see." » - David Hudson...

The BAMcinématek series The Films of Robert Frank features the notorious Rolling Stones documentary Cocksucker Blues (1972) and "includes some 25 moving-image works of varying lengths and genres," notes Amy Taubin, writing for Artforum. "The series as a whole cannot be summarized, nor can the individual films except to say that they share the characteristic of having been made by someone who stubbornly insists on walking out on a high wire without a net. If you’ve not seen Pull My Daisy, it is the classic. But do not miss Conversations in Vermont (1969), Life Dances On (1980) and True Story (2008)—all of them naked in their confusion and anguish about fathering. Best of all is the seemingly casual Paper Route (2002), as close to a perfect movie as you’ll ever see." » - David Hudson...

Since the late 1980’s, editor Laura Israel has spent much of her time as editor for legendary photographer Robert Frank. One of photography’s most intriguing and influential voices since the 1950s, Frank has become synonymous with avant-garde photography and filmmaking, and his recent work owes a great debt to the work of Israel, a filmmaker in her own right. And now, she’s decided to take a leap behind the camera, and give her collaborator the retrospective he so rightly deserves.

A Swiss-born photographer, Frank first truly burst onto the scene with the 1958 masterwork, The Americans a haunting and in many ways medium-shifting meditation on post-wwii America and the poverty and racism that became widespread therein. A groundbreaking work of photojournalism, this is only the launching pad for this new documentary, entitled Don’t Blink – Robert Frank. Israel uses this collection of photographs as an introduction into the world,...

Laura Israel‘s Don’t Blink – Robert Frank is a fine documentary offering for acolytes and neophytes alike, barreling through its amazing subject’s photography-filled life and career with as much eye for small details as the basics of exposition. Along with offering many fun tidbits (clips from Frank’s infamous Cocksucker Blues always help), this is a visually splendid work, mixing seemingly every film format known to man — digital cinematography can stand right alongside grainy black-and-white stills to represent his decades-long journey — in representing the plurality of Frank’s experiences.

Grasshopper Film, who will give Don’t Blink a U.S. run that starts this summer, have let us debut an excellent poster created by Yolanda Cuomo Design and Alex Bingham. With the flashes of a lifetime’s experience and Frank himself — who, despite standing front and center, maintains some air of mystery — it offers a strong representation of the complete film.

While photographer Robert Frank is perhaps most notoriously known as the director of “Cocksucker Blues,” the debauchery-filled documentary about The Rolling Stones‘ 1972 tour in support of Exile On Main St., that’s only a mere moment in the artist’s expansive career. The upcoming documentary “Don’t Blink — Robert Frank” shines a light on the man […]

The post Exclusive: Trailer For ‘Don’t Blink – Robert Frank’ Goes Behind The Camera Of The Famed Photographer appeared first on The Playlist.

Ranging from Robert Frank's unreleased "Cocksucker Blues" to Martin Scorsese's "Shine a Light," documentaries about the Rolling Stones practically form their own genre. "Keith Richards: Under the Influence," which is available on Netflix starting today, adds another entry to that tradition — but also exists outside of it. Read More: With Its Adventurous Netflix Deal, Can 'Beasts of No Nation' Work on the Small Screen? Directed by Morgan Neville ("20 Feet From Stardom," "The Best of Enemies"), the intimate portrait of the 70-year-old guitarist avoids retreading historical details about the history of the band and instead deals entirely with Richards' evolving musical sensibilities. Tracking the impact of musicians such as Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy on the eager young Richards, Morgan's documentary captures Richards' recent recording sessions and foregrounds his stylistic tendencies. The result is a uniquely focused look at the ways...

Guitarist Keith Richards has been chronicled many times in documentaries about The Rolling Stones during the band’s five decades of existence. (One of those docs, the very rarely seen Cocksucker Blues, just played for the lucky attendees of Telluride, for which I’m quite jealous.) But as the title of the documentary Keith Richards: Under the Influence […]

The post ‘Keith Richards: Under the Influence’ Trailer: The Guitarist Never Grows Up appeared first on /Film.

Top brass at the 42nd edition of the Colorado event have announced the roster of 27 films, with surprises to come over the September 4-7 run date.

The line-up is as follows:

Carol (Us), Todd Haynes

Amazing Grace (Us, 1972/2015), Sydney Pollack

Anomalisa (Us), Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson

Beast Of No Nation (Us), Cary Fukunaga

He Named Me Malala (Us), Davis Guggenheim

Steve Jobs (Us), Danny Boyle

Ixcanul (Guatemala), Jayro Bustamante

Bitter Lake (Us), Adam Curtis

Room (UK), Lenny Abrahamson

Black Mass (Us), Scott Cooper

Suffragette (UK), Sarah Gavron

Spotlight (Us), Tom McCarthy

Rams (Iceland), Grímur Hákonarson

Mom And Me (Ireland), Ken Wardrop

Viva (Ireland), Paddy Breathnach

Taj Majal (France-India), Nicolas Saada

Siti (Indonesia), Eddie Cahyono

Heart Of The Dog (Us), Laurie Anderson

45 Years (UK), Andrew Haigh

Son Of Saul (Hungary), Lázló Nemes,

Only The Dead See The End Of The War (Us-Australia), Michael Ware, Bill Guttentag

Taxi (Iran), Jafar Panahi

Hitchcock/Truffaut (Us), Kent Jones

Time To Choose...

Top brass at the 42nd edition of the Colorado event have announced the roster of 27 films, with surprises to come over the September 4-7 run date.

The line-up is as follows:

Carol (Us), Todd Haynes

Amazing Grace (Us, 1972/2015), Sydney Pollack

Anomalisa (Us), Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson

Beast Of No Nation (Us), Cary Fukunaga

He Named Me Malala (Us), Davis Guggenheim

Steve Jobs (Us), Danny Boyle

Ixcanul (Guatemala), Jayro Bustamante

Bitter Lake (Us), Adam Curtis

Room (England, pictured), Lenny Abrahamson

Black Mass (Us), Scott Cooper

Suffragette (UK), Sarah Gavron

Spotlight (Us), Tom McCarthy

Rams (Iceland), Grímur Hákonarson

Mom And Me (Ireland), Ken Wardrop

Viva (Ireland), Paddy Breathnach

Taj Majal (France-India), Nicolas Saada

Siti (Indonesia), Eddie Cahyono

Heart Of The Dog (Us), Laurie Anderson

45 Years (England), Andrew Haigh

Son Of Saul (Hungary), Lázló Nemes,

Only The Dead See The End Of The War (Us-Australia), Michael Ware, Bill Guttentag

Taxi (Iran), Jafar Panahi

Hitchcock/Truffaut (Us), Kent Jones

Time To...

1. Lead singer Matt Berninger has a brother.

As anyone who's been following the Brooklyn-by-way-of-the Buckeye-State band (or who read their extensive New York Times Magazine profile back in 2010), the National is made up of five members, with two sets of brothers: guitarists Aaron and Bryce Dessner, along with drummer Bryan Devendorf and bassist Scott Devendorf. Singer, songwriter and resident supermoody dude Matt Berninger is the group's odd man out, musical sibling-wise. But he, too, has a brother: Tom Berninger, a sort of amiable, slightly doughier version of Matt that's nine...

Cocksucker Blues

USA, 1972

Directed by Robert Frank

Rock critics, like film critics, abhor a narrative vacuum. Blues begets R&B begets rock n’ roll, which begets the British Invasion, and from there, it’s a multi-pronged evolution into hard rock, glam, punk, and onwards into a million sundry subgenres. Each generation repels against their forbears and creates a new antithesis. The promising rise and the disastrous fall of whoever, precipitating the ascension of the next comers. The straight narrative throughline, complete with its obvious conclusions and waves of comforting familiarity, is the ultimate rock journalist catnip. It’s no surprise, then, that rock movies, whether narrative or documentary, straight or parodic, epic or intimate, tend towards the creation and upholding of rock and roll logic and mythos. Hell, Cameron Crowe made both a life and (most of) a career out of finding a place for himself in that mustiest of Rock Myth chronicles,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed its 276-member-strong class of 2013.

The list, published by The Hollywood Reporter, includes actors, cinematographers, designers, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, makeup artists and hairstylists, "members-at-large," musicians, producers, PR folks, short filmmakers and animators, sound technicians, visual effects artists, and writers.

Jason Bateman, Rosario Dawson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Milla Jovovich, Lucy Liu, Jennifer Lopez, Emily Mortimer, Sandra Oh, Jason Schwartzman, and Michael Peña are among the roster of actors, while "The Heat" and "Bridesmaids" helmer Paul Feig made the directors' cut.

"We did not change our criteria at all," says Academy president Hawk Koch of this year's larger-than-usual class. "Yes, this year there is a tremendous amount of women, a tremendous amount of people of color, people from all walks of life. This year, we asked the branches to look at everybody who wasn't in the Academy but who deserved to be.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today the 276 members of the entertainment industry invited to join organization. The list includes actors, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, producers and more. Of those listed below, those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy's membership in 2013. "These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today," said Academy President Hawk Koch in a press release. "Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy." Koch also told Variety, "In the past eight or nine years, each branch could only bring in X amount of members. There were people each branch would have liked to get in but couldn't. We asked them to be more inclusive of the best of the best, and each branch was excited, because they got...

The Academy just added 276 Oscar voters.

That’s 100 more than last year, and part of an easing of a longstanding cap on the number of new members allowed to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences each year.

AMPAS usually adds between 130 and 180 new members, replacing those who have quit or passed away. The membership now stands around 6,000.

Jason Bateman, Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emmanuelle Riva, and Chris Tucker are among the actors who have been invited to join, the organization announced today.

Other interesting additions: the musician Prince, Girls and Tiny Furniture writer/director/actress Lena Dunham,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 276 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2013.

“These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today,” said Academy President Hawk Koch. “Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy.”

The 2013 invitees are:

Actors

Jason Bateman – “Up in the Air,” “Juno”

Miriam Colon – “City of Hope,” “Scarface”

Rosario Dawson – “Rent,” “Frank Miller’s Sin City”

Kimberly Elise – “For Colored Girls,” “Beloved”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Lincoln,” “The Dark Knight Rises”

Charles Grodin – “Midnight Run,” “The Heartbreak Kid”

Rebecca Hall – “Iron Man 3,” “The Town”

Lance Henriksen – “Aliens,” “The Terminator”

Jack Huston – “Not Fade Away,” “Factory Girl”

Milla Jovovich – “Resident Evil,...

Welcome to "Where on the Shelf Is..." In this column, I look at great TV shows and movies that have never been on DVD and/or Blu-ray. For your pleasure and out of all of our frustrations, this column examines the Where, When and, of course, Why?! of these non-releases. Up this week is...Cocksucker Blues What Is It?: With the Rolling Stones marking over five decades in the rock 'n roll game, there's no better time to commemorate the band's legacy than now. Those who can't...

There’s been the little-seen “Charlie Is My Darling” and “Cocksucker Blues,” Jean-Luc Godard’s “Sympathy for the Devil,” 1970’s Altamont-focused “Gimme Shelter,” Julien Temple’s “Stones at the Max” and Martin Scorsese’s “Shine a Light,” and that’s just scratching the surface when it comes to documentaries that have put “the world’s greatest rock and roll band,” The Rolling Stones, up on the big screen. For a band who are celebrating their 50th anniversary perhaps that’s to be expected, but it leaves "Crossfire Hurricane" (the official celebration of said anniversary) with the onerous task of having to tell a story that has been well documented many times before. But this isn’t a comprehensive exploration of the band’s 50 year history. In fact, it barely covers the first twenty years – the years when the band was still a band...

Latest Rolling Stones documentary has to tackle the problem of how to retell a story that's been told so many times before

For all the control freakery, the money chasing, the internecine warfare between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones have always been the most open of groups – as Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant told the Guardian recently: "All you knew was that the Stones got all the press, and we sold a shitload of records."

That leaves Crossfire Hurricane, the official documentary celebration of the Stones' 50th anniversary, with two problems. How do you retell a story that's been told so many times before? And how do you compete with the already extant films about the group – Gimme Shelter, the Maysles brothers' account of the 1969 Us tour that ended with the disastrous Altamont concert; Cocksucker Blues, the rarely seen Robert Frank film that captured their 1972 tour, warts,...

Film will feature live performance footage, fuelling speculation that the band are preparing shows to mark 50th anniversary

The Rolling Stones have announced details of a new documentary called Crossfire Hurricane to mark their 50th anniversary.

Directed by Brett Morgen, the film features historical footage, much of it widely unseen, and commentary from Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood and former Stones Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor. Period interviews, extensive live performance material and news archive footage will complete the documentary, which takes its title from the opening lines of Jumpin' Jack Flash.

Morgen, whose previous films include the Robert Evans documentary The Kid Stays in the Picture, said: "Crossfire Hurricane invites the audience to experience first-hand the Stones' nearly mythical journey from outsiders to rock'n'roll royalty It's an aural and visual rollercoaster ride."

The film will receive a theatrical release in UK cinemas in October prior to...

While the making of The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street (which many consider to be one of their best, if not greatest album) has been chronicled numerous times both in print and film (most recently in Stephen Kijak's documentary "Stones In Exile"), the entire story of those rocky sessions and the background that led to the album has a feature film scope. Certainly, Richard Branson sees things that way as he's throwing his producing powers behind a narrative movie that will bring the tale of Exile On Main Street to the big screen.

Virgin Produced has snapped up the rights to Robert Greenfield’s "Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones" with plans to turn it into a drama about the band. As The Rolling Stones headed into the making of the album, they were a group in disarray. They had recently...

As long as Mick Jagger can keep wiggling his hips, and Keith Richards stays alive, The Rolling Stones won't be retiring anytime soon. But even then, it's hard to believe the band's 50th anniversary is right around the corner. To help in what will probably be a blitzkrieg of marketing and merchandise, a career-spanning documentary is on the way.

Brett Morgen, the director behind "The Kid Stays In The Picture" and "Chicago 10," will take the helm on a film that will trace the band from their origins in the early '60s, and visit them on the road, behind the scenes and in the studio. The untitled picture already has a September release date being lined up, and given that it's not too far away, we're guessing this will be a pretty glossy, perhaps not quite substantive piece. The band have been subject to many films over the years...

Of course, who would or could make a modern-day "Cocksucker Blues" anyway? And who would want to watch such a thing? I don't mean to be skeptical about the positive perspective Crowe has with the film. It's both expected and respectful and not any less a terrific history of these artists and the times in which they've grown and thrived and struggled and lasted. I can't really know if "PJ20" is completely the definitive film about Pearl Jam (so far), but it is a dense and lengthy documentary full of astonishingly thorough archive material (courtesy of official filmographer-archivists, fans, media and other recordists, all of whom are given proper, individually-showcasing credit at the end), and I feel fully caught up to date with a group I stopped paying close attention to after only five of those twenty years. Of course, there are a few significant deleted scenes on the DVD...

In our latest installment of our ongoing podcast series, Running Dialogue, Russ, Curt, and I discuss Black Swan, The Tourist, and Four Lions. All three of us talk about Black Swan and our various issues with the film. Russ and I talk The Tourist and how it fails and then Curt and I talk about Four Lions and how it succeeds. Since I was the only one of us who saw all three films, I proclaim myself the King of all Movies for all-time.

Click here to listen to the new episode. Also, you can hit the jump for a list of all the movies we’ve recommended so far. Finally, click here to add Running Dialogue to your RSS feed.

Running Dialogue #20 – Black Swan, The Tourist, and Four Lions

Curt – Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary Matt – The Red Shoes

Russ – Videodrome

Running Dialogue #19 – Harry Potter and the...

French robot disco duo score soundtrack to Tron: Legacy (plus a cameo), as pop artists start to take top billing from actors

At the end of the trailer to forthcoming movie Somewhere, we are given just two pieces of information: 1) that the film was written and directed by Sofia Coppola; 2) that it features music by Phoenix. A soundtrack being billed above the star is, it's fair to say, unusual. And the fact that Thomas Mars, singer with the French group, is married to Coppola and is the father of her two daughters, has less to do with it than you'd think.

Movie soundtracks, even scores, lovingly crafted by stars of rock and pop, are all the rage right now. That other prominent French outfit, Daft Punk, also hit the big screen this month, having provided the music for green screen extravaganza Tron: Legacy. Not only do the world's greatest exponents...

In the latest installment of our ongoing podcast series, Russ, Curt, and I discuss Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Next Three Days. Also, since it’s finally expanding to the greater Atlanta area, we talk about Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours. While all three of us liked these movies, we each had our own particular qualms. We also go into spoiler territory on Deathly Hallows at the end of the episode, so be sure you listen after you’ve seen the movie if you want to get Russ’ thoughts on particular deus ex machinas in the movie as well as my issue regarding the unclear nature of one character’s fate.

Click here to listen to the new episode. Also, you can hit the jump for a list of all the movies we’ve recommended so far. Finally, click here to add Running Dialogue to your RSS feed.

Happy Halloween! This latest installment of our ongoing podcast is about all things zombies as Russ, Curt, and I talk about The Walking Dead. We discuss the first two episodes of AMC’s new series (the season premiere airs tonight; read Ethan’s review here), the appeal of zombies, what makes The Walking Dead shamble apart from other zombie properties, and other matters of the undead.

Click here to listen to the new episode. Also, you can hit the jump for a list of all the movies we’ve recommended so far. Finally, click here to add Running Dialogue to your RSS feed.

Running Dialogue #18 – The Walking Dead

Curt – I Walked with a Zombie and Not Quite Hollywood Matt – Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks Russ – American Grindhouse

Running Dialogue #17 – Jackass 3D, Red, and Catfish

Curt – Topkapi Matt – Beauty and the Beast (1991) Russ – (anti-recommendation!) Paranormal Activity

Running Dialogue #16 – 2010 Fall Movies,...

In the latest installment of our ongoing podcast series, Running Dialogue, we talk about two new films and one that’s been out for a few weeks but is worth some discussion. When it comes to Jackass 3D, we had a fun conversation since I was new to the series and Russ and Curt had seen the movies and the show. We all tried to muster some enthusiasm for Red, but each had our own problems with the film. Finally, although Russ hadn’t seen it, he was cool with Curt and me discussing Catfish. We save that discussion for the end since we go into heavy spoilers and you should try going into that film knowing as little as possible (but do go into it since Curt and I agree that it’s a great movie).

Click here to listen to the new episode. Also, you can hit the...

As far as Rolling Stones concert films go, Ladies and Gentlemen The Rolling Stones (out today on DVD and Blu-ray) doesn’t have the elemental status of the Maysles Brothers’ dark verite Gimme Shelter. It lacks the notoriety of Robert Frank’s unreleased but often bootlegged Cocksucker Blues. It has no marquee director like Hal Ashby (1983’s Let’s Spend the Night Together) or Martin Scorsese (2008’s Shine A Light). It’s been on ice for the entire home entertainment era, but it merits a place among the better known classics because you simply will not find the Rolling Stones looking or sounding any better than they do here. Director Rollin Binzer spent over a year editing footage intended for the Frank film. “Then Rolling Stones Records President Marshall Chess realized they’d never be able to release Cocksucker Blues,” Binzer told me by phone last week, “they already at...

In the latest installment of our ongoing podcast series, Russ, Curt, and I take a look ahead at some of the films coming out over the rest of the year. While there’s overlap between some of the films we talk about and those on my 15 Most-Anticipated list, we also discuss David O. Russell’s The Fighter and the festival sensation The King’s Speech. Finally, we go on a bit of a tangent as Curt gives his thoughts on the first six episodes of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, and Russ talks about the incredible-sounding Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse live/undead-experience.

Click here to listen to the new episode. Also, you can hit the jump for a list of all the movies we’ve recommended so far. Finally, click here to add Running Dialogue to your RSS feed.

Running Dialogue #16 – 2010 Fall Movies, Boardwalk Empire, and the Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse

No recommendations this week.

In this week’s installment of Running Dialogue, we discuss three movies about folks serving up healthy dishes of murder to other folks: Anton Corbijn’s The American, Neil Marshall’s Centurion, and Robert Rodriguez’ Machete. Of the three films, The American is a film that demands to be discussed due to its quiet and contemplative nature, and after talking it out with Russ and Curt, I liked the movie even more. Our discussion of Machete also led to a conversation about this summer movie season and how most of the big films disappointed but the smaller films like Exit Through the Gift Shop and Get Low were worth checking out.

Click here to listen to the new episode. Also, you can hit the jump for a list of all the movies we’ve recommended so far. Finally, click here to add Running Dialogue to your RSS feed.

Running Dialogue #15 – The American,...

This week in our on-going podcast, Curt, Russ, and I discussed two of this weekend’s big movies, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and The Expendables. It was fun talking Scott Pilgrim because each of us came at our first viewing from a different place in relation to the books. Curt hadn’t read the books, Russ had read all but the final volume, and I had read all six. While the site has gone mad with Scott Pilgrim coverage, I think you’ll want to hear what Curt had to say since he was someone unfamiliar with the series going in. We also talked Expendables, but that was a shorter conversation since only Russ and I had seen it (Curt went to see Eat, Pray, Love instead, and you can listen to his Creative Loafing podcast about here).

Click here to listen to the new episode. Also, you can...

In this new episode of Running Dialogue, we discuss this week’s two big movies: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and The Last Airbender. For Twilight, we are joined by Creative Loafing Atlanta editors Debbit Michaud and Besha Rodell. We talk about the new movie being the least terrible one so far, the guilty pleasure the series provides but also its sexism, and the downright creepiness of the final book in the series, Breaking Dawn. Then Curt, Russ, and I have a discussion about M. Night Shyamalan’s wretched The Last Airbender. Curt and I advocate for the series, but we’re all forced to wrestle with the awfulness of the film adaptation.

Click here to listen to the new episode. Also, you can hit the jump for a list of all the movies we’ve recommended so far. Finally, click here to add Running Dialogue to your RSS feed.

Running...

By Roger Friedman

HollywoodNews.com: Is it possible? The Rolling Stones have shut down a whole side street in Cannes. The lines outside the Palais Stephanie hotel movie theater are deep, long and wide.

Is it 1972? No, it’s 2010. The Stones are re-releasing their seminal album, “Exile on Main Street” this week, remastered and with six new old tracks.

But there’s also a one hour movie, “Stones in Exile” fashioned from unseen footage, and clips from two little known films: the cultish “Cocksucker Blues” and the long ago vanished “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones.”

This is what is driving Cannes crazy a week after the film festival has opened.

To read more go to Showbiz411.com.

“Stones In Exile” Trailer...

By the eighth day of Cannes folks typically begin to flag but judging from the buzz on the Croisette a sizeable number will re-boot for the Wednesday afternoon screenings of "Stones in Exile," a one-hour doc reliving the glory days of the Rolling Stones.

The exile in question, appropriately enough, was right here on the French Riviera since the band members had to leave England right after the swinging '60s in order to avoid taxes. They set up shop on the Mediterranean coast, lived a version of the French provincial life (plus sex, drugs and rock-'n-roll) for several years in the early 1970s, and produced one of their best albums, "Exile on Main Street," in the offing.

The doc culls from 40 hours of musty outtakes shot by American docmeister Robert Frank for his own opus (the banned but bootlegged "Cocksucker Blues"), hidden in vaults for almost 40 years, as well...

Next week, Universal Music Group will release its greatly expanded edition of the Rolling Stones’ seminal 1972 recording Exile on Main Street. Big news for Stones fans (10 bonus tracks!), but don’t be surprised if the music takes a back seat to the staggering amount of Exile-related merchandise being dropped into the market as well. Universal’s merchandising arm, Bravado, is assembling an unprecedented collection of products tied to the Exile re-release that cuts across the entire economic strata, from $15 T-shirts to $500,000 jewel-encrusted belt buckles. The signature piece: a 65-pound glossy wooden box packed with, among other goodies, the new CD, a 64-page clothbound photo album of Exile-era pictures taken by French photographer Dominique Tarle, a DVD containing excerpts from the documentary Stones in Exile, the infamous Cocksucker Blues (filmed during the Stones’ 1972 American tour), and Ladies and Gentlemen The Rolling Stones, as well as three lithographs individually signed by either Mick Jagger,...

By Roger Friedman

Hollywoodnews.com: Last night, Mick Jagger went out on a limb, so to speak, for girlfriend L’Wren Scott.

Jagger made a rare appearance at a rooftop benefit (atop the Scholastic Books building) in Soho to help raise money for Haitians who’ve lost limbs in the January earthquake. Scott is old friends with crusading doctor, David Colbert, who’s a dermatologist to the stars. His group is called Nydg Foundation: Rx Haiti.

And the stars who did show up included Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts. It was hoped that Jude Law and Sienna Miller might materialize, but excuses were made: Jude was on a plane back to England.

And what of Mick, besides graciously digging in for Haiti? He’s on his way to Cannes for the re-release of “Exile on Main Street” and the showing of a new short documentary that stitches together pieces of...

A docu film that shares the same underground prestige as Todd Haynes' Superstar and has been called one of the best documents on Rock & Roll by Jim Jarmusch may finally be making a premiere this year, almost 38 years or so after the fact. Photographer Robert Frank's cinéma vérité styled Cocksucker Blues was a docu on the Rolling Stone's 1972 American tour which never saw the light of day because the band perhaps thought it too honest of a portrait to be released (the camera does not lie), but in today's world comes across as trivial rock star antics. - A docu film that shares the same underground prestige as Todd Haynes' Superstar and has been called one of the best documents on Rock & Roll by Jim Jarmusch may finally be making a premiere this year, almost 38 years or so after the fact. Photographer Robert Frank's...

Back in 1972, the Rolling Stones worked with photographer Robert Frank on a behind-the-scenes documentary about the band and their hedonistic life on the road. The film carried the same name as a song Mick and Keef wrote as a middle finger to their record label, which was demanding one last single to fulfill a contract. "Cocksucker Blues" was refused by the record label, resurfacing about ten years later, and the film was banned by - of all people - the Stones.

Certainly, a movie called Cocksucker Blues would have a hard time getting into too many theaters, but that's not why Jagger and company issued the ban. As you might expect, there's some pretty revealing stuff in the documentary, including nude groupies, various antics you can probably come up with yourself, and Mick doing some coke backstage before a show. Frank, as director, challenged the ban, so the Stones eventually...

• With the forthcoming releases of Control and I'm Not There - the folks over at Time Out (London) brought their collective of film and music critics together to chart the top films pertaining to music legend. The Top 50 list manages to make no mention of a recent Hollywood-ized bio-tales of Ray Charles and Johnny Cash (thank you!) and from the chunk of films that I have seen the positioning seems a propos. Todd Haynes' who has his Dylan creation coming out soon tops this list with one of my favorite films from the helmer in Superstar: the Karen Carpenter Story. Personally I would have found space another Da Pennebaker film in Depeche Mode 101 and Grant Gee's Meeting People is Easy - a brilliant Radiohead doc. Here's the top 50 list -1 Superstar: the Karen Carpenter Story (Todd Haynes, 1987)2 Don't Look Back (Da Pennebaker, 1967)3 Gimme Shelter (David Maysles/Albert Maysles/Charlotte Zwerin,

...