Michelle Pfeiffer is a three-time Oscar nominee who has starred in a variety of classics in her long career, excelling at everything from comedy to drama, romance and action. Take a look back at 15 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Pfeiffer has had a 40+-year career on screen and has managed to overcome being known at first just for her looks. While her beauty was prominently on display in many of her first roles she quickly became more than just a pretty face and plunged herself into deeper and more complex roles. Pfeiffer’s first professional acting job was on a TV series version of the film “Animal House” called “Delta House.” Her character on the TV show was referred to simply as “The Bombshell.” This debut hardly signaled the arrival of an actress good enough to someday earn three Oscar nominations and seven Golden Globe nominations along with one win.
Pfeiffer has had a 40+-year career on screen and has managed to overcome being known at first just for her looks. While her beauty was prominently on display in many of her first roles she quickly became more than just a pretty face and plunged herself into deeper and more complex roles. Pfeiffer’s first professional acting job was on a TV series version of the film “Animal House” called “Delta House.” Her character on the TV show was referred to simply as “The Bombshell.” This debut hardly signaled the arrival of an actress good enough to someday earn three Oscar nominations and seven Golden Globe nominations along with one win.
- 4/27/2024
- by Misty Holland, Robert Pius and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Mexico’s Arturo Ripstein, who began his career as an A.D. on Luis Buñuel’s 1962 “The Exterminating Angel,” is back, bringing his latest collaboration with screenwriter Paz Alicia Garciadiego, a black and white film that picks up on most all of the director’s hallmarks.
A weighty drama, “Devil Between the Legs” dives from the get-go into unsettling territory as it follows the strained relationship of a married couple in their old age that struggles between desire, jealousy, violence and love. Beatriz (skillfully portrayed by Sylvia Pasquel) endures the wrath of her husband (Alejandro Suárez) while playing along to fulfill his fantasies. This dark love relationship unspools in the confines of a shabby house under the gaze of a maid. The film, that plays with a 19th century Spanish and high high-contrast cinematography, eludes naturalism to deliver a reminder of the complexities of human relationships in a modern world...
A weighty drama, “Devil Between the Legs” dives from the get-go into unsettling territory as it follows the strained relationship of a married couple in their old age that struggles between desire, jealousy, violence and love. Beatriz (skillfully portrayed by Sylvia Pasquel) endures the wrath of her husband (Alejandro Suárez) while playing along to fulfill his fantasies. This dark love relationship unspools in the confines of a shabby house under the gaze of a maid. The film, that plays with a 19th century Spanish and high high-contrast cinematography, eludes naturalism to deliver a reminder of the complexities of human relationships in a modern world...
- 9/12/2019
- by Emiliano Granada
- Variety Film + TV
Pfeiffer instantly sentimentalized, with a halo no less, in her first scene in "Falling in Love Again"P F A N D O M
Michelle Pfeiffer Retrospective. Episode 7
by Nathaniel R
There are an infinite number of worse people to grow up to look like than British star Susannah York but somehow it's hard to buy that that's who Michelle Pfeiffer would become. Pfeiffer was still a pre-teen when Susannah York hit her career peak, most notably in a string of erotically charged and sometimes controversial 1960s movies like Tom Jones, The Killing of Sister George, X Y and Zee, and They Shoot Horses Don't They (the latter brought her her only, but well deserved, Oscar nomination). By the time Pfeiffer was hitting the movies and cast to play York as a young girl, York's star was fading. York had recently been reduced to a merely decorative alien maternal presence...
Michelle Pfeiffer Retrospective. Episode 7
by Nathaniel R
There are an infinite number of worse people to grow up to look like than British star Susannah York but somehow it's hard to buy that that's who Michelle Pfeiffer would become. Pfeiffer was still a pre-teen when Susannah York hit her career peak, most notably in a string of erotically charged and sometimes controversial 1960s movies like Tom Jones, The Killing of Sister George, X Y and Zee, and They Shoot Horses Don't They (the latter brought her her only, but well deserved, Oscar nomination). By the time Pfeiffer was hitting the movies and cast to play York as a young girl, York's star was fading. York had recently been reduced to a merely decorative alien maternal presence...
- 3/4/2017
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
This adult film noir masterpiece showcases the most glamorous pin-up dream girl of the 1940s. Rita Hayworth, a young Glenn Ford and a sinister George Macready form a sophisticated, poisonous love triangle. Criminal intrigues and killer striptease fill out the bill. Gilda Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 795 1946 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 110 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 19, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia, Steven Geray, Joe Sawyer, Gerald Mohr, Ludwig Donath, Argentina Brunetti, Eduardo Ciannelli, Ruth Roman. Cinematography Rudolph Maté Film Editor Charles Nelson Music underscore Hugo Friedhofer Written by Marion Parsonnet, Jo Eisinger, E.A. Ellington Produced by Virginia Van Upp Directed by Charles Vidor
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Some of the best 'movie' times I remember were seeing classic pictures cold, with no knowledge beforehand. Back at film school they'd show us things we'd never heard of, often in prints of incredible good quality.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Some of the best 'movie' times I remember were seeing classic pictures cold, with no knowledge beforehand. Back at film school they'd show us things we'd never heard of, often in prints of incredible good quality.
- 1/30/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
(Josef von Sternberg, 1930; Eureka!, PG)
Among the first enduringly great movies of the sound era, The Blue Angel was made simultaneously in German and English versions (both contained in this three-disc set) by the 35-year-old Viennese-born Hollywood director Josef von Sternberg. The great German character actor Emil Jannings, who'd won the first ever Oscar for best actor under Sternberg's direction in The Last Command (1928), insisted on Sternberg being brought to Berlin for his first talking film.
This turned out to be The Blue Angel (based on a novel by Thomas Mann's brother Heinrich), in which Jannings gives an exquisitely detailed performance as the pompous, middle-aged Professor Rath, a high-school teacher whose life is destroyed through his romantic infatuation with Lola Lola, a wilful young singer he meets at the eponymous nightclub. Sternberg cast the little-known Marlene Dietrich as the mercurial enchantress, a role that brought her world stardom and took her to the States,...
Among the first enduringly great movies of the sound era, The Blue Angel was made simultaneously in German and English versions (both contained in this three-disc set) by the 35-year-old Viennese-born Hollywood director Josef von Sternberg. The great German character actor Emil Jannings, who'd won the first ever Oscar for best actor under Sternberg's direction in The Last Command (1928), insisted on Sternberg being brought to Berlin for his first talking film.
This turned out to be The Blue Angel (based on a novel by Thomas Mann's brother Heinrich), in which Jannings gives an exquisitely detailed performance as the pompous, middle-aged Professor Rath, a high-school teacher whose life is destroyed through his romantic infatuation with Lola Lola, a wilful young singer he meets at the eponymous nightclub. Sternberg cast the little-known Marlene Dietrich as the mercurial enchantress, a role that brought her world stardom and took her to the States,...
- 3/10/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
New York — They were hooked: The moment singer-songwriter Jim James and his bandmates from My Morning Jacket first wandered into the immersive, genre-bending show "Sleep No More," there was no turning back.
The five guys spent hours wandering around the 100,000-square-foot warehouse space in Chelsea, visiting dozens of carefully designed rooms, following mysterious actors and generally having their minds blown.
"I've never experienced a piece of art like that before," James says by phone from Louisville, Ky. "The thing is just so overwhelming. And you get a sense that you created your experience."
James was so excited that he and some of the band returned the next night and he also came back a few months later. So it comes as no surprise that he picked "Sleep No More" as one of the stops on his new tour promoting "Regions of Light and Sound of God," his first full-length solo album.
The five guys spent hours wandering around the 100,000-square-foot warehouse space in Chelsea, visiting dozens of carefully designed rooms, following mysterious actors and generally having their minds blown.
"I've never experienced a piece of art like that before," James says by phone from Louisville, Ky. "The thing is just so overwhelming. And you get a sense that you created your experience."
James was so excited that he and some of the band returned the next night and he also came back a few months later. So it comes as no surprise that he picked "Sleep No More" as one of the stops on his new tour promoting "Regions of Light and Sound of God," his first full-length solo album.
- 2/19/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Clip joint sheds its wings with the best of the men and women who fell to Earth
Flashy or modest, doting or self-seeking, timid or sassy: cinema angels seem to have little in common with one another other than the power to inflame our senses.
The winged creatures have descended on Earth and acquired human features. In the movies, they strut everywhere, tending would-be suicides, singing, dancing – they even travel on the underground.
But erratic behaviour and contradictory feelings are utterly human; often distracted, flustered and disorganised, angels are a pure reflection of their mortal proteges. So much so that some of them envy us and would renounce their feathery appendages if they could. So keep your eyes open: angels could be watching you right now ... and their intentions may not be pious.
1) Our first angel is a well-meaning guardian. It's a Wonderful Life's Clarence Oddbody earns his wings...
Flashy or modest, doting or self-seeking, timid or sassy: cinema angels seem to have little in common with one another other than the power to inflame our senses.
The winged creatures have descended on Earth and acquired human features. In the movies, they strut everywhere, tending would-be suicides, singing, dancing – they even travel on the underground.
But erratic behaviour and contradictory feelings are utterly human; often distracted, flustered and disorganised, angels are a pure reflection of their mortal proteges. So much so that some of them envy us and would renounce their feathery appendages if they could. So keep your eyes open: angels could be watching you right now ... and their intentions may not be pious.
1) Our first angel is a well-meaning guardian. It's a Wonderful Life's Clarence Oddbody earns his wings...
- 11/30/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
Justin entertained the party-goers with his spinning skills! Watch the video!
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez are clearly crazy about each other! Following a date in Las Vegas, Selena performed her concert with Justin’s name written on her arm. In return, Justin played DJ at her after party!
Justin’s choice of tracks included Usher’s “DJ Got Us Falling In Love Again” — is that a special message to his lady love?
Tell us, HollywoodLifers, what do you think of Justin’s skills?
View Poll
More Justin & Selena News!
Selena Gomez Wrote Justin Bieber’s Name On Her Wrist In Concert — She’s So Adorable! Justin Bieber & Selena Gomez’s Hot Las Vegas Date — He Rushed Back To See Her! Pics! Justin Bieber & Selena Gomez’s Time Spent Apart: Who Is Having More Fun Without Their Other Half?...
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez are clearly crazy about each other! Following a date in Las Vegas, Selena performed her concert with Justin’s name written on her arm. In return, Justin played DJ at her after party!
Justin’s choice of tracks included Usher’s “DJ Got Us Falling In Love Again” — is that a special message to his lady love?
Tell us, HollywoodLifers, what do you think of Justin’s skills?
View Poll
More Justin & Selena News!
Selena Gomez Wrote Justin Bieber’s Name On Her Wrist In Concert — She’s So Adorable! Justin Bieber & Selena Gomez’s Hot Las Vegas Date — He Rushed Back To See Her! Pics! Justin Bieber & Selena Gomez’s Time Spent Apart: Who Is Having More Fun Without Their Other Half?...
- 9/12/2011
- by HL Staff
- HollywoodLife
Marlene Dietrich on TCM: Shanghai Express, The Scarlet Empress, The Devil Is A Woman Raoul Walsh's unpretentious Manpower (1941) is a surprisingly entertaining drama about a love triangle featuring good-time gal Marlene Dietrich and unlikely partners Edward G. Robinson and George Raft. As an ex-Nazi chanteuse/black marketer (photo), Dietrich nearly steals the show in Billy Wilder's post-war Berlin-set A Foreign Affair (1948); I say nearly because Jean Arthur is Dietrich's equal as the goody-goody American congresswoman who learns that goody-goodiness may take you far at work (at least in the movies) but not in life. In the hands of someone like Ernst Lubitsch, A Foreign Affair would have been a humorously romantic masterpiece, cleverly and subtly interweaving the personal, the social, and the political. As it is, the comedy works great whenever Arthur and Dietrich are on-screen; else, A Foreign Affair suffers from Wilder's heavy hand; lapses in judgment in Wilder,...
- 9/1/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
From the invention of horror under the Weimar republic to recent re-examinations of the second world war, German cinema has an amazingly creative history
German cinema got off to a fantastic start straight after the first world war, as the liberal atmosphere of the Weimar republic triggered an explosion across all creative disciplines. Film-makers responded by appropriating the techniques of expressionist painting and theatre, incorporating them into twisted tales of madness and terror – thereby virtually inventing what would become known as the horror film. With its angled, distorted set designs, tortured eye-rolling, and layers of dreams and visions, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) is generally acknowledged as a landmark of international cinema, not just Germany's own. Two years later came an equally groundbreaking film, Nosferatu – an unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula that enshrined some of the creepiest cinema images ever recorded.
They also marked the beginning of...
German cinema got off to a fantastic start straight after the first world war, as the liberal atmosphere of the Weimar republic triggered an explosion across all creative disciplines. Film-makers responded by appropriating the techniques of expressionist painting and theatre, incorporating them into twisted tales of madness and terror – thereby virtually inventing what would become known as the horror film. With its angled, distorted set designs, tortured eye-rolling, and layers of dreams and visions, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) is generally acknowledged as a landmark of international cinema, not just Germany's own. Two years later came an equally groundbreaking film, Nosferatu – an unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula that enshrined some of the creepiest cinema images ever recorded.
They also marked the beginning of...
- 3/15/2011
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Susannah York, film star of the 1960s, has died aged 72. We look back over her career in clips
Susannah Yolande Fletcher was born in Chelsea in 1939. After growing up in Scotland and studying at Rada, she got her screen break in the Highland army drama Tunes of Glory (1960) and her first lead, as a teenager growing into her sexuality, in Lewis Gilbert's The Greengage Summer. She continued her association with frank subject matter opposite Montgomery Clift in Freud. A further boost came with 1963's Oscar-winning Tom Jones, in which York played the true love of Albert Finney's Tom. Although her Sophie was less bawdy than much of the movie, she still had fun, as the trailer shows.
York's career continued to thrive throughout the 1960s, with roles in Sands of the Kalahari, espionage adventures Kaleidoscope and Sebastian, and as Sir Thomas More's daughter in A Man for All Seasons...
Susannah Yolande Fletcher was born in Chelsea in 1939. After growing up in Scotland and studying at Rada, she got her screen break in the Highland army drama Tunes of Glory (1960) and her first lead, as a teenager growing into her sexuality, in Lewis Gilbert's The Greengage Summer. She continued her association with frank subject matter opposite Montgomery Clift in Freud. A further boost came with 1963's Oscar-winning Tom Jones, in which York played the true love of Albert Finney's Tom. Although her Sophie was less bawdy than much of the movie, she still had fun, as the trailer shows.
York's career continued to thrive throughout the 1960s, with roles in Sands of the Kalahari, espionage adventures Kaleidoscope and Sebastian, and as Sir Thomas More's daughter in A Man for All Seasons...
- 1/17/2011
- by Ben Walters
- The Guardian - Film News
Sad news to report. The lovely, talented 60s star Susannah York, aka Superman's Mom (the biological one back on Krypton) has died at the age of 72. Here's why she'll live on though... They Shoot Horses Don't They? (1969)
They Shoot Horses Don't They (1969)
They Shoot Horses is my personal favorite film of 1969 and an all-time Oscar record holder (most nominations without a corresponding Best Picture citation, a grand total of Nine!) but it's sadly underdiscussed these days. Susannah was nominated for playing Jane Fonda's main dancing rival in the marathon contest at the film's center, a neat metaphorical object, human suffering as entertainment. Susannah's psychotic break in the shower rivals any femme unravelling in Black Swan.
York also holds the distinction of being the only female cast member of Best Picture winner Tom Jones (1963) to not be nominated for Best Supporting Actress. I'm exaggerating but since an incredible three...
They Shoot Horses Don't They (1969)
They Shoot Horses is my personal favorite film of 1969 and an all-time Oscar record holder (most nominations without a corresponding Best Picture citation, a grand total of Nine!) but it's sadly underdiscussed these days. Susannah was nominated for playing Jane Fonda's main dancing rival in the marathon contest at the film's center, a neat metaphorical object, human suffering as entertainment. Susannah's psychotic break in the shower rivals any femme unravelling in Black Swan.
York also holds the distinction of being the only female cast member of Best Picture winner Tom Jones (1963) to not be nominated for Best Supporting Actress. I'm exaggerating but since an incredible three...
- 1/16/2011
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
We’re obsessed with this Usher song right now, “DJ Got Us Falling in Love Again” featuring Pitbull. And now there’s a music video to go along with it! The track has thus far climbed to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #51 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The music video depicts a nightclub, and the picture is slowed down for effect, and to catch those signature dance moves from Ush. Check it out below!
- 8/25/2010
- Hollyscoop.com
3D isn't only for the movie theaters and televisions, folks. In commemoration of the first anniversary of their online screening room (yesterday!), the National Film Board of Canada is sending out free 3D glasses and launching two new sections of their site to offer viewers goodies in both 3D and HD. This adds to the 1,400+ titles already available for free viewing on the website.
The 3D section is kicking off with the shorts Falling in Love Again, Drux Flux, Sandde, and Facing Champlain, plus a number of making-of feature for Champlain. On the HD side of things, there's a little more variety. While Cordell Barker got his latest short, Runaway, screening at Sundance (brief review here), his Oscar-nominated 1988 short The Cat Came Back is on the site, along with flicks that include the 1965 short High Steel, Chris Landreth's Oscar-winning Ryan, the 2007 Oscar nominee Madame Tutli-Putli, and The Stratford Adventure,...
The 3D section is kicking off with the shorts Falling in Love Again, Drux Flux, Sandde, and Facing Champlain, plus a number of making-of feature for Champlain. On the HD side of things, there's a little more variety. While Cordell Barker got his latest short, Runaway, screening at Sundance (brief review here), his Oscar-nominated 1988 short The Cat Came Back is on the site, along with flicks that include the 1965 short High Steel, Chris Landreth's Oscar-winning Ryan, the 2007 Oscar nominee Madame Tutli-Putli, and The Stratford Adventure,...
- 1/22/2010
- by Monika Bartyzel
- Cinematical
For Michelle Williams, the pain from losing Heath Ledger hasn't gone away - it's just a different kind of hurt. "After the first year, the pain is less intense; it's less immediate," Williams, 29, tells the October issue of Vogue. "But the magical thinking goes away too. And that's a whole new reckoning. But every time I really miss him and wonder where he's gone, I just look at her." The actress is referring to their daughter Matilda, who was just 2 years old when Ledger died in January 2008 of an accidental drug overdose.Williams, who had split from Ledger months before his death,...
- 9/15/2009
- by Michael Fleeman
- PEOPLE.com
Natalie Imbruglia is terrified of falling in love again. The Australian beauty - who split from her husband of four-years, Silverchair rocker Daniel Johns in January last year - is happier than she has ever been but is terrified of having another relationship.
She said: "I'm really happy at the moment. I feel much more sexy, more confident."
"I'm quite enjoying the male attention, but I really just love being single and would be terrified of falling in love."
The 34-year-old beauty - who starred in the soap 'Neighbours' in the 90s before hitting the charts with a smash hit single "Torn" in 1997 - is thrilled to be back on the music scene now she is older.
She said: "I'm really happy at the moment. I feel much more sexy, more confident."
"I'm quite enjoying the male attention, but I really just love being single and would be terrified of falling in love."
The 34-year-old beauty - who starred in the soap 'Neighbours' in the 90s before hitting the charts with a smash hit single "Torn" in 1997 - is thrilled to be back on the music scene now she is older.
- 9/14/2009
- icelebz.com
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