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Over almost two decades, Chilean director Pablo Larraín has been making Spanish-language films that have ranged from creepy tales to political stories to character studies to, well, creepy political character studies (“El Conde”). For the last eight of those years, though, Larraín has had a parallel career making a trio of English-language films that draw their one-word titles from the names of the famous women at their center: first 2016’s “Jackie,” starring Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy in the days following the assassination of her husband, U.S. President John F. Kennedy; then 2021’s “Spencer,” with Kristen Stewart as Diana Spencer, the soon-to-be Princess of Wales, on a fraught weekend at the British royal family’s country home; and now “Maria,” with Angelina Jolie as opera diva Maria Callas.

Those three films make an unlikely triptych of adventurous, dark fantasias about iconic women under extreme pressure. But “Maria,” which was...

The adaptation of Umberto Eco’s book has distribution in German-speaking Europe amongst others.

Tele München Group (Tmg) has announced a range of sales on its series The Name Of The Rose, the adaptation of Umberto Eco’s novel about monks investigating a slew of murders.

Deals include German-speaking Europe (Sky), France (Orange), Finland (Yle), Norway (Nrk) and Denmark (DRtv).

Produced by 11 Marzo Film, Palomar and Tele München Group in association with Rai Fiction, the series has a 19-week shoot currently underway in Italy and is set for a world premiere in spring 2019. Tmg’S world sales unit Tm International is handling worldwide distribution.

The adaptation of Umberto Eco’s book has distribution in German-speaking Europe amongst others.

Tele München Group (Tmg) has announced a range of sales on its series The Name Of The Rose, the adaptation of Umberto Eco’s novel about monks investigating a slew of murders.

Deals include German-speaking Europe (Sky), France (Orange), Finland (Yle), Norway (Nrk) and Denmark (DRtv).

Produced by 11 Marzo Film, Palomar and Tele München Group in association with Rai Fiction, the series has a 19-week shoot currently underway in Italy and is set for a world premiere in spring 2019. Tmg’S world sales unit Tm International is handling worldwide distribution.

On this day in history as it relates to the movies...

1916 Disaster epic super producer Irwin Allen is born. (More on him this afternoon)

1919 Stage legend Uta Hagen is born. Though she only ever makes three movies, she originates Tony winning roles on stage that later win Oscars for movie stars (The Country Girl and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?). Also the co-author of "Respect for Acting" and a reknowned acting teacher with 70s legends Pacino & De Niro as students

1928 Oscar winning composer Richard M Sherman (of Sherman Brothers fame) is born. Jason Schwartzman plays him in Saving Mr Banks (2013) about the making of Mary Poppins (1964)

1942 Anne Frank receives a diary for her 13th birthday. She does not live much longer during the horrific events of The Holocaust but The Diary of Anne Frank becomes a key text of the 20th century. The George Stevens film adaptation (of the Pulitzer winning play of the same name by the screenwriters) released in 1959 receives 8 nominations including Best Picture and takes home three Oscars

1946 Oscar-nominated costume designer Maurizio Millenotti is born in Italy. Credits include: Otello, Hamlet (1990 version), Malèna, The Passion of the Christ and Federico Fellini's And the Ship Sails On.

1962 Three bank robbers escape from Alcatraz. The story becomes the Clint Eastwood picture Escape From Alcatraz (1979)

← 1967 The Supreme Court strikes down anti-miscenegation laws banning interracial marriage in the Loving v Virginia case. This year's Oscar hopeful Loving (2016), starring Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton tells the Loving story. There's also a movement to make June 12th, "Loving Day," an official Us holiday for celebrating multiracial families. Sadly the movie isn't opening today for this anniversary so we'll have to wait months to see it. Perhaps the 50th anniversary next year, after the story is more widely known with the movie, will help add momentum.

1985 Dave Franco is born

1992 Housesitter with Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn and Dana Delany hits theaters

2010 Slow burning hit "Bulletproof" peaks on the Us charts nearly a year after its release. Two years later Beca deploys it to fuck up Aubrey's stale act in Pitch Perfect (2012)...

The show must go on, right? Tenor Francesco Anile made his Metropolitan Opera debut on Saturday in a pair of jeans and sneakers when the lead during a performance of Verdi's Otello couldn't sing in the final acts. "No time to change. No time for anything," the 54-year-old understudy told the Associated Press. Anile was in a green room within New York City's Lincoln Center during the last act of the show when Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko became too sick to continue singing, the AP reports. A stage director ran into the room and beckoned Anile: "Francesco, come. We need you to sing,...

The show must go on, right? Tenor Francesco Anile made his Metropolitan Opera debut on Saturday in a pair of jeans and sneakers when the lead during a performance of Verdi's Otello couldn't sing in the final acts. "No time to change. No time for anything," the 54-year-old understudy told the Associated Press. Anile was in a green room within New York City's Lincoln Center during the last act of the show when Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko became too sick to continue singing, the AP reports. A stage director ran into the room and beckoned Anile: "Francesco, come. We need you to sing,...

When an un-darkened Moor marched onstage during the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Otello, he seemed confused, as if he had just crashed the wrong Act I. “Esultate,” he sang, non-exultingly. For a moment, it looked as though the Met’s season was off to a wobbly start. The chorus milled, the storm dissipated, and an all-black-clad cast seemed uncertain as to who was on whose side. Fortunately for Venice, Verdi, and the opening-night audience, Yannick Nézet-Séguin was in the pit to enforce order and wildness, violence and wit. Otello is Verdi’s opera of extremes. The weather is at its most murderous, the title character most tormented, the bad guy most depraved — and all those drastic states come geysering out of the orchestra. Woe to the singer who dithers in the face of that musical hurricane. Nézet-Séguin was not about to let that happen. The conductor kept the...

The rise and fall of Cannon Films is told in Mark Hartley's wildly entertaining documentary, Electric Boogaloo. Here's Ryan's review...

Producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus were famous (or infamous) for many things, but a stringent approach to quality filmmaking was hardly one of them. At the height of their success in the 1980s, the Israeli cousins, and their company Cannon Films, were synonymous with cheap B-movies of just about every kind: Chuck Norris action flicks, sex comedies, ninja martial arts epics, dance movies and tawdry slasher horrors.

Their films frequently horrified critics, but became a staple of video rental stores: with Cannon Films cranking out as many as 50 or so pictures a year at its peak, the company's distinctive logo and self-explanatory film titles (New Year's Evil, Avenging Force, Enter The Ninja) were ubiquitous throughout the 80s and early 90s. The company was eventually brought down by its fast-and-loose approach to film production,...

Though his name is most commonly associated with the Charles Bronson and Chuck Norris action movies that Cannon Films churned out in the 1980s, Menahem Golan, who has died at the age of 85, also produced films directed by the likes of John Cassavetes (Love Streams), Andrei Konchalovsky (Maria's Lovers and Runaway Train), Robert Altman (Fool For Love), Franco Zeffirelli (Otello), Barbet Schroeder (Barfly), Norman Mailer (Tough Guys Don't Dance) and, perhaps most famously, Jean-Luc Godard, whose adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear features Burgess Meredith, Molly Ringwald, Julie Delpy—and Woody Allen. » - David Hudson...

Though his name is most commonly associated with the Charles Bronson and Chuck Norris action movies that Cannon Films churned out in the 1980s, Menahem Golan, who has died at the age of 85, also produced films directed by the likes of John Cassavetes (Love Streams), Andrei Konchalovsky (Maria's Lovers and Runaway Train), Robert Altman (Fool For Love), Franco Zeffirelli (Otello), Barbet Schroeder (Barfly), Norman Mailer (Tough Guys Don't Dance) and, perhaps most famously, Jean-Luc Godard, whose adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear features Burgess Meredith, Molly Ringwald, Julie Delpy—and Woody Allen. » - David Hudson...

The Academy has announced the new class of invited members for 2014 and, as is typical, many of which are among last year's nominees, which includes Barkhad Abdi, Michael Fassbender, Sally Hawkins, Mads Mikkelsen, Lupita Nyong'o and June Squibb in the Actors branch not to mention curious additions such as Josh Hutcherson, Rob Riggle and Jason Statham, but, okay. The Directors branch adds Jay and Mark Duplass along with Jean-Marc Vallee, Denis Villeneuve and Thomas Vinterberg. I didn't do an immediate tally of male to female additions or other demographics, but at first glance it seems to be a wide spread batch of new additions on all fronts. The Academy is also clearly attempting to aggressively bump up the demographics as this is the second year in a row where they have added a large number of new members, well over the average of 133 new members from 2004 to 2012. As far as...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 271 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 2014.

“This year’s class of invitees represents some of the most talented, creative and passionate filmmakers working in our industry today,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “Their contributions to film have entertained audiences around the world, and we are proud to welcome them to the Academy.”

The 2014 invitees are:

Actors

Barkhad Abdi – “Captain Phillips”

Clancy Brown – “The Hurricane,” “The Shawshank Redeption”

Paul Dano – “12 Years a Slave,” “Prisoners”

Michael Fassbender – “12 Years a Slave,” “Shame”

Ben Foster – “Lone Survivor,” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”

Beth Grant – “The Artist,” “No Country for Old Men”

Clark Gregg – “Much Ado about Nothing,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”

Sally Hawkins – “Blue Jasmine,...

Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong’o of 12 Years a Slave were two of the 271 artists and industry leaders invited to become members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which determines nominations and winners at the annual Oscars. The entire list of Academy membership—which numbers about 6,000—isn’t public information so the annual invitation list is often the best indication of the artists involved in the prestigious awards process. It’s worth noting that invitations need to be accepted in order for artists to become members; some artists, like two-time Best Actor winner Sean Penn, have declined membership over the years.

Pop quiz: What do Chris Rock, Claire Denis, Eddie Vedder and Josh Hutcherson all have in common? Answer: They could all be Oscar voters very soon. The annual Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences invitation list always makes for interesting reading, shedding light on just how large and far-reaching the group's membership is -- or could be, depending on who accepts their invitations. This year, 271 individuals have been asked to join AMPAS, meaning every one of them could contribute to next year's Academy Awards balloting -- and it's as diverse a list as they've ever assembled. Think the Academy consists entirely of fusty retired white dudes? Not if recent Best Original Song nominee Pharrell Williams takes them up on their offer. Think it's all just a Hollywood insiders' game? Not if French arthouse titans Chantal Akerman and Olivier Assayas join the party. It's a list that subverts expectation at every turn.

Nabucco will screen in St. Louis this Sunday, May 18th at 12 noon at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater

Plácido Domingo, one of the most celebrated talents of our time, makes a major role debut in an unmissable new production of Nabucco, the Italian-language opera in four acts composed in 1841 by Giuseppe Verdi. Nabucco follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered, and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian King Nabucco (in English, Nebuchadnezzar). The historical events are used as background for a romantic and political plot. The best-known number from the opera is the “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves,” Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate / “Fly, thought, on golden wings,” a chorus which is regularly given an encore in many opera houses when performed today.

In this production, recorded earlier this year, Domingo takes another thrilling step into baritone repertory as he sings the title role of Nabucco for the first time.

Above: Us 2014 re-release poster for Othello (Orson Welles, Morocco/Italy, 1952) designed by Dark Star, Paris.

Orson Welles' glorious, noirish, idiosyncratic, benighted Othello opens in New York and Chicago today in a new restoration. And Wednesday, not coincidentally, saw the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth. Shakespeare has been adapted for film since the silent dawn of cinema, so it seems only right and fitting that I should mark this occasion with the best posters for Shakespeare on film through the ages, presented here in chronological order.

Above: German poster for Hamlet (Svend Gade & Heinz Schall, Germany, 1921).

Above: Us one sheet for The Taming of the Shrew (Sam Taylor, USA, 1929).

Above: Us lobby card for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (William Dieterle & Max Reinhardt, USA, 1935).

Above: 1956 Polish poster for Henry V (Laurence Olivier, UK, 1944) by Jozef Mroszczak.

Above: Australian poster for Henry V (Laurence Olivier, UK, 1944).

Above: French poster for Hamlet (Laurence Olivier,...

Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.

This Week’s New Instant Releases…

Promised Lands (1974)

Streaming Available: 04/19/2011

Cast: Documentary

Director: Susan Sontag

Synopsis: Set in Israel during the final days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, this powerful documentary — initially barred by Israel authorities — from writer-director Susan Sontag examines divergent perceptions of the enduring Arab-Israeli clash. Weighing in on matters related to socialism, anti-Semitism, nation sovereignty and American materialism are The Last Jew writer Yoram Kaniuk and military physicist Yuval Ne’eman.

Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009)

Streaming Available: 04/19/2011

Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Heino Ferch, Hannah Herzsprung, Gerald Alexander Held, Lena Stolze, Sunnyi Melles

Synopsis: Directed by longtime star of independent German cinema Margarethe von Trotta, this reverent...

A farce in the manner of Feydeau, Ken Ludwig's 1986 Lend Me a Tenor revived at the Music Box Theater and directed by Stanley Tucci, has laughs aplenty as doors -and bodies-- slam in a 1934 Cleveland hotel suite. In anticipation of a production of Verdi's Otello, the opera's impresario, Saunders, sweats the arrival of the starred tenor. Finally blustering in, his jealous wife in tow, the renowned "Il Stupendo" needs a nap. A drug-induced sleep threatens: will this show go on? And how! Okay, you have to suspend your disbelief big time for this corny material: Tito Merelli, the tenor, just happens to have two costumes on hand, convenient for Max, the impresario's homme d'affaires to step in. Two Otellos in black face and regal robe spell mistaken identity. One sings, the other is taken for a crasher. Guess which?...