In Young Sheldon’s Season 7 premiere, Mandy swore that she would never move back in with her parents. “She’s pretty adamant that she would never do it,” executive producer Steve Holland told TVLine at the time. “Although, six or seven people in one house, with one bathroom, can start to wear thin after a while” — especially when that bathroom no longer has a working toilet.
We ran that scenario by Emily Osment during our recent Q&a, at which point Osment let slip that Mandy has a change of heart. Her about-face came in “An Ankle Monitor and a Big Plastic Crap House,...
We ran that scenario by Emily Osment during our recent Q&a, at which point Osment let slip that Mandy has a change of heart. Her about-face came in “An Ankle Monitor and a Big Plastic Crap House,...
- 4/19/2024
- by Ryan Schwartz
- TVLine.com
In announcing the upcoming crossover between CBS’ Supergirl and The CW’s The Flash, as little information as possible was disseminated.
All told, CBS revealed that A) Grant Gustin will bring The Flash to B) Supergirl‘s National City to C) “join forces” with Melissa Benoist’s Kara, on D) March 28.
Period.
RelatedSupergirl/Flash Crossover Is Happening: Find Out How and When
Gustin, Zod bless him, added a bit more fuel to the fire by revealing via Instagram the internetwork crossover event’s title: “Worlds Finest,” its conspicuous use of odd punctuation perhaps offering the meet-up’s biggest clue.
All told, CBS revealed that A) Grant Gustin will bring The Flash to B) Supergirl‘s National City to C) “join forces” with Melissa Benoist’s Kara, on D) March 28.
Period.
RelatedSupergirl/Flash Crossover Is Happening: Find Out How and When
Gustin, Zod bless him, added a bit more fuel to the fire by revealing via Instagram the internetwork crossover event’s title: “Worlds Finest,” its conspicuous use of odd punctuation perhaps offering the meet-up’s biggest clue.
- 2/4/2016
- TVLine.com
The Detroit Film Critics Society is pleased to announce the Best of 2015 winners in ten categories. The society was founded in spring 2007 and consists of a group of seventeen film critics who write or broadcast in the Detroit area as well as other major cities within a 150-mile radius of the city including Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, and Flint, Michigan and Toledo, Ohio.
Each critic submitted their top five picks in the following categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Ensemble, and Breakthrough, Best Screenplay, and Best Documentary. From these submissions, each entry was given a point value and the top five in each category have been placed on the final ballot. The final ballots were then given to each critic to rank in order. The results were once again tabulated and the winners were decided.
This year, there...
Each critic submitted their top five picks in the following categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Ensemble, and Breakthrough, Best Screenplay, and Best Documentary. From these submissions, each entry was given a point value and the top five in each category have been placed on the final ballot. The final ballots were then given to each critic to rank in order. The results were once again tabulated and the winners were decided.
This year, there...
- 12/14/2015
- by Administrator
- CinemaNerdz
Director Brad Bird and his co-writer Damon Lindelof take on a daring, ambitious science fiction project: chosen 'dreamers' are given glimpses of a gleaming Future City on the Horizon that exists in a parallel dimension of possibility. It's a chase film, a touchstone 'Sense of Wonder' epic and a wholly original visual extravaganza. The spacey gee-whiz thrills are linked to a worthy message, the rescue of a dying planet. Tomorrowland Blu-ray Walt Disney Home Video 2015 / Color / widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date October 13, 2015 / 39.99 Starring George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy, Hugh Laurie, Tim McGraw, Kathryn Hahn, Keegan-Michael Key. Cinematography Claudio Miranda Film Editor Walter Murch, Craig Wood Original Music Michael Giacchino Written by Damon Lindelof, Brad Bird, Jeff Jensen Produced by Brad Bird, Jeffrey Chernov, Damon Lindelof Directed by Brad Bird
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Some newer science fiction movies are as complicated as sci-fi novels, the kind that take seven hundred pages to unwind.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Some newer science fiction movies are as complicated as sci-fi novels, the kind that take seven hundred pages to unwind.
- 10/13/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Also this week, Mrs Brown's Boys causes a heart attack and Harry Hill comes to the rescue
This week's comedy news
Johnny Vegas has claimed that Daniel Kitson made him quit standup – but is vowing to return and find "closure". "Kitson is the reason I stopped stand-up," the comedy website Chortle quotes Vegas as saying at the Leicester comedy festival. "I did three gigs with him. On the first, I thought, 'This is brilliant, I've got to pull my socks up and get my act together.' On the second, I felt I'd gone 15 rounds with the comedic Mike Tyson. And on the third, I felt I'd seen comedy take its next evolutionary step … I thought I would never have the talent to match that." Vegas also addressed his unease with fame, saying that "the most fun I had was with gigs where I was a complete unknown and...
This week's comedy news
Johnny Vegas has claimed that Daniel Kitson made him quit standup – but is vowing to return and find "closure". "Kitson is the reason I stopped stand-up," the comedy website Chortle quotes Vegas as saying at the Leicester comedy festival. "I did three gigs with him. On the first, I thought, 'This is brilliant, I've got to pull my socks up and get my act together.' On the second, I felt I'd gone 15 rounds with the comedic Mike Tyson. And on the third, I felt I'd seen comedy take its next evolutionary step … I thought I would never have the talent to match that." Vegas also addressed his unease with fame, saying that "the most fun I had was with gigs where I was a complete unknown and...
- 2/12/2013
- by Brian Logan
- The Guardian - Film News
The Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, created one of the finest horror films in cinema history when he directed Psycho in 1960. Loosely inspired by the Ed Gein murders, Hitch cast Anthony Perkins in his California-set story as a stunted man with major mommy issues, Norman Bates. Four years after the film became a smashing success, the director spoke freely about his movie that caused controversy for its unprecedented scenes of sexuality, violence and… a flushing toilet. Hitch was a guest on English television show Monitor, where he wondered, Why so serious? when it came to his horror opus: "I once made a movie, rather tongue-in-cheek, called Psycho. A lot of people looked at this thing and said what a dreadful thing to do, how awful, and so forth. The content as...
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- 2/9/2013
- by Alison Nastasi
- Movies.com
In a newly discovered 1964 tape from the BBC archives, the director makes the remarks about his most shocking film. But would he be horrified to find people taking him seriously?
It was the film that outraged the censors, terrified the public and prompted the Observer's film critic to storm out of a preview screening and resign in disgust. Yet it now transpires that Psycho may have been tragically misunderstood. Its director, Alfred Hitchcock, always intended it as a comedy.
"The content was, I felt, rather amusing and it was a big joke," Hitchcock explains in a new discovered tape from the BBC archives. "I was horrified to find some people took it seriously."
Hitchcock's made his - perhaps slightly tongue-in-cheek – comments on the BBC show Monitor in July 1964, four years after Psycho's release. The interview now features on the audiobook Alfred Hitchcock: In His Own Words.
"[Psycho] was...
It was the film that outraged the censors, terrified the public and prompted the Observer's film critic to storm out of a preview screening and resign in disgust. Yet it now transpires that Psycho may have been tragically misunderstood. Its director, Alfred Hitchcock, always intended it as a comedy.
"The content was, I felt, rather amusing and it was a big joke," Hitchcock explains in a new discovered tape from the BBC archives. "I was horrified to find some people took it seriously."
Hitchcock's made his - perhaps slightly tongue-in-cheek – comments on the BBC show Monitor in July 1964, four years after Psycho's release. The interview now features on the audiobook Alfred Hitchcock: In His Own Words.
"[Psycho] was...
- 2/8/2013
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
Its shower scene is one of the most famous in cinema history and has spawned many pale imitations over the past 50 years, but Alfred Hitchcock apparently meant his 1960 suspense horror film Psycho to be a comedy, the Mirror and Telegraph report. An interview with the director has just been unearthed in BBC archives and reveals his real aim. "I once made a movie, rather tongue-in-cheek, called Psycho. The content was, I felt, rather amusing and it was a big joke. I was horrified some people took it seriously," he told the TV programme Monitor in July 1964. That Hitchcock, eh? Still springing surprises from beyond the grave.
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- 2/8/2013
- by Monkey
- The Guardian - Film News
Recently-released interviews with iconic film director Alfred Hitchcock have revealed that he intended classic horror picture Psycho to be a comedy.
The Telegraph reports that interviews from the BBC archives confirm Hitchcock believed the movie to be interpreted in a humorous manner.
Speaking on TV show Monitor in July 1964, Hitchcock described the 1960 film as "tongue-in-cheek".
"A lot of people looked at this thing and said, 'What a dreadful thing to do, how awful', and so forth," Hitchcock explained.
"The content as such was, I felt, rather amusing and it was a big joke. I was horrified to find that some people took it seriously."
[Stills from Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho']
Hitchcock also claimed that he wanted audiences "giggling with pleasure" at the film.
There has long been speculation as to how the film was intended to be viewed, with fans being divided over its intentions.
Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren star in Hitchcock; a biopic of...
The Telegraph reports that interviews from the BBC archives confirm Hitchcock believed the movie to be interpreted in a humorous manner.
Speaking on TV show Monitor in July 1964, Hitchcock described the 1960 film as "tongue-in-cheek".
"A lot of people looked at this thing and said, 'What a dreadful thing to do, how awful', and so forth," Hitchcock explained.
"The content as such was, I felt, rather amusing and it was a big joke. I was horrified to find that some people took it seriously."
[Stills from Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho']
Hitchcock also claimed that he wanted audiences "giggling with pleasure" at the film.
There has long been speculation as to how the film was intended to be viewed, with fans being divided over its intentions.
Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren star in Hitchcock; a biopic of...
- 2/8/2013
- Digital Spy
London, Feb uary 28 8: Alfred Hitchcock has revealed in a newly unearthed interview that his iconic horror film 'Psycho' was intended to be a comedy.
Hitchcock told the TV programme Monitor in July 1964 that he had once made a movie, rather tongue-in-cheek, called 'Psycho,' whose content was rather amusing and a big joke.
He said that he was horrified to find that some people took it -seriously as it was intended to make people scream and yell and so forth - but no more than screaming and yelling on a switchback railway, the Mirror reported.
"So you mustn't go too far because you want them to get off the railway.
Hitchcock told the TV programme Monitor in July 1964 that he had once made a movie, rather tongue-in-cheek, called 'Psycho,' whose content was rather amusing and a big joke.
He said that he was horrified to find that some people took it -seriously as it was intended to make people scream and yell and so forth - but no more than screaming and yelling on a switchback railway, the Mirror reported.
"So you mustn't go too far because you want them to get off the railway.
- 2/8/2013
- by Smith Cox
- RealBollywood.com
It's the still in a process of refinement, but Indiewire has expanded their gateway to film criticism with Criticwire 2.0, which works as a catalog of critics and criticism that offers a much needed alternative to Rotten Tomatoes. It's less about looking for consensus than it is about offering a simple way of following the critics that interest you and discovering new ones along the way.
The Vienna Film Festival is underway, and while all of us who are not attending lament not being able to check out Mike Ott's DJ set, we have only the coverage of others to turn to for consolation. Turns out there isn't much of that available either, unless you can read German, so for now check out our coverage here in the Notebook, and hopefully there will be more to share next week. Ti West is prepping his next horror film, The Sacrament,...
The Vienna Film Festival is underway, and while all of us who are not attending lament not being able to check out Mike Ott's DJ set, we have only the coverage of others to turn to for consolation. Turns out there isn't much of that available either, unless you can read German, so for now check out our coverage here in the Notebook, and hopefully there will be more to share next week. Ti West is prepping his next horror film, The Sacrament,...
- 10/31/2012
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
The Sheffield revival of A Taste of Honey should help us better remember an unfairly neglected playwright – but here's plenty of footage to be going on with
As a major of revival of Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey opens in Sheffield, it's time to remember the debt owed to the playwright, who died last year, by many writers – even the songwriter Morrissey.
Reading this on mobile? Watch the video here
A major dictionary of theatre on my bookcase, dating from the mid-1990s, doesn't even mention the Salford-born Delaney, who can seen here in Ken Russell's 1960 Monitor film on the writer and her town.
The lack of recognition from the theatre world is probably partly because, after 1960, she largely turned her attention to screenplays, eventually writing the 1985 film Dance with a Stranger, in which Miranda Richardson played Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged for murder in England.
As a major of revival of Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey opens in Sheffield, it's time to remember the debt owed to the playwright, who died last year, by many writers – even the songwriter Morrissey.
Reading this on mobile? Watch the video here
A major dictionary of theatre on my bookcase, dating from the mid-1990s, doesn't even mention the Salford-born Delaney, who can seen here in Ken Russell's 1960 Monitor film on the writer and her town.
The lack of recognition from the theatre world is probably partly because, after 1960, she largely turned her attention to screenplays, eventually writing the 1985 film Dance with a Stranger, in which Miranda Richardson played Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged for murder in England.
- 10/24/2012
- by Lyn Gardner
- The Guardian - Film News
DVD Playhouse—March 2012
By Allen Gardner
J. Edgar (Warner Bros.) Director Clint Eastwood provides a rock-solid, albeit rather flat portrait of polarizing FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, covering his life from late teens to his death. Leonardo DiCaprio does an impressive turn as Hoover, never crossing the line into caricature, and creating a Hoover that is all too human, making for an all the more unsettling look at absolute power run amuck. Where the film stumbles is the love story at its core: Hoover’s relationship with longtime aide Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). In the hands of an openly-gay director like Gus Van Sant, this could have been a heartbreaking, tender story of forbidden (unrequited?) love, but Eastwood seems to tiptoe around their romance, with far too much delicacy and deference. The film works well when recreating the famous crimes and investigations which Hoover made his name on (the Lindbergh kidnapping,...
By Allen Gardner
J. Edgar (Warner Bros.) Director Clint Eastwood provides a rock-solid, albeit rather flat portrait of polarizing FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, covering his life from late teens to his death. Leonardo DiCaprio does an impressive turn as Hoover, never crossing the line into caricature, and creating a Hoover that is all too human, making for an all the more unsettling look at absolute power run amuck. Where the film stumbles is the love story at its core: Hoover’s relationship with longtime aide Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). In the hands of an openly-gay director like Gus Van Sant, this could have been a heartbreaking, tender story of forbidden (unrequited?) love, but Eastwood seems to tiptoe around their romance, with far too much delicacy and deference. The film works well when recreating the famous crimes and investigations which Hoover made his name on (the Lindbergh kidnapping,...
- 3/7/2012
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
The acclaimed, eccentric director of Women in Love and The Devils died this week, prompting tributes from the press and former colleagues
The big story
Ken Russell died this week, leaving behind a body of work that shocked and surprised, teased and titillated. He was, said Xan Brooks in our early news story a man of "wild drama, gaudy conflagrations and operatic flourishes", a "juggler of high and low culture who invariably courted controversy".
Russell's career path - from his documentary work for the 1960s BBC series Monitor, to the short films he made at home in later years - was hard to map. His most infamous and innovative works - The Devils, Altered States - flashed by in the wake of semi-hits Women in Love (which won him an Oscar in 1971) and Tommy. He was, said friends an "iconoclast" (Venessa Redgrave). "Fearless, eccentric and silly" (Melvyn Bragg). "Capable of...
The big story
Ken Russell died this week, leaving behind a body of work that shocked and surprised, teased and titillated. He was, said Xan Brooks in our early news story a man of "wild drama, gaudy conflagrations and operatic flourishes", a "juggler of high and low culture who invariably courted controversy".
Russell's career path - from his documentary work for the 1960s BBC series Monitor, to the short films he made at home in later years - was hard to map. His most infamous and innovative works - The Devils, Altered States - flashed by in the wake of semi-hits Women in Love (which won him an Oscar in 1971) and Tommy. He was, said friends an "iconoclast" (Venessa Redgrave). "Fearless, eccentric and silly" (Melvyn Bragg). "Capable of...
- 12/1/2011
- by Henry Barnes
- The Guardian - Film News
Inevitably for someone whose creative life stretched more than half a century, Ken Russell's long career had its peaks and troughs
Inevitably for someone whose creative life stretched more than half a century, Ken Russell's long career had its peaks and troughs. But Russell's work for the BBC – in particular for Huw Wheldon's Monitor programme – from 1959 to 1970 was a whole mountain range, a before and after of the arts on television. The Russell who developed from the short early films about the likes of John Betjeman and Shelagh Delaney to the full-length and increasingly cinematic programmes on Delius and Richard Strauss was a director who was stretching his medium to the limit. But his BBC work had a heady mix of individuality, creativity and – until the Strauss film – a passionate seriousness that has never been surpassed in arts television. Russell's film on Elgar was not just a...
Inevitably for someone whose creative life stretched more than half a century, Ken Russell's long career had its peaks and troughs. But Russell's work for the BBC – in particular for Huw Wheldon's Monitor programme – from 1959 to 1970 was a whole mountain range, a before and after of the arts on television. The Russell who developed from the short early films about the likes of John Betjeman and Shelagh Delaney to the full-length and increasingly cinematic programmes on Delius and Richard Strauss was a director who was stretching his medium to the limit. But his BBC work had a heady mix of individuality, creativity and – until the Strauss film – a passionate seriousness that has never been surpassed in arts television. Russell's film on Elgar was not just a...
- 11/29/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
The defiant romantic of British cinema never lacked for critics but his prime inspiration was surely in music
Part glam rocker, part wild-haired conductor, Ken Russell was the populist maestro of the screen, the great defiant romantic of British cinema. Russell's films showed his great love for music and composers: Elgar, Tchaikovsky, Delius, Strauss, Liszt – and Sandy Wilson and Roger Daltrey. Other film-makers might have found their creative impetus in novels or plays; Russell's inspiration was surely primarily in music. His ideas, his images, his rows, his career itself were all one colossal, chaotic rhapsody.
His adventures were a rebuke to British parochialism, literalism and complacency, and he had something of Kubrick's flair for startling or mind-bending spectacle. Russell gave us the nude wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed in the Oscar-winning Women In Love (1969) in which each actor, with Russell's cheerful consent, was said to have taken...
Part glam rocker, part wild-haired conductor, Ken Russell was the populist maestro of the screen, the great defiant romantic of British cinema. Russell's films showed his great love for music and composers: Elgar, Tchaikovsky, Delius, Strauss, Liszt – and Sandy Wilson and Roger Daltrey. Other film-makers might have found their creative impetus in novels or plays; Russell's inspiration was surely primarily in music. His ideas, his images, his rows, his career itself were all one colossal, chaotic rhapsody.
His adventures were a rebuke to British parochialism, literalism and complacency, and he had something of Kubrick's flair for startling or mind-bending spectacle. Russell gave us the nude wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed in the Oscar-winning Women In Love (1969) in which each actor, with Russell's cheerful consent, was said to have taken...
- 11/29/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Naked wrestling, religious mania and The Who's Tommy: director Ken Russell transformed British cinema. His closest collaborators recall a fierce, funny and groundbreaking talent
Glenda Jackson
I worked with Ken on six films. Women in Love was the first time I'd worked with a director of that genius, and on a film of that size. What I remember most was the creative and productive atmosphere on set: he was open to ideas from everyone, from the clapperboard operator upwards. Like any great director, he knew what he didn't want – but was open to everything else.
As a director he never said anything very specific. He'd say, "It needs to be a bit more … urrrgh, or a bit less hmmm", and you knew exactly what he meant. I used to ask him why he never said "Cut", and he said, "Because it means you always do something different." They gave...
Glenda Jackson
I worked with Ken on six films. Women in Love was the first time I'd worked with a director of that genius, and on a film of that size. What I remember most was the creative and productive atmosphere on set: he was open to ideas from everyone, from the clapperboard operator upwards. Like any great director, he knew what he didn't want – but was open to everything else.
As a director he never said anything very specific. He'd say, "It needs to be a bit more … urrrgh, or a bit less hmmm", and you knew exactly what he meant. I used to ask him why he never said "Cut", and he said, "Because it means you always do something different." They gave...
- 11/29/2011
- by Melissa Denes, Laura Barnett
- The Guardian - Film News
Controversial director Ken Russell, best known for his Oscar-winning 1969 movie Women in Love, famous for its nude wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, and the 1980 psychedelic thriller Altered States, starring William Hurt and Blair Brown, died in his sleep Sunday according to his close friend Norman Lebrecht. Variety reported today that Russell, born in Southampton, England in 1927, was 84 at the time of his death. Russell, born to a shoe store owner, practiced photography after serving in the Royal Air Force and the merchant navy. He transitioned from still photography to TV documentaries working from 1959 to 1970 directing non-fiction films for the BBC programs Omnibus and Monitor.
- 11/28/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Controversial Director Ken Russell, Dies at 84
Controversial director Ken Russell, best known for his Oscar-winning 1969 movie Women in Love, famous for its nude wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, and the 1980 psychedelic thriller Altered States, starring William Hurt and Blair Brown, died in his sleep Sunday according to his close friend Norman Lebrecht. Variety reported today that Russell, born in Southampton, England in 1927, was 84 at the time of his death. Russell, born to a shoe store owner, practiced photography after serving in the Royal Air Force and the merchant navy. He transitioned from still photography to TV documentaries working from 1959 to 1970 directing non-fiction films for the BBC programs Omnibus and Monitor.
- 11/28/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Controversial director Ken Russell, best known for his Oscar-winning 1969 movie Women in Love, famous for its nude wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, and the 1980 psychedelic thriller Altered States, starring William Hurt and Blair Brown, died in his sleep Sunday according to his close friend Norman Lebrecht. Variety reported today that Russell, born in Southampton, England in 1927, was 84 at the time of his death. Russell, born to a shoe store owner, practiced photography after serving in the Royal Air Force and the merchant navy. He transitioned from still photography to TV documentaries working from 1959 to 1970 directing non-fiction films for the BBC programs Omnibus and Monitor.
- 11/28/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Ken Russell, who has died aged 84, was so often called rude names – the wild man of British cinema, the apostle of excess, the oldest angry young man in the business – that he gave up denying it all quite early in his career. Indeed, he often seemed to court the very publicity that emphasised only the crudest assessment of his work. He gave the impression that he cared not a damn. Those who knew him better, however, knew that he did. Underneath all the showbiz bluster, he was an old softie. Or, perhaps as accurately, a talented boy who never quite grew up.
It has, of course, to be said that he was capable of almost any enormity in the careless rapture he brought to making his films. He could be dreadfully cruel to his undoubted talent,...
It has, of course, to be said that he was capable of almost any enormity in the careless rapture he brought to making his films. He could be dreadfully cruel to his undoubted talent,...
- 11/28/2011
- by Derek Malcolm
- The Guardian - Film News
"Ken Russell, the British director whose daring and sometimes outrageous films often tested the patience of audiences and critics, has died," reports the AP. "He was 84."
"Known for a flamboyant style that was developed during his early career in television, Russell's films often courted controversy," writes Henry Barnes for the Guardian. "Women in Love, released in 1969, became notorious for its nude male wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, while Tommy, his starry version of The Who's rock opera, was his biggest commercial success, beginning as a stage musical before being reimagined for the screen in 1976. But Russell fell out of the limelight in recent years, as some of his funding resources dried up and his proposed projects ever more eclectic. He returned to the public eye in 2007, when he appeared on the fifth edition of Celebrity Big Brother, before quitting the show after a disagreement with fellow contestant Jade Goody.
"Known for a flamboyant style that was developed during his early career in television, Russell's films often courted controversy," writes Henry Barnes for the Guardian. "Women in Love, released in 1969, became notorious for its nude male wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, while Tommy, his starry version of The Who's rock opera, was his biggest commercial success, beginning as a stage musical before being reimagined for the screen in 1976. But Russell fell out of the limelight in recent years, as some of his funding resources dried up and his proposed projects ever more eclectic. He returned to the public eye in 2007, when he appeared on the fifth edition of Celebrity Big Brother, before quitting the show after a disagreement with fellow contestant Jade Goody.
- 11/28/2011
- MUBI
John Bridcut on Ken Russell, a film-maker who 'resisted the facts getting in the way of his visual imagination'
The wild visual imagination of Ken Russell brought classical music to a whole new audience, and made his name notorious in respectable musical circles. His feature films about composers went straight for the jugular – sometimes almost literally, as in his blood-soaked Mahler. He loved the music, but he also loved the sex. He sold the idea of The Music Lovers on the basis that it was a story about a nymphomaniac who fell in love with a homosexual, and sure enough the film opens in a bedroom, with an unbridled romp between Richard Chamberlain as Tchaikovsky and Christopher Gable as his lover.
His films on Liszt, Debussy, Richard Strauss and Wagner all involved sexual fantasy, to the dismay and outrage of people who took the music rather more seriously. Each one made headlines,...
The wild visual imagination of Ken Russell brought classical music to a whole new audience, and made his name notorious in respectable musical circles. His feature films about composers went straight for the jugular – sometimes almost literally, as in his blood-soaked Mahler. He loved the music, but he also loved the sex. He sold the idea of The Music Lovers on the basis that it was a story about a nymphomaniac who fell in love with a homosexual, and sure enough the film opens in a bedroom, with an unbridled romp between Richard Chamberlain as Tchaikovsky and Christopher Gable as his lover.
His films on Liszt, Debussy, Richard Strauss and Wagner all involved sexual fantasy, to the dismay and outrage of people who took the music rather more seriously. Each one made headlines,...
- 11/28/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
The director Ken Russell has died aged 84. We look back at his most memorable moments, from The Devils to Women in Love
• Ken Russell: films in photographs
After early attempts at carving out a career as a photographer, Russell and his future wife Shirley-Ann began making short films with a fantasy/parable bent – in contrast with the socially engaged spirit of the then influential Free Cinema movement. Peep Show (1956) was a parody of silent cinema, while arguably the most striking of the shorts was Amelia and the Angel, part funded by the BFI, about a girl looking for angel's wings for a school play.
Russell's proficiency got him noticed by the BBC, and he was put to work on the arts documentary strand Monitor. He made a string of TV programmes with increasingly elaborate formats – on everything from pop art to brass bands, culminating with his epic film about Edward Elgar,...
• Ken Russell: films in photographs
After early attempts at carving out a career as a photographer, Russell and his future wife Shirley-Ann began making short films with a fantasy/parable bent – in contrast with the socially engaged spirit of the then influential Free Cinema movement. Peep Show (1956) was a parody of silent cinema, while arguably the most striking of the shorts was Amelia and the Angel, part funded by the BFI, about a girl looking for angel's wings for a school play.
Russell's proficiency got him noticed by the BBC, and he was put to work on the arts documentary strand Monitor. He made a string of TV programmes with increasingly elaborate formats – on everything from pop art to brass bands, culminating with his epic film about Edward Elgar,...
- 11/28/2011
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Feisty playwright best known for her ground-breaking debut, A Taste of Honey
Shelagh Delaney was 18 when she wrote A Taste of Honey, one of the defining plays of the 1950s working-class and feminist cultural movements. The play's group of dysfunctional characters, utterly alien to the prevailing middle-class "anyone for tennis?" school of theatre, each explored their chances of attaining a glimpse of happiness. The central character, a young girl named Jo, lives in a decrepit flat in Salford with her mother, who is apt to wander off in pursuit of men with money. Jo becomes pregnant by a black sailor and is cared for by Geoffrey, a young gay friend, until her mother ousts him in what could be a burst of suppressed maternal love or a display of jealous control-freakery.
Delaney, who has died of cancer aged 71, had to endure harsh criticism for her attack on the orthodoxies of the period.
Shelagh Delaney was 18 when she wrote A Taste of Honey, one of the defining plays of the 1950s working-class and feminist cultural movements. The play's group of dysfunctional characters, utterly alien to the prevailing middle-class "anyone for tennis?" school of theatre, each explored their chances of attaining a glimpse of happiness. The central character, a young girl named Jo, lives in a decrepit flat in Salford with her mother, who is apt to wander off in pursuit of men with money. Jo becomes pregnant by a black sailor and is cared for by Geoffrey, a young gay friend, until her mother ousts him in what could be a burst of suppressed maternal love or a display of jealous control-freakery.
Delaney, who has died of cancer aged 71, had to endure harsh criticism for her attack on the orthodoxies of the period.
- 11/22/2011
- by Dennis Barker
- The Guardian - Film News
"Playwright Shelagh Delaney, best known for her 1958 play A Taste of Honey, has died of cancer," reports Robert Barr for the AP. "The writer was just 19 when A Taste of Honey premiered. The downbeat tale of a young woman's pregnancy following a one-night stand with a black sailor, and her supportive relationship with a gay artist, verged on scandalous at the time, but the play had successful runs in London and New York…. Delaney's immediate inspiration was her dislike of Terence Rattigan's play, Variations on a Theme. Believing she could do better, she wrote A Taste of Honey in two weeks, reworking material from a novel she was writing. Delaney and the film's director, Tony Richardson, shared BAFTA and Writer's Guild awards for best screenplay for the 1961 film adaptation, which starred Rita Tushingham."
"Delaney's play sits in between John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956) and Joe Orton's...
"Delaney's play sits in between John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (1956) and Joe Orton's...
- 11/21/2011
- MUBI
HollywoodNews.com: Our selected celebrity to be included in our “Hot Hollywood Celebrity Photo Gallery of the Day” is Kate Middleton.
Kate Middleton ◄ Back Next ►Picture 1 of 14
Kate Middleton - Prince William Visit Witton Country Park in Darwen
◄ Back Next ►Picture 1 of 14
Kate Middleton - Prince William Visit Witton Country Park in Darwen
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (born Catherine Elizabeth Middleton on 9 January 1982), popularly known as “Kate”, is the wife of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. William is second in line to the thrones of the sixteen Commonwealth realms, and if he becomes king, she would become queen consort. Catherine grew up in Chapel Row at Bucklebury, a village near Newbury, Berkshire, England. She studied in Scotland at the University of St Andrews, where she met William in 2001. They started a romantic relationship that continued until a break-up lasting for several months in 2007. However, they continued to be friends and...
Kate Middleton ◄ Back Next ►Picture 1 of 14
Kate Middleton - Prince William Visit Witton Country Park in Darwen
◄ Back Next ►Picture 1 of 14
Kate Middleton - Prince William Visit Witton Country Park in Darwen
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (born Catherine Elizabeth Middleton on 9 January 1982), popularly known as “Kate”, is the wife of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. William is second in line to the thrones of the sixteen Commonwealth realms, and if he becomes king, she would become queen consort. Catherine grew up in Chapel Row at Bucklebury, a village near Newbury, Berkshire, England. She studied in Scotland at the University of St Andrews, where she met William in 2001. They started a romantic relationship that continued until a break-up lasting for several months in 2007. However, they continued to be friends and...
- 6/28/2011
- by HollywoodNews.com
- Hollywoodnews.com
By Sean O’Connell
Hollywoodnews.com: We knew Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” would be big. But we didn’t know it would be record setting.
According to a release from the IMAX Corporation, however, it appears that the fourth “Pirates” will open on 402 IMAX theaters globally, setting a new record. Here is the full press release, as well as a listing of the IMAX theaters (courtesy of ComingSoon):
IMAX Corporation and The Walt Disney Studios announced today that the action fantasy adventure Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides will be released in the immersive IMAX(R) 3D format to a record number of theatres worldwide this Friday, May 20th. This is the first film of the series to be released in IMAX and is making a considerable splash, marking the largest IMAX release ever with 257 IMAX screens domestically, simultaneous with its North American wide release.
Hollywoodnews.com: We knew Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” would be big. But we didn’t know it would be record setting.
According to a release from the IMAX Corporation, however, it appears that the fourth “Pirates” will open on 402 IMAX theaters globally, setting a new record. Here is the full press release, as well as a listing of the IMAX theaters (courtesy of ComingSoon):
IMAX Corporation and The Walt Disney Studios announced today that the action fantasy adventure Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides will be released in the immersive IMAX(R) 3D format to a record number of theatres worldwide this Friday, May 20th. This is the first film of the series to be released in IMAX and is making a considerable splash, marking the largest IMAX release ever with 257 IMAX screens domestically, simultaneous with its North American wide release.
- 5/17/2011
- by Sean O'Connell
- Hollywoodnews.com
The Observer's film critic reflects on The King's Speech – and how his own speech impediment has contributed to his life and character
From as early as I can remember until 1952, when I left home at the age of 18 to go into the army, there was an annual ritual on the afternoon of Christmas Day. Dinner, which meant turkey and all the trimmings followed by plum pudding, began around two o'clock and was carefully timed to end so that everyone could sit there beneath the paper decorations, wearing the hats that came out of the crackers, and earnestly, reverently listen to the king's Christmas message on the radio.
This hallowed national tradition, initiated by Sir John Reith in 1932, was not five years old when George V, who'd given four of them, died. His successor Edward VIII's landmark contribution to broadcasting was his 1936 abdication speech: there was no Christmas message that year.
From as early as I can remember until 1952, when I left home at the age of 18 to go into the army, there was an annual ritual on the afternoon of Christmas Day. Dinner, which meant turkey and all the trimmings followed by plum pudding, began around two o'clock and was carefully timed to end so that everyone could sit there beneath the paper decorations, wearing the hats that came out of the crackers, and earnestly, reverently listen to the king's Christmas message on the radio.
This hallowed national tradition, initiated by Sir John Reith in 1932, was not five years old when George V, who'd given four of them, died. His successor Edward VIII's landmark contribution to broadcasting was his 1936 abdication speech: there was no Christmas message that year.
- 12/26/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Philip French speaks to Ridley Scott, Ken Russell, Gurinder Chadha, Shane Meadows and Stephen Frears about their debut pictures and detects the styles of the then-fledgling auteurs
Do artists discover a personal style and develop their themes gradually or are these to be found in embryonic form in their earliest works? There's no easy answer to this dual question. Take, for example, Ken Russell's Amelia and the Angel (1957), Ridley Scott's Boy and Bicycle (1965), Stephen Frears's The Burning (1967), Gurinder Chadha's I'm British But… (1989) and Shane Meadows's Where's the Money, Ronnie? (1995). All were made on shoestring budgets and each lasts less than half an hour.
First, presented with the directors' names and the credits concealed, would you be able to match up film and film-maker? I think most moviegoers could, which suggests there is something in these first movies that we would now recognise as characteristic. Second,...
Do artists discover a personal style and develop their themes gradually or are these to be found in embryonic form in their earliest works? There's no easy answer to this dual question. Take, for example, Ken Russell's Amelia and the Angel (1957), Ridley Scott's Boy and Bicycle (1965), Stephen Frears's The Burning (1967), Gurinder Chadha's I'm British But… (1989) and Shane Meadows's Where's the Money, Ronnie? (1995). All were made on shoestring budgets and each lasts less than half an hour.
First, presented with the directors' names and the credits concealed, would you be able to match up film and film-maker? I think most moviegoers could, which suggests there is something in these first movies that we would now recognise as characteristic. Second,...
- 9/25/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
One of filmmaker Ken Russell's misfortunes is that while his work is always appreciated, it's always his early work. When he was first making a splash with features in the seventies, British critics howled in outrage, often pointing back to his early BBC work, praising it, and using it as a stick to thrash the new upstart movies like The Music Lovers and The Devils. By the eighties, some of that early work was getting the praise it had originally deserved, but Russell's Us films, Altered States and Crimes of Passion, were ridiculed, and his low-budget UK features, such as Gothic and The Lair of the White Worm, garnered mainly contempt. Now even those oddities are redeemed, but nobody has much time for Russell's most recent output, productions shot in his garden shed with a camcorder. Their time will come...
What's overlooked, simply because it's been impossible to look at,...
What's overlooked, simply because it's been impossible to look at,...
- 11/26/2009
- MUBI
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