Alternative Film Guide

John Horn talks about Michael Moore’s upcoming documentary, tentatively titled "While America Slept," in the Los Angeles Times:
"Even though he says the new film ‘isn’t about Bush,’ the president is clearly a central target.
"’He and his cronies and his supporters literally got away with murder,’ Moore says. But it is also obvious that the country’s [...]

Dan Callahan takes a look at Gloria Grahame’s life and career in a lengthy article at Brights Lights:
"Grahame lives on the edges of most of her films, too disturbing an image, too turbulent a consciousness to ever really play a lead role. She could look severe, even plain, when she wasn’t overly made up for [...]

Paul Valley on Harrison Ford in The Independent:
"On his politics he is more public. A lifelong Democrat, he publicly condemned the invasion of Iraq, calling for ‘regime change’ in the United States. He has also criticised his own industry for the violence of much of its output and has called for greater gun control in [...]

Dave Graham reports in Reuters that later this year what appears to be the first biography of silent-film actor Max Schreck, in my view the most effective movie vampire of them all, will be published in Germany.
Schreck starred in F.W. Murnau’s excellent 1922 horror drama Nosferatu, presumably the first feature film based on Bram Stoker’s [...]

Ron Howard’s 1995 Best Picture nominee Apollo 13 was screened as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ ongoing "Great To Be Nominated" series on Monday, May 5, 2008, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Photos: Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Click on the images to enlarge them.

Pictured: (standing, left to right) [...]

The 1913 melodrama Ma l’amor mio non muore / Love Everlasting, starring super-diva Lyda Borelli, will be screened on Tuesday, May 13 at 7pm at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM).
Why a silent movie screening at an academy of music, of all places?
Well, perhaps because Lyda Borelli (1884–1959) plays a singer in the [...]

Celebrating Bette Davis‘ centennial, the Film Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is presenting the series "Fasten Your Seat Belts: The Essential Bette Davis," which began on May 1, with the unveiling of a new US Postal Service stamp in the presence of Turner Classic Movies host Robert
Osborne and Davis’ personal [...]

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in association with the Film Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, presented "A Centennial Tribute to Bette Davis" on Thursday, May 1, 2008, in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The event, hosted by film historian and Turner Classic Movies presenter Robert [...]

From NBC News Senior Investigative Producer Jim Popkin:
"The FBI does not have a pornographic home movie of actress Marilyn Monroe in its files and never did, FBI officials tell NBC News. Document analysts at the FBI have completed a manual search of FBI records and found no evidence of the film.
"’The records show no indication [...]

Julie Ege, Miss Norway 1962 and the leading lady in several B movies of the 1970s, has died. Ege, who had been suffering from cancer, was 64.
Born in the Norwegian town of Sandnes on November 12, 1943, Ege made her screen debut in 1967 in a couple of bit parts. After a brief appearance [...]

Tom Hanks, who fell under the spell of 2001: A Space Odyssey way back when, introduced the 40th Anniversary screening of Stanley Kubrick’s science-fiction masterpiece this past Friday, April 25.
Others in attendance at the event, held at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, were the film’s [...]

In the Los Angeles Times, Matthew DeBord offers what amounts to a promotional puff piece on Julie Andrews ("that bold Andrews sexiness, maternal and theatrical at the same time") and her autobiographical tome Home: A Memoir of My Early Years. (According to DeBord, this Sunday it’ll land on the No. 1 spot among hardcovers tracked [...]

London’s BFI Southbank has been hosting an homage to Robert Donat, who died fifty years ago (on June 9, 1958) of a chronic asthma attack at the age of 53.
In spite of his best actor Oscar (for Goodbye Mr. Chips in 1939) and his starring in Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (1935), Donat is all [...]

"Important international stars from the silent era of filmmaking are undeservedly forgotten today because of the unavailability of their motion pictures, which are often considered lost."
Thus begins the press release for the seventh "Meet the Makers: Silent Film Accompanists" series, which will attempt to rectify that problem by screening five little-seen star vehicles of the [...]

In her blog Deadline Hollywood Daily, Nikki Finke posted an "exclusive" scoop about Robert De Niro’s departure from Creative Arts Agency (CAA) to look for greener pastures at Endeavor. One commenter, purportedly a disgruntled (and anonymous) "CAA Agent," posted the following message that has been circulating all over town (make it "all over world" by [...]

Patrick Goldstein in the Los Angeles Times:
"I thought Francis Ford Coppola was being cranky last fall when he badmouthed Al Pacino and Robert De Niro — the stars of Coppola’s immortal Godfather films — for taking parts for the money and losing their passion for doing great work. ‘I met both Pacino and De [...]

In the London tabloid Daily Mail, there’s a write-up of a bizarre interview with Tony Curtis. For obvious reasons, I hardly ever post anything related to trashy tabloids, but since Curtis is quoted directly a number of times I’m assuming it’s all true — unless he sues. Below are a few quotes from the (highly [...]

2008 David di Donatello - Italian Academy Awards
The 2008 David di Donatello: films released between April 27, 2007, and March 7, 2008.
2008 David di Donatello nominations: March 20, 2008.
2008 David di Donatello winners: April 18, 2008.
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

best film / miglior film
Caos calmo, produced by Domenico Procacci, directed by Antonello Grimaldi [...]

Next round of Brigitte Bardot vs. Muslims.
No, Bardot’s animosity has nothing to do with, say, a planned Algerian-made sex melodrama called And Allah Created Woman. Bardot, like millions of others in France and elsewhere, just doesn’t like Muslims, period.
She’s now on trial for the fifth time since the mid-1990s for "inciting racial hatred" due [...]

Hazel Court, the leading lady of numerous B-horror movies of the 1950s and 1960s, died of a heart attack at her home near Lake Tahoe, California, on April 15. She was 82.
I’m unfamiliar with Hazel Court’s work as an actress, but I’m quite familiar (by way of film stills and clips) with her [...]

World Cinema Clips: Last night I went to the Borders bookstore in Westwood to see if I could catch a glimpse of Julie Andrews signing her recently published (partial) autobiography Home: A Memoir of My Early Years.
I arrived more than two hours after Andrews’ scheduled arrival, but she was still there, signing away. She [...]

It’s curious. I can’t say that Bette Davis is one my favorite actresses. Yet, in my view several of her performances rank among the greatest ever seen on film. Those range from the cool (The Little Foxes) and the calculating (The Letter) to the campy (Beyond the Forest) and the crazy (What Ever Happened to [...]

In the San Francisco Chronicle (via ScrippsNews), Edie Adams talks to Ruthe Stein about the making of The Apartment, one of Billy Wilder’s most successful films and the Best Picture Oscar winner of 1960. Below is a brief excerpt from the SFC’s q&a:
Q: Billy Wilder was one of the most sought-after directors, especially after Double [...]

 
Technorati Tags: Tito Guizar, centennial tribute, Million Dollar Theater
 
Tito Guízar Centennial Tribute Tonight
Charlton Heston
JELLYFISH: Q&A with Etgar Keret
STRANGE CULTURE: Q&A with Lynn Hershman-Leeson, Steve Kurtz, and Lucia Sommer
Budd Schulberg, David Chase Writers Guild Salute
Clarence Brown, Forgotten Film Director
Paul Scofield
Arthur C. Clarke and the Making of 2001
Anthony Minghella Appreciation in the WASHINGTON POST
Ramon [...]

The Cervantes Center of Arts & Letters will celebrate the birth centennial of Mexican actor-singer superstar Tito Guízar (1908–1999) with a screening of the 1936 cowboy musical ("charro") Alla en el rancho grande / Over at the Big Ranch this evening at 7pm at USC’s Leavey Library Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles. Free admission. (Parking [...]