Little Fugitive director Morris Engel was the post-WWII ‘Father of American Independent Cinema,’ inspiring John Cassavetes and the French New Wave.
Charles Durning. Charles Durning: Oscar-nominated & Tony-winning actor has died Charles Durning, who romanced Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nominee for The Best Little Whorehouse…
Jack Klugman and Tony Randall: The Odd Couple. Jack Klugman dead at 90: ‘The Odd Couple’ & ‘Quincy M.E.’ actor Jack Klugman, best known for the television series The Odd…
Ernest Borgnine dead at 95: villain at his best in befuddled roles Ernest Borgnine, a movie villain who won a Best Actor Academy Award for playing a kindly butcher in…
Ben Gazzara, who was featured on Broadway in the original Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and in movies by the likes of John Cassavetes, Otto Preminger, and Peter Bogdanovich,…
Model and sometime actress Doe Avedon Siegel, best known for her marriages to photographer Richard Avedon and to Dirty Harry movie director Don Siegel, died Sunday in Los Angeles. She…
Doris Day may have been – once again – absurdly bypassed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors, but at least she’ll be getting some…
Peter Falk: Two-time Oscar nominee. Peter Falk, the two-time Oscar nominee best known for playing television police detective Columbo, died Thursday, June 23, at his Beverly Hills home. Falk, who…
Tod Maitland, Dennis Maitland, Norman Jewison at the 45th Cinema Audio Society Awards Production Sound Mixer Dennis Maitland, who collaborated with the likes of John Cassavetes, Barbra Streisand, Sydney Pollack,…
The Ghost Writer with Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor. In Roman Polanski’s mystery thriller The Ghost Writer, which will be competing for the 2010 Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear, former…
As the title implies, BearManor Media’s The History of Independent Cinema covers the century-long development of – American – filmmaking outside the big-studio lots. Now, who were those independents? Well,…
A few weeks ago, when I began watching a screener of director-screenwriter-etc-etc. Brian Pera’s The Way I See Things, I had no idea what to expect. At first, I wasn’t…
William Castle and the Rosemary’s Baby ‘curse.’ William Castle was a director of B movie thrillers such as those in two popular franchises of the 1940s starring faded stars of…
Robert Evans with Rosemary’s Baby producer William Castle and lead actress Mia Farrow on the set of Roman Polanski’s classic 1968 horror thriller. “An Academy Salute to Robert Evans” will…
The Idiots by Lars von Trier. The tenth and final “Vow of Chastity” from the Dogme ’95 manifesto states that “the director must not be credited.” That is because the…
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has just begun an homage to Hungarian director Béla Tarr, which runs until March 28. Titled “Reel Epics: The Films of Béla Tarr,”…
The Oscar-nominated Gena Rowlands + John Cassavetes collaboration A Woman Under the Influence (1974) is seriously marred by its own inauthentic ‘rawness.’
John Cassavetes’ landmark and widely admired 1968 independent drama Faces is a narrative wreck and a long-winded cinematic chore.
Rick Santorum puts choir kids to sleep: Far-right Republican presidential candidate was in Florida. Mia Farrow: ‘Gem’ picture of Rick Santorum boring whole choir to sleep Mia Farrow is a…
Joan Blondell biography: A Life Between Takes. Joan Blondell. Those who have heard the name will most likely picture either a blowsy, older woman playing the worldwise but warm-hearted saloon…
Judy Garland movies: Meet Me in St. Louis. Judy Garland vehicles are a Turner Classic Movies staple, so the “Summer Under the Stars” day – Thursday, Aug. 6 – dedicated…
The premiere of Redbelt took place on April 7 in Los Angeles. Since then, the film – which reportedly cost US$7 million – has grossed just over $2 million. One…
Is the 1960 nouvelle vague classic Breathless vastly overrated? Jean-Paul Belmondo + Jean Seberg star in Jean-Luc Godard’s influential noir homage.