Knighted in 2001, Tom Courtenay shot to stardom in 1962 as Colin Smith, a troubled teen who finds redemption in long-distance running. Tony Richardson directed while screenwriter Alan Sillitoe based the script on his own short story. Though Britain’s “kitchen sink” dramas usually took place on the wrong side of the tracks, they had their own kind of glamour thanks to cinematographers like Walter Lassally who makes Colin’s solitary struggle seem rather romantic.
The post The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 2/7/2023
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
The director of Over The Edge and The Accused takes us on a journey through some of his favorite movies.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Student Teachers (1973)
Night Call Nurses (1972)
White Line Fever (1975)
Truck Turner (1974)
Heart Like A Wheel (1983)
The Accused (1988)
Over The Edge (1979)
Modern Times (1936)
City Lights (1931)
Manhattan (1979)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Apartment (1960)
North By Northwest (1959)
Moon Pilot (1962)
Mr. Billion (1977)
White Heat (1949)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Three Musketeers (1973)
The Four Musketeers (1974)
Superman (1978)
Superman II (1980)
The Three Musketeers (1948)
Shane (1953)
The 400 Blows (1959)
8 ½ (1963)
Fellini Satyricon (1969)
Richard (1972)
Millhouse (1971)
The Projectionist (1970)
El Dorado (1966)
The Shootist (1976)
Woodstock (1970)
Payback (1999)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Billy Liar (1963)
Ford Vs Ferrari (2019)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)
Bad Girls (1994)
Masters of the Universe (1987)
Giant (1956)
The More The Merrier (1943)
The Graduate (1967)
The Victors (1963)
…And Justice For All (1979)
Citizen Kane (1941)
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Student Teachers (1973)
Night Call Nurses (1972)
White Line Fever (1975)
Truck Turner (1974)
Heart Like A Wheel (1983)
The Accused (1988)
Over The Edge (1979)
Modern Times (1936)
City Lights (1931)
Manhattan (1979)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Apartment (1960)
North By Northwest (1959)
Moon Pilot (1962)
Mr. Billion (1977)
White Heat (1949)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
The Three Musketeers (1973)
The Four Musketeers (1974)
Superman (1978)
Superman II (1980)
The Three Musketeers (1948)
Shane (1953)
The 400 Blows (1959)
8 ½ (1963)
Fellini Satyricon (1969)
Richard (1972)
Millhouse (1971)
The Projectionist (1970)
El Dorado (1966)
The Shootist (1976)
Woodstock (1970)
Payback (1999)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)
Billy Liar (1963)
Ford Vs Ferrari (2019)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)
Bad Girls (1994)
Masters of the Universe (1987)
Giant (1956)
The More The Merrier (1943)
The Graduate (1967)
The Victors (1963)
…And Justice For All (1979)
Citizen Kane (1941)
An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn...
- 7/7/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
There’s never a bad time to be reminded of and introduced to great cinematic works and their authors and filmmakers, but 2020 is turning out to be a particularly necessary time for cultural enrichment and artistic nourishment. At home.
So the timing couldn’t be better for Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan’s new tome, “Cinema ’62,” an examination and celebration of 1962, which they boldly proclaim was “The Greatest Year at the Movies.”
For those cineastes who might challenge that proclamation, and substitute, say, 1939, 1999 or my particular favorite, 1969, for that vaunted honor, the book thankfully opens with an astute and succinct preface by Oscar-winning writer-
director Bill Condon.
“I’ve found that a cineaste’s ‘greatest year’ more often than not lines up with the early years of his or her adolescence,” observes Condon, expressing a theory I’d always assumed was mine alone. So with the question of subjectivity and...
So the timing couldn’t be better for Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan’s new tome, “Cinema ’62,” an examination and celebration of 1962, which they boldly proclaim was “The Greatest Year at the Movies.”
For those cineastes who might challenge that proclamation, and substitute, say, 1939, 1999 or my particular favorite, 1969, for that vaunted honor, the book thankfully opens with an astute and succinct preface by Oscar-winning writer-
director Bill Condon.
“I’ve found that a cineaste’s ‘greatest year’ more often than not lines up with the early years of his or her adolescence,” observes Condon, expressing a theory I’d always assumed was mine alone. So with the question of subjectivity and...
- 3/18/2020
- by Steven Gaydos
- Variety Film + TV
Lionsgate’s “Bombshell,” which opens Dec. 20, has been getting enthusiastic reactions at industry screenings, indicating multiple Oscar nominations are likely. If so, that would make the film a welcome addition to a rare but important Academy Awards category: The hot-button, current events film.
Director Jay Roach, writer Charles Randolph and the actors — including Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie and John Lithgow — deliver the goods in a film that comes out only three years after the 2016 meltdown at Fox News. That puts the film on a par with other multiple-Oscar-nominated films such as the 1976 “All the President’s Men,” which opened three years after the Watergate hearings.
The banner year for this was 1940, when the best-picture nominations included Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator,” John Ford’s version of John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” and the Alfred Hitchcock-directed “Foreign Correspondent.” They dealt with, respectively, the grasp of Hitler,...
Director Jay Roach, writer Charles Randolph and the actors — including Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie and John Lithgow — deliver the goods in a film that comes out only three years after the 2016 meltdown at Fox News. That puts the film on a par with other multiple-Oscar-nominated films such as the 1976 “All the President’s Men,” which opened three years after the Watergate hearings.
The banner year for this was 1940, when the best-picture nominations included Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator,” John Ford’s version of John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” and the Alfred Hitchcock-directed “Foreign Correspondent.” They dealt with, respectively, the grasp of Hitler,...
- 11/28/2019
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Film at Lincoln Center
“Another Country: Outsider Visions of America” offers films by Raúl Ruiz, Straub-Huillet, Wenders, Verhoeven and more.
Eternal Sunshine plays for free Friday night on Governor’s Island.
IFC Center
The rather staggering Abbas Kiarostami retrospective continues, with screenings of the Koker trilogy, Ten, Taste of Cherry, Certified Copy and more.
Metrograph...
Film at Lincoln Center
“Another Country: Outsider Visions of America” offers films by Raúl Ruiz, Straub-Huillet, Wenders, Verhoeven and more.
Eternal Sunshine plays for free Friday night on Governor’s Island.
IFC Center
The rather staggering Abbas Kiarostami retrospective continues, with screenings of the Koker trilogy, Ten, Taste of Cherry, Certified Copy and more.
Metrograph...
- 8/9/2019
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Jasmine Cephas Jones, who played Peggy Schuyler in the original cast of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s record-smashing Broadway musical Hamilton, has signed with ICM Partners. The move comes after she recently was set to guest star on the upcoming second season of NBC’s Midnight, Texas which premieres later this month.
Jones, a member of the the LAByrinth Theater Company whose theater credits include the off-Broadway Atlantic Theater’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, has been ramping up on the film and TV side. Her movie credits include Mistress America, the recent Sundance pics Blindspotting and Monsters and Men, and Annapurna’s Dog Days which bowed in August. In TV, she has also appeared on HBO’s Girls, CBS’ Blue Bloods and Bravo’s Odd Mom Out.
She’s next up in Noah Baumbach’s new Netflix movie.
Jones also recently debuted a fashion collaboration with Lou & Grey.
Jones, a member of the the LAByrinth Theater Company whose theater credits include the off-Broadway Atlantic Theater’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, has been ramping up on the film and TV side. Her movie credits include Mistress America, the recent Sundance pics Blindspotting and Monsters and Men, and Annapurna’s Dog Days which bowed in August. In TV, she has also appeared on HBO’s Girls, CBS’ Blue Bloods and Bravo’s Odd Mom Out.
She’s next up in Noah Baumbach’s new Netflix movie.
Jones also recently debuted a fashion collaboration with Lou & Grey.
- 10/10/2018
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Along with Roger Corman, Robert Aldrich seems to be the director most represented on Trailers from Hell. This prison-set anti-authoritarian football movie has similarities to The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Burt Reynolds, who also appeared in the 2005 Adam Sandler (!) remake, plays a violent anti-hero who makes us root for him against the corrupt establishment anyway, but Sandler in the remake is pretty much of a wimp. Remade in England as Mean Machine in 2001.
The post The Longest Yard appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post The Longest Yard appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 9/10/2018
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
Noor Theatre is casting four singing roles for a new play with songs called “Dead Are My People.” The show is being produced at New York Theatre Workshop’s Next Door and is the first full-length commission for the theater. The play is written by Ismail Khalidi (“Tennis in Nablus”), with original compositions by Hadi Eldebek (Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble) and direction by Leah C. Gardiner (“The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”). The title of the play comes from a poem by Khalil Gibran. The story follows Nicola, “a young Syrian man who flees to the U.S. from famine-stricken Mount Lebanon during World War I. Once there, he hopes to track down his uncle Tanios, who emigrated West years before. Finding few traces of his kin, Nicola must ultimately navigate the treacherous terrain of the Jim Crow South.” Two roles are already cast; the production is...
- 8/31/2018
- backstage.com
Movie adaptations of classic texts can be disappointing. Transitioning from one form to the next is dangerous, particularly when nothing original arises from the outgoing medium. Sometimes it’s as if the filmmakers have left the camera pointed at a stage-play or between the pages of a book. But the 1958 film adaptation of Look Back in Anger is a masterful translation of John Osborne’s (now-)classic play – incorporating the essence of the newly-emerging British New Wave and continuing the legacy of the “angry young men” literary movement.
Set in the grey and wet city of Derby, sweet-seller Jimmy Porter (Richard Burton) lives with his wife Alison (Mary Ure) and best friend Cliff (Gary Raymond). He is a stern, explosive individual – consistently aggressive and searingly misogynistic, even by the standards of 1958. Alison feels tired and trapped by him, never finding the right opportunity to say she’s carrying his child.
Set in the grey and wet city of Derby, sweet-seller Jimmy Porter (Richard Burton) lives with his wife Alison (Mary Ure) and best friend Cliff (Gary Raymond). He is a stern, explosive individual – consistently aggressive and searingly misogynistic, even by the standards of 1958. Alison feels tired and trapped by him, never finding the right opportunity to say she’s carrying his child.
- 4/17/2018
- by Euan Franklin
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The L-Shaped Room
Blu ray
Twilight Time
1962 / 1:85 / 126 Min. / Street Date December 19, 2017
Starring Leslie Caron, Tom Bell, Brock Peters
Cinematography by Douglas Slocombe
Written by Bryan Forbes
Music by Brahms, John Barry
Edited by Anthony Harvey
Produced by Richard Attenborough
Directed by Bryan Forbes
The winter of 1962 found British films at their most grandiose and self-effacing. Opening at the Odeon was Lawrence of Arabia, using every inch of that cavernous theater’s wide screen. Five minutes up the road Dr. No had just premiered in the smaller but no less lofty London Pavilion.
On the other side of the tracks art houses were bringing starry-eyed Brits back to earth with austere fare like John Schlesinger’s A Kind of Loving and Tony Richardson’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.
Those sober-minded dramas, shot in low key black and white with ramshackle flats and grey skies as their backdrops,...
Blu ray
Twilight Time
1962 / 1:85 / 126 Min. / Street Date December 19, 2017
Starring Leslie Caron, Tom Bell, Brock Peters
Cinematography by Douglas Slocombe
Written by Bryan Forbes
Music by Brahms, John Barry
Edited by Anthony Harvey
Produced by Richard Attenborough
Directed by Bryan Forbes
The winter of 1962 found British films at their most grandiose and self-effacing. Opening at the Odeon was Lawrence of Arabia, using every inch of that cavernous theater’s wide screen. Five minutes up the road Dr. No had just premiered in the smaller but no less lofty London Pavilion.
On the other side of the tracks art houses were bringing starry-eyed Brits back to earth with austere fare like John Schlesinger’s A Kind of Loving and Tony Richardson’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.
Those sober-minded dramas, shot in low key black and white with ramshackle flats and grey skies as their backdrops,...
- 2/6/2018
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. John Schlesinger's Billy Liar (1963) is playing July 16 - August 15, 2017 in the United States as part of the series John Schlesinger's First Masterpieces.Billy Fisher, a cheerful twenty-something lad from Yorkshire, is going to have a great future. For now, he only has a small office position in his dull small city, but Billy has already landed a job in London writing for a popular TV comedian. He is also working on a novel that soon enough will bring him fame and fortune. He is also engaged to a girl. Actually, two girls. And he doesn’t really want to marry any of them. Also, the TV star doesn’t really know that Billy exists. And he hasn’t started on the novel. Billy just has a vivid imagination and speaks before he thinks—some people prefer to call it compulsive lying.
- 7/24/2017
- MUBI
Supposedly ‘inspirational’ films tend to leave our critic reaching for the sick bag. He finds defeated boxers, desperate weathermen and boozy, cantankerous widowers far more uplifting
More uplifting culture for 2017
Can films be inspirational? Well, the good ones all are. And, in a broader sense, going to the cinema is a narcotic, luxurious experience that makes you feel inspired, uplifted and stimulated. But when people talk about “inspirational” films – underdogs achieving spectacular sporting success, charismatic teachers winning over pupils, people overcoming disabilities – I am sometimes a bit agnostic. An inspirational film often feels soupy and syrupy, schematic and cliched, faintly coercive and reactionary. Inspirational means aspirational, no arguments – and it brings out my ironic, grumpy Brit. When I’m asked for my favourite inspirational scene, I nominate Tom Courtenay’s final, miserable act of defiance in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.
One movie that was lauded as inspirational,...
More uplifting culture for 2017
Can films be inspirational? Well, the good ones all are. And, in a broader sense, going to the cinema is a narcotic, luxurious experience that makes you feel inspired, uplifted and stimulated. But when people talk about “inspirational” films – underdogs achieving spectacular sporting success, charismatic teachers winning over pupils, people overcoming disabilities – I am sometimes a bit agnostic. An inspirational film often feels soupy and syrupy, schematic and cliched, faintly coercive and reactionary. Inspirational means aspirational, no arguments – and it brings out my ironic, grumpy Brit. When I’m asked for my favourite inspirational scene, I nominate Tom Courtenay’s final, miserable act of defiance in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.
One movie that was lauded as inspirational,...
- 1/1/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Elfin Rita Tushingham makes a smash film debut as Shelagh Delaney's dispirited working class teen, on her own in Manchester and unprepared for the harsh truths of life. It's one of the best of the British New Wave. A Taste of Honey Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 829 1961 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 100 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 23, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Rita Tushingham, Dora Bryan, Paul Danquah, Murray Melvin, Robert Stephens. Cinematography Walter Lassally Film Editor Anthony Gibbs Original Music John Addison Written by Tony Richardson and Shelagh Delaney adapted from her stage play Produced and directed by Tony Richardson
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The British New Wave got a real shot in the arm with 1961's A Taste of Honey. A stubbornly realistic drama about life in the lower working classes of Manchester, it was adapted from a near-revolutionary play by Shelagh Delaney, produced by Joan Littlewood. Here in...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The British New Wave got a real shot in the arm with 1961's A Taste of Honey. A stubbornly realistic drama about life in the lower working classes of Manchester, it was adapted from a near-revolutionary play by Shelagh Delaney, produced by Joan Littlewood. Here in...
- 8/15/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“Everything But The Kitchen Sink”
By Raymond Benson
In the late 1950s, a film movement emerged in Britain known as “Free Cinema.” Some of the U.K.’s most celebrated filmmakers of the 1960s and 70s were among its practitioners—Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz, Lorenza Mazzetti, and Tony Richardson. The directors made low budget, short documentaries about the working class with an almost deliberate “non commercial” sensibility. It was radical and exciting, and it was a precursor to the British New Wave that dovetailed with the French New Wave that was so influential on filmmakers everywhere.
Many of the pictures of the British New Wave, released between 1959 and 1964, focused on characters described as “angry young men,” and the films themselves were referred to by critics and theorists as “kitchen sink dramas.” This was because the movies were presented in a harsh, realistic fashion and were indeed about the gritty, working...
By Raymond Benson
In the late 1950s, a film movement emerged in Britain known as “Free Cinema.” Some of the U.K.’s most celebrated filmmakers of the 1960s and 70s were among its practitioners—Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz, Lorenza Mazzetti, and Tony Richardson. The directors made low budget, short documentaries about the working class with an almost deliberate “non commercial” sensibility. It was radical and exciting, and it was a precursor to the British New Wave that dovetailed with the French New Wave that was so influential on filmmakers everywhere.
Many of the pictures of the British New Wave, released between 1959 and 1964, focused on characters described as “angry young men,” and the films themselves were referred to by critics and theorists as “kitchen sink dramas.” This was because the movies were presented in a harsh, realistic fashion and were indeed about the gritty, working...
- 8/13/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Our father, Tony Gibbs, who has died aged 90, was a film editor with a long and distinguished career. He was captivated by film from an early age and that interest was nurtured by his parents, Harold, a police officer, and Violet, a cook, who took him to see The Jazz Singer when he was three years old.
After serving in the Royal Marines during the second world war, Tony began his career in the film industry. He started as an assistant in the props department and ended up in the cutting rooms, where he considered himself privileged to have enjoyed successful collaborations with the directors Tony Richardson (for whom he edited A Taste of Honey, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and Tom Jones), Richard Lester (The Knack, Petulia and Juggernaut) and Nic Roeg (Walkabout and Performance). He definitely played a significant role in the “new wave” of British cinema during the 1960s.
After serving in the Royal Marines during the second world war, Tony began his career in the film industry. He started as an assistant in the props department and ended up in the cutting rooms, where he considered himself privileged to have enjoyed successful collaborations with the directors Tony Richardson (for whom he edited A Taste of Honey, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and Tom Jones), Richard Lester (The Knack, Petulia and Juggernaut) and Nic Roeg (Walkabout and Performance). He definitely played a significant role in the “new wave” of British cinema during the 1960s.
- 5/16/2016
- by Lesley Gibbs and Tessa Lumley
- The Guardian - Film News
The unstoppable Leonardo DiCaprio picked up another major award on Sunday, winning the best actor BAFTA for his role in The Revenant, which also won best picture at Britain's highest film honors. And he gave his mom, Irmelin, one heck of a birthday present. "There's one person I have to thank," DiCaprio said in his acceptance speech. "I would not be standing up here is it weren't for this person. I didn't grow up in a life of privilege - I grew up in a very rough neighborhood in East Los Angeles and this women drove me for three hours...
- 2/14/2016
- by Lindsay Kimble, @lekimble
- PEOPLE.com
The unstoppable Leonardo DiCaprio picked up another major award on Sunday, winning the best actor BAFTA for his role in The Revenant, which also won best picture at Britain's highest film honors. And he gave his mom, Irmelin, one heck of a birthday present. "There's one person I have to thank," DiCaprio said in his acceptance speech. "I would not be standing up here is it weren't for this person. I didn't grow up in a life of privilege - I grew up in a very rough neighborhood in East Los Angeles and this women drove me for three hours...
- 2/14/2016
- by Lindsay Kimble, @lekimble
- PEOPLE.com
By Howard Hughes
(The following review is of the UK release of the film on Region 2 format.)
In Roy Ward Baker’s 1960s comedy-drama Two Left Feet, Michael Crawford plays Alan Crabbe, a clumsy and unlucky-in-love 19-year-old who begins dating ‘Eileen, the Teacup Queen’, a waitress at his local cafe. She lives in Camden Town and there are rumours that she’s married, but that doesn’t seem to alter her behavior. Alan and Eileen travel into London’s ‘Floride Club’, where the Storyville Jazzmen play trad for the groovers and shakers. Eileen turns out to be a ‘right little madam’, who is really just stringing Alan along. She’s the kind of girl who only dates to get into places and then starts chatting to randoms once inside. She takes up with ruffian Ronnie, while Alan meets a nice girl, Beth Crowley. But Eileen holds a strange hold over...
(The following review is of the UK release of the film on Region 2 format.)
In Roy Ward Baker’s 1960s comedy-drama Two Left Feet, Michael Crawford plays Alan Crabbe, a clumsy and unlucky-in-love 19-year-old who begins dating ‘Eileen, the Teacup Queen’, a waitress at his local cafe. She lives in Camden Town and there are rumours that she’s married, but that doesn’t seem to alter her behavior. Alan and Eileen travel into London’s ‘Floride Club’, where the Storyville Jazzmen play trad for the groovers and shakers. Eileen turns out to be a ‘right little madam’, who is really just stringing Alan along. She’s the kind of girl who only dates to get into places and then starts chatting to randoms once inside. She takes up with ruffian Ronnie, while Alan meets a nice girl, Beth Crowley. But Eileen holds a strange hold over...
- 10/5/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
To categorise an entire country’s cinematic output in a single article is a seemingly impossible task, and one that will likely leave a cavalcade of audiences wondering where their favourite releases are located.
This feature however is designed as a tool to guide and inform viewers who perhaps aren’t as well-versed in the incredible range of motion pictures available worldwide, and to point them in the right direction so they can experience some truly remarkable content; to find a hidden gem.
The country that opened one’s eyes to the unfathomable range, beauty and quality of cinema was our geographically-near cousins France; the filmic culture thrives in amongst the quaint Parisian apartments, the swelling cigarette smoke and the existential conversations shared. Cinema’s rich history really began in France; revolutionary auteurs such as Georges Méliès, the Lumière Brothers and Luis Buñuel paved the way for the plethora of...
This feature however is designed as a tool to guide and inform viewers who perhaps aren’t as well-versed in the incredible range of motion pictures available worldwide, and to point them in the right direction so they can experience some truly remarkable content; to find a hidden gem.
The country that opened one’s eyes to the unfathomable range, beauty and quality of cinema was our geographically-near cousins France; the filmic culture thrives in amongst the quaint Parisian apartments, the swelling cigarette smoke and the existential conversations shared. Cinema’s rich history really began in France; revolutionary auteurs such as Georges Méliès, the Lumière Brothers and Luis Buñuel paved the way for the plethora of...
- 9/10/2014
- by Chris Haydon
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Two-time Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper announced this week (in an EW exclusive) that he’ll be returning to Broadway this fall to star in a revival of The Elephant Man opposite Patricia Clarkson and Alessandro Nivola. (Yes, it sounds like a stretch for People’s former Sexiest Man Alive — especially since Bernard Pomerance’s play does not require any prosthetics for the title role.) The David Byrne-Fatboy Slim musical Here Lies Love, which made EW’s Top 10 list last year, will return to the Public Theater in March for an open-ended run. And there were a handful of notable openings on both coasts,...
- 1/25/2014
- by Thom Geier
- EW.com - PopWatch
Atlantic Theater Company presents the American premiere production of award-winning British playwright Roy Williams' stage adaptation of Alan Sillitoe's beloved short story The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner, directed by Leah C. Gardiner. The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner features Eshan Bay, Sheldon Best, Zainab Jah,Jasmine Cephas Jones, Patrick Murney, Joshua E. Nelson, Sydney Sainte, Raviv Ullman, Todd Weeks and Malik Yoba.The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner began previews Wednesday, January 8, and officially opened last night, January 21, at Atlantic Theater Company's Stage 2 330 West 16th Street. Check out photos from opening night below...
- 1/22/2014
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
By Lee Pfeiffer
As Cinema Retro gets inundated with DVDs to review during the course of any given year, it's virtually impossible to keep up with all of them in a timely manner. Here are some notable titles you should be aware of:
Cabaret Blu-ray (Warner Home Video): Warner Home Video has inherited the rights to Bob Fosse's classic 1972 film adaptation of the stage production that, in turn, was based on Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. The Blu-ray comes packaged in one of those irresistible hardback book formats that is loaded with wonderful photos from the movie. The movie itself holds up superbly even after 40 years. The decline of Germany's Weimar Republic amidst the rise of National Socialism in the 1930s is seen through the eyes of nightclub singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) and her constant companions (Michael York, Helmut Griem) . Fosse's decision to emphasize the sleaze elements...
As Cinema Retro gets inundated with DVDs to review during the course of any given year, it's virtually impossible to keep up with all of them in a timely manner. Here are some notable titles you should be aware of:
Cabaret Blu-ray (Warner Home Video): Warner Home Video has inherited the rights to Bob Fosse's classic 1972 film adaptation of the stage production that, in turn, was based on Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. The Blu-ray comes packaged in one of those irresistible hardback book formats that is loaded with wonderful photos from the movie. The movie itself holds up superbly even after 40 years. The decline of Germany's Weimar Republic amidst the rise of National Socialism in the 1930s is seen through the eyes of nightclub singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) and her constant companions (Michael York, Helmut Griem) . Fosse's decision to emphasize the sleaze elements...
- 12/31/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
In 100 years of cinema, no American woman director has ever been invited to join the pantheon of international auteur directors. Non-American women directors like Andrea Arnold, Jane Campion, Liliana Cavani, Claire Denis, Marleen Gorris, Agnieszka Holland, Lynne Ramsay, Agnes Varda, Lina Wertmuller among others-- directors with bodies of work that match those of their male counterparts-- hardly exist in America, with the possible exceptions of masterful experimental directors, Maya Daren and Nina Menkes.
Kathryn Bigelow, who could be a top contender for American auteur director, had to leave America, after six years of unemployment, to seek financing in Europe, and is still not included with men among auteur directors. Other successful women directors who have made both commercially and critically successful features in America are mostly film and TV stars: Drew Barrymore, Jodie Foster, Penny Marshall, Barbra Streisand, Betty Thomas, to name a few. These directors have done fine work, but mostly within the confines of the studio system where, just once in a blue moon, a director like Nora Ephron, Catherina Hardwicke, Mimi Leder or Nancy Meyers can carve a niche.
The question arises, who are the American women directors whose films reveal the work of an auteur director? One could jump in with dozens of directors, from Anders, Arzner, Bigelow, Cholondenko, Coppola, Coolidge, Dash, Dunham, Hardwicke & Holofcener— just to start through the alphabet, but like Bigelow, none of these excellent directors is embraced as an auteur by the paternalist American film establishment.
In the United States less than 5% of feature films are directed by women, so for a director to emerge who is not already a women celebrity, is virtually impossible. Women directors usually make just one film before getting taken down early in the pipeline: if it’s not the misogynistic Hollywood studio system that expels them, their films are given paltry distribution and P&A budgets, or sometimes gender-biased critics comprised of over 80% males will likely taint their reviews.
One perfect example of a very fine American woman director whose body of work clearly distinguishes her as an auteur director is Jane Spencer. Jane Spencer is the director of the beloved low-budget indie feature Little Noises that premiered at Sundance some years ago to ecstatic reviews— and enamored audiences, and of Faces On Mars, which premiered in Europe at Solothurn. Her new film, The Ninth Cloud, which is being repped for distribution by Shoreline Entertainment is a dreamy, surreal marvel, which could do very well on the 2014 international festival circuit.
For Spencer, who dreams big, but must keep her budget small, ingenuity is the name of the game. As she says, “My dream as a kid was to direct big David Lean-style epics, so working within the framework I can create, I try to imbue my indie films with giant, epic themes.” Imagine if women directors like Spencer were afforded the budgets and opportunities to realize their immense talents for creating epic, visionary films.
I have always thought that film directors are like alchemists and magicians, but women directors have to be able to master another kind of magic as well: film financing in a void. Most women directors must cobble their production budgets together in any number of mysterious ways, and I wanted to know how Spencer had done it again. How did she succeed in making yet another wonderful feature film? How had she found the money?
Spencer answered the question with a question: “In an industry so difficult for women directors, how can any women director raise the money to make a film? You are basically forced to think outside the box. You just can’t give up. You try all the traditional methods: submit your script to actors, agents, studios, production companies, get it to friends in the business. They almost always lead to dead ends.
“So, finally, you go out and find it dollar-by-dollar— private equity from investors who like the project obviously, private loans you— yourself— take out. You get everything on the cheap, but keep the quality; get everyone to do you favors, but make sure they ‘get it’ and believe in the film. That’s the only way an American woman can make an indie feature film.”
Spencer shot The Ninth Cloud on super 16mm. Having a film camera instead of shooting digitally gives The Ninth Cloud a look that is simultaneously both very modern and nostalgic. As Spencer says, “It allows for the documentary, free-camera look I wanted to capture inspired by films like The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Darling, and Billy Liar. These low-budget 1960’s British kitchen sink films were an inspiration for Spencer, her Production Designer/Producer Richard Hudson and her Dp, Sam Mitchell. She goes on, “I wanted the film to express an impressionistic vision of Zena’s (the main character) world.”
In the film, in which we follow the dreamy, strange Zena, through what turn out to be her final days....Spencer glorifies the vulnerable Zena through a nuanced appreciation for her ability to “see.” Keeping her indie budget low, Spencer uses inexpensive, old film technology to record her character’s fleeting, childlike, and magical perception of the world around her—and it works beautifully. The film captures the elusive, dream-like moments, as fleeting as a painter’s sudden awareness of reflected sunlight glancing off rippling water-- impressionism-- that gets at the essence of art, and is the very reason we revere our great male “Masters of Cinema.”
As Spencer puts it: “I wanted to depict, from a women’s perspective for once, the victorious dreamer. One doesn’t have to accept ‘reality’ to live a meaningful life. Whatever your journey is—stay with your dream. You cannot be dissuaded by pressure to conform to social norms, systems, or institutions that tell you ‘cannot' because it’s 'unrealistic' or 'impossible.'"
We all know that numerically, becoming a female film director in America is virtually impossible— as former DGA president, Martha Coolidge says: “like winning the lottery.” It’s a bizarre anomaly that America, the leader of the free world, virtually excludes women from its most culturally influential global export—media. Hollywood’s level of support of women film directors is among the worst in the world, something that is now accentuated by the recent drafting of international charters that promote the gender equity among women directors in many countries outside the United States.
However, making feature films that move and inspire audiences is Spencer’s quest and she has not been dissuaded by statistics. She says: “This was a very, very difficult film to finance. We had some wonderful equity investors, our own company invested a lot of the money-- especially for post, and there turned out to be not many pre-sales. It was very much patchwork financing, very hard, and we filmed it over the space of a year, in sections, because budget-wise, we had to.”
Even after her critical success at Sundance her studio meetings were difficult. After years of struggling to get financed out of L.A., Spencer happened to move to Europe for personal reasons, and immediately had much better luck.
"We got it done-- though at times we didn’t think we would. We started financing in 2008 when the financial crisis happened, so some of our financiers fell out. Our wonderful male lead at the time, Guillaume Depardieu, whom I adored, died of pneumonia on a set in Romania. I really wondered if this film would happen - for a moment. But then the producers and I got right back up on our feet and started financing it again. We found the amazing lead actress Megan Maczko in a play on London’s West End....Michael Madsen, who is great in the film—so sympathetic -- playing a dishwasher/poet (instead of a guy with a gun) - was lovely and stayed with the project....and we got the great French actor Jean Hugues Anglade onboard - We got right back up on our feet and started financing it again. By 2011 we had finished shooting. We’ve been in post for two years: all of 2012 and much of 2013.”
All the hard work has been well worth the effort. Spencer’s multi-layered film is woven with themes of Djuna Barnes and Baudelaire and traverses the landscapes of Marcel Carne and Antonioni. What makes the film so exceptional is how freshly these motifs have been re-imagined through this director’s effortless lens. The Ninth Cloud is at once tender and deeply moving, yet it manages to reject sentimentalities while glorifying its heroine and uplifting the audience.
Will women directors like Spencer ever join the pantheon of international male auteur directors? That depends upon the whether or not the U.S. cultural consciousness evolves to finally embrace gender equity in our nation’s most influential global export—media. Only then will women directors get the budgets and opportunities to test their metal and take their rightful places in the annals of American cinema.
The Ninth Cloud will be opening in select theaters internationally starting 2014.
Please visit The Int’l List of Living Women Directors: http://www.womendirectorsinhollywood.com/
Marie Giese is American feature film director, a writer, a member & elected Director Category Representative for women at the DGA. She graduated from Wellesley College and UCLA graduate film schooland co-founded the foremost international web forum for political action for women directors (Visit Here). An activist for parity for women directors in Hollywood, she is in development to direct two feature films Rain and Treasure Hunt...
Kathryn Bigelow, who could be a top contender for American auteur director, had to leave America, after six years of unemployment, to seek financing in Europe, and is still not included with men among auteur directors. Other successful women directors who have made both commercially and critically successful features in America are mostly film and TV stars: Drew Barrymore, Jodie Foster, Penny Marshall, Barbra Streisand, Betty Thomas, to name a few. These directors have done fine work, but mostly within the confines of the studio system where, just once in a blue moon, a director like Nora Ephron, Catherina Hardwicke, Mimi Leder or Nancy Meyers can carve a niche.
The question arises, who are the American women directors whose films reveal the work of an auteur director? One could jump in with dozens of directors, from Anders, Arzner, Bigelow, Cholondenko, Coppola, Coolidge, Dash, Dunham, Hardwicke & Holofcener— just to start through the alphabet, but like Bigelow, none of these excellent directors is embraced as an auteur by the paternalist American film establishment.
In the United States less than 5% of feature films are directed by women, so for a director to emerge who is not already a women celebrity, is virtually impossible. Women directors usually make just one film before getting taken down early in the pipeline: if it’s not the misogynistic Hollywood studio system that expels them, their films are given paltry distribution and P&A budgets, or sometimes gender-biased critics comprised of over 80% males will likely taint their reviews.
One perfect example of a very fine American woman director whose body of work clearly distinguishes her as an auteur director is Jane Spencer. Jane Spencer is the director of the beloved low-budget indie feature Little Noises that premiered at Sundance some years ago to ecstatic reviews— and enamored audiences, and of Faces On Mars, which premiered in Europe at Solothurn. Her new film, The Ninth Cloud, which is being repped for distribution by Shoreline Entertainment is a dreamy, surreal marvel, which could do very well on the 2014 international festival circuit.
For Spencer, who dreams big, but must keep her budget small, ingenuity is the name of the game. As she says, “My dream as a kid was to direct big David Lean-style epics, so working within the framework I can create, I try to imbue my indie films with giant, epic themes.” Imagine if women directors like Spencer were afforded the budgets and opportunities to realize their immense talents for creating epic, visionary films.
I have always thought that film directors are like alchemists and magicians, but women directors have to be able to master another kind of magic as well: film financing in a void. Most women directors must cobble their production budgets together in any number of mysterious ways, and I wanted to know how Spencer had done it again. How did she succeed in making yet another wonderful feature film? How had she found the money?
Spencer answered the question with a question: “In an industry so difficult for women directors, how can any women director raise the money to make a film? You are basically forced to think outside the box. You just can’t give up. You try all the traditional methods: submit your script to actors, agents, studios, production companies, get it to friends in the business. They almost always lead to dead ends.
“So, finally, you go out and find it dollar-by-dollar— private equity from investors who like the project obviously, private loans you— yourself— take out. You get everything on the cheap, but keep the quality; get everyone to do you favors, but make sure they ‘get it’ and believe in the film. That’s the only way an American woman can make an indie feature film.”
Spencer shot The Ninth Cloud on super 16mm. Having a film camera instead of shooting digitally gives The Ninth Cloud a look that is simultaneously both very modern and nostalgic. As Spencer says, “It allows for the documentary, free-camera look I wanted to capture inspired by films like The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Darling, and Billy Liar. These low-budget 1960’s British kitchen sink films were an inspiration for Spencer, her Production Designer/Producer Richard Hudson and her Dp, Sam Mitchell. She goes on, “I wanted the film to express an impressionistic vision of Zena’s (the main character) world.”
In the film, in which we follow the dreamy, strange Zena, through what turn out to be her final days....Spencer glorifies the vulnerable Zena through a nuanced appreciation for her ability to “see.” Keeping her indie budget low, Spencer uses inexpensive, old film technology to record her character’s fleeting, childlike, and magical perception of the world around her—and it works beautifully. The film captures the elusive, dream-like moments, as fleeting as a painter’s sudden awareness of reflected sunlight glancing off rippling water-- impressionism-- that gets at the essence of art, and is the very reason we revere our great male “Masters of Cinema.”
As Spencer puts it: “I wanted to depict, from a women’s perspective for once, the victorious dreamer. One doesn’t have to accept ‘reality’ to live a meaningful life. Whatever your journey is—stay with your dream. You cannot be dissuaded by pressure to conform to social norms, systems, or institutions that tell you ‘cannot' because it’s 'unrealistic' or 'impossible.'"
We all know that numerically, becoming a female film director in America is virtually impossible— as former DGA president, Martha Coolidge says: “like winning the lottery.” It’s a bizarre anomaly that America, the leader of the free world, virtually excludes women from its most culturally influential global export—media. Hollywood’s level of support of women film directors is among the worst in the world, something that is now accentuated by the recent drafting of international charters that promote the gender equity among women directors in many countries outside the United States.
However, making feature films that move and inspire audiences is Spencer’s quest and she has not been dissuaded by statistics. She says: “This was a very, very difficult film to finance. We had some wonderful equity investors, our own company invested a lot of the money-- especially for post, and there turned out to be not many pre-sales. It was very much patchwork financing, very hard, and we filmed it over the space of a year, in sections, because budget-wise, we had to.”
Even after her critical success at Sundance her studio meetings were difficult. After years of struggling to get financed out of L.A., Spencer happened to move to Europe for personal reasons, and immediately had much better luck.
"We got it done-- though at times we didn’t think we would. We started financing in 2008 when the financial crisis happened, so some of our financiers fell out. Our wonderful male lead at the time, Guillaume Depardieu, whom I adored, died of pneumonia on a set in Romania. I really wondered if this film would happen - for a moment. But then the producers and I got right back up on our feet and started financing it again. We found the amazing lead actress Megan Maczko in a play on London’s West End....Michael Madsen, who is great in the film—so sympathetic -- playing a dishwasher/poet (instead of a guy with a gun) - was lovely and stayed with the project....and we got the great French actor Jean Hugues Anglade onboard - We got right back up on our feet and started financing it again. By 2011 we had finished shooting. We’ve been in post for two years: all of 2012 and much of 2013.”
All the hard work has been well worth the effort. Spencer’s multi-layered film is woven with themes of Djuna Barnes and Baudelaire and traverses the landscapes of Marcel Carne and Antonioni. What makes the film so exceptional is how freshly these motifs have been re-imagined through this director’s effortless lens. The Ninth Cloud is at once tender and deeply moving, yet it manages to reject sentimentalities while glorifying its heroine and uplifting the audience.
Will women directors like Spencer ever join the pantheon of international male auteur directors? That depends upon the whether or not the U.S. cultural consciousness evolves to finally embrace gender equity in our nation’s most influential global export—media. Only then will women directors get the budgets and opportunities to test their metal and take their rightful places in the annals of American cinema.
The Ninth Cloud will be opening in select theaters internationally starting 2014.
Please visit The Int’l List of Living Women Directors: http://www.womendirectorsinhollywood.com/
Marie Giese is American feature film director, a writer, a member & elected Director Category Representative for women at the DGA. She graduated from Wellesley College and UCLA graduate film schooland co-founded the foremost international web forum for political action for women directors (Visit Here). An activist for parity for women directors in Hollywood, she is in development to direct two feature films Rain and Treasure Hunt...
- 12/9/2013
- by Maria Giese
- Sydney's Buzz
Feature James Clayton 4 Oct 2013 - 06:14
James is off to never never-land, as he considers Metallica: Through The Never and the band's appearances in the movies...
A Metallica movie? Oh yeah? Say f*ck yeah, James! I'm there and I'm throwing up heavy metal horns and headbanging like a maniac. Unfortunately, trying to watch a film and simultaneously make moshpit movements is a tricky feat to pull off.
It raises a distressing dilemma: "to rock out or not to rock out?" It's a little like those moments where you're enjoying a musical and can't resist singing along, except with the Headbanger Hamlet question, there's little chance of you being able to follow what's happening on screen.
You can't properly appreciate, say, the cinematography and nuanced depth of the acting performances with blurred vision and flailing hair in your eyes. Also, as unfortunate possible side effects, you can end up...
James is off to never never-land, as he considers Metallica: Through The Never and the band's appearances in the movies...
A Metallica movie? Oh yeah? Say f*ck yeah, James! I'm there and I'm throwing up heavy metal horns and headbanging like a maniac. Unfortunately, trying to watch a film and simultaneously make moshpit movements is a tricky feat to pull off.
It raises a distressing dilemma: "to rock out or not to rock out?" It's a little like those moments where you're enjoying a musical and can't resist singing along, except with the Headbanger Hamlet question, there's little chance of you being able to follow what's happening on screen.
You can't properly appreciate, say, the cinematography and nuanced depth of the acting performances with blurred vision and flailing hair in your eyes. Also, as unfortunate possible side effects, you can end up...
- 10/2/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Feature Simon Brew 15 Jul 2013 - 06:39
We asked you what bizarre film choices your teachers foisted on you. Er, there’s a wide selection...
As we get towards the end of the school year, teachers across the country are united in reaching either for a legion of board games, or a few films to watch to keep their charges quiet.
Personally, I got a mix of teachers and their film choices. We were shown The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner once, and it wasn’t for a few years that I realised that said teacher had edited the copy himself, to remove anything that he deemed ‘inappropriate’. He deemed a lot inappropriate, to be fair to him.
But also, school was the place where in Religious Education we had to sit through Gandhi, in English we had to sit through any Shakespeare adaptation that came to hand, and then one day,...
We asked you what bizarre film choices your teachers foisted on you. Er, there’s a wide selection...
As we get towards the end of the school year, teachers across the country are united in reaching either for a legion of board games, or a few films to watch to keep their charges quiet.
Personally, I got a mix of teachers and their film choices. We were shown The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner once, and it wasn’t for a few years that I realised that said teacher had edited the copy himself, to remove anything that he deemed ‘inappropriate’. He deemed a lot inappropriate, to be fair to him.
But also, school was the place where in Religious Education we had to sit through Gandhi, in English we had to sit through any Shakespeare adaptation that came to hand, and then one day,...
- 7/12/2013
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
New York — The world premiere of Ethan Coen's first full-length stage play, a revival of "The Threepenny Opera" and a new play by Stephen Adly Guirgis will highlight the Atlantic Theater Company's upcoming season.
The company unveiled its slate of 2013-14 offerings Thursday, which also includes a stage adaptation of Alan Sillitoe's beloved short story "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" adapted by British playwright Roy Williams.
Coen, half of the prolific filmmaking Coen brothers, offers his "Women or Nothing," about two women desperate to have a child. It will be directed by David Cromer and begin performances Aug. 28.
The Atlantic also produced Coen's "Happy Hour," a collection of three short dark comedies. He also wrote one-third of "Relatively Speaking," three one-acts on Broadway in 2011 that also included works by Woody Allen and Elaine May.
The revival of the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill masterpiece "The Threepenny Opera...
The company unveiled its slate of 2013-14 offerings Thursday, which also includes a stage adaptation of Alan Sillitoe's beloved short story "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" adapted by British playwright Roy Williams.
Coen, half of the prolific filmmaking Coen brothers, offers his "Women or Nothing," about two women desperate to have a child. It will be directed by David Cromer and begin performances Aug. 28.
The Atlantic also produced Coen's "Happy Hour," a collection of three short dark comedies. He also wrote one-third of "Relatively Speaking," three one-acts on Broadway in 2011 that also included works by Woody Allen and Elaine May.
The revival of the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt Weill masterpiece "The Threepenny Opera...
- 5/23/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Ken Loach's The Angels' Share gets underway as a hard-hitting squint at the unemployed of Glasgow before rather perversely turning into an uplifting crime caper with a Disneyesque finale. But maybe, just maybe, a little Walt is what the have-nots are crying out for right now.
Loach, who has been zeroing in on the working class for over 45 years (Poor Cow (1967); Riff-Raff (1991)), and his longtime screenwriter Paul Laverty (The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)) have concocted a group of societal misfits who've all wound up in court and sentenced to community service.
One, Albert (Gary Maitland), is a dull-witted hard drinker who's been arrested for plummeting onto some train tracks; another, kleptomaniac Mo (Jasmine Riggins), has filched a macaw; and a third, Rhino (William Ruane), has continuously affronted public statuary, sometimes with urine. But our main Cinderella/hero here is Robbie (Paul Brannigan).
With a scar down one cheek...
Loach, who has been zeroing in on the working class for over 45 years (Poor Cow (1967); Riff-Raff (1991)), and his longtime screenwriter Paul Laverty (The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)) have concocted a group of societal misfits who've all wound up in court and sentenced to community service.
One, Albert (Gary Maitland), is a dull-witted hard drinker who's been arrested for plummeting onto some train tracks; another, kleptomaniac Mo (Jasmine Riggins), has filched a macaw; and a third, Rhino (William Ruane), has continuously affronted public statuary, sometimes with urine. But our main Cinderella/hero here is Robbie (Paul Brannigan).
With a scar down one cheek...
- 4/9/2013
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
From Marathon Man to Forrest Gump, we complete a circuit of the best running-themed films. What's your favourite? Let us know below
Since the moment Eadweard Muybridge captured a man sprinting in 1887 runners have worn a path across the cinematic landscape. Whether on the pristine oval of an Olympic running track, a dusty patch in a prison rec yard or the damp tarmac of a rural country road, film has documented the sweat and solitude of running in all its pain and glory.
Here are 10 of the best.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Reading this on mobile? Click here to view the video
Opening with the sound of Tom Courtenay's feet thudding against a bleak rural lane, Tony Richardson and Alan Sillitoe's 1962 British New Wave classic is one of the most poetic running films in cinematic history. As Colin Smith, a petty delinquent, Courtenay gives a...
Since the moment Eadweard Muybridge captured a man sprinting in 1887 runners have worn a path across the cinematic landscape. Whether on the pristine oval of an Olympic running track, a dusty patch in a prison rec yard or the damp tarmac of a rural country road, film has documented the sweat and solitude of running in all its pain and glory.
Here are 10 of the best.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Reading this on mobile? Click here to view the video
Opening with the sound of Tom Courtenay's feet thudding against a bleak rural lane, Tony Richardson and Alan Sillitoe's 1962 British New Wave classic is one of the most poetic running films in cinematic history. As Colin Smith, a petty delinquent, Courtenay gives a...
- 2/18/2013
- by Adam Dewar
- The Guardian - Film News
Jazz trumpeter with the Chris Barber band whose playing style was described as 'high-spirited, crisp and clear'
The career of the jazz trumpeter Pat Halcox, who has died aged 82, was defined by the exceptional length of his musical partnership with the trombonist Chris Barber. Halcox explained the longevity of this relationship in a 2008 interview: "Chris always cared so much about what he was doing, and that's why I stayed with him. I've seen the world, made good friends with wonderful musicians, played for huge crowds in fabulous places. I have to thank Chris for all that."
Described by the critic Max Jones as having a playing style that was "high-spirited, crisp and clear", Halcox enjoyed a half-century tenure with Barber's band. It embraced periods of extraordinary success during the heady days of the trad-jazz boom; frequent tours with star Us jazzmen; playing visits to Europe, the Us and Australia; film...
The career of the jazz trumpeter Pat Halcox, who has died aged 82, was defined by the exceptional length of his musical partnership with the trombonist Chris Barber. Halcox explained the longevity of this relationship in a 2008 interview: "Chris always cared so much about what he was doing, and that's why I stayed with him. I've seen the world, made good friends with wonderful musicians, played for huge crowds in fabulous places. I have to thank Chris for all that."
Described by the critic Max Jones as having a playing style that was "high-spirited, crisp and clear", Halcox enjoyed a half-century tenure with Barber's band. It embraced periods of extraordinary success during the heady days of the trad-jazz boom; frequent tours with star Us jazzmen; playing visits to Europe, the Us and Australia; film...
- 2/10/2013
- by Peter Vacher
- The Guardian - Film News
This dour slice of prison life centres on a depressed juvenile offender coming into conflict with the insensitive warders and the understanding governor during the last days of his sentence in a run-down Romanian jail. The trouble is triggered by his determination to prevent his feckless mother taking his younger brother to live in Italy. The tone, though not the style, brings to mind The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.
DramaWorld cinemaPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
DramaWorld cinemaPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 5/19/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Italian Film Festival In Scotland
The cream of Italy's recent output is served here, including a host of festival winners. Oscar entry Terraferma contrasts the stunning Sicilian landscape with issues of seaside poverty and immigration, while the latter topic also crops up in the realist drama Our Life, for which Elio Germano won a Cannes best actor award in 2010. The big winner at the national Donatello awards, We Believed, is a three-hour account exploring Italy's reunification, and for perspective there are classics such as Elio Petri's Oscar-winning 1970 thriller Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion.
Dca, Dundee; Edinburgh Filmhouse; Gft, Glasgow; Eden Court, Inverness, Fri to 26 Apr
Terracotta Far East Film Festival, London
If names such as Sion Sono, Kim Ki-duk and, um, Kevin Spacey, or a summary like, "fish grow legs and attack Okinawa" mean something to you, then this is your kind of festival. It's mostly fresh Japanese and South Korean movies,...
The cream of Italy's recent output is served here, including a host of festival winners. Oscar entry Terraferma contrasts the stunning Sicilian landscape with issues of seaside poverty and immigration, while the latter topic also crops up in the realist drama Our Life, for which Elio Germano won a Cannes best actor award in 2010. The big winner at the national Donatello awards, We Believed, is a three-hour account exploring Italy's reunification, and for perspective there are classics such as Elio Petri's Oscar-winning 1970 thriller Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion.
Dca, Dundee; Edinburgh Filmhouse; Gft, Glasgow; Eden Court, Inverness, Fri to 26 Apr
Terracotta Far East Film Festival, London
If names such as Sion Sono, Kim Ki-duk and, um, Kevin Spacey, or a summary like, "fish grow legs and attack Okinawa" mean something to you, then this is your kind of festival. It's mostly fresh Japanese and South Korean movies,...
- 4/6/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
We know the greats; movies like Metropolis (1927), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Star Wars (1977).
And there are those films which maybe didn’t achieve cinematic greatness, but through their inexhaustible watchability became genre touchstones, lesser classics but classics nonetheless, like The War of the Worlds (1953), Godzilla (1954), Them! (1954), The Time Machine (1960).
In the realm of science fiction cinema, those are the cream (and below that, maybe the half and half). But sci fi is one of those genres which has often too readily leant itself to – not to torture an analogy — producing nonfat dairy substitute.
During the first, great wave of sci fi movies in the 1950s, the target audience was kids and teens. There wasn’t a lot in the way of “serious” sci fi. Most of it was churned out quick and cheap; drive-in fodder, grist for the Saturday matinee mill.
By the early 1960s,...
And there are those films which maybe didn’t achieve cinematic greatness, but through their inexhaustible watchability became genre touchstones, lesser classics but classics nonetheless, like The War of the Worlds (1953), Godzilla (1954), Them! (1954), The Time Machine (1960).
In the realm of science fiction cinema, those are the cream (and below that, maybe the half and half). But sci fi is one of those genres which has often too readily leant itself to – not to torture an analogy — producing nonfat dairy substitute.
During the first, great wave of sci fi movies in the 1950s, the target audience was kids and teens. There wasn’t a lot in the way of “serious” sci fi. Most of it was churned out quick and cheap; drive-in fodder, grist for the Saturday matinee mill.
By the early 1960s,...
- 3/17/2012
- by Bill Mesce
- SoundOnSight
McG chats to us about, Tom Hardy, Spaced, and Terminator: Salvation’s ending...
Three years after Terminator: Salvation, McG is back. Only this time, there’s no CGI Arnie. Instead, This Means War gives us two staple ingredients from the McG menu: spies and suburbia.
The film sees Chris Pine and Tom Hardy battle it out as two of the most un-covert CIA agents you’re ever likely to see, and Reese Witherspoon doing things that mainstream movie characters don’t usually do – dating more than one guy, and being friends with Chelsea Handler.
In person, McG is probably the most enthusiastic person you’re ever likely to meet amidst the conveyor belt routine of a Hollywood movie junket. The man is like a machine, albeit less Terminator, more Energiser Bunny. Here’s what he had to say on casting Tom Hardy as a romantic lead, his love of the British,...
Three years after Terminator: Salvation, McG is back. Only this time, there’s no CGI Arnie. Instead, This Means War gives us two staple ingredients from the McG menu: spies and suburbia.
The film sees Chris Pine and Tom Hardy battle it out as two of the most un-covert CIA agents you’re ever likely to see, and Reese Witherspoon doing things that mainstream movie characters don’t usually do – dating more than one guy, and being friends with Chelsea Handler.
In person, McG is probably the most enthusiastic person you’re ever likely to meet amidst the conveyor belt routine of a Hollywood movie junket. The man is like a machine, albeit less Terminator, more Energiser Bunny. Here’s what he had to say on casting Tom Hardy as a romantic lead, his love of the British,...
- 2/27/2012
- Den of Geek
Title: Berlin 36 Directed By: Kaspar Heidelbach Written By: Lothar Kurzawa, story by Eric Friedler Cast: Karoline Herfurth, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Axel Prahl, August Zimer, Maria Happel Screened at: Critics’ DVD, NYC, 8/27/11 Opens: September 16, 2011 at New York’s Quad Cinema If you’ve ever had a fight with your family in your one-tv home-you want to watch the Jets game and Mom insists on seeing the 6.30 news with Scott Pelley-you’d get the idea that sports and politics exist in two separate worlds. And they do for the most part, but sometimes they intersect. In one motion picture example, Tony Richardson’s “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, a marathon...
- 8/28/2011
- by Brian Corder
- ShockYa
And it’s the good one, folks.
Along with Roger Corman, Robert Aldrich seems to be the director most represented on Trailers from Hell. This prison-set anti-authoritarian football movie has similarities to The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Burt Reynolds, who also appeared in the 2005 Adam Sandler(!) remake, plays a violent anti-hero who makes us root for him against the corrupt establishment anyway, but Sandler in the remake is pretty much of a wimp. Remade in England as Mean Machine in 2001.
Click here to watch the trailer.
You ask a certain age of people about Burt Reynolds and you’re likely to get a scoff, if only because this kind of thing:
Truth is (and if you’re in the know, you know), he’s kind of great. And, as Josh mentions, he was a certified movie star. (Though White Lightning isn’t just a “pretty good” movie; it’s great,...
Along with Roger Corman, Robert Aldrich seems to be the director most represented on Trailers from Hell. This prison-set anti-authoritarian football movie has similarities to The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Burt Reynolds, who also appeared in the 2005 Adam Sandler(!) remake, plays a violent anti-hero who makes us root for him against the corrupt establishment anyway, but Sandler in the remake is pretty much of a wimp. Remade in England as Mean Machine in 2001.
Click here to watch the trailer.
You ask a certain age of people about Burt Reynolds and you’re likely to get a scoff, if only because this kind of thing:
Truth is (and if you’re in the know, you know), he’s kind of great. And, as Josh mentions, he was a certified movie star. (Though White Lightning isn’t just a “pretty good” movie; it’s great,...
- 8/17/2011
- by Danny
- Trailers from Hell
A mashup of awesome from more awesome gurus. Let’s roll these legends out!
On Monday, August 15, join Mick Garris for the trailer to The Legend of Hell House.
Former Aip head James Nicholson formed Academy Pictures to produce his own projects and this one, of only two released after his death, validates the difference between former partner Sam Arkoff’s aesthetic and his own. Richard Matheson’s popular haunted house novel, transposed to England, receives a classy production with A-level promotion, although the sexuality is a bit toned down.
On Wednesday, August 17, join Josh Olson for the trailer to The Longest Yard.
Along with Roger Corman, Robert Aldrich seems to be the director most represented on Trailers from Hell. This prison-set anti-authoritarian football movie has similarities to The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Burt Reynolds, who also appeared in the 2005 Adam Sandler(!) remake, plays a violent anti-hero who...
On Monday, August 15, join Mick Garris for the trailer to The Legend of Hell House.
Former Aip head James Nicholson formed Academy Pictures to produce his own projects and this one, of only two released after his death, validates the difference between former partner Sam Arkoff’s aesthetic and his own. Richard Matheson’s popular haunted house novel, transposed to England, receives a classy production with A-level promotion, although the sexuality is a bit toned down.
On Wednesday, August 17, join Josh Olson for the trailer to The Longest Yard.
Along with Roger Corman, Robert Aldrich seems to be the director most represented on Trailers from Hell. This prison-set anti-authoritarian football movie has similarities to The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Burt Reynolds, who also appeared in the 2005 Adam Sandler(!) remake, plays a violent anti-hero who...
- 8/15/2011
- by Danny
- Trailers from Hell
Trailer for Benjamin Heisenberg’s The Robber with subtitles has hit the web! I’m sure this already sounds familiar to you, and I’m sure you remember us writing about this project.
The Robber is Heisenberg’s 2010 film which tells the real-life story of marathon runner Johann Rettenberger, known as “Pump-gun Ronnie,” who made a hobby of robbing banks.
The movie premiered at the Berlin Film Festival is based on author Martin Prinz‘ source tome Der Räuber.
Sony bought the English-language remake rights to Austrian helmer Benjamin Heisenberg’s movie but in the meantime the original is getting a limited release in the Us on April 29, 2011.
Check out the rest of this report for more story details.
“In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger was the most wanted criminal in Austria. Known as Pump-gun Ronnie because of the weapon he used and the Ronald Reagan mask he wore for his robberies,...
The Robber is Heisenberg’s 2010 film which tells the real-life story of marathon runner Johann Rettenberger, known as “Pump-gun Ronnie,” who made a hobby of robbing banks.
The movie premiered at the Berlin Film Festival is based on author Martin Prinz‘ source tome Der Räuber.
Sony bought the English-language remake rights to Austrian helmer Benjamin Heisenberg’s movie but in the meantime the original is getting a limited release in the Us on April 29, 2011.
Check out the rest of this report for more story details.
“In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger was the most wanted criminal in Austria. Known as Pump-gun Ronnie because of the weapon he used and the Ronald Reagan mask he wore for his robberies,...
- 4/12/2011
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
Here's the trailer for a great looking film based on a true story called The Robber about a marathon runner who robs banks. The film was directed by Austrian director Benjamin Heisenberg, and it looks pretty suspenseful.
The film is based on the book by Martin Prinz which was published in English under the title of On the Run. Here's the description of the book,
In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger was the most wanted criminal in Austria. Known as Pumpgun Ronnie because of the weapon he used and the Ronald Reagan mask he wore for his robberies, he sometimes robbed two or three banks on the same day. He was also wanted for one murder, unconnected with the bank robberies. Unusually for a bank-robber, he was also a keen amateur marathon runner and had won several races. He jumped out of a window during questioning and escaped by running into the Vienna Woods.
The film is based on the book by Martin Prinz which was published in English under the title of On the Run. Here's the description of the book,
In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger was the most wanted criminal in Austria. Known as Pumpgun Ronnie because of the weapon he used and the Ronald Reagan mask he wore for his robberies, he sometimes robbed two or three banks on the same day. He was also wanted for one murder, unconnected with the bank robberies. Unusually for a bank-robber, he was also a keen amateur marathon runner and had won several races. He jumped out of a window during questioning and escaped by running into the Vienna Woods.
- 4/7/2011
- by Venkman
- GeekTyrant
We first started to get wind of The Robber, Austrian director Benjamin Heisenberg's account of the true story of a marathon runner who robs banks, when it hit a couple festivals last year. It was promptly snapped up by Sony [1] for a possible remake, but in the meantime the well-received original is getting a limited release in the States. Check out a trailer below. This is basically the same trailer that was cut for Germany, only with a few English-language changes. Still, it looks like it might be a thrilling little film. The source material is Martin Prinz‘s book Der Rauber, which was published in English as On the Run. and is described in detail as follows: In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger was the most wanted criminal in Austria. Known as Pumpgun Ronnie because of the weapon he used and the Ronald Reagan mask he wore for his robberies,...
- 4/7/2011
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
Alan Rickman is in talks to join Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz in CBS Films' "Gambit," a remake of the 1966 British caper comedy that originally starred Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine.According to Variety, veteran English actor Sir Tom Courtenay ("The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner," "Doctor Zhivago") has also joined the cast.Shooting begins in London in May with Michael Hoffman ("The Last Station") directing.Joel and Ethan Coen are writing the script.Crime Scene Pictures' Mike Lobell, Adam Ripp and Rob Paris are producing.Firth plays a London art curator planning an elaborate con to convince a rich collector (Rickman) into buying a fake Monet painting. He recruits a Texas steer roper (Diaz) to pretend to be a woman whose grandfather...
- 3/23/2011
- by Adnan Tezer
- Monsters and Critics
I’m sure this already sounds familiar to you, and I’m sure you remember us writing about this project back in December. The Robber is an upcoming remake of Benjamin Heisenberg’s 2010 film which tells the real-life story of marathon runner Johann Rettenberger, known as “Pump-gun Ronnie,” who made a hobby of robbing banks.
Well, guess what, now it looks that Andrew Garfield is set to star in a remake of the German film.
So, according to the latest reports, The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield has watched the original and expressed interest in playing the lead part. On the other hand, we also learned that Laura Ziskin, producer of The Amazing Spider-Man is also in charge for producing the “Robber” remake.
Based on author Martin Prinz‘s source tome, The Robber (Der Räuber) tells the real-life story that goes like this:
“In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger...
Well, guess what, now it looks that Andrew Garfield is set to star in a remake of the German film.
So, according to the latest reports, The Amazing Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield has watched the original and expressed interest in playing the lead part. On the other hand, we also learned that Laura Ziskin, producer of The Amazing Spider-Man is also in charge for producing the “Robber” remake.
Based on author Martin Prinz‘s source tome, The Robber (Der Räuber) tells the real-life story that goes like this:
“In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger...
- 3/6/2011
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
Sony has bought the English-language remake rights to Austrian helmer Benjamin Heisenberg‘s The Robber.
That’s the big news and quite fast Sony reaction because the movie just opened in Germany in March after a premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.
But that’s not such a surprise, since we all know that this time last year, Sony and Scott Rudin snapped up remake rights to Swedish-language hit The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
So, at this moment still no director is attached, but we do know that Laura Ziskin will serve as producer on The Robber.
Based on author Martin Prinz‘s source tome, The Robber (Der Räuber) tells the real-life story of marathon runner Johann Rettenberger, known as “Pump-gun Ronnie,” who made a hobby of robbing banks. Check out the rest of this report for more story details.
“In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger was the most wanted criminal in Austria.
That’s the big news and quite fast Sony reaction because the movie just opened in Germany in March after a premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.
But that’s not such a surprise, since we all know that this time last year, Sony and Scott Rudin snapped up remake rights to Swedish-language hit The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
So, at this moment still no director is attached, but we do know that Laura Ziskin will serve as producer on The Robber.
Based on author Martin Prinz‘s source tome, The Robber (Der Räuber) tells the real-life story of marathon runner Johann Rettenberger, known as “Pump-gun Ronnie,” who made a hobby of robbing banks. Check out the rest of this report for more story details.
“In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger was the most wanted criminal in Austria.
- 12/24/2010
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
It has just been announced that Sony Pictures has purchased the rights to do and English-language remake of The Robber from Austrian director Benjamin Heisenberg.
The film is based on the novel by Martin Prinz's called "Der Rauber" and tells the true story of Johann Rettenberger, Aka "Pump-gun Ronnie," a marathon runner made of hobby of robbing banks. The Robber was entered into competition at this year's Berlin Film Festival. So far it has only made $300,000 in theaters in Germany, Austria and France.
This marks the second foreign language film that Sony and Scott Rudin have purchased. Last year they acquired the rights to the international hit The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. which is currently being filmed by David Fincher in Sweden.
Sony has not announced a director for the film, but Laura Ziskin will serve as producer on The Robber.
Here is a description of the book...
The film is based on the novel by Martin Prinz's called "Der Rauber" and tells the true story of Johann Rettenberger, Aka "Pump-gun Ronnie," a marathon runner made of hobby of robbing banks. The Robber was entered into competition at this year's Berlin Film Festival. So far it has only made $300,000 in theaters in Germany, Austria and France.
This marks the second foreign language film that Sony and Scott Rudin have purchased. Last year they acquired the rights to the international hit The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. which is currently being filmed by David Fincher in Sweden.
Sony has not announced a director for the film, but Laura Ziskin will serve as producer on The Robber.
Here is a description of the book...
- 12/22/2010
- by Tiberius
- GeekTyrant
The Robber, from Austrian director Benjamin Heisenberg, hasn't had time to establish a presence in the States -- it just opened in Germany in March after a premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. A few local festival appearances, like ones at the Seattle and New York Film Festivals, is all the release the movie has had here. But Sony has picked up rights to remake the film anyway, so we could soon see a domestic version of the tale about marathon runner Johann Rettenberger, who had a habit of robbing banks in between marathons. Variety [1] says that Laura Ziskin will produce, and that a director hasn't been announced. The fim is based on Martin Prinz's book Der Rauber, which was published in English as On the Run. Here's the recap of the book from UK publisher Dedalus [2]: In the 1980s the bank-robber Johann Rettenberger was the most wanted criminal in Austria.
- 12/22/2010
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
Is there anything in moviedom more consistently frustrating than the "arthouse thriller"?
I'm not talking about films created as commercial thrillers and subsequently embraced by cineastes. I'm referring to dramas, and sometimes romances, that are so "nuanced" that they risk putting audiences to sleep, and so cover for themselves by including watered-down tropes from more populist, engaging fare. A repentant serial killer retires to an Alpine village to collect pension checks and butterflies. A kidnapper adopts a puppy and we're meant to contrast his loving treatment of it with his callous disregard for young human beings. You know the type of bastardized genre I'm referring to--the promise of full-on action or suspense is always lurking there as a kind of tease, but the movie gets away with never fully delivering the goods because its high-minded goals are thought to elevate it beyond that obligation.
Well, I'm happy to report to you that The Robber,...
I'm not talking about films created as commercial thrillers and subsequently embraced by cineastes. I'm referring to dramas, and sometimes romances, that are so "nuanced" that they risk putting audiences to sleep, and so cover for themselves by including watered-down tropes from more populist, engaging fare. A repentant serial killer retires to an Alpine village to collect pension checks and butterflies. A kidnapper adopts a puppy and we're meant to contrast his loving treatment of it with his callous disregard for young human beings. You know the type of bastardized genre I'm referring to--the promise of full-on action or suspense is always lurking there as a kind of tease, but the movie gets away with never fully delivering the goods because its high-minded goals are thought to elevate it beyond that obligation.
Well, I'm happy to report to you that The Robber,...
- 9/26/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Over a career spanning five decades (and counting), Albert Finney has more than sixty film and television credits. A classmate of Peter O'Toole at the Royal Academy of Art, Finney was initially chosen over O'Toole for the lead role in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, but left the production after only four days due to creative differences. Rather than suffering a career setback, Finney stepped in to Tony Richardson's (The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Look Back in Anger) adaptation of Henry Fielding's 1749 novel, Tom Jones. A raunchy (for its time), ribald satire, Tom Jones went on to win Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Musical Score, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Of Finney's other nominations for Best Actor, Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), and Under the Volcano (1984), his second, playing Agatha Christie's Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, is his weakest. It's more caricature than character,...
Of Finney's other nominations for Best Actor, Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), and Under the Volcano (1984), his second, playing Agatha Christie's Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, is his weakest. It's more caricature than character,...
- 7/20/2010
- by Mel Valentin
- Cinematical
Finding the football action in South Africa a bit tepid? James thinks the solution could lie with Hollywood's finest screenwriters…
Once upon an advert break, the French philosopher, kung fu enthusiast and beach soccer bum, Eric Cantona, hijacked an oceangoing tanker. The former Manchester United number seven then captured the world's best players and forced them to perform in a three-on-three cage football version of Battle Royale, presumably with the aim of finding a worthy successor to inherit the chocolate factory and look after the Oompa-Loompas when he'd departed the mortal realm.
It was brilliant. As far as commercials for overpriced sportswear produced by child labour go, it's only eclipsed by the Reebok advert where a man runs away from a giant hairy belly ("Belly's gonna get ya!"). Imagine the vibe of The Warriors and Escape From New York branded with Nike logos, backed by Elvis Presley's A Little...
Once upon an advert break, the French philosopher, kung fu enthusiast and beach soccer bum, Eric Cantona, hijacked an oceangoing tanker. The former Manchester United number seven then captured the world's best players and forced them to perform in a three-on-three cage football version of Battle Royale, presumably with the aim of finding a worthy successor to inherit the chocolate factory and look after the Oompa-Loompas when he'd departed the mortal realm.
It was brilliant. As far as commercials for overpriced sportswear produced by child labour go, it's only eclipsed by the Reebok advert where a man runs away from a giant hairy belly ("Belly's gonna get ya!"). Imagine the vibe of The Warriors and Escape From New York branded with Nike logos, backed by Elvis Presley's A Little...
- 6/24/2010
- Den of Geek
Alan Sillitoe has died at the age of 82. The author's family confirmed that he had passed away at London's Charing Cross Hospital, BBC News reports. Sillitoe was best known for his stories Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, which were made into classic 1960s British films directed by Karel Reisz and Tony (more)...
- 4/26/2010
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
British author Alan Sillitoe has died, aged 82.
He passed away at Charing Cross Hospital in London on Sunday, according to his son David. The cause of death was not available as WENN went to press.
The novelist emerged in the 1950s as one of the 'Angry Young Men' of British fiction for his dramas reflecting life in the mid 20th century.
Sillitoe's breakthrough novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, became a film starring Albert Finney. Another book, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, was also made into a film featuring Tom Courtenay.
He passed away at Charing Cross Hospital in London on Sunday, according to his son David. The cause of death was not available as WENN went to press.
The novelist emerged in the 1950s as one of the 'Angry Young Men' of British fiction for his dramas reflecting life in the mid 20th century.
Sillitoe's breakthrough novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, became a film starring Albert Finney. Another book, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, was also made into a film featuring Tom Courtenay.
- 4/26/2010
- WENN
Writer whose accounts of postwar working-class life included Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Alan Sillitoe, who has died of cancer aged 82, was one of the most important British writers of the postwar era. He made his name with the novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958) and the collection of short stories The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1959), and he is still routinely perceived as a member of the kitchen-sink branch of the Angry Generation. Such characterisations obscure the breadth and originality of his writing.
Among his 53 volumes – including novels, short stories, plays, children's fiction, poetry, travel books, drama, memoirs and criticism – there are works that defy classification. A Start in Life (1970) and Life Goes On (1985) marry a picaresque style with the drabness of post-1950s Britain. Travels in Nihilon (1971), inspired by his experiences in the Ussr, invokes the tradition of Orwell's...
Alan Sillitoe, who has died of cancer aged 82, was one of the most important British writers of the postwar era. He made his name with the novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958) and the collection of short stories The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1959), and he is still routinely perceived as a member of the kitchen-sink branch of the Angry Generation. Such characterisations obscure the breadth and originality of his writing.
Among his 53 volumes – including novels, short stories, plays, children's fiction, poetry, travel books, drama, memoirs and criticism – there are works that defy classification. A Start in Life (1970) and Life Goes On (1985) marry a picaresque style with the drabness of post-1950s Britain. Travels in Nihilon (1971), inspired by his experiences in the Ussr, invokes the tradition of Orwell's...
- 4/26/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
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