Cinematography retrospectives are the way to go—more than a thorough display of talent, it exposes the vast expanse a Dp will travel, like an education in form and business all the same. Accordingly I’m happy to see the Criterion Channel give a 25-film tribute to James Wong Howe, whose career spanned silent cinema to the ’70s, populated with work by Howard Hawks, Michael Curtz, Samuel Fuller, Alexander Mackendrick, Sydney Pollack, John Frankenheimer, and Raoul Walsh.
Further retrospectives are granted to Romy Schneider (recent repertory sensation La piscine among them), Carlos Saura (finally a chance to see Peppermint frappe!), the British New Wave, and groundbreaking distributor Cinema 5, who brought to U.S. shores everything from The Man Who Fell to Earth and Putney Swope to Pumping Iron and Scenes from a Marriage.
September also yields streaming premieres for the recently restored Bronco Bullfrog, Ang Lee’s Pushing Hands,...
Further retrospectives are granted to Romy Schneider (recent repertory sensation La piscine among them), Carlos Saura (finally a chance to see Peppermint frappe!), the British New Wave, and groundbreaking distributor Cinema 5, who brought to U.S. shores everything from The Man Who Fell to Earth and Putney Swope to Pumping Iron and Scenes from a Marriage.
September also yields streaming premieres for the recently restored Bronco Bullfrog, Ang Lee’s Pushing Hands,...
- 8/22/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
British director Bryan Forbes is perhaps best remembered for his iconic American horror film The Stepford Wives, which became a genre classic and entered the cultural lexicon as a troubling metaphor for insidious patriarchy. But Forbes has an extensive underrated filmography, including a variety of haunting genre pieces, curious dramas and high-end literary adaptations worthy of wider renown.…...
- 2/25/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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
'Good Time' with Robert Pattinson: All but completely bypassed at the Cannes Film Festival, Ben and Joshua Safdie's crime thriller – co-written by Joshua Safdie and Ronald Bronstein – may turn out to be a key contender in various categories next awards season. Bypassed Palme d'Or contenders (See previous post re: Cannes winners Diane Kruger & Sofia Coppola's Oscar chances.) The Cannes Film Festival has historically been both U.S.- and eurocentric. In other words, filmmaking from other countries in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific tend to be ignored either at the awards ceremony or at the very outset – in other words, they don't even get the chance to compete for the Palme d'Or. This year was no different, with a mere two non-u.S., non-European productions (or co-productions) among the 19 films in the Official Competition: Naomi Kawase's Japanese romantic drama Radiance and Hong Sang-soo's South Korean romantic drama The Day After. Both came out empty-handed. Among the other movies that failed to win any of the Official Competition awards, several may have a shot in some category or other come Oscar time. Notably: The socially conscious family drama Happy End, produced by veteran Margaret Ménégoz (Pauline at the Beach, Europa Europa) and a Sony Pictures Classics release in North America. Dir.: Michael Haneke. Cast: Isabelle Huppert. Jean-Louis Trintignant. Mathieu Kassovitz. The mix of time-bending mystery and family drama Wonderstruck, a Roadside Attractions / Amazon Studios release (on Oct. 20) in the U.S. Dir.: Todd Haynes. Cast: Julianne Moore. Millicent Simmonds. Cory Michael Smith. The crime drama Good Time, an A24 release (on Aug. 11) in the U.S. Dir.: Ben and Joshua Safdie. Cast: Robert Pattinson. Jennifer Jason Leigh. Barkhad Abdi. Cannes non-win doesn't mean weaker Oscar chances It's good to remember that the lack of a Cannes Film Festival win doesn't necessarily reduce a film's, a director's, a screenwriter's, or a performer's Oscar chances. Case in point: last year's Cannes Best Actress “loser” Isabelle Huppert for Elle. Here are a few other recent examples of Cannes non-winners in specific categories that went on to receive Oscar nods: Carol (2015), Best Actress (Cate Blanchett) nominee. Two Days, One Night / Deux jours, une nuit (2014), Best Actress (Marion Cotillard) nominee. The Great Beauty / La grande bellezza (2013), Best Foreign Language Film winner. The Hunt / Jagten (2012), Best Foreign Language Film nominee (at the 2013 Academy Awards). The Artist (2011), Best Picture and Best Director (Michel Hazanavicius) Oscar winner. And here's a special case: Amour leading lady and 2012 Best Actress Oscar nominee Emmanuelle Riva could not have won the Best Actress Award at Cannes, as current festival rules prevent Palme d'Or winners from taking home any other Official Competition awards. In other words, Isabelle Huppert (again), Julianne Moore, and Robert Pattinson – and their respective films – could theoretically remain strong Oscar contenders despite the absence of Cannes Film Festival Official Competition victories. Mohammad Rasoulof and Leslie Caron among other notable Cannes winners Besides those already mentioned in this article, notable winners at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival include: Mohammad Rasoulof's A Man of Integrity. Having infuriated Iran's theocracy, in 2010 Rasoulof was sentenced to a year in prison following accusations of “filming without a permit.” He has been out on bail. In 2011, Rasoulof won the Un Certain Regard sidebar's Best Director Award for Goodbye. Two years later, his Un Certain Regard entry Manuscripts Don't Burn won the International Film Critics' Fipresci Prize. Veteran Leslie Caron and her 17-year-old pet rescue dog Tchi Tchi shared the Palm DogManitarian Award for their work in the British television series The Durrells in Corfu / The Durrells. Caron, who will be turning 86 on July 1, made her film debut in Vincente Minnelli's 1951 musical An American in Paris – that year's Best Picture Academy Award winner. She would be shortlisted twice for the Best Actress Oscar: Lili (1953) and The L-Shaped Room (1963). Last year, she was the subject of Larry Weinstein's documentary Leslie Caron: The Reluctant Star and will next be seen in Thomas Brunot's short The Perfect Age. Faces Places / Visages, villages, which offers a tour of the French countryside, won Cannes' Golden Eye Award for Best Documentary. The directors are veteran Agnès Varda (Cléo from 5 to 7, Vagabond), who turned 89 on May 30, and photographer/muralist Jr. Faces Places is supposed to be Varda's swan song, following a career spanning more than six decades. Her 2008 César-winning documentary The Beaches of Agnès was one of the 15 semi-finalists for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. See below a comprehensive list of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival winners. Leslie Caron in 'The Durrells in Corfu.' TV series a.k.a. 'The Durrells' earned the veteran two-time Best Actress Oscar nominee ('Lili,' 1953; 'The L-Shaped Room,' 1963) and her dog companion Tchi Tchi this year's Palm DogManitarian Award at the Cannes Film Festival. 2017 Cannes Film Festival winners Official Competition Palme d'Or: The Square (dir.: Ruben Östlund). Grand Prix: 120 Beats per Minute (dir.: Robin Campillo). Jury Prize: Loveless (dir.: Andrey Zvyagintsev). Best Screenplay (tie): The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthymis Filippou. You Were Never Really Here, Lynne Ramsay. Best Actress: Diane Kruger, In the Fade. Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, You Were Never Really Here. Best Director: Sofia Coppola, The Beguiled. Best Short Film: A Gentle Night (dir.: Qiu Yang). Short Film Special Mention: Katto (dir.: Teppo Airaksinen). Un Certain Regard Un Certain Regard Award: A Man of Integrity (dir.: Mohammad Rasoulof). Jury Prize: April's Daughter / Las hijas de abril (dir.: Michel Franco). Best Director: Taylor Sheridan, Wind River. Best Actress / Best Performance: Jasmine Trinca, Fortunata. Prize for Best Poetic Narrative: Barbara (dir.: Mathieu Amalric). International Film Critics' Fipresci Prize Official Competition: 120 Beats per Minute. Un Certain Regard: Closeness (dir.: Kantemir Balagov). Directors' Fortnight: The Nothing Factory / A Fábrica de Nada (dir.: Pedro Pinho). Directors' Fortnight / Quinzaine des Réalisateurs Prix Sacd (Société des Auteurs Compositeurs Dramatiques) (tie): Lover for a Day / L'amant d'un jour (dir.: Philippe Garrel). Let the Sunshine In / Un beau soleil intérieur (dir.: Claire Denis). C.I.C.A.E. Art Cinema Award: The Rider (dir.: Chloe Zhao). Europa Cinemas Label: A Ciambra (dir.: Jonas Carpignano). Prix Illy for Best Short Film: Back to Genoa City / Retour à Genoa City (dir.: Benoît Grimalt). Critics' Week Grand Prize: Makala (dir.: Emmanuel Gras). Visionary Award: Gabriel and the Mountain / Gabriel e a Montanha (dir.: Fellipe Barbosa). Gan Foundation Award for Distribution: Version Originale Condor, French distributor of Gabriel and the Mountain. Sacd Award: Léa Mysius, Ava. Discovery Award for Best Short Film: Los desheredados (dir.: Laura Ferrés). Canal+ Award for Best Short Film: The Best Fireworks Ever / Najpienkniejsze Fajerwerki Ever (dir.: Aleksandra Terpinska). Other Cannes Film Festival 2017 Awards 70th Anniversary prize: Nicole Kidman. Caméra d'Or for Best First Film: Montparnasse Bienvenue / Jeune femme (dir.: Léonor Serraille). Golden Eye Award for Best Documentary: Faces Places / Visages, Villages (dir.: Agnès Varda, Jr). Prize of the Ecumenical Jury: Radiance (dir.: Naomi Kawase). Queer Palm: 120 Beats per Minute. Queer Palm for Best Short Film: Islands / Les îles (dir.: Yann Gonzalez). Cannes Soundtrack Award for Best Composer: Daniel Lopatin, Good Time. Vulcan Prize for Artist Technicians: Josefin Åsberg, The Square. Kering Women in Motion Award: Isabelle Huppert. Palm Dog: Einstein the Dog for The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected). Palm DogManitarian Award: Leslie Caron and the dog Tchi Tchi for The Durrells in Corfu. Chopard Trophy for Male/Female Revelation: George MacKay and Anya Taylor-Joy. This article was originally published at Alt Film Guide (http://www.altfg.com/).
- 6/21/2017
- by Steph Mont.
- Alt Film Guide
The Toronto film festival is over and with it our first glimpse at Ewan McGregor’s attempt to bring Philip Roth’s American Pastoral to the big screen. How well do you remember other notable film versions of novels?
Indignation
The Human Stain
The Hours
The Great Gatsby
The End of the Affair
The Reader
The Remains of the Day
The English Patient
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Doctor Zhivago
Women in Love
The L-Shaped Room
Fahrenheit 451
My Fair Lady
Lolita
Psycho
La Confidential
Devil in a Blue Dress
Fight Club
The Talented Mr Ripley
Atonement
Enduring Love
Pride & Prejudice
Never Let Me Go
True Grit
No Country For Old Men
The Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
A Most Wanted Man
Our Kind of Traitor
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Constant Gardener
Million Dollar Baby
The Green Mile
The Notebook
Revolutionary Road
Out of Africa
The Conformist...
Indignation
The Human Stain
The Hours
The Great Gatsby
The End of the Affair
The Reader
The Remains of the Day
The English Patient
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Doctor Zhivago
Women in Love
The L-Shaped Room
Fahrenheit 451
My Fair Lady
Lolita
Psycho
La Confidential
Devil in a Blue Dress
Fight Club
The Talented Mr Ripley
Atonement
Enduring Love
Pride & Prejudice
Never Let Me Go
True Grit
No Country For Old Men
The Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
A Most Wanted Man
Our Kind of Traitor
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Constant Gardener
Million Dollar Baby
The Green Mile
The Notebook
Revolutionary Road
Out of Africa
The Conformist...
- 9/19/2016
- by Aidan Mac Guill
- The Guardian - Film News
Don't let your boss see this movie, it'll give them ideas. Writer-director Kaneto Shindo reduces the human drama to its basics, as an isolated family endures a backbreaking existence of dawn 'til dusk toil to eke out a living. It's a beautiful but humbling ode to adaptability and human resolve. And the show has no conventional dialogue. The Naked Island Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 811 1960 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 94 min. / Hadaka no shima / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 17, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Nobuko Otowa, Taiji Tonoyama, Shinji Tanaka, Masanori Horimoto. Cinematography Kiyomi Kuroda Film Editor Toshio Enoki Original Music Hikaru Hayashi Produced by Eisaku Matsuura, Kaneto Shindo Written and Directed by Kaneto Shindo
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Writer-director Kaneto Shindo started his own production company in the 1950s earning critical attention but not great success with pictures on topical themes -- the legacy of Hiroshima, the story of the fishing trawler irradiated by a hydrogen blast.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Writer-director Kaneto Shindo started his own production company in the 1950s earning critical attention but not great success with pictures on topical themes -- the legacy of Hiroshima, the story of the fishing trawler irradiated by a hydrogen blast.
- 5/10/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Theodore Bikel. Theodore Bikel dead at 91: Oscar-nominated actor and folk singer best known for stage musicals 'The Sound of Music,' 'Fiddler on the Roof' Folk singer, social and union activist, and stage, film, and television actor Theodore Bikel, best remembered for starring in the Broadway musical The Sound of Music and, throughout the U.S., in Fiddler on the Roof, died Monday morning (July 20, '15) of "natural causes" at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. The Austrian-born Bikel – as Theodore Meir Bikel on May 2, 1924, in Vienna, to Yiddish-speaking Eastern European parents – was 91. Fled Hitler Thanks to his well-connected Zionist father, six months after the German annexation of Austria in March 1938 ("they were greeted with jubilation by the local populace," he would recall in 2012), the 14-year-old Bikel and his family fled to Palestine, at the time a British protectorate. While there, the teenager began acting on stage,...
- 7/23/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Olivia de Havilland picture U.S. labor history-making 'Gone with the Wind' star and two-time Best Actress winner Olivia de Havilland turns 99 (This Olivia de Havilland article is currently being revised and expanded.) Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland, the only surviving major Gone with the Wind cast member and oldest surviving Oscar winner, is turning 99 years old today, July 1.[1] Also known for her widely publicized feud with sister Joan Fontaine and for her eight movies with Errol Flynn, de Havilland should be remembered as well for having made Hollywood labor history. This particular history has nothing to do with de Havilland's films, her two Oscars, Gone with the Wind, Joan Fontaine, or Errol Flynn. Instead, history was made as a result of a legal fight: after winning a lawsuit against Warner Bros. in the mid-'40s, Olivia de Havilland put an end to treacherous...
- 7/2/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
'Father of the Bride': Steve Martin and Kimberly Williams. Top Five Father's Day Movies? From giant Gregory Peck to tyrant John Gielgud What would be the Top Five Father's Day movies ever made? Well, there have been countless films about fathers and/or featuring fathers of various sizes, shapes, and inclinations. In terms of quality, these range from the amusing – e.g., the 1950 version of Cheaper by the Dozen; the Oscar-nominated The Grandfather – to the nauseating – e.g., the 1950 version of Father of the Bride; its atrocious sequel, Father's Little Dividend. Although I'm unable to come up with the absolute Top Five Father's Day Movies – or rather, just plain Father Movies – ever made, below are the first five (actually six, including a remake) "quality" patriarch-centered films that come to mind. Now, the fathers portrayed in these films aren't all heroic, loving, and/or saintly paternal figures. Several are...
- 6/22/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Polly Bergen dead at 84: ‘First woman president of the U.S.A.,’ former mistress of Tony Soprano’s father Emmy Award-winning actress Polly Bergen — whose roles ranged from the first U.S.A. woman president in Kisses for My President to the former mistress of both Tony Soprano’s father and John F. Kennedy in the television hit series The Sopranos — died from "natural causes" on September 20, 2014, at her home in Southbury, Connecticut. The 84-year-old Bergen, a heavy smoker for five decades, had been suffering from emphysema and other ailments since the 1990s. "Most people think I was born in a rich Long Island family," she told The Washington Post in 1988, but Polly Bergen was actually born Nellie Paulina Burgin on July 14, 1930, to an impoverished family in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her father was an illiterate construction worker while her mother got only as far as the third grade. The family...
- 9/20/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Creative force in the British film industry whose work included The Stepford Wives and Whistle Down the Wind
The director, actor and writer Bryan Forbes, who has died aged 86, was one of the most creative forces in the British film industry of the 1960s, and the Hollywood films he directed included the original version of The Stepford Wives (1974). In later life he turned to the writing of books, both fiction and memoirs.
The turning point for him in cinema was the formation of the independent company Beaver Films with his friend Richard Attenborough in 1958. For the screenplay of their first production, The Angry Silence (1960), Forbes received an Oscar nomination and a Bafta award. Attenborough played a factory worker shunned and persecuted for not joining a strike. His colleagues are shown as being manipulated by skulking professional agitators and to some it seemed more like a political statement than a human...
The director, actor and writer Bryan Forbes, who has died aged 86, was one of the most creative forces in the British film industry of the 1960s, and the Hollywood films he directed included the original version of The Stepford Wives (1974). In later life he turned to the writing of books, both fiction and memoirs.
The turning point for him in cinema was the formation of the independent company Beaver Films with his friend Richard Attenborough in 1958. For the screenplay of their first production, The Angry Silence (1960), Forbes received an Oscar nomination and a Bafta award. Attenborough played a factory worker shunned and persecuted for not joining a strike. His colleagues are shown as being manipulated by skulking professional agitators and to some it seemed more like a political statement than a human...
- 5/9/2013
- by Dennis Barker
- The Guardian - Film News
Bryan Forbes, who personified the golden age of British cinema in the post-wwii era, has died at age 86. Forbes started out as an actor before morphing into a screenwriter and esteemed director. He teamed with Richard Attenborough to form a film production company. Among their films was The Angry Silence, an acclaimed 1960 movie in which both men starred. It dealt squarely with England's omnipresent tensions between business leaders and union members. Forbes co-wrote the screenplay and produced the movie. His high profile films as director include such British classics as Whistle Down the Wind, Seance on a Wet Afternoon, The Wrong Box, The Whisperers, King Rat, Deadfall, The Slipper and the Rose, The L-Shaped Room, International Velvet as well as the hit 1975 Hollywood horror flick The Stepford Wives. Forbes also wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for some of these films as well as the comedy classic The League of Gentlemen and director Attenborough's Chaplin.
- 5/9/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Bryan Forbes dies at 86: Directed Katharine Hepburn, Leslie Caron, the original The Stepford Wives Director Bryan Forbes, whose films include the then-daring The L-Shaped Room, the all-star The Madwoman of Chaillot, and the original The Stepford Wives, has died "after a long illness" at his home in Virginia Water, Surrey, England. Forbes was 86. Born John Theobald Clarke on July 22, 1926, in London, Bryan Forbes began his film career as an actor in supporting roles in British productions of the late 1940s, e.g., Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Small Back Room / Hour of Glory and Thornton Freeland’s Dear Mr. Prohack. Another twenty or so movie roles followed in the ’50s, including those in Ronald Neame’s The Million Pound Note / Man with a Million (1954), supporting Gregory Peck, and Carol Reed’s The Key (1958), supporting Sophia Loren and William Holden. Bryan Forbes director Despite his relatively prolific output in the previous decade,...
- 5/9/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
BFI reveals rediscovery of 'milestone' South, screened in 1959 and tackling then-brave themes of race and sexuality
It involves a dashing Polish army lieutenant exiled in the Us deep south as civil war approaches and the question of who he really loves: the plantation owner's angry niece, Miss Regina, or the tall, blond, rugged officer who arrives suddenly – a handsome man called Eric MacClure.
The television play is heady, emotional stuff tackling issues of race as well as sexuality and that it was broadcast by ITV on a winter's night 54 years ago is nothing short of remarkable. The BFI now believes the newly rediscovered production is the earliest known gay TV drama.
South, adapted by Gerald Savory from an original play by Julien Green and screened on 24 November 1959, "is a milestone" in gay cultural history, said the BFI curator Simon McCallum.
He added that its leading man, Peter Wyngarde, deserved particular praise.
It involves a dashing Polish army lieutenant exiled in the Us deep south as civil war approaches and the question of who he really loves: the plantation owner's angry niece, Miss Regina, or the tall, blond, rugged officer who arrives suddenly – a handsome man called Eric MacClure.
The television play is heady, emotional stuff tackling issues of race as well as sexuality and that it was broadcast by ITV on a winter's night 54 years ago is nothing short of remarkable. The BFI now believes the newly rediscovered production is the earliest known gay TV drama.
South, adapted by Gerald Savory from an original play by Julien Green and screened on 24 November 1959, "is a milestone" in gay cultural history, said the BFI curator Simon McCallum.
He added that its leading man, Peter Wyngarde, deserved particular praise.
- 3/16/2013
- by Mark Brown
- The Guardian - Film News
Jean Dujardin kissing Oscar statuette Best Actor Oscar winner Jean Dujardin kisses his Oscar statuette at the Governors Ball 2012. For his performance as a fading silent-film star in Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, Dujardin became the first Frenchman to win an Oscar in the acting categories: Charles Boyer, Maurice Chevalier, and Gérard Depardieu had all been nominated before, but none of them had ever won. (Photo: © A.M.P.A.S.) The list of Frenchwomen who either won or were nominated for Oscars in the acting categories is much more extensive. The French-born, American-raised Claudette Colbert was the Best Actress of 1934 for Frank Capra's comedy It Happened One Night. The other French Best Actress Oscar winners are Simone Signoret for Jack Clayton's 1959 British drama Room at the Top and Marion Cotillard for Olivier Dahan's French-language Edith Piaf biopic La Vie en Rose. Additionally, Juliette Binoche was a...
- 3/6/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Composer John Barry may be best known for his 007 scores, but we look beyond Bond for a detailed look at the rest of his extraordinary career...
Timeless, innovative, expansive and sensual, the music of John Barry Prendergast is a thought-provoking testament to a man who set the bar high and kept on raising it.
For many of us, the work of British composer, Barry, is synonymous with the Bond franchise, and there's no mistaking his contribution to that legacy. His work (along with that of Monty Norman) came to signify the arch, dangerously seductive swagger and cool, ambivalent melancholy that is the man behind the martini glass. He captured a world of intrigue, code and double meaning, of subterfuge, ambiguity, covert operation and sexuality. His was a trenchant and identifiable yet intriguingly elliptical and diverse musical sensibility that lassoed widely different vocalists from Louis Armstrong to Duran Duran, invariably producing something magnetic and memorable.
Timeless, innovative, expansive and sensual, the music of John Barry Prendergast is a thought-provoking testament to a man who set the bar high and kept on raising it.
For many of us, the work of British composer, Barry, is synonymous with the Bond franchise, and there's no mistaking his contribution to that legacy. His work (along with that of Monty Norman) came to signify the arch, dangerously seductive swagger and cool, ambivalent melancholy that is the man behind the martini glass. He captured a world of intrigue, code and double meaning, of subterfuge, ambiguity, covert operation and sexuality. His was a trenchant and identifiable yet intriguingly elliptical and diverse musical sensibility that lassoed widely different vocalists from Louis Armstrong to Duran Duran, invariably producing something magnetic and memorable.
- 7/25/2011
- Den of Geek
Actor Brock Peters, best known for his role as Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of rape in the classic film To Kill a Mockingbird, died Tuesday in Los Angeles of pancreatic cancer; he was 78. According to reports, he had been diagnosed with the disease in January and had been receiving chemotherapy treatments, and the actor passed away at his home surrounded by family. An actor with a distinctive, authoritarian baritone who worked extensively in films, television and on the stage, Peters made his film debut in the lush melodrama Carmen Jones, an re-imagining of Bizet's Carmen starring Dorothy Dandridge, and appeared five years later in another musical adaptation, Porgy and Bess. In 1962, Peters took the role of Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird, and during filming was befriended by star Gregory Peck; in fact, Peters read the eulogy at Peck's funeral in 2003. His magnetic and heartbreaking performance in Mockingbird led to roles in The L-Shaped Room and The Pawnbroker, and though he rarely achieved leading man status, Peters worked steadily throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s in both movies and TV, and received a Tony nomination in 1973 for Lost in the Stars. He appeared in thrillers Soylent Green and Two-Minute Warning, miniseries Roots: The Next Generation, and innumerable guest spots on television series ranging from Gunsmoke to The Bionic Woman. To a later generation of fans, Peters was known for two different Star Trek roles, playing Admiral Cartwright in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country as well as a recurring role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Joseph Sisko, the father of star Avery Brooks' character. In 1991, Peters received a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild. Peters is survived by his longtime companion Marilyn Darby and a daughter from his first marriage. --Prepared by IMDb staff...
- 8/23/2005
- WENN
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