Jerome Enrico’s comedy Paulette”, set in the rough Banlieues (projects) around Paris stars Iconic Nouvelle Vague actress Berndadette Lafont, who sadly passed away a year after “Paulette” became a French Box office success. She debuted in Chabrol’s “Le Beau Serge” (1958), considered the movie that launched the French New Wave. Chabrol’s muse, she appeared in “Leda” (1959), his masterful “Les Bonnes Femmes”(1960, and “Wise Guys (1961). Nine films in all. Other films of note were Nelly Kaplan’s “A Very Curious Girl” (1969), Truffaut’s underrated black comedy “A Gorgeous Girl Like Me” (1972) and Jean Eustache’s “The Mother and the Whore”…
Author: Robin Menken
Middle age Teacher Feng Wanyu or Yu (Li Gong) and daughter Dan Dan, (Huiwen Zhang), a rising star at the Ballet Academy, are advised by party officials that Yu’s husband Lu Yanshi (or Lu) a “Rightist” enemy of the state, has escaped from enforced re-education (Forced Labor camp). They are warned they must not meet with him, and must turn him in for the sake of Party loyalty. Dan Dan vows Party loyalty, Yu says nothing, her trembling lip betraying her loyalty to her husband, a cultural ideal before the Gang Of Four’s Cultural Revolution.Professor Lu Yanshi (Chen Daoming,“Back to…
Directors Maíra Bühler and Matias Mariani received a grant to make a film about foreigner imprisoned in Brazilian jails. They found an unusual subject, Chris “Goose” Kirk, a naive computer geek from Olympia, Washington, lured to Columbia through his interest in Pablo Escobar’s remaining illegal herd of Hippos, still living and breeding on his dilapidated fortress, safari-park Hacienda Nápoles.It turns out an old friend is working in the Embassy in Bogota, Taking this as a sign, Chris starts his adventure. Soon he’s partying hard, surprised to be the focus of competing girls all seeking a gringo boyfriend; but he’s smitten…
Screenwriter Kurt Sutter’s screenplay, a remake of the classic “The Champ” (Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper) can’t help itself. Every fight film since “The Champ” uses the same arc: a counted out fighter fights his way back to titleholder and personal redemption. Think of all the fight pictures, which escapes these hoary clichés? NoneBut under the capable direction of Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”), peppered with knowing fight details and a committed performance from Jake Gyllenhaal (with exception of “Nightcrawler”, his best in years) the film grips.Originally written as a vehicle for Eminem after his role in “8 Mile”, the film was…
“Rialto’s Best of British Noir,” at Landmark’s Nuart, Feb 5-11, 2010, is a five-film paean to the black and white British genre. Unlike American crime movies, British Noir usually features petty criminals and war veterans drawn into black marketeering. The post-war era of rationing seemed to last forever in Britain, helping to stifle personal dreams. Unlike the drive to succeed that haunts American crime characters, the “little man” protagonists of these films accept the static class system, taking comfort from the close knit urban communities in which they live.John Boulting’s 1947 “Brighton Rock”, (an adaptation of Graham Greene’s “entertainment” by…
Joshua Fraiman’s “The Man In the Shadows “was one of the more interesting films at Dances With Films, 2014. Sleep Paralysis is a worldwide phenomenon, afflicting many people. The Internet is filled with reports; currently there is even a link to a “shadowman” captured on video. http://www.conspiracyclub.co/2015/02/03/sleep-paralysis-caught-on-video/Estimates of how many people experience sleep paralysis vary from 5 percent to 60 percent and many experience. Science explains this as a disconnect between body and mind. Becoming mentally aware before the body “wakes up” from its paralyzed state can be a terrifying experience. Frequently, these episodes are accompanied by hallucinations and the…
Sunday, July 26, 2015 at 5:30pm -The EGYPTIAN Theatre 6712 Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90028. A panel discussion will follow with: Jim Bissell and moderator Production Designer John MutoThis is the final Film Society screening this year.I started taking Clooney seriously as an actor in Steven Soderbergh’s 1989 crime caper “‘Out Of Sight”. If there was any doubt he was a contender, his perf as the dim beefcake Everett in the Coen’s 2000 masterpiece “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” cinched it. Channeling hunky Joel McCrea’s work on Sturges’ “The Palm Beach Story”, Clooney’s doofus Everett was the first great comic turn…
Paul Sand’s production of Kurt Weill at the Cuttlefish Hotel is a thrilling song cycle, an intense evening in the theatre, achieved through simple means. Paul Sand, who won a Tony Award, in 1970, for his multiple characters in “Paul Sills’ Story Theatre” began his career with Marcel Mrceau in the 50’s and went on to work with Judy Garland and the Broadway bound first company of Second City (“From the Second City” which played the Royale Theatre in 1961). After years In films, sit-coms and Second City, there’s still a touch of the mime in Sand’s performance. Supple Sand…
Matthew Heineman (“Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare”, “Our Time “) decided to shoot the Violence wrecked by the Mexican drug cartels from the ground, the way it was experienced by civilians swept into its remorseless machinery.To do so he spent nine months traveling with two local “vigilantes”: in Arizona he follows Tim “Nailer” Foley, an American veteran, leader of a small paramilitary group called Arizona Border Recon vowed to protect a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley. In Mexico he profiles charismatic Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as “El Doctor’ throughout the state…
The first meeting of the LA 3-D Club was held on July 21st, 1955. The first documented public exhibition of a 3-D motion picture took place on June 10, 1915 at New York’s Astor Theatre. The LA 3-D Club, LA Filmforum, and 3-D SPACE are proud to commemorate these important events with a very special presentation of 3-D RARITIES, an amazing collection of stereoscopic treasures dating back to the dawn of 3-D cinematography, followed by a Q&A with Bob Furmanek, founder and president of the 3-D Film Archive, and producer of these restorations. Films screening include: Kelley’s Plasticon Pictures THRU’…