a strange course of events is a 2013 french-israeli drama film directed by raphaël nadjari .

it was screened in the directors ' fortnight section at the 2013 cannes film festival .

a strange course of events

a strange course of events . . . is anything but strange and eventful .
there are no featured reviews for a strange course of events at this time .
the unexamined life is not worth living , but “ a strange course of events ” reminds us that the inspected one is not always worth watching .
the unexamined life is not worth living , but
a strange course of events
reminds us that the inspected one is not always worth watching .
of course the series of events could be little more than tragic co - incidence but they have kept the spirit of poltergeist alive .
a strange course of events directed by raphael nadjari ; written by raphael nadjari , geoffrey grison ; with ori pfeffer , moni moshonov , michaela eshet , bethany gorenberg reality in the films of is of . .
a strange course of events presents a prickly family dynamic punctuated by moments that could ' ve been funny or dramatic in a different film but feel inert here . its emotions prove curiously inconsistent , hinting at darkness but never committing fully .
in meandering fashion , a strange course of events charts the slow and tentative reconciliation between these two characters , with the fact that saul is literally a fish out of the water in haifa used to underline how lost he feels in the new life of his father and beti , whom he’d never met before .
a strange course of events is a movie starring ori pfeffer , moni moshonov , and michaela eshet . saul , fortyish , a melancholic dreamer , decides to visit his father whom he hasn ' t seen in five years , and whom he blames for all his ills . he discovers a possible new life . . .
a deeply inconsequential gallic - israeli semi - comic collaboration , “a strange course of events” is just one darn thing after another , and not in a good way . french - born helmer raphael nadjari’s sixth feature reunites him with israeli thesp ori pfeffer , with whom he made “apartment # 5c , ” to tell a meandering yarn about a grumpy loner having an awkward [ … ]
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interested in bringing a strange course of events to your school or library ? if you ' d like to have an in - class viewing , on - campus screening , or purchase the dvd for your library ' s collection , please contact estelle grosso at edu @ urltoken or call ( 212 ) 629 - 6880 with your request .
a strange course of events may also be available with public performance rights ( ppr ) and digital site licensing ( dsl ) for colleges and universities . to purchase the dvd with ppr or dsl , please contact estelle grosso at edu @ urltoken or call ( 212 ) 629 - 6880 . click here to learn more at kino lorber edu .
but very few of today ' s fans will know the petrifying real life events that inspired the film - or the curse surrounding it .
a strange course of events focuses on an adult son , saul ( ori pfepper ) , who works as a night - time receptionist at a hospital in tel aviv . it’s a far from ideal situation and when the divorced saul’s loneliness becomes too much to handle , he decides to go and visit his father , shimon ( moni moshonov ) , who lives in haifa with his new partner , beti ( michaela eshet ) .
a deeply inconsequential gallic - israeli semi - comic collaboration , “ a strange course of events ” is just one darn thing after another , and not in a good way . french - born helmer raphael nadjari’s sixth feature reunites him with israeli thesp ori pfeffer , with whom he made “apartment # 5c , ” to tell a meandering yarn about a grumpy loner having an awkward and unlucky extended visit with his father haifa . commercial prospects look niche in both the pic’s countries of origin , and uneventful offshore .
a young priest enlists the help of a demon hunter and a paranormal expert to search for a kidnapped girl in the underworld of mexico city .
swinton herself urged audiences to see “doctor strange” before criticizing it , while championing diversity .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
i would be surprised if this film received a general cinematic release . i watched this at a film festival and it ' s typical of some movies that are shown at these events where the director is not in a hurry to tell his / her story .
cumberbatch and swinton received the loudest applause as the credits rolled , which was of course followed by marvel’s signature post - credits scene , featuring a certain avenger ( no spoilers here ) and a post - post - credits scene .
but the reality behind the fiction is equally as frightening . the film is loosely based on events at a house on long island , new york , where a family called the hermann ' s were plagued by a so - called poltergeist .
' jonathan strange & mr . norrell ' : hogwarts for grown - ups - the new york times
strange may be a character that hews too close to the model of rich , egotistical white men with which superhero films are obsessed . but the film had the opportunity to do something different , by showing the interior of a character forced to rethink everything he knows and the nature of reality itself . instead ,
doctor strange
falls into some significant narrative mistakes .
one of the most glaring sins of “doctor strange” is how quickly strange masters magic . there isn’t much tension in his arc . while he struggles briefly at first to keep up with other students the ancient one has taken under her care , he’s soon stealing sacred books out from under wong ( benedict wong ) , the sharp - eyed master who protects the texts at the ancient one’s behest . strange plays by his own rules , growing far beyond the skills of those around him . he even goes as far as bending time , secretly reading from forbidden texts and wielding the eye of agamotto . when karl mordo ( chiwetel ejiofor ) remarks that strange seems destined for this , i couldn’t help but roll my eyes . of course he was .
the world premiere of “doctor strange” was held at the famous tcl chinese theater on thursday night . fans braved the 90 - degree heat to get a glimpse of the sorcerer supreme himself , benedict cumberbatch .
the strange thing about the johnsons - don ' t ask , just watch ! from michael roy on vimeo .
there are many great actors that color the film ' s margins , but “doctor strange” doesn’t make the best use of them . rachel mcadams plays one of the most poorly written superhero love interests i think i’ve ever seen . she has a warm , flirtatious energy that is a welcome addition to the movie . but she isn’t a person so much as a convenient prop forgotten about for long stretches until strange needs her .
the neorealists , among others , made cinematic art out of lives lived in quiet desperation . but while “strange course” offers plenty of tension , what passes for drama is shaul’s slip - and - fall at a fish market . mr . nadjari , who wrote the screenplay with geoffroy grison , may have been intending a minimalist character study , but even so , he has abdicated his responsibility : too much of this family drama is left to the audience to fill in .
after a fateful slip , saul will find his place as a son , a father and more .
the family , who moved away soon after , believed the events were somehow connected to an ancient native american burial site near their home - something which features heavily in spielberg ' s movie .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
given mystical powers by a talismanic keepsake , a young man embarks on a quest to fight shadowy forces and solve a mystery from his past .
in an effort to expose this plot , slopen eventually has his own consciousness coded and placed within a conveniently harvested prisoner . i will spare you the many semi - plausible twists that precipitate this odd course of events , so as to highlight the beguiling moment when slopen meets slopen : “dressed in an unfamiliar linen suit , looking at me with pity and disbelief , was me ; or , me as i remembered myself . ” both original and xerox spend the remainder of the book attempting to escape the bad guys .
jonathan strange & mr . norrell by susanna clarke . illustrations by portia rosenberg . 782 pp . bloomsbury . $ 27 . 95 .
doctor strange '
s worst sin in terms of casting comes in its villain . at this point , has any major franchise wasted as many great actors in thinly - written villain roles as the mcu ? mads mikkelsen is an amazing actor who often creates an alluring mix of darkness , pathos and passion . his unsettling screen presence is perfect for this kind of story . but kaecilius , a former pupil of the ancient one , has such muddled motivations and little interiority that mikkelsen is surprisingly forgettable . strange’s battle with him ultimately comes down to being in the wrong place at the wrong time . strange doesn’t care about being a hero . the juxtaposition between kaecilius and strange is one of the more ill - thought out central conflicts from a blockbuster in a long time . they aren’t battling because of opposing ideologies or deep emotional history . they’re simply an inconvenience to each other . if anything , mordo’s obsession with order would make him a more compelling foil for kaecilius .
and they earned poltergiest the title of the most cursed production of all time .
in effect , strange is proven right . who cares about rules and breaking the laws of nature when you’re actually right , and in turn you save the world ? strange never grows much as a character since he proves to be right about far too much , justifying his ego and rank arrogance . cumberbatch is having considerable fun with the role ( although he brings nothing unexpected ) but he can’t distract from how nothing in strange’s story feels earned . you also can’t ignore that “doctor strange” is essentially the story of a white man who travels to an “exotic” land , whose culture and people he doesn’t respect let alone know the language of . yet somehow he just happens to realize he’s a natural at magic and gets good enough to beat practitioners who have been doing this for years .
at the same time as she takes the philosophy course , sophie receives a strange postcard sent to hilde møller knag , care of sophie . the postcard is from hilde ' s father and wishes hilde happy birthday . sophie is confused , and moreso when she finds a scarf with hilde ' s name on it . she does not know what is happening but she is sure that hilde and the philosophy course must somehow be connected . she learns about socrates , who was wise enough to know that he knew nothing . then alberto sends her a video that shows him in present day athens and somehow he seems to go back in time to ancient athens . she learns about plato and his world of ideas and then about aristotle , who critiqued plato , classified much of the natural world , and founded logic and our theory of concepts .
the world premiere of “doctor strange” was held at the famous tcl chinese theater on thursday night . fans braved the 90 - degree heat to get a glimpse of the sorcerer supreme himself , benedict cumberbatch . hollywood boulevard was transformed into a grand magic sanctum as the cast and crew took the red carpet to celebrate the opening of [ … ]
even with these considerable faults “doctor strange” can also be charming . it’s a spry film brimming with great details , striking imagery and joy . it pushes the mcu into a fascinating world full of magic and villains that exists beyond our understanding of time and reality—maybe next time they’ll do something interesting when they get there .
and if we are really being honest , voluntary viewers of the strange thing about the johnsons get off of this carnival ride of intrigue , mystery , and disgust in less than 30 minutes flat ; unlike survivors of these heinous and life altering crimes . survivors unfortunately can never get off this ride and are usually condemned to a lifetime of emotional roller - coasters , nightmares and freak shows . only the fortunate few get to write a new future through years of therapy , catharsis and forgiveness .
over the past few weeks a short film entitled the strange thing about the johnsons has been quietly making the independent film circuit while a leaked ( wink - wink ) copy has been creating quite a stir on the internet . this stir and much needed discourse has african americans , in particular , choosing sides between a white filmmaker ' s freedom of expression and a community ' s rejection of ownership . but what if there are no sides to be chosen under the revealing light of the truth .
a tribute to the late tab hunter , a gay matinee idol and hollywood trailblazer .
magic convinces best when employed in the service of another literary aim : mythopoeic history , as in tolkien ; a study of power , as in le guin ; even the bildungsroman , as in rowling . what end does the practice of english magic serve in
jonathan strange & mr . norrell
? true , the napoleonic wars as presented here do seem to have been won partly because of magical campaigns - - the scenes of the fleet of enchanted warships made out of rain are stylish and unforgettable :
a police officer came to investigate but was almost hit by a flying globe while a british press photographer who went to cover the story witnessed his flashbulbs lift off a table .
swinton inhabits the sorceress with her trademark oddity and cutting humor . it takes only a careful tilt of her head or blithe remark to strange to believe this woman has lived for hundreds of years . in many ways , swinton’s presence seems to be from another film entirely—one that would truly embrace the weirdness of the premise beyond some trippy visual effects .
a priest was called and ministers from all sorts of faiths conducted rituals on the front lawn but still the strange happenings went on as parents james and lucille and their two children lucille jnr , 13 , and james jnr , 12 , became increasingly scared .
so does the exercise sometimes ring oddly hollow ? has clarke , bewitched by her own talents , forgotten that readers need to care deeply about the characters ? impressive as magicians , neither mr . strange nor mr . norrell are particularly appealing people ; they both seem like sidekicks out of dickens , promoted onto a central stage before they ' ve had the chance to develop as prime - time players .
mr . norrell had many talents , but penetration into the hearts of men and women was not one of them . strange did not speak of the restoration of his wife , so mr . norrell imagined that it could not have affected him very deeply .
we are expected , i think , to forgive mr . norrell his limitations , but we too have been far more distracted by the spectacle of magic than by the limited depiction of jonathan strange ' s husbandly grief .
roger ebert was born on this day in 1942 , and died a little over five years ago . i owe a good part of my success…
writer jon spaihts also praised the casting choice . “tilda is an instance of us taking a male role and putting a woman in it , which i think the film badly needed . the comic world of ‘ doctor strange ’ is very male . so we were looking for opportunities to have not only ethnic diversity , but to have gender diversity in the film . ”
on their weekly walk , an eminently sensible , trustworthy lawyer named mr . utterson listens as his friend enfield tells a gruesome tale of assault . the tale describes a sinister figure named mr . hyde who tramples a young girl , disappears into a door on the street , and reemerges to pay off her relatives with a check signed by a respectable gentleman . since both utterson and enfield disapprove of gossip , they agree to speak no further of the matter . it happens , however , that one of utterson’s clients and close friends , dr . jekyll , has written a will transferring all of his property to this same mr . hyde . soon , utterson begins having dreams in which a faceless figure stalks through a nightmarish version of london .
and jonathan strange ' s wife is recovered from the land of faerie , a time - honored goal for a fantasy escapade , like meg rescuing charles wallace from it in
a wrinkle in time ,
or ida her baby sister in maurice sendak ' s
outside over there
or janet her elfin lover , tam lin , in the english ballad . but these are points of the plot , nothing more .
join hilda as she travels from a wilderness full of elves and giants , to trollberg , a bustling city packed with new friends and mysterious creatures .
more disturbing , the explanation of the malevin procedure , when it finally arrives , is slapdash . we are asked to believe that scientists can map “every nuance” of consciousness by a “judicious and sophisticated” examination of someone’s linguistic patterns . ( they create a proxy version of samuel johnson , in fact , because he committed so much of his life to paper . )
shaul is a melancholic dreamer , with a tendency to run whenever things go wrong . he returns to haifa one day for a reckoning with the father he has not seen in 5 years . but getting along with an hippie mother in - law with a penchant for new age , a daughter on the verge of adolescence , and a father who ' s been converted to yoga is not easy . after a fateful slip , shaul will find his place as a son , a father , and more .
forty - something saul is a melancholic dreamer , with a tendency to run whenever things go wrong .
shaul is a melancholic dreamer , with a tendency to run whenever things go wrong . he returns to haifa one day for a reckoning with the father he has not seen in 5 years . but getting along with an hippie mother - in - law with a penchant for new age , a daughter on the verge of adolescence , and a father who ' s been converted to yoga is not easy . after a fateful slip , shaul will find his place as a son , a father , and more .
as slopen soon discovers , the letters have been written by a lumbering , tattooed savant who speaks and writes exactly like dr . johnson . the man is kept as a sort of captive in the home of gould’s partner , a mysterious russian named sinan malevin .
but getting along with an airy - fairy mother - in - law with a penchant for new age , a daughter on the verge of adolescence and a father who’s been converted to yoga is not easy .
it only takes a few minutes : when shimon asks about shaul’s marriage , shaul says tersely that he’s been divorced for a couple of years and has custody struggles over his daughter , michal . the white - haired shimon ( moni moshonov ) has a surprise of his own : he’s got a girlfriend , bati ( michaela eshet ) , a gentle soul who runs a new age - y shop in the mall where shimon works .
puzzled , the lawyer visits jekyll and their mutual friend dr . lanyon to try to learn more . lanyon reports that he no longer sees much of jekyll , since they had a dispute over the course of jekyll’s research , which lanyon calls “unscientific balderdash . ” curious , utterson stakes out a building that hyde visits—which , it turns out , is a laboratory attached to the back of jekyll’s home . encountering hyde , utterson is amazed by how undefinably ugly the man seems , as if deformed , though utterson cannot say exactly how . much to utterson’s surprise , hyde willingly offers utterson his address . jekyll tells utterson not to concern himself with the matter of hyde .
sophie amundsen is fourteen years old when the book begins , living in norway . she begins a strange correspondence course in philosophy . every day , a letter comes to her mailbox that contains a few questions and then later in the day a package comes with some typed pages describing the ideas of a philosopher who dealt with the issues raised by the questions . although at first she does not know , later on sophie learns that albert o knox is the name of the philosopher who is teaching her . he sends her packages via his dog hermes . alberto first tells sophie that philosophy is extremely relevant to life and that if we do not question and ponder our very existence we are not really living . then he proceeds to go through the history of western philosophy . alberto teaches sophie about the ancient myths that people had in the days before they tried to come up with natural explanations for the processes in the world . then she learns about the natural philosophers who were concerned with change . next alberto describes democritus and the theory of indivisible atoms underlying all of nature as well as the concept of fate .
the heroine of marcel theroux’s previous novel , “far north , ” was an intrepid survivor named makepeace who scavenged books from the ruins of a post - apocalyptic manhattan , but showed little interest in actually reading them . “a person is always better than a book , ” she reasoned .
she was misdiagnosed with crohn ' s disease in 1987 and died the following year of a heart attack as doctors operated on a bowel obstruction . she was just 12 .
the academic who narrates theroux’s new book , “strange bodies , ” would bridle at that notion . in fact , he has trouble running together a string of thoughts without citing one writer or another , most often the subject of his scholarly labors , the revered english critic samuel johnson . that’s not what makes him a compelling protagonist , though . what makes him compelling is — well , perhaps we should let him speak for himself :
but we never get a coherent accounting of the physiological exactitudes of this operation . what portions of the brain , exactly , are removed from the host body and what is implanted ? instead , we see a mosh of images ( “the redness of everything , that bucket with its unspeakable contents . . . ” ) . it remains murky , as well , how this magic linguistic code might transfer actual memories from the donor to the recipient — a crucial question given that our memories are the essential building block of our identities .
meet eccentric homeowners whose seemingly ordinary spaces are full of surprises , from a backyard roller coaster to an indoor aquarium .
powerful , exquisitely acted . one of the most realistic and heartbreaking performances by a child actor i’ve ever s… '
forty - something saul is a melancholic dreamer , with a tendency to run whenever things go wrong . he returns to haifa one day for a reckoning with the father he has not seen in five years . but getting along with an airy - fairy mother - in - law with a penchant for new age , a daughter on the verge of adolescence and a father who ' s been converted to yoga is not easy . after a fateful slip , saul will find his place as son , a father and more .
derrickson and co - writer c . robert cargill have spoken at length about the decision to cast swinton in a role that was originally a tibetan man in the comics . they feared casting an asian man or even woman would mean the character would fall into well - worn stereotypes . so , they whitewashed the role . if the only way you can bypass these issues is to whitewash the part ( yet keep the asian setting and vague mysticism ) , the problem isn’t the character , it’s your lack of imagination as a creator . the filmmakers behind “doctor strange” may be well - intentioned but that doesn’t soften the racism threading the movie . despite the desire to be inventive , “doctor strange” unfortunately repeats many of the mistakes of its predecessors beyond uncomfortable racial politics .
in this way , “doctor strange” reveals the precarious place in which superhero films find themselves . director scott derrickson and marvel studios president kevin feige have repeatedly defended this movie ' s controversial casting . they’re very aware of the increasing expectation of audiences . but it isn’t enough to cast actors like benedict wong and chiwetel ejiofor in supporting roles , you have to give them something interesting to do . and as fun and light as “doctor strange” is , it is impossible to ignore the problems inherent in casting tilda swinton as the ancient one .
at its best , the prose can be rummy and startling , though a reader must put up with the occasional trope evoking the authorial style of other times :
the duchess of b - - . . . declared
;
there was a noble fire in the hearth and all was comfort and quiet .
and what of the use of archaic spellings - - chuse for
choose ,
shewed for
showed ,
etc . ? tiresome , perhaps , but useful : we feel we ' re in a deeply foreign country , yet it seems we still can speak the language . just like going to toronto . strange !
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actor julian beck , 60 , who played preacher henry kane in the second movie , died of stomach cancer as the film was released and will sampson , who took the role of a native american shaman died after undergoing a heart - lung transplant .
being ships of rain they made no sound at all - - no creaking of timber , no slap of sail in the wind , no call of sailor to his mate . several times groups of smooth - faced men of rain came to the ship ' s rail to gaze out at the wooden ship with its crew of flesh - and - blood men , but what the rain - sailors were thinking , no one could tell .
but the book’s deeper ambition is to raise questions about the nature of identity . “the human personality is not an object , ” slopen observes , “it’s a process , a constant state of becoming , that depends on a web of interdependencies , binding us to one another with invisible filaments , to our time , to memories and possessions , and back to our changing selves . ”
what keeps this densely realized confection aloft is that very quality of reverence to the writers of the past . the chief character in
jonathan strange and mr . norrell
isn ' t , in fact , either of the magicians : it ' s the library that they both adore , the books they consult and write and , in a sense , become . clarke ' s giddiness comes from finding a way at once to enter the company of her literary heroes , to pay them homage and to add to the literature , to slot this big fat book into our own libraries of spells . in this fantasy , the master that magic serves is reverence for writing .
movies and tv shows are certified fresh with a steady tomatometer of 75 % or higher after a set amount of reviews ( 80 for wide - release movies , 40 for limited - release movies , 20 for tv shows ) , including 5 reviews from top critics .
as he proved in “far north , ” theroux has a knack for warping the anxieties of the present into an unsettling vision of our possible future . his focus here could not be timelier . once firmly entrenched within the province of religion , the dream of everlasting life has , in the age of capitalism , metastasized into a multibillion - dollar industry that runs the gamut from genetic manipulation to vitamin supplements to the quackery of cryonics . as one character explains it , “you understand that the next technological frontier is the human body itself ? ”
our collective fear of death , and the hovering possibility of resurrection , tug the reader through this ingenious if sometimes vexing novel far more than the protagonist’s personality . for nicholas slopen — though he has a whale of a story to tell — turns out to be something of a cold fish . “i see that one of the most harmful patterns in my previous existence was my pose as an emotionally invulnerable intellectual , ” he notes at one point . not surprisingly , his wife is cheating on him , his teenage children are drifting away and his career is floundering .
a devastated widower adopts a
nothing to lose
approach to life that causes him to make unexpected new connections . ricky gervais stars .
the story of a dysfunctional 40 - year - old unable to relate to the people around him is short on charm and narrative interest . twitter
billy the kid billy the kid ' pictured ' in exceptionally rare photograph of wild west outlaw found in siberia a russian collector in yakutsk claims to have found a tintype image of the legendary wild west outlaw billy the kid - and he wants $ 5 million ( £3 . 7m ) for it
between february and march 1958 , bottle tops and lids inexplicably popped , ornaments flew around the house , a heavy bookshelf mysteriously fell over and a virgin mary figure soared through the air and struck a mirror 12ft away .
basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him . riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you . …
hollywood boulevard was transformed into a grand magic sanctum as the cast and crew took the red carpet to celebrate the opening of 14th marvel universe movie .
in the city of motown , young ben discovers he can bring street art to life . smokey robinson is the executive music producer of this animated series .
straightforwardly put together , the film relies on the excellent performances and uneasy rapport between especially pfepper and moshonov , though eshet , as a woman who believes so strongly in the healing power of stones she has a shop where she sells them and consults on the matter , is an important third character who adds a lightness of touch that goes back and forth between slightly absurd and endearing .
then , as sophie ' s education continues , the hilde situation begins to get more complicated . she finds many more postcards to hilde , and some of them are even dated on june 15 , the day of sophie will turn 15 . the problem is that june 15 is still over a month away . she discovers some of this with her best friend joanna , and one of the postcards tells hilde that one day she will meet sophie and also mentions joanna . strange things are happening that the girls cannot figure out . sophie ' s relationship with her mother becomes somewhat strained as she tries both to cover up the correspondence with alberto and to practice her philosophical thinking on her mom . meanwhile , alberto teaches sophie about jesus and the meeting of indo - european and semitic culture . she learns about st . augustine , st . aquinas , and the christianization of greek philosophy that occurred in the middle ages . by this time , sophie has met alberto and he begins hinting that the philosophy is about to get extremely relevant to the strange things that are happening to her .
production : ( france - israel ) a mk2 ( in france ) release of an avenue b , transfax films , laila film , mk2 production in co - production with vito films , with the participation of cnc , ministere des affaires etrangeres , institut francais , the israel film fund , israeli ministry of culture and sport , with the support of israeli ministry of economy , digital media support program . ( international sales : mk2 , paris . ) produced by caroline bonmarchand , marek rosenbaum , itai tamir .
a year passes uneventfully . then , one night , a servant girl witnesses hyde brutally beat to death an old man named sir danvers carew , a member of parliament and a client of utterson . the police contact utterson , and utterson suspects hyde as the murderer . he leads the officers to hyde’s apartment , feeling a sense of foreboding amid the eerie weather—the morning is dark and wreathed in fog . when they arrive at the apartment , the murderer has vanished , and police searches prove futile . shortly thereafter , utterson again visits jekyll , who now claims to have ended all relations with hyde ; he shows utterson a note , allegedly written to jekyll by hyde , apologizing for the trouble he has caused him and saying goodbye . that night , however , utterson’s clerk points out that hyde’s handwriting bears a remarkable similarity to jekyll’s own .
the main problem with this film is its snail - like pace where there are many scenes where characters walk or run to reach their destinations . there ' s also the lingering shot which delays the flow of the narrative . the narrative itself is meandering where there are several character relationships that are never fully explored . the film is more like separate images of a family relationship , instead of a flowing narrative where everything has meaning .
shimon has issues , too — we glimpse his flinty side — but shaul , perpetually sour , appears incapable of experiencing joy . he’s cold even with his daughter . until the last frames of the movie , he never so much as hints at a smile . the diagnosis from the aisle seat is that shaul is a high - functioning depressive .
with a cheery tone , clarke welcomes herself into an exalted company of british writers - - not only , some might argue , dickens and austen , but also the fantasy legends kenneth grahame and george macdonald - - as well as contemporary writers like susan cooper and philip pullman . aging fans of t . h . white and young turks who idolize neil gaiman will find much to their liking here , too . clarke is generous in her homages . obligatory nods are made to the notion of rings of power and books of spells . in the following , i picture arthur rackham ' s work in
peter pan in kensington gardens
:
at first i took him for a hedge - root , but it was definitely a man .
and isn ' t this a play on
for a few months , jekyll acts especially friendly and sociable , as if a weight has been lifted from his shoulders . but then jekyll suddenly begins to refuse visitors , and lanyon dies from some kind of shock he received in connection with jekyll . before dying , however , lanyon gives utterson a letter , with instructions that he not open it until after jekyll’s death . meanwhile , utterson goes out walking with enfield , and they see jekyll at a window of his laboratory ; the three men begin to converse , but a look of horror comes over jekyll’s face , and he slams the window and disappears . soon afterward , jekyll’s butler , mr . poole , visits utterson in a state of desperation : jekyll has secluded himself in his laboratory for several weeks , and now the voice that comes from the room sounds nothing like the doctor’s . utterson and poole travel to jekyll’s house through empty , windswept , sinister streets ; once there , they find the servants huddled together in fear . after arguing for a time , the two of them resolve to break into jekyll’s laboratory . inside , they find the body of hyde , wearing jekyll’s clothes and apparently dead by suicide—and a letter from jekyll to utterson promising to explain everything .
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an interview with terry gilliam , director of
the man who killed don quixote .
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melancholy in the wake of a divorce , 40 - year - old shaul decides that visiting his estranged dad will perk him up . but shaul couldn ' t be more wrong .
as i pondered these questions , i found myself returning to the original “frankenstein” and almost immediately succumbing to its charms . in telling her story , shelley clearly enjoyed the advantages of a more primitive scientific era . when less is known , more seems possible . but what makes shelley’s novel enduring is the fraught relationship between the creator and his creation , and the tremendous poignancy of the monster as he acquires a consciousness of himself , and his own social and emotional isolation .
steve almond is the author , most recently , of the story collection “god bless america . ”
the greatest of our literary works are , by contrast , predicated on a benign magic very much akin to the malevin procedure . readers are given access , through a thrilling accretion of language and story , to the minds and hearts of other beings . although they don’t exist within the world we physically occupy , these characters — from don quixote to emma woodhouse , from mrs . dalloway to holden caulfield — come to life within us . they become not only real , but eternal .
given this context , theroux’s modern frankenstein story — in which the actual research of post - world war ii russian utopians meets the technological ambition of the silicon valley parvenu — registers as eerily plausible .
the sad decay , which buildings , bridges and church all displayed , seemed to charm them . . . . they were englishmen and , to them , the decline of other nations was the most natural thing in the world . they belonged to a race blessed with so sensitive an appreciation of its own talents ( and so doubtful an opinion of anybody else ' s ) that they would not have been at all surprised to learn that the venetians themselves had been entirely ignorant of the merits of their own city - - until englishmen had come to tell them it was delightful .
the relaxing soundtrack , which would be ideal for a yoga class , slows things down further .
at least , not one profiled so sketchily . directed by raphaël nadjari , the film follows shaul ( ori pfeffer ) , a clerical worker at a hospital in israel , as he decides , apparently on impulse , to visit his dad , shimon , in haifa . father and estranged son have not seen each other in five years , so there’s a lot of catching up to do .
c . s . lewis ' s book
the magician ' s nephew
?
each puddle became a silver mirror . . . . he felt as if he might pass through any of those mirror - doors and find himself in one of the other worlds which once bordered upon england .
it ' s clear that clarke ' s library of books about magic rivals mr . norrell ' s .
in the application of anything powerful - - chili peppers , kettledrums , hyperbole - - a little goes a long way , and too much sometimes delivers an effect opposite than that intended . prolixity is risky : a writer can take relish in perhaps more physical detail than is required . risky , too , is the impulse to deepen the back story ; it can threaten to overwhelm the plot . ( in 185 dense footnotes , an ungainly amount of invented and somewhat parodic scholarly material weighs upon this novel . )
the plot concerns a 40 something year old man who finally meets up with his father after not seeing him for several years . from there , the film takes on different directions and doesn ' t know whether it should be a drama or a comedy . it doesn ' t really succeed in either .
director scott derrickson took on the whitewashing controversy , explaining how selecting swinton was a diversity choice itself .
“my name is nicholas patrick slopen . i was born in singapore city on april 10 , 1970 . i died on sept . 28 , 2009 , crushed in the wheel arch of a lorry outside oval tube station . . . . i will have to commit myself to some details with a certain , and perhaps wearisome , degree of exactitude in order to provide evidence to support the contention contained in the first paragraph of this testimony : that i am nicholas slopen , and that my consciousness has survived my bodily death . ”
to employ dry humor in the service of majesty .
it has been remarked ( by a lady infinitely cleverer than the present author ) how kindly disposed the world in general feels to young people who either die or marry .
and , of english visitors to venice circa 1816 , the good - natured narrator says :
he returns to haifa one day for a reckoning with the father he has not seen in 5 years .
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the letter continues describing jekyll’s cry for help . far from his laboratory and hunted by the police as a murderer , hyde needed lanyon’s help to get his potions and become jekyll again—but when he undertook the transformation in lanyon’s presence , the shock of the sight instigated lanyon’s deterioration and death . meanwhile , jekyll returned to his home , only to find himself ever more helpless and trapped as the transformations increased in frequency and necessitated even larger doses of potion in order to reverse themselves . it was the onset of one of these spontaneous metamorphoses that caused jekyll to slam his laboratory window shut in the middle of his conversation with enfield and utterson . eventually , the potion began to run out , and jekyll was unable to find a key ingredient to make more . his ability to change back from hyde into jekyll slowly vanished . jekyll writes that even as he composes his letter he knows that he will soon become hyde permanently , and he wonders if hyde will face execution for his crimes or choose to kill himself . jekyll notes that , in any case , the end of his letter marks the end of the life of dr . jekyll . with these words , both the document and the novel come to a close .
saul , fortyish , a melancholic dreamer , decides to visit his father whom he hasn ' t seen in five years , and whom he blames for all his ills . he discovers a possible new life . . .
so as people continue to submit comments like sick , disgusting , deeply traumatized , or even wow , i believe we should first ask ourselves ,
if this is how i feel as the viewer , how must it feel being the victim of incest ?
personally , i think we make a terrible mistake in vilifying filmmakers , storytellers or messengers because when we do this in some strange way we simultaneously and unwillingly empower the abusers . if films like the johnsons aren ' t openly produced and seriously discussed , we silently say to the vermin that perpetrate these atrocities -
your secret is safe . carry on .
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button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the synopsis submission guide .
martin scorsese directs this netflix original comedy special exploring the enduring legacy of emmy - winning sketch comedy show
sctv .
a lot went on at the cannes film festival , which ran from may 15 - 26 , including new films by the coen brothers , roman polanski , jim jarmusch , steven soderbergh and many others . but some of the most , . .
to his credit , theroux plumbs those very recollections that bring slopen alive , “the dead weight of one of my children on my shoulder as i carried them sleeping from the car , my father’s dying words to me , as he clutched his own father’s medal , telling me he loved me . ” by the end , the tale has built into a certain elegiac crescendo .
trying to overcome his difficult emotional state , shaul , a solitary divorced man , goes to haifa to confront his father .
a look back at robert zemeckis ' half - animated classic , who framed roger rabbit , on its 30 - year anniversary .
saddle up for six tales about the american frontier from the unique minds of joel and ethan coen , who wrote and directed this anthology .
but it was the death of young heather o ' rourke , who played carol anne freeling , that sealed the film ' s spooky reputation .
but there are a few crucial design flaws along the way . like mary shelley , theroux frames his narrative as an urgent confessional ; slopen must tell the reader everything before it’s too late . the problem is that the author , perhaps in a nod to gothic tradition , wants to keep the reader in suspense , and so the first two - thirds of the book are filled with details that favor foreboding over revelation .
and , as the reboot hits cinema screens , it ' s a legend that new viewers may just find haunts them . . . .
utterson takes the document home , where first he reads lanyon’s letter ; it reveals that lanyon’s deterioration and eventual death were caused by the shock of seeing mr . hyde take a potion and metamorphose into dr . jekyll . the second letter constitutes a testament by jekyll . it explains how jekyll , seeking to separate his good side from his darker impulses , discovered a way to transform himself periodically into a deformed monster free of conscience—mr . hyde . at first , jekyll reports , he delighted in becoming hyde and rejoiced in the moral freedom that the creature possessed . eventually , however , he found that he was turning into hyde involuntarily in his sleep , even without taking the potion . at this point , jekyll resolved to cease becoming hyde . one night , however , the urge gripped him too strongly , and after the transformation he immediately rushed out and violently killed sir danvers carew . horrified , jekyll tried more adamantly to stop the transformations , and for a time he proved successful ; one day , however , while sitting in a park , he suddenly turned into hyde , the first time that an involuntary metamorphosis had happened while he was awake .


the time , the place and the girl is a 1929 american black-and-white musical film , based on the 1907 musical play of the same name .

it is not related to the 1946 musical film of the same name .

since the 1970s , the film has been considered lost , with only its soundtrack remaining .

the time , the place and the girl ( 1929 film )

david butler . the time , the place and the girl . usa , 1946 .
david butler . ( 1946 ) the time , the place and the girl . usa .
stage play : the time , the place and the girl . musical comedy . chatter by
45 . diary of a lost girl ( 1929 ) director : g . w . pabst
the time , the place and the girl is a 1929 american black - and - white musical film . the original concept was developed by the creative staff as a musical comedy which opened on broadway in 1907 . it bears no affiliation with the 1946 musical film of the same name
here is part 1 of the complete survivable vitaphone sound - on - disc of the lost film the time , the place , & the girl . starring grant withers , betty compson , gertrude olmstead , & james kirkwood .
here is the final part 2 of the complete survivable vitaphone sound - on - disc of the lost film the time , the place , & the girl . starring grant withers , betty compson , gertrude olmstead , & james kirkwood .
the time , the place and the girl was released in the year 1929 , some songs of the official soundtrack are collegiana by dorothy fields , collegiate by moe jaffe , doin ' the raccoon by j . fred coots , everything i do i do for you by al sherman . listen the soundtrack online !
39 . big business ( 1929 ) directors : j . wesley horne , leo mccarey
58 . die büchse der pandora ( pandora’s box ) ( 1929 ) director : g . w . pabst
anne frank is a jewish girl who had to go into hiding during the second world war to escape the nazis .
all visitors need to purchase an online ticket with a time slot in advance .
80 . jenseits der straße ( harbor drift a . k . a . beyond the streets ) ( 1929 ) director : leo mittler
the 20s roar again in the new film of f . scott fitzgerald’s the great gatsby , but baz luhrmann’s extravaganza is far from the first film to revel in the decadence and razzmatazz of the jazz age . it’s cocktail time : here are 10 of the best .
songwriter (
i wonder who ' s kissing her now
) , composer , actor , singer , producer , director and author . he was a boy soprano in vaudeville at age eleven , and toured in a stock - company production of
little eva
. he wrote he broadway and chicago stage scores ( also produced and directed ) for
the land of nod
,
the time , the place and the girl
,
the . . .
explore anne frank ' s hiding place . wander around a labyrinth of hallways , stairs and little rooms . inspect the furnished rooms and listen to the stories of those who hid there , and their helpers .
he wrote the popular 1904 song
goodbye , my lady love
, which is interpolated into the trocadero nightclub scene in nearly all the american stage productions of kern and hammerstein ' s
show boat
( but not in the london stage versions ) . the song was used in the 1936 film version of the show , but not in the 1929 or 1951 film versions .
future learning and skills – giving everyone the opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with film .
american actress grace kelly starred in such movies as ' dial m for murder ' and ' the country girl , ' before leaving hollywood to marry prince rainier iii of monaco .
mr . mansky’s inventiveness was inspired by the methods used by dziga vertov , an early - 20th - century russian documentary maker , in “man with a movie camera” ( 1929 ) .
there are buster keaton two - reelers with more ambitious special effects , more epic stunts and more elaborate chase scenes , but in my experience , none get more laughs than the scarecrow . the film never stops to catch a breath as it moves from place to place , always setting up and paying off new laughs . the best moments include an ingeniously designed one - room house , an appearance from the great luke the dog , and some truly divine knockabout between keaton , joe roberts and keaton’s father , joe .
before oskar fischinger made his groundbreaking music - synchronized abstract animation , he documented his walk through the german countryside one frame at a time to make this short film . as jittery images of people , time - lapses of fields and other moments whiz by , we get the impression of a long journey condensed into a short , lasting memory .
it’s hard to say what sergei eisenstein’s most famous film influenced more : the soviet spirit or film course syllabi . while the novelty of the film’s montage may be a bit overstated ( abel gance—and he’s not the only one—played gleefully with rapid editing in la roué a couple years beforehand , and many u . s . films were cutting together exciting action sequences at the same time ) , there’s a genuine excitement and urgency in this workers’ rallying cry .
though there are the usual sight gags in the little tramp ' s quest to find the money with which to restore the girl ' s sight , city lights is more a film about personal relationships : a key figure in the film is a rich businessman who only recognises his new friend when drunk . nothing , though , is more important than the final scene , still powerful in its ambivalence . blind no more , the girl slowly realises that the hobo in front of her is her secret benefactor , and the flicker of conflicting feelings on chaplin ' s face – humility and joy – vindicate his decision to stay silent . damon wise
director : colin trevorrow starring : tba space and time - travel are all the rage right now , so it may be time to get a move on with this reboot . since trevorrow was attached to the remake as director along with writer derek connelly two years ago , we’ve heard little about it’s progress .
this review was originally published on september 11 , during the toronto international film festival .
in the early 20th century , many explorers set off to antarctica and the south pole in the name of country and science . english photographer herbert ponting came along to take pictures and film robert falcon scott’s terra nova expedition , and , luckily , didn’t follow scott and his small crew to the south pole itself , or we wouldn’t have this film . it features breathtaking tinted shots of the icy landscape , and personal moments with the crew and their adorable pets . ( watch the film with an audience for a communal struggle between love for the cute , plucky black cat and disgusted shock at his racist name . ) ponter’s eye for composition is great , but the film also acts as a cultural time capsule , showing how people once viewed the world and its unknown areas .
after the war , hepburn continued to pursue an interest in dance . she studied ballet in amsterdam and later in london . in 1948 , hepburn made her stage debut as a chorus girl in the musical high button shoes in london . more small parts on the british stage followed . she was a chorus girl in sauce tartare ( 1949 ) , but was moved to a featured player in sauce piquante ( 1950 ) .
in 1954 , kelly won the role of georgie elgin in the country girl , opposite bing crosby and william holden . it was not a glamorous role for kelly , who portrayed the dowdy and neglected wife of an alcoholic . she gave a raw and uncharacteristically stripped - down performance , which garnered an academy award nomination for best actress . this time she won , beating judy garland ( a star is born ) to claim her oscar .
but by 1929 , when clara bow prayed for the destruction of paramount’s new soundstages ( and she was right , by the way , it was a stage for sound that was burning ) , the writing was on the wall . and not every actor who had prospered in the silents would make it through the transition . the reasons were varied , though .
routine musical benefits from the strength of its cast . carson and morgan are a fun team backed up by the effervescent janis paige and always amusing cuddles sakall . unfortunately martha vickers fresh from her amazing performance in the big sleep is wasted in
the girl
role . pleasant and colorful if you ' re in the mood .
the mitchell & kenyon film company created hundreds of films in great britain , but their best material is their “actualities , ” documenting every day life at the turn of the century . panoramic view of the morecambe sea front is particularly captivating as the camera travels through the english beach resort town , observing the different people on holiday as it passes by . in the age where anyone can shoot a video on their phone and upload it to youtube , it’s hard to remember just how special it is to have a record of life at this place and time , and share curious glances with people long dead . mitchell and kenyon films from the british film institute , along with other archival titles , can be viewed on the bfi player .
speedy is harold lloyd’s most consistently fun and effortlessly likable film . take away the marquee race - against - time finale through new york city , and you’re still left with the misadventures of a good - natured boy who just can’t seem to hold onto a job . the romance between lloyd and his girlfriend ( the fantastic ann christy ) is sweet , and since the film begins after their courtship , has a different dynamic than the typical love story . oh , and babe ruth isn’t too shabby either .
the wind is one of the four or five movies that best demonstrate the richness and variety , and the purity and clarity of expression that silent cinema had achieved by the time it was fatally and forever subsumed , like a lost atlantis , beneath a deluge of sound and speech . king vidor ' s the crowd , murnau ' s sunrise , paul fejos ' s lonesome and fritz lang ' s metropolis all arrived , like the wind , just in time to see silent cinema made obsolete in a matter of months in 1927 - 28 .
director : roger donaldson starring : tba . although travis fimmel is currently attached to the project . like logan’s run , all quiet is positioned as a re - adaptation of erich maria remarque’s 1929 novel , rather than a remake of the original film . daniel radcliffe was once attached to the production , but it’s understood he is no longer involved .
in 2012 , mr . mansky met a north korean delegation at a vladivostok film festival and spent the next two years negotiating with the government for access . under the final contract , in addition to providing the script , the actors and the guides , north korea censors would vet daily footage and retain final approval over the finished film . mr . mansky would not be allowed to talk to the actors or film anything other than sanctioned scenes .
everybody knows that talkies destroyed the careers of silent film actors . . . but is that the whole truth ?
the protagonist of “moonlight” reflects the conflicted and fluid masculinity of young african - american men in the united states , even in just the way he’s presented . the film is divided into three chapters—“little , ” “chiron” and “black”—the three names used to refer to the same person that we follow from childhood through adolescence to adulthood . he’s a boy and then a man who has trouble figuring out his place in the world , which is also articulated by the character being played by three separate , all - remarkable actors .
orson welles , who knew a thing or two about silent movies , famously anointed buster keaton ' s crowning achievement
the greatest comedy ever made , the greatest civil war film ever made , and perhaps the greatest film ever made
.
born in philadelphia in 1929 , grace kelly rose to fame as a leading hollywood actress following her prominent role in high noon . along with her academy award - winning performance in the country girl , she starred in the alfred hitchcock films rear window , dial m for murder and to catch a thief . kelly left hollywood behind after marrying prince rainier iii of monaco in 1956 , thereby becoming known as princess grace . she died in her adopted home country in 1982 , following a car accident .
there’s just one problem : the action is fake . the north korean government cast the film , wrote the script and provided guides to feed the actors their lines while managing every detail of the project . in reality , zin - mi’s father is a journalist , and her mother a cafeteria worker . “don’t act like you’re acting in a movie , ” a guide scolds the girl at one point . “act naturally , like you do at home . ”
regardless , kelly soon found that film was more amenable to her talents . in the years just following world war ii , the film and television industries were both booming , and kelly soon moved to hollywood . she would eventually feature in 11 films and star in over 60 television productions .
sir arne’s treasure floods the screen with haunted memories , deep regrets and a dreaded sense of whatever the scots called karma 450 years ago . when the swedish film industry shifted its focus from quantity to quality in the late teens , the country’s films started displaying some of the richest visuals anywhere . director mauritz stiller had the time he needed to capture the essence of this tale of a scottish mercenary who falls in love with the only surviving daughter of the family he robbed and murdered . watch the way the camera snakes around the tower in the prison escape sequence early in the film , or the intimidating ghost sequences that fill the hero with dread .
director : rob marshall starring : emily blunt , meryl streep and lin - manuel miranda set 20 years after the disney original , the new film will take place in depression - era london . it is due to take its storylines from pl travers’s children books focusing on poppins’s continued adventures with the banks family . blunt will star as the titular supernanny alongside the tony - winning creator of the hamilton musical as a lamplighter named jack .
steamboat bill , jr . ’s climactic cyclone sequence—which is at once great action and great comedy—would on its own earn the film a place on this list . the iconic shot of a house’s facade falling on keaton is only one of many great moments in the free - flowing , hard - blowing sequence . but the film also showcases some of keaton’s best intimate acting , including a scene in which his father tries to find him a more manly hat , and a painfully hilarious attempt to pantomime of a jailbreak plan .
depending how you cut it , the roaring ’20s’ can be a long decade too . these uncertain times began in the aftermath of the first world war , and didn’t end until the wall street crash in october 1929 . arguably , the jazz age wasn’t truly dead and buried until prohibition was repealed in the us in 1933 . and for hollywood cinephiles , we may say the decade of decadence lasted until the hays censorship code began to bite in 1934 .
as this italian film’s title suggests , it’s about the constant motion of the modern age , as a young couple stays on the move , unable to find a place in the industrial age . director mario camerini went on to make tame , socially conservative comedies under mussolini’s regime , earning him a reputation as a fascist stooge . you wouldn’t guess that watching rotaie , a stylistically bold film about social upheaval and aimlessness . the characters experience the life of both the poor and the rich , and the camera reflects their uncertainty at some moments , and boredom at others . in an age where you could travel the world faster than ever before , you could also change your life with the same pace .
anne frank is a jewish girl who had to go into hiding during the second world war to escape the nazis . she kept a diary while in hiding at prinsengracht in amsterdam . anne and the others in hiding were discovered and deported to the concentration camps . of the eight people in hiding only anne ' s father , otto frank , survives .
every film that has ever been nominated for an academy award in any category . enjoy !
tony curtis and jack lemmon are musicians on the run from chicago mobsters , dressing up as women to avoid identification , and to mingle with monroe’s band . all would run smooth were it not for the temptations of romance , sex and expensive yachts . and as curtis and lemmon find out what it feels like for a girl in the permissive 20s , they gain an insight into bow’s unhappiness : heartbreak , harassment , high - heels and all .
the collection consists primarily of kern ' s show music , some holograph sketches ; most are manuscript full and vocal scores of kern ' s orchestrators and arrangers , especially frank saddler and robert russell bennett . film and . . .
yasujir ? ozu isn’t generally thought of as a gangster film director , but that’s not the only thing that makes dragnet girl so interesting . ozu pays tribute to the american genre , but doesn’t strictly adhere to it . he creates a weird sort of hybrid setting that’s like an american japan , and populates it with characters facing genuine moral dilemmas . working with high stakes , ozu makes a film that’s more urgent in plot than his familial dramas , but no less artful .
in her diary , otto reads about the plan anne had to publish a book after the war about the time she spent in the secret annex . initially , otto frank feels uncertain about the idea but he finally decides to fulfill his daughter ' s wish , but he decides to do it after all . later , the diary is translated and adapted to both film and theatre . people all over the world get to know anne frank’s story , and are deeply touched .
victor sjöstrom shows the beauty and terror of both the outdoors and human nature in this story of an icelandic outlaw who finds redemption and tragedy as he tries to live life . the actor / director moves from town to mountains , using the season and landscapes to help tell his story . the film’s most shocking moments remain startling , perhaps because of how they contrast with the film’s deliberate , carefully crafted manner .
when she was a dancer on broadway , brooks recalled , her best friend was lesbian ( like alice roberts’s countess in the film – a rare representation at a time when on - screen homosexuality was taboo ) , and shows were backed by rich men with eyes on the chorus line ( just like the character of schön ) . and in berlin , “sex was the business of the town” , she remembered .
to watch a soviet silent comedy , you must be prepared for some zany surreality . i don’t know how or why , but from my grandmother ( 1929 ) to the house on trubnaya square ( 1928 ) to the extraordinary adventures of mr . west in the land of the bolsheviks ( 1924 ) , these u . s . s . r . laughers reliably go off the rails , then tie the rails in a knot for good measure . with happiness , aleksandr medvedkin delivers plenty of oddity as a hapless farmer struggles to find his place in society , even after his horse - wife finds hers . but medvedkin also reigns the film into a better - shaped and tighter - focused narrative than most of his contemporaries , making this the most successful work of the genre .
lillian gish film ' the wind ' ( 1928 ) 01 may 1928 cth25954 allstar / cinetext / mgm * * warning * * this photograph can only be reproduced by publications in conjunction with the promotion of the above film . for editorial use only entertainment orientation landscape couples film still drama gun in hand photograph : allstar / cinetext / mgm
the jazz singer was famously the film that changed hollywood , but that change didn’t actually come overnight . and the jazz singer wasn’t even technically the first ‘sound’ movie ; warner bros had released their first feature length vitaphone film , don juan , the year before . don juan had music and sound effects on its soundtrack ( at the time a phonograph ) , but no dialogue . the jazz singer broke that barrier… and then it took six years for everybody else to really catch up . studios were still releasing silent films into the 30s , and they would often release silent and talkie versions of their movies side by side . the reality for the studios is that not every theater in the country was wired for sound , and the upgrade process took a while .
otto frank manages to set up a business in amsterdam . edith , margot and anne follow him to the netherlands . they find a place to live on the merwedeplein . the franks feel safe and free again . the children go to school , otto works hard on his business and edith takes care of the household . but then world war 2 breaks out . on 10 may 1940 , germany invades the netherlands . the frank family is in danger once more .
the film jumps to chiron as a teenager , dealing with more intense bullying and questions about sexuality . these are the years in which everyone claims to be sleeping around and a young man like chiron ( now played by ashton sanders ) struggles to find himself , especially now that all semblance of a normal home life is gone . he literally has nothing , and it takes kindness from his friend kevin ( played by jharrel jerome at this age ) to bring him comfort . but even that is turned in a time , place and age in which compassion is sorely lacking , when young men believe that violence is the answer to what will make them feel better or allow them to fit in .
mike nichols was an american theater and film director best known for his 1967 classic , the graduate . he won an emmy , oscar , tony and grammy awards—and is one of only 14 to do so .
showcasing her dancing abilities , hepburn starred opposite fred astaire in the musical funny face ( 1957 ) . this film featured hepburn undergoing another transformation . this time , she played a beatnik bookstore clerk who gets discovered by a fashion photographer played by astaire . lured by a free trip to paris , the clerk becomes a beautiful model . hepburn’s clothes for the film were designed by hubert de givenchy , one of her close friends .
the release of baz luhrmann ’s new adaptation of the novel , 3d trickery , hip - hop soundtrack and all , accentuates the distance between our time and that of f . scott fitzgerald . but the motion picture business can’t forget that it blossomed in the 1920s and many wonderful films have been set in that tumultuous decade , with its cinematic gifts of flappers , gangsters and high - rolling extravagance .
given the death of robin williams , the status of the jumanji remake is somewhat up in the air . according to columbia pictures president doug belgrad , the new film is set to be reimagined and updated version of the original . with her and tolbach ' s spider - man connection , may kirsten dunst star in the film again ? perhaps not in the same role as her 13 year old self …
a futuristic city scene from the film , metropolis , directed by fritz lang in 1927 . photograph : ronald grant archive
while some may say he is the greatest critical mind of his time , devin faraci humbly insists he is only the voice of a generation . he has been writing about movies online since there was a 21st century .
any film with bubbles sakall in it is a joy to watch and this one is no exception . he is as charming as ever and you simply want to hug the man ! the . . .
russian director yevgeni bauer is one of the great unsung hero of the movie camera . things you learned the americans or the germans did first in the 1920s , he did several years earlier . his traveling camera shots in the child of the big city emphasize the opulence that a poor seamstress enters into , then devours with no regret . the melodrama’s story is strange , and runs contrary to the typical image of the poor city girl , making the conclusion a small nightmare . other bauer films to seek out include after death , the dying swan and the revolutionary .
charlie chaplin in the 1931 silent film city lights , released after the first talkies . photograph : charles chaplin productions / sportsphoto ltd / allstar
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
kelly expressed a deep love of performance as a child . in addition to participating in school plays and community productions , she occasionally modeled with her mother and sister . while attending stevens school , a small private high school in philadelphia , she continued to dream about acting . the arts held a prominent place in the kelly family : two uncles—walter c . kelly , a vaudevillian performer , and george kelly , a pulitzer prize - winning playwright—both heavily influenced her . it was george who later encouraged his niece to pursue a full - time acting career , mentoring her through her rise in hollywood .
only a few weeks after the play premiered , news reports indicated that hepburn was being wooed by hollywood . only two years later , she took the world by storm in the film roman holiday ( 1953 ) with gregory peck . audiences and critics alike were wowed by her portrayal of princess ann , the royal who escapes the constrictions of her title for a short time . she won the academy award for best actress for this performance .
after getting married , otto and edith frank settle in frankfurt . they soon have children : margot in 1926 , and anne in 1929 . those first few years are happy ones , but the economic crisis empowers hitler’s nsdap . in 1933 , hitler takes over as leader of the german government . otto and edith frank are deeply worried . not only are they jewish , the economic crisis causes many problems . they look for a means of escape .
earth is the final part of dovzhenko ' s silent trilogy ( following the nationalist fantasy zvenigora ( 1928 ) and the avant - garde anti - war film arsenal ( 1929 ) , and is brimming with exuberant youth , but haunted by the shadow of death . this is never more apparent than in the heart - stopping sequence when vasyl dances home after a night with his true love . the young man performs an impromptu hopak on a dusty path as the sun rises , exemplifying passion , vigour and virility with every cloud that rises from his stamping feet . a kulak - ordered bullet stops the dance , and vasyl , mid - action : a brutal execution , starkly underplayed .
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forget the silly a - day - to - get - married plot—buster keaton didn’t actually like the play seven chances was based on—and simply marvel at how the film’s gags build and build in a glorious crescendo . even though you know that giant swarm of brides is coming , the twists and turns of the chase deliver laughs every time . for a great example of the great stone face’s deadpan acting , see his reaction when he has angry brides in one direction , and a landslide in the other . on an unfortunate sidenote , a few scenes are marred with completely unjustified racist humor .
( in january , a museum of modern art curator , worried about retribution from north korea , removed “under the sun” from its doc fortnight festival . according to emails provided to the times by the film’s german producer , the curator cited the sony pictures hack in 2014 , when a group thought to be associated with north korea leaked company emails and demanded that sony not release “the interview , ” a satire of the country . in june , rajendra roy , the museum’s chief film curator , said the film was “ wrongly disinvited . ” )
if you want to see how many different terrifyingly sinister facial expressions one man can make , the penalty is the film for you . no role showcases lon chaney’s brilliant acting better than his portrayal of a criminal mastermind who lost his legs as a young child and turned evil in the process . not even the cop - out ending can dull the impact of the film’s horror .
an interview with writer / director boots riley about his incendiary new film ,
sorry to bother you .
returning to her glamorous roots , hepburn set new fashion standards as holly golightly in breakfast at tiffany & apos ; s ( 1961 ) , which was based on a novella by truman capote . she played a seemingly lighthearted , but ultimately troubled new york city party girl who gets involved with a struggling writer played by george peppard . hepburn received her fourth academy award nomination for her work on the film .
the talkies were a long time coming . thomas edison always intended to marry images to sound , and as far back as 1885 was trying to get his phonograph and his kinetoscope to work together . that was one of the big problems keeping sound out of film - synchronization . beyond that there was a problem modern audiences wouldn’t even consider ; while projecting onto a screen enabled an entire theater to watch the movie , pre - electric amplification just couldn’t make the sound loud enough .
the director behind the swedish version of the girl with the dragon tattoo is said to be attached to this remake of this nineties cult classic about a group of medical students who experiment with death in order to explore the afterlife . happy valley ' s james norton looks set to make the jump from television to hollywood with this role , joining juno star ellen page as one of the trainee doctors who dice with death .
he didn’t hear anything from north korea until “under the sun” began receiving praise at film festivals . the government’s ministry of culture contacted its russian counterpart ( which had financed some of the film ) , demanding it destroy the film and punish the filmmaker , which russia didn’t do . moscow , though , did ask mr . mansky to remove its name from the credits , but he refused . in an article , a former culture minister , mikhail shvydkoy , accused mr . mansky of endangering the lives of the north koreans who participated in his documentary .
, whose battle - with - the - elements plot was a perfect match . sjöström had proven himself a master of capturing the outdoors in his swedish work , and here he harnesses the weather to create wind and sand that are as much characters as the film’s fine actors .
janet gaynor , george o ' brien in the film sunrise : a song of two humans ( 1927 ) . photograph : ronald grant archive
how did mr . mansky get these scenes through the censors’ daily edit ? his cameras held two memory cards , and at the end of each day , one crew member would create a delay so that another had time to copy it . mr . mansky then handed the card to the censors , who overnight removed anything they found objectionable .
actress , fashion icon , and philanthropist audrey hepburn was born on may 4 , 1929 , in brussels , belgium . at age 22 , she starred in the broadway production of gigi . two years later , she starred in the film roman holiday ( 1953 ) with gregory peck . in 1961 , she set new fashion standards as holly golightly in breakfast at tiffany & apos ; s . hepburn is one of the few actresses to win an emmy , tony , grammy , and academy award . in her later years , acting took a back seat to her work on behalf of children .
f . w . murnau’s final film before his tragic death underlines just how capable he was of adapting from one style to the next . stepping away from hollywood , he collaborated with famed nanook of the north documentarian robert j . flaherty , who wrote the screenplay with murnau and directed the opening scene . murnau documents the lives and culture of indigenous pacific islanders while also weaving a tragic love story . the quietly harrowing final sequence ensures that the film will never stop lingering faintly in the mind .
the royal couple had three children : princess caroline , prince albert and princess stéphanie . despite many attempts by filmmakers to lure princess grace back into the film industry , she resisted , embracing her role as a ceremonial leader of monaco and becoming involved in many cultural and charitable organizations . though some believe she deeply missed her acting career , she often spoke of the rampant problems afflicting the film industry :
hollywood amuses me . holier - than - thou for the public and unholier - than - the - devil in reality .
liza minnelli , the daughter of judy garland , is a star in her own right . her finest film role was playing sally bowles in the 1972 musical cabaret .
even at a time when soviet filmmakers were pushing the limits of the form and veering off in many different directions , alexander dovzhenko stood apart from his contemporaries , more interested in poetry than propaganda . the first film in his “ukraine trilogy” ( before arsenal and earth ) , zvenigora jumps around hundreds of years in the country’s history , blending modern commentary with folk tales and fantasy—all of which links to a buried ukrainian treasure . while we certainly get to see some bourgeois pigs—including a savage sequence in which rich people want to see a man shoot himself in a packed theater—the work is more about connection to land—and the pain of the fight for it—than the glory of the u . s . s . r .
jazz on the screen reflects the opinions of its author , david meeker , and not the views of the library of congress .
mr . mansky argues that his moral dilemma was whether to make the documentary in the first place . further , he said , he took precautions to protect zin - mi and her family . “i was very worried about them , which is why i didn’t include some footage that would have harmed them . ” in may , the north korean news media reported that zin - mi presented flowers to kim jong - un , the country’s leader , at the party congress .
buster keaton’s first film at mgm would also be the last one on which he was allowed to work the way he wanted with the crew he’d assembled during the previous eight years . that gives the cameraman a bit of a bittersweet feel when it’s not making you laugh your ass off at a chinatown riot or wowing you with a long take following keaton up and down an apartment building’s stairs . keaton ( and many of the other silent comedians ) liked to improvise scenes with a crew of gagmen , feeling out and adjusting scenes until they were just right . shooting on location allowed keaton to do this one last time before pre - planning and fixed budgets took the magic out of the process .
“i say serious things , and people laugh ! ” such is the simple tragedy of lon chaney’s character in victor sjöstrom’s he who gets slapped . chaney plays a great scientist who loses his ideas and wife to a scheming baron , then becomes a clown so he can re - live the humiliation in the circus ring every night . sjöstrom crafted the best chaney film of them all by taking taking all of chaney’s favorite obsessions and exaggerating them even more than usual . the main character is sympathetic yet terrifying , an amplification of all our biggest fears and hangups . when the circus calls him onto the stage one last time , it’s the grand exit of all grand exits . not for people with coulrophobia .
he took as his model leni riefenstahl’s “triumph of the will , ” her film about the 1934 nazi party congress , which is considered both a masterpiece of propaganda and an important documentary . “i thought this would satisfy the north korean regime on the one hand , ” he said , “and give the world a view of the real north korea on the other . ”
a few short years after starting in film , victor sjöström made an essential work that shows off both his love for bold , dynamic compositions and his wide range as an actor . adapted from the henrik ibsen poem , the film follows the life and hardships of a sailor who loses his family , then later comes back in contact with the person responsible for his tragedy . the themes of revenge , forgiveness and redemption would continue throughout sjöstrom’s career , but they’re particularly deep - felt here .
the new documentary “under the sun” follows an 8 - year - old north korean girl named zin - mi as she prepares to join the korean children’s union , run by the workers’ party . zin - mi and her parents — her mother works in a soy - milk plant , her father is an engineer at a garment factory — share abundant family meals , ride pyongyang’s spotless subways and pay their respects at a bronze statue of north korea’s founder , kim il - sung .
the final reel , shot at the studio’s insistence , is quite clever in the way it skirts the command for a happy ending . a title card comes up beforehand and declares it all an unrealistic fantasy , then murnau intentionally makes it so absurd that it only serves to underline the desperation felt in the rest of the film .
the golden age of swedish silent cinema ended with a bang via this this epic tale of a drunken priest’s redemption . mauritz stiller conjures a series of defining moments in gosta berling’s life , including sex scandals , wolves , fire and romance , with a level of grandeur that recalls gone with the wind . lars hanson carries the film with his fiery eyes and bravado exchanges with costars , including gerda lundquist and greta garbo ( in her first film ) .
the problem with a lot of silent german ( and u . s . ) “street films” is that they’re so intent on showing the dark side of society that the movies just become one long barrage of terrible things happening to some poor girl who doesn’t deserve any of it . what sets harbor drift apart is that its assortment of characters start in the gutter , and see a chance , in the form of a valuable necklace , to get out . mittler makes the expected critiques of the class divide , but he also gets deeper into the dark side of human nature with keen expressionistic flare .
“i shouldn’t have bothered scoring the last 15 minutes , ” rodney sauer of the mont alto motion picture orchestra told me after accompanying safety last at the san francisco silent film festival . he said he and his ensemble couldn’t even hear themselves over the uproarious laughter in the castro theatre during harold lloyd’s famous building - scaling sequence . the scene , with its famous clock - hanging finale—is such a perfect mix of suspense and comedy that it doesn’t much matter that the rest of the film seems to exist merely as a lead - up to it .
come for the tale of jealousy and infidelity , stay for the animated dead insects . polish - russian animator vladislav starevich had a wry sense of humor and a talent for turning little pests into big - screen stars . and so this delightful short features straying beetles , exotic dragonfly dancers and pushy grasshopper cameramen . starevich satirizes the still - young film industry with a clever story , but the real fun is in his miniature sets and tawdry bugs .
the content of jazz on the screen : a jazz and blues filmography by david meeker is copyrighted by david meeker and used here by permission of the author .
it ' s the latter impression that endures . dovzhenko ' s symbolism is both rich and audacious . his scope comprises vast pastoral landscapes , and intimate fleshy nakedness . perhaps its most celebrated sequence is the magnificent opening scene : the painful counterpoint between a dying man , his infant grandchildren and the bursting fruit of his orchard . this is living cinema , as refreshing and vital as the film ' s own climactic downpour . pamela hutchinson
born on may 4 , 1929 , in brussels , belgium , audrey hepburn was a talented performer known for her beauty , elegance and grace . often imitated , she remains one of hollywood & apos ; s greatest style icons . a native of brussels , hepburn spent part of her youth in england at a boarding school there . during much of world war ii , she studied at the arnhem conservatory in the netherlands . after the nazis invaded the country , hepburn and her mother struggled to survive . she reportedly helped the resistance movement by delivering messages , according to an article in the new york times .
go behind the scenes of the mission : impossible movies , check out the latest videos and trailers , and see which spy movies topped the box office in our mission : impossible guide .
at the age of 22 , audrey hepburn went to new york to star in the broadway production of gigi , based on the book by the french writer colette . set in paris around 1900 , the comedy focuses on the title character , a young teenage girl on the brink of adulthood . her relatives try to teach her ways of being a courtesan , to enjoy the benefits of being with a wealthy man without having to marry . they try to get a friend of the family , gaston , to become her patron , but the young couple has other ideas .
anne doesn’t just keep a diary during her time in the secret annex . she also writes short stories and collects her favourite sentences by other writers in a notebook . anne hopes for her diary to be published as a novel after the war . that’s why she starts rewriting it . but anne never manages to finish it . she ' s discovered and arrested before she completes her work .
of course , there is more to the film than simply that sequence . if there were not , it could hardly have survived its endless revivals and regenerations—including a screening in trafalgar square in 2004 to the accompaniment of a new pet shop boys score . you could blame the techniques eisenstein used here and in strike for much of the stroboscopic editing that has dominated hollywood for the past 30 years , but that would be to miss the beauty , clarity and rage of his methods . the film still stands as a distillation of all that was revolutionary about this filmmaker , and all that can still be revolutionary in cinema . ryan gilbey
lois webber would go on to make several social - message features , some reflecting rather skewed , but nevertheless deeply held worldviews , but her purest cinematic punch is suspense , a 10 - minute collaboration with her husband , phillips smalley , that provides exactly what the title promises . the film crosscuts between a woman under siege by a tramp and a husband hurrying home to save her , if he can avoid the police . the inventive camera work ratchets up the tension more effectively than even d . w . griffith did at the time . what’s most satisfying , though , is how weber and smalley distill one of the most primal feelings cinema can offer .
motion picture | short film ( under 30 minutes ) . paul whiteman . ( personnel on camera ) . motion picture ( form ) .
jazz on the screen is a reference work of filmographic information and does not point to digitized versions of the items described . the library of congress may or may not own a copy of a particular film or video . to request additional information ask a librarian .
alfred hitchcock ’s first sound film was also his last silent , as blackmail was made in both formats . while the sound version is known for hitchcock’s experiments with the new technology ( most famously a scene that emphasizes the word “knife” ) , the silent version flows much smoother . and donald calthrop’s performance of the blackmailer feels even creepier with just his face and body language doing the job .
grace potter is a singer and musician who fronts the band the nocturnals . she also sang on the hit duet
you and tequila
with country singer kenny chesney .
admittedly , it ' s a flawed story . the acting is theatrical , the characters bizarrely naive and neurotic , and the plot notoriously muddled . even the recent release of a near - complete version failed to explain everything . but in its broader strokes , metropolis draws on deep roots ( biblical , jungian , wagnerian , fairy - tale ) to explore themes that continue to concern us : the dehumanising effects of industrialisation ; the fetishisation of technology ; the divide between the rich and poor , the rulers and the labourers , the
head
and the
hands
. politically , the film has been read across the spectrum , from social - democratic to pro - fascist . ( lang ' s wife and co - writer thea von harbou did , indeed , join the nazi party later on . )
“vertov had a whole bunch of techniques for capturing ‘life unawares , ’ like hiding cameras , surprising people by sticking a camera in their face , distracting people with a fake camera and generally catching them off guard , ” said jeremy hicks , a scholar of russian film at queen mary university of london . mr . hicks called “under the sun” mr . mansky’s “most vertov - like film” because of the lengths it goes to show the audience how it was made . for instance , text hovers over shots to reveal the truth behind the carefully curated illusion . “the script of this film was assigned to us by the north korean side , ” reads one .
( unfortunately , the soundtrack on the warner archive dvd leaves something to be desired . he who gets slapped deserves a fine score , like the one the matti bye ensemble played at the san francisco silent film festival in 2011 . hopefully it’ll be available some day . )
in his later years , charlie chaplin was known for bringing pathos into his comedy whenever he had the opportunity . city lights is the movie where he earns every bit of it . while its structure resembles chaplin’s usual picaresque format , there’s more of a deliberate purpose as the tramp tries to help a poor , blind flower girl , played adorably by virginia cherrill . harry myers also deserves a mention for his performance as the millionaire who’s generous when he’s drunk and can’t remember his good deeds when he’s sober .