operation avalanche is a 2016 american-canadian found footage conspiracy thriller film directed by matt johnson , who co-wrote the film with josh boles .

johnson and owen williams star as cia agents who infiltrate nasa to expose a potential mole , only to become embroiled in a conspiracy to fake the 1969 apollo 11 moon landing .

operation avalanche ( film )

operation avalanche is a found - footage nasa conspiracy thriller shot clandestinely on real locations .
i just can ' t get over how intense operation avalanche was , jesus christ .
screenprism spoke with johnson and producer matthew miller at the sxsw premiere of operation avalanche .
operation avalanche is expected to land in toronto theatres later this year — and that’s no hoax .
read more : sundance review : ‘dr . strangelove’ meets christopher guest in moon conspiracy tale ‘operation avalanche’
xavier dolan ' s latest leads the race , with race , operation avalanche and weirdos close behind .
looking for movie tickets ? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing operation avalanche near you .
toronto director matt johnson’s operation avalanche is set to enjoy its world premiere at the sundance film festival in park city , utah , in january .
there are no featured audience reviews yet . click the link below to see what others say about operation avalanche !
operation avalanche
director matt johnson in the mission control room at johnson space center in houston , texas .
operation avalanche ( matt johnson ) . 94 minutes . opens friday ( september 30 ) . see listing . rating : nnn
operation avalanche , a film by toronto ' s matt johnson , speculates about the rumored faking of the apollo 11 moon landing . the film has been selected to make its world premiere at the 2016 sundance film festival in park city , utah .
poster for operation avalanche . filmmaker matt johnson says the film relies heavily on recent updates to “fair use” laws regarding artistic appropriation of material previously considered untouchable due to copyright restrictions .
operation avalanche
is an inventive grab - bag of a film , a movie about making a movie that no one was supposed to know was a movie at all .
conspiracy theories and cold war - paranoia pulse through “operation avalanche , ” a comedy - thriller directed by matt johnson . it opens friday .
even though you have lived your entire life in toronto , you decided not to have
operation avalanche
premiere at the toronto international film festival last fall , for sundance this past january .
in addition to being a suspenseful action flick with plenty of laughs , operation avalanche is an homage to film and the process of making movies , from documentaries to science fiction . while the film’s characters demonstrate some filmmaking methods from the days of yore , the zapruder team had to develop some new techniques to make it look like operation avalanche was shot on 16mm and then buried for 50 years .
there’s a great chase scene involving vintage 1960s cars that looks like something hollywood would have cooked up on a much bigger budget than operation avalanche enjoyed .
but seriously , johnson interjected , operation avalanche relies heavily on recent updates to “fair use” laws regarding artistic appropriation of material previously considered untouchable due to copyright restrictions .
“operation avalanche” premiered at this year’s sundance film festival before going on to screen at south by southwest in march and will screen montreal’s fantasia festival next week . it will hit theaters on september 16th from lionsgate premiere .
park city , utah—“i want to give a shout out to our legal team right now , ” a smiling matt johnson said following friday’s sundance film festival world premiere of operation avalanche , his apollo 11 moon hoax thriller .
matt johnson , director and star of
operation avalanche ,
is documented by a film crew at the l . a . times studio at the sundance film festival in park city , utah , on jan . 23 . ( jay l . clendenin / los angeles times )
operation avalanche
shows real historical footage from nasa ' s apollo days as well as footage of real nasa employees at work . none of them had any idea about the film ' s true purpose at the time .
xyz films , which is made up of ucla tft alums and producers nate bolotin , nick spicer ( m . f . a . ’06 ) and aram tertzakian , has the film operation avalanche showing in the sundance next section .
race comes in just behind juste la fin du monde with eight overall nominations , while before the streets , operation avalanche and weirdos , tie for third place with six each .
that film has already secured distribution with lionsgate for 2016 , so be sure to be on the lookout this year to see it for yourself . for more on operation avalanche , be sure to visit them on sundance , imdb and facebook .
the end result is the clever found - footage conspiracy thriller
operation avalanche ,
which premiered in january at sundance and opened friday at the nuart theater in west los angeles .
director hugh gibson stands with his award for best canadian film for his film
the stairs
at the toronto film critics association awards , on tuesday , january 10 , 2017 .
cinematographers jared raab and andy appelle ( who play the cameramen in the film as well ) , and film editor curt lobb recently shared some secrets with us about how they seamlessly blended original footage with archival , creating a look for operation avalanche that sold the period — and on a relatively small budget too .
“operation avalanche” is rated r ( under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian ) . reds under the bed and something nasty in the garage . running time : 1 hour 33 minutes .
for all their ( remarkably successful ) attempts to steal shots from nasa and shepperton studios ( as described in the video above when they are thrown out of shepperton because of the avengers ) , it seems the venture has paid off . operation avalanche was accepted to sundance after what johnson describes as “a miracle” . regardless of any divine intervention , it seems johnson , raab and appelle’s previous film the dirties helped pave the way to sundance , as everyone was waiting for their next film : operation avalanche .
we will have a pre - release screening of operation avalanche on tuesday , september 6 at 4pm in the folino theater . the filmmakers matt johnson ( writer / director / producer ) will be in attendance for a q & a after the film .
well , in terms of being accessible , the dirties was released on vod and streaming platforms , and operation avalanche is coming out in theaters . so that’s gotta be a huge difference , just in terms of the number of eyes on your film .
a cute , spunky found - footage thriller undone by a lumpy plot and a weak ending , “operation avalanche” revisits the urban legend that the moon landing was faked , with some fresh twists .
after debuting at the sundance film festival earlier this year , the faux documentary operation avalanche will be coming to theaters this fall . and for conspiracy theorists who think the moon landing was faked by the government , this could just be more fuel to the fire .
we spoke at sundance just after the premiere of operation avalanche , but you’ve been on the festival circuit for quite awhile now . have you noticed any trends or similarities with the way audiences react ?
soon you’ll get to know exactly what we mean ; operation avalanche should hit theaters later this year . lionsgate snapped up the film months ago , and already has a distribution plan . in the meantime , fire up room 237 and start polishing your tin - foil hat .
dolan also picked up a best director nod for his film . he’ll compete against chloe leriche for avant les rues ( before the streets ) , kevan funk for hello destroyer , matt johnson for operation avalanche , and mathieu denis and simon lavoie for “ those who make revolution . ”
after making its toronto premiere at the hot docs festival – a ballsy programming choice , given that it isn’t a documentary – matt johnson’s operation avalanche finally gets a theatrical run at the tiff bell lightbox this week .
i have never watched a piece of content that so immediately resonated with me as much as the first episode of nirvanna the band the show . and then it was the dirties . and now it ' s operation avalanche .
with operation avalanche opening in limited release last weekend – and expanding into more theaters tomorrow – i spoke with johnson via telephone to get his thoughts on the film’s reception , his current relationship with nasa , and the new series he’s been working on for the past year . enjoy the interview below .
operation avalanche tells the story of four undercover cia agents in 1967 who seek to document nasa and america’s race to the moon . only problem being that nasa won’t make it in time , so the agents decide it’s time to fake the moon landing before russia beats them to it . from writer / director matt johnson , operation avalanche required a discreet camera that could allow them to keep filming on the down low , which led them to the blackmagic pocket cinema camera .
this friday ( sept . 16 ) an ethically questionable and totally thrilling fake documentary about the first moon landing premieres in theaters . in the film , titled
operation avalanche ,
two cia agents pose as documentary filmmakers to infiltrate nasa and investigate a russian mole . then they stage the 1969 apollo 11 moon landing .
premieres jan . 22 at the sundance film festival ( sundance . org ) .
just when you thought the found footage genre was dead ( again ) , along comes operation avalanche , a movie that is thankfully not another cheap horror film - - it’s a cheap thriller of sorts . largely forgettable and annoyingly acted , the movie has its moments but never amounts to a whole lot . full movie review »
i remember my very first film’s public show . it was in 2005 as part of the student thesis - festival at cleveland state university . together with my film school classmates – i organized a small film event , consisting of several thesis films from our final production class at csu’s film program . our goal was to get together
operación avalancha ( operation avalanche ) de matt johnson es un falso documental que aborda el mito de que el alunizaje de 1969 fue falso y que las imágenes que se vieron de la llegada del hombre a la luna se rodaron en un plató .
the rogers best canadian film award , voted on by the 39 members of the toronto film critics association , features a cash prize of $ 100 , 000 . the two runners - up – matt johnson’s operation avalanche , about a cia operative trying to fake a moon landing , and kazik radwanski’s how heavy this hammer , a drama about a man addicted to online gaming – each received $ 5 , 000 .
i’m glad you mentioned shooting illegally , because one of the most interesting pieces of operation avalanche is that you guys went into nasa under false pretenses , and shot a bunch of footage that ended up in the film . at sundance , they hadn’t really commented on that – but between then and now , have you heard from them ?
that’s not to suggest you shouldn’t check out operation avalanche when you get a chance — the shepperton sequence alone is worth it . ( it should be released by lionsgate sometime this year . ) but i’m much more excited about what matt johnson does next .
awesome , man , i’m glad things are going so well . operation avalanche was one of my favorite films at sundance , and i’m glad it’s getting a theatrical release . i’m excited for you , and hopefully we’ll get a chance to chat again soon .
movie news , screening invitations and reviews from the world of independent film and beyond .
me thinks the reports of the demise of found footage films was premature ! every time i turn around i keep finding brilliant examples that quite frankly blow my mind ! in fact . . i was so immensely pleasured by this titillating government conspiracy found footage film that you can now find operation avalanche listed in the newly revised kama sutra ; - )
character matt and andrew have id cards made up with their titles of director and camera , respectively . this reflects their real life status as operation avalanche ' s director and cinematographer . this sequence is supposed to subtly act as an opening credits sequence without breaking character .
“operation avalanche” doesn’t mark the first time director matt johnson and owen williams have played “themselves , ” although it’s hard to imagine a more inventive use of the duo’s reality - blurring faux - doc sensibility , which previously earned them top honors at slamdance 2013 for “the dirties . ” pretending to be the film crew that faked the apollo 11 moon landing , [ … ]
thankfully , operation avalanche has more going for it than its questionable legality . ( it ' s not that questionable ; johnson actually shouted out the film ' s lawyer following its sundance screening . ) set against the backdrop of the cold war in 1967 , it ' s by turns a buddy comedy , a thriller , a conspiracy theory film , and—thanks to a gnarly car chase—an action movie . it starts out like a christopher guest film , winds its way through oliver stone’s jfk and / or wag the dog , and eventually becomes enemy of the state .
the moon landing conspiracy theories claim that some or all elements of the apollo program and the associated moon landings were hoaxes staged by nasa with the aid of other organisations . operation avalanche was the preceding order in the arms and space race to bankrupt the soviet union in the cold war .
it also looks like vintage film , with much grainy b & w and desaturated colour imagery .
curt lobb : pablo would mess with the film reels ; he’d dirty and scratch them up .
new print created by sundance institute and ucla film & television archive . shown by permission of miramax
what kept running through my mind throughout the last third of operation avalanche was just how much better the film could have been if it had ditched the found footage conceit and told its story in a more conventional form ; if it could have focused on simply telling the best version of this story instead of constantly servicing the set - up . matt johnson’s first film , the dirties , followed a similar approach , using a meta - documentary premise to tell the story of a pair of friends making a movie about bullying that goes horribly awry . it’s clear he’s comfortable with the format , and to his credit operation avalanche is more ambitious in every possible way . but it’s already clear that johnson is a young filmmaker who has outgrown this particular bit of cinematic sleight of hand .
operation avalanche is a period found footage film following a pair of young cia agents ( matt johnson and owen williams ) who initially go undercover at nasa to expose a russian mole . but while posing as a documentary crew , they actually learn that there’s no way nasa is going to win the race to the moon . so they have an idea , and you already know what it is .
his follow - up , operation avalanche ,
investigates the truth behind the cia ' s involvement in the space race
and promises to be just as invigorating as his debut . according to a press release , lionsgate has snapped up all u . s . and canadian rights to the film . production is scheduled to begin on june 30 in toronto , houston , and washington d . c .
that conversation has taken center stage with you lately , and seems to be accompanying your film here .
i kept hoping that
operation avalanche
would eventually get so good that it would force me to overcome my innate skepticism . i didn ' t need the film to do anything except make me feel something for these characters , or at least make me want to invest in their cover - up scheme . that moment never came , and i can ' t help but feel that ' s because johnson and boles didn ' t do enough research on the type of characters who would , in the ' 60s , leap at the chance to fake the moon - landing . you can only coast so far on a novel idea ' s fumes , and
operation avalanche
doesn ' t go far enough .
stay on top of the latest breaking film and tv news ! sign up for our email newsletters here .
operation avalanche is set to enjoy its world premiere at the sundance film festival in park city , utah , later this month . the logline is appealing : a pair of cia agents infiltrate nasa in 1967 and endeavour to fake the moon landing – a period mockumentary . but when johnson wants to make a movie about the infiltration of nasa , he isn ' t content to merely stage it . he needs to infiltrate nasa for real .
here are the salient points : johnson’s first film , the dirties , didn’t play tiff , and johnson chose to take operation avalanche to sundance 2016 rather than offer it to tiff 2015 . plenty of canadian filmmakers aren’t happy with tiff , but few of them will say so on the record , so johnson instantly became a maverick . he’s also willing to discuss his dissatisfaction with telefilm canada’s funding preferences , and that has generated even more coverage .
reviewed at sundance film festival ( next ) , jan . 28 , 2016 . running time : 94 min .
stranger things is a great example of that . it has the look of an ’80s movie through and through , but you know it’s not an ’80s movie because you’re not watching it on film . film does all these weird things that look like mistakes , but you can’t plan them . through this process , we discovered that if you want something to look like it’s on film , the only way to get that look consistently is to actually use film .
a multimillion - dollar car chase , mind you , requires more than the will of one man ' s creative aspirations . johnson was afforded the opportunity by lions gate entertainment , which will distribute operation avalanche in the united states this year . that ' s a rare privilege for an independent filmmaker from toronto ; few reach escape velocity and make it stateside . johnson is of course well aware of that – and made the decision himself to premiere at sundance rather than locally , at the toronto international film festival , which had invited him to screen the film this past september .
operation avalanche is a very difficult beast to describe , but an easy one to love . set in the late 1960s during the simultaneous cold war and space race between the u . s . and russia , it’s structured like a documentary within a documentary , but it plays like a vintage espionage thriller or 1970s paranoia classic like the parallax view .
he definitely has a point . tiff and telefilm could both be doing a lot better by emerging filmmakers ; johnson’s sparked a conversation the industry very badly needs to have , and i’m really glad he’s done this . but now that operation avalanche is playing in town , we have to shift the focus back to the movie , not its maker .
across the walls of the zapruder offices sprawl pages of script notes and storyboards for projects in the works – bigger and more ambitious projects than even operation avalanche , though of the details i have for now been sworn to secrecy . but i do wonder if johnson isn ' t concerned about having his intentions so plainly on display . not a chance .
necessary to be a late - night talk radio / dorm room smoke session favorite : a super - secret government organization ( probably the cia ) enlists a filmmaker ( possibly stanley kubrick ) to fake footage of us astronauts on the moon . matt johnson milks this preposterous idea for drama and laughs in * operation avalanche , * which opened at sundance last week .
sign up : stay on top of the latest breaking film and tv news ! sign up for our email newsletters here .
johnson : i think it had to start as something linked to a new film , but hopefully the conversation keeps going .
we ' re thrilled to be in good company at the guanajuato international film festival , mexico : urltoken - july 23rd .
ucla film & television archive , in conjunction with the sundance institute and others , has digitally preserved and / or has had new prints created for the following films , which premiered at the sundance film festival and will be shown again in january .
but here ' s the crazy part : the makers of
operation avalanche
say they really did lie to nasa so they could gain access to the johnson space center in houston , texas . there , they told nasa that they were filming a real documentary about the moon landing . instead , the filmmakers created a hilarious but fake documentary about faking the moon landing .
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 .
after
the dirties
picked up the grand jury prize at the slamdance film festival , the 31 - year - old toronto - based filmmaker and his crew thought about expanding the model they created for the first film and make a period documentary .
operation avalanche is , in the end , a clever entertainment , but all the work that johnson , boles , and co . have put in — the savvy recreations and incorporation , the documentary - style filming , not to mention plugging into a world of conspiracies both imagined and real — gives it extra resonance . for what emerges is a portrait of a time period when our whole relationship with the filmed image was beginning to change . americans had already seen a president shot on tv . they would soon see men walking on the moon , even as they also saw images of death and destruction in vietnam . the earnest enthusiasm with which operation avalanche begins , and the paranoia and fear toward which it proceeds , chart the course of an entire nation .
and operation avalanche is… well , it’s fine . conceptually , it’s pretty nifty , taking the form of a found - footage conspiracy thriller about a pair of junior cia agents ( johnson and his dirties co - star owen williams , once again using their own names for their characters ) who attempt to out a russian mole at nasa and wind up faking the apollo 11 moon landing .
the one thing i really like about operation avalanche that really kind of sets it apart from other indie flicks is that it feels like a lot of indie directors are trying to go for this darker , nihilistic or pessimistic tone , and there’s such an air of optimism in this film . especially with your character – no matter what obstacle you put in his way , he’s going to get it accomplished , which – after speaking with you a few times – seems like just an extension of who you really are .
mm : especially [ documentaries ] from the period , especially the look of the film , all those seminal docs from the 60s .
the sequence is simply delightful , and it’s operation avalanche at its very best : clever , funny , and so in love with movies themselves that it nearly forces you to smile . those kind of flashes come throughout the film — it may be the only found footage movie i’ve ever seen where they show somebody actually cutting the footage you’re watching — but that delight starts to fall away as the team begins to suspect that they’re being hunted by russian agents , or even worse , double - crossed by the cia because they know too much .
what they’re really doing is trying to unmask a russian mole within nasa , but in the course of their sleuthing , they discover nasa has been hiding an earth - shaking fact : the space agency is nowhere near ready to land a man on the moon , not in time to meet the end - of - decade deadline set by late president john f . kennedy , whose bold challenge opens operation avalanche .
just don ' t ask them to give you justifications for the more implausible footage ostensibly captured by the film - within - the - film ' s
documentarians .
put on the spot , johnson would probably just invent an elaborate , if entertaining , set of lies .
the nominations for the 2017 canadian screen awards were announced tuesday , honouring the best in canada’s film and television industries over the past year .
copyright © 2005 - 2018 / film . privacy policy / cookie policy . web design by pro blog design . logo concept by : illumination ink
operation avalanche is a sly little comedy - thriller , but , also like room 237 , it’s an act of movie love . “the moon landing is the greatest movie ever made , ” johnson tells me in a sundance condo , his boyish enthusiasm echoing the eager cheerfulness of the film - buff character he plays in the movie ( a character named , appropriately enough , matt johnson ) . “what piece of cinema is more famous than neil armstrong walking on the moon ? ” the only other possible contender is probably the one that gave johnson’s production company its name : zapruder films .
turning lack of sophistication into a virtue is a skill that the filmmaking hyphenate matt johnson has in abundance . three years ago , he directed and starred in his first feature , “the dirties , ” a shrewd commentary on the warped relationship between image and reality . now he and his prime collaborator , owen williams , are back to poke that beast some more with “operation avalanche , ” a cold war comedy - thriller pulsing with paranoia .
the film is directed by matt johnson , who co - wrote the script with josh boles . johnson previously directed “the dirties , ” about two high school best friends who make a film about getting revenge on school bullies only for one of them to take it more seriously than the other .
johnson , who recently received a master ' s degree in film at york university in toronto , chatted on the phone from his hometown this week .
villeneuve’s next film is the hotly anticipated blade runner 2049 with ryan gosling and harrison ford . presenting the prize , mckellar joked that the director’s last film , the science - fiction drama arrival , was really about bilingualism , and an alien race that comes to earth and forces us to learn their language .
while i prefer matt johnson ' s more comedic work , operation avalanche ' s more dramatic approach is pretty effective . it ' s clear a lot of thought and care went into developing the world and logic . the visual aesthetic , too , is pretty remarkable , especially considering the fact it was filmed with a blackmagic pocket cinema camera - and the amount of ' illegal ' filming that they actually got away with is also pretty impressive to learn about .
ingeniously using his low budget to address his ambitions , johnson has directed , co - written ( and starred in ) a unique science - fiction film .
for his first film , 2013 ' s
the dirties ,
which revolved around two high school friends making a film about the school ' s bullies that goes awry , matt johnson wanted to make it so authentic he enrolled in a high school and convinced students and teachers he was an actual student .
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 left the film thinking of shakespeare’s famous line : “there are more things in heaven and earth , horatio , than are dreamt of in your philosophy . ”
congratulations to the class of 2018 ! above is a snapshot of the thesis film projects completed by the this year’s graduating class . this reel features the narrative , animation / visual effects and documentary projects created by the 2018 graduates of dodge college of film and media arts at chapman university . this video was compiled and edited by
it’s very hard to convince people of that when you’re dreading the result . and in many ways , operation avalanche talks about where that can lead , and the really dark , awful places that can take people like me . which it did – the story of that movie is very much the story of that movie getting made . but i think that real life is pretty optimistic and buoyant , and when movies come out that try to say it’s not , i try to reject that .
ultimately , the movie falls apart for the same reason so many other found - footage films do : it wants to tell a bigger story than the premise allows . watching documentary footage of johnson and his team building a fake lunar rover on a soundstage makes complete sense within the framework of the film ; accepting that somebody’s going to keep a camera rolling when people’s lives are at stake , or when the characters find themselves in a high - speed car chase with bullets whizzing by , simply doesn’t . if i’m thinking about the feasibility of the style , i’m not inside the world of the movie — and operation avalanche kicked me out time and again .
we did a full color grade on the digital and then our film artist did multiple prints on different film stocks to get different [ looks ] . we did physical damage . i took a piece of the movie , hung it on my bike and rode my bike around the university campus so that it would get all destroyed .
this apollo - era would - be suspense - thriller mockumentary is more an exercise in ' look how film - school cool and clever we are ' than anything else .
in 1967 , four undercover cia agents were sent to nasa posing as a documentary film crew . what they discovered led to one of the biggest conspiracies in american history .
it’s not the cleanest of set - ups , and the with the actors playing roles named after themselves and the film we’re watching ostensibly a documentary made by the group’s own team , the movie starts eating its own tail pretty early on . but operation avalanche is nevertheless a blast in the early stages , blurring the lines between reality and fiction as the duo first set up shop at nasa , then start outlining how they’d actually fake footage from the moon . johnson isn’t terribly strong as an actor , particularly in the heavier dramatic scenes , but he nails the overeager , selfish buffoon aspect of his character , and is immensely entertaining even while his character alienates the members of his team .
it seemed awfully easy to for you and your crew to get permission from nasa to film there by telling them you were college students doing a documentary on the apollo mission .
these kids are similar to our film’s characters . they’re just guys messing around with a movie camera , which is why that footage of them goofing around in the street and waving to people fit so well in our film . because filmmakers were so serious during that era , very little footage of that kind of jovial , loose camera stuff exists on 16mm .
while i was on a shooting hiatus with my last film , in football we trust , i lived in israel / palestine for 7 months on a rotary ambassadorial scholarship , which i had been awarded after graduating from chapman university . while there , i taught film , mentored local filmmakers , assisted ngos launch media advocacy projects , and continued my post - graduate
it sounds like comedy , and the film has many funny moments — but there are also many frightening ones , when other players in the scenario set out to silence any squealers .
much like the characters they portray in the film , johnson and his team gained access to nasa under false pretenses – they posed as a documentary crew shooting a film about the apollo missions . when you see their onscreen counterparts inside mission control , those aren’t sets – they’re the actual locations , and in most cases the crew had only a single take to get the scene just right . the result is an engrossing and entertaining film about one of the oldest conspiracy theories in america , and the ambitious cia agents who managed to pull it off .
they just do a fantastic job of showing how the moon landing could have been convincingly faked to a pre - internet world — the film crew even built a realistic lunar landing module .
aa : there’s that interesting sequence with bracket saying he’s going to shoot down apollo 11 . matt [ johnson ] buried that film because it’s the first thing his character buries in the movie .
johnson : that was his big project , he did all the vfx , there are about 200 effects shots in the film , but that was his baby . we had already gone to shepperton studios and broke in and shot those scenes illegally . that was the first film we rolled , was us breaking into that studio . we shot it when we were over there for the uk release of
melanie duke ( bfa / da ’17 ) started a new role with 20th century fox as a creative content coordinator . erika cohn’s ( bfa / fp ’09 ) film will receive its la theatrical release on april 20th at the laemmle monica film center . erika will be around afterwards for a q & a . jj englert ( bfa / crpr ’15 ) has started a company , industry jump ,
howie mandel hosts the 2017 canadian screen awards , to be broadcast live from toronto’s sony centre for the performing arts on sunday , march 12 . here is the complete list of film and television nominees :
screen international is the essential resource for the international film industry . subscribe now for monthly editions , awards season weeklies , access to the screen international archive and supplements including stars of tomorrow and world of locations .
the group also presented quebec director denis villeneuve with the tfca 20th anniversary award for excellence , recognizing his record three wins of the best canadian film prize , for 2009’s polytechnique , 2010’s incendies , and 2013’s enemy .
canada’s richest film prize has been won by toronto filmmaker hugh gibson for his documentary the stairs , a penetrating and sympathetic portrayal of the city’s regent park neighbourhood , focusing on three staff members at its community health centre .
we never told them ,
said matt johnson , the director and lead actor .
we invited them to the screening of the movie at the south by southwest film festival , but no one ever came .
even though we were using a lot of older stocks , they would have been from the ’80s , not the ’60s . film technology has improved to the point where film is much better now than it was in the ’60s , so we had to do some degrading early on in the first color pass . shift some of the blacks a little toward red . things that these ’60s films naturally do . conor was huge for that .
that was our first big challenge . we started shooting the color footage on 16 and then we started realizing that we were shooting so much footage — we were going through 10 , 000 feet a day . we realized we could get a film artist to [ reprint digital footage ] on 16mm . conor fisher used a lab and did a one - to - one exchange of every single frame of the film . it took him four months .
mj : but i don ' t think many people watching the film are going to read those things instantly . because on the surface it ' s sort of a conspiracy thriller , as opposed to a criticism of government .
mj : yeah , that was pretty complicated . and that was the biggest challenge technically going into this movie was to make it look like we shot on 16mm . so we did everything . the opening of the movie is actually shot on black - and - white 16mm film . we had a really smart film artist named pablo perez do a frame - to - frame transfer of the entire movie to 16mm in a really , really dirty lab in toronto .
( full disclosure : xyz films , in which screenanarchy founder and editor todd brown is a partner , is involved in the production and sales of the film . he was not involved in the writing or editing of this article . )
the film stars johnson and owen williams , johnson’s accomplice in the dirties , as two young cia agents posing as filmmakers . they are pretending to be making a documentary about nasa’s preparations for the july 1969 first moon landing by apollo 11 .
life after death : it’s just the first month of 2016 , but it seems safe to say there will be no crazier film this year involving major actors than swiss army man , the existential love story having its world premiere at sundance .
it ' s the cheapest way to make a movie ,
he jokes by way of explanation .
whatever the characters are going after is the same as the film itself . if we can align those things it makes it easy for us . the less i get in the way of what ' s happening in real life while i ' m shooting , the better it is . the less work we do ahead of time , the better the film is .
johnson and co - writer josh boles , who also stars in the film , don’t actually believe that apollo 11 was a hoax . they studied the many conspiracies theories out there , as any fan of the x - files would tell you .
mj : it’s mostly what you see in the movie . in both cases , in fact , what we show the audience is more or less what we did . with nasa , we went in posing as a documentary film crew saying that we were from a film school in toronto , which we both were at the time . and we said we were making a documentary about the apollo program , in the exact same way the characters say they’re making a documentary about the apollo program .
the canada majority copro with france , which is currently vying for a best foreign language film nomination for the 2017 oscars , was produced by dolan and nancy grant of sons of manual , nathanaël karmitz of paris - based mk2 and sylvain corbeil .
with a full budget of $ 1 . 25 million and a physical production budget of just $ 400 , 000 , johnson and his team needed to keep costs down . this was helped by their need to be discrete , forcing them to use no additional lighting as well as use small lavalier mics with zoom recorders . their choice of lenses , old bolex glass from the 40s and 50s , also helped keep costs down while helping them achieve the filmic look that was necesary for the period piece . shooting in prores helped save digital space and kept them from needing too many sd cards . the other half of their budget , roughly another $ 400 , 000 , went toward licensing music for operation avalanche , such as tracks from creedence clearwater revival .
you know what ? it ' s pass / fail . i passed . my professors were really happy with the film . they thought i was crazy at first , but in the end i think they were surprised i was able to do it .
, i wish they didn’t include press on my film because it’s now angled the story so it seems as though i’m talking about my own career in relation to telefilm . i’ve made out fine ; i just understand that system because i went through those things .
johnson : as lightly as we could . what i didn’t want was for him to be a character in the film and have someone play him , it would be so hokey—but as soon as tristan zerafa was like , ' i can just make him . '
you’ve done a couple of these found footage films where you have a dual role as the camera operator : using camera movement to emote , yet still capturing the action . is doing this type of film second nature by now , or do you get specific direction ?
xavier dolan’s cannes winner juste la fin du monde ( it’s only the end of the world ) picked up nine canadian screen awards film nominations , including one for best picture , the academy of canadian cinema and television announced tuesday morning at a press event in toronto .
dolan’s latest is one of 10 films nominated for best picture at the 2017 csas . also nominated are les mauvaises herbes ( bad seeds ) , produced by luc vandal and lorraine dufour ; avant les rues ( before the streets ) , produced by chloe leriche ; hello destroyer , produced by daniel domachowski and haydn wazelle ; old stone , produced by xianjian wu , chi - an lin , jing wang , and sarah stallard ; operation avalanche , produced by matthew miller , lee kim and matt johnson ; race , produced by louis - philippe rochon , dominque seguin , jean - charles levy and luc dayan ; maliglutit ( searchers ) , produced by zacharias kunuk ; those who make revolution halfway only dig their own graves , produced by hany ouichou ; and weirdos , produced by marc almon , mike macmillan and bruce mcdonald .
the aptly named zapruder films operates out of a house just off the trendy queen street west in toronto . with criterion movie posters plastered on just about every square inch of wall space , shelves of dvds arranged chronologically , and a nintendo 64 in the living room , it feels more like a film student’s dorm room than a production house . while some of the staff do live there , nearly a dozen full - time creatives also work from the house , contributing to some of the most interesting and exciting films coming out of today’s independent film scene .
sundancing : i also caught friday night’s hot - ticket midnight world premiere of babak anvari’s under the shadow , a horror film set in the tehran of 1988 during the iran - iraq war , with a mother and daughter dodging bombs as well as an evil presence in their home .
mj : you mean , thematically , what it is we’re trying to do with this film ? that’s a good question because i ' m sure it could get misconstrued that we think that that this is almost like a proof of concept that the moon landing was faked . and because you put so much work into this film and we want audiences watch it , it’s almost like we ' re trying to create a thesis that this is how it happened , and you should believe this . but really that’s a very surface reading of what this movie’s actually about .
our producers are always telling us to shred our creative documents . why ? this is the great gift of the things we do : they ' re not stealable . somebody could have gotten a hold of our avalanche script before we made the movie . what are they going to do ? it says to sneak into nasa and stage a $ 2 - million car chase . what is anyone going to do with this ?
jr : get it as close as possible . we noticed that when we went to film , it smoothed out everything . it took all of the slight differences , the curves , and the grain structure , and it painted a layer over the top that gave it a unified look .
as much of the film is “shot secretly” in places such as nasa and stanley kubrick’s london studios , matt johnson and his cinematographers / performers andrew appelle and jared raab needed the blackmagic pocket cinema camera to get great footage while being as low profile as possible . “we needed a camera you could have under your coat , ” says johnson . but not just any camera of course , one you could shoot a film on . the pocket cinema camera ( which , as appelle points out , had only been out for less than a month ) was their camera of choice for these secretive shoots because of its size combined with its dynamic range . as raab explains , “when we found the pocket camera it just fit both something tiny and compact , where we could do our secret shooting , but it also had the dynamic range that could totally sell this film . ”
so he called mike after the film to say “hey , i just saw this” and he gave him my phone number . so i’m hoping the individuals at nasa get a chance to see it and have the same response that these guys did , because they went wild . it was awesome .
mj : no , we haven ' t heard from either of them , but we reached out to nasa because obviously galveston is not too far away from austin [ where the film played at sxsw ] , inviting the people from nasa to come to the screening , but we haven’t heard anything yet .
a film like this is a lot like watching an incredibly well constructed and performed magic trick ; convincing you that what you ' re seeing is real , even if it goes against everything you ' ve known before hand , and there ' s a greater sense of relief and satisfaction when everything comes together flawlessly .
mj : and of people having so much power . in our film , two guys essentially are changing history because the c . i . a thinks that ' s going to be good for the cold war , not really seeing the ethical dilemmas that owen keeps bringing up during the film . and of course because matt cares about nothing other than his own self - promotion , he doesn ' t ask those questions of himself at all until the very , very end when he thinks , “oh wow , maybe i shouldn ' t have done this . maybe the costs to success are higher than i had first thought . ”
this movie is not based on a true story . nasa really has landed six missions and 12 astronauts on the moon . but the film will likely spark the interest of conspiracy theorists who believe nasa did , in fact , fake the moon landing — which it didn ' t . [ top 10 apollo hoax theories ]
we needed them to [ find ] the film clips , which they did , which was really amazing . right now that photographic department is closed at nasa , sadly . nasa is criminally underfunded . our production company is the largest individual carrier of nasa archival footage in the world . it ' s actually kind of sad .


someone at the door is a 1936 british drama film directed by herbert brenon and starring aileen marson , billy milton , noah beery , john irwin and edward chapman .

a journalist comes up with a scheme to boost his career by inventing a fake murder but soon becomes embroiled in trouble when a real killing takes place .

it is based on a successful west end play by campbell christie and his wife dorothy .

someone at the door ( 1936 film )

screen plays ,
someone at the door
. urltoken ( accessed 09 jul 2018 )
1949 bbc live studio production of the comedy thriller someone at the door by dorothy christie and campbell christie .
someone at the door .
videohound ' s golden movie retriever . . retrieved july 09 , 2018 from urltoken urltoken
someone at the door is a 1950 british crime comedy film directed by francis searle and starring michael medwin , garry marsh and yvonne owen .
a short yet entertaining thriller from the thirties , someone at the door starts off lighthearted and finishes with quite a tense scene .
toughest job i ever had : selling doors , door to door .
- bill bailey
someone at the door .
videohound ' s golden movie retriever . . encyclopedia . com . ( july 9 , 2018 ) . urltoken
the film was based on a hit west end play by campbell christie and his wife dorothy , which had previously been turned into a film in 1936 .
this film had a short production schedule between june 15 - july 25 , 1936 . it premiered in october to mixed reviews .
nominated for three academy awards for 1936 : best picture , best original story , best sound recording .
previewed in late december , 1936 , in los angeles . released in new york on january 24 , 1937 .
the film
metropolis
, after its premiere yesterday at the ufa - palast am zoo , will be screened from to - day on at the ufa pavilion at nollendorfer platz .
gail patrick , jan wiley , constance collier , ginger rogers , and lucille ball in stage door .
stage door screens february 18–20 at the museum of modern art in new york as part of the series “acteurism : ginger rogers , ” which runs through march 27 .
toronto film society presented three smart girls ( 1936 ) on monday , november 29 , 1976 in a double bill with the short every sunday and his butler’s sister as part of the season 29 monday evening film buff series , programme 3 .
gregory la cava , stage door , 1937 , 35 mm , black - and - white , sound , 92 minutes .
this somewhat zany mystery film stars jean arthur and joel mccrea in their second film together .
called the film an
effective little chiller that packs a surprising punch for a film of its age .
meanwhile , joel mccrea was starring in a variety of films , including screwball comedies such as the richest girl in the world ( 1934 ) , dramas such as barbary coast ( 1935 ) and these three ( 1936 ) , and even a shirley temple film , our little girl ( 1935 ) . like arthur , he was on a roll when he made adventure in manhattan and would also star in five films in 1936 !
is a masterpiece . funny to think that american critics looked down their noses at the film at the time of its release . maybe they took offense at the inescapable scent of welles’ passion for rita hayworth , his wife at the time and his ex shortly after production wrapped . he captures her in close - up with a hungry , enraptured eye , the most coherent image in a film that’s built on logical incoherence .
fortunately , there wasn’t a back door so the newly glamorous woman re - emerges later that evening in an evening dress and curls , all paid for by george .
the radio times preferred the film ' s 1950 remake ,
although , in this case , that ' s not saying much , as the 1950 version of campbell and dorothy christie ' s old theatrical chestnut wasn ' t very good either . contrived only goes part way to describing this creaky thriller
; while infernal cinema described the film as
a little like a game of cluedo come to life ,
and appreciated ,
a short yet entertaining thriller from the thirties ,
concluding ,
brenon is sometimes under appreciated in the history of cinema , someone at the door is a brisk reminder of his talent .
to those readers well - acquainted with the film version of stage door , the preceding plot and character summary must seem somewhat bizarre . george s . kaufman got that same feeling , but in reverse after he saw the movie , slyly referring to the film version of his play as ,
screen door .
the blame , or perhaps , more rightly , the praise , for these changes must ultimately be laid at the feet of one man , gregory la cava , the film ' s director . a talented , sad soul , he utilized an alcohol - fueled improvisational style with his collaborators that powered his better films but also hastened his decline and death .
nightmare is a 1964 horror / suspense film from hammer films . the film was directed by freddie francis and written by hammer films regular jimmy sangster . the british film institute has the only 35mm print in the uk .
treats redemption as a cruel joke , a spell of relief that lasts only long enough for us to view its obsolescence . the film takes jabs at
as the group leaves the house , gunshots echo from the mansion next door . everyone rushes over and learns that a valuable painting was just stolen . the crime has all the trademarks of the koor - hal ruby gang and berlea .
a remake of the 1936 film of the same title has medwin plotting to make it appear as though he has murdered his sister ( owen ) to advance his own reputation as a reporter . however , things do not go exactly according to plan , and medwin narrowly escapes hanging for the supposed crime .
in three acts spanning a period of over two years the play stage door looked at a group of struggling actresses who live at the footlights club , a theatrical boarding house for women somewhere in the west fifties in manhattan . co - author edna ferber who had the original idea , based it on the rehearsal club , founded in 1913 . interestingly , margaret sullavan actually was a past resident of the house .
review : a remake of the 1936 film of the same title has medwin plotting to make it appear as though he has murdered his sister ( owen ) to advance his own reputation as a reporter . however , things do not go exactly according to plan , and medwin narrowly escapes hang… ( more )
experience modern times , the iconic film written by , directed by and starring charlie chaplin as a factory worker at the beginning of the industrial revolution . the orchestral score , also . . .
the 1936 broadway play on which the film stage door was based was touted by the critics , and it was considered one of the hits of the season . however , when it was transferred to film , the likelihood of it becoming an enduring classic might have seemed slim . the director of the film version brought to the set an unorthodox working style and a proclivity for drinking . the cast included an aloof actress whose recent , sputtering career carried the odor of decline ; a workaholic actress regarded as the lightweight half of a popular team ; and a talented texas teen , just - arrived in hollywood , whose dark secret , if revealed , could land the studio ' s top brass in hot water . sounds like some sort of disaster - in - the - making .
freder fredersen struggling at the clock machine , as he approaches the end of a ten hour shift . the christian imagery of freder suffering as in christ on the cross is clear in this photograph from the film .
one very lucky person is going to win a restored copy of behind the door ( 1919 ) on blu - ray / dvd from flicker alley ! legendary producer thomas h . ince and director irvin . . .
she was under contract to columbia at the time , and they kept her very busy after those hit films . in fact , she would make five films released in 1936 ! after mr . deeds , the studio loaned her to rko to make the ex - mrs . bradford , and then cast her in adventure in manhattan , the plainsman , and more than a secretary .
film commentator hal erickson writes the film is
arguably the best of shirley temple ' s 1930s vehicles
, and thinks jane withers
terrific
as the film’s villainess . he notes that some critics believed withers stole the show , and it was this
as much as anything else , that earned withers her own starring series at 20th century - fox
.
in the film role of kay hamilton - the movie drops the
e
from her character ' s name in the play - was newcomer , andrea leeds , described by gregory la cava as
the best natural actress
he had ever worked with . born antoinette lees in butte , montana , the daughter of a mining engineer , she went to ucla where an interest in writing and acting led to the movies . after some bits in a few shorts and features from 1933 to 1936 , she landed a major supporting role in , come and get it ( united artists , 1936 ) , a contract with producer samuel goldwyn , and a new stage name .
marguerite : are you following me ? armand : yes , you , well you did smile at me a moment ago , didn ' t you ? marguerite : well , you tell me first whether you smiled at me or at my friend [ olympe ] . armand : what friend ? marguerite : you didn ' t even see her ? armand : no . marguerite : that ' s very nice . armand : i was just wondering if you ' d ask me to sit down if i knocked at the door of the box . marguerite : why not ? we really seemed fated to meet this evening , didn ' t we ?
when baron de varville arrives at the box after marguerite and prudence have left , he cannot be distracted from being
engaged
with olympe . in the theatre , marguerite looks down toward the foot of the staircase at the adoring eyes of armand gazing back at her . they have their first conversation after he pursues her - it is a fateful meeting :
critical reception : upon release , the film received generally positive reviews from film critics . the website rotten tomatoes states that 86 % of critics gave the film a
fresh
rating . on metacritic , the film has a score of 64 / 100 , indicating
generally favorable
. it also received
two thumbs up
from siskel and ebert .
play synopsis comedy mystery play in which a journalist comes up with a scheme to boost his career by inventing a fake murder . he soon becomes embroiled in trouble when a real killing takes place . production history first staged in 1935 ; twice adapted as a film , in 1936 directed by herbert brenon and in 1950 directed by francis searle .
future learning and skills – giving everyone the opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with film .
welford beaton , ' metropolis ' , the film spectator , hollywood , 3 september 1927 .
reporter medwin arranges to be suspected of killing his sister , thus providing him with a good story and advancing his career . his plan almost backfires , when he is almost executed . remake of a 1936 film of the same name . 65m / b vhs . gb michael medwin , garry marsh , yvonne owen , hugh latimer ; d : francis searle .
at this juncture it is only reluctantly that one decides to continue . fritz lang worked for over a year with superhuman energy and tenacity . the detailed technical work accomplished here is , in its scope alone , so absolutely astounding that i would not contradict someone who told me that this film has been five , six years in the making . in fact , it sounds unbelievable that this incredibly detailed , prodigious work was really accomplished within the span of a year or a year and a half - which is usually an enormous amount of time for a film . but this should not be the last or even the most decisive word on a film of such enormous scale and ostentation .
and rutger hauer , as well as some of the most emotionally intense action set pieces ever put to film . moreover , a good portion of the film’s appeal lies in its incorporation of film noir aesthetics—shadow - filled , rainy metropolitan exteriors , a brooding yet resourceful investigator hero , retro ’40s fashion—into its dreary , dystopian setting . at one point , the film even boasted a philip marlowe - esque voiceover narration that was thankfully excised from future cuts . once regarded as a failed experiment ,
the ending of three smart girls contains one of the finest bits of emotional pantomime i’ve ever seen , as poignant and memorable as chaplin’s reaction to being recognized by the blind girl at the end of city lights . in three smart girls , the parents of the three girls are finally reunited , and durbin stands between them , looking at their locked hands , then at one parent , then at the other . her face vacillates extreme joy and sadness in several different shadings and nuances , all in the matter of five seconds . it is a kind of sensitive acting that cannot be taught at any age , let alone to a girl of fourteen !
. ) kubrick’s work here is no - frills and elegantly straightforward : sterling hayden plans one final holdup before retiring and settling down with coleen gray . no twists and turns , just good old - fashioned theft at the racetrack . the film revels in the gray morality of hayden’s good intentions . crime pays , at least until it doesn’t . —
{ welford beaton , ' metropolis ' , the film spectator , hollywood , 3 september 1927 . }
jennie linden was an 11th hour casting choice replacing julie christie who dropped out to do the film billy liar . this was the final film performance of american actor david knight who subsequently focused on theatre work .
this is a perfectly fine film of its type . based on a play , so it ' s talky and restricted in action . the story is a mild situation comedy , nothing hilarious , but it ' s the plot twists that are the point . as good as any british mystery comedy of the time i think . a hammer / exclusive film , anthony hinds producer , and james sangster assistant director . as said elsewhere , brother and sister inherit this large house . brother is a writer who needs to make more money . he thinks by concocting a story that he killed his sister he will make a fortune . in parallel , there is treasure hidden in the house and the thieves are trying to get the two to leave the house by making it sound haunted . in the opening scene there is
someone at the door
, who enters at night and starts making spooky noises . don ' t get the idea that the writer goes to trial for murder and then is dramatically saved . it never goes to that point , the plot is wrapped up without anything like that . no story is published about him murdering his sister or anyone else .
onions , apparently ! it’s a rare moment of screwball humor in this otherwise dramatic film .
willy haas , ' metropolis ' , film - kurier , berlin , 11 january 1927 .
chris shares logan’s picture with rod . rod identifies him to be andre . chris freaks out and quickly asks rose to pack up . he wants to leave . in the store room , chris finds a box with a whole bunch of photographs . photographs of rose with other black folks . this includes walter and georgina . as chris gets to the door , the rest of the armitage family approaches . the main door is locked and chris yells for the keys . rose finally discloses that she is in on the whole thing . rose’s mom uses the cup and spoon to send chris to the sunken space . they take him and tie him in the basement .
this site uses cookies from urltoken and selected partners . read more at https : / / en . support . urltoken
filming had started on june 7 , 1936 , the day that jean harlow died from uremic poisoning , the news of which led to a bonding of the actresses . by then , the script largely
consisted of index cards and a loose leaf notebook containing the life stories of all the characters .
to further the identification of the actresses with their roles , the director even had them wear their own clothes rather than costumes . ( it should be noted , however , that renee conley is credited with creating costumes for the film . )
references to the 1961 version of the film : as this film is a remake of the 1961 the parent trap , it features a number of references to the film it is based on . among them are : the use of the sherman brothers song
let ' s get together
, which also plays over the walt disney pictures logo . , meredith talks to a
reverend mosby
, named after a character in the original film . , some of the dialogue is almost identical to the 1961 film . , actress joanna barnes , who played vicki robinson ( a character like meredith blake ) in the original film , plays meredith ' s mother ( also named vicki ) in this film . , the camp counselors , marva kulp sr . and jr . , are named after nancy kulp , who played the younger camp counselor in the original film . , many of the camping scenes were taken from the original film , such as : the use of the sugar and water mosquito repellent which the twins give meredith was also given to vicki in the original film . , the use of clapping two sticks together to scare away mountain lions , even though there aren ' t any . , the use of the lizard on meredith ' s canteen . , ,
response : the film was met with generally positive reviews , holding an 86 % approval rating on rotten tomatoes . it entered the box office charts at number 2 on july 31 , 1998 . it ended up with a gross of over $ 66 million in the u . s . and $ 92 , 108 , 518 worldwide . the film debuted on united lands television ( the family film channel ) on october 4 , 1999 , and had 5 . 43 million viewers .
the incognito aristo’s ease with ripostes—and her willingness to stand up to a thoughtless producer on behalf of her sistren—earn her the begrudging respect of some footlighters . but terry will become suspect once again when she , a neophyte , lands the lead in a play called enchanted april , a part desperately wanted by kay ( andrea leeds ) , a beloved housemate who , buffeted by the vagaries of the profession , is slowly slipping into madness . a tragic incident leads terry to cry in her dressing room on opening night , “does someone have to die to create an actress ? ” uncannily , the line echoes another i had read—in an ingenious article by george toles about david lynch ’s mulholland drive that ran in the fall 2004 issue of film quarterly —just the night before i revisited stage door : “the only earthly identity that might be strong enough to undo death is that of an actress on the verge of stardom . ” made sixty - four years apart , la cava’s film and lynch’s are highly dissimilar in style and sensibility . but they share a star—ann miller , who was only a teenager in stage door and who made her final screen appearance in mulholland drive —and a boundless compassion for women in the cruelest of vocations .
life is represented a hundred years hence , but there is little attempt to foresee the changes in any but superficial details . even these are not consistent , for while television goes on in one room , doctors use that new invention , the thermometer , in another . the famous heart - machine is not much more than an enlarged accumulator , and means of locomotion are much the same . the future is disappointing ; one has , apparently , to run rather more than usual . not only down streets , in crowds , but singly through catacombs and even from door to door in the same room . eric had need of that race at the beginning , to keep him fit , and as for his fight with the inventor on the cathedral roof - he saw that in a twentieth - century film . the fight lost its terror for me because i had always been told pulverising rays would be more common than telephones .
anyway , during the play there is an absurdly long combat scene with lots of fake gunshots , explosions , and general commotion . gregory’s men take advantage of the noise to blow the vault door , steal the sunburst diamond , and skedaddle through a tunnel leading from the bank to the theater . but claire notices her suave producer descending into a hole in the floor and gets suspicious .
both stars were on the rise in hollywood : arthur had been working in movies since the early 1920s , but she really hit her stride in the mid ’30s with the whole town’s talking ( 1935 ) and mr . deeds goes to town ( 1936 ) . in fact , as you can see from this lobby card , the publicity for adventure in manhattan emphasized arthur’s star turn in mr . deeds .
american airlines and the douglas aircraft company , recognizing the potential of the film in advertising air travel , cooperated in the production and distribution . they provided a dc - 2 aircraft for the exterior shots while a true to scale mock up was provided for the interior scenes . in the famous good ship lollipop scene , members of the university of southern california football team served as extras . in the second flying scene where temple ' s character sneaks aboard the plane and they were forced to bail out of it , both temple and dunn were strapped into a harness hoisted up into the studio rafters . they were supposed to drift down with the aid of a wind machine . in the first take , someone inadvertently opened an airproof door just as they landed , creating a vacuum that sucked out the parachute and dragged them both across the studio floor . marilyn granas served as a stand - in for temple as she had for her previous movies . she would later be replaced by mary lou isleib who would remain as temple ' s stand - in for the rest of her tenure at 20th century fox .
once stage door hit the screen , it was obvious to those in the know that the whole seemingly crazy process had worked beautifully . the new york times named , stage door , to its year ' s ten best list , as did many other publications . in his review in the times , frank s . nugent vindicated producer berman ' s intention of boosting the film ' s two stars when he wrote ,
miss hepburn and miss rogers , in particular , seem to be acting so far above their usual heads that , frankly , we hardly recognized them .
the film went on to be nominated for four 1937 academy awards - and lost them all . best director went to leo mccarey for the awful truth ; best screenplay was given to the life of emile zola ; best supporting actress was presented to alice brady for in old chicago ; and the life of emile zola was named the year ' s best picture .
after all of this for the serious side , and before the picture has been running very long , one is inclined to launch at its plain absurdities , its open face scheme of story and the merciless persecution of poor mary . mary is probably the most chased girl of the screen . they chased her everywhere every minute , up alleys , into rooms , over roofs and what not . if mary saw a chance to escape , the open door closed just before she reached it . the only thing muffed was a blackface comedian to get the laughs in this stupendous scene of a ' haunted house ' , a nd eric , the son of his father , who went down into the subterranean town for the first time in his 20 years to see the village and mary . caught by the skirt as he was wranglingwith some vamps in burlesque wheel costumes , eric fell for the dame . this was mary , also about 20 , and [ at ] the first time she ever had seen inside of a two - story home . mary had large blue eyes . someone had told her to stare , and plenty . mary did .
h . g . wells , ' metropolis - the silliest film ' , new york times , 17 april 1927 .
an outsider called it . a bystander observing a uniquely american phenomenon . and , for decades , a largely unacknowledged bystander at that .
some of koster’s notable films include : the rage of paris ( 1938 ) –a sophisticated , charming comedy which was the only non - durbin film koster made fro 1936 to 1941 , the bishop’s wife ( 1948 ) , come to the stable ( 1949 ) , the inspector general ( 1949 ) , harvey ( 1950 ) , mr . belvedere rings the bell ( 1951 ) , no highway in the sky ( 1951 ) , my cousin rachel ( 1952 ) , the robe ( 1953 ) , desiree ( 1954 ) , the virgin queen ( 1955 ) , my man godfrey ( 1957 ) , mr . hobbs takes a vacation ( 1962 ) and his final film to date , the singing nun ( 1965 ) .
fun fact : this was one of mitchell’s first film roles , but he had worked in the theater for a while . in an interview with his son , mccrea remembered that he was impressed by mitchell’s acting chops , and mitchell was impressed by mccrea’s film experience . “ [ mitchell ] knew i knew the film thing , ” mccrea recalled :
herman g . scheffauer , ' an impression of the german film metropolis ' , new york times , 6 march 1927 .
{ willy haas , ' metropolis ' , film - kurier , 9 , 11 january 1927 . enthusiastic , though also somewhat disappointed review of the film following its premiere in berlin on 10 january 1927 . the following is an edited translation . }
anyway , george strides down the street in search of a story when a woman ( jean arthur ) begs him for some money . he is uncharacteristically moved by her pitiful appeal and reaches for his wallet . but then someone gets run over by a car or something ( we’re never quite sure what happens ) and george runs off . a moment later he realizes that his wallet is missing…
fritz lang ' s metropolis - the subject of much publicity in germany during the period of filming ( 1925 - 6 ) - was widely reviewed following its berlin premiere at the ufa palast am zoo on the evening of 10 january 1927 . metropolis was a film which naturally drew comment , and further viewing , largely as a result of the many themes it attempted to address , and the ground - breaking nature of the filmmaking . it was an intellectual as well as a visual feast . this process of critical assessment continued with the re - release of edited versions in 1928 and 1936 , and the issuing of modern restorations since 1972 . the georgio moroder coloured and pop - music enhanced edition of 1984 generated much comment in the media , while its straight - to - video release in a number of countries resulted in the film reaching a large international audience for the first time since its period of initial release during 1927 - 8 .
adventure in manhattan hasn’t worn quite so well . in fact , it feels older than its 1936 release date . that sometimes happens with these heist or crime films in the ’30s , partly because the detective or police methods seem ridiculously old - fashioned and unscientific to our csi - addled ears . but this movie also has a vaguely illogical , topsy - turvy feeling that i associate with early mysteries .
bright eyes was the first film to be written and developed specifically for temple , and the first in which her name was raised above the title . in february 1935 , she received a special academy award for her 1934 contributions to film , particularly little miss marker and bright eyes . in 2009 , the film was available on vhs and dvd in both black - and - white and colorized versions .
that la cava incorporated into stage door ’s script ( which was written by morrie ryskind and anthony veiller ) the banter that his actresses—some of the finest comic talents of the era—shared during the film’s rehearsals only enhances the verbal pyrotechnics . the movie’s distaff ensemble provides not only a trove of 1930s slang , show - biz argot , and one - upping insults but also an invaluable lesson in sentence rhythm , as when the more seasoned housemates instruct a newbie on where the stress should fall in her sole line in her stage debut : “let’s go up to westchester . ”
randolph bartlett , ' german film revision upheld as needed here ' , new york times , 13 march 1927 .
george is so certain of his ( erroneous ) prediction that he alerts the authorities , and they believe him . phil lets him write the story in advance and has it ready to go for the first edition . on saturday night , the area around the bank ( which coincidentally is next door to claire’s theater ! ) is crawling with fbi and police . george and claire wait for news in the park . but the robbers never show .
box office : in its opening weekend , the film grossed $ 11 , 148 , 497 in 2 , 247 theaters in the united states and canada , ranking # 2 at the box office , behind saving private ryan , was the best debut for a disney film that week . by the end of its run , the parent trap grossed $ 66 , 308 , 518 domestically and $ 25 , 800 , 000 internationally , totaling $ 92 , 108 , 518 worldwide .
garbo ' s portrayal of the beautiful but sickly parisian courtesan , who fatefully falls in love with a young french nobleman ( 25 year - old robert taylor ) , is widely considered the definitive version of the camille story . garbo ' s first talkie film , anna christie , was advertised with the promotional line :
garbo talks !
- so naturally , jokes at the time suggested that this film should be advertised as :
garbo coughs !
at home , she is assigned a nurse . janet begins having more nightmares this time concerning an unknown woman with a scar and a birthday cake . the dreams get worse and worse . finally , her guardian brings home his wife , whom janet has never met . janet is introduced to the woman at her birthday celebration .
aestheticizes violence without fetishizing it . bullet holes and knife wounds help color the film in dark brushstrokes—such is the coens’ wont—and careful attention to shot composition ratchets the film’s morbid elements to almost intoxicating heights . you’ll want to look away , but the coens keep your eyes glued to their somber fatalism . —
forty years before the blair witch project popularized the idea of a film being told from the camera’s perspective , actor / director robert montgomery gave this radical idea a spin with lady in the lake , his adaptation of one of raymond chandler’s philip marlowe detective stories . ultimately , the case proves to be minor marlowe and the first - person gimmick does eventually wear thin over the course of the film’s runtime . putting aside these reservations , however , the film is most certainly worth a watch if just to witness montgomery’s sheer audacity and inventiveness . it’s the textbook example of a film being ahead of its time . — m . r .
adaptation at paramount to convince them the story and its mature themes were a viable gamble . even before that , cain’s book had been unofficially adapted into two foreign productions—
{ anon . , new york times , 16 january 1927 . brief notice of the film ' s successful premiere in berlin . }
we went to this film with greatest expectations - details are indeed fascinating but the whole disappoints . film in general , especially this one , can no longer be a question of technical know - how only . to - day we are capable of much , also fritz lang is very capable , but to make a film dealing with
weltanschauung
( trans . note : the whole concept of our looking at / realizing things - i . e . universal serious concerns ) without
weltanschauung
cannot be realized no matter how clever .
plays a wide - eyed actress newly arrived in hollywood who stumbles upon a beautiful young woman who can’t remember who she is . that pithy logline only touches the tip of the iceberg , as the film delights in throwing numerous other subplots and mysteries at its audience only to violently pull the rug out from under them in its latter half .
ufa production , german - made , released through famous players - laskey . no player starred or featured in american presentation . without press sheet as yet available , technical information not at hand . opened at rialto ( publix ) , new york , march 5 , indefinitely . running time , 107 minutes .
{ evelyn gerstein , the nation , 23 march 1927 . insightful , largely positive review , placing the film within the much wider context of german filmmaking and contemporary art movements }
was a rarity in its heyday , though if you didn’t know lupino held the reins , you might not guess the film was directed with a feminine touch .
another fun fact : a 1927 film called three hours was based on the story , and both are credited as inspiration for adventure in manhattan . but this film only inserts their plots briefly as the prank on george . the novel and the 1927 movie didn’t have anything to do with a heist and a crack reporter .
, flopped at the box office only to be revived later as a beloved cult classic . the film casts rufus swell as an amnesiac who wakes up one night to discover that his city is ( quite literally ) being manipulated by a band of mysteriously pale men in jet - black trench coats and fedoras . along for the ride is
puts male toughness on trial and makes it look ridiculous , but the study of manliness might be a smokescreen for kurosawa’s veiled jabs at the board of censors installed by the u . s . government in post - world war ii japan . note the western clothing . observe the recurring image of the bubbling muck that serves as one of the film’s central locations . the american occupation whitewashes and corrupts japanese culture in equal measure , and
for the film , what matters primarily is that the actor represents himself to the public before the camera , rather than representing someone else . one of the first to sense the actor’s metamorphosis by this form of testing was pirandello . though his remarks on the subject in his novel si gira were limited to the negative aspects of the question and to the silent film only , this hardly impairs their validity . for in this respect , the sound film did not change anything essential . what matters is that the part is acted not for an audience but for a mechanical contrivance – in the case of the sound film , for two of them . “the film actor , ” wrote pirandello , “feels as if in exile – exiled not only from the stage but also from himself . with a vague sense of discomfort he feels inexplicable emptiness : his body loses its corporeality , it evaporates , it is deprived of reality , life , voice , and the noises caused by his moving about , in order to be changed into a mute image , flickering an instant on the screen , then vanishing into silence . . . . the projector will play with his shadow before the public , and he himself must be content to play before the camera . ” this situation might also be characterized as follows : for the first time – and this is the effect of the film – man has to operate with his whole living person , yet forgoing its aura . for aura is tied to his presence ; there can be no replica of it . the aura which , on the stage , emanates from macbeth , cannot be separated for the spectators from that of the actor . however , the singularity of the shot in the studio is that the camera is substituted for the public . consequently , the aura that envelops the actor vanishes , and with it the aura of the figure he portrays .
i have recently seen the silliest film . i do not believe it would be possible to make one sillier . and as this film sets out to display the way the world is going , i think [ my book ] the way the world is going may very well concern itself with this film . it is called metropolis , it comes from the great ufa studios in germany , and the public is given to understand that it has been produced at enormous cost . it gives in one eddying concentration almost every possible foolishness , cliché , platitude , and muddlement about mechanical progress and progress in general served up with a sauce of sentimentality that is all its own .
in the final analysis , it wasn ' t his maverick directing style that undermined him ; it was his unfortunate alcoholism . in the years since , the positive aspects of his directing approach have become more commonplace in making films . embracing many of his techniques , la cava ' s spiritual heirs have included such recent diverse talents as elia kazan , and sidney lumet . gregory la cava ' s stage door is both a testament to his artistic talent then at its peak , and to the golden age of hollywood when such enduring classics were produced with a regularity that seems a marvel today .
i don’t want to prejudice you against this film because it is definitely worth watching , but don’t expect an especially tight narrative . it’s not that filmmakers couldn’t make neatly plotted films–not at all–rather , a perfect heist or surprising but well - explained mystery seems to have been less prized back then . ( this same quality resurfaces in some film noirs in the 1940s with their convoluted plots and shifting motives . no one knows who killed the chauffeur ! )
like a fast - paced burner . it’s not fincher’s most famous film , but it’s absolutely one of the most underrated thrillers since 2000 . —
essentially closed the book on the classic noir era—and rewrote his own legacy in the process . welles was 20 years into his career and a hollywood has - been at 42 when he signed on to adapt whit masterson’s novel
houses that played variety won ' t miss with metropolis . it ' s the same ufa and its wierdness will at least stand up . but don ' t invite the readers of the american mercury to see it .
[ notes ] metropolis , which is now on view at the rialto , was originally in sixteen reels . for this country it has been cut down to nine . some odea of the enormous task of producing this film can be gathered from figures furnished by frederick wynne - jones , managing director for ufa in new york .
enter the private detective and his antihero ilk—a scarred , brooding fella who for his considerable flaws was sympathetic . you couldn’t say the same for the ladies , what with that madonna - whore complex running rampant through noir’s icky freudian gender dynamics . unless they were a good , subservient girl , women were brazen , sexual bitches , more often than not smarter , and more powerful , than the guys—at least at the outset . extrapolated to the off - screen world , the logic was , solve the crime , solve the problem . put the femme fatale in her place , show the girl—the world—who’s boss . take it all back . the nightmare was made wish - fulfillment . it’s not overreaching to read all of this from the 300 or so titles generally considered the classic noir canon . remember : the folks at the
but at least they are able to engage in that repartee and cute chemistry that makes them such an enjoyable screen duo . here they are filming the scene with director edward ludwig :
and it didn ' t end there . la cava lifted the lines that begin ,
the calla lilies are in bloom again . . . ,
directly from the american production of the lake . he had hepburn recite them in the film ' s rehearsal scene in the most monotonous way possible that underscored how terrible an actress her character was at that point . but from all accounts , this type of delivery was not too different from what prompted dorothy parker , reviewing the lake , to pen one of the most famous criticisms in theater history : that kate ' s performance in the lead role
ran the gamut of emotions from a to b .
how did hepburn like being reminded of that debacle at this point in her then - fragile film career ?
prudence recommends baron de varville ( henry daniell ) -
one of the richest and most elegant gentlemen in paris .
marguerite scoffs at the age of the proposed suitor :
one foot in the grave , i suppose , and a wig on his head .
not so , says prudence :
he ' s young and handsome ,
and she plans an arranged introduction during their evening together at the theatre .
cukor ( who had already directed the classic dinner at eight ( 1933 ) , and would go on to make further screen greats such as the philadelphia story ( 1940 ) and my fair lady ( 1964 ) ) , captured the most exquisite , poetic , restrained performance of the great screen actress . in her most popular and luminous film , garbo was recognized for her performance with the film ' s sole academy award nomination , but she lost to luise rainer who won for another , heavily - promoted mgm classic , the good earth .
: at first confused , then maybe a little angry , but then ultimately delighted by how fooled they’d just been . perfectly paced , brilliantly scored by director bryan singer and editor / composer john ottman—the film never lets the marks know they’re being conned by the irresistible ensemble or christopher mcquarrie’s dark , mischievous script . and then like that … it’s gone… —
andre sennwald in his december 21 , 1934 new york times review praised dunn , wilson , and withers . sellon was singled out for his
great humorous skill
in portraying crotchety uncle ned . sennwald thought the film was at its best during temple’s delivery of the lollipop song and at its worst in the scenes involving the villainous smythes , who , for him , were so over - the - top as to be unrecognizable as human beings . he decided the film was composed of
old standbys of the hearts - and - flowers drama
, and noted that , “shirley romps through all her assignments with such persuasive charm and enkindling naturalness that she succeeds in being refreshing even in her most painfully arranged scenes .
this then is the most fabulous film which german industry has ever fashioned , the truly great ufa film , the photography of which soars with never before seen excellence - the hunt through the catacombs , up close to the walls , fiendishly nailing the sight of a child within the parameters of a flash - light - children fleeing a tidal wave , gigantic machinery at work and then explosively disintegrating , workers in revolt , a young man ' s feint optically explored , the seven deadly sins coming to life in stone before the cathedral , man evolving in the electronic age , a view of the future through virtuoso cross - cutting ( otto hunte ' s ) .
never for a moment does one believe any of this foolish story ; for a moment is there anything amusing or convincing in its dreary series of strained events . it is immensely and strangely dull . it is not even to be laughed at . there is not one good - looking nor sympathetic nor funny personality in the cast ; there is , indeed , no scope at all for looking well or acting like a rational creature amid these mindless , imitative absurdities . the film ' s air of having something grave and wonderful to say is transparent pretence . it has nothing to do with any social or moral issue before the world or with any that can ever conceivably arise . it is bunkum and poor and thin even as bunkum . i am astonished at the toleration shown it by quite a number of film critics on both sides of the atlantic . and it costs , says the london times , six million marks ! how they spent all that upon it i cannot imagine . most of the effects could have been got with models at no great expense .
{ herman g . scheffauer , ' an impression of the german film metropolis ' , new york times , 6 march 1927 . critical review by a n american writing from berlin . scheffauer is somewhat disappointed with this ' wonderful ' film ' s failure to suspend disbelief and carry the audience into the future . he feels it is held back by too many contemporary references and failings , though he recognises it as a ' master - film of the times . ' }
the distracted person , too , can form habits . more , the ability to master certain tasks in a state of distraction proves that their solution has become a matter of habit . distraction as provided by art presents a covert control of the extent to which new tasks have become soluble by apperception . since , moreover , individuals are tempted to avoid such tasks , art will tackle the most difficult and most important ones where it is able to mobilize the masses . today it does so in the film . reception in a state of distraction , which is increasing noticeably in all fields of art and is symptomatic of profound changes in apperception , finds in the film its true means of exercise . the film with its shock effect meets this mode of reception halfway . the film makes the cult value recede into the background not only by putting the public in the position of the critic , but also by the fact that at the movies this position requires no attention . the public is an examiner , but an absent - minded one .
except it wasn’t that easy . like the ink on those yellow hard - boiled pages , film noir was a smeared affair from the start—hard to define and harder to reconcile . its characters were dirty , displaced , disillusioned , distrustful , just plain dumb . everyone was running some kind of scam , even the cops—especially the cops . everyone was out for themselves , phonies subject to their basest fears and vices . the attraction was as ugly as the repulsion . when he wasn’t a truth - seeker , our protag was often a criminal , at the very least someone of ambivalent moral code or weakness , a fall - guy running out of time , and hope for redemption . the world was a cruel and perilous place , be it the crowded streets or open road , the inner city or a rural outpost . there was no escape , no forgiveness . in fact , perhaps the only clear - cut element of noir was the razor - sharp , imminently quotable dialogue , and its venomous sense of humor .
in both quality of filmmaking and cynicism of spirit . this film not only announced hanson as a filmmaker well beyond his previous work (