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5 articles from 2009

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Shadows of Russia: Communism on TCM

3 November 2009 11:28 PM, PST | Alternative Film Guide | See recent Alternative Film Guide news »

Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas in Ninotchka (top); Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford in The Way We Were (bottom) From the Romanovs’ last stand to Warren Beatty’s first solo directorial effort: On every Wednesday in January 2010, Turner Classic Movies will present the 20-film festival "Shadows of Russia," a showcase of Hollywood movies portraying Russia (and/or the Soviet Union) and the sociopolitical reverberations of Communism throughout the 20th century. Among the scheduled films are classics such as Ninotchka, The Manchurian Candidate, and Reds, in addition to lesser-known fare like Counter-Attack, I Was a Communist for the FBI, and The Strawberry Statement. Get ready for some laughs and a few tears — mostly laughs. And mostly of the unintended kind. I must red-facedly [...] »

- Andre Soares

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Oscar Nominees To Number 10 Next Year

25 June 2009 1:12 PM, PDT | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the group that hands out the annual Oscar awards, touched off an industry-wide controversy Wednesday when it announced that it is doubling the number of nominees for Best Picture to 10. Although the announcement came as a surprise to many in Hollywood, Academy President Sid Ganis told the Wall Street Journal, "This wasn't a knee-jerk decision. ... We just felt we need to expand the possibilities to allow more genres." He noted that in the 1930s and '40s, the Academy routinely nominated 10 or even 12 movies a year for Best Picture. In 1939 the 10 nominees included the classics Dark Victory, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Love Affair, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, The Wizard of Oz, Wuthering Heights, and -- the winner -- Gone With the Wind. But one studio executive told the Hollywood Reporter "This likely means more filmmakers will want to see their movies open late in the year so they can still be in release during the crucial period between nominations [February 2] and the actual telecast [March 7]. It's simply going to clog up the distribution pipeline or mean we have to consider re-releasing one title or another. Don't even mention what it might do to DVD campaigns." Still, the move is likely to redound to the benefit of ABC, the network that broadcasts the awards ceremony. The Los Angeles Times said that it was spurred by what it called "the Marion Cotillard effect," referring to the all-but-unknown French actress who won last year's Best Actress award for her performance in the art-house release, La Vie en Rose. The Academy's action appears to ensure that at least a few hit films would be represented among its best-picture nominees. "Movies that have been nominated in recent years have been critically acclaimed but many were too obscure for the mainstream moviegoer," Shari Anne Brill, director of audience analysis for the ad-buying firm Carat, told the Times. And Geri Wang, ABC senior vice president for primetime sales, told the newspaper, "It's going to offer a broader palette of films being considered, and that should increase the interest in the show. Viewers, and the industry, will want to watch and root for their favorite films." »

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Best Films - 1939

10 May 2009 1:26 AM, PDT | Alternative Film Guide | See recent Alternative Film Guide news »

The Rules of the Game by Jean Renoir Film Gone with the Wind d: Victor Fleming; scr: Sidney Howard Le Jour se lève / Daybreak d: Marcel Carné; scr: Jacques Viot, Jacques Prévert Midnight d: Mitchell Leisen; scr: Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett Mr. Smith Goes to Washington d: Frank Capra; scr: Sidney Buchman Ninotchka d: Ernst Lubitsch; scr: Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch The Old Maid d: Edmund Goulding; scr: Casey Robinson The Rains Came d: Clarence Brown; scr: Philip Dunne, Julien Josephson La Règle du jeu / The Rules of the Game d: Jean Renoir; scr: Jean Renoir, Carl Koch The Women d: George Cukor; scr: Anita Loos, Jane Murfin   Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon in Wuthering Heights Check These Out Bachelor Mother d: Garson Kanin; scr: Norman Krasna Beau Geste d: William A. Wellman; scr: Robert Carson Hello Janine d: Carl Boese; scr: Hans Fritz Beckmann, Karl Georg Külb The »

- Andre Soares

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The Merry Widow d: Ernst Lubitsch

14 April 2009 10:45 PM, PDT | Alternative Film Guide | See recent Alternative Film Guide news »

The Merry Widow (1934) Direction: Ernst Lubitsch Screenplay: Ernest Vajda and Samson Raphaelson; from Franz Lehár’s operetta Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Edward Everett Horton, Una Merkel, George Barbier, Minna Gombell, Sterling Holloway     The Merry Widow is not one of Ernst Lubitsch’s most discussed films. Critics generally tend to focus on his early Paramount talkies, such as One Hour with You (co-directed by George Cukor) and Trouble in Paradise, and his later comedies Ninotchka and To Be or Not to Be. Yet, The Merry Widow is a superior musical, boasting sumptuous sets (production design by Cedric Gibbons), exquisite cinematography (courtesy of Oliver T. Marsh), a magnificently staged ballroom-dancing sequence, witty lines and situations (by Lubitsch collaborators Samson Raphaelson and Ernest Vajda, from Franz Lehár’s operetta), and charming performances by a surprisingly restrained Maurice Chevalier, and by an alternately hilarious and heartrending Jeanette MacDonald. Indeed, in the title role, »

- Andre Soares

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Grandchild Liked His 'Being There'

16 February 2009 10:22 PM, PST | NYPost.com | See recent New York Post news »

The road to an Oscar is sometimes long and winding.

For Melvyn Douglas, it led through World War II Burma (now Myanmar) where he met a young British comedian named Peter Sellers.

Douglas, famed at the time as the dapper star of Hollywood comedies such as "Ninotchka" (1939) with Greta Garbo, was entertaining troops.

"And someone decided to introduce him to this very funny young British soldier nobody had ever heard of," recalls Douglas' granddaughter, actress Illeana Douglas, who appears in a »

- By LOU LUMENICK

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5 articles from 2009

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