RIP: Lupita Tovar & Robert Vaughn

Didn't mean to let these two farewells slip by.

After the death of Luise Rainer, Lupita Tovar held the title of 'The Oldest Living Screen Star of Note' for a few years. She died Sunday at the 106 years of age so here's to enduring genes. The Mexican actress's original claim to fame was starring in the Spanish version of the famous horror picture Dracula (1931). Though her last movie was in 1945 she continued to affect the movies via her gene pool...

Click to read more ...

Box Office: Arrival Opens Well for Amy

What did you see this weekend? Doctor Strange (reviewed) continued to be the top draw at the box office tower but Arrival had a strong debut for a thinking person's non-action oriented sci-fi epic. (It's Amy Adams best headline opening since Enchanted !) But will mainstream audiences like it or will we see a big drop next weekend after word gets out that it's, well, a thinking person's movie? Will Oscar come calling or will they prefer the less genre-oriented fare this year? What's your best guess? Meanwhile in limited release...

Click to read more ...

The Latest Trend Sweeping the Cinema is Tentacles

Chris here with something you may not be noticing at the movies lately. Whether they freak you out or make you giggle (or even a little of both), tentacles are so in right now. With the growing presence of squirmy appendages in world cinema and blockbusters, you'd think we'd get a Cthulhu franchise by now. Let's take a look at some of the examples:

Click to read more ...

The Furniture: How Subtly Is Paris Burning? (Not Very)

"The Furniture" our weekly series on Production Design. Here's Daniel Walber

This week marks 50 years since the release of Is Paris Burning? (not to be confused with documentary classic Paris is Burning) an epic that hasn’t quite stood the test of time. In the tradition of The Longest Day, it harnesses a cast of thousands to tell the story of a single, crucial moment of World War Two: The liberation of Paris. French stars like Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon take roles in the Resistance, while the likes of Kirk Douglas and Glenn Ford play American generals. There are cameos from Simone Signoret, George Chakiris and Anthony Perkins, to name only a few.

Directed by René Clément with a script by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola, you’d think it would be more popular. Still, it’s worth revisiting, and not only for its two Oscar nominations (art direction and cinematography).The film’s visual ambition is often astonishing. Its commitment to accuracy caused at least one unlucky Parisian passerby that the Wehrmacht had actually returned. Everything is bold, nothing subtle.

Production designer Willy Holt, an American who mostly worked in France, later worked on Julia and Au revoir les enfants. Art director Marc Frederix designed for films as disparate as Moonraker and Love and Death, while his colleague Pierre Gufroy won an Oscar for Roman Polanski’s Tess. Clearly, the talented group was more than up to the task of winding back the clock 20 years on one of the world’s most recognizable cities.

Click to read more ...

On This Day: Merry Murderers, Obsessed Seafarers, and Noir Stars

On this day in showbiz history...

1719 Leopold Mozart, Amadeus's father is born in Augsburg Germany. In the 1984 movie phenomenon, one of the biggest hits of its year and the winner of 8 Oscars, he's played by Roy Dotrice and factors in heavily to the film's haunting imagery (and poster). Or to quote Salieri as played by F Murray Abraham:

So rose the dreadful ghost from his next and blackest opera. There, on the stage, stood the figure of a dead commander. And I knew, only I understood that the horrifying aparition was Leopold, raised from the dead! Wolfgang had actually summoned up his own father to accuse his son before all the world! It was terrifying and wonderful to watch. And now the madness began in me. The madness of the man splitting in half. Through my influence, I saw to it Don Giovanni was played only five times in Vienna. But in secret, I went to every one of those five, worshipping sounds I alone seem to hear. And hour after hour, as I stood there, understanding how that bitter old man was still possessing his poor son even from beyond the grave. I began to see a way, a terrible way, I could finally triumph over God.

Uff such a great movie.

Classic screen beauties, unforgettable musical moments and other Best Picture nominees after the jump...

Click to read more ...