Doc Corner: NYC film history in 'Searching for Mr. Rugoff'

By Glenn Dunks

The nostalgia is strong in Searching for Mr. Rugoff, a delightfully cinephile-oriented documentary from director Ira Deutchman. It is an affectionate dive into a beloved segment of New York City’s film culture of the 1960s and ‘70s—one that no longer exists and is built around a figure who remains little known by those who didn’t work directly alongside him. His name is Donald S. Rugoff. A pioneer of the global exhibition and distribution market who bought international, experimental, and acclaimed cinema to a chain of upmarket boutique arthouses in New York from his office decked out in modern furniture and art, he steered successful Academy Award campaigns for the likes of Z and Seven Beauties, and was a gimmick superstar who would make William Castle kick himself that he didn’t get there first.

Does that make Searching for Mr. Rugoff a great movie, though? Not exactly...

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Honorary Oscars 2019 - The Speeches

by Nathaniel R

Our dream is to one day attend that invite only Honorary Oscars / Governor's Awards. The ceremonies aren't televised but for clips for YouTube and such but everyone who is anyone in Hollywood is there with an emphasis on Hollywood's golden history which we here at The Film Experience have always appreciated. Sites that only cover new releases -- what are you doing with your lives?!?

Here are the speeches and some notes from the special night.  First up Geena Davis, Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award winner who shares that it was really Thelma & Louise (1991) that changed her life (you and me both, diva!) and set her on the path that she's now being honored for. Her face when Tom Hanks says her name... ❤

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Lina Wertmüller's History-Making "Seven Beauties"

The Governors Awards (Honorary Oscars) will be held on October 27th, 2019 with director Lina Wertmüller, actress Geena Davis, director David Lynch, and actor Wes Studi celebrated. We'll be discussing each of them before then.

by new contributor Camila Henriques

In Seven Beauties, Lina Wertmüller is not interested in sparing the audience. That becomes clear in the first minutes of the film, when we’re presented with a myriad of images of the Second World War: Hitler, explosions, destruction. In the background, a voice over speaks with a hint of melancholy and irony about “the ones who keep going and going just to see how it will end”... 

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Love & Anarchy: Lina Wertmüller's unruly tragedy

The Governors Awards (Honorary Oscars) will be held on October 27th, 2019 with director Lina Wertmüller, actress Geena Davis, director David Lynch, and actor Wes Studi celebrated. We'll be discussing each of them before then.

by Cláudio Alves

Lina Wertmüller's films always feature great faces. They're not classically beautiful, but rather interesting to look at, like the visages sculpted by shadow in Caravaggio's paintings. In Love & Anarchy, Giancarlo Giannini is a storm of freckles, his green eyes lighthouses guiding us through the waves into his soul. Contrastingly, Mariangela Melato is a spectacle of powdered pallor, a vampiric Jean Harlow or perhaps a tarted-up marble statue, gorgeous and obscene in equal measure...

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Honorary Oscars to... Davis, Lynch, Studi, and Wertmuller

by Nathaniel R

Just this weekend we loved you all anew for that robust conversation about worthy Honorary Oscar recipients. News broke yesterday that the Board of Governors has named the four 2019 recipients. Honorary Oscars will go to the actor Wes Studi (who many thought should have been nominated for Last of the Mohicans in 1992, his starmaking role), and two previously nominated directors, David Lynch (who we've been campaigning for) and Lina Wertmüller who was famously the first woman ever nominated for the directing Oscar for her total masterpiece Seven Beauties. In addition to those three artists, the actress Geena Davis will receive this year's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. That's a special subdivision of the Honorary that's not actually about the movies but your "outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes"...

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