There are obscure treasures and there are holy grails. Of the latter, none is more mythic than the original 131-minute cut of Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons, believed by many to be lost somewhere in Brazil. All others arguably belong to Erich von Stroheim. Born in Vienna in 1885 into a Jewish household, von Stroheim is mostly remembered for playing evil Germans in films like Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion. Cinephiles, though, know him as the unluckiest auteur in the history of cinema.
Intended to run anywhere between six and 10 hours, many of von Stroheim’s films, from Greed to the Gloria Swanson vehicle Queen Kelly, were severely bastardized by studio heads upon their release. In this context, the iris shot that opens 1922’s Foolish Wives feels especially poignant. This is no ordinary “fade into” effect, but an entrancing reinforcement of the sinister, insular, and constrictive nature of the film’s milieu.
Intended to run anywhere between six and 10 hours, many of von Stroheim’s films, from Greed to the Gloria Swanson vehicle Queen Kelly, were severely bastardized by studio heads upon their release. In this context, the iris shot that opens 1922’s Foolish Wives feels especially poignant. This is no ordinary “fade into” effect, but an entrancing reinforcement of the sinister, insular, and constrictive nature of the film’s milieu.
- 6/27/2023
- by Ed Gonzalez
- Slant Magazine
Today was a busy day for some of the smaller guilds with the Visual Effects Society, the Cinema Audio Society, and the Makeup and Hairstylists Guilds all announcing their nominations for 2013.
First, we have the Ves, whose main category to look at is “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture,” where we find Gravity and four other nominees that are just going to have to be happy with the fact that they got nominated. This is perhaps the easiest category to call in the entirety of awards season, and I don’t mean just here, but for the Oscar as well (Last year’s winner, Life of Pi, easily took this category before going on to claim the Oscar). It’s true that films like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Star Trek Into Darkness had outstanding effects as well, but nothing even came close to the amazing,...
First, we have the Ves, whose main category to look at is “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture,” where we find Gravity and four other nominees that are just going to have to be happy with the fact that they got nominated. This is perhaps the easiest category to call in the entirety of awards season, and I don’t mean just here, but for the Oscar as well (Last year’s winner, Life of Pi, easily took this category before going on to claim the Oscar). It’s true that films like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Star Trek Into Darkness had outstanding effects as well, but nothing even came close to the amazing,...
- 1/15/2014
- by Jeff Beck
- We Got This Covered
Ascent Media Group's creative services unit, which operates a global collection of postproduction houses, is bringing Method and Riot -- two of its best-known brands and creative teams -- under one roof.
Operations are being combined under the name Method, which will offer visual effects services for feature, TV and commercial projects at Riot's Santa Monica location.
Method, a boutique headquartered a few blocks from Riot, has always been a VFX house. Riot has offered VFX as well as digital intermediate/telecine services. Meanwhile, Ascent's Company 3 brand also is headquartered in Santa Monica and focuses on Di/telecine.
With the change, Riot's Di/telecine services move to the Company 3 umbrella.
Senior colorist and Company 3 president Stefan Sonnenfeld -- who this year took over as head of Ascent Media Creative Services shortly after Jose Royo was named Ascent Media Group's CEO -- said that the previous setup was such that the...
Operations are being combined under the name Method, which will offer visual effects services for feature, TV and commercial projects at Riot's Santa Monica location.
Method, a boutique headquartered a few blocks from Riot, has always been a VFX house. Riot has offered VFX as well as digital intermediate/telecine services. Meanwhile, Ascent's Company 3 brand also is headquartered in Santa Monica and focuses on Di/telecine.
With the change, Riot's Di/telecine services move to the Company 3 umbrella.
Senior colorist and Company 3 president Stefan Sonnenfeld -- who this year took over as head of Ascent Media Creative Services shortly after Jose Royo was named Ascent Media Group's CEO -- said that the previous setup was such that the...
- 12/3/2008
- by By Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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