Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan in The ApprenticeImage: Premier
In many ways Roy Cohn is one of the linchpins of the 20th century, a man whose influence on global political and social life resonates to this day. He was the prosecuting attorney who sent convicted spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg...
In many ways Roy Cohn is one of the linchpins of the 20th century, a man whose influence on global political and social life resonates to this day. He was the prosecuting attorney who sent convicted spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg...
- 5/23/2024
- by Jason Gorber
- avclub.com
Every superhero gets an origin story. So, for that matter, do most supervillains. The Apprentice drops viewers into New York circa 1973, when a 34-year-old resident of Queens walked in to the upper-crust establishment on the Upper West Side known as Le Club. He went there in an attempt to impress a young woman. He’d leave having met a well-known lawyer and well-connected member of New York’s elite, who would end up changing his life. The legal eagle was the notorious Roy Cohn. The outer-borough wannabe was Donald Trump.
- 5/21/2024
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Is it too soon for a movie about Donald Trump? Frankly, if I never see the 45th U.S. President's face again it'll be too soon, but it's not surprising that after filmmakers have spent the past several years filling their projects with Trump-like allegorical figures, someone would finally bite the bullet and make a full-on biopic. The upcoming film "The Apprentice" sounds more like a snapshot of the political figure's life than a complete biographical account, but it'll no doubt stir up plenty of intrigue regardless – especially when it plans to include other headline-grabbing names like Ivana Trump and Roy Cohn.
While "The Apprentice" won't be hitting theaters in time for award season, it's still a fascinating project worth keeping an eye on. Any initial ick you might get about the idea of Trump as a protagonist may be tempered by the project director's unique filmography and the eclectic,...
While "The Apprentice" won't be hitting theaters in time for award season, it's still a fascinating project worth keeping an eye on. Any initial ick you might get about the idea of Trump as a protagonist may be tempered by the project director's unique filmography and the eclectic,...
- 12/4/2023
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
Conspiracy theorist Stew Peters made a startling demand for public executions at the latest stop on the ReAwaken America tour — calling for the death of Joe Biden’s son Hunter as well as Dr. Anthony Fauci, whom Peters insisted should “hang from a length of thick rope until he is dead.”
Peters speaks in the argot of the tin-foil-hat set. To hear him tell it, Fauci deserves the gallows because the federal physician-scientist supposedly backed a Wuhan “bioweapons lab” — and that this “illegal research” cost “millions of lives.” The younger...
Peters speaks in the argot of the tin-foil-hat set. To hear him tell it, Fauci deserves the gallows because the federal physician-scientist supposedly backed a Wuhan “bioweapons lab” — and that this “illegal research” cost “millions of lives.” The younger...
- 9/1/2023
- by Tim Dickinson
- Rollingstone.com
I have been tracking producer Sol Bondy since 2016 when co-production The Happiest Day in the Life of Ölli Mäki won the Un Certain Regard Grand Prize and the European Film Award for Best Debut. He and Fred Burle have been developing The Girl from Köln (aka Köln 75) with writer-director Ido Fluk, the filmmaker behind 2016 Tribeca selection The Ticket since 2019. "This project has been very close to our hearts in the last few years and we're very excited with the way it's been shaped so far," said Bondy, a Variety Producer to Watch in 2018. "It's been such a joy working with Ido on this exciting story and we're thrilled to have put an amazing team together," added Burle, Brazilian born producer who was just made a partner in One Two Films, alongside co-founders Sol Bondy and Christoph Lange. Burle joined One Two in January 2017, having graduated from the German Film and Television Academy (dffb) the previous year. He has previously worked as a film critic, at The Match Factory, and as curator of the inaugural dffb film festival. One Two Films has produced and co-produced award-winning films such as Holy Spider (Read my blog about it here), Vadim Perelman's Persian Lessons (Read my blog about it here), Jennifer Fox's Sundance breakout The Tale, Isabel Coixet's The Bookshop and Juho Kuosmanen's The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki.Other titles in the pipeline include Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson's dark comedy Northern Comfort, which premieres in SXSW later this month, Annemarie Jacir's survival drama The Oblivion Theory, Sarah Arnold's debut feature Wild Encounters and Michiel ten Horn's romantic comedy Any Other Night. In Berlin this year it was announced that Bankside would be The Girl from Köln's international sales agent and was launching sales. Alamode Film already has German-speaking territories and is a coproducer, who have very recently secured funding through the Fff, the local fund in Bavaria. It is in early pre-production and will shoot this year in Poland and Germany. The Girl from Köln tells the little-known story of Vera Brandes, who, in 1975, at the age of 17, staged the famous Köln Concert by jazz musician Keith Jarrett, which became the top-selling jazz solo album of all time. With Polish Film Institute backing, Oscar-winning Polish producer Ewa Puszczynska (Ida, Cold War) of Extreme Emotions is co-producing along with Annegret Weitkämper-Krug of Germany's Gretchenfilm (Seneca). Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Oren Moverman (Love & Mercy, Bad Education) serves as executive producer. Moverman also produced Fluk's previous feature, The Ticket. The Tale writer-director Jennifer Fox also serves as executive producer. Stephen Kelliher and Sophie Green executive produce for Bankside. It stars Mala Emde (Skin Deep, And Tomorrow the Entire World) in the lead role, alongside John Magaro (Past Lives) as Jarrett. Magaro was also in Cannes last year with Kelly Reichardt's competition title Showing Up.Other cast attached include Alexander Scheer (Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush), Ulrich Tukur (The Life of Others), Susanne Wolff (Sisi & I, Styx), Jördis Triebel (Dark), Jan Bülow (Lindenberg) and Marie-Lou Sellem (Tar, Exit Marrakesh). The NYU-graduate Fluk was dubbed "a talent to watch" by Variety following his feature debut Never Too Late, the first crowd-sourced Israeli film ever made. His American debut, the Tribeca competition selection, The Ticket, starred Dan Stevens and Malin Akerman. Upcoming projects include 24 Hours in June, a retelling of the final day in the life of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union, to be produced by Academy Award winner James Schamus (Brokeback Mountain) and Joe Pirro (Driveways). Fluk is repped by Amotz Zakai, Amy Schiffman, and Kegan Schell at Echo Lake Entertainment. He is also created the recently-announced HBO series Empty Mansions for Fremantle with director Joe Wright (Atonement, Darkest Hour) attached to direct the pilot. "From the moment I heard Vera's story, about how as a high school teenager she organized one of the greatest concerts in history, I knew her story had to be told," said Fluk. "We were immediately exhilarated by Vera Brandes' remarkable female empowerment story. Her strength, courage and sheer belief in herself and the music of Keith Jarrett will entertain and inspire audiences around the world," added Kelliher.
- 3/5/2023
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
Steve James’s A Compassionate Spy is an unexpectedly charitable portrait of a man who betrayed his country for a higher cause. Specifically in the case of physicist Ted Hall—still a teenage undergrad at Harvard when, in 1944, he was tasked to help develop the atomic bomb—the greater cause of world peace. But unlike far more famous contemporaneous “traitors” Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, executed in 1953, Hall managed to do something even more remarkable than simply smuggle secrets to the Soviets—he escaped accountability for his actions. FBI surveillance aside, he went on to enjoy a surprisingly normal life with his adoring […]
The post “If We Wanted To Visualize This at All, We’d Have to Do It Ourselves”: Steve James on A Compassionate Spy first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “If We Wanted To Visualize This at All, We’d Have to Do It Ourselves”: Steve James on A Compassionate Spy first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/6/2023
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Steve James’s A Compassionate Spy is an unexpectedly charitable portrait of a man who betrayed his country for a higher cause. Specifically in the case of physicist Ted Hall—still a teenage undergrad at Harvard when, in 1944, he was tasked to help develop the atomic bomb—the greater cause of world peace. But unlike far more famous contemporaneous “traitors” Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, executed in 1953, Hall managed to do something even more remarkable than simply smuggle secrets to the Soviets—he escaped accountability for his actions. FBI surveillance aside, he went on to enjoy a surprisingly normal life with his adoring […]
The post “If We Wanted To Visualize This at All, We’d Have to Do It Ourselves”: Steve James on A Compassionate Spy first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “If We Wanted To Visualize This at All, We’d Have to Do It Ourselves”: Steve James on A Compassionate Spy first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/6/2023
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Click here to read the full article.
Steve James takes a break from his duties as Chicago’s documentary poet laureate with the new unscripted feature A Compassionate Spy, a topical and stylistic detour that still has a place within the director’s ongoing exploration of the blurry line between justice and injustice.
A Compassionate Spy borrows the look and feel of a historical espionage thriller and builds some momentum and moral complexity along the way, but it finds its real potency as a generational family drama.
Ted Hall was recruited to join the Manhattan Project when he was still a teenager. A brilliant young physicist, Ted went to Los Alamos with no clue what he would be working on, but when he learned the nature of the weapon being designed, he began to worry that if only the United States possessed nuclear technology, the post-war risks might be great.
Steve James takes a break from his duties as Chicago’s documentary poet laureate with the new unscripted feature A Compassionate Spy, a topical and stylistic detour that still has a place within the director’s ongoing exploration of the blurry line between justice and injustice.
A Compassionate Spy borrows the look and feel of a historical espionage thriller and builds some momentum and moral complexity along the way, but it finds its real potency as a generational family drama.
Ted Hall was recruited to join the Manhattan Project when he was still a teenager. A brilliant young physicist, Ted went to Los Alamos with no clue what he would be working on, but when he learned the nature of the weapon being designed, he began to worry that if only the United States possessed nuclear technology, the post-war risks might be great.
- 9/2/2022
- by Daniel Fienberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. Magnolia Pictures releases the film in theaters and on VOD on Friday, August 4.
Steve James’ “A Compassionate Spy” is ultimately a minor addition to one of documentary cinema’s great bodies of work, but it might just contain the one true secret to a happy marriage: sharing historically significant nuclear secrets.
That sure seems to have been a winning strategy for Ted Hall, a young physics student who fell in love with an undergrad named Joan at the University of Chicago in 1947. They seemed like natural soulmates from the start, but Ted’s inevitable proposal came with a radioactive disclaimer. If Joan wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, she would have to accept that Ted — who was admitted to the Manhattan Project as a preternaturally smart teenager — had passed crucial information about the...
Steve James’ “A Compassionate Spy” is ultimately a minor addition to one of documentary cinema’s great bodies of work, but it might just contain the one true secret to a happy marriage: sharing historically significant nuclear secrets.
That sure seems to have been a winning strategy for Ted Hall, a young physics student who fell in love with an undergrad named Joan at the University of Chicago in 1947. They seemed like natural soulmates from the start, but Ted’s inevitable proposal came with a radioactive disclaimer. If Joan wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, she would have to accept that Ted — who was admitted to the Manhattan Project as a preternaturally smart teenager — had passed crucial information about the...
- 9/2/2022
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Given the fragile state of world peace at the moment, it seems like a good time for the latest film from Hoop Dreams director Steve James, a piece of little-known history from the cold war that could potentially have devastating consequences today. Sadly, James’ Venice Film Festival out of competition title A Compassionate Spy just doesn’t deliver the drama and tension you might expect from the high-stakes story of a mild-mannered American scientist who passed sensitive nuclear secrets to the Russians out of a mixture of idealism and naivety.
The subject is Harvard graduate Theodore “Ted” Hall, who, at 18, became the youngest person to work on the Manhattan Project under Robert Oppenheimer, developing nuclear weaponry in Los Alamos. Hall died of cancer in 1999, but not before giving a series of video interviews in the mistaken belief that he would not be around to see them aired. He was a low-key,...
The subject is Harvard graduate Theodore “Ted” Hall, who, at 18, became the youngest person to work on the Manhattan Project under Robert Oppenheimer, developing nuclear weaponry in Los Alamos. Hall died of cancer in 1999, but not before giving a series of video interviews in the mistaken belief that he would not be around to see them aired. He was a low-key,...
- 9/2/2022
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Just before director Christopher Nolan’s upcoming “Oppenheimer” plants a fixed image of Ted Hall in the popular imagination, along comes Steve James’s sensitive, studious documentary “A Compassionate Spy” to preemptively set any records straight. Unpacking the life and work of the prodigious teenage Manhattan Project physicist who passed key information about the endeavor to the Soviet Union — cuing an adulthood dogged by suspicion and secrecy — the film demonstrates its director’s characteristic nose for strong material and knack for gripping, straightforward storytelling. If the filmmaking is more televisual than in James’s best work, with its flourishes limited to some unnecessary dramatized passages, that should be no impediment to “A Compassionate Spy” commanding a sizable audience on multiple platforms.
“It would be nice to be proud, but I’m not a proud person,” says the septuagenarian Hall, in interview footage captured not long before his death in 1999. It...
“It would be nice to be proud, but I’m not a proud person,” says the septuagenarian Hall, in interview footage captured not long before his death in 1999. It...
- 9/2/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Arriving at a fateful time in the history of handling top secrets, “Hoop Dreams” filmmaker Steve James’s new documentary “A Compassionate Spy” aims to suggest that not all disloyalty is so clear-cut.
Though James couldn’t have foreseen the country being gripped by speculation about the motives of an unprincipled ex-president in suspicious possession of sensitive documents, this slice of history — making its world premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival — nevertheless offers up a story of unambiguous espionage with idealistic motive: a Harvard physics undergraduate recruited for the Manhattan Project who, in 1944, passed on its secrets to the Soviet Union to safeguard the world from monopolistic power and atomic annihilation.
His name was Ted Hall, and though he was suspected his whole life by authorities, he lived free from prosecution, raising a family and working at Cambridge University on pioneering biophysics until his death in 1999.
Also Read:
Why ‘City So Real...
Though James couldn’t have foreseen the country being gripped by speculation about the motives of an unprincipled ex-president in suspicious possession of sensitive documents, this slice of history — making its world premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival — nevertheless offers up a story of unambiguous espionage with idealistic motive: a Harvard physics undergraduate recruited for the Manhattan Project who, in 1944, passed on its secrets to the Soviet Union to safeguard the world from monopolistic power and atomic annihilation.
His name was Ted Hall, and though he was suspected his whole life by authorities, he lived free from prosecution, raising a family and working at Cambridge University on pioneering biophysics until his death in 1999.
Also Read:
Why ‘City So Real...
- 9/2/2022
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
Berlin-based One Two Films, in Cannes this week with Ali Abbasi’s competition title “Holy Spider,” is prepping a new feature from writer-director Ido Fluk, the filmmaker behind 2016 Tribeca selection “The Ticket.”
“Köln 75” tells the true story of Vera Brandes, who, in 1975 and at the age of 17, staged the famous Köln Concert by jazz musician Keith Jarrett, which became the top-selling jazz solo album of all time. It stars Mala Emde (“And Tomorrow the Entire World”) in the lead role, alongside John Magaro (“First Cow”) as Jarrett. Magaro is also in Cannes with Kelly Reichardt’s competition title “Showing Up.”
Oscar-winning Polish producer Ewa Puszczynska of Extreme Emotions will co-produce, with Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Oren Moverman serving as executive producer. Moverman also produced Fluk’s previous feature, “The Ticket.”
Other cast attached include Alexander Scheer (“Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush”), Ulrich Tukur (“The Life of Others”), Susanne Wolff...
“Köln 75” tells the true story of Vera Brandes, who, in 1975 and at the age of 17, staged the famous Köln Concert by jazz musician Keith Jarrett, which became the top-selling jazz solo album of all time. It stars Mala Emde (“And Tomorrow the Entire World”) in the lead role, alongside John Magaro (“First Cow”) as Jarrett. Magaro is also in Cannes with Kelly Reichardt’s competition title “Showing Up.”
Oscar-winning Polish producer Ewa Puszczynska of Extreme Emotions will co-produce, with Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Oren Moverman serving as executive producer. Moverman also produced Fluk’s previous feature, “The Ticket.”
Other cast attached include Alexander Scheer (“Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush”), Ulrich Tukur (“The Life of Others”), Susanne Wolff...
- 5/20/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
This article contains Black Widow spoilers.
Black Widow is the first Marvel Studios release to have an opening credits sequence since 2010’s Iron Man 2. Which by itself is kind of nice. After all, both movies bookend Scarlett Johansson’s tenure in the role of Natasha Romanoff. Yet when watching the opening moments of Marvel’s latest adventure, the decision to include an ominous montage of young Nat’s childhood after the movie’s brutal cold open is about more than creating symmetry with the past; it fills in the most mysterious Avenger’s blindspots… and reveals the red in her ledger is also our own.
Scored to a haunting cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Black Widow’s opening titles dovetail out from one of the movie’s best moments. With a stripped down prologue devoid of space gods and magic rocks, Black Widow’s first 10 minutes...
Black Widow is the first Marvel Studios release to have an opening credits sequence since 2010’s Iron Man 2. Which by itself is kind of nice. After all, both movies bookend Scarlett Johansson’s tenure in the role of Natasha Romanoff. Yet when watching the opening moments of Marvel’s latest adventure, the decision to include an ominous montage of young Nat’s childhood after the movie’s brutal cold open is about more than creating symmetry with the past; it fills in the most mysterious Avenger’s blindspots… and reveals the red in her ledger is also our own.
Scored to a haunting cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Black Widow’s opening titles dovetail out from one of the movie’s best moments. With a stripped down prologue devoid of space gods and magic rocks, Black Widow’s first 10 minutes...
- 7/12/2021
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
Early Wednesday, the Trump administration executed the only woman on federal death row, Lisa M. Montgomery, age 52. She was the first woman put to death in almost 70 years, according to The New York Times, the last two being Bonnie Brown Heady for kidnapping and murder and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage in 1953.
Montgomery was convicted in 2007 for murdering a pregnant woman and kidnapping her unborn child, who survived the attack. Montgomery feigned pregnancy to friends and family in 2004 and then contacted Bobbie Jo Stinnett — who was actually pregnant — saying she wanted...
Montgomery was convicted in 2007 for murdering a pregnant woman and kidnapping her unborn child, who survived the attack. Montgomery feigned pregnancy to friends and family in 2004 and then contacted Bobbie Jo Stinnett — who was actually pregnant — saying she wanted...
- 1/13/2021
- by Brenna Ehrlich
- Rollingstone.com
“Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” is collecting nominations on the pathway to Oscar season. The film just earned two bids from Cinema Eye Honors, an awards group that honors nonfiction films and series as voted on by programmers and experts. The HBO doc, which chronicles the life of Roy Cohn, former attorney to Donald Trump, earned bids in the categories of Outstanding Broadcast Film and Outstanding Editing in a Broadcast Film or Series. In both cases it was nominated in a field of five, beating out tough competition, which could make it one of the films to watch in the upcoming Best Documentary Feature race at the Oscars.
Seehbo’s Roy Cohn documentary ‘Bully. Coward. Victim.’ is a uniquely personal look at Trump’s former lawyer
Directed by Ivy Meeropol, “Bully. Coward. Victim.” is a sprawling look at Cohn’s impact in the legal world, delving into...
Seehbo’s Roy Cohn documentary ‘Bully. Coward. Victim.’ is a uniquely personal look at Trump’s former lawyer
Directed by Ivy Meeropol, “Bully. Coward. Victim.” is a sprawling look at Cohn’s impact in the legal world, delving into...
- 11/29/2020
- by Kevin Jacobsen
- Gold Derby
“Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn” is one of multiple projects tackling the life of Roy Cohn, but few are as personal as director Ivy Meeropol‘s HBO documentary. Meeropol is the granddaughter of Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of espionage and put to death on Cohn’s recommendation. “Bully. Coward. Victim.” features Meeropol talking to her father, Michael Meeropol, about his experience advocating for his parents.
See ‘Time’: Garrett Bradley’s Sundance award-winning documentary about love and incarceration could make Oscar history
The documentary explores the many twists and turns of Cohn’s life, not only encompassing his work in the Rosenberg trials but his association with various influential figures from the ’50s through the ’80s like Joseph McCarthy, President Ronald Reagan, Rupert Murdoch and future President Donald Trump. Interspersed throughout the film we check in on Ivy’s conversations with her father...
See ‘Time’: Garrett Bradley’s Sundance award-winning documentary about love and incarceration could make Oscar history
The documentary explores the many twists and turns of Cohn’s life, not only encompassing his work in the Rosenberg trials but his association with various influential figures from the ’50s through the ’80s like Joseph McCarthy, President Ronald Reagan, Rupert Murdoch and future President Donald Trump. Interspersed throughout the film we check in on Ivy’s conversations with her father...
- 10/30/2020
- by Kevin Jacobsen
- Gold Derby
The late Senator Joseph McCarthy was born in Wisconsin in the town of Grand Chute—French for “great fall.” He would indeed suffer a great fall, tumbling from the heights of power and prominence in the 1950s to an ignominious end, the disgraced namesake of an ugly set of political tactics known as McCarthyism.
How McCarthy (1908-1957) ascended to power as an anti-Communist crusader, then presided over a campaign of fear and intimidation, is told in the documentary McCarthy, written, directed and produced by Sharon Grimberg. The film, which aired as part of the PBS history series American Experience, is now contending for Emmy nominations in multiple categories including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, directing, writing, editing, music composition and other honors.
“The film presents a picture of McCarthy as I think he was, as just an ambitious and very energetic, but a reckless and power-hungry man,” Grimberg tells Deadline.
How McCarthy (1908-1957) ascended to power as an anti-Communist crusader, then presided over a campaign of fear and intimidation, is told in the documentary McCarthy, written, directed and produced by Sharon Grimberg. The film, which aired as part of the PBS history series American Experience, is now contending for Emmy nominations in multiple categories including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, directing, writing, editing, music composition and other honors.
“The film presents a picture of McCarthy as I think he was, as just an ambitious and very energetic, but a reckless and power-hungry man,” Grimberg tells Deadline.
- 6/29/2020
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
The amoral legacy of closeted gay political operator Roy Cohn has come back to life in two films of the moment: Matt Tyrnauer’s “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” and now this more personal documentary directed by Ivy Meeropol, granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were prosecuted by Cohn and executed for treason in 1953.
Meeropol previously covered the story of her grandparents in her 2004 documentary “Heir to an Execution,” and she sketches out the basics of the case against them at the beginning of her film on Cohn, starting off with footage of herself as a girl talking to her father about what happened to Julius and Ethel. She then cuts to footage of Cohn, who always signals, “I am evil” for the camera, as if he were very conscious of the part he was trying to play.
“The Story of Roy Cohn” tries to establish a balance between Cohn and the Rosenberg family,...
Meeropol previously covered the story of her grandparents in her 2004 documentary “Heir to an Execution,” and she sketches out the basics of the case against them at the beginning of her film on Cohn, starting off with footage of herself as a girl talking to her father about what happened to Julius and Ethel. She then cuts to footage of Cohn, who always signals, “I am evil” for the camera, as if he were very conscious of the part he was trying to play.
“The Story of Roy Cohn” tries to establish a balance between Cohn and the Rosenberg family,...
- 6/19/2020
- by Dan Callahan
- The Wrap
Roy Cohn, one of the worst people to ever live, is the subject of the new HBO documentary Bully. Coward. Victim: The Story of Roy Cohn. And, interestingly enough, the doc is directed by someone who has a personal connection to Cohn’s life: Ivy Meeropol, the granddaughter Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the couple Cohn prosecuted as spies, […]
The post ‘Bully. Coward. Victim: The Story of Roy Cohn’ Trailer: The Life and Death of an Infamous Political Figure appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Bully. Coward. Victim: The Story of Roy Cohn’ Trailer: The Life and Death of an Infamous Political Figure appeared first on /Film.
- 6/13/2020
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
7500
7500 is the emergency code for an attempted airplane hijacking. But when Tobias, a young pilot portrayed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is suddenly put in a situation where issuing the code is necessary, he quickly learns that there’s no protocol for what comes next. Determined to get into the cockpit, the terrorist threaten to kill passengers lest Tobias hands over his controls. The clip gives what can only be a glimpse into Tobias’ excruciating choice between following orders and giving in to the terrorists’ demands. (June 19)
Bill and Ted 3: Face...
7500 is the emergency code for an attempted airplane hijacking. But when Tobias, a young pilot portrayed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is suddenly put in a situation where issuing the code is necessary, he quickly learns that there’s no protocol for what comes next. Determined to get into the cockpit, the terrorist threaten to kill passengers lest Tobias hands over his controls. The clip gives what can only be a glimpse into Tobias’ excruciating choice between following orders and giving in to the terrorists’ demands. (June 19)
Bill and Ted 3: Face...
- 6/13/2020
- by Natalli Amato
- Rollingstone.com
Roy Cohn had always been a haunting presence in filmmaker Ivy Meeropol’s life, but the full extent of his existence was only apparent after she watched Meryl Streep play her grandmother, Ethel Rosenberg, in HBO’s 2003 “Angels in America.” “I think seeing the film made me finally connect emotionally to my human story, and this was a story I needed to tell,” Meeropol says. “I could do something no one else could because of my family history.”
The result is the documentary “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn,” which debuts June 19 on HBO.
Cohn was one of the most ruthless lawyers in American history — working with Sen. Joe McCarthy during the anti-Communist Army-McCarthy hearings of the 1950s. Cohn was also responsible, with McCarthy, for creating the Lavender scare of the ’50s, leading the government to repress and purge itself of homosexual people. And he pushed hard for...
The result is the documentary “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn,” which debuts June 19 on HBO.
Cohn was one of the most ruthless lawyers in American history — working with Sen. Joe McCarthy during the anti-Communist Army-McCarthy hearings of the 1950s. Cohn was also responsible, with McCarthy, for creating the Lavender scare of the ’50s, leading the government to repress and purge itself of homosexual people. And he pushed hard for...
- 6/12/2020
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
"Every era has an opportunist." HBO has debuted an official trailer for a documentary titled in full Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn, which premiered at last year's New York Film Festival. This is the second big Roy Cohn documentary recently, the other is Where's My Roy Cohn? from last year. This thorough and mesmerizing doc takes an appropriately unflinching look at the life and death of Roy Cohn, the closeted, conservative American lawyer whose first job out of law school was prosecuting filmmaker Ivy Meeropol's grandparents, Julius & Ethel Rosenberg. This is not merely a depiction of a brutal, ideologically diseased man – it's an interrogatory work in search of the true character behind an icon of the political right in a deeply troubled America. It features interviews with Cindy Adams, Alan Dershowitz, Tony Kushner, Nathan Lane, John Waters, and a trove of fascinating, recently unearthed archive video.
- 6/9/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Left to Right: Roy Cohn, Donald Trump.
Photo by Sonia Moskowitz. Courtesy Sony Pictures Classics
“Have you no sense of decency, sir?” was the question asked of Sen. Joe McCarthy at the Army-McCarthy hearings but right beside him was Roy Cohn. If the question instead had been asked of McCarthy’s young associate, the honest answer would have been no. A famously vicious lawyer and Donald Trump’s mentor. Roy Cohn is the subject of director Matt Tyrnauer’s fascinating documentary Where’S My Roy Cohn?
That question directed at Sen. McCarthy was asked by Sen. Joseph Welch, and brought an end to McCarthy’s reign of terror in the 1950s. The documentary takes a close look at the man sitting beside McCarthy, a ruthless lawyer and power broker who many have described as the embodiment of evil. With young attorney Roy Cohn whispering in his ear, Sen. Joe McCarthy...
Photo by Sonia Moskowitz. Courtesy Sony Pictures Classics
“Have you no sense of decency, sir?” was the question asked of Sen. Joe McCarthy at the Army-McCarthy hearings but right beside him was Roy Cohn. If the question instead had been asked of McCarthy’s young associate, the honest answer would have been no. A famously vicious lawyer and Donald Trump’s mentor. Roy Cohn is the subject of director Matt Tyrnauer’s fascinating documentary Where’S My Roy Cohn?
That question directed at Sen. McCarthy was asked by Sen. Joseph Welch, and brought an end to McCarthy’s reign of terror in the 1950s. The documentary takes a close look at the man sitting beside McCarthy, a ruthless lawyer and power broker who many have described as the embodiment of evil. With young attorney Roy Cohn whispering in his ear, Sen. Joe McCarthy...
- 10/18/2019
- by Cate Marquis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Here are a few of the fun facts you learn from “Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn.” Cohn, while wealthy, rarely paid his bills. A $1,500 laundry debt, a $10,500 tab he owed the 21 Club, a repossessed car — we see Cohn’s handwritten messages instructing his secretary not to pay anything, because that, quite simply, was his strategy: Don’t pay. (The result? He was always getting sued.) In Provincetown, the gay coastal resort-town mecca where Cohn’s one-time landlord says she never saw him alone (except when he was in the ocean), he threw dinner parties with a bowl of cocaine next to each plate, and a capsule of the barbiturate Tuinal next to that, in case a guest got too high. Cohn won victory for his clients by settling 60 to 75 percent of his cases out of court, and he once spent an evening with an escort, who had...
- 10/8/2019
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Even when Ivy Meeropol was just a little girl, the boogeyman always had a name in her house: Roy Cohn. To the rest of the world, Cohn was the unscrupulous power broker who had first risen to notoriety as the assistant prosecutor responsible for the executions of “atomic spies” Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. To Meeropol, born more than a decade after the fact, Cohn was the man who effectively murdered her grandparents long before she would ever have a chance to meet them.
From a young age, Michael Meeropol taught his daughter about how her family was torn apart for allegedly selling nuclear secrets to the Russians, and perhaps also about the ruthless, pug-nosed, pit bull of a lawyer who all but did the deed with his bare hands. Now a 51-year-old filmmaker, Meeropol even opens her latest documentary with black-and-white home video footage of her childhood, in which Michael...
From a young age, Michael Meeropol taught his daughter about how her family was torn apart for allegedly selling nuclear secrets to the Russians, and perhaps also about the ruthless, pug-nosed, pit bull of a lawyer who all but did the deed with his bare hands. Now a 51-year-old filmmaker, Meeropol even opens her latest documentary with black-and-white home video footage of her childhood, in which Michael...
- 9/29/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
President Trump is not happy about the contents of the whistleblower complaint released to the public Thursday morning. He’s so mad, in fact, that he fantasized about a few rather extreme punishments for the people responsible.
The report includes several damning revelations, including details of how Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate a political rival, how the White House sought to cover up Trump’s July 25th call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and how Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr became entangled in the efforts.
The whistleblower writes...
The report includes several damning revelations, including details of how Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate a political rival, how the White House sought to cover up Trump’s July 25th call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and how Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr became entangled in the efforts.
The whistleblower writes...
- 9/26/2019
- by Ryan Bort
- Rollingstone.com
A documentary about the McCarthy-era lawyer who eventually became Donald Trump’s mentor, a story about a corrupt billionaire prime minister, a corporate retreat that might or might not end in casual cannibalism, a dramatic thriller about the gig economy and a light-hearted Indian romance about luck and cricket — the films on deck for this weekend’s Specialty box office are terrifying, funny and have a dash of heart. Here’s a preview of what’s coming.
Where’s My Roy Cohn?
Director: Matt Tyrnauer
Subject: Roy Cohn
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
When Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker first saw Matt Tyrnauer’s Where’s My Roy Cohn? he did not hesitate to acquire the rights to the documentary about the life of the lawyer who was the epicenter of McCarthyism, the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and, many say, the rise of Donald Trump. Needless to say,...
Where’s My Roy Cohn?
Director: Matt Tyrnauer
Subject: Roy Cohn
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
When Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker first saw Matt Tyrnauer’s Where’s My Roy Cohn? he did not hesitate to acquire the rights to the documentary about the life of the lawyer who was the epicenter of McCarthyism, the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and, many say, the rise of Donald Trump. Needless to say,...
- 9/20/2019
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
The title of Matt Tyrnauer’s stone-the-bastard documentary about the corrupt lawyer, attack dog and inhuman being who everyone loved to hate comes from Donald Trump. “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” the President reportedly shouted in frustration when his attorney general Jeff Sessions dared to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Cohn died in 1986, leaving Trump without the mentor and fixer who helped make him the Donald what he is today. Enough said.
Or so you’d think . But in tracing the origins of a monster, Tyrnauer, known for docu-profiles...
Or so you’d think . But in tracing the origins of a monster, Tyrnauer, known for docu-profiles...
- 9/19/2019
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
“Have you no sense of decency, sir?” asked Senator Joseph Welch of Joseph McCarthy and his young colleague, Roy Cohn, during the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings. On the basis of Matt Tyrnauer’s stellar documentary, had the latter been struck by a rare honest impulse, he would have categorically responded in the negative. Inspired in part by the director’s 2018 triumph “Studio 54” (in which Cohn played a part), “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” details the rise and fall of the legal bulldog, who stood by McCarthy and mentored Donald Trump with a ruthless unscrupulousness that knew no bounds, and who died in 1986 of an AIDS affliction he denied to the end. A biographical portrait that doubles as an origin story for today’s amoral political landscape,
The words “manipulate” and “power” are heard ad nauseam in “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” — a fact that speaks to the near-universal consensus about the...
The words “manipulate” and “power” are heard ad nauseam in “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” — a fact that speaks to the near-universal consensus about the...
- 9/4/2019
- by Nick Schager
- Variety Film + TV
Section will include films from Nick Broomfield, Nanni Moretti and Michael Apted.
The New York Film Festival has unveiled a Spotlight on Documentary section that includes North American premieres for Nick Broomfield’s My Father and Me and Nanni Moretti’s Santiago, Italia and a Us premiere for Michael Apted’s 63 Up.
The festival, presented by Film at Lincoln Center and running from September 27 to October 13, will also include world premieres for Lynn Novick’s College Behind Bars and Abbas Fahdel’s Bitter Bread.
The full Spotlight on Documentary line-up:
45 Seconds of Laughter
Tim Robbins, USA. Us premiere
A...
The New York Film Festival has unveiled a Spotlight on Documentary section that includes North American premieres for Nick Broomfield’s My Father and Me and Nanni Moretti’s Santiago, Italia and a Us premiere for Michael Apted’s 63 Up.
The festival, presented by Film at Lincoln Center and running from September 27 to October 13, will also include world premieres for Lynn Novick’s College Behind Bars and Abbas Fahdel’s Bitter Bread.
The full Spotlight on Documentary line-up:
45 Seconds of Laughter
Tim Robbins, USA. Us premiere
A...
- 8/21/2019
- by John Hazelton
- ScreenDaily
Sony Pictures Classics has unveiled the first trailer for the Sundance selection Where’s My Roy Cohn? Directed by festival alum Matt Tyranauer, he takes a searing look at the infamous attorney and his brutal tactics to serve right-wing causes including working as Joseph Mcarthey’s Chief Counsel during the Red Scare, making sure that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg received the death penalty for their part in trading secrets to the Ussr, and finally becoming Donald Trump’s mentor and personal attorney till his untimely death from AIDS-related complications.
The film conveys not only his life as a ruthless right-wing despot, but also his closeted homosexual cavorting at Studio 54, a life he denied until his dying day. This aspect of his life was most famously fictionalized in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels In America by Tony Kushner and subsequently the HBO adaptation in which he was portrayed by Al Pacino.
The film conveys not only his life as a ruthless right-wing despot, but also his closeted homosexual cavorting at Studio 54, a life he denied until his dying day. This aspect of his life was most famously fictionalized in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels In America by Tony Kushner and subsequently the HBO adaptation in which he was portrayed by Al Pacino.
- 7/26/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Bad people tend to make for good documentaries, and Roy Cohn was one of the worst. A conniving Rasputin figure who advised Senator Joseph McCarthy, forged Donald Trump into the man-like thing he is today, and cravenly laid the groundwork for a political climate that encourages the pursuit of power at the expense of foundational American principles, the infamous “fixer” left this mortal coil with a well-earned reputation for being as morally bankrupt as anyone who ever walked the earth. And yet, Matt Tyrnauer’s “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” — while erudite, well-researched, and all too relevant — is an unilluminating chore to watch, even as it convincingly argues the profound extent to which its subject helped blemish the moral complexion of the modern world.
As a lawyer, Cohn overpowered the legal system with the brute force of his ad hominem attacks and backstage maneuverings (he would say that knowing the...
As a lawyer, Cohn overpowered the legal system with the brute force of his ad hominem attacks and backstage maneuverings (he would say that knowing the...
- 1/31/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Sony Pictures Classics announced it acquired rights in North America and other territories on Matt Tyrnauer’s Where’s My Roy Cohn? Pic is in the U.S. Docs competition at Sundance and paints Cohn — the lawyer at the center of McCarthyism, the deaths of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and the rise of Donald Trump — as a Bond villain-like figure. Neon has acquired the genre film The Lodge.
- 1/28/2019
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
HBO is ready to give Roy Cohn his Hollywood closeup. The attack-dog lawyer who became a mentor to Donald Trump is the subject of a new documentary set to premiere on the premium cabler early next year.
The untitled project features recently discovered audiotapes of candid discussions between Cohn and journalist Peter Manso, recorded at the height of Cohn’s career as a power broker in the rough-and-tumble world of New York City business and politics. It also includes an interviews with playwright Tony Kushner, whose Angels in America featured Cohn as a main character, and actor Nathan Lane, who starred in it as Cohn for nearly a year. Lane offers insights into how devastatingly dangerous the actual Roy Cohn was and how he wielded power through invective and innuendo. Cohn died in 1986, less than two months after being disbarred for unethical conduct.
The docu focuses on Cohn’s family,...
The untitled project features recently discovered audiotapes of candid discussions between Cohn and journalist Peter Manso, recorded at the height of Cohn’s career as a power broker in the rough-and-tumble world of New York City business and politics. It also includes an interviews with playwright Tony Kushner, whose Angels in America featured Cohn as a main character, and actor Nathan Lane, who starred in it as Cohn for nearly a year. Lane offers insights into how devastatingly dangerous the actual Roy Cohn was and how he wielded power through invective and innuendo. Cohn died in 1986, less than two months after being disbarred for unethical conduct.
The docu focuses on Cohn’s family,...
- 11/8/2018
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9 isn’t the only documentary here in Toronto that is highly critical of the American president. Buyers in the documentary space have been watching Where Is My Roy Cohn?, a completed docu by Matt Tyrnauer about the feared lawyer whose polarizing, brass-knuckle strategies set the stage for the rise of Donald Trump.
The pic covers Cohn’s early days as right-hand man to Sen. Joseph McCarthy to his growth into the quintessential New York City power broker and attorney for myriad clients who included mobsters and the future U.S. president. In a sizzle reel viewed by Deadline, Cohn’s abilities are called “dark arts,” and his work ranges from being prosecuting the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg espionage trial and later serving as the voice whispering in the ear of Sen. McCarthy’s televised Communist witch hunts.
Trump met Cohn in the 1970s, when the real...
The pic covers Cohn’s early days as right-hand man to Sen. Joseph McCarthy to his growth into the quintessential New York City power broker and attorney for myriad clients who included mobsters and the future U.S. president. In a sizzle reel viewed by Deadline, Cohn’s abilities are called “dark arts,” and his work ranges from being prosecuting the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg espionage trial and later serving as the voice whispering in the ear of Sen. McCarthy’s televised Communist witch hunts.
Trump met Cohn in the 1970s, when the real...
- 9/10/2018
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Altimeter Films is in production on Don’t Mess With Roy Cohn, a documentary that explores the long-range impact of Roy Cohn and makes the case that Cohn’s polarizing strategies set the stage for the rise of President Donald Trump. Pic covers Cohn’s early days as right-hand man to Senator Joseph McCarthy to his growth into the quintessential New York City power broker and attorney for myriad clients that included the future U.S. president. The film contextualizes Cohn’s influence on American politics, since the 1950s. As a recent Vanity Fair story by docu producer Marie Brenner posits: “Donald Trump and Roy Cohn’s ruthless symbiosis changed America.”
The film’s directed by Matt Tyrnauer and produced by Tyrnauer and Corey Reeser’s Altimeter Films, and Brenner, in association with Wavelength Productions. Lyn Lear, Jenifer Westphal, Lynn Pincus, Ernest Pomerantz, and Elliott Sernel are exec producers...
The film’s directed by Matt Tyrnauer and produced by Tyrnauer and Corey Reeser’s Altimeter Films, and Brenner, in association with Wavelength Productions. Lyn Lear, Jenifer Westphal, Lynn Pincus, Ernest Pomerantz, and Elliott Sernel are exec producers...
- 6/29/2018
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Nathan Lane has won two Tony Awards from five nominations. This year, with his acclaimed turn as notorious attorney Roy Cohn in the Broadway revival of”Angels in America,” Lane hopes to claim his third Tony and first for a performance in a play.
Tony Kushner won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize and Tony for this play about the early days of AIDS. Lane portrays Cohn who, in 1985, is deeply closeted and has recently learned he has been infected. Cohn finds himself alone in the hospital, judged by those around him, including the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, who was executed alongside husband Julius following Cohn’s successful prosecution at their espionage trial.
Ben Brantley‘s review in The New York Times was a love letter: “Taking on a role memorably embodied by Ron Leibman and Al Pacino, among others, he provides a fresh-as-toxic-paint interpretation that embraces extremes — of viciousness and, more surprisingly tenderness — without stripping gears.
Tony Kushner won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize and Tony for this play about the early days of AIDS. Lane portrays Cohn who, in 1985, is deeply closeted and has recently learned he has been infected. Cohn finds himself alone in the hospital, judged by those around him, including the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, who was executed alongside husband Julius following Cohn’s successful prosecution at their espionage trial.
Ben Brantley‘s review in The New York Times was a love letter: “Taking on a role memorably embodied by Ron Leibman and Al Pacino, among others, he provides a fresh-as-toxic-paint interpretation that embraces extremes — of viciousness and, more surprisingly tenderness — without stripping gears.
- 4/9/2018
- by Andrew Carden
- Gold Derby
This article marks Part 14 of the 21-part Gold Derby series analyzing Meryl Streep at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at Meryl Streep’s nominations, the performances that competed with her at the Academy Awards, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the contenders.
The three years following “Adaptation” (2002) did not produce an Oscar nomination for Meryl Streep – her longest drought since the early 1990s, following “Postcards from the Edge” (1990). That is not to say, of course, that these years were without substantial Streep contributions to the big and small screens and stage.
Sans a brief cameo portraying herself in the Matt Damon–Greg Kinnear conjoined twins comedy “Stuck on You,” Streep did not grace the silver screen in 2003. She did, however, hit the television circuit in a big way with her reunion alongside filmmaker Mike Nichols on the HBO production of Tony Kushner‘s “Angels in America.
The three years following “Adaptation” (2002) did not produce an Oscar nomination for Meryl Streep – her longest drought since the early 1990s, following “Postcards from the Edge” (1990). That is not to say, of course, that these years were without substantial Streep contributions to the big and small screens and stage.
Sans a brief cameo portraying herself in the Matt Damon–Greg Kinnear conjoined twins comedy “Stuck on You,” Streep did not grace the silver screen in 2003. She did, however, hit the television circuit in a big way with her reunion alongside filmmaker Mike Nichols on the HBO production of Tony Kushner‘s “Angels in America.
- 2/15/2018
- by Andrew Carden
- Gold Derby
How does one make a movie about a hot-button political topic that's divided the nation for sixty years? And if the facts of the case aren't fully known, how can one be sure that some news revelation won't reach back and make your well-meaning film play like a stack of lies? E. L. Doctorow and Sidney Lumet found a way. Daniel Olive Films Savant Blu-ray Review
1983 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date August 25, 2015 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95 Starring Timothy Hutton, Mandy Patinkin, Lindsay Crouse, Edward Asner, Ellen Barkin, Julie Bovasso, Tovah Feldshuh, Joseph Leon, Carmen Mathews, Amanda Plummer, John Rubinstein, Maria Tucci, Daniel Stern. Cinematography Andrzej Bartkowiak Film Editor Peter C. Frank Written by E.L. Doctorow from his novel The Book of Daniel. Produced by E. Lk. Doctorow, Burtt Harris Directed by Sidney Lumet
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In his book Making Movies, director Sidney Lumet says that...
1983 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date August 25, 2015 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.95 Starring Timothy Hutton, Mandy Patinkin, Lindsay Crouse, Edward Asner, Ellen Barkin, Julie Bovasso, Tovah Feldshuh, Joseph Leon, Carmen Mathews, Amanda Plummer, John Rubinstein, Maria Tucci, Daniel Stern. Cinematography Andrzej Bartkowiak Film Editor Peter C. Frank Written by E.L. Doctorow from his novel The Book of Daniel. Produced by E. Lk. Doctorow, Burtt Harris Directed by Sidney Lumet
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In his book Making Movies, director Sidney Lumet says that...
- 9/1/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
We usually write about the actors who have joined some project, or who are still in negotiations, or are set to star in some movie…
This time we’ll just say, they are all interested! But that still doesn’t mean they’re signed on. That just means we’re here to have a little chat about their possible roles, and they, (according to Pajiba) are:
Legendary Dustin Hoffman, who is interested in playing the crime boss in The Contortionist’s Handbook.
The film already stars Channing Tatum as “a forger who moves smoothly from one identity to the next because of a strict code of conduct that keeps him from getting caught or having to deal with his own troubled past. That gets upended when he falls for a beautiful woman with her own dark secret.”
Let’s continue with Robert Downey Jr. who is reportedly interested in starring in the The $40,000 Man,...
This time we’ll just say, they are all interested! But that still doesn’t mean they’re signed on. That just means we’re here to have a little chat about their possible roles, and they, (according to Pajiba) are:
Legendary Dustin Hoffman, who is interested in playing the crime boss in The Contortionist’s Handbook.
The film already stars Channing Tatum as “a forger who moves smoothly from one identity to the next because of a strict code of conduct that keeps him from getting caught or having to deal with his own troubled past. That gets upended when he falls for a beautiful woman with her own dark secret.”
Let’s continue with Robert Downey Jr. who is reportedly interested in starring in the The $40,000 Man,...
- 9/22/2010
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- Few events in American history have the air of mystery, intrigue and tragedy that surrounds the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 for supplying atomic secrets to the Russians. In "Heir to an Execution", Ivy Meeropol, granddaughter of the Rosenbergs, grapples with the personal ramifications of these very public events in full view of anyone interested in watching. And who could turn away from a story so compelling and full of Shakespearean drama? The production should generate more than enough interest to power a healthy theatrical run.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg become icons known as "the Atom Spies." Picasso painted them. But as Julius' old friend and co-defendant Morton Sobell says, "They were very ordinary people". It is Meeropol's search for the everyday aspect of the grandparents she never knew that propels the documentary.
We learn that Julius was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and Ethel doted on her two sons, Robert and Michael. Of course, like many intellectuals of the time, they were fervent communists, but what they did or did not do is not the question Meeropol is trying to answer. Another film will have to tackle that question. This is a family story.
Shortly after the execution, 10-year-old Robert, Ivy's father, and 6-year-old Michael were adopted by a good lefty couple, Anne and Abel Meeropol. None of the many siblings of Julius or Ethel would come forward to take in the kids. When Ivy tries to make contact with her long-lost cousins, only one would agree to be interviewed on camera, where he breaks down and apologizes for the family's neglect.
Robert serves as Ivy's conscience and sounding board and the source of much of the information. One of the curiosities of the film is that he is seemingly a happy and well-adjusted person. Together he and Ivy go to the apartment on New York's Lower East Side where the Rosenbergs lived before the FBI came to arrest Ethel and Julius in 1951. Robert is spooked to think that the agents rode in this very elevator to get his parents. Then, in the kitchen, Ivy strikes a pose made famous by Ethel, and to make the connection, the film cuts to the original photo. The filmmaker is sharing her intensely private moment with the audience.
Pieces of the puzzle are laid out by friends and colleagues, most notably 103-year-old Harry Steingart, who says that the Rosenbergs could have gotten off by naming names, including his own, but to their credit remained silent. Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy are among the scoundrels who make appearances via newsreels and suggest the pernicious tenor of the times.
Meeropol, a writer by trade, is not always the most assured interviewer or graceful filmmaker. Some scenes go on too long and miss the mark, others have less impact than they should. But her openness and willingness to go anywhere, and to take along a public that has long been intrigued by this story, is the film's real strength. And when, at the end, Meeropol finally visits her grandparents' grave and places a stone on the headstone to mark the site, as is the Jewish tradition, there is not likely to be a dry eye in the house.
HEIR TO AN EXECUTION
Blowback Prods.
Credits:
Director: Ivy Meeropol
Producers: Marc Levin, Daphne Pinkerson, Ivy Meeropol, Sheila Nevins
Directors of photography: Matthew Akers, Ivy Meeropol
Music: Human
Editors: Ken Eluto, Eric Seuel Davies
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- Few events in American history have the air of mystery, intrigue and tragedy that surrounds the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 for supplying atomic secrets to the Russians. In "Heir to an Execution", Ivy Meeropol, granddaughter of the Rosenbergs, grapples with the personal ramifications of these very public events in full view of anyone interested in watching. And who could turn away from a story so compelling and full of Shakespearean drama? The production should generate more than enough interest to power a healthy theatrical run.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg become icons known as "the Atom Spies." Picasso painted them. But as Julius' old friend and co-defendant Morton Sobell says, "They were very ordinary people". It is Meeropol's search for the everyday aspect of the grandparents she never knew that propels the documentary.
We learn that Julius was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and Ethel doted on her two sons, Robert and Michael. Of course, like many intellectuals of the time, they were fervent communists, but what they did or did not do is not the question Meeropol is trying to answer. Another film will have to tackle that question. This is a family story.
Shortly after the execution, 10-year-old Robert, Ivy's father, and 6-year-old Michael were adopted by a good lefty couple, Anne and Abel Meeropol. None of the many siblings of Julius or Ethel would come forward to take in the kids. When Ivy tries to make contact with her long-lost cousins, only one would agree to be interviewed on camera, where he breaks down and apologizes for the family's neglect.
Robert serves as Ivy's conscience and sounding board and the source of much of the information. One of the curiosities of the film is that he is seemingly a happy and well-adjusted person. Together he and Ivy go to the apartment on New York's Lower East Side where the Rosenbergs lived before the FBI came to arrest Ethel and Julius in 1951. Robert is spooked to think that the agents rode in this very elevator to get his parents. Then, in the kitchen, Ivy strikes a pose made famous by Ethel, and to make the connection, the film cuts to the original photo. The filmmaker is sharing her intensely private moment with the audience.
Pieces of the puzzle are laid out by friends and colleagues, most notably 103-year-old Harry Steingart, who says that the Rosenbergs could have gotten off by naming names, including his own, but to their credit remained silent. Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy are among the scoundrels who make appearances via newsreels and suggest the pernicious tenor of the times.
Meeropol, a writer by trade, is not always the most assured interviewer or graceful filmmaker. Some scenes go on too long and miss the mark, others have less impact than they should. But her openness and willingness to go anywhere, and to take along a public that has long been intrigued by this story, is the film's real strength. And when, at the end, Meeropol finally visits her grandparents' grave and places a stone on the headstone to mark the site, as is the Jewish tradition, there is not likely to be a dry eye in the house.
HEIR TO AN EXECUTION
Blowback Prods.
Credits:
Director: Ivy Meeropol
Producers: Marc Levin, Daphne Pinkerson, Ivy Meeropol, Sheila Nevins
Directors of photography: Matthew Akers, Ivy Meeropol
Music: Human
Editors: Ken Eluto, Eric Seuel Davies
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- Few events in American history have the air of mystery, intrigue and tragedy that surrounds the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 for supplying atomic secrets to the Russians. In "Heir to an Execution", Ivy Meeropol, granddaughter of the Rosenbergs, grapples with the personal ramifications of these very public events in full view of anyone interested in watching. And who could turn away from a story so compelling and full of Shakespearean drama? The production should generate more than enough interest to power a healthy theatrical run.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg become icons known as "the Atom Spies." Picasso painted them. But as Julius' old friend and co-defendant Morton Sobell says, "They were very ordinary people". It is Meeropol's search for the everyday aspect of the grandparents she never knew that propels the documentary.
We learn that Julius was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and Ethel doted on her two sons, Robert and Michael. Of course, like many intellectuals of the time, they were fervent communists, but what they did or did not do is not the question Meeropol is trying to answer. Another film will have to tackle that question. This is a family story.
Shortly after the execution, 10-year-old Robert, Ivy's father, and 6-year-old Michael were adopted by a good lefty couple, Anne and Abel Meeropol. None of the many siblings of Julius or Ethel would come forward to take in the kids. When Ivy tries to make contact with her long-lost cousins, only one would agree to be interviewed on camera, where he breaks down and apologizes for the family's neglect.
Robert serves as Ivy's conscience and sounding board and the source of much of the information. One of the curiosities of the film is that he is seemingly a happy and well-adjusted person. Together he and Ivy go to the apartment on New York's Lower East Side where the Rosenbergs lived before the FBI came to arrest Ethel and Julius in 1951. Robert is spooked to think that the agents rode in this very elevator to get his parents. Then, in the kitchen, Ivy strikes a pose made famous by Ethel, and to make the connection, the film cuts to the original photo. The filmmaker is sharing her intensely private moment with the audience.
Pieces of the puzzle are laid out by friends and colleagues, most notably 103-year-old Harry Steingart, who says that the Rosenbergs could have gotten off by naming names, including his own, but to their credit remained silent. Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy are among the scoundrels who make appearances via newsreels and suggest the pernicious tenor of the times.
Meeropol, a writer by trade, is not always the most assured interviewer or graceful filmmaker. Some scenes go on too long and miss the mark, others have less impact than they should. But her openness and willingness to go anywhere, and to take along a public that has long been intrigued by this story, is the film's real strength. And when, at the end, Meeropol finally visits her grandparents' grave and places a stone on the headstone to mark the site, as is the Jewish tradition, there is not likely to be a dry eye in the house.
HEIR TO AN EXECUTION
Blowback Prods.
Credits:
Director: Ivy Meeropol
Producers: Marc Levin, Daphne Pinkerson, Ivy Meeropol, Sheila Nevins
Directors of photography: Matthew Akers, Ivy Meeropol
Music: Human
Editors: Ken Eluto, Eric Seuel Davies
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- Few events in American history have the air of mystery, intrigue and tragedy that surrounds the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 for supplying atomic secrets to the Russians. In "Heir to an Execution", Ivy Meeropol, granddaughter of the Rosenbergs, grapples with the personal ramifications of these very public events in full view of anyone interested in watching. And who could turn away from a story so compelling and full of Shakespearean drama? The production should generate more than enough interest to power a healthy theatrical run.
Ethel and Julius Rosenberg become icons known as "the Atom Spies." Picasso painted them. But as Julius' old friend and co-defendant Morton Sobell says, "They were very ordinary people". It is Meeropol's search for the everyday aspect of the grandparents she never knew that propels the documentary.
We learn that Julius was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and Ethel doted on her two sons, Robert and Michael. Of course, like many intellectuals of the time, they were fervent communists, but what they did or did not do is not the question Meeropol is trying to answer. Another film will have to tackle that question. This is a family story.
Shortly after the execution, 10-year-old Robert, Ivy's father, and 6-year-old Michael were adopted by a good lefty couple, Anne and Abel Meeropol. None of the many siblings of Julius or Ethel would come forward to take in the kids. When Ivy tries to make contact with her long-lost cousins, only one would agree to be interviewed on camera, where he breaks down and apologizes for the family's neglect.
Robert serves as Ivy's conscience and sounding board and the source of much of the information. One of the curiosities of the film is that he is seemingly a happy and well-adjusted person. Together he and Ivy go to the apartment on New York's Lower East Side where the Rosenbergs lived before the FBI came to arrest Ethel and Julius in 1951. Robert is spooked to think that the agents rode in this very elevator to get his parents. Then, in the kitchen, Ivy strikes a pose made famous by Ethel, and to make the connection, the film cuts to the original photo. The filmmaker is sharing her intensely private moment with the audience.
Pieces of the puzzle are laid out by friends and colleagues, most notably 103-year-old Harry Steingart, who says that the Rosenbergs could have gotten off by naming names, including his own, but to their credit remained silent. Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy are among the scoundrels who make appearances via newsreels and suggest the pernicious tenor of the times.
Meeropol, a writer by trade, is not always the most assured interviewer or graceful filmmaker. Some scenes go on too long and miss the mark, others have less impact than they should. But her openness and willingness to go anywhere, and to take along a public that has long been intrigued by this story, is the film's real strength. And when, at the end, Meeropol finally visits her grandparents' grave and places a stone on the headstone to mark the site, as is the Jewish tradition, there is not likely to be a dry eye in the house.
HEIR TO AN EXECUTION
Blowback Prods.
Credits:
Director: Ivy Meeropol
Producers: Marc Levin, Daphne Pinkerson, Ivy Meeropol, Sheila Nevins
Directors of photography: Matthew Akers, Ivy Meeropol
Music: Human
Editors: Ken Eluto, Eric Seuel Davies
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/23/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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