The saga continues, featuring Adam Rifkin, Robert D. Krzykowski, John Sayles, Maggie Renzi, Mick Garris and Larry Wilmore with special guest star Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.
Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Key Largo (1948)
I Don’t Want to Talk About It (1993)
Camila (1984)
I, the Worst of All (1990)
The Wages of Fear (1953)
Le Corbeau (1943)
Diabolique (1955)
Red Beard (1965)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Ikiru (1952)
General Della Rovere (1959)
The Gold of Naples (1959)
Bitter Rice (1949)
Pickup On South Street (1953)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
Viva Zapata! (1952)
Panic In The Streets (1950)
Yellow Sky (1948)
Ace In The Hole (1951)
Wall Street (1987)
Women’s Prison (1955)
True Love (1989)
Mean Streets (1973)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
The Abyss (1989)
The China Syndrome (1979)
Big (1988)
Splash (1984)
The ’Burbs (1989)
Long Strange Trip (2017)
Little Women (2019)
Learning To Skateboard In A War Zone (If You’re A Girl) (2019)
The Guns of Navarone...
Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Key Largo (1948)
I Don’t Want to Talk About It (1993)
Camila (1984)
I, the Worst of All (1990)
The Wages of Fear (1953)
Le Corbeau (1943)
Diabolique (1955)
Red Beard (1965)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Ikiru (1952)
General Della Rovere (1959)
The Gold of Naples (1959)
Bitter Rice (1949)
Pickup On South Street (1953)
My Darling Clementine (1946)
Viva Zapata! (1952)
Panic In The Streets (1950)
Yellow Sky (1948)
Ace In The Hole (1951)
Wall Street (1987)
Women’s Prison (1955)
True Love (1989)
Mean Streets (1973)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
The Abyss (1989)
The China Syndrome (1979)
Big (1988)
Splash (1984)
The ’Burbs (1989)
Long Strange Trip (2017)
Little Women (2019)
Learning To Skateboard In A War Zone (If You’re A Girl) (2019)
The Guns of Navarone...
- 4/17/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Today in showbiz history the famous and sometimes infamous producer Dino de Laurentiis was born in a province of Naples, Italy. We'll take an intermission on our five or six part celebration today but we hope you've enjoyed the write-ups on Bitter Rice (1949) and the Fellini years, the creation of Dinocitta and its famous high-grossing but also-flopping The Bible: In the Beginning (1966), and his early years in America with gritty dramas like Serpico (1973) and Death Wish (1974). We resume tomorrow evening with the much-derided but very successful King Kong (1976) which just so happened to be the film debut of Jessica Lange.
Until then which of these 18 early De Laurentiis' productions have you seen? Do you have a favourite?He produced hundreds of his films in his career, starting at the age of 20, so this is just a small sample of his work in the first 30+ decades of his career...
Until then which of these 18 early De Laurentiis' productions have you seen? Do you have a favourite?He produced hundreds of his films in his career, starting at the age of 20, so this is just a small sample of his work in the first 30+ decades of his career...
- 8/8/2019
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
This week at Tfe we're celebrating the centennial of one of cinema’s most prolific and legendary producers, Dino De Laurentiis. We’ll start with three of his key influential early films. Here's Eric Blume...
Bitter Rice was De Laurentiis breakthrough international hit. He married its star
De Laurentiis, born outside of Naples, set up his own company in 1946 when he was just 27 years old. He produced four smaller films before making a huge splash onto the international scene with 1949’s Bitter Rice, a film currently available through the Criterion Collection. Bitter Rice serves up an arresting and hypnotic blend of melodrama, sexuality, and social commentary. The film is set in northern Italy during a typical spring where hundreds of poor women travel to the rice fields to work to the bone for forty days. There are workers with a legal contract and then the “illegals” who come in hopes of getting an opportunity.
Bitter Rice was De Laurentiis breakthrough international hit. He married its star
De Laurentiis, born outside of Naples, set up his own company in 1946 when he was just 27 years old. He produced four smaller films before making a huge splash onto the international scene with 1949’s Bitter Rice, a film currently available through the Criterion Collection. Bitter Rice serves up an arresting and hypnotic blend of melodrama, sexuality, and social commentary. The film is set in northern Italy during a typical spring where hundreds of poor women travel to the rice fields to work to the bone for forty days. There are workers with a legal contract and then the “illegals” who come in hopes of getting an opportunity.
- 8/5/2019
- by Eric Blume
- FilmExperience
The Barefoot Contessa
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1954 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien, Marius Goring, Rossano Brazzi, Valentina Cortese, Elizabeth Sellars, Warren Stevens, Enzo Staiola, Mari Aldon, Bessie Love.
Cinematography: Jack Cardiff
Original Music: Mario Nascimbene
Written, Produced and Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
As a teenager, many of my first and strongest movie impressions came not from the movies, but from certain critics. I memorized Robin Wood’s analysis before getting a look at Hitchcock’s Psycho. Raymond Durgnat introduced me to Georges Franju and Luis Buñuel, and I first learned to appreciate a number of great movies including The Barefoot Contessa from Richard Corliss, a terrific critic who championed writers over director-auteurs.
The Barefoot Contessa is a classically structured story, in that it could work as a novel; it’s told from several points of view.
Blu-ray
Twilight Time
1954 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 130 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien, Marius Goring, Rossano Brazzi, Valentina Cortese, Elizabeth Sellars, Warren Stevens, Enzo Staiola, Mari Aldon, Bessie Love.
Cinematography: Jack Cardiff
Original Music: Mario Nascimbene
Written, Produced and Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
As a teenager, many of my first and strongest movie impressions came not from the movies, but from certain critics. I memorized Robin Wood’s analysis before getting a look at Hitchcock’s Psycho. Raymond Durgnat introduced me to Georges Franju and Luis Buñuel, and I first learned to appreciate a number of great movies including The Barefoot Contessa from Richard Corliss, a terrific critic who championed writers over director-auteurs.
The Barefoot Contessa is a classically structured story, in that it could work as a novel; it’s told from several points of view.
- 1/6/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
‘Toni Erdmann’ (Courtesy: Tiff)
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
It’s not too often that foreign-language films get recognized for anything at the Oscars beyond the best foreign-language film category — but it does happen. And, believe it or not, it happens more for best original screenplay and best adapted screenplay than many other categories. A prime example of that is Toni Erdmann, Germany’s submission this year that is proving to be a cross-category threat, which could score a nomination — or a win — for its writing.
The story of Toni Erdmann — which has a solid Rotten Tomatoes score of 91% — follows a father who is trying to reconnect with his adult daughter after the death of his dog. It sounds simple enough but, of course, the two couldn’t be more unalike. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016 and where it won the Fipresci Prize. Since then, it...
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
It’s not too often that foreign-language films get recognized for anything at the Oscars beyond the best foreign-language film category — but it does happen. And, believe it or not, it happens more for best original screenplay and best adapted screenplay than many other categories. A prime example of that is Toni Erdmann, Germany’s submission this year that is proving to be a cross-category threat, which could score a nomination — or a win — for its writing.
The story of Toni Erdmann — which has a solid Rotten Tomatoes score of 91% — follows a father who is trying to reconnect with his adult daughter after the death of his dog. It sounds simple enough but, of course, the two couldn’t be more unalike. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016 and where it won the Fipresci Prize. Since then, it...
- 1/4/2017
- by Carson Blackwelder
- Scott Feinberg
In this special episode of Off The Shelf, Ryan and Brian take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for Tuesday, January 19th 2016.
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Help send Scott to Sundance
Follow-Up Ryan screwed up in discussing Arrow’s Fassbinder titles News HBO airs Godfather “Epic” Kino Studio Classics: Freleng DePatie Cartoons Covers & Dates Masters of Cinema: Eureka & Rocco Arrow low-quantity warnings Waking Life cover Links
1/12
The American Friend Bed Sitting Room Bitter Rice Bodyguard Figures in a Landscape Hotel Transylvania 2 How I Won the War How to Smell A Rose The Image Revolution Irrational Man Knack The Look of Silence The Martian Out 1 Sherlock: The Abominable Bride
1/19
12 Monkeys: Season 1 All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records American Gigolo Adventure Time – Stakes! Miniseries Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Arrow) Christmas Eve The Diary of a Teenage Girl Everest Gilda The...
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Help send Scott to Sundance
Follow-Up Ryan screwed up in discussing Arrow’s Fassbinder titles News HBO airs Godfather “Epic” Kino Studio Classics: Freleng DePatie Cartoons Covers & Dates Masters of Cinema: Eureka & Rocco Arrow low-quantity warnings Waking Life cover Links
1/12
The American Friend Bed Sitting Room Bitter Rice Bodyguard Figures in a Landscape Hotel Transylvania 2 How I Won the War How to Smell A Rose The Image Revolution Irrational Man Knack The Look of Silence The Martian Out 1 Sherlock: The Abominable Bride
1/19
12 Monkeys: Season 1 All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records American Gigolo Adventure Time – Stakes! Miniseries Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Arrow) Christmas Eve The Diary of a Teenage Girl Everest Gilda The...
- 1/20/2016
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Bitter Rice
Written by Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani, Gianni Puccini
Directed by Giuseppe De Santis
Italy, 1949
The opening credits of Bitter Rice parade an array of Italian film industry luminaries, figures who would help redefine the country’s national cinema, picking up where neorealism left off and setting the stage for the remarkable work that would emerge in the decades to come. Screenwriters Carlo Lizzani and Giuseppe De Santis (who also directed) were two of eight individuals contributing in one way or another to the script, though they were the two who would share an Academy Award nomination for its story. Cinematographer Otello Martelli had nearly 50 films under his belt by the time of Bitter Rice, but in the years that followed he would most memorably man the camera for Federico Fellini’s finest films. And producing the movie was the venerable Dino De Laurentiis, really just at the start of his legendary career.
Written by Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani, Gianni Puccini
Directed by Giuseppe De Santis
Italy, 1949
The opening credits of Bitter Rice parade an array of Italian film industry luminaries, figures who would help redefine the country’s national cinema, picking up where neorealism left off and setting the stage for the remarkable work that would emerge in the decades to come. Screenwriters Carlo Lizzani and Giuseppe De Santis (who also directed) were two of eight individuals contributing in one way or another to the script, though they were the two who would share an Academy Award nomination for its story. Cinematographer Otello Martelli had nearly 50 films under his belt by the time of Bitter Rice, but in the years that followed he would most memorably man the camera for Federico Fellini’s finest films. And producing the movie was the venerable Dino De Laurentiis, really just at the start of his legendary career.
- 1/19/2016
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
This week the Criterion Collection released Giuseppe De Santis’s 1949 film, Bitter Rice.
Both a socially conscious look at the hardships endured by underpaid field workers and a melodrama tinged with sex and violence, this early smash for producer extraordinaire Dino De Laurentiis and director Giuseppe De Santis is neorealism with a heaping dose of pulp.
Bitter Rice is currently available to stream on Hulu Plus. Order the Blu-ray from Amazon.
Throughout the year, Press Notes will collect various links to reviews of new Criterion Collection releases from around the web, published on the release date and updated as new reviews are posted.
Blu-ray.com
The new transfer is very good. I did some direct comparisons with the old R2 Italian DVD release and can confirm that the improvements in terms of detail, clarity, and especially depth are quite remarkable. Even in areas where it is obvious that time has...
Both a socially conscious look at the hardships endured by underpaid field workers and a melodrama tinged with sex and violence, this early smash for producer extraordinaire Dino De Laurentiis and director Giuseppe De Santis is neorealism with a heaping dose of pulp.
Bitter Rice is currently available to stream on Hulu Plus. Order the Blu-ray from Amazon.
Throughout the year, Press Notes will collect various links to reviews of new Criterion Collection releases from around the web, published on the release date and updated as new reviews are posted.
Blu-ray.com
The new transfer is very good. I did some direct comparisons with the old R2 Italian DVD release and can confirm that the improvements in terms of detail, clarity, and especially depth are quite remarkable. Even in areas where it is obvious that time has...
- 1/14/2016
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Forget the proletarian messages, this Italian Neorealist classic is really an exploitation film about ogling brazen, buxom babes in short-shorts, up to their knees in a rice paddy. Hollywood actress Doris Dowling is the nominal star but new discovery Silvana Mangano became the knockout dream of every Italian male suffering from postwar shortages (cough). Giuseppe De Santis delivered the perfect combo -- an art film that pulled in every lonely guy nella cittá. Bitter Rice Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 792 1949 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 109 min. / Riso amaro / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 12, 2016 / 29.95 Starring Vittorio Gassman, Doris Dowling, Silvana Mangano, Raf Vallone. Cinematography Otello Martelli Film Editor Gabriele Varriale Original Music Goffredo Petrassi Written by Corrado Alvaro, Giuseppe De Santis, Carlo Lizzani, Franco Monicelli, Carlo Musso, Ivo Perilli, Gianni Puccini Produced by Dino De Laurentiis Directed by Giuseppe De Santis
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Way back in...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Way back in...
- 1/12/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Criterion digs Bitter Rice out of obscurity this month, a pulpy mix of social drama and dime store pathos from director and screenwriter Giuseppe De Santis. Premiering at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival, the title was also nominated for an Oscar in 1950 for Best Story. Lumped in with the neo-realism movement, it’s been a well-regarded minor title, but its problematic noir elements seem to have denied it prominent classification, at least compared to De Santis’ contemporary, Roberto Rossellini, whose Rome, Open City (1945) birthed the movement (and had just finished his notable war trilogy the year prior to release of this title). But De Santis creates something a bit stranger with this hybrid, a darker examination of sex and violence from the perspective of two central female characters. In its native language, the title is a pun since the Italian word for rice can also be substituted for the word laughter,...
- 1/12/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Every week we dive into the cream of the crop when it comes to home releases, including Blu-ray and DVDs, as well as recommended deals of the week. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best (or most interesting) films one can take home. Note that if you’re looking to support the site, every purchase you make through the links below helps us and is greatly appreciated.
The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
Calling Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence the year’s finest documentary is not inaccurate; the film certainly deserves that crown. Yet it’s hard not to feel like such a classification does Silence a slight injustice. The film is, after all, an overwhelmingly emotional modern classic. Like Oppenheimer’s 2012 masterpiece The Act of Killing, this stunning follow-up features the actual perpetrators of the Indonesian killings of 1965–66. With shocking openness, these...
The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
Calling Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence the year’s finest documentary is not inaccurate; the film certainly deserves that crown. Yet it’s hard not to feel like such a classification does Silence a slight injustice. The film is, after all, an overwhelmingly emotional modern classic. Like Oppenheimer’s 2012 masterpiece The Act of Killing, this stunning follow-up features the actual perpetrators of the Indonesian killings of 1965–66. With shocking openness, these...
- 1/12/2016
- by TFS Staff
- The Film Stage
Cinephiles and historians can (and do) debate about which postwar Italian movies were a "betrayal" of the intentionally cultivated neorealism movement. But more plainly, a case could be made that neorealism got tired of itself. Or, more readily, Italian neorealism had always, in different ways, allowed for more than just soul-searing tales set amid a world of bombed out rubble. How best to go about its mission of humanizing postwar Italy is a question that would fall upon its individual filmmakers. Giuseppe De Santis, a younger and clearly vigorous filmmaker in 1949 when Bitter Rice (aka Riso amaro) was released, saw fit to infuse the film with a healthy dose of pulpy crime. Specifically, American pulpy crime; lurid, dangerous, kind of sexy. This infusion would be both...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 1/12/2016
- Screen Anarchy
The robbery spree of ‘the machine gun soloist,’ as the real life smash-and-grab jewelry thief Luciano Lutring was dubbed by the exploitative inflammatory Italian press of the day, sprawled across Europe like a globetrotting Bonnie and Clyde, complete with wife, mistress, child, disguises and enough flippant flamboyancy to waste his stolen riches on whatever pleasure awaited around the corner. Just three months after Lutring’s final capture and subsequent 20 year prison sentence, director Carlo Lizzani went into production on a fly-by-night chronicle of Lutring’s criminal career. The result was Wake Up And Kill, a la nouvelle vague inspired, loose canon crime thriller that thrives on style, but lacks the connective tissues to keep the wily tale together.
With a cinematic background in documentary and neo-realist melodrama, having spent much of the ’50s directing non-fiction and co-wrote the Oscar nominated Giuseppe De Santis picture Bitter Rice, Lizzani was obscenely quick...
With a cinematic background in documentary and neo-realist melodrama, having spent much of the ’50s directing non-fiction and co-wrote the Oscar nominated Giuseppe De Santis picture Bitter Rice, Lizzani was obscenely quick...
- 12/22/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Gian Maria Volonté has a big part in this prime quality Italo crime thriller blessed with a great score by Ennio Morricone. But the movie belongs to Robert Hoffman as the real-life public enemy who earned the alias 'The Machine Gun Soloist.' Director Carlo Lizzani's realistic treatment glamorizes nothing and implicates the police in shady policies as well. Award-winning co-star Lisa Gastoni is the woman who loves Hoffman, and is tempted to betray him. Wake Up and Kill Blu-ray + DVD Arrow Video (UK) 1966 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 124 98 min / Svegliati e uccidi; Lutring; Wake Up and Die / Street Date November 24, 2015 / 29.95 Starring Robert Hoffmann, Lisa Gastoni, Gian Maria Volonté, Claudio Camaso, Renato Niccolai, Ottavio Fanfani, Pupo De Luca, Corrado Olmi. Cinematography Armando Nannuzzi Film Editing Franco Fraticelli Original Music Ennio Morricone Written by Ugo Pirro, Carlo Lizzani Produced by Jacques Bar, Joseph Fryd, Carlo Lizzani Directed by Carlo Lizzani
Reviewed by...
Reviewed by...
- 12/12/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This month on the Newsstand, Ryan is joined by David Blakeslee to discuss the January and February (2016) Criterion Collection line-ups, as well as the latest in Criterion rumors, news, packaging, and more.
Subscribe to The Newsstand in iTunes or via RSS
Contact us with any feedback.
Shownotes Topics January Line-up February Line-up Latest newsletter tease (Paris nous appartient, Only Angels Have Wings) Manchurian Candidate Clouds Of Sils Maria Chimes At Midnight (Wex Arts Cinema Revival) Kieslowski films on Fandor Barnes & Noble Sale Criterion Blogathon Liv Ullmann, Angela Landsbury, and John Waters spotted at Criterion on Instagram 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days tease Shanghai Express Episode Links The Complete Lady Snowblood Lady Snowblood (1973) Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance (1974) The American Friend (1977) Bitter Rice (1949) Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Gilda (1946) The Emigrants/The New Land The New Land (1972) The Emigrants (1971) The Kid (1921) The Graduate (1967) I Knew Her Well (1965) Paris Belongs to Us Only Angels Have Wings Liv Ullmann 4 Months,...
Subscribe to The Newsstand in iTunes or via RSS
Contact us with any feedback.
Shownotes Topics January Line-up February Line-up Latest newsletter tease (Paris nous appartient, Only Angels Have Wings) Manchurian Candidate Clouds Of Sils Maria Chimes At Midnight (Wex Arts Cinema Revival) Kieslowski films on Fandor Barnes & Noble Sale Criterion Blogathon Liv Ullmann, Angela Landsbury, and John Waters spotted at Criterion on Instagram 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days tease Shanghai Express Episode Links The Complete Lady Snowblood Lady Snowblood (1973) Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance (1974) The American Friend (1977) Bitter Rice (1949) Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Gilda (1946) The Emigrants/The New Land The New Land (1972) The Emigrants (1971) The Kid (1921) The Graduate (1967) I Knew Her Well (1965) Paris Belongs to Us Only Angels Have Wings Liv Ullmann 4 Months,...
- 11/19/2015
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.Above: Tilda Swinton, a short video portrait of the actress (and Shanghai) by cinematographer-turned-director Christopher Doyle.Over at Empire, mediocre director Sam Mendes sends questions and gets answers from directors far more talented than himself, including David Fincher, Steven Soderbergh, Sofia Coppola and more.Speaking of mediocre directors, scholars David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson have posted online their analysis of The Prestige, probably the best film by Christopher Nolan.Above: a tantalizing picture of Jean-Pierre Léaud in costume on the set of Albert Serra's new film, Last Days of Louis Xiv. Via Cineuropa.We can't say there's much newly revealed in this interview at the New York Times by Bret Easton Ellis of Quentin Tarantino, by why not give it a try regardless?If you want really good interviews,...
- 10/22/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
To all cinephiles! This one is for you!
What a surprise was in store for us when we went to see “We Weren’t Just Bicycle Thieves. Neorealism” on its opening night of its qualifying run for Oscar submission in the documentary category.
The footage!
It took two and a half years to clear it all! The best scenes of Neorealistic cinema illustrate points on how Neorealism changed the lexicon and language of film in the same way that the Renaissance changed the visual language of art with linear perspective and its humanistic point of view.
The commentary!
Speaking about the influence of the Italian post-war Neorealism upon their filmmaking choices are Bertolucci, the Taviani Brothers, Scorsese, Olmi, Umberto Eco, Gabriel Garcia Marquez… the only reason Antonioni and Fellini did not speak was because they were no longer living when the movie was made. The interviews were not “talking heads”; they were conversations in which the great directors expressed their connections with Neorealism as they spoke to Carlo Lizzani.
Carlo Lizzani, the narrator and host of this documentary is an elegant 91 year old man who worked as scriptwriter, assistant director to every Neorealistic director and director in his own right. He starred in movies 1939-1954.
I loved him dancing in "Bitter Rice" (which he cowrote) with the women workers. That was the first Neorealistic movie I saw, dubbed on TV, when I was about eight. It was so puzzling to me, seeing this woman in a rice field with her skirt hiked up in a very provocative way, calling to someone with her words not matching her lips.
I really did not understand what sort of movie I was seeing… Similar to the first time I saw Chantal Akerman’s "Jane Dielman" which was rather Neorealistic too, though a product of the early ‘70s.
The production value!
The room, a fascinating “study” filled with objects of Neorealistic movies where the Lizzani seemed to belong was actually a room built from scratch by production designer Maurizio di Clemente within the walls of the oldest film school in Italy, Centro Sperimentale de Cine. When Lizzani opened windows, they looked out upon landscapes of these great Neorealistic movies. The technology of today was used in service of high art. Opening windows itself was a Neorealistic device.
The book!
You will want to read it all and show it off on your coffee table. Interviews, philosophic discussions, pictures and detailed listings of all the Neorealistic movies are splendidly displayed.
The education!
My view of cinema — both post war Italian cinema and today’s cinema shifted into an informed appreciation of how much Neorealism changed our vision of what a film could be.
Neorealism came to fruition with the rebirth of Italy after the war and lasted to 1954. Actually as Carlo Lizzani explains, it began in 1939 “with the first rumblings of an anti-fascist rebellion… as well as among many intellectuals and cineastes, increasingly unanimous in their refusal of so-called “White Telephone” cinema.”
“Before Neorealism, films were called ‘Bianchi Telefono’ after the white telephones that Hollywood movies showed in the so-called ‘White Telephone’ cinema for the way they featured Hollywood-style living rooms where that status symbol was invariably set center stage. It may have been a typical object in certain Hollywood mansions or Middle-European villa, but hardly in the average Italian home,” says Lizzani.
The interview!
Gianni Bozzacchi, the film’s director, writer and producer is a Renaissance man and his stories are funny, deeply moving and extremely interesting! This is someone you want to talk to for hours.
Watching this labor of love was an experience I will always treasure.
Rarely do we see a film about the art of film…Todd McCarthy’s "Visions of Light" comes to mind but others fade into PBS TV memories. This is a cinematic, highly technological and artistic feat. The Dp was Fabio Olmi the son of Ermanno Olmi.
After the screening, Bozzacchi stayed for a Q+A and the next day I continued to question him in the home of producer Jay Kanter where he was staying. After two and a half hours, I still wanted more. But the issue of condensing it all to a blog was weighing on me.
“Everything was planned and laid out in great detail, scripted and planned to the second so that filming 91 year old Lizanni for two hours a day took exactly 8 days to complete.”
Bozzacchi had previously made movies and in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He worked in Los Angeles with Greg Bautzer, who, for nearly 50 years, was one of the premier entertainment attorneys in Hollywood and with Kirk Kerkorian who needs no introduction. He wrote, directed and produced “I Love N.Y.” which was sold internationally by Walter Manley. It presold widely including to Australia where it played six weeks. But for the U.S. release, Manley edited it, and Bozzacchi moved away from it and took the DGA pseudonym, the credited name Alan Smithee.
Why did you leave filmmaking for so long?
I still remember that film, starring Christopher Plummer, Virna Lisi, Scott Baio, Jennifer O’Neill, but that was my last until “Neorealism”.
In 1986 I saw the industry was changing and I chose to step out in order to watch it as an outsider. What was ‘Show Business” was becoming a 'Business Show’. Marketing led to creating a show which led to creating a sales industry. “
“I decided to change direction and do only what I really wanted to do. I took ten years developing a big project ‘Oh Brave New World: The Renaissance’ for TV. It is now in pre-production. I thought of the Neorealism project and of The Enzo Ferrari story for which I now have a deal with Tribeca and Robert De Niro.
What did you do before you were a filmmaker?
I quit school at 13. From 1966 to 1974, at 20 I entered the jet set and became a photographer.
Elizabeth Taylor was shooting ‘The Comedians’ in Africa by Graham Greene. In Dahomy (today it’s Benin) they rebuilt part of Haiti. In the photo agency I worked no one wanted to go there, so I went. I knew Elizabeth Taylor’s face very well so I photographed her with light; no retouching was needed. After seeing a photo I took of her, Richard Burton said to me, ‘You want to join our family? Elizabeth needs you.’ I only spoke Roman, no English. I worked with her for 14 years and her two kids were my assistants. I also worked on 162 films as a special photographer, reading the scripts and shooting scenes for magazine layouts, working with “the making of the film” format.
It was when I stopped as a photographer in ‘75 that I began to think of producing films like the cult film “ China 9, Liberty 37” directed by Monte Hellman and starring Sam Peckinpah, Warren Oates and Fabio Testi and I wrote a book ExpoXed Memory about my life.
There is a relationship of all my projects to Neorealism, and of Neorealism to the Renaissance. All our projects are ready to go.
What are you doing in L.A.?
We have formed a new company with producer Jay Kanter and other partners who love film rather than the business of film. “We Weren’t Just Bicycle Thieves: Neorealismo” is the first to come out of the gate.
“The Listener” is the next project I will direct. It is based on the semi-autobiographical book, Operation Appia Way, by the Italian politician Giulio Andreotti. Andreotti served as Prime Minister of Italy seven terms since the restoration of democracy in 1946.
Yes he was the subject of Paolo Sorrentino’s film “Il Divo”. The book is about phone tapping, abuse of power and violations of personal privacy as is so often employed in politic, spying, etc. Andreotti had studied to be a priest but became a politician and this is about the birth of wire tapping which took place in the Roman catacombs and tapped the phones of Pope Pius Xii in conversations with Churchill, Churchill and the King of Italy, Mussolini and Hitler, Roosevelt and the Pope. The scenarios alternate between New York and Rome today and flashbacks to past times.
The production coordinator of “Neorealismo”, Julia Eleanora Rei, also has a project on Eleanora Duse and Gabriel D’Annunzio. Known as ‘Duse’, this Italian actress is known for her words of wit and wisdom, ‘The weaker partner in a marriage is the one who loves the most’ and ‘When we grow old, there can only be one regret – not to have given enough of ourselves’. She is also known for her long romantic involvement with the poet and writer, the controversial Gabriele D’Annunzio. They are now targeting a star for the film, although, says Bozzacchi, ‘Today the script is the star’.
What films are most important to you?
Those shown in this documentary, especially "Open City" where the scene of shooting down Anna Magnani still makes me feel angry.
Every week the Neorealistic filmmakers met in a café or restaurant. They did not have lots of money, had only one camera and not much film. But they created a way to tell a story very realistically, hiding the camera and shooting the people as they are.
Cary Grant pleaded De Sica to star in ‘The Bicycle Thief’, but he would have disrupted the Neorealist aspect; he was too recognizable. In the scene where three men stop the thief , other citizens joined in thinking it was real. If they saw it was Cary Grant, the scene never could have happened. The little boy in the film, played by Enzo Staiola, was scared the mob would turn on him.”
It was surprising to see Enzo Staiola in conversation during the movie. He said that ‘De Sica invented this whole story about how he made me cry. When I looked at him in surprise, he said: ‘Don’t worry, it’s just cinema…you’ll understand later’.
They also changed the way to shoot in sequence, called ‘piano sequenza’. Before a film was done in steps, with a storyboard, with cuts, three camera povs. Actors and the camera depended on the director. Now the camera follows the actor as he or she moves. This went from Rossellini to Fellini who always used the system; but Fellini, who shows a new reborn Italy, did not want direct sound. Fellini directs saying, ‘pick up drink’ or ‘turn right’ or ‘look left’ and then afterward he would add the sound. He showed Italy out of war time in ‘La Dolce Vita’.
What happened after ‘Neorealism’?
Pontecorvo was born in the time of Neorealism and he brought it to Algiers (‘Battle of Algiers’). He was going to make a doc there but then decided on fiction. He wrote notes on his hand.
Who were the French, German and U.S. adherents to Neorealism?
Truffaut and Melville, Wim Wenders with ‘American Friend’ and ‘Paris, Texas’, Coppola with ‘Apocalypse Now’. Cassavetes was a producer of Neorealism; he took it to his era. Scorsese did with ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Mean Streets’.
What do we see about Neorealism today?
If you really love movies, with all of today’s technology, you must bring in realism. With the new technology there will be a new wave of new realism. New filmmakers are very straight. Honesty and realism on the screen will come out. We’re at the sea floor now, coming back. Tell me a story that I can feel and see emotion…that is the legacy of Neorealism.
The final scene was great ...
There was a great sense of collaboration on this film.
What made that so related to Neorealism?
Neorealism also had the full participation of everyone. Directors heard and listened to the community. Clint Eastwood does this too. He would be great directing the Ferrari movie…depending on the script of course.
I love you story about the dog being an actor who allowed for transitions and covered discontinuities in film.
What about catering Italian style?
Take a look at the film's trailer Here.
What a surprise was in store for us when we went to see “We Weren’t Just Bicycle Thieves. Neorealism” on its opening night of its qualifying run for Oscar submission in the documentary category.
The footage!
It took two and a half years to clear it all! The best scenes of Neorealistic cinema illustrate points on how Neorealism changed the lexicon and language of film in the same way that the Renaissance changed the visual language of art with linear perspective and its humanistic point of view.
The commentary!
Speaking about the influence of the Italian post-war Neorealism upon their filmmaking choices are Bertolucci, the Taviani Brothers, Scorsese, Olmi, Umberto Eco, Gabriel Garcia Marquez… the only reason Antonioni and Fellini did not speak was because they were no longer living when the movie was made. The interviews were not “talking heads”; they were conversations in which the great directors expressed their connections with Neorealism as they spoke to Carlo Lizzani.
Carlo Lizzani, the narrator and host of this documentary is an elegant 91 year old man who worked as scriptwriter, assistant director to every Neorealistic director and director in his own right. He starred in movies 1939-1954.
I loved him dancing in "Bitter Rice" (which he cowrote) with the women workers. That was the first Neorealistic movie I saw, dubbed on TV, when I was about eight. It was so puzzling to me, seeing this woman in a rice field with her skirt hiked up in a very provocative way, calling to someone with her words not matching her lips.
I really did not understand what sort of movie I was seeing… Similar to the first time I saw Chantal Akerman’s "Jane Dielman" which was rather Neorealistic too, though a product of the early ‘70s.
The production value!
The room, a fascinating “study” filled with objects of Neorealistic movies where the Lizzani seemed to belong was actually a room built from scratch by production designer Maurizio di Clemente within the walls of the oldest film school in Italy, Centro Sperimentale de Cine. When Lizzani opened windows, they looked out upon landscapes of these great Neorealistic movies. The technology of today was used in service of high art. Opening windows itself was a Neorealistic device.
The book!
You will want to read it all and show it off on your coffee table. Interviews, philosophic discussions, pictures and detailed listings of all the Neorealistic movies are splendidly displayed.
The education!
My view of cinema — both post war Italian cinema and today’s cinema shifted into an informed appreciation of how much Neorealism changed our vision of what a film could be.
Neorealism came to fruition with the rebirth of Italy after the war and lasted to 1954. Actually as Carlo Lizzani explains, it began in 1939 “with the first rumblings of an anti-fascist rebellion… as well as among many intellectuals and cineastes, increasingly unanimous in their refusal of so-called “White Telephone” cinema.”
“Before Neorealism, films were called ‘Bianchi Telefono’ after the white telephones that Hollywood movies showed in the so-called ‘White Telephone’ cinema for the way they featured Hollywood-style living rooms where that status symbol was invariably set center stage. It may have been a typical object in certain Hollywood mansions or Middle-European villa, but hardly in the average Italian home,” says Lizzani.
The interview!
Gianni Bozzacchi, the film’s director, writer and producer is a Renaissance man and his stories are funny, deeply moving and extremely interesting! This is someone you want to talk to for hours.
Watching this labor of love was an experience I will always treasure.
Rarely do we see a film about the art of film…Todd McCarthy’s "Visions of Light" comes to mind but others fade into PBS TV memories. This is a cinematic, highly technological and artistic feat. The Dp was Fabio Olmi the son of Ermanno Olmi.
After the screening, Bozzacchi stayed for a Q+A and the next day I continued to question him in the home of producer Jay Kanter where he was staying. After two and a half hours, I still wanted more. But the issue of condensing it all to a blog was weighing on me.
“Everything was planned and laid out in great detail, scripted and planned to the second so that filming 91 year old Lizanni for two hours a day took exactly 8 days to complete.”
Bozzacchi had previously made movies and in the ‘70s and ‘80s. He worked in Los Angeles with Greg Bautzer, who, for nearly 50 years, was one of the premier entertainment attorneys in Hollywood and with Kirk Kerkorian who needs no introduction. He wrote, directed and produced “I Love N.Y.” which was sold internationally by Walter Manley. It presold widely including to Australia where it played six weeks. But for the U.S. release, Manley edited it, and Bozzacchi moved away from it and took the DGA pseudonym, the credited name Alan Smithee.
Why did you leave filmmaking for so long?
I still remember that film, starring Christopher Plummer, Virna Lisi, Scott Baio, Jennifer O’Neill, but that was my last until “Neorealism”.
In 1986 I saw the industry was changing and I chose to step out in order to watch it as an outsider. What was ‘Show Business” was becoming a 'Business Show’. Marketing led to creating a show which led to creating a sales industry. “
“I decided to change direction and do only what I really wanted to do. I took ten years developing a big project ‘Oh Brave New World: The Renaissance’ for TV. It is now in pre-production. I thought of the Neorealism project and of The Enzo Ferrari story for which I now have a deal with Tribeca and Robert De Niro.
What did you do before you were a filmmaker?
I quit school at 13. From 1966 to 1974, at 20 I entered the jet set and became a photographer.
Elizabeth Taylor was shooting ‘The Comedians’ in Africa by Graham Greene. In Dahomy (today it’s Benin) they rebuilt part of Haiti. In the photo agency I worked no one wanted to go there, so I went. I knew Elizabeth Taylor’s face very well so I photographed her with light; no retouching was needed. After seeing a photo I took of her, Richard Burton said to me, ‘You want to join our family? Elizabeth needs you.’ I only spoke Roman, no English. I worked with her for 14 years and her two kids were my assistants. I also worked on 162 films as a special photographer, reading the scripts and shooting scenes for magazine layouts, working with “the making of the film” format.
It was when I stopped as a photographer in ‘75 that I began to think of producing films like the cult film “ China 9, Liberty 37” directed by Monte Hellman and starring Sam Peckinpah, Warren Oates and Fabio Testi and I wrote a book ExpoXed Memory about my life.
There is a relationship of all my projects to Neorealism, and of Neorealism to the Renaissance. All our projects are ready to go.
What are you doing in L.A.?
We have formed a new company with producer Jay Kanter and other partners who love film rather than the business of film. “We Weren’t Just Bicycle Thieves: Neorealismo” is the first to come out of the gate.
“The Listener” is the next project I will direct. It is based on the semi-autobiographical book, Operation Appia Way, by the Italian politician Giulio Andreotti. Andreotti served as Prime Minister of Italy seven terms since the restoration of democracy in 1946.
Yes he was the subject of Paolo Sorrentino’s film “Il Divo”. The book is about phone tapping, abuse of power and violations of personal privacy as is so often employed in politic, spying, etc. Andreotti had studied to be a priest but became a politician and this is about the birth of wire tapping which took place in the Roman catacombs and tapped the phones of Pope Pius Xii in conversations with Churchill, Churchill and the King of Italy, Mussolini and Hitler, Roosevelt and the Pope. The scenarios alternate between New York and Rome today and flashbacks to past times.
The production coordinator of “Neorealismo”, Julia Eleanora Rei, also has a project on Eleanora Duse and Gabriel D’Annunzio. Known as ‘Duse’, this Italian actress is known for her words of wit and wisdom, ‘The weaker partner in a marriage is the one who loves the most’ and ‘When we grow old, there can only be one regret – not to have given enough of ourselves’. She is also known for her long romantic involvement with the poet and writer, the controversial Gabriele D’Annunzio. They are now targeting a star for the film, although, says Bozzacchi, ‘Today the script is the star’.
What films are most important to you?
Those shown in this documentary, especially "Open City" where the scene of shooting down Anna Magnani still makes me feel angry.
Every week the Neorealistic filmmakers met in a café or restaurant. They did not have lots of money, had only one camera and not much film. But they created a way to tell a story very realistically, hiding the camera and shooting the people as they are.
Cary Grant pleaded De Sica to star in ‘The Bicycle Thief’, but he would have disrupted the Neorealist aspect; he was too recognizable. In the scene where three men stop the thief , other citizens joined in thinking it was real. If they saw it was Cary Grant, the scene never could have happened. The little boy in the film, played by Enzo Staiola, was scared the mob would turn on him.”
It was surprising to see Enzo Staiola in conversation during the movie. He said that ‘De Sica invented this whole story about how he made me cry. When I looked at him in surprise, he said: ‘Don’t worry, it’s just cinema…you’ll understand later’.
They also changed the way to shoot in sequence, called ‘piano sequenza’. Before a film was done in steps, with a storyboard, with cuts, three camera povs. Actors and the camera depended on the director. Now the camera follows the actor as he or she moves. This went from Rossellini to Fellini who always used the system; but Fellini, who shows a new reborn Italy, did not want direct sound. Fellini directs saying, ‘pick up drink’ or ‘turn right’ or ‘look left’ and then afterward he would add the sound. He showed Italy out of war time in ‘La Dolce Vita’.
What happened after ‘Neorealism’?
Pontecorvo was born in the time of Neorealism and he brought it to Algiers (‘Battle of Algiers’). He was going to make a doc there but then decided on fiction. He wrote notes on his hand.
Who were the French, German and U.S. adherents to Neorealism?
Truffaut and Melville, Wim Wenders with ‘American Friend’ and ‘Paris, Texas’, Coppola with ‘Apocalypse Now’. Cassavetes was a producer of Neorealism; he took it to his era. Scorsese did with ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Mean Streets’.
What do we see about Neorealism today?
If you really love movies, with all of today’s technology, you must bring in realism. With the new technology there will be a new wave of new realism. New filmmakers are very straight. Honesty and realism on the screen will come out. We’re at the sea floor now, coming back. Tell me a story that I can feel and see emotion…that is the legacy of Neorealism.
The final scene was great ...
There was a great sense of collaboration on this film.
What made that so related to Neorealism?
Neorealism also had the full participation of everyone. Directors heard and listened to the community. Clint Eastwood does this too. He would be great directing the Ferrari movie…depending on the script of course.
I love you story about the dog being an actor who allowed for transitions and covered discontinuities in film.
What about catering Italian style?
Take a look at the film's trailer Here.
- 10/21/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The Criterion Collection will begin the new year by welcoming the Coen Brothers into the fold. Inside Llewyn Davis dove into the less glamorous side of the folk music scene, and showcased a sterling performance by Oscar Isaac. The Criterion home video version features an audio commentary by writers Robert Christgau, David Hajdu, and Sean Wilentz. In a new extra Gullermo del Toro sits down with the Coens to talk about their career. Both Lady Snowblood movies are included in The Complete Lady Snowblood; both are new 2K digital restorations. Wim Wenders' terrific The American Friend will also receive the Criterion treatment. I wrote about the movie here. January will also see the release of Giuseppe De Santis' neorealist Bitter Rice and Charles Vidor's spectacular...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 10/19/2015
- Screen Anarchy
Italian neorealist film director and screenwriter who made Last Days of Mussolini, starring Rod Steiger
Carlo Lizzani, who has died aged 91, after falling from a balcony at his home, was a screenwriter and director of Italian neorealist cinema who made more than 40 feature films, as well as documentaries and television series.
His first professional experiences in the film world were as an actor, playing cameos in two powerful neorealist films: Il Sole Sorge Ancora (The Sun Still Rises, 1946), directed by Aldo Vergano; and Caccia Tragica (Tragic Hunt, 1947), Giuseppe De Santis's first feature film.
In 1947 Roberto Rossellini summoned Lizzani to Berlin where he was preparing to shoot Germania Anno Zero (Germany Year Zero). Lizzani did research with East German locals which Rossellini would find useful when the film was being made without a definitive shooting script. Lizzani said later: "Rossellini filmed the story of the boy [Edmund] as if growing up...
Carlo Lizzani, who has died aged 91, after falling from a balcony at his home, was a screenwriter and director of Italian neorealist cinema who made more than 40 feature films, as well as documentaries and television series.
His first professional experiences in the film world were as an actor, playing cameos in two powerful neorealist films: Il Sole Sorge Ancora (The Sun Still Rises, 1946), directed by Aldo Vergano; and Caccia Tragica (Tragic Hunt, 1947), Giuseppe De Santis's first feature film.
In 1947 Roberto Rossellini summoned Lizzani to Berlin where he was preparing to shoot Germania Anno Zero (Germany Year Zero). Lizzani did research with East German locals which Rossellini would find useful when the film was being made without a definitive shooting script. Lizzani said later: "Rossellini filmed the story of the boy [Edmund] as if growing up...
- 10/15/2013
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
Italian composer of film scores and musicals
Armando Trovajoli, who has died aged 95, was a prolific composer for Italian films and stage musicals. He worked with many of Italy's leading directors, including Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Ettore Scola and Vittorio De Sica, for whom he composed music for La Ciociara (Two Women, 1960) and Matrimonio all'Italiana (Marriage Italian Style, 1964), both of which starred Sophia Loren, who became a friend. When Loren was going to Hollywood for the first time in the mid-1950s, Trovajoli composed and recorded with his orchestra a song in Neapolitan for her, Che M'è Mparato a Ffà (What Did You Teach Me to Do?), which did much to launch her in the Us.
Trovajoli was born into an upper-middle-class family in Rome. He learned to play the violin as a boy and, in the 1930s, studied piano at the Santa Cecilia conservatory. By 1939 he was playing with a leading jazz band.
Armando Trovajoli, who has died aged 95, was a prolific composer for Italian films and stage musicals. He worked with many of Italy's leading directors, including Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Ettore Scola and Vittorio De Sica, for whom he composed music for La Ciociara (Two Women, 1960) and Matrimonio all'Italiana (Marriage Italian Style, 1964), both of which starred Sophia Loren, who became a friend. When Loren was going to Hollywood for the first time in the mid-1950s, Trovajoli composed and recorded with his orchestra a song in Neapolitan for her, Che M'è Mparato a Ffà (What Did You Teach Me to Do?), which did much to launch her in the Us.
Trovajoli was born into an upper-middle-class family in Rome. He learned to play the violin as a boy and, in the 1930s, studied piano at the Santa Cecilia conservatory. By 1939 he was playing with a leading jazz band.
- 3/10/2013
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
Rome — Armando Trovajoli, an Italian who composed music for some 300 films and whose lush and playful serenade to Rome is a much-requested romantic standby for tourists, has died at age 95.
The city's mayor, Gianni Alemanno, mourned Trovajoli's passing, saying in a statement that `'the voice of Rome has been extinguished." The Italian news agency Ansa said widow Maria Paola Trovajoli announced the death Saturday, saying her husband had died a few days before in Rome but declining to give the exact date.
Roman by birth, Trovajoli began his musical career as a pianist, playing jazz and dance music. He appeared with many jazz stars, among them Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Louis Armstrong, Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt.
In the 1950s, his prolific relationship with the film world took flight. Travojoli composed for many of Italy's hit movies of the next decades, especially comedies.
He wrote the music for...
The city's mayor, Gianni Alemanno, mourned Trovajoli's passing, saying in a statement that `'the voice of Rome has been extinguished." The Italian news agency Ansa said widow Maria Paola Trovajoli announced the death Saturday, saying her husband had died a few days before in Rome but declining to give the exact date.
Roman by birth, Trovajoli began his musical career as a pianist, playing jazz and dance music. He appeared with many jazz stars, among them Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Louis Armstrong, Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt.
In the 1950s, his prolific relationship with the film world took flight. Travojoli composed for many of Italy's hit movies of the next decades, especially comedies.
He wrote the music for...
- 3/2/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
As the Academy celebrates 85 years of great films at the Oscars on February 24th, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is set to take movie fans on the ultimate studio tour with the 2013 edition of 31 Days Of Oscar®. Under the theme Oscar by Studio, the network will present a slate of more than 350 movies grouped according to the studios that produced or released them. And as always, every film presented during 31 Days Of Oscar is an Academy Award® nominee or winner, making this annual event one of the most anticipated on any movie lover’s calendar.
As part of the network’s month-long celebration, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has graciously provided the original Academy Awards® radio broadcasts from 1930-1952. Specially chosen clips from the radio archives will be featured throughout TCM’s 31 Days Of Oscar website.
Hollywood was built upon the studio system, which saw nearly ever aspect...
As part of the network’s month-long celebration, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has graciously provided the original Academy Awards® radio broadcasts from 1930-1952. Specially chosen clips from the radio archives will be featured throughout TCM’s 31 Days Of Oscar website.
Hollywood was built upon the studio system, which saw nearly ever aspect...
- 12/17/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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When you think of cinema, Turin may not be the first city that comes to mind. While Paris, a city famed for its cinephilia, has its cinemathèque at Bercy, somewhat off the beaten path for tourists, Turin makes sure almost every visitor experiences cinema history: its Museo Nazionale del Cinema in situated right inside the city’s most famous landmark, the Mole Antonelliana. This is a building which distinguishes Turin’s skyline, looking like a giant church steeple. In fact, the building used to be a synagogue, and it was built high in order to compensate for the small plot of land available. Like most towering landmarks, the Mole Antonelliana is a magnet for tourists who want to go up: thankfully, instead of a gruelling spiral staircase, there is a glass elevator which whisks you to the top—the hard part is waiting in line, sometimes up to an hour,...
When you think of cinema, Turin may not be the first city that comes to mind. While Paris, a city famed for its cinephilia, has its cinemathèque at Bercy, somewhat off the beaten path for tourists, Turin makes sure almost every visitor experiences cinema history: its Museo Nazionale del Cinema in situated right inside the city’s most famous landmark, the Mole Antonelliana. This is a building which distinguishes Turin’s skyline, looking like a giant church steeple. In fact, the building used to be a synagogue, and it was built high in order to compensate for the small plot of land available. Like most towering landmarks, the Mole Antonelliana is a magnet for tourists who want to go up: thankfully, instead of a gruelling spiral staircase, there is a glass elevator which whisks you to the top—the hard part is waiting in line, sometimes up to an hour,...
- 5/13/2012
- by Alison Frank
- The Moving Arts Journal
The legendary Italian scriptwriter and novelist, who died yesterday, worked with a host of Europe's greatest auteurs. Here we pick the highlights of his extraordinary oeuvre
It was Tonino Guerra's fate to become the scriptwriter of choice for a string of master directors whose status as auteurs – "authors" of their films – tended to diminish the status of the writers involved. Nevertheless, Guerra established himself as a major figure in Italian cinema during its golden period in the 1960s and early 70s, as well as venturing further afield to collaborate with the likes of Tarkovsky and Angelopoulos.
But it is the amazing string of films he made with Michelangelo Antonioni for which he will primarily be remembered. After spending time as a schoolteacher in his 20s, he broke into the film industry in his 30s, receiving his first credit aged 37 for Man and Wolves, by Bitter Rice director Giuseppe de Santis.
It was Tonino Guerra's fate to become the scriptwriter of choice for a string of master directors whose status as auteurs – "authors" of their films – tended to diminish the status of the writers involved. Nevertheless, Guerra established himself as a major figure in Italian cinema during its golden period in the 1960s and early 70s, as well as venturing further afield to collaborate with the likes of Tarkovsky and Angelopoulos.
But it is the amazing string of films he made with Michelangelo Antonioni for which he will primarily be remembered. After spending time as a schoolteacher in his 20s, he broke into the film industry in his 30s, receiving his first credit aged 37 for Man and Wolves, by Bitter Rice director Giuseppe de Santis.
- 3/22/2012
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Anna Magnani in (what looks like) Luchino Visconti's Bellissima At the end of Giuseppe Tornatore's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner Cinema Paradiso, small-town projectionist Philippe Noiret has died and the Nuovo Cinema Paradiso has become a pile of rubble. The bratty Italian boy Salvatore Cascio has grown into the classy Frenchman Jacques Perrin (like Noiret, dubbed in Italian), a filmmaker who sits to watch a mysterious reel of film the deceased projectionist had left him. It turns out the reel contains clips from films censored by the prudish local parish priest, whose family values found kisses, embraces, and bare breasts and legs a danger to society. Now, who's doing all that kissing, embracing, and breast/leg-displaying in that film reel? (Please scroll down for the Cinema Paradiso clip.) Here are the ones I recognize: Silvana Mangano and Vittorio Gassman in Giuseppe De Santis' Bitter Rice (1949); Mangano...
- 2/14/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The larger-than-life Italian film producer always went for broke with his films – even if it didn't always pay off
Only the other day I was talking to a documentary film-maker who was looking for a new subject. He wondered if there were any of the old guard movie moguls left, the dinosaurs who once had young directors and starlets for dinner, monsters of ego, money and dreaming talk, but guys who were wild about movies and who had found a handful of gold in a sack of garbage.
"Dino De Laurentiis," I said, without a second thought.
"Is he still alive?" asked the guy.
I said I thought he was because the Guardian hadn't asked me to write about him yet. So I looked it up and the book said he was 91. "Likely coming into his prime," I hoped. But I went too far. Within days the news was in: Dino was dead.
Only the other day I was talking to a documentary film-maker who was looking for a new subject. He wondered if there were any of the old guard movie moguls left, the dinosaurs who once had young directors and starlets for dinner, monsters of ego, money and dreaming talk, but guys who were wild about movies and who had found a handful of gold in a sack of garbage.
"Dino De Laurentiis," I said, without a second thought.
"Is he still alive?" asked the guy.
I said I thought he was because the Guardian hadn't asked me to write about him yet. So I looked it up and the book said he was 91. "Likely coming into his prime," I hoped. But I went too far. Within days the news was in: Dino was dead.
- 11/12/2010
- by David Thomson
- The Guardian - Film News
Dino De Laurentiis, the prolific Italian film producer and entrepreneur, died Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills, CA. He was 91.
Mr. De Laurentiis is best known for his career-defining work on many central films of the Italian New Wave in the late 1940s and 50s including the international success “Bitter Rice” (1949), and two of Frederico Fellini’s seminal works, “La Strada” (1954) and “Nights of Cabiria” (1957). His lengthy and impressive career, however, began well before that magical period and extended long after with films like David Lynch’s 1986 masterpiece, “Blue Velvet” among his finest achievements.
And though De Laurentiis managed to attach himself to many of cinema’s classics, the savvy businessman in him never shied away from pure fluff and entertainment like Sergio Corbucci’s “Goliath and the Vampires” (1961), Roger Vadim’s “Barbarella” (1968) and Richard Fleischer’s “Mandingo” (1975).
“A producer is not just a bookkeeper, or a banker, or a background.
Mr. De Laurentiis is best known for his career-defining work on many central films of the Italian New Wave in the late 1940s and 50s including the international success “Bitter Rice” (1949), and two of Frederico Fellini’s seminal works, “La Strada” (1954) and “Nights of Cabiria” (1957). His lengthy and impressive career, however, began well before that magical period and extended long after with films like David Lynch’s 1986 masterpiece, “Blue Velvet” among his finest achievements.
And though De Laurentiis managed to attach himself to many of cinema’s classics, the savvy businessman in him never shied away from pure fluff and entertainment like Sergio Corbucci’s “Goliath and the Vampires” (1961), Roger Vadim’s “Barbarella” (1968) and Richard Fleischer’s “Mandingo” (1975).
“A producer is not just a bookkeeper, or a banker, or a background.
- 11/12/2010
- by Eric M. Armstrong
- The Moving Arts Journal
Some will remember Dino De Laurentiis, who died in Los Angeles at the age of 91, as the producer of Serpico (1973), King Kong (1976), and Dune (1984). The Sidney Lumet-directed Serpico, which stars Al Pacino as a New York cop battling widespread corruption within the police force, remains one the most important Hollywood productions of the '70s. King Kong, for its part, introduced Jessica Lange to the world of filmmaking, while Dune, though one of the biggest critical and box-office disappointments of the 1980s, featured a bald Silvana Mangano — a sight nearly as disturbing as all the weird stuff that goes on in another De Laurentiis production, David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986). But when I think of De Laurentiis, what comes to mind — in addition to Mangano's bald head — are Giuseppe De Santis' Bitter Rice (1949), which sealed Mangano's stardom as the pre-Sophia Loren Earth Mother of [...]...
- 11/12/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
When I was a kid, I devoured the kitschy fun of producer Dino De Laurentiis' films such as the 1976 "King Kong" remake. His name got branded in my feeble mind. When you see his "Dino De Laurentiis Presents" before a trailer, you know that film would be fun!
So the death of the Oscar-winning Italian film producer saddened me. The Italian media was reporting that Laurentiis, who gave the world nearly 500 films including "La Strada," "Serpico," and "Three Days of the Condor" died in Los Angeles. He was 91.
Here's a lengthy but absolutely wonderful snap shot of Laurentiis' life written by John Gallagher from film reference:
One of the most colorful, prolific, and successful producers in the contemporary motion picture business, Dino De Laurentiis has proven his entrepreneurial skills time and again, growing from an independent Italian producer into an international conglomerate. His product, from low-budget neorealist works to multimillion dollar spectacles,...
So the death of the Oscar-winning Italian film producer saddened me. The Italian media was reporting that Laurentiis, who gave the world nearly 500 films including "La Strada," "Serpico," and "Three Days of the Condor" died in Los Angeles. He was 91.
Here's a lengthy but absolutely wonderful snap shot of Laurentiis' life written by John Gallagher from film reference:
One of the most colorful, prolific, and successful producers in the contemporary motion picture business, Dino De Laurentiis has proven his entrepreneurial skills time and again, growing from an independent Italian producer into an international conglomerate. His product, from low-budget neorealist works to multimillion dollar spectacles,...
- 11/11/2010
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Dino De Laurentiis, an Academy Award-winning film impresario and producer of Serpico and Barbarella who helped revolutionize the way movies are bankrolled and sold, has died. He was 91.
The Academy Award-winning producer's daughter said her father was surrounded by family when he died Wednesday night at his home in Beverly Hills. The statement from Raffaella De Laurentiis did not give a cause of death.
De Laurentiis was a legend of Italian New Wave filmmaking. His works also included Bitter Rice, La Strada and Barbarella.
He was tiny, but tough, a veritable Napoleon on the set and utterly tireless.
The Academy Award-winning producer's daughter said her father was surrounded by family when he died Wednesday night at his home in Beverly Hills. The statement from Raffaella De Laurentiis did not give a cause of death.
De Laurentiis was a legend of Italian New Wave filmmaking. His works also included Bitter Rice, La Strada and Barbarella.
He was tiny, but tough, a veritable Napoleon on the set and utterly tireless.
- 11/11/2010
- by Cineplex.com and contributors
- Cineplex
Italian movie tycoon whose list of credits featured as many disasters as hits
The Italian-born film producer Dino De Laurentiis, who has died aged 91, will perhaps go down in movie history as the last "transatlantic" tycoon. Over a career spanning more than 60 years, producing films on both sides of the ocean, he had as many flops as hits. But De Laurentiis almost always succeeded in staying afloat.
In Rome, he produced Federico Fellini's Oscar-winning La Strada (1954) and the grandiose spectacular War and Peace (1956), but also made The Bible: In the Beginning (1966) and Waterloo (1970), which never recovered their costs. Relocating to the Us, he enjoyed success with Serpico (1973), Death Wish (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Conan the Barbarian (1982), but had financial disasters including Year of the Dragon (1985) and a failed food emporium, which he opened in New York. De Laurentiis was also a starmaker, both in Italy, where...
The Italian-born film producer Dino De Laurentiis, who has died aged 91, will perhaps go down in movie history as the last "transatlantic" tycoon. Over a career spanning more than 60 years, producing films on both sides of the ocean, he had as many flops as hits. But De Laurentiis almost always succeeded in staying afloat.
In Rome, he produced Federico Fellini's Oscar-winning La Strada (1954) and the grandiose spectacular War and Peace (1956), but also made The Bible: In the Beginning (1966) and Waterloo (1970), which never recovered their costs. Relocating to the Us, he enjoyed success with Serpico (1973), Death Wish (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Conan the Barbarian (1982), but had financial disasters including Year of the Dragon (1985) and a failed food emporium, which he opened in New York. De Laurentiis was also a starmaker, both in Italy, where...
- 11/11/2010
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
Film legend produced more than 500 films, including 'Serpico,' 'Barbarella' and 'Red Dragon.'
By Eric Ditzian and Tom Dichiara
Dino De Laurentiis with Anthony Quinn in 1962
Photo: Terry Disney/ Hulton Archive
Dino De Laurentiis, the Oscar-winning Italian producer of films including "Serpico," "Death Wish" and "Red Dragon," died in Los Angeles on Thursday (November 11) at the age of 91.
The prolific De Laurentiis began his career in the 1940s and produced more than 500 films over the next seven decades. Following World War II, he produced two Federico Fellini films, "La Strada," which won a Foreign Language Oscar, and "Nights of Cabiria." He went on to produce high-profile projects on both sides of the Atlantic, notably Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda's "War and Peace," Anthony Perkins' "This Angry Age" and Kirk Douglas' "Ulysses." He also had a taste for the lowbrow genre flick, producing...
By Eric Ditzian and Tom Dichiara
Dino De Laurentiis with Anthony Quinn in 1962
Photo: Terry Disney/ Hulton Archive
Dino De Laurentiis, the Oscar-winning Italian producer of films including "Serpico," "Death Wish" and "Red Dragon," died in Los Angeles on Thursday (November 11) at the age of 91.
The prolific De Laurentiis began his career in the 1940s and produced more than 500 films over the next seven decades. Following World War II, he produced two Federico Fellini films, "La Strada," which won a Foreign Language Oscar, and "Nights of Cabiria." He went on to produce high-profile projects on both sides of the Atlantic, notably Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda's "War and Peace," Anthony Perkins' "This Angry Age" and Kirk Douglas' "Ulysses." He also had a taste for the lowbrow genre flick, producing...
- 11/11/2010
- MTV Movie News
Film legend produced more than 500 films, including 'Serpico,' 'Barbarella' and 'Red Dragon.'
By Eric Ditzian and Tom Dichiara
Dino De Laurentiis with Anthony Quinn in 1962
Photo: Terry Disney/ Hulton Archive
Dino De Laurentiis, the Oscar-winning Italian producer of films including "Serpico," "Death Wish" and "Red Dragon," died in Los Angeles on Thursday (November 11) at the age of 91.
The prolific De Laurentiis began his career in the 1940s and produced more than 500 films over the next seven decades. Following World War II, he produced two Federico Fellini films, "La Strada," which won a Foreign Language Oscar, and "Nights of Cabiria." He went on to produce high-profile projects on both sides of the Atlantic, notably Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda's "War and Peace," Anthony Perkins' "This Angry Age" and Kirk Douglas' "Ulysses." He also had a taste for the lowbrow genre flick, producing...
By Eric Ditzian and Tom Dichiara
Dino De Laurentiis with Anthony Quinn in 1962
Photo: Terry Disney/ Hulton Archive
Dino De Laurentiis, the Oscar-winning Italian producer of films including "Serpico," "Death Wish" and "Red Dragon," died in Los Angeles on Thursday (November 11) at the age of 91.
The prolific De Laurentiis began his career in the 1940s and produced more than 500 films over the next seven decades. Following World War II, he produced two Federico Fellini films, "La Strada," which won a Foreign Language Oscar, and "Nights of Cabiria." He went on to produce high-profile projects on both sides of the Atlantic, notably Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda's "War and Peace," Anthony Perkins' "This Angry Age" and Kirk Douglas' "Ulysses." He also had a taste for the lowbrow genre flick, producing...
- 11/11/2010
- MTV Music News
Courtesy Imdbbeverly Hills, California (X17online) - Oscar winning Italian film producer Dino De Laurentiis died Wednesday night in his Beverly Hills home at the age of 91. De Laurentiis produced over 500 movies including Serpico, Barbarella, Bitter Rice, and Death Wish. He was also awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the Academy Awards in 2001. Daughter Raffaella De Laurentiis released a statement revealing her father was "surrounded by family" when he died Wednesday night in his home. De Laurentis is also grandfather to Food Network star Giada De Laurentiis who said earlier today: "My grandfather was a true inspiration. He was my biggest champion in life and a constant source for wisdom and advice. I will miss him dearly." Dino De Laurentiis will be remembered as a legend of Italian New Wave filmmaking. His cause of death is unknown.
- 11/11/2010
- x17online.com
Legendary film producer Dino De Laurentiis, who has more than 500 films on his resume, has died. He was 91.
His daughter, Raffaella, released a statement, confirming: "Dino De Laurentiis, patriarch of the De Laurentiis family, Academy Award-winning producer and film legend, died on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 10Pm (Pst) at his home in Beverly Hills, California surrounded by family. He was 91."
De Laurentiis' impressive career stretches from the early days of Italian cinema with greats such as "La Strada" (for which he won a best foreign language film Oscar), "Nights of Cabiria" and "Bitter Rice" to American films such as "Barbarella," "Serpico," "Flash Gordon," "Dune," "Army of Darkness" and "Hannibal."
De Laurentiis was first married to "Bitter Rice" actress Silvana Mangano, with whom he had four children. Through his daughter Veronica, he's the grandfather of Food Network personality Giada De Laurentiis. Dino later married Martha Schumacher and had two daughters.
"My grandfather was a true inspiration,...
His daughter, Raffaella, released a statement, confirming: "Dino De Laurentiis, patriarch of the De Laurentiis family, Academy Award-winning producer and film legend, died on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 10Pm (Pst) at his home in Beverly Hills, California surrounded by family. He was 91."
De Laurentiis' impressive career stretches from the early days of Italian cinema with greats such as "La Strada" (for which he won a best foreign language film Oscar), "Nights of Cabiria" and "Bitter Rice" to American films such as "Barbarella," "Serpico," "Flash Gordon," "Dune," "Army of Darkness" and "Hannibal."
De Laurentiis was first married to "Bitter Rice" actress Silvana Mangano, with whom he had four children. Through his daughter Veronica, he's the grandfather of Food Network personality Giada De Laurentiis. Dino later married Martha Schumacher and had two daughters.
"My grandfather was a true inspiration,...
- 11/11/2010
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
The prolific Italian movie producer whose name was synonymous with grandiose spectacle, if questionable taste, has died aged 91
The age of the producer extraordinaire, whose name on the opening credits was a guarantee of operatic emotions and grandiose spectacle, looked one step closer to the end today, with the announcement that Dino De Laurentiis has died aged 91.
A man whose diminutive stature (he was 5ft 4in) was no obstacle to his enormous ambition or prodigious output (more than 500 films), De Laurentiis started his career selling his family's pasta. After serving in the Italian army in the second world war, he established himself as a film producer, and swiftly became famous for the 1949 classic Bitter Rice, directed by Giuseppe De Santis, and then a handful of neo-realist hits made in collaboration with Carlo Ponti, including Federico Fellini's La Strada in 1954 and Nights of Cabiria in 1957.
De Laurentiis went solo, and...
The age of the producer extraordinaire, whose name on the opening credits was a guarantee of operatic emotions and grandiose spectacle, looked one step closer to the end today, with the announcement that Dino De Laurentiis has died aged 91.
A man whose diminutive stature (he was 5ft 4in) was no obstacle to his enormous ambition or prodigious output (more than 500 films), De Laurentiis started his career selling his family's pasta. After serving in the Italian army in the second world war, he established himself as a film producer, and swiftly became famous for the 1949 classic Bitter Rice, directed by Giuseppe De Santis, and then a handful of neo-realist hits made in collaboration with Carlo Ponti, including Federico Fellini's La Strada in 1954 and Nights of Cabiria in 1957.
De Laurentiis went solo, and...
- 11/11/2010
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
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