Jennifer Konner is a writer, producer, and director who was born in Brooklyn, New York, on May 16, 1971. She has predominantly worked in the television industry playing various roles in the creation and production of television series. Konner is probably best-known as the showrunner and writer of ‘Girls’, an HBO series. She has also directed some episodes of this television series. Other series in which she is involved include ‘George and Martha’, ‘Undeclared’, ‘What I Like About You’, ‘Help Me Help You’, ‘In the Motherhood’, ‘The O’Keefes’, and ‘The Stones’. Here are five more things you might not know
Five Things You Didn’t Know About Jennifer Konner...
Five Things You Didn’t Know About Jennifer Konner...
- 11/22/2017
- by Nat Berman
- TVovermind.com
You may not realize it, but Lara Flynn Boyle’s Donna — the heart of the original series, the activated burgeoning girl detective, my one true love — returned to Twin Peaks Sunday.
Where exactly was she in the show? Well, it’s complicated. First, her face appeared in an old framed photo (of Laura and Donna, from the original series) sitting on a side table in Sarah Palmer’s living room. Then her voice (it was indeed Boyle’s voice) wafted out over the Road House as James Hurley sang his sweet, crazy, retro 50’s ballad “Just You And I” from Season 2. (Yes,...
Where exactly was she in the show? Well, it’s complicated. First, her face appeared in an old framed photo (of Laura and Donna, from the original series) sitting on a side table in Sarah Palmer’s living room. Then her voice (it was indeed Boyle’s voice) wafted out over the Road House as James Hurley sang his sweet, crazy, retro 50’s ballad “Just You And I” from Season 2. (Yes,...
- 8/7/2017
- TVLine.com
Disney's Newsies, My Neighbor Totoro and Deconstructing the Beatles make our July Events list!Disney's Newsies, My Neighbor Totoro and Deconstructing the Beatles make our July Events list!Scott Goodyer6/30/2017 10:01:00 Am
It's no secret that we at Cineplex adore movies. But there are plenty of other reasons to visit our theatres - every month we bring special features and old classics to the big screen as part of Cineplex Events programming. Check out some highlights from our July Events list below.
For full details and showtimes for each event, click on their titles! The Old Vic's The Crucible - July 2nd
From London's West End, Richard Armitage stars in Arthur Miller’s classic American drama, based on Salem’s infamous witch trials, brought vividly to life in this visceral new production by internationally acclaimed director Yaël Farber.
In a small tight-knit community in Salem, Massachusetts, personal grievances collide with lust and superstition,...
It's no secret that we at Cineplex adore movies. But there are plenty of other reasons to visit our theatres - every month we bring special features and old classics to the big screen as part of Cineplex Events programming. Check out some highlights from our July Events list below.
For full details and showtimes for each event, click on their titles! The Old Vic's The Crucible - July 2nd
From London's West End, Richard Armitage stars in Arthur Miller’s classic American drama, based on Salem’s infamous witch trials, brought vividly to life in this visceral new production by internationally acclaimed director Yaël Farber.
In a small tight-knit community in Salem, Massachusetts, personal grievances collide with lust and superstition,...
- 6/30/2017
- by Scott Goodyer
- Cineplex
The One You’re With: Jacobs Brings Mature Gaze to Dark Marital Comedy
Imagine if George and Martha actually had allowed themselves the opportunity to derive pleasure from extra-marital liaisons as an avenue to re-discover the attraction they once had for one another and you get a sense of the rueful tone in Azazel Jacob’s The Lovers. Although hardly as caustic as the broken beings locking horns in Edward Albee’s classic play, Jacobs scores his most mature and sobering portrayal to date.
Compared to the focal points of earlier works like Momma’s Man (2008) and Terri (2011), featuring male protagonists in the throes of arrested development or navigating adolescence as pariah, the unhappily married couple played delectably by Debra Winger and Tracy Letts may be a familiar concept, yet plays like uncharted territory as far as American indie cinema goes. Neither the butt of a joke nor fodder for a frivolous sex farce, theirs is an emotionally sound portrayal of a complex, adult relationship, and makes absolute mincemeat out of the lethargic shenanigans of the comparably staged It’s Complicated (2009).
Michael (Letts) and Mary (Winger) have been going through the motions of a stale marriage for years. Both deeply embroiled in affairs with other people, they seem to be waiting for merely the right moment to announce the obvious to one another and begin a new chapter of their lives. When their son Joel (Tyler Ross) announces an upcoming visit home during a break from university to introduce them to his new girlfriend (Jessica Sula), Michael and Mary each hatch their own plots to use the event as a springboard for their big news. Robert (Aidan Gillen), an aspiring novelist, and Lucy (Melora Walters), an emotionally fragile ballet teacher, are both chomping at the bit for their respective lovers to end their empty husk of a marriage. As the date for Joel’s visit looms night, the anxiety induced by Robert and Lucy force Michael and Mary to seek solace elsewhere…which leads them back into the comfort of each other’s arms. Reawakening a sensuality they haven’t felt for one another in years, Michael and Mary are soon hiding their rekindled feelings from their respective lovers.
Surely, the adulterous situation Jacobs is exploring is nothing new, as we’ve seen all approximations and combinations of this synopsis (including scenarios where two lovers discover their significant others are lovers as well, as in Kirill Serebrennikov’s Betrayal, 2012). But there’s a level of nuance in his The Lovers often absent from these deliberations of heteronormative marriages made sour by the crushing combo of time and domesticity. What’s more, Michael and Mary are presented on an equal playing field, both at fault in the current state of affairs and yet also both wholly capable of exploring alternate avenues of fulfillment. Their reconnection is imperceptibly nestled in a tipping point involving Chinese take-out, and it’s this, among many other details, which nails the irrationality involved in conceptions of lust and love. Both made aware of the other’s infidelity, Jacobs steers this initial droll comedy into formidable poignancy.
Out shopping for groceries for their son’s visit, a jocular trip gets marred suddenly, allowing for Letts to walk away with one of the best scenes standing befuddled at the meat counter. With realistic tendencies and avoiding the usual heartrending, exaggerated beats which are used to enhance what, at its core, is a social melodrama, The Lovers finds notes of the sublime in the dueling performances of Winger and Letts.
★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
The post The Lovers | Review appeared first on Ioncinema.com.
Imagine if George and Martha actually had allowed themselves the opportunity to derive pleasure from extra-marital liaisons as an avenue to re-discover the attraction they once had for one another and you get a sense of the rueful tone in Azazel Jacob’s The Lovers. Although hardly as caustic as the broken beings locking horns in Edward Albee’s classic play, Jacobs scores his most mature and sobering portrayal to date.
Compared to the focal points of earlier works like Momma’s Man (2008) and Terri (2011), featuring male protagonists in the throes of arrested development or navigating adolescence as pariah, the unhappily married couple played delectably by Debra Winger and Tracy Letts may be a familiar concept, yet plays like uncharted territory as far as American indie cinema goes. Neither the butt of a joke nor fodder for a frivolous sex farce, theirs is an emotionally sound portrayal of a complex, adult relationship, and makes absolute mincemeat out of the lethargic shenanigans of the comparably staged It’s Complicated (2009).
Michael (Letts) and Mary (Winger) have been going through the motions of a stale marriage for years. Both deeply embroiled in affairs with other people, they seem to be waiting for merely the right moment to announce the obvious to one another and begin a new chapter of their lives. When their son Joel (Tyler Ross) announces an upcoming visit home during a break from university to introduce them to his new girlfriend (Jessica Sula), Michael and Mary each hatch their own plots to use the event as a springboard for their big news. Robert (Aidan Gillen), an aspiring novelist, and Lucy (Melora Walters), an emotionally fragile ballet teacher, are both chomping at the bit for their respective lovers to end their empty husk of a marriage. As the date for Joel’s visit looms night, the anxiety induced by Robert and Lucy force Michael and Mary to seek solace elsewhere…which leads them back into the comfort of each other’s arms. Reawakening a sensuality they haven’t felt for one another in years, Michael and Mary are soon hiding their rekindled feelings from their respective lovers.
Surely, the adulterous situation Jacobs is exploring is nothing new, as we’ve seen all approximations and combinations of this synopsis (including scenarios where two lovers discover their significant others are lovers as well, as in Kirill Serebrennikov’s Betrayal, 2012). But there’s a level of nuance in his The Lovers often absent from these deliberations of heteronormative marriages made sour by the crushing combo of time and domesticity. What’s more, Michael and Mary are presented on an equal playing field, both at fault in the current state of affairs and yet also both wholly capable of exploring alternate avenues of fulfillment. Their reconnection is imperceptibly nestled in a tipping point involving Chinese take-out, and it’s this, among many other details, which nails the irrationality involved in conceptions of lust and love. Both made aware of the other’s infidelity, Jacobs steers this initial droll comedy into formidable poignancy.
Out shopping for groceries for their son’s visit, a jocular trip gets marred suddenly, allowing for Letts to walk away with one of the best scenes standing befuddled at the meat counter. With realistic tendencies and avoiding the usual heartrending, exaggerated beats which are used to enhance what, at its core, is a social melodrama, The Lovers finds notes of the sublime in the dueling performances of Winger and Letts.
★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
The post The Lovers | Review appeared first on Ioncinema.com.
- 5/5/2017
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The One You’re With: Jacobs Brings Mature Gaze to Dark Marital Comedy
Imagine if George and Martha actually had allowed themselves the opportunity to derive pleasure from extra-marital liaisons as an avenue to re-discover the attraction they once had for one another and you get a sense of the rueful tone in Azazel Jacob’s The Lovers.
Continue reading...
Imagine if George and Martha actually had allowed themselves the opportunity to derive pleasure from extra-marital liaisons as an avenue to re-discover the attraction they once had for one another and you get a sense of the rueful tone in Azazel Jacob’s The Lovers.
Continue reading...
- 5/5/2017
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
I am Heath Ledger, Obsession and Singin' in the Rain top our May Events Guide!I am Heath Ledger, Obsession and Singin' in the Rain top our May Events Guide!Scott Goodyer5/1/2017 10:17:00 Am
With the month of May now upon us, we flip over to a new and diverse list of movies and special features screening in our Events calendar. Whether you are a fan of the movie classics or a fan of Mozart - we have something for everybody!
So check out the list below highlighting some of our showings and for the full list of events - click here!
May 4th: I Am Heath Ledger
I Am Heath Ledger is a feature length documentary celebrating the life of Heath Ledger: actor, artist and icon. The documentary provides an intimate look at Ledger through the lens of his own camera as he films and often performs...
With the month of May now upon us, we flip over to a new and diverse list of movies and special features screening in our Events calendar. Whether you are a fan of the movie classics or a fan of Mozart - we have something for everybody!
So check out the list below highlighting some of our showings and for the full list of events - click here!
May 4th: I Am Heath Ledger
I Am Heath Ledger is a feature length documentary celebrating the life of Heath Ledger: actor, artist and icon. The documentary provides an intimate look at Ledger through the lens of his own camera as he films and often performs...
- 5/1/2017
- by Scott Goodyer
- Cineplex
“You are cordially invited to George and Martha’s for an evening of fun and games”
Who’S Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966) screens this Friday through Sunday (July 15th-17th) at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 E. Lockwood, Webster Groves, Mo 63119). The film begins each evening at 8:00.
Director Mike Nichol’s Who’S Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? a famous and shocking black comedy from 1966, is based on Edward Albee’s scandalous play of the same name. First performed in New York in October of 1962, it captured the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Tony Award for the 1962-63 season.
We are introduced to George (Richard Burton), a middle-aged history professor, and his acerbic wife, Martha (Elizabeth Taylor).The movie presents an all-night drinking bout of the couple, joined by a vacuous biology professor, Nick (George Seagal), and his wife, Honey (Sandy Dennis).Through the verbal torturing of one another,...
Who’S Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966) screens this Friday through Sunday (July 15th-17th) at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 E. Lockwood, Webster Groves, Mo 63119). The film begins each evening at 8:00.
Director Mike Nichol’s Who’S Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? a famous and shocking black comedy from 1966, is based on Edward Albee’s scandalous play of the same name. First performed in New York in October of 1962, it captured the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Tony Award for the 1962-63 season.
We are introduced to George (Richard Burton), a middle-aged history professor, and his acerbic wife, Martha (Elizabeth Taylor).The movie presents an all-night drinking bout of the couple, joined by a vacuous biology professor, Nick (George Seagal), and his wife, Honey (Sandy Dennis).Through the verbal torturing of one another,...
- 7/11/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this Oscar-winning classic, Team Experience is revisiting the picture, tag team relay style. In Chapter 1, Nathaniel discussed our first look at George and Martha as they "welcomed" Nick and Honey into their home for a late night boozy marital bout. The first true bomb had just gone off when George realized that Martha had broken their "rules"... we rejoin the party now as George strikes back.
Pt 2 by Daniel Crooke
My first wallop by Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was in my early years of high school after developing a formative penchant for emotionally explosive character dramas, iconic Hollywood movie stars, and Mike Nichols’ The Graduate. Once I learned of this film’s existence, I snatched up the first secondhand DVD I could find. It may have proved a bad role model; I shouted and scowled around the house for days, hunched in...
Pt 2 by Daniel Crooke
My first wallop by Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was in my early years of high school after developing a formative penchant for emotionally explosive character dramas, iconic Hollywood movie stars, and Mike Nichols’ The Graduate. Once I learned of this film’s existence, I snatched up the first secondhand DVD I could find. It may have proved a bad role model; I shouted and scowled around the house for days, hunched in...
- 6/22/2016
- by Daniel Crooke
- FilmExperience
You are cordially invited to George and Martha's for an evening of fun and games*
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Directed by Mike Nichols
Adapted by Ernest Lehman from the play by Edward Albee
Released by Warner Bros on June 22nd, 1966
Nominated for 13 Oscars, winning 5.
To celebrate the anniversary of this stone cold classic from 1966, Team Experience is revisiting the picture, tag team relay style, all week long as we did with Rebecca, Silence of the Lambs, and Thelma & Louise.
Pt 1 by Nathaniel R
50th Anniversary Four Part Mini Series
When I was a young teenager, a multiplex opened about a half hour from my house that, like every multiplex, showed whatever movies were in wide release. But here was something novel and unfortunately not copied by every multiplex in the land thereafter: they devoted one of their screens exclusively to charity -- the charity of young cinephilia that is.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Directed by Mike Nichols
Adapted by Ernest Lehman from the play by Edward Albee
Released by Warner Bros on June 22nd, 1966
Nominated for 13 Oscars, winning 5.
To celebrate the anniversary of this stone cold classic from 1966, Team Experience is revisiting the picture, tag team relay style, all week long as we did with Rebecca, Silence of the Lambs, and Thelma & Louise.
Pt 1 by Nathaniel R
50th Anniversary Four Part Mini Series
When I was a young teenager, a multiplex opened about a half hour from my house that, like every multiplex, showed whatever movies were in wide release. But here was something novel and unfortunately not copied by every multiplex in the land thereafter: they devoted one of their screens exclusively to charity -- the charity of young cinephilia that is.
- 6/21/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Stand back, watch the fur fly and don't forget to duck -- this is surely the most psychologically toxic play ever adapted for film. The legends Liz and Dick are terrific, and Mike Nichols conquers the screen in his first job of direction. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1966 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 131 min. / Street Date May 3, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, Sandy Dennis. Cinematography Haskell Wexler Film Editor Sam O'Steen Original Music Alex North Written by Ernest Lehman from the play by Edward Albee Produced by Ernest Lehman Directed by Mike Nichols
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
I remember what my reaction was, when I was younger, to movies adapted from plays: no matter how brilliant the dialogue, the thought of people standing around rooms talking was stultifying. Even for great epics and action pictures, I tended to go into a...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
I remember what my reaction was, when I was younger, to movies adapted from plays: no matter how brilliant the dialogue, the thought of people standing around rooms talking was stultifying. Even for great epics and action pictures, I tended to go into a...
- 5/3/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
In April Showers, Team Tfe looks at our favorite waterlogged moments in the movies. Here's Chris on Gone Girl (2014).
Gone Girl is a variation on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, its Nick and Amy being the new George and Martha. But instead of a pair of unwitting guests, this George and Martha use the media to attack one another - and the verbal barbs are traded in for actual bloodshed. David Fincher loads the film with the darkest rapid fire comedy, much like Edward Albee's acidic play, and the final beats of both can spark immediate audience conversation.
The final act of Gone Girl is where the film reveals its darkest side. If you haven't yet seen the film or read the source novel, then you don't know that the first two acts are pretty twisted themselves. The film's structure and narrative conceits keep us from seeing the true...
Gone Girl is a variation on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, its Nick and Amy being the new George and Martha. But instead of a pair of unwitting guests, this George and Martha use the media to attack one another - and the verbal barbs are traded in for actual bloodshed. David Fincher loads the film with the darkest rapid fire comedy, much like Edward Albee's acidic play, and the final beats of both can spark immediate audience conversation.
The final act of Gone Girl is where the film reveals its darkest side. If you haven't yet seen the film or read the source novel, then you don't know that the first two acts are pretty twisted themselves. The film's structure and narrative conceits keep us from seeing the true...
- 4/19/2016
- by Chris Feil
- FilmExperience
La Sapienza Kino Lorber Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten. Data-based on Rotten Tomatoes. Grade: B+ Director: Eugène Green Screenwriter: Eugène Green Cast: Fabrizio Rongione, Christelle Prot, Ludovico Succio, Arianna Nastro, Hervé Compagne, Sabine Ponte Screened at: Dolby88, NYC, 3/11/15 Opens: March 20, 2015 In Edward Albee’s play “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” George and Martha entertain a much younger couple, Nick and Honey. In discussing their merits and their appeal to women, George states “I have history on my side,” while Nick counters with “I have biology.” Reductive as this may be, a similar theme is on display in Eugène Green’s “La Sapienza,” or “Sapience.” Green, not well known [ Read More ]
The post La Sapienza Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post La Sapienza Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 3/16/2015
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Love can be a many splendid thing…both in triumph and sometimes in tragedy. The emphasis of this sentiment is mainly on the latter as tragedy can be defined in various degrees of despair. Consequently, we have endured all sorts of conflict between lovers in cinema throughout the history of frequenting the movies.
In You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling: Top Ten Tragic Lovers in the Movies we will look at a selection of films where the tragic circumstances have shaped the foundation of film lovers convincingly. The tragic overtones come in all varieties: marital discourse, criminal activity, fraud, addiction, etc. Granted that there are probably bigger and better choices for lovey-dovey antagonism that could be cited in You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling but hey…the outcome remains the same: hampered relationships that are creatively rooted in turmoil.
The spotlight of “lovers” are open to discussion in the realm of combative married couples,...
In You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling: Top Ten Tragic Lovers in the Movies we will look at a selection of films where the tragic circumstances have shaped the foundation of film lovers convincingly. The tragic overtones come in all varieties: marital discourse, criminal activity, fraud, addiction, etc. Granted that there are probably bigger and better choices for lovey-dovey antagonism that could be cited in You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling but hey…the outcome remains the same: hampered relationships that are creatively rooted in turmoil.
The spotlight of “lovers” are open to discussion in the realm of combative married couples,...
- 1/27/2015
- by Frank Ochieng
- SoundOnSight
10. Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
Directed by: Max Ophuls
To be honest, the relationship at the center of “Letter from an Unknown Woman” barely even exists. It’s more of a longing from one side than the other. But the ways Ophuls structures the film qualifies it for this list. For the run of the story, we hear a voiceover, explaining the moments in these two characters’ lives. Lisa (Joan Fontaine) is a teenager who becomes obsessed with a pianist who lives in her building named Stefan (Louis Jordan). She only meets him once, but maintains her love for him. After her mother announces they will be moving, Lisa runs away, but sees Stefan with another woman. Lisa becomes a respectable woman and is proposed to by a young, family-focused military officer, whom she turns down, still in love with Stefan, a man she has barely met. Years later, she...
Directed by: Max Ophuls
To be honest, the relationship at the center of “Letter from an Unknown Woman” barely even exists. It’s more of a longing from one side than the other. But the ways Ophuls structures the film qualifies it for this list. For the run of the story, we hear a voiceover, explaining the moments in these two characters’ lives. Lisa (Joan Fontaine) is a teenager who becomes obsessed with a pianist who lives in her building named Stefan (Louis Jordan). She only meets him once, but maintains her love for him. After her mother announces they will be moving, Lisa runs away, but sees Stefan with another woman. Lisa becomes a respectable woman and is proposed to by a young, family-focused military officer, whom she turns down, still in love with Stefan, a man she has barely met. Years later, she...
- 12/2/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
The theater might not have entertained such a party gone bad since George and Martha invited Nick and Honey over for drinks in “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Edward Albee's two married couples bare almost no resemblance to the very educated, upper middle-class professional couples in Ayad Akhtar's play “Disgraced,” which won a 2013 Pulitzer Prize for drama and opened Thursday at the Lyceum Theatre in New York. See photos: 9 of Elaine Stritch's Most Memorable Roles (Photos) First off, Akhtar's wives, Emily (Gretchen Mol) and Jory (Karen Pittman), have jobs. Make that professions. Emily is an painter specializing in Islamic art and.
- 10/24/2014
- by Robert Hofler
- The Wrap
David Fincher's pitch-black new thriller Gone Girl is, among many other things, a compelling two-and-a-half-hour argument for staying single.
As was the case in Gillian Flynn's bestselling novel, the central soured marriage between Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy (Rosamund Pike) only grows more unsettling the more you discover about both parties, the seemingly perfect veneer peeling back inch by inch to reveal festering dysfunction.
We can never get enough festering dysfunction over at Digital Spy, so here are seven more of the big screen's most shining examples of marital strife.
1. George and Martha (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
The crumbling couple that arguably inspired every other on this list. Edward Albee created the archetypal marriage in spectacular meltdown in his blistering 1962 play, and real-life sparring lovers Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor bring George and Martha vividly to life on the big screen.
Watching the central pair inventively tear...
As was the case in Gillian Flynn's bestselling novel, the central soured marriage between Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy (Rosamund Pike) only grows more unsettling the more you discover about both parties, the seemingly perfect veneer peeling back inch by inch to reveal festering dysfunction.
We can never get enough festering dysfunction over at Digital Spy, so here are seven more of the big screen's most shining examples of marital strife.
1. George and Martha (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
The crumbling couple that arguably inspired every other on this list. Edward Albee created the archetypal marriage in spectacular meltdown in his blistering 1962 play, and real-life sparring lovers Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor bring George and Martha vividly to life on the big screen.
Watching the central pair inventively tear...
- 10/4/2014
- Digital Spy
In 1973, William Friedkin directed The Exorcist and frightened a generation, creating a horror movie classic. Three years earlier, before The French Connection launched Friedkin onto the A-list, he directed The Boys in the Band, an adaptation of an off-Broadway play about a group of gay men at a birthday party. The Boys in the Band is at least as much a horror movie as The Exorcist. Instead of demonic possession, the terror comes from the characters’ palpable hatred for themselves and each other, thinly disguised as friendship. The villain is homosexuality itself and society’s reaction to it, which slowly turn these men into delusional, self-pitying, hateful monsters.
I’m really struggling to figure out what Friedkin and screenwriter (and the original playwright) Mart Crowley wanted audiences to feel about these characters. The only two emotions I can muster up are pity and disgust. Based on the play’s astonishing...
I’m really struggling to figure out what Friedkin and screenwriter (and the original playwright) Mart Crowley wanted audiences to feel about these characters. The only two emotions I can muster up are pity and disgust. Based on the play’s astonishing...
- 5/23/2014
- by Bryan Rucker
- SoundOnSight
Meant to Be Spent Alone: Michell’s Latest a Welcome Return to Quality Filmmaking
After a pair of mainstream Us misfires, South African born director Roger Michell returns to the UK for his latest film, Le Week-End, a portrait of a married heterosexual couple after thirty years of marriage that is as moving as it is engaging and astute. Enhanced by a pair of performances from a melancholy Jim Broadbent and an incredibly prickly yet gloriously acerbic Lindsay Duncan, Michell once again utilizes the strengths of screenwriter Hanif Kureishi and creates a visual journey out of what is, mostly, a sparring of contradictory wills through a series of well written dialogues. Though best known for his 1999 Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant starrer, Notting Hill, his latest ranks with his other top tier titles like The Mother and Venus.
Deciding to celebrate their 30th anniversary in Paris, university professor Nick (Broadbent) and...
After a pair of mainstream Us misfires, South African born director Roger Michell returns to the UK for his latest film, Le Week-End, a portrait of a married heterosexual couple after thirty years of marriage that is as moving as it is engaging and astute. Enhanced by a pair of performances from a melancholy Jim Broadbent and an incredibly prickly yet gloriously acerbic Lindsay Duncan, Michell once again utilizes the strengths of screenwriter Hanif Kureishi and creates a visual journey out of what is, mostly, a sparring of contradictory wills through a series of well written dialogues. Though best known for his 1999 Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant starrer, Notting Hill, his latest ranks with his other top tier titles like The Mother and Venus.
Deciding to celebrate their 30th anniversary in Paris, university professor Nick (Broadbent) and...
- 3/12/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m whipped into a cackling fugue state about the Oscars. I’m in love with the damn Oscars. In fact, I’m suspicious of people who don’t love the Oscars. And here we are with my favorite Oscar countdown to date: the 10 most fabulous Best Supporting Actress-winning performances. Keep in mind this isn’t the same thing as the 10 best Best Supporting Actress performances. I wrote that list years ago and declared Sandy Dennis, Patty Duke, Cloris Leachman, Meryl Streep, and Kim Hunter the supreme supporting ladies. My feelings have not changed. But it’s time to honor the fabulous performances, the supporting actresses who bring whizzbang, panache, sexual superiority, and fun to an occasionally dour category. Here are the 10 most fab winners of my favorite Oscar.
10. Anjelica Huston, Prizzi’s Honor
Is Prizzi’s Honor essential viewing? No. But Anjelica Huston’s thick,...
10. Anjelica Huston, Prizzi’s Honor
Is Prizzi’s Honor essential viewing? No. But Anjelica Huston’s thick,...
- 2/28/2014
- by Louis Virtel
- The Backlot
Neil Labute’s latest film, Some Velvet Morning, is a wild and sometimes shocking ride, starring Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) and Alice Eve (Star Trek Into Darkness), both in roles that twist and turn their way through the relationship drama. In the film, which was written and directed by Labute, Tucci plays a man who drops in unexpectedly on his former lover (Eve) after leaving his wife. The two are well-matched as they repartee their way through a gorgeous Park Slope brownstone, with a George and Martha from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf-type fierceness, minus the alcoholism.
- 12/15/2013
- by Laura Hertzfeld
- EW - Inside Movies
By Any Other Name: Patellerie & Delaporte’s Debut a Comfortably Forced Farce
Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patelliere’s co-directorial debut, What’s in a Name? is a comfortable, graciously performed adaptation of their hit, one-setting stage play about a volatile dinner party, and, in fact, has become one of the biggest blockbusters in the history of French film. Breezy, intellectual sparring that’s an equal mix of comedic timing and dark realizations amongst its five characters, the film manages to avoid feeling like a play on film, but its likeness to other, superior films dealing with similar familial unrest around the dinner table lends it a rather tired air, especially considering its insistence on easily attained resolution.
A mistaken pizza delivery brings us to the home of a professor, Pierre (Charles Berling) and Babu (Valerie Benguigui), his school teacher wife. She’s preparing a Moroccan cuisine for what...
Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patelliere’s co-directorial debut, What’s in a Name? is a comfortable, graciously performed adaptation of their hit, one-setting stage play about a volatile dinner party, and, in fact, has become one of the biggest blockbusters in the history of French film. Breezy, intellectual sparring that’s an equal mix of comedic timing and dark realizations amongst its five characters, the film manages to avoid feeling like a play on film, but its likeness to other, superior films dealing with similar familial unrest around the dinner table lends it a rather tired air, especially considering its insistence on easily attained resolution.
A mistaken pizza delivery brings us to the home of a professor, Pierre (Charles Berling) and Babu (Valerie Benguigui), his school teacher wife. She’s preparing a Moroccan cuisine for what...
- 12/14/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Marc Cherry, creator of "Devious Maids," which has it season finale Sunday (Sept. 22) shares with Zap2it how he dealt with the show's rough first weeks, why the maids are different from other TV help and how he knows some seriously self-absorbed actresses.
The over-the-top Lifetime soap, set in Beverly Hills, follows maids and their employers. Cherry bookended the series by setting the pilot and finale at black-tie parties, hosted by the richest of the employers, the Powells.
In the beginning, a maid was killed and in the finale, her killer will be revealed.
The 13 episodes featured intricate plots in each household, but the season's main point was to figure out who killed Flora. Cherry, who also created "Desperate Housewives," is already working on next season, but reflects on this one, which began in controversy.
Zap2it: The show stirred controversy before it aired because the maids are Latina. What...
The over-the-top Lifetime soap, set in Beverly Hills, follows maids and their employers. Cherry bookended the series by setting the pilot and finale at black-tie parties, hosted by the richest of the employers, the Powells.
In the beginning, a maid was killed and in the finale, her killer will be revealed.
The 13 episodes featured intricate plots in each household, but the season's main point was to figure out who killed Flora. Cherry, who also created "Desperate Housewives," is already working on next season, but reflects on this one, which began in controversy.
Zap2it: The show stirred controversy before it aired because the maids are Latina. What...
- 9/22/2013
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
What a Dump! – Albelo’s Feature Witty Debut Anything But a Flop
Already amassing an impressive reputation with her short films and a pair of documentaries about gay life in Havana, you can add the adjective ‘charming’ to a long list of descriptors for Cuban-American director Anna Margarita Albelo with her feature film debut, Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf? Basically, a film about filmmaking, Albelo deftly transcends the possibly pretentious trappings of that behemoth Edward Albee/Mike Nichols production it’s so seriously in conversation with and blossoms into a witty, if sometimes formulaic narrative all its own. Apparently utilizing some autobiographical elements for inspiration, Albelo is clearly an exciting, endearing, and comic talent, and her delightful homage would make Eve Ensler and Virginia Woolf proud.
Opening with a Woolf quote, “For beyond the difficulty of communicating oneself there is the supreme difficulty of being oneself,” we meet Anna...
Already amassing an impressive reputation with her short films and a pair of documentaries about gay life in Havana, you can add the adjective ‘charming’ to a long list of descriptors for Cuban-American director Anna Margarita Albelo with her feature film debut, Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf? Basically, a film about filmmaking, Albelo deftly transcends the possibly pretentious trappings of that behemoth Edward Albee/Mike Nichols production it’s so seriously in conversation with and blossoms into a witty, if sometimes formulaic narrative all its own. Apparently utilizing some autobiographical elements for inspiration, Albelo is clearly an exciting, endearing, and comic talent, and her delightful homage would make Eve Ensler and Virginia Woolf proud.
Opening with a Woolf quote, “For beyond the difficulty of communicating oneself there is the supreme difficulty of being oneself,” we meet Anna...
- 7/9/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
With Cannes screening Cleopatra (marking its 50th anniversary) two nights ago and yesterday’s re-release screenings at 75 theaters countrywide, we’re feeling the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton love. The twice-divorced, Vatican-condemned couple continues to capture the public’s imagination and interest. In the past three years, we’ve seen Sam Kashner’s Furious Love and Richard Burton’s diaries become bestsellers, Liz & Dick being the most notable thing in Lifetime’s line-up, and John le Carré writing in The New Yorker just last month about working with Burton on The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and those are just a few things that spring to mind. Although their film collaborations have gotten a bit of a bum-rap over the years (somewhat deservedly), here are five Taylor-Burton films that we think are worth watching, out of the eleven that they made together. Feel free to share your own...
- 5/23/2013
- by Diana Drumm
- SoundOnSight
May Flowers blooming daily in the afternoons…
Andrew here to start things off. It only makes sense that the melancholic showers of Anna Karenina and The Truman Show would give root to the gloomy blossoms which open May Flowers this year. Connotatively you’d expect flowers to be a symbol of good things – life, hope, colour. But, not so in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. In Nichols’ adaptation of Edward Albee’s play it’s just another thing in a long line of objects which sparring couple George and Martha use to play games. Who cares about the danger of confusing truth and illusion when there are so many games to play?
Here George comes to deliver our bouquet...
Andrew here to start things off. It only makes sense that the melancholic showers of Anna Karenina and The Truman Show would give root to the gloomy blossoms which open May Flowers this year. Connotatively you’d expect flowers to be a symbol of good things – life, hope, colour. But, not so in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. In Nichols’ adaptation of Edward Albee’s play it’s just another thing in a long line of objects which sparring couple George and Martha use to play games. Who cares about the danger of confusing truth and illusion when there are so many games to play?
Here George comes to deliver our bouquet...
- 5/8/2013
- by Andrew Kendall
- FilmExperience
Bates Motel is an interesting idea for a series (and frankly, so is The Carrie Diaries), but like Carrie Bradshaw I have to wonder: Have we nailed the art of the movie prequel TV series yet? I think it remains to be seen.
Today, in honor of A&E's new show about Norman Bates' bizarre past, I say we examine eight movies that could inspire fabulous prequel series. I snuck in two ideas for other Hitchcock prequels in case that's an easy sell right now. Grab your most hideous bridesmaid gown and suggest your options for prequel-worthy movies below.
1. Fatal Attraction
Face it: Alex Forrest should be one of the most interesting characters of the '80s, but because Fatal Attraction corners her into being a two-dimensional psychotic loon, she's never quite as humanized as she should be (despite Glenn Close's exceptional performance). A prequel series would rectify this...
Today, in honor of A&E's new show about Norman Bates' bizarre past, I say we examine eight movies that could inspire fabulous prequel series. I snuck in two ideas for other Hitchcock prequels in case that's an easy sell right now. Grab your most hideous bridesmaid gown and suggest your options for prequel-worthy movies below.
1. Fatal Attraction
Face it: Alex Forrest should be one of the most interesting characters of the '80s, but because Fatal Attraction corners her into being a two-dimensional psychotic loon, she's never quite as humanized as she should be (despite Glenn Close's exceptional performance). A prequel series would rectify this...
- 3/25/2013
- by virtel
- The Backlot
On Tuesday, January 22nd Jay O. Sanders and Mariann Plunkett visited the home of George and Martha. They're pictured below with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf's Tracy Letts and Amy Morton. And today backstage before the show, the cast and crew celebrated the birthday of Honey, Carrie Coon. In the photo below, Carrie is ready to make the first slice in a Triple Layer Death by Chocolate cake covered in chocolate ganache.
- 1/25/2013
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Bring Me the Head of Virginia Wolff: Mirvish Scores With Acidic Marital Strifer
Director Dan Mirvish, co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival (and perhaps more notoriously, co-founder of the Martin Eisendtadt hoax during the 2008 Presidential elections) has adapted Joe Hortua’s Off-Broadway play Between Us for mostly positive results, featuring four biting performances from an impressively assembled ensemble. A sort of modern day Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? infused examination of the inherent love/hatred backgammon of two people spending their lives together, Hortua/Mirvish don’t quite hit the drastic highs and lows of Albee/Nichols’ boozehounds George and Martha who used liquor as truth serum, but they still manage to create a harshly observed juxtaposition of two marriages, where the best of times and worst of times, if not interchangeable, are always in flux.
Split between New York City and a vaguely defined location in the expansive Midwest,...
Director Dan Mirvish, co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival (and perhaps more notoriously, co-founder of the Martin Eisendtadt hoax during the 2008 Presidential elections) has adapted Joe Hortua’s Off-Broadway play Between Us for mostly positive results, featuring four biting performances from an impressively assembled ensemble. A sort of modern day Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? infused examination of the inherent love/hatred backgammon of two people spending their lives together, Hortua/Mirvish don’t quite hit the drastic highs and lows of Albee/Nichols’ boozehounds George and Martha who used liquor as truth serum, but they still manage to create a harshly observed juxtaposition of two marriages, where the best of times and worst of times, if not interchangeable, are always in flux.
Split between New York City and a vaguely defined location in the expansive Midwest,...
- 1/21/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Forces of Nurture: Savelson’s Debut an Understated Ensemble of Well Tread Angst
For his feature film debut, Brian Savelson has acquired an impressive four person ensemble that examines everything from parent and child relationships, round two families, and even a nod to Chekov with some estate squabbles. There’s a definite sense, that only deepens as In Our Nature reaches its last lap, that this is familiar territory, a quartet of characters constantly undermining or over compensating in their surroundings as they navigate the miasma of the dysfunctional family discourse. While this doesn’t detract from Savelson’s well-written scenario, per se, there are several moments where we get lost in really caring how or why any of these people will ever resolve their personal issues.
Leaving behind Brooklyn for the weekend, aspiring chef Seth (Zach Gilford) takes longtime girlfriend Andie (Jena Malone) to his father’s cabin, which...
For his feature film debut, Brian Savelson has acquired an impressive four person ensemble that examines everything from parent and child relationships, round two families, and even a nod to Chekov with some estate squabbles. There’s a definite sense, that only deepens as In Our Nature reaches its last lap, that this is familiar territory, a quartet of characters constantly undermining or over compensating in their surroundings as they navigate the miasma of the dysfunctional family discourse. While this doesn’t detract from Savelson’s well-written scenario, per se, there are several moments where we get lost in really caring how or why any of these people will ever resolve their personal issues.
Leaving behind Brooklyn for the weekend, aspiring chef Seth (Zach Gilford) takes longtime girlfriend Andie (Jena Malone) to his father’s cabin, which...
- 12/5/2012
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Below is our transcript from last night's liveblog. Relive the White Diamonds of train wrecks!
*Note - Feel free to participate in the Liz & Dick drinking game. Every time I use the word "Howler," ... down a shot!
We start with "Based On A True Story." Hmm ... wasn't The Texas Chainsaw Massacre also "Based On a True Story?" I have a feeling this is going to be even more brutal
Speaking of Leatherface, we get our first glimpse of Lindsay Lohan as "Elizabeth Taylor," as she sits by a pool, as the voice of "Richard Burton," (played by True Blood's Cooter) speaks on the soundtrack about the first time he met her. Cooter looks nothing like Richard Burton, but the makeup people have done a stunning job of making him look like ... a bad botox victim.
So this flashback leads to ... another flashback ... of the last day of Richard Burton's life,...
*Note - Feel free to participate in the Liz & Dick drinking game. Every time I use the word "Howler," ... down a shot!
We start with "Based On A True Story." Hmm ... wasn't The Texas Chainsaw Massacre also "Based On a True Story?" I have a feeling this is going to be even more brutal
Speaking of Leatherface, we get our first glimpse of Lindsay Lohan as "Elizabeth Taylor," as she sits by a pool, as the voice of "Richard Burton," (played by True Blood's Cooter) speaks on the soundtrack about the first time he met her. Cooter looks nothing like Richard Burton, but the makeup people have done a stunning job of making him look like ... a bad botox victim.
So this flashback leads to ... another flashback ... of the last day of Richard Burton's life,...
- 11/25/2012
- by snicks
- The Backlot
Producers of Edward Albees Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which began performances today, September 27, 2012, at the Booth Theatre 222 West 45th Street, have announced that tonight, November 15, they will bring a group of marriage counselors and therapists in to see the production. Following the performance there will be a short talkback with members of the cast, director Pam MacKinnon and Jean Petrucelli, Ph.D., a well-known clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. Dr. Petrucelli will discuss the many complex issues the play raises about marriage and relationships and why George and Martha, despite being a couple of the early 60s, still resonate with audiences today.
- 11/15/2012
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Producers of Edward Albees Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which began performances on Thursday, September 27, 2012, at the Booth Theatre 222 West 45th Street, have announced that on Thursday, November 15, they will bring a group of marriage counselors and therapists in to see the production. Following the performance there will be a short talkback with members of the cast, director Pam MacKinnon and Jean Petrucelli, Ph.D., a well-known clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. Dr. Petrucelli will discuss the many complex issues the play raises about marriage and relationships and why George and Martha, despite being a couple of the early 60s, still resonate with audiences today.
- 11/12/2012
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Like the bloodstained tooth of a feral hound, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? glistens with primal and terrifying beauty. Arguably one of best plays written, from one of America's greatest playwrights, Edward Albee's masterpiece is given its gruesome due in the Steppenwolf revival currently running at The Booth.
Tracy Letts (author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning August: Osage County) gives a well-paced performance as George, starting with a ridged, almost stilted quality that gradually loosens with the liquor, yet never completely exposing his inner workings from behind the bulwarks of the impenetrable and calculating war machine that is his nature.
His presence is relaxed and controlled, almost too much so for some of the stage combat and bursts of violence, but magnificently seething as he plays with his prey and plots with his predatory intellect. Letts strikes with precision and timing, mulling over his next move when not in action...
Tracy Letts (author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning August: Osage County) gives a well-paced performance as George, starting with a ridged, almost stilted quality that gradually loosens with the liquor, yet never completely exposing his inner workings from behind the bulwarks of the impenetrable and calculating war machine that is his nature.
His presence is relaxed and controlled, almost too much so for some of the stage combat and bursts of violence, but magnificently seething as he plays with his prey and plots with his predatory intellect. Letts strikes with precision and timing, mulling over his next move when not in action...
- 11/8/2012
- by C. Jefferson Thom
- www.culturecatch.com
My birthday is this Saturday, so I thought we'd celebrate with a little get-together. A soiree for just the four of us. A little brandy. Conversation about the college. Games. Laughter. Screaming. Vomiting. Psychological warfare. Ruining you and throwing you in the toilet and murmuring into your ear about what a miserable flop you've become. Then more drinking. Then horrified silence. Then more.
Congrats and condolences, because you're dropping in on one of my favorite movies and my personal national anthem, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, this week's candidate for "Best Movie Ever?" Bizarre secret: I often keep this movie in my computer's DVD player while I'm writing, because nothing propels my creative juices like Elizabeth Taylor's bellowing and Richard Burton's deadpanned despair. It's my Powerade. Liz and Dick shoot the electrolytes right into my skull. Forty-five years after Virginia Woolf's sensational release (and fifty after the debut...
Congrats and condolences, because you're dropping in on one of my favorite movies and my personal national anthem, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, this week's candidate for "Best Movie Ever?" Bizarre secret: I often keep this movie in my computer's DVD player while I'm writing, because nothing propels my creative juices like Elizabeth Taylor's bellowing and Richard Burton's deadpanned despair. It's my Powerade. Liz and Dick shoot the electrolytes right into my skull. Forty-five years after Virginia Woolf's sensational release (and fifty after the debut...
- 7/31/2012
- by virtel
- The Backlot
After doing the rounds on VoD for a few weeks, where many of you will have seen it, Sarah Polley's "Take This Waltz" starts to roll out in theaters from tomorrow, and we can't recommend it enough; it's a messy, sometimes frustrating film, but a deeply felt, beautifully made and wonderfully acted one, and we named it last week as one of the best of the year so far. It is not, however, recommended as a date movie, fitting into a long cinematic tradition of painful examinations of broken, decaying, collapsing or dead relationships.
After all, it's one of the more universal human experiences; unless you get very lucky, everyone who falls in love will at some point have the wrenching experience of falling out of it, or being fallen out of love with. And when done best in film, it can be bruising and borderline torturous for a filmmaker and an audience,...
After all, it's one of the more universal human experiences; unless you get very lucky, everyone who falls in love will at some point have the wrenching experience of falling out of it, or being fallen out of love with. And when done best in film, it can be bruising and borderline torturous for a filmmaker and an audience,...
- 6/28/2012
- by The Playlist Staff
- The Playlist
New York -- The battling couple George and Martha have found a home on Broadway.
Producers of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" said Wednesday they've secured the Booth Theatre for the run.
Previews begin Sept. 27 with an opening set for Oct. 13, exactly 50 years to the day after the play's original Broadway opening in 1962. Tracy Letts and Amy Morton will star.
The production originally ran at Steppenwolf in Chicago from December 2010 to February 2011 and then transferred to Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., from February to April this year. It is directed by Pam MacKinnon.
Producers of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" said Wednesday they've secured the Booth Theatre for the run.
Previews begin Sept. 27 with an opening set for Oct. 13, exactly 50 years to the day after the play's original Broadway opening in 1962. Tracy Letts and Amy Morton will star.
The production originally ran at Steppenwolf in Chicago from December 2010 to February 2011 and then transferred to Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., from February to April this year. It is directed by Pam MacKinnon.
- 6/13/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
The world is a little less now wild as Maurice Sendak, the author of 'Where the Wild Things Are,' has died aged 83.
He wrote some 17 books and was a prolific illustrator, but was best-known for his 1963 tale of Max, who became the "king of all wild things". He lived to see Spike Jonze make the live action adaption of the film in 2009. There have also been several other adaptations including an animated short in 1973 and an opera in 1980.
Born in 1928 and raised in Brooklyn by Jewish-Polish immigrant parents, Sendak said his own life had been clouded by the Holocaust and that the events of World War II were the root of his raw and honest artistic style. His childhood dream to be an illustrator was realised in 1951 when he was commissioned to do the art for Wonderful Farm by Marcel Ayme and by 1957 he was writing his own books.
He wrote some 17 books and was a prolific illustrator, but was best-known for his 1963 tale of Max, who became the "king of all wild things". He lived to see Spike Jonze make the live action adaption of the film in 2009. There have also been several other adaptations including an animated short in 1973 and an opera in 1980.
Born in 1928 and raised in Brooklyn by Jewish-Polish immigrant parents, Sendak said his own life had been clouded by the Holocaust and that the events of World War II were the root of his raw and honest artistic style. His childhood dream to be an illustrator was realised in 1951 when he was commissioned to do the art for Wonderful Farm by Marcel Ayme and by 1957 he was writing his own books.
- 5/8/2012
- by noreply@blogger.com (Flicks News)
- FlicksNews.net
Maurice Sendak, author of Where The Wild Things Are, died today after suffering a stroke Friday. He was 83. Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are was awarded a Caldecott Medal for best children’s book of 1964, and President Clinton awarded him the National Medal of the Arts in 1996. As well as his work as a writer and illustrator, Sendak was a television producer of series based on his work, such as Seven Little Monsters, George And Martha and Little Bear. Spike Jonze made Where The Wild Things Are into a feature film in 2009; Sendak was a producer on the film. The author was also the subject of the documentary Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait Of Maurice Sendak, directed by Jonze and Lance Bangs. (Photo: Getty Images)...
- 5/8/2012
- by DOMINIC PATTEN
- Deadline TV
Maurice Sendak is dead, according to The New York Times. He was 83.
The Associated Press reported that Sendak died early Tuesday at a hospital in Danbury, Connecticut after having a stroke on Friday. His longtime caretaker and friend, Lynn Caponera, was with him.
The popular children's book author wrote "Where The Wild Things Are" in 1963. He won a Caldecott Medal for the book in 1964, and was adapted into a movie in 2009.
According to The New York Times, a posthumous picture book, "My Brother's Book," is scheduled to be published in February 2013.
Here's more from the Associated Press:
Sendak didn't limit his career to a safe and successful formula of conventional children's books, though it was the pictures he did for wholesome works such as Ruth Krauss' "A Hole Is To Dig" and Else Holmelund Minarik's "Little Bear" that launched his career.
"Where the Wild Things Are," about a boy...
The Associated Press reported that Sendak died early Tuesday at a hospital in Danbury, Connecticut after having a stroke on Friday. His longtime caretaker and friend, Lynn Caponera, was with him.
The popular children's book author wrote "Where The Wild Things Are" in 1963. He won a Caldecott Medal for the book in 1964, and was adapted into a movie in 2009.
According to The New York Times, a posthumous picture book, "My Brother's Book," is scheduled to be published in February 2013.
Here's more from the Associated Press:
Sendak didn't limit his career to a safe and successful formula of conventional children's books, though it was the pictures he did for wholesome works such as Ruth Krauss' "A Hole Is To Dig" and Else Holmelund Minarik's "Little Bear" that launched his career.
"Where the Wild Things Are," about a boy...
- 5/8/2012
- by Andrew Losowsky
- Huffington Post
Were she alive, Elizabeth Taylor would have celebrated her 80th birthday today. Instead, she got a fitting send-off as the finale of the "In Memoriam" montage at the 84th annual Academy Awards. When she died last March, she was one of the last of the goddesses of Hollywood's golden age, but it's clear from Sunday night that interest and affection for her have not dimmed. To younger viewers, she may have been more famous for being famous than for her movie career, which peaked more than 40 years ago. But she became famous in the first place because she had the goods, as one of the most beautiful and talented actresses in film history. To mark her 80th birthday, Moviefone is celebrating with a list ranking her 10 best screen performances. If you've seen them, these are still movie moments that haven't lost their power to dazzle; if you haven't, check them...
- 2/27/2012
- by Gary Susman
- Moviefone
Roman Polanski's claustrophobic comedy brilliantly unpicks the veneers of middle-class politeness
In 1996, I wasted an evening (actually an hour in the theatre and a journey into the West End) seeing Art, Yasmina Reza's vapid play about three French friends arguing over the aesthetic merits of a blank canvas one of them has bought. So I didn't bother with her much vaunted God of Carnage when it opened here and around the world three years ago to the masochistic amusement of enthusiastic middle-class audiences, apparently pleased to see themselves and their friends in a corridor of distorting mirrors.
The prospect of seeing yet another exposé of bourgeois hypocrisy reminded me of a 1950s New Yorker cartoon in which a bland, middle-aged hostess is presenting a bearded, long-haired young man in jeans to a tweedy, middle-aged guest, who's saying: "No, madam, I do not want to meet a spokesman for the Beat Generation.
In 1996, I wasted an evening (actually an hour in the theatre and a journey into the West End) seeing Art, Yasmina Reza's vapid play about three French friends arguing over the aesthetic merits of a blank canvas one of them has bought. So I didn't bother with her much vaunted God of Carnage when it opened here and around the world three years ago to the masochistic amusement of enthusiastic middle-class audiences, apparently pleased to see themselves and their friends in a corridor of distorting mirrors.
The prospect of seeing yet another exposé of bourgeois hypocrisy reminded me of a 1950s New Yorker cartoon in which a bland, middle-aged hostess is presenting a bearded, long-haired young man in jeans to a tweedy, middle-aged guest, who's saying: "No, madam, I do not want to meet a spokesman for the Beat Generation.
- 2/5/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Robert here with my series Distant Relatives, which explores the connections between one classic and one contemporary film.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Blue Valentine explore the same territory but come at it from entirely different angles. Woolf is deliberately theatrical, full of delightfully big performances, long monologues, and crescendoing clashes. Everything that's wrong with George and Martha's relationship gets said and said again. Blue Valentine is insistently realistic, filled with small moments and quiet regrets. All that's wrong with Dean and Cindy's relationship is encompassed by things gone unsaid. Ultimately though, both are marriages on the brink of collapse, a subject covered many times since the invention of film, or the narrative story itself. What makes Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Blue Valentine interesting companion pieces is that both juxtapose a middle-aged couple with a young couple.
A Tale of Four Couples
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,...
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Blue Valentine explore the same territory but come at it from entirely different angles. Woolf is deliberately theatrical, full of delightfully big performances, long monologues, and crescendoing clashes. Everything that's wrong with George and Martha's relationship gets said and said again. Blue Valentine is insistently realistic, filled with small moments and quiet regrets. All that's wrong with Dean and Cindy's relationship is encompassed by things gone unsaid. Ultimately though, both are marriages on the brink of collapse, a subject covered many times since the invention of film, or the narrative story itself. What makes Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Blue Valentine interesting companion pieces is that both juxtapose a middle-aged couple with a young couple.
A Tale of Four Couples
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,...
- 10/6/2011
- by Robert
- FilmExperience
As I was watching this, the fifth of ten episodes of this show, it occurred to me what Game of Thrones’ problem is: it always seems like it’s building up to something that never quite comes. It’s a little like a soap opera or a newspaper serial in that sense, where the point isn’t really to ever resolve anything, just to get you to keep watching.
I think that once you accept that the plot isn’t really the point of this thing, that it’s basically just all about the intrigue and atmosphere, it’s a lot easier to enjoy.
As for this episode, “The Wolf and the Lion,” it opens with King Robert and his new hand Boromir already sniping at each other, which is a pretty good indication of where this episode is going – and also not a bad dramatization of the first 24 hours...
I think that once you accept that the plot isn’t really the point of this thing, that it’s basically just all about the intrigue and atmosphere, it’s a lot easier to enjoy.
As for this episode, “The Wolf and the Lion,” it opens with King Robert and his new hand Boromir already sniping at each other, which is a pretty good indication of where this episode is going – and also not a bad dramatization of the first 24 hours...
- 5/16/2011
- by Brent Hartinger
- The Backlot
Sheffield Crucible
The effect of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor slicing one another with lines as sharp as flensing knives in the 1966 film version of Edward Albee's 1962 play is still emotion-scouringly vivid. (Taylor, who died last week, won an Oscar for her performance.) Their coruscating exchanges seemed set to define the middle-aged, warring, married couple, George and Martha - whose names, borrowed from President Washington and his wife, signal their function as emblems of the ruin of the American dream.
Sian Thomas and Jasper Britton, though, seize the parts for their own in this Northern Stage and Sheffield theatres co-production. Thomas's Martha, part praying mantis, part puppet, jerks around the stage as if impelled by forces trying to rip free from her control – despair, grief and rage. Britton's George is a perfect foil – an oxymoronic worm with a backbone. John Hopkins and Lorna Beckett shine as the initially pure-seeming but morally putrid younger couple.
The effect of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor slicing one another with lines as sharp as flensing knives in the 1966 film version of Edward Albee's 1962 play is still emotion-scouringly vivid. (Taylor, who died last week, won an Oscar for her performance.) Their coruscating exchanges seemed set to define the middle-aged, warring, married couple, George and Martha - whose names, borrowed from President Washington and his wife, signal their function as emblems of the ruin of the American dream.
Sian Thomas and Jasper Britton, though, seize the parts for their own in this Northern Stage and Sheffield theatres co-production. Thomas's Martha, part praying mantis, part puppet, jerks around the stage as if impelled by forces trying to rip free from her control – despair, grief and rage. Britton's George is a perfect foil – an oxymoronic worm with a backbone. John Hopkins and Lorna Beckett shine as the initially pure-seeming but morally putrid younger couple.
- 3/27/2011
- by Clare Brennan
- The Guardian - Film News
The actor Elizabeth Taylor has died aged 79. Here we look back over her work, from early roles in National Velvet and Little Women to her defining appearances opposite Richard Burton
News: Elizabeth Taylor dies at 79
Gallery: A career in pictures
It's difficult to think of a better argument for the separate-but-equal value of the terms "actor" and "film star" than the career of Elizabeth Taylor. If that reads as a slight on her ability, it shouldn't. Taylor was a sporadically marvellous performer, one who rarely superseded her director or material but who could, with those factors working in her favour, surpass some of her more gifted peers' capacity for reckless emotional danger.
She was the rare actor who was as interesting on a bad day as on a good one, and not just for her mesmeric physical beauty: like any great film star, she was as compelled by her own screen presence as we were,...
News: Elizabeth Taylor dies at 79
Gallery: A career in pictures
It's difficult to think of a better argument for the separate-but-equal value of the terms "actor" and "film star" than the career of Elizabeth Taylor. If that reads as a slight on her ability, it shouldn't. Taylor was a sporadically marvellous performer, one who rarely superseded her director or material but who could, with those factors working in her favour, surpass some of her more gifted peers' capacity for reckless emotional danger.
She was the rare actor who was as interesting on a bad day as on a good one, and not just for her mesmeric physical beauty: like any great film star, she was as compelled by her own screen presence as we were,...
- 3/23/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
Considering the constant rumors about Justin Timberlake banging everyone from Olivia Munn to Rihanna, you’d be forgiven for assuming his raging libido was the reason for his recent split with long-suffering/boring girlfriend Jessica Biel—Us Magazine sure does, claiming Jt has tried to drop Jessica for years. However, the saints at People deny Justin cheated—and it wasn’t a matter of commitment either! “She wasn’t even thinking about marriage,” says their source. “That didn’t play a part in their breakup at all.” So what did? Here are 7 theories that People might be more comfortable with:
Justin’s refusal to sleep with Munn, Rihanna and Mila Kunis—plus hundreds if not thousands of willing unknowns—was starting to creep Jessica out. As a favor to his desperate fanbase, Jessica decided to give Justin inspiration for a new album. Justin was pretty sick of having to see every Jessica Biel movie.
Justin’s refusal to sleep with Munn, Rihanna and Mila Kunis—plus hundreds if not thousands of willing unknowns—was starting to creep Jessica out. As a favor to his desperate fanbase, Jessica decided to give Justin inspiration for a new album. Justin was pretty sick of having to see every Jessica Biel movie.
- 3/16/2011
- by Anthony Miccio
- TheFabLife - Movies
The Book of Eli has arrived on Blu-ray and it’s ready to deliver us. It got mediocre reviews when it was in theaters as the film was criticized for its preachy nature, uneven plot twist and lack of action. Now that the film is on Blu-ray we get to take another look at it. The question is, does The Book of Eli manage to entertain, or does it fall off the path and lose its way?
The Book of Eli is the 2010 action film directed by Albert and Allen Hughes (From Hell, Menace II Society). The film is actually more a hybrid of various genres. It has elements of the action, drama, western, adventure and thriller. The film takes place in a post-apocalyptic world that was ravaged by nuclear war. It tells the tale of one man, Eli (Denzel Washington) who is a lone wanderer across the desolate wastelands...
The Book of Eli is the 2010 action film directed by Albert and Allen Hughes (From Hell, Menace II Society). The film is actually more a hybrid of various genres. It has elements of the action, drama, western, adventure and thriller. The film takes place in a post-apocalyptic world that was ravaged by nuclear war. It tells the tale of one man, Eli (Denzel Washington) who is a lone wanderer across the desolate wastelands...
- 6/15/2010
- by Matthew Tyler
- The Film Stage
The Book of Eli reminds me of a funeral sermon delivered by a priest too young to be confident to go off the good book. As he quotes scripture, he'll find himself wandering and relating personal anecdotes, which are amusing and touching and make the parishoners chuckle. Uncomfortable, the priest will get deadly serious and lunge back into the stolid recital of the Bible verses as writ, forgetting that it's the personal word that makes us believe and heal. The Hughes Brothers have never found a comfort zone with their projects -- creating something that's always stylistic and entertaining at moments, but then getting mired in a message. It's a thoughtful and interesting script by Gary Whitta, and it benefits from the Hughes Brothers' careful consideration for detail, but it's bogged down by too much heavy-handed preaching. It was easier to believe in the good book when we weren't being...
- 1/15/2010
- by Brian Prisco
If you were entertained by the way George and Martha trashed Nick and Honey in Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," or even better if you were turned on to the revenge exacted by Hayley Stark against would-be rapist Jeff Kohlver in David Slade's "Hard Candy," then this is the picture for you.
Image Entertainment
Grade: C
Directed by: Malcolm Venville
Written By: Louis Mellis, David Scinto
Cast: Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Dillane, Joanne Whalley, Melvil Poupaud, Steven Berkoff
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 1/6/10
Opens: January 29, 2010
No way is "44 Inch Chest," a stagy work written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto, as literate as the Albee play which was adapted into a similarly stagy movie by Mike Nichols. In fact despite the claim in the production notes that this new film is Shakespearean, this exhibition of elemental machismo is not only claustrophobic, but...
Image Entertainment
Grade: C
Directed by: Malcolm Venville
Written By: Louis Mellis, David Scinto
Cast: Ray Winstone, Ian McShane, John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Dillane, Joanne Whalley, Melvil Poupaud, Steven Berkoff
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 1/6/10
Opens: January 29, 2010
No way is "44 Inch Chest," a stagy work written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto, as literate as the Albee play which was adapted into a similarly stagy movie by Mike Nichols. In fact despite the claim in the production notes that this new film is Shakespearean, this exhibition of elemental machismo is not only claustrophobic, but...
- 1/8/2010
- Arizona Reporter
There are many things in this world that I find truly baffling. Why are we destroying our marine habitats so that rich Japanese restaurants can sell expensive soup? Why do we demand that politicians solve all our problems for us, while secretly willing them to fail? Why do we keep expecting Guy Ritchie to make another good film? But perhaps the most baffling of all is the fact that Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf? has never been released on DVD in Britain. It is perhaps the finest filmic adaptation of a stage play ever rendered on celluloid. But only American audiences are able to enjoy it in the comfort of their own homes. Adaptations of plays can often be morbidly dull. They rely on the same visceral energy and tension that works so well in a theatre but is almost impossible to transfer onto a video recording that will be...
- 8/21/2009
- by Nicholas Deigman
- t5m.com
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