Week of « Prev | Next »
1-20 of 49 items « Prev | Next »
Jackie: behind the creation of JFK, America's once and future king
15 hours ago
He was a playboy with links to the mob; so why is John F Kennedy remembered as the perfect president? New film Jackie may have the answer. We explore the movies’ latest return to Camelot
The unmissable films of 2017
On 29 November 1963, a Life magazine journalist named Theodore White sat down to interview the newly widowed Jackie Kennedy. Inside the family compound at Hyannis, she spun him a tale of beauty and horror, contrasting grisly details of her husband’s murder (“I could see a piece of his skull coming off; it was flesh-coloured, not white”) with the golden years that went before. Jack Kennedy, she recalled, had loved the Broadway musical Camelot. He had a habit of playing the title song on the Victrola at night. “There will be great presidents again,” she said by way of conclusion. “But there will never be another Camelot.”
Life magazine had a circulation »
- Xan Brooks
Forty films to kick off 2017 in UK cinemas
20 hours ago
Matt Damon scales The Great Wall, Fifty Shades turns Darker, and we reacquaint ourselves with 20th Century Women … plus Lego Batman, King Arthur and a cyborg Scarlett Johansson
Unmissable Theatre | Pop | Art | Television | Games
This is a satirical story directed by Ang Lee, starring Joe Alwyn and Kristen Stewart, about war and jingoism on the home front. It could be inspired by Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers. Billy Lynn is a Us soldier whose company survives a brutal battle in Iraq to find the TV news media has turned them into stars. They are taken on an official promo tour of the Us that includes a halftime show at a Dallas football game, which triggers agonising flashbacks.
• 10 January.
Continue reading »
- Peter Bradshaw and Andrew Pulver
Remarkable tenderness: film reveals bond between Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher
6 January 2017 11:27 AM, PST
Fisher’s mother dragged her on stage, fell out with her, lived next door and even offered to oversee her lose her virginity. This was no ordinary mother/daughter relationship
There are few relationships so complex, tumultuous and unbreakable as that between a mother and daughter. But what about a mother who sweeps her child up in the world of showbiz, drags her on stage as a reluctant teenager and offers to oversee her losing her virginity, and give tips?
Related: Bright Lights: trailer for Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher documentary released
Continue reading »
- Hannah Ellis-Petersen
Arthouse films and tales beautifully told | Letters
6 January 2017 11:08 AM, PST
Catherine Shoard (Sex, suicide, torture: is arthouse really so sophisticated?, 5 January) takes a very select view of arthouse films amid her confusing lambasting of fireworks. Chichester Cinema at New Park has recently programmed Embrace of the Serpent, a Mark Kermode 2016 favourite from Colombia, Paths of the Soul, a Tibetan masterpiece and Bridge, an Indian film, a first for its child psychiatrist director, and another tale beautifully told. Sure, there is a would-be suicide in the latter but, in common with all good films that may contain the vexed subjects Catherine decides to take on, it’s how it’s done. And, no, fireworks are not boring as she states. Reach for your inner childlike wonderment, Catherine – and avoid combining two highly disparate subjects.
Carol Godsmark
Chichester, West Sussex
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
Continue reading »
- Letters
Ralph Fiennes and Hugh Laurie join Will Ferrell's Holmes and Watson
6 January 2017 10:15 AM, PST
The actors are to play as-yet-unspecified canonical roles in the comedy, which features Ferrell and John C Reilly in the leads
The mystery surrounding Sony’s comedy take on Sherlock Holmes thickened yet further today with the news that Hugh Laurie and Ralph Fiennes have joined the cast.
The film – which has nothing to do with the Guy Ritchie reboots starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, or the BBC series with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman – is scheduled for release next year and is currently shooting in London.
Continue reading »
- Catherine Shoard
UK box office records its biggest-ever total in 2016
6 January 2017 10:10 AM, PST
Buoyed by success of Rogue One and Fantastic Beasts, UK cinemas beat the previous best figures from the year before
The cinema box office in the UK and Ireland achieved its best-ever results, amassing £1.32bn to beat the previous record set in 2015.
According to figures released by the box-office tracker comScore, the total for 2016 was 1.45% higher than the previous year, which finished at £1.31bn. With several strong performers in 2015, including Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Spectre, 2016 was not expected to match its results, but attendances appear to have held up.
Continue reading »
- Andrew Pulver
Letter: John Berger was generous with his knowledge
6 January 2017 9:18 AM, PST
In 1972, while a student at the London Film School, I directed, with a team of other students, a film based on John Berger’s book A Fortunate Man, for the British Film Institute. Being young and inexperienced, I was extremely nervous about asking John if we could use his book as a basis for a film, knowing how publishers and agents guard their intellectual property. But with just one phone call to John everything was agreed. He maintained that the ideas contained within the book were, in his words, “open to all”.
That was typical of Berger, a generous and open-minded man who encouraged young people to make the most of their opportunities.
Continue reading »
- Jeff Perks
Live By Night review: Ben Affleck's mob drama is nearly kiss of death
6 January 2017 8:56 AM, PST
Narcissism dogs Affleck’s self-direction which is too forgiving of his dubious character and relegates its female stars to sacrificial roles
Ben Affleck is a dismayingly stolid and uninteresting star turn, playing ambitious young gangster Joe Coughlin in this stodgy, self-important mob drama with borrowings from The Godfather and Scarface. There is a dull dreamboat handsomeness to his performance throughout. Perhaps another director could have got something more from him, but Affleck has directed and adapted the award-winning 2012 crime novel by Dennis Lehane – whose Gone Baby Gone he brought to the screen in 2007 for his directorial debut.
Live By Night has a surface confidence; its period settings and style always look good and it boasts some thoughtful, detailed supporting performances from actors playing corruptible cops – Chris Cooper as the careworn Florida officer Figgis and Brendan Gleeson as Thomas Coughlin, the Boston police captain and Joe’s sorrowing father. But there »
- Peter Bradshaw
Golden Globes: youth and diversity the winners as La La Land and Moonlight set to shine
6 January 2017 8:53 AM, PST
A new wave of talent looks likely to pick up the top prizes at the Golden Globes, as the film industry aims to put controversies of recent years to rest
Awards season gathers steam on Sunday as Hollywood’s second most significant set of film prizes is handed out. The 74th Golden Globes promise a new emphasis on youth and diversity, in stark contrast to recent years, which have seen all major movie awards bodies dogged by accusations of prejudice and bias.
Yet, as far as the gongs themselves go, the Globes also seem certain to offer a night of no surprises – and certainly no indication of how the Oscars will shake down. Traditionally perceived as a barometer of Academy Awards glory, this year’s edition – because the Globes split their categories into drama and musical/comedy – looks likely to reward both Oscars frontrunners: coming-of-age tale Moonlight and tune-packed romance La La Land. »
- Benjamin Lee
Om Puri remembered: a man of mischief and compassion who put a human face on a label | Gurinder Chadha
6 January 2017 8:42 AM, PST
Gurinder Chadha, who directed Puri in upcoming drama Viceroy’s House, pays tribute to the star who has died aged 66, and whose sensitive performances changed the way we think about race and representation
Om Puri was a generous, warm-hearted man and an incredible international star who shone in Indian, British and Hollywood films. As one of the most talented and versatile actors of his generation, he showed in his characters how similar we all are – how human and imperfect – and in so doing changed the way we think about race and representation. He put a human face on a label and showed we all want the best for our children and families.
Related: Om Puri obituary
Continue reading »
- Gurinder Chadha
Disney's dilemma: digitally resurrect Carrie Fisher or write her out of Star Wars?
6 January 2017 7:50 AM, PST
Princess Leia was set to have a pivotal role in Episodes VIII and IX before Fisher’s tragic death. Now the studio faces narrative, ethical and commercial quandaries
There is a temptation to assume that Princess Leia, and by extension Carrie Fisher, who played the Alderaanian Rebel leader in four movies across more than five decades, belongs to all of us. For those who grew up with the fiery bun-headed teenager in 1977’s Star Wars, her youthful image is burned so deeply into our cerebellums that we can recall her countenance in an instant.
Related: Star Wars focus group to plot life in Leia-less universe after Carrie Fisher's death
Continue reading »
- Ben Child
Om Puri obituary
6 January 2017 7:42 AM, PST
Film actor successful in Hollywood and Bollywood, best known in Britain for East Is East
The actor Om Puri, who has died aged 66 from a heart attack, exuded a reassuring warmth and gravitas over a long career divided largely between Bollywood and Hollywood. His Hindi hits included the political comedy Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983), the Macbeth-inspired drama Maqbool (2003), the action romp Singh Is Kinng (2008) and the thrillers Don (2006) and Don 2 (2011). Appearances in two Mike Nichols films – he shared a scene with Jack Nicholson in Wolf (1994) and starred with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), in which he was very wry as President Zia-ul-Haq – were among the Us roles that followed his brief English-language debut in Gandhi (1982). He credited his more prominent part in Roland Joffe’s City of Joy (1992), where he was a struggling farmer who befriends a doctor (Patrick Swayze) in Calcutta, with increasing »
- Ryan Gilbey
Terrence Malick's Song to Song to world premiere at SXSW
6 January 2017 7:32 AM, PST
Austin’s festival announces its programme, with Malick’s film at the opening gala, plus episodes from the TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods
The SXSW film festival has scored a coup by securing the world premiere of the new film by Terrence Malick, entitled Song to Song, for its opening gala.
Filmed largely in Austin, Texas – the festival’s home town, as well as Malick’s – it stars Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Natalie Portman and Michael Fassbender, and its official synopsis describes it as a “modern love story set against the Austin music scene, where two entangled couples … chase success through a rock’n’roll landscape of seduction and betrayal”. Malick has also cast a number of real-life musicians in the film, including Patti Smith, Lykke Li, Iggy Pop and Florence and the Machine.
Continue reading »
- Andrew Pulver
Sexual harassment claims could have sunk Casey Affleck. Instead, he soared
6 January 2017 6:00 AM, PST
The treatment of Ben Affleck’s artsy kid brother – now basking in praise for Manchester by the Sea – stands in striking contrast to other cases. Why?
Casey Affleck seems poised for grade-a movie stardom. After decades toiling in the shadows of his big brother Ben and childhood friend Matt Damon, he is tipped to sweep this season’s best actor awards for his role in the drama Manchester by the Sea.
Critics have acclaimed his depiction of a heartbroken divorcee as a tour de force. “Casey Affleck joins the ranks of giants,” gushed Time Out.
Continue reading »
- Rory Carroll in Los Angeles
Bright Lights review – a fitting tribute to Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds
6 January 2017 5:00 AM, PST
The strong bond between the late actors is brought to life in this heartfelt and funny HBO documentary that offers many poignant moments
Their differences extended down to their dogs. Dwight, a perfectly poof-y white Coton de Tuléar, stays with the elegant and eternally camera-ready Debbie. But good luck keeping your eyes off Gary, the dark, panting bulldog with his slobbery tongue drooping out of the side his mouth. Gary was forever in Carrie’s arms, on her side of the Reynolds-Fisher compound where the legendary Hollywood mother-daughter team lived and laughed during their final years.
Related: Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher: surviving instant fame and finding a lasting bond
Continue reading »
- Jordan Hoffman
Cher to star in film about water crisis in Flint, Michigan
6 January 2017 4:20 AM, PST
The Oscar winner will reportedly play a woman whose family is affected by the contamination of the city’s drinking water
Veteran actor/musician Cher is to star in a feature film about the Flint water crisis, the toxic-contamination crisis that has affected the Michigan city since 2014 and which has led to multiple charges of misconduct against local officials.
According to Deadline, Cher has been cast as a woman whose family has been badly affected by the crisis, in a storyline developed from Time magazine’s 2016 cover story, The Poisoning of an American City by Josh Sanburn. Driving Miss Daisy’s Bruce Beresford has been hired to direct, and the project is being produced for the Lifetime cable network.
Continue reading »
- Andrew Pulver
Star Wars insiders to plot life in Leia-less universe after Carrie Fisher's death
6 January 2017 4:03 AM, PST
Disney is said to be considering a number of narrative and tech options to continue the franchise following the death of the actor who played Princess Leia
The repercussions of the death of Carrie Fisher for the Star Wars franchise are to be discussed by key Disney staff in Los Angeles next week. Fisher, who died on 27 December, had completed scenes on Star Wars: Episode VIII, which is set for release in December – including, apparently, reunions with Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker and her son, Kylo Ren, played by Adam Driver.
Related: Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds's deaths were tragic coincidence – but we're suckers for a story
Continue reading »
- Catherine Shoard
Michelle Williams on Manchester by the Sea: 'Closure only comes when we die' – video
6 January 2017 3:19 AM, PST
Michelle Williams, the star of acclaimed new drama Manchester by the Sea, discusses why audiences can feel alienated and unattractive after watching a lot of mainstream movies. Director Kenneth Lonergan reveals the patronising attitude many studios have towards their audiences, as well as the destructive impact that a cinematic notion of closure has on those grieving in real life
• Manchester by the Sea opens in the UK on 13 January
Continue reading »
- Catherine Shoard and Jonross Swaby
Indian actor Om Puri dies aged 66 – video report
6 January 2017 2:45 AM, PST
Indian actor Om Puri, who starred in films from Hollywood, Bollywood and the UK, has died in Mumbai. The 66-year-old was found dead at his home on Friday, reportedly after suffering a heart attack. He was best known in the UK for his roles in British films such as East is East
Om Puri, celebrated Indian actor, dies aged 66
Continue reading »
- Guardian Staff
Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds's deaths were tragic coincidence – but we're suckers for a story
6 January 2017 2:39 AM, PST
The poignancy of Fisher and Reynolds’ passing is worthy of Hollywood melodrama. But after 100 years of vividly filmed plots, it’s as if we are trapped in an endless fiction
What happened with Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds? Granted, there were real, unexpected events at the ends of their lives, yet still we must recognise that a thing one can only call a “story” has closed in on them. A tidiness is now being constructed about them online, where there is hysteria for having stuff fit together in ways that are cliched, unreliable and lifeless – yet urgent. The project we might call history can hardly survive such pressures.
Debbie Reynolds, according to her son Todd, said, “I want to be with Carrie”, and in a matter of moments, she was – if dead people are capable of being together anywhere other than in the annals of a story.
Continue reading »
- David Thomson
1-20 of 49 items « Prev | Next »