Actualités

Actor who starred in John Cassavetes’s Shadows and gave Michael Caine the plans for the heist in The Italian Job

The lacerating 1959 drama Shadows, a pinnacle of US independent film-making, heralded two striking new talents: the director John Cassavetes and the actor Lelia Goldoni, who was just 20 when she gave a guileless performance combining wistful romanticism and mercurial restlessness. She played Lelia – all the actors in the film share their first names with their characters – who is an African-American woman “passing” for white. Goldoni herself was of Sicilian descent.

When Lelia’s white boyfriend meets one of her darker-skinned brothers (Hugh Hurd) and realises that she is black, his discomfort inflames tensions in the household and sends aftershocks through the rest of the film.

Mod Sun appears to be moving on from Avril Lavigne.

Derek Smith, 36, better known as Mod Sun, was spotted sharing a kiss with Australian OnlyFans model Sahara Ray, 30, in a now-deleted Instagram Story following the release of his heartbreak anthem, “Stangers”.

Mod Sun and Sahara Ray — Photo: @sahararay/Instagram Story

Despite the very public display of intimacy, a source tells Page Six that it doesn’t mean more than a kiss for the musician, who recently split from fellow pop-rocker Avril Lavigne earlier this year when it was announced their engagement was called off in February.

Read More: Mod Sun Releases Emotional Heartbreak Song Following Avril Lavigne’s Split From Tyga

His latest track heavily references their split, including lyrics about first seeing the Canadian songstress on TV before “stalking her on the internet.” He continues to walk listeners through the stages of his relationship with Lavigne, including when they first moved in together.

Anthony Ray, a son of Rebel Without a Cause director Nicholas Ray who appeared in John Cassavetes' Shadows and earned an Oscar nomination for producing An Unmarried Woman, has died. He was 80.

Ray died June 29 in Saco, Maine, after a long illness, his family announced.

Just after he turned 20, Ray appeared on Broadway in the Elia Kazan-William Inge drama The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, which debuted in December 1957 and ran for more than 450 performances.

In Shadows (1958), Cassavetes' admired feature debut, Ray portrayed Tony, a young man who sleeps with a virgin (Lelia Goldoni) and is surprised to ...

Robert Redford movies: TCM shows 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,' 'The Sting' They don't make movie stars like they used to, back in the days of Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, and Harry Cohn. That's what nostalgists have been bitching about for the last four or five decades; never mind the fact that movie stars have remained as big as ever despite the demise of the old studio system and the spectacular rise of television more than sixty years ago. This month of January 2015, Turner Classic Movies will be honoring one such post-studio era superstar: Robert Redford. Beginning this Monday evening, January 6, TCM will be presenting 15 Robert Redford movies. Tonight's entries include Redford's two biggest blockbusters, both directed by George Roy Hill and co-starring Paul Newman: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which turned Redford, already in his early 30s, into a major film star to rival Rudolph Valentino,...

Blu-ray Release Date: Oct. 22, 2013

Price: Blu-ray $124.95

Studio: Criterion

John Cassavetes—genius, visionary, and the progenitor of American independent film—receives some high-definition respect from Criterion in the John Cassavetes: Five Films collection.

A former theater actor fascinated by the power of improvisation, Cassavetes brought his search for truth in performance to the screen. The five films in this anthology of dramas—all of which the director maintained total control over by financing them himself and making them outside the studio system—are electrifying and compassionate creations, populated by all manner of humanity: beatniks, hippies, businessmen, actors, housewives, strippers, club owners, gangsters, children.

Cassavetes has often been called an actor’s director, but this body of work—even greater than the sum of its extraordinary parts—shows him to be an audience’s director.

Here’s a breakdown of the movies:

Lelia Goldoni and Anthony Ray star in John Cassavetes' 1959 directorial debut Shadows.

Artist Damien Hirst plans to build 500 eco-homes, Riba puts 250 years of housing on display and the notorious Heygate estate is transformed from urban film location into romcom residence

It's all been about housing this week, spearheaded by the surprise announcement of a new celebrity developer in the game: Damien Hirst. It turns out the zillionaire spot-merchant is planning to build 500 eco-homes on land he owns in glamorous Ilfracombe, Devon. It's early days – building won't start till next year – but his architect, Mike Rundell, spoke to locals about Hirst's plans this week, according to the North Devon Journal.

"He has a horror of building anonymous, lifeless buildings," Rundell told the meeting. "He wants these houses to be the kind of homes he would want to live in." Although seeing as Hirst bought Toddington Manor, a 300-room Gloucestershire mansion, a few years ago, that might be a bit of a stretch.

Rundell...

Considered one of the fathers of American indie cinema, John Cassavetes would have been 81 years young today, were he still alive.

Why not celebrate his birthday by watching his directorial debut, Shadows, the improvisational film that revolves around an interracial romance between Lelia (Lelia Goldoni), a light-skinned black woman living in New York City with her two brothers, and Tony (Anthony Ray), a white man, who isn’t aware of her true racial heritage. The relationship crumbles when Tony meets Lelia’s brother Hugh (Hugh Hurd), a dark-skinned jazz singer struggling to find work, and learns that the woman he’s been involved with is actually black.

The film was shot on location in New York City, with a cast and crew made up primarily of amateurs. Shadows is widely considered a visionary work, and the forerunner of the American independent film movement.

Netflix carries it as an “Instant Watch” title,...

Netflix has once again added several films available in the Criterion Collection, to their streaming “Watch Instantly” line-up. While their additions over the past few months have been few and far between, they have nevertheless been consistently great choices.

Over the past few days they have been adding the various John Cassavetes films that are available in the “Five Films” box set, save the documentary “A Constant Forge.” You can now watch Shadows, Faces, A Woman Under The Influence, The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie, and Opening Night through their web interface, or through their various other devices (Roku boxes, the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, or select Blu-ray players).

With Redbox ramping up plans to implement a streaming service, Netflix continues to show it’s dedication to expanding it’s library of important films available at a minimal cost to it’s customers.

To see all of the Criterion Collection films available on Netflix Watch Instantly,...

Those who accuse Hopper of being an amateur snapper miss the point: the photographs that will go on show at La's Museum of Contemporary Art are an inspired blend of Hollywood gloss and the miraculous everyday

Last week Jeffrey Deitch, the new director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (Moca) in Los Angeles, announced that his first exhibition, scheduled for July, will feature the paintings and photographs of Dennis Hopper. It will be curated by Hopper's close friend, the artist and film-maker Julian Schnabel.

Hopper, who will be 74 next month, is a semi-mythic figure both as an actor and director, but his art and photography are less well-known. In the blogosphere, the announcement raised questions about art-world nepotism, as well as the blurring of the boundaries between art and show business. "This is exactly the sort of Pt Barnum extravaganza, dripping with cronyism, star-fucking and insider dealing, that Deitch's main...

Chicago – Entries number 251 and number 252 in the most important and impressive series of DVDs in the history of the format, The Criterion Collection, come from the same influential writer/director, one of the godfathers of the independent film industry, John Cassavetes. Both are worthwhile additions to any serious film collector’s shelf.

DVD Rating: 4.5/5.0 The first of the pair is the half-century old “Shadows,” Cassavetes’ directorial debut. As the credit so perfectly says “Improvised/Directed by John Cassavetes”. These visionary films were the forerunner of the American independent film movement - creative people getting together with a camera to create art.

Shadows was released on DVD on February 17th, 2009.

Photo credit: Courtesy of the Criterion Collection Those creative people in “Shadows” were headed by Lelia Goldoni and Anthony Ray. Goldoni plays a character of the same name, a light-skinned black woman living in New York City with her two brothers.