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'Ben-Hur' 2016 with Jack Huston: Chariot race to the death. 'Ben-Hur' 2016 trailer: 'Gladiator' meets 'Fast Seven' meets 'Star Wars' meets… Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer have released the trailer for their 2016 Ben-Hur remake (or reboot or readaptation) – a.k.a. Fast and Furious A.D., as one wag called it in an online comment. Instead of grandiose spectacle featuring at its core a “human” story with Christian overtones, this chariot-and-sandals epic is being sold as Gladiator meets Fast Seven meets Spartacus: Blood and Sand meets Star Wars – with Morgan Freeman's Sheik Ilderim as the Roman Empire's dreadlocked version of Alec Guinness' Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi. Say what you will, the trailer-makers sure know their target audience. And that's not the same crowd that would go check out what's usually referred to in the U.S. media as “faith” (i.e., Christian) movies. One assumes that particular audience segment will be getting...

As the only woman to carve out a professional career as a director in Hollywood’s Golden Age, Dorothy Arzner (1897-1979) was one of a kind in the history of American cinema. During its 62nd edition, the San Sebastian Festival will pay homage to the work of Arzner, today considered a pioneer in women’s incorporation to the film industry, proclaimed as a filmmaker of strong style and personality for which she earned undeniable prestige within the Hollywood studio system.

Born in San Francisco but raised in Los Angeles, Dorothy Arzner’s parents ran a café popular with the famous actors and movie directors of the time, including Charles Chaplin, William S. Hart and Erich von Stroheim. Having obtained a degree at the University of Southern Carolina and after a stint as an ambulance driver in World War I, Arzner began a career in the world of journalism. However, introduction by a mutual friend to the director William C. de Mille (brother of the famous Cecil B. DeMille) was to forever change the direction of her life: following a visit to a film studio, she decided to become a film director. Her first work in the film industry was as a stenographer at the Players-Lasky studios (later to become Paramount), transcribing film scripts. Her skills and strong nature opened the way to works of greater responsibility: script writer, script girl and, finally, editor. It was there in the editing room that Arzner earned her excellent reputation i n the Hollywood movie industry, working on 52 films and assiduously collaborating with the filmmaker, James Cruze. In the famous motion picture starring Rudolph Valentino, Blood and Sand (1922), apart from her brilliant editing work, Arzner helmed the second unit crew for the bull-fighting scenes. She also worked as a script writer on some of Cruze’s films.

The tenacious artist pressed Paramount to let her direct a film, threatening the studio bosses with the acceptance of an offer from their rivals at Columbia. Finally, she made her directorial debut on Fashions for Women (1927), and the following year became the first woman ever to direct a talkie, Manhattan Cocktail (1928). Arzner went on to helm another 15 films in the 30s and early 40s, working with some of the greatest Hollywood stars like Clara Bow, Katharine Hepburn, Fredric March, Rosalind Russell, Claudette Colbert, Maureen O'Hara and Joan Crawford in comedies and dramas powerfully focused on women characters: The Wild Party (1929), Anybody's Woman (1930), Sarah and Son (1930), Honor Among Lovers (1931), Working Girls (1931), Merrily We Go to Hell (1932), Christopher Strong (1933), Nana (1934), Craig's Wife (1936) and The Bride Wore Red (1937).

In 1933 she became the first woman member of the Directors Guild of America and indeed remained its only female associate for several decades. She also went down in history as the inventor of the first boom mike for having used a microphone attached to a fishing rod when filming the early talkies.

Although she gradually fell from prominence, Arzner’s career was championed in the 60s by the feminist movements and she received several tributes, including one by the Directors Guild of America in 1975. Today her filmography is not only newly appreciated as an extremely unusual exception in the history of American film, but also for its intrinsic values. Arzner left her mark through a series of movies of refined visual style that questioned the traditional sexual roles of the time and the part played by woman in society or which, according to certain critics, introduced veiled lesbian undertones to the rigid Hollywood structure of the moment.

The retrospective dedicated by the San Sebastian Festival to Dorothy Arzner will be organized in collaboration with Filmoteca Española. The cycle will be complemented with a publication on her figure and work.

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Well, if like Clothes on Film you followed the exciting Debbie Reynolds costume auction online, thanks to a couple of days’ decaf you may have calmed down enough to process the results. $4,600,000 (plus $1,058,000 in taxes and fees) for Marilyn Monroe’s Travilla ‘subway’ dress from The Seven Year Itch (1955) was just one mega bid of many.

Hollywood legend Debbie Reynolds has been collecting movie costumes, props and memorabilia for over fifty years. She had a dream of displaying her acquisitions in a specially created museum, but sadly this never happened. Instead she put the collection up for auction on 18th June in Los Angeles (with another to follow in December). It is fair to say we all expected a few of the ensembles would make big money, especially those from...

I didn't intend for this weekend to become such a costume freakout session but sometimes the universe shouts that something must be and you say "okay. okay. stop shouting." You see, Debbie Reynold's movie memorabilia is going on auction today. How much do you wanna bet This dress fetches?

I guess when you're "America's Sweetheart" with hundreds of other famous friends from multiple decades of stardom, you wind up with a few collectibles. But Audrey Hepburn's Ascot dress from My Fair Lady in pristine condition?

"move your bloomin' arse!"♫ What a gripping, absolutely ripping

Moment at the Ascot op'ning day.

Pulses rushing! Faces flushing!

Heartbeats speed up! I have never been so keyed up ♪

Reynolds also has a number of Barbra Streisand costumes from Hello Dolly as well as this "Roller Skate Rag" outfit from one of Funny Girl's best bits.

You can see other stunning pieces of...

Photo by Pop Culture Passionistas

When Debbie Reynolds was a little girl growing up inBurbank, California, no one would have dreamed that she’d not only be one ofHollywood’s biggest stars but one of the greatest archivists in entertainmenthistory. But at 17 she was discovered by a local talent scout and entered intoa glamour world in the golden age of movie making.

Over the last 60 plus years, Reynolds has amassed anunparalleled assemblage of movie memorabilia with the hopes of one day openingher own museum. That dream never became a reality and now the musical megastaris auctioning off her prized possessions on Saturday, June 18 at The PaleyCenter for Media in Beverly Hills.

In the catalog for the event, she explained how herobsession began, “My love for collecting began early in my MGM career. I usedto spend my spare time in the wardrobe department, watching the most talentedpeople create costumes for the actors.

Blood And Sand Review Part 1 Yet, despite Nita Naldi's effectiveness, Rudolph Valentino is the real star of Blood and Sand, creating a remarkable portrayal of a complex, multi-layered character. In one early scene, for instance, his friend Chiripa (Antonio Flores) is gored by the bull and dies in Gallardo's arms; Gallardo cradles the dying man and kisses him tenderly on the cheek. Later, when he relates this story to his mother, we can see the look of pain and suffering on his face. Which brings me to Valentino's appeal. He is able to show attributes not usually associated with male stars, such as [...]...

Rudolph Valentino, Blood and Sand Hollywood Heritage will celebrate Rudolph Valentino's birthday on Wednesday, May 11. The event will include screenings of the abridged version of Blood and Sand (1922) and the short Rudolph Valentino and His 88 American Beauties; rare photographs and artifacts on display in the lobby of the Hollywood Heritage Museum; and the presence of Donna Hill, author of Rudolph Valentino, The Silent Idol: His Life in Photographs. In addition to Blood and Sand, directed by Fred Niblo (Ben-Hur) and co-starring Nita Naldi (photo) and Martha Mansfield, Valentino starred in a number of major hits of the 1920s, among them Rex Ingram's epoch-making The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Beyond the Rocks, Monsieur Beaucaire, The Eagle, and Son of the Sheik. Born on May 6 in Castelanetta, Italy, Valentino died unexpectedly in 1926 at the age of 31. According to the Hollywood Heritage press release, in Rudolph Valentino, [...]...