Actualités

It’s not every day the public gets to see memorabilia from Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather.”

Los Angeles historian Alison Martino has a rare original script from the film that belonged to her father, Al Martino, better known to the world as singer Johnny Fontane in the classic film.

Martino was joined by “Waltzing With Brando” cinematographer Garret O’Brien at the Variety 120 Screening Series presented by Barco, a summer-long program hosted by Jazz Tangcay that celebrates Variety‘s 120th anniversary by showing iconic films such as “All About Eve” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Martino explained how “The Godfather” was the first film she ever saw: “I wanted to see it again and again.” She also shared how she was able to ask her father about the making of the film and being involved in the production. “They had no idea it would be anything like this,” she said.

It is not an original idea to make a movie about a movie star. Think Notting Hill, The Bodyguard, Tropic Thunder, America’s Sweethearts, A Star Is Born, Birdman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Bowfinger. I could go on. The greatest film I ever saw about a star was Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s masterful All About Eve, even if that was set on Broadway. It came out the same year as another masterpiece set in the industry, Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, which showed the dark side of Hollywood when they decided they were done with you. “It’s the pictures that got small,” Norma Desmond utters after declaring she is still “big.”

Both are celebrating their 75th anniversary this year and remarkably are as fresh, even as perceptive, as when they were released. Eve still to this day shares the record for the most Oscar nominations with 14, winning six...

Despite being made almost 60 years ago, Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” still holds up.

Its groundbreaking special effects inspired George Lucas, James Cameron, Christopher Nolan and more. The cultural impact can be seen in “Blade Runner” and even in David Bowie’s work. The film is a staggering experience, from its “Dawn of Man” sequence to its ending. In between, there are spaceships and Hal, the super-intelligent computer that was way ahead of its time. Kubrick had AI on screen before it was even a term.

Speaking about the film’s impact, executive producer David S. Goyer called its technical achievements “amazing.”

Goyer was joined by cinematographer Nicole Hirsch Whitaker in conversation at the Variety 120 Screening Series presented by Barco, a summer-long program hosted by Jazz Tangcay that celebrates Variety‘s 120th anniversary by showing iconic films, including “All About Eve” and “The Wizard of Oz.”

Goyer explained...

Perhaps one of the most acclaimed films of this century, director Damien Chazelle’s ode to “the ones who dream,” La La Land, is landing on Netflix this September. The musical is also his biggest hit, and the movie that practically earned him a blank check for life, in addition to the legendary distinction of becoming the youngest-ever winner of the Best Director Oscar. Starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, La La Land followed two star-crossed lovers as they chased their passions in Los Angeles.

The movie made nearly $500 million worldwide, against a reported budget of $30 million, and earned a record-equaling 14 Academy Award nominations, tying All About Eve and Titanic.

“The Wizard of Oz” was released over 85 years ago, but the timeless classic remains one of the most influential films ever.

From Judy Garland as Dorothy to her performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” the film has remained a go-to for generations. Visually, there’s the beautiful shift from black and white to technicolor, which has viewers enthralled to this day. Film critic Leonard Maltin described why the film has and continues to draw in audiences. “You have to know you’re facing utter perfection.”

But that wasn’t always the case.

Maltin told the crowd, upon its release in 1939, the film was a flop. “It was a very expensive movie to make and it shows. It was very difficult to make their investment back. And it only turned a profit through re-reissuing to theaters and then ultimately being sold to television, which is where it took root in our popular culture.

Amidst Hollywood’s ongoing obsession with revivals, remakes, and requels actress Lindsay Lohan is making sure one classic film is never touched: “All About Eve.” Lohan told Letterboxd that the 1950 Oscar-winning feature could never be reimagined because the original was just too “perfect.”

“All About Eve,” which turns 75 this year, stars Bette Davis as an aging famed stage actress who becomes the object of obsession by her titular fan-turned-protege assistant (Anne Baxter). Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed the feature.

“Bette Davis, in that movie, you just can’t take your eyes off her,” Lohan said. “It’s one of those movies you can never remake because it’s so perfect. But that would be the dream role to play. Just the dialogue in it…”

And the “Freakier Friday” star isn’t the only modern actress who counts “All About Eve” as one of her favorite films. “Weapons” and “Fantastic Four” actress...

1963's Cleopatrawill forever be one of Hollywood's most famous disasters. However, one person bore the brunt of its failure, and it wasn't star Elizabeth Taylor. Collider's Michael Zimmermann talked to a man who is eminently qualified to talk about the film: Ben Mankiewicz, who is not only one of the world's most prominent film historians, but is also the great-nephew of Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the film's director, who he argues suffered the most for the film's infamy. Says Mankiewicz, when talking about whether there is a "villain" responsible for Cleopatra's cost overruns:

"Elizabeth's certainly not the villain. I mean, she is very much the heroine who's blamed too much, and I think sort of becomes a fairly empathetic figure if it definitely caused some of her own problems, as Joe pointed out. But, you know, she came out, she didn't suffer as Cleopatra. Richard Burton didn't suffer because of...

“Pulp Fiction” is a modern Hollywood classic, but upon release, the 1994 Quentin Tarantino-directed offbeat crime thriller was audacious to say the least. It told a narrative in non-chronological order, casted John Travolta off of a career slump, showcased on-screen drug use and graphic violence and gave its gun-wielding characters ample time to shoot the breeze before shooting their targets.

Nevertheless, the film succeeded, so much that audiences are still discussing it over a generation later. “Pulp Fiction” producer Lawrence Bender attended the Variety 120 Series screening, presented by Barco, a summer-long program hosted by Jazz Tangcay, that celebrates Variety‘s 120th anniversary by showing iconic films such as “All About Eve,” “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Psycho.”

Bender reflected on the first time “Pulp Fiction” came into his consciousness. It was 1992 and he was meeting Tarantino in Amsterdam ahead of the Cannes Film Festival premiere of “Reservoir Dogs,” Tarantino’s...

Lindsay Lohan began her career as a child actor on the television opera, Another World, and later got her breakthrough role in The Parent Trap in 1998. After a few television films, Lohan got casting calls in bigger productions. However, she claimed that she was pigeonholed into certain roles in her teen years.

In her recent interview with The Times U.K., Lohan shared that it was difficult for her to star in a diverse range of roles because of her pigeonholed career. In the 2000s, she was known for her iconic performances in comedies like Freaky Friday and Mean Girls. The cult movies turned her into a teen icon, but Lohan apparently wasn’t happy with the result.

She told the outlet that she took a brief hiatus from her career after she started “losing that feeling of excitement about doing a film.” She shared that she was excited to...

I — like all millennials — root for no one more than I root for Lindsay Lohan. We were all there together, on the ground floor, as she perfected the “switch” comedy; first as twins Annie and Hallie in Nancy Meyers’ “The Parent Trap” remake, then later with Jamie Lee Curtis’ soul in the “Freaky Friday” remake, and when she cosplayed as a cool kid in “Mean Girls.” She grew up with us, and we stuck with her through the personal life rollercoaster. We got it, after all. We were all going through our own pitfalls — we just didn’t have the paparazzi snapping shots of life’s worst moments.

Even those of us who bemoan straight-to-streaming releases supported her Netflix comedy comebacks. The platform should know, too, that we 100% would’ve been there, lined up at the movie theater, to support each films with generous box office returns. The millennial generation does not agree on everything.

Lindsay Lohan is sharing her frustrations about how growing up in the public eye pigeonholed her from playing more sophisticated roles.

“Yeah, I do [think I was pigeonholed],” she said in an interview with The Times U.K.. “I was so thrilled to work on ‘A Prairie Home Companion’ and yet even today I have to fight for stuff that is like that, which is frustrating. Because, well, you know me as this — but you also know I can do that. So let me! Give me the chance. I have to break that cycle and open doors to something else, leaving people no choice. And in due time, if Martin Scorsese reaches out, I’m not going to say no.”

Lohan began acting at an early age and had her first breakout role in 1998’s “The Parent Trap.” She became a household name after appearing in several 2000s films, including “Mean Girls,” “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen...

Lindsay Lohan, best known for her roles in Mean Girls and 1998’s The Parent Trap, opened up about how her time growing up in Hollywood led her to feel pigeonholed into certain types of roles in lieu of more highbrow fare.

Speaking to The Times U.K. about Freakier Friday, which releases Aug. 8 theatrically, the actress said she took a brief career hiatus during the 2000s as she was “losing that feeling of excitement about doing a film” and wanted to focus on her personal life.

Now, though, with the followup to 2003 body-swap comedy also starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Lohan said she is looking forward to a more diverse range of projects.

“Yeah, I do [think I was pigeonholed],” she said. “I was so thrilled to work on [2006’s] A Prairie Home Companion [opposite Meryl Streep and Woody Harrelson], and yet even today I have to fight for stuff that is like that, which is frustrating.

The following article is an excerpt from the latest edition of “In Review by David Ehrlich,” a biweekly newsletter in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the site’s latest reviews and muses about current events in the movie world. Subscribe here to receive the newsletter in your inbox every other Friday.

Ben Mankiewicz is never someone who I expected to find on the wrong side of film history. The face of Turner Classic Movies since Robert Osborne’s death, in addition to being the grandson of “Citizen Kane” screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and the grand-nephew of “All About Eve” director Joseph L. Mankiewicz,” the Hollywood scion is nothing less than a living emblem of the sanctity and enduring value of 20th century cinema. Delivered in a nasal but welcoming voice that’s capable of making 100-year-old masterpieces sound like vital artifacts and spectacular entertainments all at once,...

Orson Welles’ 1941 classic, “Citizen Kane,” is regarded by many as one of the greatest films of all time. It’s also considered one of the most influential films. It’s still talked about to this day and has impacted filmmakers including Martin Scorsese and David Fincher. Fincher directed “Mank,” which tells the story of Herman J. Mankiewicz and how he developed the script for Welles.

“Mank” producer Douglas Urbanski attended the Variety 120 Screening Series presented by Barco, a summer-long program hosted by Jazz Tangcay that celebrates Variety‘s 120th anniversary by showing iconic films such as “All About Eve” and “Psycho.”

Urbanksi, who first saw “Citizen Kane” during his days at New York University, discussed the film’s lasting impact and explained that a lot of it has to do with the stories and mystique surrounding the film.

He said, “’Citizen Kane’ has everything that’s not on the screen that lends to its mystique.

No film is perfect. No, not even the dozens of examples you are about to cite. Every film, if one wants to delve into its structure, performances, scriptwriting, or themes, contains flaws or irresponsible messaging somewhere inside it. If a film feels flawless, it's because we're so taken by its story, its characters, its philosophy, or its general tone that we don't notice its flaws. Those who nitpick the smaller plot details in universally beloved movies aren't necessarily trolling, but instead revealing that, for whatever reason, a classic simply didn't grab them. The only film that is truly flawless remains "Gremlins 2: The New Batch." That is the only film in cinema history with no flaws whatsoever.

On the review aggregating website Rotten Tomatoes, even the most widely celebrated movies can still emerge with an imperfect approval rating, as there is always going to be at least one professional critic who it didn't jibe with.

Countless films and filmmakers have been influenced by auteur filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s body of work, especially his 1954 epic “Seven Samurai.”

The film, which celebrated its 70th anniversary last year, follows a group of seven samurai warriors who save a little village from annihilation at the hands of a group of bandits in 15th-century Japan.

Whether it’s Kurosawa’s storytelling, blocking, camera movement or even the use of weather as a character, his influences can be directly traced in modern cinema.

Quentin Tarantino’s films, such as “Kill Bill” and “Hateful Eight,” all have influences that were pulled from the film. In the 2012 film “Django Unchained,” hooded raiders come over a crested hill on horseback, which was a scene directly lifted from “Seven Samurai.”

Kurosawa’s film is the latest to screen as part of Variety 120 Screening Series presented by Barco, a summer-long program hosted by Jazz Tangcay that...

With a jaw chiseled from solid granite, an eagle-like, aquiline nose, a million-dollar smile, and a dime-sized dimple on his chin, he famously refused to remove despite studio pressure, Kirk Douglas looked like he was made in a lab to be a movie star. And what a movie star he was, with an astonishing 70-year career, most of it spent above the title. Heck, the dude even flirted with Anne Hathaway at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards in front of an international audience when he was 94 years old (I bet his blood type was testosterone). When Douglas passed away at 96 years old, he left behind a legacy as deep as the cleft in his chin, transcending the Golden Age of Hollywood into the New Hollywood and beyond.

Not bad considering he started life far from Hollywood as Issur Danielovitch, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants in eastern New York state,...

Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” is widely regarded as one of the greatest horror movies ever made, and 65 years after its initial release, it continues to scare audiences.

“This is the first slasher,” said director Joseph Kahn, one of the panelists for the screening. “This is a straight up, a knife doesn’t penetrate, but it’s slashing on the screen in a way that you’ve never seen before.”

Kahn was speaking at the Variety 120 Screening Series presented by Barco, a summer-long program hosted by Jazz Tangcay that celebrates Variety‘s 120th anniversary by showing iconic films such as “All About Eve” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” He was joined by filmmaker and director Julie Pacino, who described Hitchcock’s directing as “scary as fuck.”

The film stars Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, who checks into the Bates Motel after stealing $40,000 from her office. Anthony Perkins stars as Norman Bates,...

Darren Aronofsky summer is upon us, as his ninth feature “Caught Stealing” hits theaters August 29. But the week before, his iconic 2010 ballerina-on-the-brink thriller “Black Swan” will return for a special IMAX 15th anniversary engagement on August 21 and 24. Searchlight Pictures will take the Best Picture nominee — and Best Actress winner for Natalie Portman — to more than 200 IMAX screens on August 21 and 24.

Directed by Aronofsky and shot by Matthew Libatique, “Black Swan” has been specially remastered for the IMAX format, joining recent premium retro screenings like the upcoming golden anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” and the 10th anniversary of Robert Eggers’ “The Witch.”

According to Searchlight, more plans to celebrate “Black Swan’s” 15th birthday will be announced throughout the year, and the company has released a brand new trailer (below) to get things started. Portman swept the movie awards season that year for her physically and mentally grueling portrayal of...

It was an ordinary spring day in 1962 Italy… ordinary outside of a warm greeting between the very married superstar Elizabeth Taylor and the very married actor Richard Burton that a photographer happened to catch. The “kissing picture,” as it would become known, caught like wildfire, and the paparazzi never let up. Richard Burton dubbed the ensuing press storm “Le Scandale,” and the judgement of the world swiftly followed — included a condemnation from the Vatican newspaper calling it Taylor’s “erotic vagrancy.”

At the center of Le Scandale — one which TCM host Ben Mankiewicz calls the “biggest in the history of American celebrities” — was a mammoth film, perhaps the biggest in the history of American cinema: 20th Century Fox’s “Cleopatra.”

“The first photograph of them kissing as the rumors were circulating that they were involved was [taken by] a paparazzo hiding under a car, under like a Fiat… lying on the ground,...

by Chad Kennerk

Kathryn Grayson's gown from Lovely to Look At (1952), designed by Adrian. Image courtesy of Gail Borden Public Library.

Appearing for the first time in the Chicago area is a uniquely curated tribute to the timeless glamour of Hollywood’s golden age — and the wardrobes that defined it. With screen-worn costumes that span classic and contemporary film history from 1939 to 2005, Glitz, Glamour, Gorgeous: A Tribute to Hollywood Movie Costumes at the Gail Borden Public Library in Elgin, Illinois, offers an up-close look at the fashion that helped shape some of cinema’s iconic moments.

From Elizabeth Taylor’s regal ensemble in Cleopatra to Bette Davis’ off-the-shoulder...

When it comes to “All About Eve,” the Joseph L. Mankiewicz film starring Bette Davis and Anne Baxter, Julianne Moore can be counted as one of its devotees.

Molly Smith Metzler, the creator of Netflix’s “Sirens” starring Moore as mysterious philanthropist, called Moore a “fan” of the film. In fact, the 1950 classic bled into the making of “Sirens” as director Nicole Kassell frequently referenced the film. “I believe that she and the cast talked about it at length and watched it at length. I can’t testify to that, but I do believe that’s what happened,” Metzler said.

The creative team behind “Sirens” joined Variety for a screening of “All About Eve” to discuss the classic and its relevance to their series about three women’s evolving power dynamics.

Metzler appeared alongside writer and executive producer Colin McKenna, cinematographer Greg Middleton and editor Catherine Haight to kick off...

Exclusive: On the heels of her WWE debut, wrestling star Mariah May has signed with Paradigm for representation in all areas. Under Paradigm’s deal, May will expand her career in film and TV, both scripted and unscripted, while also focusing on branding.

Born and raised in London, May trained as a chef before pivoting to wrestling. At 26 years old, she won the Aew Women’s World Championship in front of a crowd of 80k fans at Wembley Stadium at All In. May has since headlined multiple international sellouts across the UK, Japan, and North America. Before her run with Aew, she captured titles in Japan’s Stardom promotion and earned a fervent global following across Europe and Asia.

May made her WWE debut this week on Nxt, entering the title conversation as one of the most buzzed-about new faces on the roster. Known for her striking blend of old-Hollywood glamour and ruthless ambition,...

A beautiful drifter tries to make it in the strip clubs of Las Vegas in this absurd film – now a cult favourite thanks to its maniacal acting and directing

Martin Scorsese’s Casino wasn’t the only Las Vegas movie of 1995, there was also Showgirls – now on rerelease for its 30th anniversary – whose pure bizarreness has over three decades achieved its own identity, like Dick Van Dyke’s cockney accent in Mary Poppins. It is the softcore erotic drama from screenwriter Joe Eszterhas and director Paul Verhoeven that has made a slow ascent from critical flop to kitsch cult favourite and now to a supposed tongue-out-of-cheek classic melodrama. Maybe it’s the last great mainstream exploitation picture, a film which owns and flaunts its crassness; a bi-curious catfight version of All About Eve or Pretty Woman.

Elizabeth Berkley plays Nomi, a mysterious, beautiful, super-sexy drifter who arrives in Vegas, hoping...

Marilyn Monroe's star burned brightly and briefly before her untimely death in 1962 at age 36. Yet she managed to enter the pop culture lexicon with just a handful of films, becoming Hollywood's most memorable sex symbol. In honor of her birthday, let's take a look back at 15 of her greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1926, Monroe started off as a model before moving into acting with a series of bit parts, most notably in "All About Eve" and "The Asphalt Jungle," both released in 1950. She became a leading lady with a trio of 1953 titles: the noir "Niagara," the musical "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and the romantic comedy "How to Marry a Millionaire."

She became iconic thanks to Billy Wilder's "The Seven Year Itch" (1955), in which she played a young woman tantalizing her married neighbor (Tom Ewell). Her image was forever burned into our memories thanks to the scene...

Charles Strouse, the famed Broadway composer who received Tony Awards for his scores for Bye Bye Birdie, Applause and Annie, died Thursday at his home in New York City, his family announced. He was 96.

A member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Theater Hall of Fame, Strouse wrote music for more than a dozen Broadway shows.

He and lyricist Martin Charnin were responsible for the immortal tunes “Tomorrow” and “It’s the Hard Knock Life” from Annie, and he and his most frequent collaborator, lyricist Lee Adams, partnered on such classic show tunes as “Put on a Happy Face” from Bye Bye Birdie, “You’ve Got Possibilities” from It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman and “This Is the Life” from Golden Boy.

Asked by Playbill in 2009 why he got into the theater, Strouse replied: “You can make a lot of money and you meet beautiful girls.

Charles Strouse, the musical composer for such Broadway hits as Bye Bye Birdie, Applause and Annie, films including Bonnie and Clyde (1967) The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968) and All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989) and for the TV series All In The Family, died at his home in New York City on May 15. He was 96.

His death was announced by his children Benjamin, Nicholas, Victoria, and William Strouse., and was nominated for Golden Boy, Charlie & Algernon, Rags, and Nick & Nora.

Strouse was born on June 7, 1928 in New York City, the son of Ethel (Newman) and Ira Strouse. After graduating from the Eastman School of Music in 1947, he received two scholarships to Tanglewood, where he studied under composer Aaron Copland. Subsequently, Copland arranged for Strouse to get a scholarship with legendary teacher, Nadia Boulanger, in Paris.

Strouse met songwriting partner, lyricist Adams, at a party in 1949, and the duo began a longtime collaboration starting with writing songs for summer resorts in the Adirondacks. Strouse and Adams contributed material to numerous Off-Broadway musical revues, including Catch a Star, Shoestring Revue, The Littlest Revue and Kaleidoscope, and wrote specialty material for Kaye Ballard, Carol Burnett, Jane Morgan and Dick Shawn.

In 1958, Strouse and lyricist, Fred Tobias wrote the chart-topping pop song “Born Too Late” (recorded by The Poni-Tails), and it was in that same year that Strouse and Adams had their Broadway breakthrough. They were hired by producer Edward Padula to write a satirical musical about rock and roll and teen idol culture. The show, Bye Bye Birdie, became their first Tony Award-winning hit. The production starred Chita Rivera and Dick Van Dyke and won four 1961 Tony Awards including Best Musical, earning Strouse the first of his three Tony Awards.

The show introduced the world to such songs as “Put On A Happy Face,” and “A Lot of Livin’ to Do.” A 1962 movie version, starring Ann-Margret, was one of the top-grossing films of the year, and featured Margret’s now iconic performance of the film’s newly added title song, “Bye Bye Birdie.” Strouse would later win a 1996 Emmy Award for the new song, “Let’s Settle Down,” written with Adams and added for the musical’s 1995 TV adaptation, starring Jason Alexander and Vanessa Williams.

Deadline Related Video:

Additional collaborations with Adams include the Mel Brooks musical All American (1962) starring Ray Bolger. Though the show was not a commercial success, it featured what would become the popular American standard “Once Upon a Time”. Golden Boy (1963), a musical adaptation of the play by Clifford Odets starred Sammy Davis Jr., garnered Strouse his second Tony Award nomination. It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane… It’s Superman! gave audiences another popular Strouse & Adams song, “You’ve Got Possibilities” (first recorded by Linda Lavin). And in 1970, when the team wrote the score for Applause (based on the film All About Eve and Mary Orr’s The Wisdom of Eve and starring Lauren Bacall), Strouse would win his second Tony Award.

Strouse’s biggest Broadway success was with collaborators Martin Charnin and Thomas Meehan on Annie (1977), based on the comic strip, “Little Orphan Annie,” by Harold Gray. The Depression-era musical about a plucky red-headed orphan girl who wins the heart of billionaire Oliver Warbucks, was one of Broadway’s biggest hits of the 1970s, winning seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and garnering Strouse his third Tony Award and a Grammy Award for Best Cast Show Album. Strouse’s score included “Tomorrow,” “It’s the Hard–Knock Life,” “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile,” and “I Don’t Need Anything But You.” Annie ran for over 2,300 performances on Broadway, where it has been revived twice and has inspired hundreds of worldwide productions. It has also been adapted for two film and two television productions.

Strouse was passionate about collaboration and would earn Tony Award nominations for his scores with lyricists: David Rogers, Charlie & Algernon (1980), based on the novel Flowers for Algernon, Steven Schwartz, for Rags (1986), with book writer Joseph Stein starring Teresa Stratas, and Nick and Nora (1991), a musical based on Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man characters, written with Richard Maltby, Jr.

Strouse’s film scores include Bonnie and Clyde (1967) starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, There Was a Crooked Man (1970), with Henry Fonda and Kirk Douglas, Sidney Lumet’s Just Tell Me What You Want, and the animated feature All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989).

In addition to his awards, Strouse was the recipient of several honorary doctorates. He was a longtime member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, inducted in 1985, and the Theatre Hall of Fame.

Strouse also composed orchestral works, chamber music, piano concertos, and an opera. His original piano work, Concerto America, was composed in 2002 to commemorate 9/11 and premiered at The Boston Pops in 2004. His opera Nightingale (1982), starring Sarah Brightman, had a successful run in London, followed by many subsequent productions.

In 1977, Strouse founded the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, through which many young composers and lyricists honed their craft and developed their work. Strouse authored the autobiography Put on a Happy Face: A Broadway Memoir, published by Union Square Press in July 2008.

In addition to his four children, Strouse is survived by eight grandchildren, Sam and Arthur Strouse, Navah Strouse, Vivian, Weston and Ever Brush, and Owen and Theodore Strouse.

A private ceremony will be held at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in New York City.

The TCM podcast The Plot Thickens returns in July with host Ben Mankiewicz taking a deep dive into the making of Cleopatra, the troubled 1963 drama that starred Elizabeth Taylor and was directed and co-written by his uncle, Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

As TCM notes, the production of the 20th Century Fox film was “plagued from the start by medical emergencies, location changes, climate disasters, nervous breakdowns and egos as big as pyramids…not to mention Taylor’s scandalous love affair with co-star Richard Burton. It fell to [Joe] Mankiewicz to somehow wrest an epic out of chaos.”

The most expensive film ever made at the time — some estimates put the cost at $49 million, or $512 million in today’s dollars — Cleopatra began principal photography in September 1960 and wrapped in July 1962, with reshoots taking place through the following March. It nearly bankrupted the studio.

The lavish movie opened in June 1963, was the highest-grossing film...

As he makes his transition from “Saturday Night Live” into cinema with films like “Wicked” and Andrew Ahn’s upcoming re-imagining of Ang Lee’s “The Wedding Banquet,” Bowen Yang is taking time out to pay homage to the filmmakers who have shaped his tastes. Taking a quick trip to the Criterion Closet, he offered his praise to filmmakers such as Wim Wenders and Whit Stillman, but reserved his highest appreciation for the “pope of trash” himself, John Waters.

Describing Waters as “probably my favorite director ever,” Yang took home his film “Multiple Maniacs” and highlighted the filmmaker’s ability to turn the “abject” into something “beautiful and elevated and filmic.”

“What Divine and Mink Stole do in the church, kind of the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen,” said Yang. “I’m not a pearl-clutcher. It takes a lot to shock me. John Waters is a timeless shocker.

‘Mary Poppins,’ ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show,’ and more top titles are coming to BroadwayHD starting April 1.

If you’re a lover of the spectacle of Broadway musicals, and you haven’t checked out the BroadwayHD streaming service, you cannot wait a moment longer. BroadwayHD has more than 300 professionally recorded performances available, from prestigious theaters the world over. The streamer’s library is getting even more tempting this month, as it has announced the addition of 10 Disney musicals to its catalog.

Key Details: Contemporary and classic Disney titles are joining BroadwayHD. Live musicals from NBCUniversal have also streamed on BroadwayHD. Viewers can sign up for $20 per month if they go directly through the service’s website, but Prime Video offers it for only $9. 7-Day Free Trial $19.99+ / month BroadwayHD via amazon.com

Starting on April 1, BroadwayHD will welcome 10 contemporary and classic musicals and dramas from the Disney archives. Movies will continue to...

While All Elite Wrestling fans know her as high-maintenance, low-saturation champion “Timeless” Toni Storm, moviegoers will meet her Clara Mortensen in Ash Avildsen’s Mildred Burke biopic “Queen of the Ring,” in theaters now.

As both a lifelong wrestling fan and an active participant in the sport, Storm says she was honored to embody an early women’s wrestling pioneer like Mortensen. “It was surreal for me, very surreal. Clara, she was a real person once upon a time. I felt like there was an uncanny resemblance as well. I had no idea I looked so good in yellow.”

Despite limited footage, Storm worked to nail Mortensen’s specific in-ring mannerisms. “I studied absolutely everything and really tried to nail stepping into the role of a female wrestler from the 30s and 40s. When I was filming the actual wrestling part of it, I really tried to make it look...

Julia Garner will no doubt garner applause for her masterful Criterion Closet picks, ranging from auteurs Spike Lee to Bong Joon Ho. Yet it was two distinct features that propelled the “Ozark” star to personally pursue acting: “All About Eve” and John Cassavetes’ “A Woman Under the Influence.”

And if those seem like odd pairings, let Garner herself explain.

“The first film that I’m going to pick is my favorite film, ‘All About Eve.’ Bette Davis is incredible. Anne Baxter, who plays Eve Harrington, is incredible,” Garner said during a visit to the Criterion Closet. “I watch this movie at least once a year, sometimes multiple times a year. I just think this is a perfect film, and I think everybody should watch this.”

“All About Eve” stars Davis as an aging famed stage actress, who becomes the object of obsession by her titular fan-turned-protege assistant (Baxter). Joseph L. Mankiewicz...

It’s a rare type of cinephile who wasn’t introduced to the idea of film as more than just idle entertainment by the ritual of the Academy Awards. And it’s an even rarer type of cinephile who didn’t soon thereafter vehemently reject the Oscars as the ultimate barometer of a film’s artistic worth. Those of us who started off with The Godfather, Schindler’s List, All About Eve, or Casablanca all eventually got around to Out of Africa, Around the World in 80 Days, The Greatest Show on Earth, Cimarron, and Cavalcade.

First loves being first loves, we still find ourselves regressing if for only one night a year, succumbing to the allure of instant canonization even as it comes in the form of repeated slap-in-the-face reminders of Oscar’s bracing wrongness: Gladiator, Braveheart, Chicago, Crash. In that sense, consider this project part cathartic exorcism and part...

In the end, Emilia Pérez went two for 13. Jacques Audiard’s unclassifiable Mexican cartel transgender musical went into the 97th Academy Awards as the theoretical frontrunner. It’s 13 nominations — for best picture, director, actress, supporting actress, adapted screenplay, international feature, cinematography, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, sound and two for original song — were the most ever for a non-English-language film, beating the 10 noms each for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Roma, and within touching distance of the all-time record held by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land, which earned 14 each.

But when the votes were counted, Emilia Pérez walked away with just two awards: A best supporting actress nod for Zoe Saldaña and the best original song honor for “El Mal.”

We all know why. Emilia Pérez suffered the most spectacular derailing of an Oscar campaign in recent memory. There was just a week between the Jan.

Emilia Pérez topped the nominations with 13 nods, just one shy of tying the record for most nominations from a single film. Titanic, All About Eve, and La La Land all received 14 nominations. The film, a crime musical centered on a cartel leader who transitions, made history with its recognition. Actress Karla Sofía Gascón, who plays the titular role, became the first transgender woman to be…

Source...

The 2025 Academy Awards are right around the corner, and it has already started making noise among fans and critics alike. Featuring genre-bending films and celebrating innovative acting, this year’s lineup shows an incredible range of modern cinema.

With an emphasis on diversity, bold storytelling, and creative cinematography, the Academy has nominated a wide range of films that have quite different approaches to cinema than traditional films.

A still from the movie Emelia Pérez | Credits: Netflix

Despite the diversity and bold genres being selected, this year’s nominations have not outrun controversies. The Apprentice’s lead actor Sebastian Stan received a nomination for Best Actor for a Leading Role, while actors like Daniel Craig did not get listed despite his solid performance in a critically acclaimed film like Queer. Another film dominating conversations is Emilia Pérez.

The Jacques Audiard-directed film has taken center stage with its record-breaking thirteen nominations.

Nancy Olson, the last living star of Billy Wilder’s seminal Hollywood satire Sunset Boulevard, still remembers Oscar night 1951. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won three.

Olson, 96, shared her recollections on a recent episode of It Happened in Hollywood, The Hollywood Reporter‘s eyewitness film history podcast.

Olson was just 22 at the time, and Sunset Boulevard was only her second picture in a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures. The role — Betty, a studio reader with ambitions to be a screenwriter — earned her a best supporting actress nomination.

“I did not expect to win and I did not win,” Olson told host Seth Abramovitch. “I felt very rewarded being nominated and that was quite enough.”

She says she sensed her fate was sealed when she entered the Pantages Theatre and was ushered to her less-than-prime spot. “I was seated in the back, on the side,” Olson says.

The statuette,...

The term “box office bomb,” used to describe films that fail to recoup their budget, has been thrown around a lot over the years. Except for Battlefield Earth and Gigli, no other film has been on the receiving end of this term more than Showgirls. One of the films made in Hollywood by Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, Showgirls has been the subject of ridicule by many and reevaluated in recent years as a clever satire by others.

Its presentation has been described as everything from exaggerated to campy, and the ostentatious performance by its star, Elizabeth Berkley, is far from subtle. Perhaps that’s the intention. Showgirls received numerous comparisons to All About Eve, and, at its core, includes the narrative of someone on a journey to stardom only to be fooled by the bright lights of the big city. Anyone who had paid close attention to the films made...

Wicked, Conclave, and Nosferatu took top honors at the 29th Annual Art Directors Guild Awards (aka the Excellence in Production Design Awards) Saturday. Rachael Harris hosted the show from the InterContinental Ballroom in Los Angeles.

The Art Directors Guild divides its top film prizes into Period, Contemporary, and Fantasy Feature categories, which went to the Oscar-nominated production designers for Nosferatu, Conclave, and Wicked, respectively. Since the inception of these awards, the winner of one of those three has gone on to win the Best Art Direction/Production Design Oscar in 19 of the 28 years and 10 of the past 11 years. The three films will go up against Dune: Part Two and The Brutalist next month for the production design Academy Award, with Wicked considered not only the frontrunner but a heavily-favored one at that.

Nosferatu won top Period Feature over fellow nominees A Complete Unknown, The Brutalist, Gladiator II, and Saturday Night.

Wicked, Nosferatu, Conclave, Shogun, The Penguin, Fallout and Squid Game were among the winners at the Art Directors Guild Awards on Saturday night.

The 29th annual Excellence in Production Design Awards were handed out by the Art Director’s Guild (Adg, IATSE Local 800) at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown during an event hosted by comedian Rachael Harris.

The Adg wins will have the attention of those looking for signs of who will take the Academy Award for production design. The winner of the Adg’s fantasy film honor have taken home the production design Oscar three times in the past six years, with Poor Things, Dune and Black Panther all going on to win the Oscar. The period film winner also won the Oscar twice during this period, with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Mank taking home statues. But in 2023, Babylon took home the Adg period win, but...

“Nosferatu,”“Wicked” and “Conclave” have won the top feature-film awards at the Art Directors Guild’s Excellence in Production Design Awards, which took place on Saturday night in Los Angeles.

“Nosferatu” won in the Period Feature Film category, where its competitors included its fellow Oscar nominee “The Brutalist”; “Wicked” won in Fantasy Feature Film against fellow nominee “Dune: Part Two,” among others; and “Conclave” won in the Contemporary Feature Film category.

In the 18 years since the Adg separated its awards into period, fantasy and contemporary categories, one of the guild winners has gone on to win the Oscar for Best Production Design 14 times. Seven of those awards have come from the period category, six from the fantasy category and one from the contemporary category.

The animated feature category was won by “The Wild Robot,” continuing its roll through awards season.

In the television categories, winners included “Squid Game,” “The Penguin,...

“Conclave, “Nosferatu,” and “Wicked” won honors at the 28th Art Directors Guild (IATSE Local 800) Excellence in Production Design Awards, Saturday at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown.

The Adg divides live-action features into three categories. Production designer Craig Lathrop’s work on early 1800s-set horror adaptation “Nosferatu” won the award in the period film category. Production designer Nathan Crowley’s creation of the “Wicked” land of Oz won the award for a fantasy film, and production designer Suzie Davies’ Vatican sets delivered “Conclave” the trophy for a contemporary film.

“Conclave,” “Nosteratu” and “Wicked,” along with Adg nominees “The Brutalist” and “Dune: Part Two” are nominated for the Oscar in production design. A year ago, “Poor Things” won the Adg Award for a fantasy film en route to an Oscar win in the category.

At the Adg Awards, “The Wild Robot” continued its winning streak, collecting the Adg Award in feature animation.

Wicked, Nosferatu, Conclave and The Wild Robot took top film honors at the 29th annual Art Directors Guild Awards, which were handed out tonight at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown. TV winners included Fallout, Shōgun, The Penguin, Squid Game, Saturday Night Live, Frasier and What We Do in the Shadows.

Check out the full list below.

Warner Bros’ Wicked won for Fantasy Feature Film, and Focus Features pics took the other two top film prizes: vampire horror Nosferatu won for Period Feature Film, and papal drama Conclave took Contemporary Feature Film, the first film award of the night. All three will go up against fellow Adg nominees The Brutalist, Dune: Part Two and Wicked for the Production Design Oscar next month.

Since the trophy show launched in 1996, the winner of one of those has gone on to win the Art Direction/Production Design Oscar in 19 of the 28 years. It had...

Most readers recall the night of February 26, 2017, when Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty took to the stage at the 89th Academy Awards ceremony. That was the year "La La Land" was nominated for a whopping 14 Oscars, tying the nomination record of films like "Titanic" and "All About Eve." In the Best Picture category, it faced off against "Arrival," "Fences," "Hell or High Water," "Hacksaw Ridge," "Hidden Figures," "Lion," and "Manchester by the Sea." They were all defeated (most would argue rightly) by Barry Jenkins' subdued queer drama "Moonlight." 

Of course, when Best Picture was announced, a mixup was revealed. Beatty and Dunaway were handed a backup envelope for Best Actress by mistake. Emma Stone had just won Best Actress for "La La Land," but the "spare" envelope was still backstage. When Beatty opened it in front of an audience of billions, he looked a little confused. He showed the envelope to Dunaway,...

Ten movies made the cut for Best Picture at the 2025 Oscars: Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, I’m Still Here, Nickel Boys, The Substance, and Wicked. But which one will be named the winner when the final envelope is opened on March 2?

After the nominations were announced, five top Oscar experts from major media outlets wrapped up their first session of winner predictions for Best Picture: Gold Derby’s Debra Birnbaum, Deadline’s Pete Hammond, Variety‘s Clayton Davis, The Hollywood Reporter‘s Scott Feinberg, and Indiewire’s Anne Thompson. Watch their Oscars slugfest video above.

“Following nominations, you have to say Emilia Pérez [is the winner, because of its] 13 nominations on paper,” Davis proclaims. However, he concedes that “six movies can win Best Picture … they have their own individual pathway,” referring to Anora, The Brutalist, Conclave, Wicked, A Complete Unknown, and Emilia Pérez. “You could tell me they won...

When it comes to this year’s Oscar nominations, the love was spread across the distributor scoreboard, from legacy Hollywood studios and their specialty divisions, to streamers and maverick indie distributors.

Netflix walked away with the most of any individual distributor on Tuesday with a total of 16 nods after Emilia Pérez landed a spot in 13 categories, the most of any film this year and setting a new record for a non-English-language film. And it’s just one shy of the all-time record for any film (All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land each landed 14).

Next up on the Academy’s scorecard of top-nominated individual distributors was powerhouse A24 with 14, including 10 for The Brutalist. The movie, which swept the Golden Globes, will use its front-runner status as it continues to expand in theaters, where it has earned a promising $5.9 million despite only playing in several hundred cinemas to date.

Universal...

In case anyone needed a reminder that “Film Twitter” and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are not populated by the same people, Emilia Pérez, the polarizing French-directed, Spanish-language musical about a trans Mexican gangster, landed a field-leading 13 Oscar nominations on Thursday morning. That tally — encompassing noms for best picture, director, actress, supporting actress, adapted screenplay, international feature, cinematography, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, sound and two for original song — smashed the record for a non-English-language film (previously held by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Roma, which had 10 each) and is just one shy of the all-time record for any film (All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land each landed 14).

Is Jacques Audiard’s Netflix film unbeatable? Of course not. Plenty of people have issues with the film, including many members of the Mexican and trans communities, who find it offensive, and critics and general audiences,...

Emilia Pérez has set a new Oscar precedent for an international film with 13 nominations, breaking the record held by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) from Taiwan, and Roma (2018) from Mexico, both with 10. Emilia Pérez‘s huge nomination haul was only one away from tying the all-time Oscar record set by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016).

The Netflix crime musical is about a cartel kingpin (Karla Sofía Gascón) who, with the help of a small-time lawyer (Zoe Saldaña), tries to begin a new life after going through a gender transition. Here are all the nominations the movie received on Jan. 23, including acclaimed filmmaker Jacques Audiard as the director and writer.

Best Picture

Best Director

Jacques Audiard

Best Actress

Karla Sofía Gascón as Juan “Manitas” Del Monte

Best Supporting Actress

Zoe Saldaña as Rita Mora Castro

Best Adapted Screenplay

Jacques Audiard

Best International Film

France

Best Score

Clément Ducol and...

When it comes to predicting Oscar nominations it is always a crap shoot, but I think it is safe to say that there is music in the air in the Best Picture race with original musical Emilia Pérez, Bob Dylan musical biopic A Complete Unknown and the Broadway musical adaptation Wicked all likely to be the talk of the town around 5:45 a.m. or so when the noms announcement is over and done with Thursday morning. All will be nominated for Best Picture, making it the most musical lineup in the category since My Fair Lady fought off Mary Poppins 60 years ago.

To invoke the name of another Best Picture contender (that is not a musical), you should be able to Sing Sing this group.

Related: Where To Watch 30 Of The Oscar Contenders, From ‘Emilia Pérez’ To ‘Conclave’

The aforementioned Netflix marvel Emilia Pérez has some pundits wondering whether...

In the year without a frontrunner, the doors are still wide open. I’m predicting three films will tie for the most nominations with 10 each: “Conclave,” “Emilia Pérez” and “Wicked.”

Jacques Audiard’s crime musical “Emilia Pérez” is poised to dominate, and if it can tack on a tech nom or two, the Netflix film could become the most nominated non-English-language film in history, surpassing “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000) and “Roma” (2018). The streamer’s primary awards pony could potentially go even further. On an ideal nomination day, if it lands nods in all of its “on the bubble” categories — such as cinematography, sound, and two extra bids for supporting actress (Selena Gomez) and original song — it could secure 14 nominations, tying with “All About Eve” (1950), “Titanic” (1997), and “La La Land” (2016) as the most-nominated films of all time. Notably, “La La Land,” also a musical, is the only one to lose the best picture.