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Marcel Ophuls, the Oscar-winning, German-born French filmmaker whose powerfully eloquent documentaries confronted difficult political, moral and philosophical issues, has died. He was 97.

Ophuls “died peacefully” at his home in the south of France, his grandson Andreas-Benjamin Seyfert told The Hollywood Reporter.

Ophuls earned his Academy Award — as well as prizes from the Cannes and Berlin film festivals— for Hotel Terminus (1988), a 4-hour, 27-minute documentary that examined the life of the notorious Klaus Barbie, convicted in Bolivia of his Nazi war crimes in 1987.

Ophuls’ best known work, however, came almost two decades earlier with The Sorrow and the Pity (1969), which explored the reality of the Nazi occupation in the small industrial French city of Clermont-Ferrand.

Ophuls spent more than two years compiling the more than 60 hours of footage that was eventually boiled down to that 4-hour, 11-minute film, which delineated France’s compliance with Nazi Germany. (Some in the country supported...

Watch the exclusive clip of Barbara Crampton from the “Re-Animator” 4K restoration above.

Forty years ago, Barbara Crampton was at the beginning of her screen career when director Stuart Gordon cast her in his debut film “Re-Animator,” a wildly funny and audacious horror movie based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft. “I had come from the theater and it was one of my first jobs,” Crampton told IndieWire. “I had worked with Brian De Palma for a minute and on a soap opera, but I think I was too green to understand that we were doing something special.”

“Re-Animator” was something special indeed, a bold and original film that not only ignored the boundaries of good taste but demolished them, yet exhibited an artistry that earned it positive reviews from critics like Pauline Kael and Roger Ebert. “Re-Animator” quickly attracted a cult following, thanks to Gordon’s rollercoaster script,...

I’ve always found it fascinating to learn the favourite movies of the filmmakers behind my own favourites—more often than not, I end up discovering something new. To promote a special video episode of The Video Archives Podcast, Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary have revealed their top 3 movies (right now).

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Here are Quentin Tarantino’s top three movies:

The Man in the Iron Mask (1939) by James Whale The Son of Monte Cristo (1940) by Rowland V. Lee The Last of the Mohicans (1936) by George B. Seitz

And here are Roger Avary’s top three movies:

A Clockwork Orange (1971) by Stanley Kubrick Sorcerer (1977) by William Friedkin M (1931) by Fritz Lang

Some fun films there, with Sorcerer being one of my personal favourites.

Related Steven Soderbergh was surprised that Quentin Tarantino agreed to let David Fincher direct Once...

One of H.P. Lovecraft's most important stories is being adapted for the big screen. Again. A new adaptation of Herbert West: Reanimator, the 1922 short story that inspired the 1985 horror comedy Re-Animator, is in the works. The film will give modern audiences a new chance to witness the sick mind of West, the scientist who develops a serum that can bring corpses back to life. Herbert West: Reanimator was one of the first literary works to include "zombies" as reanimated corpses with uncontrollable urges.

As reported by Deadline, screenwriters Adam Simon and Tim Metcalfe, of The Haunting in Connecticut fame, will write the script for the new project. They'll reunite with executive producer Andrew Trapani, who worked with them on The Haunting in Connecticut and also produced the horror film Winchester. A director is yet to be announced for the film.

Woodlake Entertainment is on board as the production studio behind the project.

Cut the Bacalov…In a short period, Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary’s Video Archives Podcast became one of the essential movie podcasts out there. With serious, encyclopedic knowledge mixed with respectful and passionate banter, the podcast is essential listening for any film buff. Yet, even if you think you know your sh*t, you pale in comparison to what Qt and Avary have to offer…and they don’t care one bit.

Tarantino recently said that he’s not concerned with whether or not you have seen the movies they’re discussing but that you’re invested in The Video Archives Podcast itself. “I want you to listen to our show, and I want you to like the show. I have not seen every movie of every Pauline Kael review I’ve read. But I like reading the reviews. We’re not a ‘recommend’ show. If we do end...

If Quentin Tarantino is a cinema god, the historic Vista Theater is his church. On Tuesday night, his disciples flocked to the hallowed aisles of the Los Feliz venue (which he owns) for the first-ever live taping of his podcast with Roger Avary and Gala Avary, “The Video Archives.”

The podcast, named for the iconic movie rental store of the same name where both Tarantino and Roger Avary once worked, sees the trio revisit some of their favorite old B-movies and discover new ones.

The live event, held exclusively for Patreon members, hosted about 400 cinephiles (dozens of whom were naturally clad in “Pulp Fiction” shirts) for a surprise screening curated by the the “Video Archives” team, followed by an off-the-cuff edition of the popular podcast.

Before the screening began, Tarantino cued up a selection of four wild 35mm trailers for films previously discussed on the podcast: “The Illustrated Man,” “Straw Dogs,...

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, legendary film critic Pauline Kael grouped together a new generation of filmmakers by calling them The Movie Brats. Her grouping of young and influential filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola and Brian De Palma would come to define the shift in the movie-making sensibilities of Hollywood and herald the birth of the modern blockbuster with movies like Jaws and The Godfather.

One of the most impactful directors of the Movie Brats generation, Martin Scorsese, has been making complicated and entertaining films for more than 50 years. Many of his movies are considered the best of all time, and his most flawless movies are the ones that are able to beautifully and tragically capture the darkest sides of the human condition.

The Aviator Cemented Scorsese's Relationship With Leonardo DiCaprio

Many of Martin Scorsese's best works are based on real stories about tragic historical figures,...

Between 1971 and 1983, a new Al Pacino performance was an event ... most of the time. No one was excited to see Pacino follow up the supercharged "Cruising" by playing a stressed-out papa in Arthur Hiller's abominable 1982 family dramedy "Author! Author!" Other than that, there was always the promise of greatness with Pacino, whether presented in the form of "Panic in Needle Park" or "Scarface." And when your peak is "Dog Day Afternoon" and/or "The Godfather Part II," that's pure, transcendent craft.

There was, however, a growing sense with Pacino around the time he did the controversial "Scarface" that the actor was eschewing nuance and depth for scenery-devouring showmanship. His Tony Montana was the culmination of a tendency towards growling and gesticulating (which began in films like "...And Justice for All" and "Cruising"), topped off with a thick Cuban accent. It's a towering performance, but it's also one that proved difficult for him to shed.

“Are You Experienced?” is the spring 2025 edition of the Notebook Insert, a seasonal supplement on moving-image culture.Multiplex asks filmmakers, critics, and artists for short-form responses to the topic at hand. In this issue, our contributors imagine cinematic paraphernalia of the world to come, each one illustrated by Jake Tobin.Andrew Norman Wilson on Total FictionFilmmaker; director, Silvesterchlausen (2024)Imagine a world of pure light. There’s no screen between you and the fantasies that ensnare you, no physical body dividing you from the image. Just full immersion in the mind’s eye, as though a single retina lines the inner surface of a globe that contains all things. Bodies will be unnecessary in this world of pure light. We’ll have no use for their unwieldy skeletons and central nervous systems, so spaces won’t have to be arranged like the one you’re in now. Math will simply tune...

In the age of streaming, there’s a widespread belief that every movie is available, all the time, everywhere. Don’t fall for it! Some of the greatest movies ever made are nowhere to be found due to everything from music rights snafus to corporate negligence. In this column, we take a look at films currently out-of-print on physical media and unavailable on any streaming platform in an effort to draw attention to them and say to their rights holders, “Release This!”

When Peter Bogdanovich‘s musical “At Long Last Love” opened in 1975, the verdict was nearly unanimous — critics agreed that the wunderkind behind “The Last Picture Show,” “What’s Up, Doc?” and “Paper Moon” had badly stumbled in his attempt to revive the style of 1930s Ernst Lubitsch musicals like “The Love Parade” and “The Merry Widow.” Even Roger Ebert, who gave the movie one of its more sympathetic reviews,...

In 2020, film critic Alissa Wilkinson started working on a book project about Joan Didion. She wanted to explore the iconic essayist, reporter, novelist and playwright through an angle that hadn’t been considered much before — Didion’s connection to the film industry. That became the book, “We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine.”

Wilkinson, who has been a critic at The New York Times since 2023 and wrote for Vox before that, was not interested in delving into Didion’s “persona or her celebrity, as much as what ties all her work together.”

“I came up with this notion of writing about her through the lens of Hollywood, both because she worked in Hollywood and wrote movies that have been produced and that we still watch today, but also because she wrote about Hollywood,” Wilkinson told Variety in a recent phone interview.

“We Tell Ourselves Stories,” which was published Tuesday,...

Update 4:54 Pm Et: Gene Hackman, whose authenticity and authority onscreen gave him the stature of a leading man in a career he built as a character actor, is dead at age 95. Hackman along with his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa (age 63), were found dead inside their Santa Fe, New Mexico home on Wednesday afternoon, according to a statement from the Santa Fe Sheriff’s office, as was a dog.

Officials did a safety check on the scene due to the “unusual circumstances” of Hackman and Arakawa’s death, but it was deemed safe and a search warrant was issued. The Sheriff’s office said there were “no apparent signs of foul play” and have yet to determine a cause of death. Autopsy and toxicology reports are pending, no external trauma was noticed initially on either individual. It remains an open investigation.

Any effort to count our greatest film actors...

Gene Hackman, a two-time Oscar winner for “The French Connection” and “Unforgiven,” and his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, were found dead Wednesday afternoon in their Santa Fe, N.M. home. The office of Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed their deaths to Variety after midnight Thursday. There is no immediate indication of foul play, per authorities, though the Sheriff’s office did not immediately provide a cause of death. Hackman was 95. Arakawa was 63.

On Wednesday, Sheriff’s deputies visited the home of Hackman and Arakawa, who married in 1991. The couple was found dead, alongside their dog.

“All I can say is that we’re in the middle of a preliminary death investigation, waiting on approval of a search warrant,” the sheriff told the Santa Fe New Mexican. The statement came before authorities had positively identified the pair, per the publication. “I want to assure the community and neighborhood...

Jeremy Strong, star of the HBO hit series Succession and recent first-time Oscar nominee, is set to play a Nazi hunter in a new adaptation of the conspiracy thriller novel The Boys from Brazil, according to a report from Deadline.

The Netflix series will be executive produced by The Crown showrunner Peter Morgan. Strong will play Yakov Liebermann, the lead character loosely based on real-life Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. The role was previously portrayed by Laurence Olivier in a 1978 feature adaptation of the novel.

The story chronicles Liebermann's attempts to uncover a secret project launched by notorious Nazi officer Josef Mengele, who was nicknamed "the Angel of Death" due to his sinister experiments during the Holocaust. In the novel, Mengele has successfully planted dozens of genetic clones of Adolf Hitler in an attempt to rebuild the Third Reich.

The project may be intended as a contemporary political commentary. Strong received...

Our first roundup of 2025 features some major releases; given the state of things, we should be very thankful for that. Note that our next column will include a lengthy list of new and recent novels and short fiction (one highlight is a short story collection from Burning director Lee Chang-dong) as well as noteworthy Blu-Ray and 4K releases from Criterion and Warner Home Entertainment. In other words, plenty to get lost in––thank goodness for that.

But before then, we have the following terrific texts, starting with an extraordinary biography of one of our greatest living filmmakers.

The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terrence Malick by John Bleasdale (University Press of Kentucky)

John Bleasdale’s Magic Hours is, remarkably, the first in-depth biography of Terrence Malick. This in itself makes the book a crucially important release. Indeed, this is an essential book on cinema, one written with...

Those of us who are hopeful for the comeback, or at least survival, of the theatrical motion picture are finding this Oscar season to be especially discomforting. If you’re lucky enough to identify a favorite, you also have to figure out how and where to see it.

The Academy thus is understandably edgy about voter “turnout”: Will members cast ballots for movies they may not have ever seen or heard about?

William Goldman, the legendary screenwriter, is often quoted for commenting that “no one knows anything” about making hit movies, but my favorite Goldmanism would be more relevant today. He wanted the data on Oscar voting to be made public, thus telling us “how voters really feel about their industry.”

While the Academy roundly denounced his 1995 proposal, I would argue that a breakdown this year would actually provide helpful insights. How are members dealing with challenging movies like Emilia Pérez or The Brutalist?...

Over the course of his very long career, director Frederick Wiseman has always worked in nonfiction, in the realm of the real, yet his films may best be described as novelistic. Embedding himself in hospitals, schools, theater and dance groups, neighborhoods, and towns across the U.S. and occasionally Europe, he uncovers human drama, pathos, and psychological detail that escape the eye of the ordinary observer.

He began making films almost 60 years ago and has continued at the astonishing pace of just about one documentary a year ever since, his most recent film coming in 2023 with the magnum opus Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros (a four-hour-long movie the New York Times hailed as “absorbing start to finish.”).

Fred Wiseman films L-r ‘Aspen,’ ‘Deaf,’ ‘Central Park,’ ‘Basic Training,’ and ‘Ballet’

To recognize this unparalleled body of nonfiction cinema, Film at Lincoln Center is honoring the director with a retrospective titled “Frederick Wiseman: An American Institution.

David Lynch, the visionary filmmaker who died Thursday at 78, months after revealing he had been diagnosed with emphysema as a lifetime smoker, was such an essential figure in the history of cinema that he had his own adjective: Lynchian. The term describes works that share characteristics with some of his most memorable creations.

Lynch’s work was unmistakable. “I loved David’s films. Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and Elephant Man defined him as a singular, visionary dreamer who directed films that felt handmade,” Steven Spielberg, who cast Lynch to play John Ford in The Fabelmans, said in the aftermath of his friend’s death. It’s a sentiment shared widely on social media over the last several hours.

In movies like 1986’s Blue Velvet, 1997’s Lost Highway, and 2001’s Mulholland Drive — not to mention the 1990s ABC TV drama Twin Peaks — Lynch portrayed a mundane America of seemingly pastoral splendor undercut by stupefaction and terror.

David Lynch, the writer-director whose films and TV series including Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and Twin Peaks portrayed a seemingly bucolic America, only to reveal it as teeming with the mysterious and macabre, has died. He was 78.

Lynch’s death was announced on his Facebook page:

“It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch. We would appreciate some privacy at this time. There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.’ … It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”

In August, he revealed that he was suffering from emphysema after many years of smoking and that he couldn’t leave home for fear that he would get Covid-19.

Nobody...

Ridley Scott sat down with GQ magazine for a retrospective video interview and revealed that the financiers on “Blade Runner” originally questioned his decision to cast Harrison Ford in the lead role. Ford was already Han Solo in “Star Wars” at the point in his career, in addition to being picked by Steven Spielberg to headline “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Apparently the financiers were not paying attention.

“Harrison Ford was not a star. He had just finished flying the Millennium Falcon in ‘Star Wars,'” Scott said. “I remember my financiers saying, ‘Who the fuck is Harrison Ford?’ And I said, ‘You’re going to find out.’ Harry became my leading man.”

Spielberg was in post-production on “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and gave Ford a thumbs up when Scott asked about if he should cast the actor in “Blade Runner.” Ford was interested in working with Scott on...

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When done with a modicum of proficiency, action movies are pure cinema. They are kinetic, ecstatic, and occasionally balletic. Whether we're watching hand-to-hand brawls, bullet-whizzing shootouts, or tire-squealing car chases, action cinema holds the potential to leave us gasping and cheering as stunt people (or combat-trained actors) strut their fearless stuff. And if the director is skilled enough to inventively storyboard, shot-by-chaotic-shot, the mayhem unfolding on the screen, your reward is nothing short of bliss.

While the action films of maestros like John Woo, Jackie Chan, and Walter Hill make life worth living, a true movie junkie can get their daily fix from a down-and-dirty formula flick laden with crudely executed punch-ups and twisted-metal set pieces. There is a nobility to this kind of filmmaking. In her vital essay "Trash, Art and the Movies," legendary film critic Pauline Kael wrote,...

Sir Ridley Scott thinks ‘Blade Runner’ flopped because of “industrial espionage”.The Harrison Ford-starring sci-fi flick bombed at the box office when it hit cinemas in 1982, and the 87-year-old director has now pointed to bad reviews of the film from the likes of The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael as the main reason why ‘Blade Runner’ never got the chance to commercially succeed.In a roundtable interview for The Hollywood Reporter, Scott said: “It enters the realm of industrial espionage. You’re destroying the subject before it’s out and [Kael] wrote this for the very posh …The New Yorker.“I was actually kind of distressed, I mean enraged, so I wrote to the editor, saying, ‘If you hate me that much, just ignore me, don’t write anything.’ I never got a reply.”While its release didn’t impress financially, ‘Blade Runner’ got a second chance after it...

Ridley Scott is a director that has known what it is like to see his movies fail to impress critics, bomb at the box office and then discover an incredible cult following decades later. One such movie to go through this process was Blade Runner, arguably one of the greatest masterpieces of Scott’s long career, and an extraordinary example of how sometimes the fate of a movie is not in the hands of those who made it.

In a recent roundtable for The Hollywood Reporter, Scott recalled how a bad review of Blade Runner by The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael was something he considered to be “industrial espionage,” and how only a chance intervention a decade after the film’s release saw it finally get the recognition it deserved through what Scott dubs “the craziness of Hollywood.” He explained:

“[I said] it enters the realm of industrial espionage. You’re...

The title of Jean Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore refers to Marie (Bernadette Lafont), whose status as a 30-year-old marks her as effectively middle aged to her modestly younger peers, and Veronika (Françoise Lebrun), a hospital nurse who copes with the tedium of her experience with casual sex. These reductive, misogynistic archetypes of female behavior aren’t reflective of the film’s own views, but those of Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a disaffected young intellectual who lives with Marie and is increasingly drawn to Veronika.

Alexandre airs his misogyny from the start as he meets up with his ex-girlfriend (Isabelle Weingarten). Speeding past any attempt at reconciliation, Alexandre proposes marriage, then proceeds to rant about her new relationship. Asking if she does the same things with her new beau as they did together, Alexandre maintains an outward veneer of calm but cannot keep the venom out of his voice.

Two of John Travolta's most famous movies have topped the charts on Pluto. Grease (1978) and Pulp Fiction (1994) are currently streaming for free and sit at #6 and #7, respectively. Both movies were popular and influential when they debuted, and have stood the test of time, as new generations have discovered both. And the two movies couldn't be more different, with one being a musical and the other a crime thriller with a non-linear structure.

Travolta was coming off his hit film, Saturday Night Fever in 1977 when Grease opened a year later and became a beloved hit, earning nearly $160 million at the domestic box office on a $6 million budget (not counting releases). The instant classic about a greaser named Danny (Travolta) falling in love with Sandy (Olivia Newton John), a well-to-do girl, cemented his major movie star status, and is considered one of the greatest musicals ever.

By the time Pulp Fiction...

Between the end of the ’60s and the turn of the ’70s, onscreen heroes who could save the day fizzled out in popularity. Many films were either staunchly liberal or left-wing, from “The Battle of Algiers” (1966) to “Z” (1969) and “The Confession” (1970), with protagonists as victims of fascist right-wing regimes. Films with heavy-hearted themes opened audiences’ eyes by examining the victims and consequences of these systems. It seemed conservatives were missing a hero to affirm and spread the message of their misunderstood beliefs and principles. Enter: Dirty Harry.

Harry Callahan, played by the blueprint of ideal male masculinity, Clint Eastwood, took control and got stuff done on his own terms. He challenged an entire nation’s political and moral compass. A police inspector working in the heart of San Francisco, one of the most liberal states in America, puts an end to the real perpetrators of crimes committed in the homeland — hippies!

You know a movie is legendary when, even decades later, its characters are still imprinted on our minds. When you think of Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 crime masterpiece, Pulp Fiction, what flashes before your eyes? The razor-sharp dialogue, the unforgettable dance between Mia and Vincent, or perhaps the sight of Vincent Vega in that iconic black suit, exuding effortless cool?

For those of us who lived through the early ’90s cinematic revolution, Pulp Fiction is one of those rare films that stuck in our minds like gum on the bottom of a shoe.

Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction | Credit: Miramax Films

But, there’s an aspect of this cult classic that’s far less talked about—the paycheck that Travolta took for playing the unforgettable Vincent Vega. Now, you’d be forgiven for assuming that an actor of Travolta’s pedigree would waltz onto the set and...

Ridley Scott's earliest films are now cult classics, but only Alien was a breakout hit when it was released in theaters. Scott reflected on Blade Runner's fumble at the box office.

Ridley Scott said Blade Runner and Alien would have been equally successful if not for one film critic's scathing feedback. "She destroyed me," he told Entertainment Weekly, referring to Pauline Kael, The New Yorker's legendary film critic who "destroyed Blade Runner in four pages."

"I didn't even meet her," he added. "To me, it almost walked in the column of industrial espionage, because you're destroying a product before it's out." Scott confirmed he had those four pages framed and mounted in his office, as his constant reminder not to read and believe his own press.

Related 'I Had No Choice': Ridley Scott Opens Up About Losing Alien and Blade Runner Franchises

Ridley Scott has directed and produced many blockbusters,...

Forty years later and Ridley Scott is still determined to make films about abnormal topics — or at least rebuff whatever studio advice is being doled out.

Scott said during the Director’s Guild of America’s “Director’s Cut” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that his first four films — “The Duellists,” “Alien,” “Blade Runner,” and “Legend” — were plagued by bad marketing tactics and were misunderstood by studios and audiences upon release.

“There’s only one film worked out of all of that lot,” Scott said, seemingly referring to the franchise-spurring “Alien,” “but they’re a pretty good first four movies. So I knew I’m on the right track.”

Scott even said that Pauline Kael’s review of his now-classic 1982 feature “Blade Runner” was indicative of how “wrong” audiences and critics were of his early films.

“To me, it almost walked in the column of industrial espionage,” Scott said of the infamous review,...

Ridley Scott reveals the advice he got as a young filmmaker following several high-profile disappointments. Now 87 years old, Scott has been making movies for nearly 50 years. After working in TV and commercials, Scott released his first movie in 1997 called The Duellists. The filmmaker followed up this film's lackluster theatrical run with his iconic sci-fi horror, Alien, in 1979, followed by the beloved Blade Runner in 1982, and Legend in 1985. Only Alien was a commercial success at the time.

During a recent discussion with Alien: Romulus director Fede Alvarez on the Director's Guild of America's The Director's Cut podcast (via EW), Scott reflects on these early-career disappointments. The filmmaker recalls getting some unwelcome advice from a studio executive at the time, who recommended that he make movies "about normal people" instead. Check out Scott's recollection of the encounter below:

"There's only one film worked out of all of that lot. But they're a pretty good first four movies.

Ridley Scott revealed on the Director’s Guild of America’s “Director’s Cut” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that he was criticized by a studio executive early in his career for not making movies about “normal people.” Scott’s directing career kicked off with his Cannes-winning historical drama “The Duellists,” followed by “Alien,” “Blade Runner” and the fantasy adventure “Legend.”

“There’s only one film worked out of all of that lot, but they’re a pretty good first four movies. So I knew I’m on the right track,” Scott said. “But somebody at one of the studios said to me, ‘Why don’t you do a film about normal people?’ I went, ‘What the fuck does that mean?’ Because no one’s normal unless you’re totally boring, right?”

While “Alien” and “Blade Runner” are considered science-fiction classics, they did not necessarily start out their runs that way.

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In the history of the Academy Awards, only 17 Westerns have ever been nominated for Best Picture. A brief list of the nominees: "In Old Arizona" (1928), "Cimarron" (1931), "Viva Villa!" (1934), "Stagecoach" (1939), "The Ox-Bow Incident" (1943), "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" (1948), "High Noon" (1952), "Shane" (1953), "How the West Was Won" (1963), "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969), "Dances with Wolves" (1990), "Unforgiven" (1992), "No Country for Old Men" (2007), "True Grit" (2010), "Django Unchained" (2012), "Hell or High Water" (2016), and "The Power of the Dog" (2021).

Others may be on the border of the genre, like, say, "Brokeback Mountain" or "The Revenant," but the above 17 are indisputable.

The first of those 17 films to win Best Picture was Wesley Ruggles' American history epic "Cimarron," one of the highest-reviewed films of its day. Variety's 1931 review of the film praised it as one of the modern age's great spectacles, a pinnacle of pop filmmaking.

Marshall Brickman, who won an Oscar for writing “Annie Hall” alongside Woody Allen and also collaborated with him on “Sleeper,” “Manhattan” and “Manhattan Murder Mystery,” died Friday in Manhattan. He was 85.

His daughter Sophie confirmed his death to the New York Times.

Brickman co-wrote Broadway musicals “Jersey Boys” and “The Addams Family” and started out writing for “Candid Camera” and “The Tonight Show,” where he developed the famous Johnny Carson character, Carnac the Magnificent. He also worked on the pilot for “The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence,” which later became “The Muppet Show.”

Brickman and Allen’s script for “Annie Hall” became one of the most frequently quoted and well-remembered screenplays ever, winning numerous other awards in addition to the original screenplay Oscar. “‘Annie Hall’ contains more intellectual wit and cultural references than any other movie ever to win the Oscar for best picture,” wrote Roger Ebert in a 2002 appreciation.

Courtesy of Eureka Entertainment

by James Cameron-wilson

Perhaps surprisingly, Juggernaut is being released on Blu-ray for the first time in the United Kingdom, from a high-definition restoration, to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. When Juggernaut was first released in cinemas in 1974, it was at the height of the disaster movie era, following on from The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and, in the same year, Airport 1975, Earthquake and The Towering Inferno, all stories featuring numerous sundry characters trapped together in terrifying circumstances. However, Juggernaut was a very different thing, both in its execution and in its presentation. Loosely inspired by the bomb hoax on board the QE2 luxury liner in 1972, the film was originally to have been directed by Bryan Forbes. However, when Forbes jumped ship, he was replaced by the American TV director Don Medford, who also left the project at the last minute, leaving the production company with the enormous daily...

Ridley Scott is reclaiming negativity.

The Gladiator II director spoke out in an interview with Entertainment Weekly about a 42-year-old review, which is now framed in his office, despite the fact that it “destroyed” him.

“Well, you may not agree, but at the end of the day, as a director, my state [and] age level, I haven’t honestly read press since Pauline Kael destroyed me on Blade Runner,” he said.

Keep reading to find out more…

“Pauline Kael destroyed Blade Runner. That’s 42 years ago to the extent I was so dismayed, I think is the word, I framed the four pages [of the review] in The New Yorker. It’s in my office now, which reminds me to never believe your own press, good or bad. So I don’t read it.”

“Blade Runner has nothing to give the audience—not even a second of sorrow for Sebastian. It hasn’t been thought out in human terms.

Steven Spielberg was playing with house money as he prepared to make his fifth feature. His previous two films, "Jaws" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," had combined to gross the 2024 equivalent of $4.4 billion. He could've gotten a shot-for-shot remake of "Andrei Rublev" greenlit if he'd pressed the issue. He also could've hedged his bets and directed "Jaws 2." Whatever he made next, he was going to make it wholly on his own terms.

Spielberg turned that house money into f***-you money, and shot an anarchic comedy that's like watching the richest kid in town craft an immaculate model train set over the course of months, mainline Jolt Cola for a day, and lay complete and total waste to his creation in a shade under two hours.

"1941" is a madcap movie about reckless and irresponsible Americans who've gone wild over an impending Japanese sneak attack on the shores of California.

Pauline Kael once called the gulf between E.T. and Poltergeist a testament to the confounding ability for one man, Steven Spielberg, to produce one enduring masterpiece and one miserable failure in the space of a year—and God forever damn her for not realizing that Poltergeist is, if anything, a more harrowing portrait of the nuclear family on the verge of dissipation, but I digress. Apparently, she hadn’t seen Mel Brooks’s 1974 one-two punch.

Young Frankenstein is so loving and charmingly goofy in spoofing one of Hollywood’s most successful early genres (the Universal monster movies of the 1930s) that it winds up as much a tribute as it is a parody. But Blazing Saddles, a burlesque about a western town standing in the way of the railroad expansion and the Black sheriff sent to discourage its citizens from deserting, is a limp, shapeless mess of a film...

Ridley Scott was "so offended" that he held onto a rather scathing review of Blade Runner for over three decades. Scott famously directed the 1982 science fiction classic, which starred Harrison Ford in the lead role. However, Pauline Kael of The New Yorker wasnt impressed by the dystopian drama, which was based on author Philip K. Dicks 1968 novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? And Scott elaborated on the negative effect the critique had on him in a brand-new interview with The Hollywood Reporter:

No-no-no. Pauline Kael in The New Yorker killed me stone dead with her Blade Runner review. It was four pages of destruction. I never met her. I was so offended. I framed those pages and theyve been in my office for 30 years to remind me theres only one critic that counts and thats you. I havent read critiques ever since. Because if its a good one,...

Ridley Scott reflects on the harsh review of Blade Runner and the valuable lesson it taught him about criticism. The 86-year-old director opened up about a scathing review from film critic Pauline Kael, which left a lasting impact on him nearly 40 years after the film’s release. Scott recalled Kael’s New Yorker review of Blade Runner, describing it as a “four-page destruction” that nearly…

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Critics are possibly simultaneously the best and the worst thing to have ever happened to the world of art and literature. The deconstruction and analysis that goes into a piece of work takes away its creative individuality, instead substituting it with one person’s understanding of the subject.

Blade Runner [Credit: Warner Bros.]

Ridley Scott, one of the best directors Hollywood ever produced, has been unfortunate enough to face such extreme criticism that not only disillusioned him with the profession but made him bitter, reckless, vindictive, and somewhat transparent with his words. After all, a genius auteur who could make such a timeless epic as Blade Runner come alive on the big screen only to hear it being dismissed as ‘unimportant’ would rightfully lose his mind.

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner Against the World

Pauline Kael, the most polarizing critic in the history of cinema has brought down the greatest of the greats like Stanley Kubrick,...

Ridley Scott hasn’t read reviews of his films in more than 40 years, all thanks to the iconic late critic Pauline Kael.

Auteur Scott told The Hollywood Reporter that after Kael eviscerated his now-classic 1982 feature “Blade Runner,” he hasn’t looked at critics’ takes again.

“Pauline Kael in The New Yorker killed me stone dead with her ‘Blade Runner’ review. It was four pages of destruction,” Scott said. “I never met her. I was so offended.”

At the time, Kael wrote that Scott had a “creepy, oppressive vision” in “Blade Runner,” deeming the film a “suspense-less thriller” that was “unpleasant [and] ugly.”

While Scott hasn’t looked at reviews for his films since then, he does re-read Kael’s takedown quite often.

“I framed those pages and they’ve been in my office for 30 years to remind me there’s only one critic that counts and that’s you,” Scott said.

Teri Garr has sadly passed away at the age of 79, but she left behind an incredible body of work that includes some of the greatest (and funniest) movies ever made. Before Garr retired from acting in 2011, she had enjoyed a long and prosperous career. She appeared in a wide range of films and TV shows and amassed a trophy cases worth of accolades. Throughout her storied career, Garr received an Academy Award nomination and a BAFTA Award nomination (both for the timeless 80s comedy Tootsie), and won a National Board of Review Award.

Before Garr passed away, she worked with Mel Brooks on one of the best comedies of all time, she worked with Steven Spielberg on one of the best science fiction movies of all time, and she played Phoebes birth mother in Friends. Renowned New Yorker critic Pauline Kael described Garr as the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on...

The ditzy blonde was a comedy archetype long before Teri Garr came along. Comedians from Johnny Carson to Monty Python to the ribald gang on Three’s Company played the stereotype for cheap laughs, somehow equating blonde hair and big boobs with a comic lack of intelligence. But Garr, who passed away Tuesday in Los Angeles at the age of 79, turned the archetype on its ear, playing characters that might be described as flighty or eccentric while secretly being the smartest person in the room.

Take her Oscar-nominated turn in Tootsie as Sandy, Michael Dorsey’s eternally flustered best friend who deserved way better than she got. Like Dorsey, Dustin Hoffman was a notoriously difficult scene partner, but Garr gave as good as she got, improvising and arguing with the actor about the best ways to insult Dorothy, his female alter ego. “We have the same comic rhythm,” Hoffman says in Making Tootsie.

John Travolta has paid tribute to ‘Pulp Fiction’ for giving him "a second chance at a high-end career" in Hollywood.The 70-year-old actor starred as gangster Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 picture and has thanked the film for being "a next-level, upper echelon opportunity" that revived his career after a lean period following his 1970s success in 'Grease' and 'Saturday Night Fever'.In a retrospective look back at the flick in celebration of its 30th anniversary, Travolta told Variety: "The last success [I’d had] before ‘Pulp Fiction’ was the ‘Look Who’s Talking’ films, so getting the ‘Pulp’ offer was certainly a next-level, upper echelon opportunity more along the lines of the Oscar nomination-type performance of ‘Saturday Night Fever’ and ‘Blow Out’ integrity."I was one of his [Tarantino’s] favorite actors growing up on ‘Welcome Back Kotter’, ‘Saturday Night Fever’, ‘Grease’ and ‘Blow Out’, and he wanted to work with me.

This article contains a discussion of sexual assault.

A new retrospective focused on Quentin Tarantino's masterpiece "Pulp Fiction" in Variety revealed the that notorious — and disgraced — producer Harvey Weinstein had a very clear idea regarding the film's casting, and he was ultimately overruled.

Journalist Todd Gilchrist spoke to a ton of people involved with the Oscar-winning film and learned, through executive producer Danny DeVito, executive producer Michael Shamberg, and producer Lawrence Bender, that Weinstein really wanted Daniel Day-Lewis to play Vincent Vega, the role that ultimately went to John Travolta. DeVito had an overall development deal at TriStar Pictures and got final cut on his projects there. As he recalled, he spoke to Weinstein, who insisted that Day-Lewis — who had just won his Academy Award for "My Left Foot — play Vincent.

"I said, 'The director wants John Travolta,'" DeVito told Gilchrist. "I told this kid I've got final cut,...

John Travolta, who plays Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, reflects on the movie's impact on his career. Pulp Fiction celebrated its 30th anniversary on October 14, 2024. The cult classic crime movie revived Travolta's career while paving the way to stardom for Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman.

Reflecting on Tarantino's decision to cast him in the lead role, Travolta told Variety the offer back then was "certainly a next level, upper echelon opportunity more along the lines of the Oscar nomination-type performance." His last big role before Pulp was in Look Who's Talking, and Tarantino's offer "raised the bar" for him with "a second chance at a high-end career." Travolta revealed that he was "one of" the director's "favorite actors growing up" and may have something to do with Tarantino's love for "Pauline Kael." Check out what Travolta said:

The last success [Id experienced] before 'Pulp Fiction' was the 'Look Whos Talking' films,...

Dame Maggie Smith passed away today at the age of 89, after giving the world decades' worth of indelible, beloved performances. A star of stage and screen since the 1950s, the highly decorated actress was best-known to a generation as Hogwarts' stern but heroic Professor McGonagall, while others loved her best as the Dowager Countess of "Downton Abbey."

Smith may have only become a household name to younger generations in the past two decades, but she did much of her best work in the 20th century, winning Oscars for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and "California Suite" in the '60s and '70s and a Tony Award for her role in the satirical play "Lettice and Lovage" in 1990. While her TV, film, and stage work was prolific and wide-ranging, only three Smith movies were ever universally embraced by critics, according to Rotten Tomatoes. One is a James Ivory classic,...

Like any movie genre, the Western has its fair share of popular subgenres. Well-known Western subgenres include neo-Westerns, revisionist Westerns, and spaghetti Westerns. More obscure Western subgenres include acid Westerns, meat pie Westerns, and weird Westerns. Influential film critic Pauline Kael coined the term acid Western in 1971 in her review of Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo.

In the mid-1990s, Jonathan Rosenbaum expanded upon the definition of acid Westerns. He noted acid Westerns are a type of revisionist Western that reflected the counterculture ideologies of the 1960s and 1970s. Acid Westerns have a hallucinogenic quality that is often aided by surrealist imagery. Rosenbaum also stated that in traditional Westerns, a character's journey West resulted in freedom and prosperity. In Acid Westerns, Rosenbaum argued a character's journey is a march toward death. Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter, Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, and Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid...

That old notion of the grass always being greener gets taken into a darkly funny and provocative direction in A24's latest film, A Different Man. That's largely thanks to the never-better Sebastian Stan and his lead character's uproarious rise and fall in New York. Folks are rightfully calling A Different Man Stan's best performance to date. What's even more remarkable is how well it pairs with Stan's performance as Donald Trump in his next release, The Apprentice. The films make for a surreal diptych about power, presentation, and New York.

But in the meantime, feast on this deliciously absurd satire of a man's search for true identity and purpose. A Different Man comes from writer-director Aaron Schimberg and also stars Adam Pearson (Under the Skin), the two of whom last collaborated on the indie feature Chained for Life (2018). Clearly, their mojo together works, and Stan and Pearson's standout...

A trailer for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis was released last month but was pulled just hours later. It became apparent that the quotes from negative reviews of Coppola’s previous movies, such as The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, had been faked. Lionsgate apologized, a longtime marketing consultant was fired, and the world kept on moving. While speaking with Entertainment Tonight at the Megalopolis premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Coppola took credit for the concept of using bad review quotes in the trailer but isn’t sure how it went so wrong.

“Well I know that there were bad reviews. I’m the one that who said there were bad reviews,” Coppola said. “But I don’t know. It was a mistake, an accident, I’m not sure what happened.“

The Megalopolis trailer included a quote from iconic critic Pauline Kael, who was cited...