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Harry Lagoussis’s sci-fi-infused drama Novak explores the treacherous line between a scientific visionary and a manipulative charlatan. This theme of the charismatic guru is a familiar one in global cinema, from Hollywood cult thrillers to the complex ‘godman’ narratives of Indian film. We first meet Dr. Novak, a disgraced Croatian neuroscientist, living in a squalid Athens apartment.

He is a forgotten figure, burnt-out from past controversies. His quiet exile is interrupted by Petros, a young devotee who believes Novak’s abandoned research on electromagnetic pollution can save humanity. The arrival presents an immediate question: is this a chance for the fallen scientist to redeem his work, or will he...

Greece is still looking for gurus and gets disappointed when the gurus don’t deliver. This is the overall impression of the high-concept, sci-fi-infused study of closeted communities in the uneven but conceptually entertaining “Novak” by Harry Lagoussis, which world premiered at the 2025 Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Zlatko Buric (of the “Triangle of Sadness” and even “Superman” fame) plays the eponymous character. Dr. Nikola Novak, a Croatian neuroscientist, who had to leave former Yugoslavia, and is now living in disgrace in Greece, after being arrested for false medicine practice in the 1990s. This is the date that sets the film’s first frame: we see a Vcr tape of ‘patient Z’, whose doctor guides her hopefully to hypersense geometrical shapes presented to her. The film quickly cuts to 2022 Christmas and the present time. A friend of Dr. Novak takes care of his groceries in a setting that powerfully evokes Yorgos Lanthimos...

For all the gloom around the industry, one form of entertainment production in Hollywood is going gangbusters right now: short-form theater. And some otherwise frustrated writers, actors, and directors are rushing in.

Marlena Rodriguez’s credits include serving as a story editor on Silicon Valley and a staff writer on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, but she agreed to direct a small stage show at this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival, Near Sex for Work, because “it’s gratifying to be outputting things I’ve never done before,” she said. “Even though I am talking to my agents about staffing opportunities, I’m getting their feedback that there’s no jobs, we don’t know what to do.”

This year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival, the 15th edition, has a record 416 separate productions playing nearly 2,000 performances at small black box theaters like the Hobgoblin Playhouse, the Hudson or the Broadwater on Santa Monica Boulevard near Vine.

Just In Time, the Bobby Darin jukebox musical starring Jonathan Groff opening tonight at a wonderfully dressed Circle in the Square on Broadway, does some serious and genuine starmaking, twice over in fact. Darin, the once hugely popular but now barely remembered nightclub singer and Top 40 hitmaker is returned to a spot in our cultural memory, and Groff, the Tony-winning star of last season’s Merrily We Roll Along and for years now one of the stage’s more popular young actors, newly emerges to the top ranks of the best, most natural all-around entertainers working today.

Some performances – think Liza Minnelli in the film Cabaret, or Hugh Jackman in Broadway’s The Boy From Oz – send their stars into new stratospheres, something outside the labels “actor” and “singer” and into that exclusive circle of stars who can hold a stage both as a character and as themselves, instantly recognizable and unique.

Late last year, it was announced that a number of Warner Bros. classics would be making their way onto 4K Blu-ray remaster releases. The titles for this year’s releases included Lethal Weapon, Amadeus, Constantine and David Fincher’s Seven. It would also be announced that a collection of the Sean Connery James Bond films was to be sold in a new set. Blu-ray.com has reported that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will be making the classic Ian Fleming spy movies available to retailers on June 3.

The description reads,

“Complete your James Bond Collection with this 007: Sean Connery Complete 6-film 4K Collection. All Sean Connery films available for the first time on 4K Blu-ray in a beautiful, limited edition exclusive Steelbook Library Case.”

The collection includes 6 Steelbooks featuring unique art, all 6 007: Sean Connery films on 4K Blu-ray and Digital, and all of it is housed in a Steelbook Library Case.

As iconic as James Bond is, equally essential to the longevity of the 007 franchise has been its inclusion of a series of memorable villains. These scheming and plotting megalomaniacs have helped transform the character of James Bond into one of cinema's most enduring heroes. From Connery to Craig, each iteration of Bond depends on the villains.

Over the past sixty years, the 007 franchise has delivered some of the most unforgettable bad guys in movie history. Of course, there have been some misguided decisions along the way (not to mention a few dated and racist stereotypes). But the series has created a remarkable short list of classic villains instantly recognizable thanks to their giant metal teeth, pithy one-liners, and maniacal death traps.

This article was updated by Christopher Raley on February 1, 2025: James Bond has endured periodic obsolescence, dated sexism, and gadget grandstanding to become one of the most well-known and even loved heroes of cinema.

James Bond romanced dozens of Bond Girls in the 25 James Bond movies, but some Bond Girls were villainous henchwomen out to kill 007. Evil Bond Girls are as much a staple of the 007 franchise as vodka martinis, Bond's Aston Martin DB5, and the many women who were James Bond's lovers in his various films. In some cases, evil Bond Girls tried to execute James after they slept with him.

Interestingly, two versions of James Bond didn't face outright homicidal Bond Girls. Timothy Dalton's two Bond movies, The Living Daylights (1987) and License to Kill (1989), lacked Bond Girls who were dedicated to murdering 007. Daniel Craig's James Bond movies introduced several Bond Girls, including the iconic Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) in Casino Royale (2006) and the underrated Dr. Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux) in Spectre (2015) and No Time To Die (2021), but Craig's 007 also didn't battle malevolent Bond Girls out to end his life.

60 years ago, Sean Connery's only James Bond movie that didn't involve his secret agent battling Spectre premiered, and it became his most popular 007 outing. Sean Connery starred in 6 James Bond movies from 1962's Dr. No to 1971's Diamonds Are Forever, although George Lazenby became 007 in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service when Connery quit James Bond. All of those Bond movies involved Spectre as the villainous organization 007 battled, except for 1964's Goldfinger.

Adapted from the seventh James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming, Goldfinger saw 007 face the eponymous Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe), a criminal mastermind who sought to control the world's supply of gold. Goldfinger's master plan, Operation Grand Slam, involved breaking into Fort Knox and irradiating the United States' gold reserves, thereby increasing Auric's wealth. Bond battled Goldfinger and his iconic henchman, Odd Job (Harold Sakata), and prevented the madman's scheme with the help of Goldfinger's pilot,...

Former Fear the Walking Dead star Colman Domingo expresses interest in playing a villain in the James Bond franchise. The star, who was recently nominated for an Oscar for Rustin, says he would like to play roles unlike those he's held before. Domingo's experience playing complex characters and his recent Oscar nomination make him a fitting choice for a memorable Bond villain.

Former Walking Dead star Colman Domingo has expressed his interest in being a villain in the James Bond franchise. In addition to playing Victor Strand on all eight seasons of the spinoff show Fear the Walking Dead, Domingo has starred in a variety of movies including The Color Purple, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and 2021's Candyman. He also played civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in 2023's Rustin, for which he was recently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Variety recently spoke with Colman Domingo...

Terence Young's 1963 triumph "From Russia with Love" was the James Bond series' first sequel, and, 60 years later, it's still considered by many 007 aficionados to be one of franchise's finest installments. It's a brisk, surprisingly brutal film. The gadgetry popularized by 1964's "Goldfinger" (and launched well over the top by 1965's "Thunderball") is kept to a sensible minimum; for the most part, this is a revenge film in which our licensed-to-kill protagonist is lured into an elaborate defection plot designed to knock him off for having killed Spectre's Dr. No in the first movie. Narratively, it's as small potatoes as the mostly maligned "Casino Royale" follow-up "Quantum of Solace" (a revenge film in the other direction), but, at the time, it had the advantage of working within an unformed universe.

"From Russia with Love" has two of the Bond series' oddest highlights: the sexualized Turkish settlement brawl between Martine Beswick and Aliza Gur,...

The James Bond franchise reinvented 007's greatest villain with Christoph Waltz as Blofeld, but there are more villains from Bond's rogues' gallery who could be refreshed and join the new timeline. Daniel Craig's James Bond movies, particularly Spectre and No Time To Die, demonstrated that previous Bond villains could be reinvented and successfully incorporated into the 007 franchise reboot. Blofeld aside, plenty of other existing Bond villains would suit a modern reinvention.

With Casino Royale, the James Bond franchise declared it would totally reboot the series, making the Daniel Craig James Bond movies darker and more realistic. At first, it seemed that reviving James Bond's pantheon of larger-than-life villains would be inappropriate for this tone. When Spectre successfully reintroduced the titular global criminal organization and its enigmatic leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, however, the possibility of previous 007 villains receiving renewed life in the new Bond timeline greatly increased.

Related: 1 Bond...

After creating so many cinematic memories on the big screen, the James Bond franchise is celebrating its 60th anniversary. While news of what comes next for the saga is pretty thin at the moment, there is one certainty about what’s in store: The next James Bond will boast some intriguing, fun, and altogether dangerous gadgets.

It’s become a staple of the series, with the genre as a whole looking to the James Bond movies for inspiration when crafting their own equipment. While the likes of the Kingsman and Johnny English series might have taken some of the gadgets a step further into comedic territory, the devices that 007 uses throughout his adventures can often be grounded in a hyper-reality that pulls from real-world technology but are defined by an imaginative edge. These designs were memorable for their uses in the field and how cool they truly are as a concept.

It’s been six full decades since Sean Connery looked up from a handful of cards and announced, “The name’s Bond, James Bond.” All this time later, and despite hearing that catch phrase being repeated in oh, so many variations, we’re still hanging onto every word.

The James Bond franchise has been one of the most important, and certainly among the longest, in film history. Back when it started, Eon Productions (originally helmed by producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Satlzman) were releasing a new Bond movie every year; more recently, we’re lucky if we get the next one every couple of years. Nonetheless, Eon and the James Bond character have remained preternaturally consistent, reliably turning out new adventures, and ever creating new fans from one generation to the next. The times change; the world changes; 007 does not.

These days he feels like a throwback to a forgotten type of action movie.

Cameron Crowe on Marc Bolan and T. Rex in Ethan Silverman’s Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan & T. Rex: “A little bit of Eddie Cochran and a little bit of like futurism and it felt so fresh …” Photo: Neal Preston

In my wide-ranging conversation with Ethan Silverman we discuss why he is indebted to Cameron Crowe, Hal Willner’s work on Kurt Weill, the gift from producer Bill Curbishley of Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, Cole Porter, Danny Fields, Beth Orton, Joan Jett, David Bowie, Nick Cave, Snarky Puppy, and Ethan’s interest in Weill, Lotte Lenya, and Bauhaus projects. On-camera comments by Billy Idol, Bono, The Edge, Elton John, Nena, Ringo Starr, Gloria Jones, Rolan Bolan, Richard Barone, Tony Visconti, Bowie, and Crowe provide unique context on the cultural importance of Marc Bolan.

Ethan Silverman with Anne-Katrin Titze: “Hal Willner created probably one of my top five favourite albums of all time.

Peg Murray, who won a 1967 Tony Award for portrayal of Fräulein Kost in Cabaret and later recurred for 13 years on ABC’s daytime drama All My Children, died Nov. 29. A resident in recent years at an assisted care community in Greenport, Long Island, Murray had been in declining health following a stroke. She was 96.

Her death was first reported by the Long Island newspaper The Suffolk Times. Deadline only recently learned of her passing.

Murray first appeared on Broadway in 1956 in the play The Great Sebastians starring the reigning theatrical duo Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt. In 1959 she had a small role in the original Gypsy starring Ethel Merman, followed by appearances in She Loves Me, Anyone Can Whistle and The Subject Was Roses.

In 1966, Murray originated the small but pivotal role of Fräulein Kost in Harold Prince’s staging of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. Fräulein Kost begins as a largely comedic character,...

Today we rewindwith LoveMusik, a musical which ran on Broadway for just over a monthin 2007.LoveMusikis amusicalwritten byAlfred Uhry, using a selection of music byKurt Weill. The story explores the romance and lives ofKurt WeillandLotte Lenya, based onSpeak Low When You Speak Love The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya. Uhry and Prince worked onLoveMusikfor four years to develop it into a stage work.The story spans over 25 years, from the first meeting of Lenya and Weill as struggling young artists, to their popularity in Europe and America, to Weill's death from a heart attack at age 50. The Broadway production ran at the Biltmore Theatre now the Samuel J. Friedman, starring Michael Cerveris and Donna Murphy.

In 1977 Burt Reynolds was on top of the Hollywood world, a bankable star whose popularity knew no bounds. In between his payday Smokey and the Bandit vehicles, he tried working with directors Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Aldrich, Stanley Donen … and with this film, the highly entertaining, somewhat unpredictable Michael Ritchie. The adaptation of Dan Jenkins’ NFL football book takes a left turn into social satire (or honest reportage), and centers on a romantic triangle with Jill Clayburgh and Kris Kristofferson. You might not remember all of its non- PC rough edges … which were already Sop for comedies of the ’70s.

Semi-Tough

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1977 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 108 min. / Street Date January 21, 2020 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, Jill Clayburgh, Robert Preston, Brian Dennehy, Bert Convy, Roger E. Mosley, Lotte Lenya, Richard Masur, Carl Weathers, Mary Jo Catlett, Ron Silver.

Cinematography: Charles Rosher Jr.

Film Editor: Richard A.

By Lee Pfeiffer

The Warner Archive has showcased another "B" movie and rescued it from relative obscurity with the release of "Lady Scarface". The 1941 movie is an Rko "Poverty Row" production with a low budget (i.e. there are almost no exterior shots) and abbreviated running time of only 66 minutes. The titular character is never referred to as such in the film. She's simply called Slade and she's a mysterious Chicago gangster who the police have been searching for under the assumption their prey is a man. Slade does bear a scar on her cheek but it would appear this was added simply to enable the producers to capitalize on the "Scarface" moniker in order to tie the film in with Paul Muni's classic gangster flick. Slade appears in the opening scene in which she and her gang rob a businessman and loot his safe. She ends up shooting him in cold blood.

Jo Sullivan Loesser, a Broadway actress who scored a Tony nomination for her performance in 1956’s The Most Happy Fella, married the show’s composer Frank Loesser in 1959 and after his death 10 years later devoted herself to the promotion of his acclaimed and popular canon, died Sunday of heart failure at her New York City home. She was 91.

Her death was announced by her family through publicist David Gersten.

Born and raised in Mounds City, Il, Sullivan began her professional career as a contestant on the early TV competition Arthur Godfrey Talent Scout Show (her rendition of “Italian Street Song” from Naughty Marietta lost out to a harmonica duo called The Polka Dots).

Soon, though, she was singing in a small Manhattan nightclub when she was chosen to understudy the lead role of Laurey in the original Broadway production of Oklahoma!, which by then was winding down its run.

She...

Today in 2007, LoveMusik opened at the Biltmore Theatre now the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, where it ran for 60 performances. LoveMusik is a musical written by Alfred Uhry, using a selection of music by Kurt Weill. The story explores the romance and lives of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, based on Speak Low When You Speak Love The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya. The show was directed by Harold Prince, with musical staging by Patricia Birch and starred Michael Cerveris as Kurt Weill, Donna Murphy as Lotte Lenya, David Pittu as Bertolt Brecht and John Scherer as George Davis.

Happy Birthday, Donna Murphy Murphy has won two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical for her roles in Passion as Fosca and in The King and I as Anna Leonowens. She received three more Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical for her performances in Wonderful Town as Ruth Sherwood, LoveMusik as Lotte Lenya and The People in the Picture as RaiselBubbie. She is known, most recently, for her role as Mother Gothel in the animated Disney film Tangled 2010, Anij, Captain Jean-Luc Picard's love interest, in Star Trek Insurrection 1998 and her numerous stage roles in musical theatre.

The Hateful Eight director Quentin Tarantino: "I'll take any Brechtian reference." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

During and after The Hateful Eight press conference, I brought up Sam Shepard's God Of Hell to Tim Roth and Bertolt Brecht's Pirate Jenny to Quentin Tarantino. Elmore Leonard's Forty Lashes Less One and a Jack White song as Daisy's theme came back in a response. Earlier, Quentin stopped to chat about his costume designer Courtney Hoffman, who was Christoph Waltz's personal costumer in Django Unchained. Yves Montmayeur's Guy Maddin doc, The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Maddin, which won Best Documentary on Cinema in Venice, ended with Lotte Lenya singing Pirate Jenny and the "ship with eight sails" coming for revenge.

Tim Roth on God Of Hell and Oswaldo Mobray in The Hateful Eight: "Wow…. I think just that duplicitous nature of the character." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Ennio Morricone composed a majestic score,...

From Russia With Love

Directed by Terrence Young

Written by Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood

1963, UK

50 years later, and with twenty-three “official” entries, From Russia With Love represents the very best of the Bond franchise. Skyfall is the closest to be considered, at best – almost equal to what was achieved in ’64 – but From Russia With Love is still unparalleled. Although it is the second in the series, and although it feels like no Bond film that followed, it is the film that solidifies all the Bond elements into a formula – a template that carries on, even today.

Spectre’s Persian-stroking nemesis/mastermind Ernest Blofeld makes his first appearance and so does Desmond Llewelyn’s gadget-friendly Q (starting a run that continued until his death in 1999). Screenwriters Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood return, as does director and editor Terence Young and Peter Hunt. John Barry supplies the fine score by utilizing Monte Norman’s theme,...

1: Dr No – Opening Title Sequence

The schizophrenic title sequence introduces John Barry’s famous James Bond theme, but instead of transitioning into the now traditional pop song (which uses the title as a lyric), random portions of two calypso songs were used instead. This was also of course the first of Maurice Binder’s many fantastic title sequences, and while some of the standard conventions are absent (such as the silhouetted nude bodies floating about), we still do get the lines of white dots sliding across the screen before transforming into a gun barrel, through which Bob Simmons fires his gun. From then it’s on to a procession of primary colours and shapes and an Atari-like animated sequence. All in all, this remains one of the most distinctive opening title sequences of the series.

(Watch the clip here)

2: Dr. No – Cold Blooded Murder

There’s little doubt...

Vivien Leigh ca. late 1940s. Vivien Leigh movies: now controversial 'Gone with the Wind,' little-seen '21 Days Together' on TCM Vivien Leigh is Turner Classic Movies' star today, Aug. 18, '15, as TCM's “Summer Under the Stars” series continues. Mostly a stage actress, Leigh was seen in only 19 films – in about 15 of which as a leading lady or star – in a movie career spanning three decades. Good for the relatively few who saw her on stage; bad for all those who have access to only a few performances of one of the most remarkable acting talents of the 20th century. This evening, TCM is showing three Vivien Leigh movies: Gone with the Wind (1939), 21 Days Together (1940), and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Leigh won Best Actress Academy Awards for the first and the third title. The little-remembered film in-between is a TCM premiere. 'Gone with the Wind' Seemingly all...

Today in 2007, LoveMusik opened at the Biltmore Theatre now the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, where it ran for 60 performances. LoveMusik is a musical written by Alfred Uhry, using a selection of music by Kurt Weill. The story explores the romance and lives of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, based on Speak Low When You Speak Love The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya. The show was directed by Harold Prince, with musical staging by Patricia Birch and starred Michael Cerveris as Kurt Weill, Donna Murphy as Lotte Lenya, David Pittu as Bertolt Brecht and John Scherer as George Davis.

Happy Birthday, Donna Murphy Murphy has won two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical for her roles in Passion as Fosca and in The King and I as Anna Leonowens. She received three more Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical for her performances in Wonderful Town as Ruth Sherwood, LoveMusik as Lotte Lenya and The People in the Picture as RaiselBubbie. She is known, most recently, for her role as Mother Gothel in the animated Disney film Tangled 2010, Anij, Captain Jean-Luc Picard's love interest, in Star Trek Insurrection 1998 and her numerous stage roles in musical theatre.

Best British movies of all time? (Image: a young Michael Caine in 'Get Carter') Ten years ago, Get Carter, starring Michael Caine as a dangerous-looking London gangster (see photo above), was selected as the United Kingdom's very best movie of all time according to 25 British film critics polled by Total Film magazine. To say that Mike Hodges' 1971 thriller was a surprising choice would be an understatement. I mean, not a David Lean epic or an early Alfred Hitchcock thriller? What a difference ten years make. On Total Film's 2014 list, published last May, Get Carter was no. 44 among the magazine's Top 50 best British movies of all time. How could that be? Well, first of all, people would be very naive if they took such lists seriously, whether we're talking Total Film, the British Film Institute, or, to keep things British, Sight & Sound magazine. Second, whereas Total Film's 2004 list was the result of a 25-critic consensus,...

Today in 2007, LoveMusik opened at the Biltmore Theatre now the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, where it ran for 60 performances. LoveMusik is a musical written by Alfred Uhry, using a selection of music by Kurt Weill. The story explores the romance and lives of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, based on Speak Low When You Speak Love The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya. The show was directed by Harold Prince, with musical staging by Patricia Birch and starred Michael Cerveris as Kurt Weill, Donna Murphy as Lotte Lenya, David Pittu as Bertolt Brecht and John Scherer as George Davis.

Happy Birthday, Donna Murphy Murphy has won two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical for her roles in Passion as Fosca and in The King and I as Anna Leonowens. She received three more Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical for her performances in Wonderful Town as Ruth Sherwood, LoveMusik as Lotte Lenya and The People in the Picture as RaiselBubbie. She is known, most recently, for her role as Mother Gothel in the animated Disney film Tangled 2010, Anij, Captain Jean-Luc Picard's love interest, in Star Trek Insurrection 1998 and her numerous stage roles in musical theatre.

Vivien Leigh: Legendary ‘Gone with the Wind’ and ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ star would have turned 100 today Vivien Leigh was perhaps the greatest film star that hardly ever was. What I mean is that following her starring role in the 1939 Civil War blockbuster Gone with the Wind, Leigh was featured in a mere eight* movies over the course of the next 25 years. The theater world’s gain — she was kept busy on the London stage — was the film world’s loss. But even if Leigh had starred in only two movies — Gone with the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire — that would have been enough to make her a screen legend; one who would have turned 100 years old today, November 5, 2013. (Photo: Vivien Leigh ca. 1940.) Vivien Leigh (born Vivian Mary Hartley to British parents in Darjeeling, India) began her film career in the mid-’30s, playing bit roles in British...

Symphony Space opens its 2013-14 Music season with 'Kurt Weill on Broadway,' tonight, October 7 8 pm at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre. Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Broadway opening of Weill's One Touch of Venus. Ted Chapin hosts a stellar cast featuring Melissa Errico, Brent Barrett, Judy Blazer, and Ron Raines, plus winners of the international Lotte Lenya Competition.

Some of Broadway's best will take the stage at New York's Symphony Space on 7 October 2013 to celebrate the American music of Kurt Weill. Hosted by Ted Chapin, the evening will highlight songs from Venus as well as favorites from other Weill shows, including Street Scene, Lady in the Dark, Love Life, Lost in the Stars, Knickerbocker Holiday, The Threepenny Opera, and Happy End. The starry cast features Melissa Errico, Brent Barrett, Judy Blazer, and Ron Raines alongside Lotte Lenya Competition winners Richard Todd Adams, Douglas Carpenter, Cooper Grodin, Justin Hopkins, Zachary James, Analisa Leaming, Jacob Keith Watson, and Maren Weinberger. Weill specialist James Holmes, who conducted a fully staged production of Venus at England's Opera North in 2004, music directs, and Richard Jay-Alexander directs.

Some of Broadway's best will take the stage at New York's Symphony Space on 7 October 2013 to celebrate the American music of Kurt Weill. Hosted by Ted Chapin, the evening will highlight songs from Venus as well as favorites from other Weill shows, including Street Scene, Lady in the Dark, Love Life, Lost in the Stars,Knickerbocker Holiday, The Threepenny Opera, and Happy End. The starry cast features Melissa Errico, Brent Barrett, Judy Blazer, and Ron Raines alongside Lotte Lenya Competition winners Richard Todd Adams, Douglas Carpenter, Cooper Grodin, Justin Hopkins, Zachary James, Analisa Leaming, Jacob Keith Watson, and Maren Weinberger. Weill specialist James Holmes, who conducted a fully staged production of Venus at England's Opera North in 2004, music directs, and Richard Jay-Alexander directs.

Symphony Space will open its 2013-14 Music season with 'Kurt Weill on Broadway,' Monday, October 7 8 pm at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre. The show takes place on the 70th anniversary of the Broadway opening of Weill's One Touch of Venus. Ted Chapin hosts a stellar cast featuring Melissa Errico, Brent Barrett, Judy Blazer, and Ron Raines, plus winners of the international Lotte Lenya Competition.

Today in 2007, LoveMusik opened at the Biltmore Theatre now the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, where it ran for 60 performances. LoveMusik is a musical written by Alfred Uhry, using a selection of music by Kurt Weill. The story explores the romance and lives of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, based on Speak Low When You Speak Love The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya. The show was directed by Harold Prince, with musical staging by Patricia Birch and starred Michael Cerveris as Kurt Weill, Donna Murphy as Lotte Lenya, David Pittu as Bertolt Brecht and John Scherer as George Davis.

Twelve exceptionally talented young singer-actors, with previous stage experience ranging from roles on Broadway to the Metropolitan Opera House, have been named finalists in the 2013 Lotte Lenya Competition. They will compete for top prizes of 15,000, 10,000 and 7,500 on Saturday, April 13, 2013, at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Acclaimed soprano and 2010 Opera News Award winner Patricia Racette, British opera and musical theater conductor James Holmes, and Rodgers amp Hammerstein Organization President and American Theater Wing Vice-Chairman Theodore S. Chapin will serve as judges.

Happy Birthday, Donna Murphy Murphy has won two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical for her roles in Passion as Fosca and in The King and I as Anna Leonowens. She received three more Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical for her performances in Wonderful Town as Ruth Sherwood, LoveMusik as Lotte Lenya and The People in the Picture as RaiselBubbie. She is known, most recently, for her role as Mother Gothel in the animated Disney film Tangled 2010, Anij, Captain Jean-Luc Picard's love interest, in Star Trek Insurrection 1998 and her numerous stage roles in musical theatre.

Bond villains have always flirted with homoeroticism. You could say it’s as much a part of of the franchise’s 50-year-old formula as all of the girls, gadgets, and glamor. Whether it’s Goldfinger aiming his laser at 007′s royal jewels, the coy cat-in-his-lap quips of Blofeld, or even Lotte Lenya’s butch villainess Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love, the Bond films have subtly toyed with a sexual subtext. But in the latest Bond installment, Skyfall, Javier Bardem pushes the gay envelope farther than it’s ever been pushed before. Here, in an article originally published before the film hit theaters,...

From Russia With Love

Directed by Terrence Stamp

Written by Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood

1963, UK

50 years later, and with twenty three “official” entries, From Russia With Love represents the very best of the Bond franchise. Skyfall is the closest to be considered, at best – almost equal to what was achieved in ’64 – but From Russia With Love is still unparalleled. Although it is the second in the series, and although it feels like no Bond film that followed, it is the film that solidifies all the Bond elements into a formula – a template that carries on, even today.

Spectre’s Persian-stroking nemesis/mastermind Ernest Blofeld makes his first appearance (even if he’s not referred to by that name), and so does Desmond Llewelyn’s gadget-friendly Q (starting a run that continued until his death in 1999). Screenwriters Richard Maibaum and Johanna Harwood return as does director and editor Terence Young and Peter Hunt.

1: Dr No – Opening Title Sequence

The schizophrenic title sequence introduces John Barry’s famous James Bond theme, but instead of transitioning into the now traditional pop song (which uses the title as a lyric), random portions of two calypso songs were used instead. This was also of course the first of Maurice Binder’s many fantastic title sequences, and while some of the standard conventions are absent (such as the silhouetted nude bodies floating about), we still do get the lines of white dots sliding across the screen before transforming into a gun barrel, through which Bob Simmons fires his gun. From then it’s on to a procession of primary colours and shapes and an Atari-like animated sequence. All in all, this remains one of the most distinctive opening title sequences of the series.

(Watch the clip here)

2: Dr. No – Cold Blooded Murder

There’s little doubt...

The Bond villain is an important part of the fabric of any Bond film, such that it can often end up making or breaking it. The series has enjoyed its share of classic, iconic bad guys, as well as more than a few miscast or even blandly forgettable ones, especially in recent years. If rarely the fault of the actor playing them – for Bond villains are almost always picked from a roster of great actors – it’s really down to the casting department and the script getting it wrong, and of course, when it sparks some movie magic, then they also get to take all the credit.

So, here are five Bond villains who were awesome, and 5 that sucked…

5 That Were Awesome… 5. Rosa Klebb

Lotte Lenya was a fantastic choice to play one of the few truly menacing female characters in the entire Bond history, as fine a match for...

Bond villains have always flirted with homoeroticism. You could say it’s as much a part of of the franchise’s 50-year-old formula as all of the girls, gadgets, and glamor. Whether it’s Goldfinger aiming his laser at 007′s royal jewels, the coy cat-in-his-lap quips of Blofeld, or even Lotte Lenya’s butch villainess Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love, the Bond films have subtly toyed with a sexual subtext. But in the latest Bond installment, Skyfall, Javier Bardem pushes the gay envelope farther than it’s ever been pushed before.

The Spanish actor dons a blonde wig as the latest 007 nemesis,...

Deborah Lipp, the Ultimate James Bond Fan, is listing 007 of her favorite things as we count down to Skyfall

I spent a couple of years compiling lists made by James Bond fans; primarily favorite movies, least-favorites, and ranked lists of the whole series. The fun thing to discover is, when it comes to James Bond, everyone's an outlier. Every single movie appeared on someone's favorites and someone's least-favorites. Plus, everyone's list had a unique feature, an eyebrow-raiser. I bet if we did a poll here -- should we do a poll here? -- the same thing would happen.

So, eyebrow-raiser and all, here's my top 007 Bond films...

001 From Russia With Love (1963)

To me, the second Bond movie is the greatest of them all. It's the perfect blend of Bond ingredients: Action, adventure, exotic locations, sex, mystery, espionage, music, humor, visual impact, and an outstanding cast. Beyond Sean Connery and the...

'A highly immoral film in every imaginable way but it sure is fun' ... As Bond celebrates 50 years on the big screen, we dig out Richard Roud's review from 1963

Is it as good as Dr No? Is it better? These are the only questions a critic has to answer about From Russia with Love (Odeon, Leicester Square) but I'm afraid that I can't answer them. Dr No was such a lot of fun that it set me on to reading Ian Fleming, and so I came to From Russia with Love with a lot of preconceived ideas. Which is not to say that I was disappointed by the second film, but it didn't seem quite so lively, quite so fresh, or quite so rhythmically fast-moving.

But the second film is almost as good as Dr No. There aren't so many juicy girls; but, then, there is Lotte Lenya. As Doktor Rosa Klebb,...

Sean Connery's 1963 outing to Istanbul may look grainy now, but his exchanges with Robert Shaw have lost none of their edge

From Russia With Love is my favourite James Bond movie, simply because it is the first Bond I ever saw at the cinema. This was at the old Classic in Hendon Central in London, some time in the early 1970s, in an era before Bond films were shown on television, and going to see them at the cinema was a special school-holiday treat. Quite long-in-the-tooth Bond films would be revived on the big screen like this: this was a double bill of From Russia With Love (1963) and Thunderball (1965).

What a thrill to hear that incredible theme tune played live (as it were) for the first time, echoing around the cavernous old cinema and seeing those opening titles: the mysterious circle shunting across the dark screen, Bond walking in profile,...

Above: Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina on the set of La Strada, 1954. Via Le clown lyrique's gallery including stunning images of Anna Karina, Lotte Lenya, Katherine Hepburn, and Marlene Dietrich. Our friends at the Celluloid Liberation Front have helped produce an e-book for the Nisi Masa Film Journalism Workshop called Nisimazine. This issue focuses on the first feature and short films of Cannes 2012. It includes an interview with Benh Zeitlin, director of the Camera d'Or winning Beasts of the Southern Wild. Via Nicolas Jaar's "Essential Mix" for BBC 1 comes a superb "Conversation on Twin Peaks" with composer Angelo Badalamenti:

Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive short companion piece to Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, featuring brief animated clips from the film's made-up children's books. More from Anderson: he shares his "10 favourite New York movies" in the New York Daily News, including, among others, a shout-out to the overlooked Life Lessons,...

Today in 2007, LoveMusik opened at the Biltmore Theatre now the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, where it ran for 60 performances. LoveMusik is a musical written by Alfred Uhry, using a selection of music by Kurt Weill. The story explores the romance and lives of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya, based on Speak Low When You Speak Love The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya. The show was directed by Harold Prince, with musical staging by Patricia Birch and starred Michael Cerveris as Kurt Weill, Donna Murphy as Lotte Lenya, David Pittu as Bertolt Brecht and John Scherer as George Davis.

Happy Birthday, Donna Murphy Murphy has won two Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Musical for her roles in Passion as Fosca and in The King and I as Anna Leonowens. She received three more Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical for her performances in Wonderful Town as Ruth Sherwood, LoveMusik as Lotte Lenya and The People in the Picture as RaiselBubbie. She is known, most recently, for her role as Mother Gothel in the animated Disney film Tangled 2010, Anij, Captain Jean-Luc Picard's love interest, in Star Trek Insurrection 1998 and her numerous stage roles in musical theatre.

London, Feb 29: Cate Blanchett has revealed that she is so keen to play a Bond villain that she would be "there in a heartbeat" if the producers came calling.

The 42-year-old actress said that she would be happy to play an unglamorous baddie, citing Rosa Klebb in 'From Russia With Love' as her favourite character.

Asked by Harper's Bazaar magazine if she would like to appear in the next Bond film, Blanchett replied in the affirmative.

"Oh, God, yes! I'd be there in a heartbeat," the Telegraph quoted her as saying.

"I love Lotte Lenya. She had a club foot and a limp. I'm not a purist in that way," she said.

The.