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Now that’s dedication in marriage: Paul Newman’s first directed feature film is a drama showcase for his spouse Joanne Woodward, one likely to garner critical attention. A small-town teacher deals with boredom, isolation, repression, and dwindling hope; the carefully measured conflicts allow good input from actors Kate Harrington, Estelle Parsons, and James Olson as the lover with the right approach at just the right time. It’s a picture of sensitive emotions: is Rachel Cameron really becoming a spinster? Does she have any choice in the matter? Middle age does tend to sneak up on a person . . .

Rachel, Rachel

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1968 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 101 min. / Available at Wac-Amazon / Street Date September 6, 2022 / 21.99

Starring: Joanne Woodward, James Olson, Kate Harrington, Estelle Parsons, Donald Moffat, Frank Corsaro, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Bernard Barrow, Nell Potts.

Cinematography: Gayne Rescher

Art Director: Robert Gundlach

Film Editor: Dede Allen

Original Music: Jerome Moross...

Harvey Keitel has been a major presence at the 18th Marrakech Film Festival, presenting two gala sessions: for the career tribute to French helmer Bertrand Tavernier – with whom he worked on “Death Watch” (1980), and to present Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman.” He also took part in an onstage discussion, to a packed audience, which included Tavernier and Australian producer Jan Chapman, with whom he worked on Jane Campion’s “The Piano” (1993).

Keitel recounted key moments in his career and after screening several clips from his films, including a scene from “Death Watch,” he was clearly deeply moved and left speechless for a few seconds.

His long-term collaboration with Scorsese and his friendship with Robert De Niro was one of the starting points for the conversation, in which Keitel emphasized his dedication to his profession as an actor.

After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps he spent several years working as a court stenographer,...

Kim Kold, the six-foot-something, 300-plus pound star of Teddy Bear, is a striking, memorable screen presence. In the first feature from Danish writer-director Mads Matthiesen, Kold plays Dennis, a mama’s boy who decides to travel to Thailand in search of a wife. Dennis knows this will irk the heck out of his possessive mother Ingrid (Elsebeth Steentoft), so he lies, telling her he’s off to Germany to compete in a bodybuilding competition. This buys him time, but ultimately Dennis will have to sort out his feelings: Is his desire to forge a life of his own as powerful as the security and routine provided by his dysfunctional relationship with Ingrid? Matthiesen’s disarming and funny film opens Wednesday, Aug. 22.

Filmmaker: The film is about a big, muscular guy, 38-years-old, whose mother treats him like a little boy—until he “betrays” her and goes off to Thailand in search of a wife.

Children's author and illustrator best known for Where the Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak, who has died aged 83, was both one of the most individual and one of the most successful illustrators of the 20th century. Since 1951 his 90-odd titles have sold nearly 30m copies in the Us alone. His renowned work Where the Wild Things Are (1963), with worldwide sales of more than 19m, was a turning point not only in his own career but in the history of children's books.

The bulk of his work lay in illustrating other writers, but it was his own, far fewer, books which brought him countless international awards and academic honours, and made him the subject of many a thesis. At first, Where the Wild Things Are and its follow-up, In the Night Kitchen (1970), caused outraged shock at their robust portrayal of children's fears and aggression; Sendak's fantasy was always "rooted 10ft deep...