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Denis O’Dell, a producer on two Beatles movies as well as “How I Won the War,” “Robin and Marian” and “Heaven’s Gate,” died Dec. 30 from natural causes in Almería, Spain at his home in San José, Cabo de Gata. He was 98.

Father of “Exodus: Gods and Kings” producer Denise O’Dell and grandfather of Denis Pedregosa, producer of Netflix hit “The Paramedic,” O’Dell’s connection with movies stretches back to the ‘40s.

He had already produced six movies, such as Brian Desmond Hurst’s “The Playboy of the Western World” in 1962, before his association with the Beatles, which began in professional terms with O’Dell taking an associate producer credit on Richard Lester’s “A Hard Day’s Night,” starring the Beatles and released in 1964.

O’Dell is generally credited with persuading John Lennon to go to Almería to star in the absurdist WWII drama “How I Won the War,” during...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Joan Micklin Silver on the set of Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979). Trailblazing filmmaker Joan Micklin Silver, best known for films Hester Street (1975) and Crossing Delancey (1988), has died. In an interview with Film Comment in 2017, Silver described the will she possessed as a woman filmmaker who wished to spotlight stories about female relationships and women's labor: "I didn’t want to feel like the woman director. I wanted to feel like one of many women directors."The 71st edition of the Berlin Film Festival will be replacing this year's physical event with a virtual European Film Market in March, and a "mini-festival with a series of onsite world premieres" in June.The International Film Festival Rotterdam has also announced the lineup for this year's hybrid multi-part 50th edition, to be presented between February 1-...

Director Bennett Miller and screenwriter Tom Stoppard are joining forces to bring a new version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to the big screen. The project, which will be a period piece set in the 19th century like Dickens’ original, is being developed for Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures. Ellison, Miller, Scott Rudin and Jennifer Fox will serve as producers. Dickens’ classic 1843 novella about Ebenezer Scrooge and his redemptive Christmas Eve tour of the holiday past, present and future has already been adapted for numerous film and TV shows — among them, Brian Desmond Hurt’s famous 1951 version starring

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'Henry V' Movie Actress Renée Asherson dead at 99: Laurence Olivier leading lady in acclaimed 1944 film (image: Renée Asherson and Laurence Olivier in 'Henry V') Renée Asherson, a British stage actress featured in London productions of A Streetcar Named Desire and Three Sisters, but best known internationally as Laurence Olivier's leading lady in the 1944 film version of Henry V, died on October 30, 2014. Asherson was 99 years old. The exact cause of death hasn't been specified. She was born Dorothy Renée Ascherson (she would drop the "c" some time after becoming an actress) on May 19, 1915, in Kensington, London, to Jewish parents: businessman Charles Ascherson and his second wife, Dorothy Wiseman -- both of whom narrowly escaped spending their honeymoon aboard the Titanic. (Ascherson cancelled the voyage after suffering an attack of appendicitis.) According to Michael Coveney's The Guardian obit for the actress, Renée Asherson was "scantly...

Jean Kent: British film star and ‘Last of the Gainsborough Girls’ dead at 92 (photo: actress Jean Kent in ‘Madonna of the Seven Moons’) News outlets and tabloids — little difference these days — have been milking every little drop from the unexpected and violent death of The Fast and the Furious franchise actor Paul Walker, and his friend and business partner Roger Rodas this past Saturday, November 30, 2013. Unfortunately — and unsurprisingly — apart from a handful of British publications, the death of another film performer on that same day went mostly underreported. If you’re not "in" at this very moment, you may as well have never existed. Jean Kent, best known for her roles as scheming villainesses in British films of the 1940s and Gainsborough Pictures’ last surviving top star, died on November 30 at West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds, England. The previous day, she had suffered a fall at her...

Continuing our daily countdown, here is part three out of 30 in our list of the 300 Greatest Films Ever Made. These are numbers 280-271.

280) A Christmas Carol (1951) Brian Desmond-Hurst British           

 

279) The Prisoner Of Zenda (1937) John Cromwell USA

 

278) To Be Or Not To Be (1942) Ernst Lubitsch USA

 

277) The Hunchback Of Notre Dam (1939) William Dieterle USA

 

276) Ed Wood (1994) Tim Burton USA

 

275) Red River (1948) Howard Hawks USA

 

274) Hotel Rwanda (2004) Terry George USA

 

273) How Green Was My Valley (1941) John Ford USA

 

272) Lost In Translation (2003) Sofia Coppola USA

271) Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) Hayao Miyazaki Japan Animated

Numbers 270-261 coming next.

film cultureClassicslist300...

Christmas was the most wonderful holiday for my mother. Not for religious reasons, since she adamantly avoided organized religions, but for the opportunity to decorate the house. Her specialty was "the village," covering two long tables with a wintry scene of miniature buildings, people, animals, ponds and my small train set. Some of our most joyful moments were spent setting up this miniature idealized community.

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was also part of that season's celebration, first with my mother reading it aloud over several nights and later by listening to a radio version (Lionel Barrymore's). Having spent six of her teenage years in a Texas State orphanage in the 1920s, my mother loved and understood Dickens in ways I could not yet fathom. When the British film production of A Christmas Carol arrived in Dallas in December 1951, my parents took my niece and me to see it.

Throughout the month of December, TV Editor Kate Kulzick and Film Editor Ricky D will review classic Christmas adaptions, posting a total of 13 each, one a day, until the 25th of December.

The catch: They will swap roles as Rick takes on reviews of television Christmas specials and Kate takes on Christmas movies. Today is day 25- Merry Christmas!

Scrooge/A Christmas Carol (1951)

Written by Noel Langley

Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst

What’s it about?

An adaptation of the Dickens classic- The miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by four ghosts on Christmas Eve, prompting him to reevaluate his values.

Review

By this point, everyone knows the story of A Christmas Carol. It’s one of the most performed and retold novellas ever written and it seems that every few years a new actor takes on the role of Ebenezer Scrooge. There’s the Albert Finney version, the George C. Scott version,...

25 Days Of Christmas: Television Specials and Holiday Films

Throughout the month of December, TV Editor Kate Kulzick and Film Editor Ricky D will review classic Christmas adaptions, posting a total of 13 each, one a day, until the 25th of December.

The catch: They will swap roles as Rick will take on reviews of classic television Christmas specials and Kate will take on classic Christmas movies. Today is day 1.

Day 1: Richard Williams’ A Christmas Carol (1971)

Directed by Richard Williams

Based on the short story by Charles Dickens

What’s it about?:

A Christmas Carol is an Academy Award-winning animated cartoon adaptation of Charles Dickens’ venerable 1843 novella, about an old bitter moneygrubber who is given a chance for redemption when he is haunted by the ghosts of Christmas Eve.

Originally produced as a 1971 television special, and broadcast on ABC, A Christmas Carol received so much critical acclaim, that it was subsequently released theatrically,...

Leeds Young People's Film Festival, Leeds

Either kids are growing up faster or adults are becoming more infantile, but it's getting harder for festivals like this to make the distinction. The fancy dress all-dayers devoted to Harry Potter and anime are now the stuff of adult fantasy conventions, while opening animation Rio is voiced by the likes of Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway. Then there are mature "kids'" films like Let Me In, and a history of horror presented by Charlie Higson. Elsewhere, there are lots of hands-on workshops for youngsters, plus the results of the national young film-makers' awards.

Various venues, Mon to 8 Apr, leedsyoungfilm.com

Batman All Night, London

With the Dark Knight set to rise again next year, what better way to get up to speed than a long, dark, er, night? There's sadly no room for the 1966 Adam West Batman movie here – camp classic though it...

Not sure what to watch? We can help with our comprehensive guide to the best films on TV this Christmas and new year

Choose a date

Saturday 19 December | Sunday 20 December | Monday 21 December | Tuesday 22 December | Wednesday 23 December |Christmas Eve | Christmas Day | Boxing Day | Sunday 27 December | Monday 28 December | Tuesday 29 December | Wednesday 30 December | New Year's Eve | New Year's Day

Saturday 19 December

Yes Man (Peyton Reed, 2008)

10am, 8pm, Sky Movies Premiere

Remember Jim Carrey in Liar, Liar, where he forces himself to tell the truth for 24 hours? Well, here Jim Carrey forces himself to answer yes to any request, for a year. Which is upping the ante somewhat, but doesn't make it a better film. This is a return to the manic, gurning, not-very-funny Carrey, as if The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine etc hadn't happened. Just say no.

The Golden Compass (Chris Weitz, 2007)

11.40am, 8pm, Sky Movies Family

What with Harry Potter, Narnia, Lemony Snicket and all,...

My favorite film adaptation of Charles Dickens. .A Christmas Carol. is the 1951 version starring Alastair Sim. Directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and adapted by Noel Langley, the movie captured the dark yet whimsical tone of Dickens. classic.

.Disney.s A Christmas Carol,. the new animated film from writer-director Robert Zemeckis, tried to reinvigorate one of the greatest Christmas stories ever told. Though Zemeckis failed to find the right balance between the dark and the whimsical, I still applaud the movie for being faithful to Dickens. work.

The film is very faithful indeed, that some of the images may terrify little children. Let.s face it, Dickens. 1843 novella was intended for adults. So Walt Disney Pictures is in a quandary. They are marketing an animated film to children that will ultimately scare them.

We all know the story by now. An old, bitter miser, Ebenezer Scrooge (voiced by Jim Carrey), finds...