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On May 16, 1929, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the first Academy Awards ceremony was held. William A. Wellman's war film "Wings" was declared the year's Outstanding Picture, while Best Unique and Artistic Picture went to F.W. Murnau's masterpiece "Sunrise." There were two Best Director trophies handed out that night, one for drama (to Frank Borzage for "7th Heaven") and another for comedy (Lewis Milestone for "Two Arabian Nights"). There were only two performance awards: Best Actor went to Emil Jannings for "The Last Command," while Janet Gaynor claimed Best Actress for three movies. The ceremony was held without pomp or suspense: it lasted 15 minutes and the winners were known well in advance. The razzle-dazzle was reserved for the afterparty.

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) opted to broadcast the ceremony via radio in 1930, they fairly rapidly became of interest to a movie-mad public that was...

Originally introduced in the tie-in novels of the '90s, Grand Admiral Thrawn has been a fan-favorite Star Wars antagonist ever since, though it wasn’t until 2016 that he first appeared on-screen, in Star Wars Rebels. However, it was only in 2023’s Ahsoka series that Thrawn appeared in live action, with Lars Mikkelsen reprising the role after voicing the character in Rebels.

As fans of the franchise will know, however, Ahsoka ties into various other Star Wars series — most notably the space western The Mandalorian. Thrawn is easily one of the Star Wars franchise’s most unnerving villains, because he is cold, callous, and utterly evil. Ahsoka left off with Thrawn returning to the galaxy, but his future is so far unclear — he's sure to be back at some point, and The Mandalorian is the right place for his return.

Given the various plot threads that opened in The Mandalorian,...

I got into Star Wars when I was 13 and quickly discovered that no matter how many times I watched the war against the Empire, the best way to continue enjoying the franchise was to pick up a book. And I did, getting my hands on the original Thrawn trilogy and buying the third book in The Jedi Academy trilogy while waiting for a relative's flight to get in. The prequels didn't come out until weeks before my high school graduation. The book have always been a big part of my fandom.

In the spirit of October being Star Wars Reads month, here are my picks of where to start your Star Wars Book journey!

The Heir to the Empire Trilogy

Do you like The Empire Strikes Back for its battle scenes and asteroid field chases and get a lot of enjoyment from the chaos at Endor? When not watching Star Wars,...

Twins have a long history in the Star Wars universe, with Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa being the most well-known pair. Jacen and Jaina Solo, children of Han Solo and Princess Leia, were trained as Jedi under the supervision of their uncle Luke Skywalker, but their story ended in tragedy. The Acolyte's Osha and Mae, played by Amandla Stenberg, may be a Force dyad, drawing inspiration from the Solo twins' story and potentially facing a similar tragic fate.

There is a long history of twins in the Star Wars universe, present since before fans even knew the franchise's main characters were related. Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa are the most well-known of these pairs. They discovered as adults that they had been born together and separated, and it explained their strong connection through the Force. Leia would go on to have twins of her own in the Star Wars Legends books,...

Grand Admiral Thrawn and Darth Vader team up to confront a threat to the Empire in Thrawn: Alliances, which also explores their first encounter during the Clone Wars. The Thrawn: Alliances comic adaptation, written by Timothy Zahn and Jody Houser, provides fans with parallel stories set before the original Star Wars trilogy. The preview reveals the contrasting personalities of Thrawn and Vader, as well as their different approaches to leadership, adding new depth to these iconic Star Wars villains.

Grand Admiral Thrawn and Darth Vader must work together to eliminate a threat to the Empire in the upcoming comic adaptation of the Star Wars novel Thrawn: Alliances. As the two investigate a disturbance in the Force that Emperor Palpatine has detected in the Outer Rim, the story will also detail the very first meeting of Thrawn and Anakin Skywalker during the days of the Clone Wars.

The official Star Wars...

Drummer Steve Riley, a classic member of the bands W.A.S.P. and L.A. Guns, has died at the age of 67. The veteran musician passed away after a severe bout with pneumonia.

Riley’s passing was confirmed by his family, who issued the following statement via Facebook: “We are devastated to share that Steve Riley has passed away at the age of 67. Steve had been battling a severe case of pneumonia for several weeks, and on Tuesday, Oct. 24, succumbed to the illness. His wife Mary Louise and son Cole were by his side in his final moments.”

Riley was a member of W.A.S.P. from 1984 to 1987, appearing on the metal band’s gold-certified sophomore album, 1985’s The Last Command, and its follow-up, 1986’s Inside the Electric Circus, as well as their popular 1987 live album, Live… in the Raw.

In 1987, he joined L.A. Guns, and was part of the...

Grand Admiral Thrawn is set to return in the upcoming Ahsoka series on Disney+. But the actor playing him says he didn't want to revisit his past performances of the character.

Lars Mikkelsen "wanted to create something new," the actor tells Entertainment Weekly. And Mikkelsen also had an assessment of the villainous military leader he's played before.

Related: Wes Chatham Is Perfect for Thrawn's Right-Hand Man - And The Expanse Proves It

"He's a top strategist," Mikkelsen says. "He's always seven paces ahead of anybody else. And ruthless, of course. But only when it's needed, actually."

Mikkelsen first voiced Thrawn in the animated Star Wars: Rebels. The character was first introduced on the small screen in the series' Season 3 premiere in 2016.

"I think he thrives also with the creativity of the surroundings," Mikkelsen added. "I mean, he's not using people in a bad way. He's using their creativity to reach his goals.

With a potential loose adaptation of Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy becoming a film in the current Star Wars canon, one detail from a 2021 comic may set up a surprise antagonist. Before it was rebranded as Legends, the Star Wars Expanded Universe was the official Star Wars canon, and while its materials are almost as old as the saga films themselves, Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy breathed new life into the Legends continuity in the early 1990s. The trilogy’s final installment, The Last Command, introduces a strange, yet fitting antagonist who may debut in the post-2014 canon continuity, and in live-action, no less.

Dave Filoni’s upcoming Star Wars film appears more and more to be a loose adaptation of the Thrawn Trilogy, with its title rumored to be Heir to the Empire, sharing its name with Zahn’s first installment. The current canon’s many fundamental differences from the...

There will be spoilers for "The Mandalorian" season 3 finale: "Chapter 24 - The Return"

Everyone loves to learn the villains master plan at the end of their machinations, and Moff Gideon's plans are no different. He revealed to Din Djarin what he was really up to in the season finale of "The Mandalorian" and it has a lot of wide-ranging and far-reaching implications that tie into the past of "Star Wars," the future in the form of the sequel trilogy, and into storytelling yet to come.

What was his plan?

As Gideon explains it to Din Djarin, his goal was to imbue clones with the ability to use the Force. Having clones outfitted in beskar Stormtrooper armor, augmented with Death Trooper technology, and cloned from Moff Gideon himself, the ability to use the Force would make that army unstoppable.

Dr. Pershing's work to facilitate Gideon's wishes comes from his work in the Imperial Science Division,...

One of the Star Wars Legends continuity’s most iconic Jedi is brought to life by a talented cosplayer. Mara Jade, who is introduced to the Star Wars mythos in 1991’s Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn, plays a pivotal role in the now-bygone Expanded Universe, which was initially part of the officially-recognized Star Wars canon until its rebranding as the alternate Legends timeline in April 2014. Initially the Emperor's Hand, Mara ultimately became Luke Skywalker's wife in Legends.

Mara Jade has been recreated in a stunning cosplay by Kate Gray. The cosplay depicts Mara Jade in her signature smuggler’s outfit, armed with the purple-bladed lightsaber she constructed sometime between the events of Timothy Zahn’s The Last Command and Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kate Gray (@stacycosplays)

Mara Jade has a storied history in the Legends continuity,...

With fears our winter travel will need a, let’s say, reconsideration, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming could hardly come at a better moment. High on list of highlights is Louis Feuillade’s delightful Les Vampires, which I suggest soundtracking to Coil, instrumental Nine Inch Nails, and Jóhann Jóhannson’s Mandy score. Notable too is a Sundance ’92 retrospective running the gamut from Paul Schrader to Derek Jarman to Jean-Pierre Gorin, and I’m especially excited for their look at one of America’s greatest actors, Sterling Hayden.

Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.

See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020

5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952

After Migration: Calabria,...

Luke Skywalker’s unexpected return on The Mandalorian last year reignited fan theories and speculation about the beloved Jedi hero’s involvement in upcoming Star Wars project. Will Mark Hamill’s CGI likeness return for The Mandalorian season 3 with little Grogu in tow? Is he destined to become a character who casts his shadow on all of the upcoming live-action series set after Return of the Jedi? Or was his last-minute rescue in Mando season 2 finale just a cameo designed to shatter the internet?

The completely unsatisfying answer is that we simply don’t know what’s next for Luke. We know where his story is ultimately headed, thanks to The Last Jedi, but we know he got up to many adventures between the Original Trilogy and his return in The Force Awakens. It’s not unreasonable to speculate that some of these untold Luke stories could intersect with The Mandalorian,...

The Academy Awards have been handing out a Best Actor trophy since the very first ceremony in 1928. Emil Jannings for a combo of “The Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh” was the first recipient for his leading roles. The most recent champ was Joaquin Phoenix for “Joker.”

Since then, only one man has won the category three times: Daniel Day-Lewis for “My Left Foot,” “There Will Be Blood” and “Lincoln.” The only two times with back-to-back victories were for Spencer Tracy (“Captains Courageous” and “Boys Town”) and Tom Hanks (“Philadelphia” and “Forrest Gump”).

Beyond those two actors, the ones with two lead wins have included Marlon Brando, Gary Cooper, Dustin Hoffman, Fredric March, Jack Nicholson and Sean Penn. Tracy and Laurence Olivier are the ones with the most nominations at nine.

The oldest winner was Henry Fonda (“On Golden Pond”) at age 76. The oldest nominee was Anthony Hopkins...

In 1929, international movie star Emil Jannings won the first best actor Oscar for his work in two films, The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh.

Preparing to return to his native Germany when his win was announced — three months before the first Academy Awards ceremony — he made sure to pick up his award before he left, writing to the Academy: “I therefore ask you to kindly hand me now already the statuette award to me.”

Oscar in hand, Jannings returned to Europe after a six-picture sojourn in America and resumed his illustrious career as a ...

In 1929, international movie star Emil Jannings won the first best actor Oscar for his work in two films, The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh.

Preparing to return to his native Germany when his win was announced — three months before the first Academy Awards ceremony — he made sure to pick up his award before he left, writing to the Academy: “I therefore ask you to kindly hand me now already the statuette award to me.”

Oscar in hand, Jannings returned to Europe after a six-picture sojourn in America and resumed his illustrious career as a ...

There are near-countless beloved characters in the Star Wars galaxy, many of whom have never made it to the world of live-action. But few characters are so beloved as Grand Admiral Thrawn, who has been a fixture of the franchise for nearly 30 years. But many fans of the franchise, specifically viewers of The Mandalorian are only recently hearing of the mysterious figure. So, who is Grand Admiral Thrawn?

It seems that the character is poised to finally make his debut in live-action, which will introduce an entirely different section of the fanbase to Thrawn. For those who haven't kept up with the expanded universe over the years, or for those who have just watched the movies, he is going to be a fresh concept. For those who would like to learn a little more about Thrawn, we are here to explain everything you need to know about the figure who...

Ben Cooper, an film icon who starred in dozens of Westerns and starred as the bandit Turkey Ralston in Johnny Guitar, has died. He was 86.

Cooper’s death was confirmed by his nephew Pete Searls to The Hollywood Reporter. Cooper died in Memphis, Tennessee after a long battle with an undisclosed illness.

A native of Hartford, Connecticut, his career first started on Broadway at the age of 9 when he starred in Life with Father in 1942, where he went on to play two of the central family’s sons after growing enough to star as an older brother.

He went on...

Ben Cooper, a Western star of films and TV like “Johnny Guitar,” “Bonanza,” “Rawhide” and more, died in his sleep on Monday according to his nephew on the actor’s Facebook fan page. He was 86.

Cooper got his start in radio serials and on stage as a child actor before finding work as a boyish looking lead and supporting player on Westerns in both film and TV. He was best known for his role in the Nicholas Ray Western “Johnny Guitar” from 1954, where he played the bandit Turkey Ralston alongside Ernest Borgnine and Scott Brady.

Cooper’s first screen role came when he was 18 in the “Armstrong Circle Theatre,” and he followed that up with several TV appearances and roles in films from Republic Pictures such as “Thunderbirds,” “The Last Command” and “Duel at Apache Wells.”

Also Read: David Roback, Co-Founder of Mazzy Star, Dies at 61

He also appeared in...

By now, it's no secret that Mark Hamill is in the star-studded cast of The Rise of Skywalker, returning to his iconic post as Luke Skywalker. There have been many convincing theories that Luke pops up as a clone in the final installation of the trilogy. Drawing on Timothy Zahn's 1993 Star Wars novel The Last Command, some Star Wars enthusiasts believed that his severed hand was salvaged for cloneable DNA. However, Luke comes back to the movie in a much less complicated way. As you may have guessed, Luke returns as a Force spirit, guiding Rey as she buckles down to battle Palpatine.

We first feel Luke's presence off-screen, as Rey sifts through his Jedi texts and learns about a Sith Wayfinder that will help her find Palpatine, who is very shockingly not dead. There are, suffice to say, a few bumps along the way. Kylo Ren reveals to Rey that she's Palpatine's granddaughter.

Ryan Britt May 4, 2019

Dark Empire was one of the early Star Wars expanded universe efforts, and it may have an influence on The Rise of Skywalker.

With a single cackle, the childhood memories of countless Star Wars fans have been reignited. Though he isn't actually seen in the first teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine’s laugh at the end means the darkest of dark side dudes is totally back. And if bringing back the famous Sith Lord feels like the oldest trick in the book, you’re not wrong. But, in this case, the book in question was a 1991-1992 comic book miniseries called Dark Empire, published by Dark Horse Comics back when new Star Wars stories were far rarer than they are today.

For those who might not remember, Dark Empire focused on the resurrection of Emperor Palpatine after his “death” in Return of the Jedi.

It could be lucky No. 7 and 13 for Glenn Close. She picked up her seventh Oscar nomination on Tuesday, for Best Actress for “The Wife,” which did not get any other nominations. If Close’s name is finally in the envelope on Oscar day, she’d be the 13th winner in the category as the only nominee for her film.

The first 12 were:

1. Mary Pickford, “Coquette” (1928/29)

2. Marie Dressler, “Min and Bill” (1930/31)

3. Helen Hayes, “The Sin of Madelon Claudet” (1931/32)

4. Katharine Hepburn, “Morning Glory” (1932/33)

5. Bette Davis, “Dangerous” (1935)

6. Joanne Woodward, “The Three Faces of Eve” (1957)

7. Sophia Loren, “Two Women” (1961)

8. Jodie Foster, “The Accused” (1988)

9. Kathy Bates, “Misery” (1990)

10. Jessica Lange, “Blue Sky” (1994)

11. Charlize Theron, “Monster” (2003)

12. Julianne Moore, “Still Alice” (2014)

Twelve times in the Oscars’ 90-year history doesn’t sound like a lot, but it is when you look at Best Actor, which only has five solo nominee winners: Emil Jannings, Jose Ferrer, Cliff Robertson, Michael Douglas and Forest Whitaker.

The ‘other’ Hollywood studio version of the Alamo story is quite good, with strong production values, exciting stunt battle action and something Republic Pictures didn’t manage very often, a solid screenplay. Sterling Hayden is Jim Bowie, this version’s central hero, with great backup from Anna Maria Alberghetti, Ernest Borgnine, J. Carrol Naish, and Ben Cooper. But best of all is that old hay-shaker Arthur Hunnicutt, as the movies’ best and most natural Davy Crockett.

The Last Command

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1955 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 110 min. / Street Date December 11, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Sterling Hayden, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Richard Carlson, Arthur Hunnicutt, Ernest Borgnine, J. Carrol Naish, Ben Cooper, John Russell, Virginia Grey, Jim Davis, Eduard Franz, Otto Kruger, Russell Simpson, Roy Roberts, Slim Pickens, Hugh Sanders, Morris Ankrum, Argentina Brunetti, Robert Burton.

Cinematography: Jack A. Marta

Film Editor: Tony Martinelli

Original Music: Max Steiner

Special Effects: Howard...

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday.

This week’s question: What is the worst performance by a great actor you usually love?

Carlos Aguilar (@Carlos_Film), The Wrap, Remezcla, MovieMaker Magazine

Collectively, Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna have been enlisted to enhance films by Almodovar, Spielberg, Larraín, Korine, and, of course, Alfonso Cuarón; in addition to many more efforts by the world’s leading directors. Both have also tried their hand at directing, with Luna having a more notable run behind the camera, and more recently basked in the attention of worldwide mainstream success in the form of “Coco” and “Rogue One.”

Yet, buried underneath that steady stream of good marks and auteur-driven opportunities, most of which this critic has been a champion of, is “Casa de Mi Padre.” Matt Piedmont’s debut feature, a Spanish-language satire starring Will Ferrell,...

Denzel Washington (“Roman J. Israel, Esq.”) is a longshot to win Best Actor, sitting in fifth place in our combined Oscar odds. There are lots of things working against him: Gary Oldman (“Darkest Hours”) is an indisputable frontrunner; he has zero precursor wins, not even from a tiny regional critics group; it’s hard to win a third acting Oscar (he was much better positioned last year for “Fences”); and his is the only nomination for his film.

In Oscar history, there have only been five times when Best Actor went to a film with no other nominations. Washington will try to join the club that includes inaugural Best Actor winner Emil Jannings (“The Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh”), Jose Ferrer (1950’s “Cyrano de Bergerac”), Cliff Robertson (1968’s “Charly”), Michael Douglas (1987’s “Wall Street”) and Forest Whitaker (2006’s “The Last King of Scotland”).

See Revisiting Daniel Day-Lewis...

While fans continue the countdown towards the next highly-anticipated Star Wars movie, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, fans are also looking forward to perhaps one of the most highly-anticipated Star Wars books, entitled Thrawn: Alliances. The first details about this Star Wars novel were unveiled last month, where it was confirmed that Thrawn: Alliances will unite two of the Star Wars canon's most iconic villains, Grand Admiral Thrawn and Darth Vader, and now LucasFilm has revealed the cover for the book, featuring both of these iconic characters. Here's a description of the novel below, from the official Star Wars website.

"The Star Wars Show revealed the cover of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn: Alliances, the highly-anticipated follow-up to this year's bestselling Thrawn novel. It's a striking image featuring both Darth Vader and Grand Admiral Thrawn, the Empire's deadliest enforcer and perhaps its most gifted strategist. The book finds Thrawn on a...

Film culture moves awfully fast sometimes. I had never even heard of The Saga of Anatahan when the New Beverly here in Los Angeles showed it (under the title Ana-ta-han) about a year and a half ago on 16mm. It being Josef von Sternberg’s final feature, it was paired with another not-on-dvd title of his, The King Steps Out (1936). Now here we are, Anatahan has toured in a full restoration and is now available on Blu-ray for all to see. The somewhat-superior The King Steps Out has not yet had its day, sadly, but I’m glad for any von Sternberg on Blu in general, and for the chance to revisit and further consider this sincerely odd film.

Von Sternberg was born to a Jewish family in Vienna, emigrated to the United States when he was seven, then back to Vienna three years later, and back to the United States three years after that.

Much speculation is swirling around the state in which Star Wars: The Last Jedi will find Luke Skywalker, when the film finally hits theatres at the end of the year. With only promotional artwork and snippets of teaser footage to go on, eagle-eyed fans have noted that the once overly-enthusiastic young Jedi seems to have transformed into something of a grumpy old man. Unpleasant, traumatic events have clearly befallen him since Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi, but it’s not yet revealed just what caused him to flee to the secrecy of Ach-To – where Rey eventually found him in the closing moments of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Inevitably, as promotion for The Last Jedi picks up momentum, Mark Hamill is asked, with increasing regularity, about the new psychology of Luke Skywalker, and how it will determine the events of this next franchise instalment. We cannot expect much to...

Mark Hamill has revealed that he wanted to play Luke Skywalker's evil twin in The Last Jedi, which basically means that it's a really good thing that he didn't have anything to do with the screenwriting process. On the other hand, Hamill's evil twin idea could have been the origin of the Bb-8's (sort of) evil twin, the First Order's Bb-9E. The evil droid was nicknamed Bb-H8 on the set and features a slightly smaller head that is rectangular and he's black and gray instead of Bb-8's lighter color scheme.

The evil twin idea, though terrible, isn't that far-fetched. Timothy Zahn's 1993 Star Wars novel, The Last Command, features a clone of Luke Skywalker named Luuke Skywalker (yes, for real). Luuke Skywalker was a genetic clone of the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, grown from cells extracted from the hand Skywalker lost during his duel with Darth Vader...

Eureka! Entertainment has announced the latest titles to join its revered Masters of Cinema label, with highlights including Josef von Sternberg’s The Saga of Anatahan and Naomi Kawase’s The Mourning Forest. The last film directed by von Sternberg, already in the collection with The Blue Angel and The Last Command, The Saga of Anatahan (also known as simply Anatahan) is the story of 12 Japanese soldiers, marooned on a remote island during WWII, who tear each other apart over control of two pistols and a beautiful local woman. The film will be receive a dual-format release on 14 August. Cannes darling Naomi Kawase won the Grand Prix in 2007 for The Mourning Forest, the story of a bereaved care-giver (Machiko Ono) who embarks...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Star Wars Rebels season 4 will have a new franchise alum on its voice cast this year, as confirmed by Dave Filoni. Warwick Davis, best known as Wicket from Return of the Jedi, will voice an assassin named Rukh, who’s also a bodyguard for Grand Admiral Thrawn.

For those of you not caught up on the expanded universe, Rukh has actually been around in the Star Wars lore since Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire in 1991. He was a Noghri warrior who became incredibly loyal to the Empire when learning of their efforts to restore his planet, Honoghr.

He was also a Death Commando under Palpatine until Thrawn hired him as a bodyguard nine years after the Battle of Yavin. A deadly, stealthy warrior who has gone toe to toe with Luke Skywalker, it’ll be interesting to see how Rebels adjusts Rukh’s role to the new canon.

There was a time when Star Wars fans didn't have any new movies to look forward to. In the time after Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and before George Lucas returned to a galaxy far, far away for the prequels, fans had to rely on the Star Wars expanded universe video games, comic books and novels. During that time, one of the greatest villains in Star Wars history, Grand Admiral Thrawn, was born. Disney has made him an official part of the new canon and the brilliant, blue strategist is getting his own novel. Now a full synopsis has been revealed for the upcoming Star Wars: Thrawn novel.

The synopsis for Star Wars: Thrawn was released by Comicbook.com and reveals that the book will center on the untold origins of Grand Admiral Thrawn and his rapid rise in the Imperial ranks. Prior to this, very little...

Utilizing a tremendous premise in the most laborious way possible, Josef von Sternberg’s The Last Command has to rank among his least dynamic and interesting films. Taking inspiration from an actual Russian general who fled the motherland and was forced to work as a day-player extra in early Hollywood, the 1928 film only treats its present-day setting as a framing device to house a too-familiar tale. Sergius Alexander (Emil Jannings), grand duke and army commander, had a special fervor for quashing revolutionary movements, but, as he’s living on the brink of the Russian Revolution, this task is sure to overwhelm him. Stretching this exposition across an hour of screentime, even someone of Sternberg’s genius cannot find purchase in anything of interest. There’s nothing distinctive about Sergius’s fall from glory, nor the manner in which he wields his power. Nothing in this section is a fraction as...

In this episode of Off The Shelf, Ryan and Brian take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for Tuesday, May 17th 2016.

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Follow-Up A History of Disney Television Animation: volume I Amazon purchases News Criterion August titles Kino Lorber: I The Jury, Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend, The Neptune Factor, Finders Keepers Code Red: Screams of a Winter Night, The Working Girls Scorpion Releasing: Don’t Go In The House, also – Go Tell the Spartans – through Screen Archives Links to Amazon Candy Cop Rock: The Complete Series Dark Passage FitzPatrick Traveltalks: Volume 1 For Men Only / School for Sex Hired To Kill I Saw What You Did Killer Force The Last Command (Masters of Cinema) The Naked Island Too Late for Tears (Flicker Alley) Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? The Witch...

This time on the Newsstand, Ryan is joined by Arik Devens and Scott Nye to discuss the Criterion UK announcement, the June 2016 line-up, and a handful of other pieces of news.

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Contact us with any feedback.

Shownotes Blood Simple The Last Command coming to MoC Code Unknown replacement program Criterion Live at the Metrograph Criterion UK confirmed June Criterion Collection Line-up Links Le amiche (1955) La chienne (1931) Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) Fantastic Planet (1973) Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Episode Credits Ryan Gallagher (Twitter / Website) Arik Devens (Twitter / Website) Scott Nye (Twitter / Website)

Music for the show is from Fatboy Roberts’ Geek Remixed project.Donate via PayPal...

In this special episode of Off The Shelf, Ryan and Brian take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for Tuesday, March 8th 2016.

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Follow-Up Chronicles Episode 1 Brian’s Zatoichi set News Disney: Star Wars: The Force Awakens Blu-ray Announced Criterion UK Kino Lorber: Taking of Pelham 123, Deadline USA, Buster Keaton Short Films Warner Archive: Hitchcock’s Suspicion (Warner Archive) Masters of Cinema: The Last Command (Masters of Cinema) Arrow Video: June titles: Return of the Killer Tomatoes, Suture, Ray Harryhausen, Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Volume 2 -also Too late For Tears and Woman on the Run. Olive Films: May titles Goodbye Gemini, Puppet on a Chain on Screen Archives (Scorpion Releasing) Kingdom of the Spiders (Code Red) Links to Amazon Batteries Not Included The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas Coming Home The Forbidden Room Howard the Duck Hogan’s Heroes: The Complete...

It's almost here -- the 88th Academy Awards finally airs this Sunday, and we're counting down the minutes.

We've already given you our Oscar predictions, and now we're bringing you some of the best (and, um, craziest) facts about Hollywood's biggest awards show. From the first Best Actor winner, to the "one dollar" Oscar rule, here are 25 things you (probably) don't know about the Oscars.

1. The youngest Oscar winner was Tatum O'Neal (above), who won Best Supporting Actress for "Paper Moon" (1973) when she was only 10 years old. Shirley Temple won the short-lived Juvenile Award at 6 years old.

2. After winning Best Actress for "Cabaret" (1972), Liza Minnelli became (and still is) the only Oscar winner whose parents both earned Oscars. Her mother, Judy Garland, received an honorary award in 1939 and her father, Vincente Minnelli, won Best Director for "Gigi" (1958).

3. Nameplates for all potential winners are prepared ahead of time; in 2014, the Academy made 215 of them!

When Disney purchased LucasFilm for $4 billion back in October 2012, the first project announced was Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Among the many questions fans wondered was if this new story would draw from the massive Expanded Universe of comic books, novels, and video games that already exist. It was later confirmed that the Expanded Universe isn't part of the official Star Wars movie and TV canon. Those stories and characters won't see the light of day on the big or small screen anytime soon. But today, we have an intriguing report from Making Star Wars, whose sources claim that one beloved Expanded Universe villain may debut in Season 3 of Star Wars Rebels. There will be potential Spoilers below, so read on at your own risk.

This report claims that Grand Admiral Thrawn will appear in Star Wars Rebels Season 3, which was renewed back in November. This character was the primary...

Norma Shearer: The Boss' wife was cast in 'The Divorcee.' Norma Shearer movies on TCM: Early talkies and Best Actress Oscar Note: This Norma Shearer article is currently being revised and expanded. Please Check back later. Norma Shearer, one of the top stars in Hollywood history and known as the Queen of MGM back in the 1930s, is Turner Classic Movies' Star of the Month of Nov. 2015. That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that even though its parent company, Time Warner, owns most of Shearer's movies, TCM isn't airing any premieres. So, if you were expecting to check out a very young Norma Shearer in The Devil's Circus, Upstage, or After Midnight, you're out of luck. (I've seen all three; they're all worth a look.) It's a crime that, music score or no, restored print or no, TCM/Time Warner don't make available for viewing the...

Lucasfilm

It’s official (pretty much) – Benicio del Toro is the villain in Star Wars Episode VIII. Lucasfilm are yet to officially announce it, but the actor himself – who has been pretty vocal about his interest in the film – has now said he’s properly joined Rian Johnson’s sequel to The Force Awakens.

Back when reports first hit I pondered what this meant for the impending The Force Awakens, but now let’s put aside all that rampant speculation over what a new villain means for the fates of Kylo Ren, General Hux, Captain Phasma, Supreme Leader Snoke et al come December and instead look ahead to what exactly we can expect from del Toro’s character. Namely, one particularly exciting (and incredibly crazy) prospect – is he playing Grand Admiral Thrawn?

Details on Episode VIII are scarce, but when you take a step back and consider everything this is...

Every year Villa Aurora follows its own long tradition of welcoming the German community and friends to socialize and celebrate the German contribution to American culture.

The German co-production “Citizenfour” by Laura Poitras (De/Us, Praxis Films, Br, Ndr) was awarded the Oscar® for Best Documentary Feature yesterday. “Citizenfour” has also received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature.

“The Grand Budapest Hotel” by Wes Anderson (Gb/De, Neunzehnte Babelsberg Film), another German co-production, picked up four Academy Awards® in the categories Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Hair and Make-Up as well as Best Original Score. It had been nominated in nine categories.

A day before the Oscars®, German Films joined forces with the Villa Aurora and the German Consul-General in Los Angeles to hold their traditional reception in honor of the German Oscar® nominees at the garden of the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles.

The teams of “Citizenfour” comprising the German producers Dirk Wilutzky and Mathilde Bonnefoy, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” with the producers Carl Woebcken, Henning Molfenter and Christoph Fisser, the representatives of the German regional funders Carl Bergengruen of Mfg Baden-württemberg and Kirsten Niehuus of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg as well as the director Wim Wenders, who was nominated for Best Documentary Feature for “The Salt Of The Earth," celebrated there with guests from the German and international film industry.

The beautiful Spanish Deco home at 520 Paseo Miramar in the Pacific Palisades was bought by the famed author, Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta in 1943 the same year that he published The Devil in France, the account of his imprisonment by the Nazis in the South of France before he fled to the U.S.

In September of 1940, with the support of Varian Fry and the U.S. Vice Consul in Marseille, Hiram Bingham, Lion and Marta were able to join another group of exiles in crossing the Pyrenees on foot. They made their journey from Lisbon to New York on different ships. From there, they traveled to Los Angeles, and in 1943 moved into the Villa Aurora, which soon became a focal point in the lives of many intellectuals and artists who had fled from Germany including Bertold Brecht, Thomas Mann and his brother Heinrich Mann, Marlene Dietrich.

Their German passports had been confiscated by the Nazis. In the McCarthy era, Feuchtwanger was scrutinized as a “premature antifascist” by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Fearing that he would not be allowed to return, he never traveled outside the U.S. again. After years of immigration hearings, Feuchtwangers application for American citizenship was finally granted, but the letter informing Feuchtwanger of the fact was not received until a day after his death.

Marta bequeathed to the University of Southern California the library and the house in exchange for the life-long right to live in the Villa. She was appointed curator of the Villa and was politically and culturally active. The Villa remained a social destination in Los Angeles. In 1987 she died at the age of 96.

"So, in my fiftieth year, I literally arrived in the U.S. on foot. Has that made me a U.S. citizen? Can a piece of paper change half a century of my life? I don’t believe it. Now, that I have only 10 years to complete the second half of the century, I feel, it is good to have the citizenship of a country that unites my German routes with the ones of many other nations. Being American is very close to being a citizen of the world."

Source: Marta Feuchtwanger: Only a Woman, Years Days Hours, Aufbau Verlag Berlin Leipzig, 1984

Celebrating the Academy Award Nominees at the same time as 20 years of present ownership of the Villa Aurora and at the same time as 25 years after German reunification, restoration of the famed Babelsberg Studios made this year especially notable.

At the party, I had the chance to speak with Mariette Rissenbeek, Managing Director or German Films.

How long have you been with German Export?

I started in 2002, 13 years ago. I was in charge of festivals and public relations. The position gave me rewarding insights into festivals and I was able to meet many producers.

What changes have you seen in your time there?

I started a year after “Good Bye Lenin” and “Nowhere in Africa”. In the 2000s, German films became very popular internationally. Since 2011 I have been the Managing Director which involves lots of administration and politics.

How do German films do abroad?

Every year two to three titles work well. “Phoenix” is doing very well in France. “Hannah Arendt” and “The Lives of Others” did well worldwide. This year we have “Elser” (“Thirteen Minutes”) which just premiered in Berlin and of course “Salt of the Earth” and “CitizenFour” (winner of the 2015 Spirit Award for Best Documentary), “Victoria” which Adopt Films acquired for U.S.

Germans have consistently won Academy Awards since 1929 when Emil Jannings won for Best Actor in “The Way of All Flesh” and “ The Last Command”.

I also had the chance to speak with the Director of Villa Aurora, my friend since her days at Goethe Institute.

How long have you been Director of Villa Aurora ?

Three years in May.

You moved over from Goethe Institute and have changed Villa Aurora significantly. Can you tell us what changes it has undergone since you took over as its director?

When I applied for the position, I gave my vision for the Villa in various areas which included increased visibility, and renovations, as the home was in a rather neglected state. I also wanted our guests to network more with the Los Angeles arts community. So now their work appears in galleries, they give master classes and they show their work.

I had support from the Berlin headquarters and the German Foreign office and so we could renovate, landscape and install better lighting. I love creative work and this has been very satisfying.

Similarly as at the Goethe Institute, I still network and organize events, but I am also a “den mother” to the fellows. At this time we have five artists in residence. Four are here for three months and one is here for eight months – a writer in exile who cannot live in the native country of birth. We have had a writer from Syria living in Turkey; last year we had someone from Viet Nam and before, a blogger from Belarus living in Poland.

We also have an agreement with Cal Arts to send an artist to Germany to work and present their work.

Once again the congeniality and milieu brought together Hollywood and Germany, a partnership which goes back to the first days of the Hollywood we know today.

The 87th Academy Awards are this Sunday evening, and we're counting down the minutes!

We've already given you our Oscar predictions, and now we're bringing you a few of the best (and craziest) Academy Awards facts. From the first Best Actor winner to the "one dollar" Oscar rule, here are 25 things you (probably) don't know about the Oscars.

1. The youngest Oscar winner was Tatum O'Neal, who won Best Supporting Actress for "Paper Moon" (1973) when she was only 10 years old. Shirley Temple won the short-lived Juvenile Award at 6 years old.

2. At 82, Christopher Plummer became the oldest person to win an Academy Award. He received the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work in "Beginners" (2010) opposite Ewan McGregor.

3. After winning Best Actress for "Cabaret" (1972), Liza Minnelli became (and still is) the only Oscar winner whose parents both earned Oscars. Her mother, Judy Garland, received an honorary award in 1939 and her father, Vincente Minnelli,...

First Best Actor Oscar winner Emil Jannings and first Best Actress Oscar winner Janet Gaynor on TCM (photo: Emil Jannings in 'The Last Command') First Best Actor Academy Award winner Emil Jannings in The Last Command, first Best Actress Academy Award winner Janet Gaynor in Sunrise, and sisters Norma Talmadge and Constance Talmadge are a few of the silent era performers featured this evening on Turner Classic Movies, as TCM continues with its Silent Monday presentations. Starting at 5 p.m. Pt / 8 p.m. Et on November 17, 2014, get ready to check out several of the biggest movie stars of the 1920s. Following the Jean Negulesco-directed 1943 musical short Hit Parade of the Gay Nineties -- believe me, even the most rabid anti-gay bigot will be able to enjoy this one -- TCM will be showing Josef von Sternberg's The Last Command (1928) one of the two movies that earned...

The 86th Academy Awards are this Sunday evening, and we're counting down the minutes!

We've already given you our Oscar predictions, and now we're bringing you a few of the best (and craziest) Academy Awards facts. From the first Best Actor winner to the "one dollar" Oscar rule, here are 23 things you (probably) don't know about the Oscars.

1. The youngest Oscar winner was Tatum O'Neal, who won Best Supporting Actress for "Paper Moon" (1973) when she was only 10 years old. Shirley Temple won the short-lived Juvenile Award at 6 years old.

2. At 82, Christopher Plummer became the oldest person to win an Academy Award. He received the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work in "Beginners" (2010) opposite Ewan McGregor.

3. After winning Best Actress for "Cabaret" (1972), Liza Minnelli became (and still is) the only Oscar winner whose parents both earned Oscars. Her mother, Judy Garland, received an honorary award in 1939 and her father, Vincente Minnelli,...

From Jack leching over Jennifer to John Wayne's farewell and Brando's no-show, these are just some of the greatest moments at the Oscars ceremonies ever

1. When Jack met Jennifer

This is perhaps my favourite Oscar moment ever, and it is from last year: the 85th Academy Awards in 2013. Tellingly, it does not take place up on stage, in the often tense and frozen ritual of the awards ceremony itself, but happens in the cheerful buzz of the post-show melee backstage. This single, endlessly replayed clip probably did more for Jennifer Lawrence's public profile than anything on the big screen.

Reading on mobile? Click here to see Jack Nicholson surprise Jennifer Lawrence

George Stephanopoulos, the former Bill Clinton aide who later made a career in TV, was conducting on-the-hoof interviews for ABC and had grabbed 22-year-old Lawrence to talk about her best actress Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook. The...

Best Supporting Actor Oscar Predictions 2014 (photo: Jared Leto in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’) As explained in our previous Oscar 2014 predictions post, this year’s Academy Award nominations in the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories initially looked impossible to predict. For Best Supporting Actor, Jared Leto was the front-runner for his performance as a transsexual with AIDS in Dallas Buyers Club, and Michael Fassbender was another strong possibility for his evil planter in 12 Years a Slave — but who else? (See also: "Oscar Predictions 2014 Best Actress: Meryl Streep Possibly to Break Another Record," "Oscar Predictions 2014 Best Actor: Robert Redford Possible Near-Record," "Best Supporting Actress 2014 Oscar Predictions: Jennifer Lawrence and/or Scarlett Johansson to Make Oscar History?" and "Oscar Predictions 2014: Best Picture, Best Director.") A couple of weeks ago, the SAG Award nominations helped to clarify things some, but, just as in the Best Supporting Actress category, there remains quite...

The Blue Angel

Written by Carl Zuckmayer, Karl Vollmöller, Robert Liebmann

Directed by Josef von Sternberg

Germany, 1930

It’s strange that the work of Josef von Sternberg has not been better represented in the realm of Blu-ray production. Aside from 1930’s The Blue Angel, available now on a new Kino Classics 2-Disc Ultimate Edition, not a single Sternberg film exists on the format. For such a stylish director, one who was expressly concerned with the ornate visual texture of his films, the enhanced images that go along with the standard digital restorations of Blu-ray titles would seemingly be ideal. That said, with at least The Blue Angel, it does become clear that this format and this filmmaker are indeed made for each other.

While not as deliberately composed to accentuate frames bursting to their edges with fore- and background elements (see The Scarlet Empress, for example), The Blue Angel nevertheless...

(Click to enlarge) There.s no real formula one can use to win an Oscar . except this one. Researcher David Shaw broke down the history of Academy Award winner for Delayed Gratification, focusing on the winners in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories. They start with Emil Jannings (who won in 1928 for both The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh) and Janet Gaynor (who won for participating in Three features that year: Seventh Heaven; Street Angel; and Sunrise). The chart is a hot mess of colorful lines. Staring at it for longer than a minute can induce migraine headaches. But here are a few of the major factors the research revealed. If you want to win an acting Oscar, you should: - Play a Fictional Character. - Play a North American (instead of a Brit or someone of a different, European descent). - Play someone who works...

Optional Soundtrack For This Post: John Williams’ magnificent, soaring score for Star Wars. Pick any of the films. Even the prequels. I’m starting with the A New Hope soundtrack as I write this.

You can’t pick a more talked about, hyped, and all around controversial film than Star Wars: Episode VII, the first installment in what Disney and Lucasfilm hope to be the sequel trilogy that fans have always dreamed about.

That likely won’t be the case, more because of unruly expectations than anything, but it won’t take much for it to be better than Episodes I-iii. With J.J. Abrams switching fan favorite universes to take the helm, Michael Arndt penning the script, and Lawrence Kasdan (Empire Strikes Back, Return Of The Jedi, Raiders Of The Lost Ark) around to consult alongside Simon Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes, X-men: Days Of Future Past), there’s a promising nucleus...

The Loves of Pharaoh: Ernst Lubitsch early historical epic (photo: Emil Jannings [center] in The Loves of Pharaoh) Ernst Lubitsch’s The Loves of Pharaoh (1922) exists only in a truncated version, with some stills and title cards inserted into the lost footage. Lubitsch’s early epic was screened at the 2012 San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The film tells the familiar story of the lustful, evil King Amenes (Emil Jannings), Pharaoh of Egypt, and his unrequited love for the Greek slave girl Theonis (Dagny Servaes), who loves the gallant Ramphis (Harry Liedtke), who, for his part, is being kept prisoner in a rock quarry. Pharaoh Amenes makes Theonis his Queen, but she manages to avoid getting in bed with him. Then those pesky Ethiopians want their Queen / Slave for their own and invade Egypt. Needless to say, Ramphis escapes to claim Theonis. The Loves of Pharaoh‘s tale of treachery and...

(Josef von Sternberg, 1930; Eureka!, PG)

Among the first enduringly great movies of the sound era, The Blue Angel was made simultaneously in German and English versions (both contained in this three-disc set) by the 35-year-old Viennese-born Hollywood director Josef von Sternberg. The great German character actor Emil Jannings, who'd won the first ever Oscar for best actor under Sternberg's direction in The Last Command (1928), insisted on Sternberg being brought to Berlin for his first talking film.

This turned out to be The Blue Angel (based on a novel by Thomas Mann's brother Heinrich), in which Jannings gives an exquisitely detailed performance as the pompous, middle-aged Professor Rath, a high-school teacher whose life is destroyed through his romantic infatuation with Lola Lola, a wilful young singer he meets at the eponymous nightclub. Sternberg cast the little-known Marlene Dietrich as the mercurial enchantress, a role that brought her world stardom and took her to the States,...