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I must have been about 12 years old when I first saw Tarzan and His Mate. I loved the Tarzan movies. Tarzan was the undisputed King of the Jungle and was the greatest, Cheetah was man’s best friend, Boy was annoying, and Jane was the Queen of the Jungle and a young male’s introduction to the allure of the female. The uncensored version, with a naked Jane silhouetted while changing clothes in a backlit tent and the spectacular underwater ballet scene would have been a revelation to me; Tarzan and Jane are frolicking in their favorite swimming hole, Tarzan in his usual loincloth and Jane naked – not naked from the waste up, or presumed naked as they hid her behind some lake flora or rocks – Jane was naked.

Madam Satan

Most film fans knowledge of Pre-Code Hollywood movies doesn’t go much further than King Kong, Frankenstein, and a few other titles.

Chiara Mastroianni as Raphaelle: "It's the real love scene."

Claire Denis' sinister and irradiating Bastards (Les salauds), with superb performances by an impressive cast including Vincent Lindon, Chiara Mastroianni, and Lola Créton tells a story of corruption, vengeance, family, and hellish traces of unspeakable deeds.

During my conversation with Claire Denis we discussed the influence of Toshiro Mifune with Akira Kurasowa shoes, William Faulkner's Sanctuary, going in circles, Rip Van Winkle, and in-between places.

Anne-Katrin Titze: I am still in a slight shock after just watching Bastards (Les salauds). Your film moved me deeply.

Claire Denis: The film for me is a little bit like a shriek.

Akt: A shriek? A scream?

CD: A scream. Yeah.

Akt: The position of the women how you show them here is not often seen in cinema. The women are not merely victims. You show over and over again that not...

John Cusack and/or his agent have been working the phones pretty hard this week. The last two days have seen the actor sign up for the financial drama "Due Process" and the Stephen King adaptation "Cell," and now Cusack has busted out the quill again to put his name on another movie, which has a rather intriguing name attached to write and direct. Cusack is in negotiations to topline "Airspace," a thriller that has Roger Avary in talks to direct. The filmmaker has been slowly rejuvenating his career following his 2009 conviction for vehicular manslaughter, which saw him serve a year in prison. Since then he's been tapped to write an adaptation of William Faulkner's "Sanctuary," and rumored to direct his long-talked-about "Rules Of Attraction" spinoff "Glamorama." And while those both seem like they're not really happening, this summer it was reported that he was penning "Jesus Of Nazareth" for.

Hollywood producer and president of 20th Century Fox who made his name with Jaws

Despite the fact that the giant shadow of his father, the legendary movie mogul Darryl F Zanuck, loomed large over him for most of his life, Richard Zanuck, who has died of a heart attack aged 77, triumphantly overcame inferences of nepotism and wisecracks such as "the son also rises", to become one of the most successful Hollywood producers in the last 50 years. His reputation was due initially to Jaws (1975), among the highest grossing movies up to that time, and he was a key figure in launching the career of its director, Steven Spielberg. Zanuck was Oscar-nominated for Jaws and won the Academy Award for best picture with Driving Miss Daisy (1989).

Born in Los Angeles, Zanuck seemed destined to enter show business. He was the third child and only son of the co-founder and head of 20th Century Fox,...

Biblical movies are all the rage in Hollywood right now, with Darren Aronofsky currently casting his "Noah" for a summer shoot, Ridley Scott looking to tackle Moses for Fox while Steven Spielberg also has a Moses movie brewing for Warner Bros. Meanwhile, "Robocop" and "Showgirls" director Paul Verhoeven wants in on the Biblical epic movement too, specifically with the controversial take on Jesus Christ that he's been trying to get off the ground since last year. And Verhoeven has taken a couple significant steps forward with his Jesus movie with Muse Productions’ Chris Hanley stepping up to finance the project and screenwriter Roger Avary ("Beowulf," "Killing Zoe") hired to write the screenplay.

Verhoeven's interest in Jesus didn't occur overnight. Besides being a member of the the Jesus Seminar, the Dutch director published a book he co-wrote last year titled "Jesus of Nazareth." Not surprisingly, that's the book that Avary will...

Retro-active: The Best Articles From Cinema Retro's Archives

Bradford Dillman: A Compulsively Watchable Actor

By Harvey Chartrand

In a career that has spanned 43 years, Bradford Dillman accumulated more than 500 film and TV credits. The slim, handsome and patrician Dillman may have been the busiest actor in Hollywood during the late sixties and early seventies, working non-stop for years. In 1971 alone, Dillman starred in seven full-length feature films. And this protean output doesn’t include guest appearances on six TV shows that same year.

Yale-educated Dillman first drew good notices in the early 1950s on the Broadway stage and in live TV shows, such as Climax and Kraft Television Theatre. After making theatrical history playing Edmund Tyrone in the first-ever production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night in 1956, Dillman landed the role of blueblood psychopath Artie Straus in the crime-and-punishment thriller Compulsion (1959), for which he...

Crime novel? I like that! So thank God I’m not here today to write about some fairy-tale or biopic, or whatever…

So, here’s the thing. You know that William Faulkner’s 1931 crime novel titled Sanctuary? Yeah, you already guess, that novel is getting a big screen adaptation! Isn’t that great?

And now, when we know that Pulp Fiction writer Roger Avary will be in charge for the adaptation – it sounds even better!

According to the latest reports, Avary has been tapped by producer John Langley to adapt William Faulkner’s Sanctuary for the big screen. For this project, Langley will team up with Ali exec producer Lee Caplin.

Sanctuary, the novel first published in 1931, is a tale of a changing social order in the South involved characters that include a ruthless moonshine racketeer and other sinister types who commit murder, abduction and other unsavory deeds.

Here’s...

"The Rules of Attraction" writer/director Roger Avary is set to adapt William Faulkner‘s bleak 1931 novel “Sanctuary” for the big screen says Deadline.

The Southern-set tale centers on Temple Drake, an Alabama debutante who gets mixed up with various nefarious individuals including a ruthless moonshine racketeer, kidnappers, killers and bootleggers. Death and sex ensues.

John Langley (”Brooklyn’s Finest,” “Leaves Of Grass”) will produce. Miriam Hopkins starred in the previous film adaptation "The Story Of Temple Drake".

Cops producer John Langley has tapped Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary to pen an adaptation of William Faulkner's 1931 crime novel Sanctuary.  Deadline reports that Ali exec producer Lee Caplin will co-produce with Langley.  The book was adapted back in 1933 as The Story of Temple Drake, but the plot had to be readjusted to adhere to the Production Code, and there's a lot to readjust.  The story involves rape, murder, abduction, and other brutal acts set against the backdrop of the American South during Prohibition. Avary's last produced screenplay was 2007's Beowulf and his career was slightly way-laid when he pled guilty to a vehicular manslaughter charge in 2009 and while he was at first given a work furlough and five years probation, he was dumb enough to complain about it on Twitter and as a result was sent to jail to serve out the remainder of his sentence.  He was released last July.

Troubled screenwriter Roger Avary, who co-wrote Pulp Fiction with Quentin Tarantino and recently served a year in jail for a drunk-driving accident, is now adapting William Faulkner's Sanctuary — appropriately, one of the visionary novelist's pulpiest novels. Concerning the rape of a Southern belle, it was Faulkner's first commercially successful novel; it's also pretty damn pulpy, but Faulkner being Faulkner, it's a lot better than a pulp novel about the rape of a Southern belle really needs to be. As the Av Club notes, Sanctuary was adapted in 1933 as The Story of Temple Drake, a film so scandalous that it let to the institution of the Hays Code, a censorship standard that reigned in Hollywood until 1968. (Check out this poster. It does look pretty scandalous.) Adding resonance to Faulkner's lurid tale of crime, Avary's version will be produced by Cops creator John Langley ([...]...

It's been a while since we've heard anything about Roger Avary, the Academy Award winning co-writer of "Pulp Fiction" and there's a reason why. In 2009 he was sentenced to a year in prison for vehicular manslaughter and drunk driving, following a car crash which killed Avary's best friend, Andreas Zini. In July of last year, he finished up his sentence and now it looks like he's getting back to work. Avary has been tapped by producer John Langley ("Brooklyn's Finest," "Leaves Of Grass") to adapt William Faulkner's "Sanctuary" for the big screen. The work is a relatively minor one…...

John Langley, the producer best known for creating and exec producing the long-running reality series Cops, has hired Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary to adapt the William Faulkner novel Sanctuary for a feature. Langley, who most recently produced the features Brooklyn's Finest and Leaves of Grass, is teamed with Ali exec producer Lee Caplin on the effort. First published in 1931, Faulkner's bleak tale of a changing social order in the South involved characters that include a ruthless moonshine racketeer and other sinister types who commit murder, abduction and other unsavory deeds. Just the kind of stuff that was prevalent in Pulp Fiction, for which Avary shared a screenwriting Oscar with Quentin Tarantino.

Sanctuary movie to be scripted by Roger Avary, based on William Faulkner's novel John Langley (Cops) has hired Roger Avary, co-writer of Pulp Fiction to adapt Sanctuary, reports Deadline. Faulkner's bleak tale of a changing social order in the South involved characters that include a ruthless moonshine racketeer and other sinister types who commit murder, abduction and other unsavory deeds. First published in 1931, Sanctuary is a psychological melodrama. Characters involve Popeye, a moonshining racketeer who has no conscience, the beautiful Temple Drake, Harace Benbow, a lawyer of honor who wishes he had more, and a college student called Gowan Stevens who has a drinking problem.

Sanctuary movie to be scripted by Roger Avary, based on William Faulkner's novel John Langley (Cops) has hired Roger Avary, co-writer of Pulp Fiction to adapt Sanctuary, reports Deadline. Faulkner's bleak tale of a changing social order in the South involved characters that include a ruthless moonshine racketeer and other sinister types who commit murder, abduction and other unsavory deeds. First published in 1931, Sanctuary is a psychological melodrama. Characters involve Popeye, a moonshining racketeer who has no conscience, the beautiful Temple Drake, Harace Benbow, a lawyer of honor who wishes he had more, and a college student called Gowan Stevens who has a drinking problem.

Sanctuary movie to be scripted by Roger Avary, based on William Faulkner's novel John Langley (Cops) has hired Roger Avary, co-writer of Pulp Fiction to adapt Sanctuary, reports Deadline. Faulkner's bleak tale of a changing social order in the South involved characters that include a ruthless moonshine racketeer and other sinister types who commit murder, abduction and other unsavory deeds. First published in 1931, Sanctuary is a psychological melodrama. Characters involve Popeye, a moonshining racketeer who has no conscience, the beautiful Temple Drake, Harace Benbow, a lawyer of honor who wishes he had more, and a college student called Gowan Stevens who has a drinking problem.

William Gargan, Miriam Hopkins, Jack La Rue in Stephen Roberts' The Story of Temple Drake Cinefest 2011, a four-day festival of rare American films, kicked off earlier today in Syracuse, NY. According to organizers, Cinefest features "great films … from the vaults of the world's greatest libraries and obscure specialties we are noted for from private collectors!" [Cinefest 2011 schedule.] Among the highlights at this year's Cinefest are the East Coast premiere of the Museum of Modern Art's restored print of the racy pre-Code Miriam Hopkins vehicle The Story of Temple Drake (1933), based on William Faulkner's Sanctuary; the Dolores Costello vehicle Glorious Betsy (1928), which earned Anthony Coldeway an Academy Award nomination for Best Adaptation; and Norman Taurog's The Phantom President (1932), a comedy musical starring Broadway legend George M. Cohan (James Cagney won an Oscar for playing him in Yankee Doodle Dandy), Claudette Colbert, and Jimmy Durante. Also, Joe May's [...]...

Greg Grossman, 15-year-old chef

Andy Warhol. Frozen Carrot Amuse Bouche. Girls in hot pink lingerie. What could these things possibly have in common? Well, they all were part of a hodgepodge pop-up restaurant/dinner party held last night in midtown,that was as random as it sounds. Called “The Feast,” the event welcomed such guests as Real Housewife Jill Zarin and “Sex and the City” costume designer Patricia Field at Sanctuary, a yet-to-be-opened boutique hotel.

“The Feast” is part of...