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Seduced and Abandoned, a 2013 mock documentary about the absurdities of indie film finance that was directed by James Toback and stars Alec Baldwin, hasn’t aged well. Baldwin and a pre-#MeToo Toback (the director’s career was derailed in 2017 after hundreds of women accused him of sexual misconduct, charges that he’s denied) are seen at the 65th Cannes Film Festival, lurching from one fabulous lunch to another as they wine and dine assorted film executives and billionaires. They are supposedly trying to drum up money for a modern-day remake of the 1972 erotic drama The Last Tango in Paris set in contemporary ...

Seduced and Abandoned, a 2013 mock documentary about the absurdities of indie film finance that was directed by James Toback and stars Alec Baldwin, hasn’t aged well. Baldwin and a pre-#MeToo Toback (the director’s career was derailed in 2017 after hundreds of women accused him of sexual misconduct, charges that he’s denied) are seen at the 65th Cannes Film Festival, lurching from one fabulous lunch to another as they wine and dine assorted film executives and billionaires. They are supposedly trying to drum up money for a modern-day remake of the 1972 erotic drama The Last Tango in Paris set in contemporary ...

Writer/director/actor Jim Cummings joins hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss a few of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Thunder Road short film (2016)

Thunder Road (2018)

The Wolf Of Snow Hollow (2020)

The Beta Test (2021)

Jack Reacher (2012)

The ’Burbs (1989) – Ti West’s trailer commentary, Burbs-Mania from Tfh

Big (1988)

War Of The Worlds (2005) – Glenn Erickson’s 4K Blu-ray review

Psycho (1960) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

Children Of Men (2006)

Y Tu Mama Tambien (2002)

Russian Ark (2002) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary

The Beach (2000)

Titanic (1997)

28 Days Later (2003)

Victoria (2015) – Eduardo Rodriguez’s trailer commentary

Krisha (2015)

Dogtooth (2009)

Inside Out (2015)

Toy Story (1995)

Finding Nemo (2003)

Wall-e (2008)

Up (2009)

Rosemary’s Baby (1968) – Mark Pellington’s trailer commentary, Oren Peli’s trailer commentary

False Positive (2021)

Repulsion (1965) – Michael Lehman’s trailer commentary

Seduced And Abandoned (1964)

Divorce Italian Style (1961)

La Dolce Vita (1960) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary

My Beautiful Girl, Mari (2002)

Speed Racer...

Better late than never. After the traditional Cannes Film Festival was cancelled last year due to Covid, the glitzy event is back with Covid protocols in order. Instead of taking place in May, the 74th annual gala opened on July 6 and will continue through July 17th at the glamorous French resort town.

Spike Lee, who was supposed to be jury head last year, was asked to take up the reigns of this edition. And he appeared on the legendary red carpet decked out in a striking pink ensemble. The festival opened with the Leos Carax’ offbeat musical “Annette” featuring music by the Sparks Brother and Val Kilmer’s self-titled documentary “Val,” which earned kudos and a long-standing ovation. Other films premiering at the festival including Sean Penn’s “Flag Day,” Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” Asghar Farhadi’s “The Hero” and Francois Ozon’s “Everything Went Fine.”

Besides screening and selling movies,...

Exclusive: Morris S. Levy’s M.E.G.A. Films (Angie: Lost Girls) has acquired the rights to Jill Eileen Smith’s epic historical novel Star of Persia to develop as a television event series. Keeper of the Diary and Mayday 109 scribes Samuel Franco and Evan Kilgore are attached to write the series, based on the book and the duo’s own historical research.

Star of Persia is inspired by the Old Testament’s Book of Esther, following a brave peasant girl, Esther, who is enslaved by Persian King Xerxes, and forced to be a part of his harem. There, as she works to gain the trust and respect of the other women in the palace, she fights to become their protector and advocate. Now rising to wield great power as the King’s favorite concubine, she discovers a deadly coup among his most trusted advisors. On the heels of his army’s...

The Mubi Podcast returns with a look at Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, a film that nearly beat Jaws at the Brazilian box office and turned Sonia Braga from national star to national deity.Below, host Rico Gagliano interviews the film’s director Bruno Barreto. Barreto goes beyond the conversation featured in episode 3 and discusses his love for John Ford, Pietro Germi and Francois Truffaut and shares more behind-the-scenes details about the making of Dona Flor.To listen to the episode and subscribe on your preferred podcast app, click here.Rico Gagliano: Tell me about the first film you remember having an impact on you, and when that was. Bruno Barreto: Well, I was very impressed always by American cinema. My Darling Clementine, John Ford's masterpiece, was something that really made a huge impact on me. Gagliano: What about it?Barreto: I mean, the story itself. The realism.

Giuseppe Tornatore’s romantic ode to the movies charmed America, convincing theater-goers that little Italian kids are the cutest in the world. Little Salvatore Cascio grows up in a projection booth under the life-tutelage of kindly Philippe Noiret. Arrow presents the theatrical version of this Best Foreign Picture Oscar winner in 4K Ultra HD. The (greatly) extended version is on a second Blu-ray — it plays like a different movie entirely.

Cinema Paradiso

4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray

Arrow Academy

1988 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 174, 155, 124 min. / Nuovo cinema Paradiso / Street Date December 8, 2020 / 49.95

Starring: Philippe Noiret, Antonella Attili, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin, Agnese Nano, Brigitte Fossey, Pupella Maggio, Leopoldo Trieste.

Cinematography: Blasco Giurato

Film Editor: Mario Morra

Original Music: Ennio Morricone, Andrea Morricone

Produced by Mino Barbera, Franco Cristaldi, Giovanna Romagnoli

Written and Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore

Every so often there comes along a European movie that so captures American audiences, one would...

Wife of a SpyThe programme for the 2020 edition of the Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, and includes new films from Gia Coppola, Lav Diaz, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Alice Rohrwacher, Gianfranco Rosi, Frederick Wiseman, Chloé Zhao, and more.COMPETITIONIn Between Dying (Hilal Baydarov)Le sorelle Macluso (Emma Dante)The World to Come (Mona Fastvold)Nuevo Orden (Michel Franco)Lovers (Nicole Garcia)Laila in Haifa (Amos Gitai)Dear Comrades (Andrei Konchalovsky)Wife of a Spy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)Sun Children (Majid Majidi)Pieces of a Woman (Kornél Mundruczó)Miss Marx (Susanna Nicchiarelli)Padrenostro (Claudio Noce)Notturno (Gianfranco Rosi)Never Gonna Snow AgainThe Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane)And Tomorrow The Entire World (Julia Von Heinz)Quo Vadis, Aida? (Jasmila Zbanic)Nomadland (Chloé Zhao)Out Of COMPETITIONFeaturesThe Ties (Daniele Luchetti)Lasciami Andare (Stefano Mordini)Mandibules (Quentin Dupieux)Love After Love (Ann Hui)Assandria (Salvatore Mereu)The Duke (Roger Michell)Night in Paradise (Park Hoon-jung)Mosquito...

With Telluride Film Festival forced to cancel their yearly event, what is now the first of the major fall festivals, Venice, has announced their complete lineup. Along with Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, which was revealed yesterday, the lineup includes more of our most-anticipated films of the year, including Frederick Wiseman’s City Hall, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy, Gia Coppola’s Mainstream, Abel Ferrara’s Sportin’ Life, Lav Diaz’s Genus Pan, Mona Fastvold’s The World to Come, Kornél Mundruczó’s Pieces of a Woman, Gianfranco Rosi’s Notturno, and more.

There were also a few surprises in the lineup. Luca Guadagnino has directed a new documentary titled Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams, while Alice Rohrwacher and Jr have teamed for the new short film, Omelia Contadina. Quentin Dupieux’s Mandibules will also premiere out of competition.

In perhaps the best surprise of all, a new, recently uncovered film by Orson Welles,...

There are not as many new films being made and some completed films are holding out until 2021 to make their festival premiere, but there’s no shortage of new restorations coming to film festivals soon. Cannes recently revealed their Classics lineup of titles screening this fall and hopefully coming to discs in the near future, and now it is Venice’s turn.

They’ve revealed the new restorations that will first screen at Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna, Italy on August 25-31, followed by screenings at Venice Film Festival soon after. New restorations include work by Martin Scorsese, Souleymane Cissé, Michelangelo Antonioni, Shôhei Imamura, Fritz Lang, Sidney Lumet, Jean-Pierre Melville, Nikita Mikhalkov, and more. Some of these films already have forthcoming disc releases announced, including Claudine, coming to Criterion this fall.

Check out the lineup below (via Deadline) as well as the Venice Critics’ Week slate, which includes the Terrence Malick...

Restoration strand to take place outside of the city this year.

Films by Michelangelo Antonioni, Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet are among the lineup of the Venice Classics section at the 77th Venice Film Festival.

The 13 titles include Scorsese gangster drama Goodfellas, which has been restored by Warner Bros. and received its world premiere at Venice in 1990.

Others include Antonioni’s 1950 drama Chronicle Of A Love, which as been restored by Cineteca di Bologna; Sidney Lumet’s 1973 neo-noir thriller Serpico, restored by Studiocanal; and Souleymane Cissé’s 1975 Malian film The Young Girl, restored by Cinémathèque Française.

The strand, which comprises restored versions of classic films,...

The full lineup for the 77th Venice Film Festival will be announced on July 28. In the meantime, organizers have set the roster of restored titles that will make up the Venice Classics section which, unconventionally this year, will be hosted as part of the Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna, Italy from August 25-31 in a show of solidarity between the events. The selection, which includes works by Michelangelo Antonioni, Shôhei Imamura, Fritz Lang, Sidney Lumet, Jean-Pierre Melville, Nikita Mikhalkov and Martin Scorsese will then be screened in Venice in the following months.

The Venice Film Festival, the first major international film event to take place since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, will be held from September 2-12 on the Lido. Certain changes owing to sanitary protocols imposed by the Covid-19 crisis were announced earlier this month, including the shifting of venues for the Classics section. The overall number of...

In his 2013 documentary Seduced and Abandoned, Alec Baldwin — together with writer/director James Toback — served up something of an homage to both the Cannes Film Festival and the film industry, marvelling at the cinematic allure of the event itself while also lifting a comedic lid on the less-romantic wheeler-dealings of the market.

Through the pretense of trying to find investors for their own project — a loose Last Tango In Paris remake set in Iraq, starring Baldwin — the film explored the contemporary world of the business, where art sits vastly lower down the ladder than profit ("If ...

In his 2013 documentary Seduced and Abandoned, Alec Baldwin — together with writer/director James Toback — served up something of an homage to both the Cannes Film Festival and the film industry, marvelling at the cinematic allure of the event itself while also lifting a comedic lid on the less-romantic wheeler-dealings of the market.

Through the pretense of trying to find investors for their own project — a loose Last Tango In Paris remake set in Iraq, starring Baldwin — the film explored the contemporary world of the business, where art sits vastly lower down the ladder than profit ("If ...

'Father of the Bride': Steve Martin and Kimberly Williams. Top Five Father's Day Movies? From giant Gregory Peck to tyrant John Gielgud What would be the Top Five Father's Day movies ever made? Well, there have been countless films about fathers and/or featuring fathers of various sizes, shapes, and inclinations. In terms of quality, these range from the amusing – e.g., the 1950 version of Cheaper by the Dozen; the Oscar-nominated The Grandfather – to the nauseating – e.g., the 1950 version of Father of the Bride; its atrocious sequel, Father's Little Dividend. Although I'm unable to come up with the absolute Top Five Father's Day Movies – or rather, just plain Father Movies – ever made, below are the first five (actually six, including a remake) "quality" patriarch-centered films that come to mind. Now, the fathers portrayed in these films aren't all heroic, loving, and/or saintly paternal figures. Several are...

Clint Eastwood Western persona co-creator dead at 87: Luciano Vincenzoni (photo: Clint Eastwood in ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’) Screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni, whose nearly five-decade career included collaborations with Mario Monicelli, Pietro Germi, and Sergio Leone, died of cancer on Sunday, September 22, 2013, in Rome. Vincenzoni (born on March 7, 1926, in Treviso, near Venice) was 87. In the late ’50s, Luciano Vincenzoni co-wrote Mario Monicelli’s The Great War / La Grande guerra (1959), a humorous (if overlong) World War I comedy-drama starring Vittorio Gassman and Alberto Sordi as reluctant conscripts that earned a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nomination and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (tied with Roberto Rossellini’s Il Generale della Rovere). Vincenzoni was also partly responsible for the screenplay of two well-regarded Pietro Germi movies: the omnibus comedy of manners The Birds, the Bees and the Italians / Signore & signori (1966), featuring Virna Lisi and Franco Fabrizi,...