News

Two-time Academy Award-nominated producer Alexander Rodnyansky is developing a new series that charts the rise of Vladimir Putin in what the producer describes as “the actual, horrifying story of how the man who changed the world got the power to do so.”

Produced by Rodnyansky’s L.A.-based production shingle Ar Content, “All the Kremlin’s Men” is based on the bestseller by acclaimed reporter Mikhail Zygar, the former editor-in-chief of Russian independent station TV Rain, which was banned and disbanded in the first week of the war in Ukraine. The book is based on an extraordinary series of interviews with Putin’s inner circle.

The series will tell the story of how an unassuming ex-Kgb officer became one of the most feared politicians in the world, drawing back the curtain on what goes on behind the Kremlin’s walls and revealing how Putin and his inner circle operate.

Elizabeth Banks is to star in writer-director Christine Jeffs’ medical suspense drama A Mistake, based on the novel by Carl Shuker. Cornerstone Films will launch international sales in Cannes on the Gfc Films production, and is co-repping the U.S. together with UTA Independent Film Group. Principal Photography starts August 15 in New Zealand.

The story centers on Elizabeth Taylor (Banks), a gifted surgeon and the only female consultant at her hospital. But while operating on a young woman, something goes horribly wrong. In the midst of a new scheme to publicly report surgeons’ performance, Taylor’s colleagues begin to close ranks, and her life is thrown into disarray. Tough and abrasive, she has survived and succeeded in this most demanding field. But can she survive a single mistake?

Jeffs’ debut feature, Rain, was in the running for a Golden Camera Award at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival; she also directed Sunshine Cleaning...

Elizabeth Banks will star in a medical drama called “A Mistake,” in which she plays a surgeon fighting for her career after the death of a patient.

Christine Jeffs will write and direct the film that’s based on a novel by Carl Shuker. The film will be shopped to buyers at the upcoming Cannes market, and principal photography is meant to begin on Aug. 15 in New Zealand.

“A Mistake” stars Banks as Elizabeth Taylor, a gifted surgeon and the only female consultant at her hospital. But while operating on a young woman, something goes horribly wrong. In the midst of a new scheme to publicly report surgeons’ performance, her colleagues begin to close ranks, and Elizabeth’s life is thrown into disarray. Tough and abrasive, Elizabeth has survived and succeeded in this most demanding field, as well as navigated years of casual sexism at her hospital. But can she survive a single mistake?...

Actor-director Elizabeth Banks will star as a surgeon desperately trying to hold on to her career after the death of a patient in medical drama “A Mistake.”

From writer and director Christine Jeffs and New Zealand’s Gfc Films, “A Mistake” is based on the novel by Carl Shuker. Banks will star as an eminent female surgeon who has navigated years of casual sexism at the hospital where she works, and suddenly finds herself fighting for her career and reputation following the death of a patient.

Jeffs’ debut feature film, “Rain,” was nominated for a Golden Camera Award at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. She also directed “Sunshine Cleaning,” which screened at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. “A Mistake” marks the director’s return to filmmaking.

Banks stars in Sundance break-out “Call Jane” opposite Sigourney Weaver. She also recently wrapped production on Imagine Entertainment...

An Ohio winery now locked in a legal battle with Prince’s estate has floated a novel defense for its “Purple Rain” trademark, saying the late musician’s famed aversion to alcohol means consumers would never link his legacy to its adult beverages.

“To the extent Prince was famous, he was equally famous for his disdain of alcohol,” lawyers for L’uva Bella Winery write in a new motion filed with the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board amid the ongoing dispute.

“Prince was a teetotaler who despised alcohol,...

A fortnight ago, documentary filmmaker Vera Krichevskaya was anticipating the Russia release of her latest feature, “F@ck This Job,” a spirited, behind-the-scenes portrait of the country’s last independent broadcaster, TV Rain. But just days before the film’s Moscow premiere, Russian military forces invaded Ukraine. On March 3, TV Rain bowed to political pressure and said it would suspend operations indefinitely.

Amid the turmoil, Karo, Russia’s largest cinema chain, dropped the film; a splashy, red-carpet premiere was cancelled in the wake of a bomb threat. Krichevskaya, who arrived in Russia on the eve of the screening, fled the country.

Since then, she’s been working frenetically from Tel Aviv, assisting former colleagues at a station she helped launch to safely make it out of Russia. “It is a completely new reality,” the director told Variety. “When I opened my eyes [after the invasion], I thought it was a dream.”

“F@ck This Job...

If you are an Oscars/film fanatic who wants to get into the Grammys, the visual media field is a good place to start. Honoring the best scores, soundtracks, and songs made for TV, film, and even video games, the field has awarded some iconic movie music, with past winners ranging from Disney’s “The Lion King” to “The Social Network” score to Lady Gaga’s “Shallow” from “A Star is Born.” Let’s take a look at this year’s contenders for these awards in media music.

SEECan anyone beat Olivia Rodrigo for Best New Artist Grammy? Make your predictions now Best Song Written For Visual Media

This category could have a wide range of media represented. The front-runner in my opinion is H.E.R.’s Oscar-winning “Fight for You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah.” Winning the Oscar is not necessarily a guarantee of winning here, but...

Charlie Watts’ drums were the foundation of The Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote the songs, got the most press, and were the most visible members, but Watts dictated the style. Besides being named to Vanity Fair’s “Style” Hall of Fame, Watts kept the Stones’ sound intact and impeccable, regardless of whatever the songwriters brought into the studio.

There is an incident recounted in the 2010 memoir Life, by Richards and James Fox, about a mid-1980s party which hits the nail on the head. Mick drunk-dialed Charlie’s hotel room in the middle of the night to invite him to a party which was raging. Jagger demanded to know “Where’s my drummer?” Watts showed up. He’d showered, shaved, put on a suit and a tie, beautiful shoes, freshly shined, and “you could smell his cologne.” He walked up to the Rolling Stones’ frontman, grabbed him by the lapel,...

“Is all or a portion of your spouse's income deposited in a checking account, joint checking account, your spouse's separate checking savings account, your separate checking and savings account…?” The administrator's tedious voice continues in this fashion, stern and unforgiving. More questions concerning money, welfare checks, and the daily American grind, asked by faceless system operators on the other end of a telephone line build layers of sound on top of metallic instruments, bells, and the buzzing of Los Angeles and the advertisements of an American dream. The dissonance of this swirling sound design, the intro of Haile Gerima’s Bush Mama (1979), takes one specifically to a place, a class, and a people: The Black working class experience, the sounds of a restless city. The opening of this mixtape encapsulates the vitality and experimentation of sound design and music in the films of the L.A. Rebellion, a film movement...

This piece is part of our ongoing coverage of Rolling Stone’s newly updated 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. Prince’s Purple Rain topped El-p’s personal ballot and landed at number eight on the overall list. Here, the Run the Jewels rapper reflects on how the album changed him as both an artist and as a person. (Go here to read the complete list of 500 Greatest Albums voters and learn more about how the current ranking was assembled.)

Purple Rain contains the DNA of everything I needed to understand about music.

“Americans live on ketchup and milk. I’m a whiz at geography.”

Cinema St. Louis’ 12th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festivalruns July 17-23, 2020. Individual tickets are $10 for general admission, $8 for Cinema St. Louis members and students with valid and current photo IDs. All-access passes are available for $25, $20 for Csl members. Ticket and Pass Purchaseinformation can be found Here. Regrettably, streaming rights to most of the films Cinema St. Louis planned to feature at the 2020 Robert Classic French Film Festival were not available to them. But they are pleased that they’re able to offer a trio of works from the original lineup: Marguerite Duras’ rarely seen “India Song”; a new restoration of Jacqueline Audry’s “Olivia”; and René Clément’s “Rider on the Rain,” which is part of their year-long Golden Anniversaries programming that features films from 1970. All films are in French with English subtitles.

Tom Stockman, editor of...

” Je t’aime bien, mon enfant… plus que tu ne crois. I love you, my child… more than you believe. “

Cinema St. Louis’ 12th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival runs July 17-23, 2020. Individual tickets are $10 for general admission, $8 for Cinema St. Louis members and students with valid and current photo IDs. All-access passes are available for $25, $20 for Csl members. Ticket and Pass Purchase information can be found Here

The 12th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — presented by TV5MONDE, sponsored by the Jane M. & Bruce P. Robert Charitable Foundation, and produced by Cinema St. Louis (Csl) — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s extraordinary cinematic legacy.

Because of the Covid-19 health crisis, the fest will be presented virtually this year. Csl is partnering with Eventive, which also handles our ticketing, to present the Virtual Festival. Filmswill be available to view on demand anytime from July 17-23. Access to...

Cinema St. Louis presents the 12th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival which takes place April 10th – 26th 2020. The location this year are both Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 E Lockwood Ave) and Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium, Forsyth & Skinker boulevards.

The 12th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — presented by TV5MONDE and produced by Cinema St. Louis — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. This year’s featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the 1980s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

The fest annually includes significant restorations, and this year features a quartet of such works: Diane Kurys’ “Entre Nous,” Joseph Losey’s “Mr. Klein,” Jacqueline Audry’s “Olivia,” and the extended director’s cut of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s “Betty Blue.”

The fest also provides one of the few opportunities available in St. Louis to see films projected the old-school, time-honored way,...

For a bizarre psychosexual early-70s oddity ripe for rediscovery, look no further than Renè Clément’s 1970 title Rider on the Rain, adapted from a novel by underrated genre writer Sebastian Japrisot and headlined by Charles Bronson and Marlène Jobert in an unexpectedly twisted game of Hitchcockian cat and mouse. Purportedly, the film inspired Jim Morrison to write “Riders on the Storm,” (although this remains unsubstantiated) and the title nabbed a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.

The narrative opens with a Lewis Carroll quote before introducing us to Mellie (Jobert), whose real name is Melancolie and lives in the South of France with her Italian husband (Gabriele Tinti), an overbearing pilot often away from home.…...

Lee Van Cleef in Giancarlo Santi’s The Grand Duel (1972) will be available on Blu-ray May 7th From Arrow Video

The Grand Duel is an archetypal spaghetti western which boasts many of the genre s classic hallmarks including action-packed gunfights, wild stunts and an impressive climactic showdown…

Genre stalwart Lee Van Cleef stars as a gnarled ex-sheriff called Clayton who comes to the aid of young Philipp Wermeer (Alberto Dentice), a fugitive framed for the murder of a powerful figure called The Patriarch. Clayton helps Philipp fend off attacks from bounty hunters in a series of thrilling shootouts before the two make their way to Jefferson to confront three villains known as the Saxon brothers, and reveal who really killed The Patriarch.

A complex tale of revenge penned by prolific giallo writer Ernesto Gastaldi, The Grand Duel benefits from a beguiling central performance from Lee Van Cleef and assured helmsmanship from Giancarlo Santi.

Rider On The Rain will be available on Blu-ray April 9th From Kino Lorber.

In the 1970 French noir Rider On The Rain from director René Clément, Charles Bronson played Harry Dobbs, an undercover Us Army Colonel in France trying to track down an escaped sex maniac. Marlene Jobert played a rape victim who manages to kill her attacker and, in a panic, disposes of the corpse. What follows is a tense cat-and-mouse scenario between these two full of humor and style. Wearing a mischievous smile throughout Rider On The Rain, Bronson manages an odd suggestion of sadism and romance, a mysterious figure that enhances the mystery. A suspenser in the Hitchcock mold, Rider On The Rain won the Golden Globe award in 1970 as Best Foreign Film and was an breakthrough film in Charles Bronson’s career – it was a enormous success all over the world (except the U.S.) and...

French composer Francis Lai, who won an Oscar for “Love Story” and penned the beguiling theme for “A Man and a Woman,” has died at the age of 86, the mayor of Nice announced on Wednesday. No cause of death was reported.

Lai’s plaintive piano melody for “Love Story,” the 1970 tearjerker that made stars of Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw, was his biggest hit, earning him an Oscar and a Golden Globe. His soundtrack recording was all over radio in early 1971, reaching no. 37 as a single and no. 2 as a soundtrack album. When lyrics were added to the melody, Andy Williams sang “Where Do I Begin” to no. 7 on the charts that same year.

The score almost didn’t happen. Lai initially turned down the assignment, he told the Los Angeles Times in 2001. But French actor Alain Delon, who had seen a cut of the film, called Lai and...

By David Kozlowski | 4 August 2017

Welcome to Issue #7 of The Lrm Weekend, a weekly column offering strong opinions about film, TV, comics, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, animation, and anime. We also want to hear from you, our awesome Lrm community! Share your feedback or ideas for future columns: @LRM_Weekend and we'll post your Tweets below!

Previous Issues: 7.28.17 | 7.21.17 | 7.14.17 | 7.7.17 | 6.30.17 | 6.23.17

Hey Lrm Weekenders, you might notice a few changes to the column this week. As summer draws to a close we're moving some stuff around and tweaking our content to be a little more opinionated and provocative.

Each of our Lrm writers have super-strong opinions about film, TV, comics, and all of the big franchises and universes. So, going forward Lrm Weekend is going to amp-up our voices a bit more -- and we invite our readers to punch back whenever and wherever you disagree!

Audiences Are Tired Of Spectacle And Hollywood Doesn't Care.

By Rob Hunter

‘The Man in the Moon’ joins five more new releases from Twilight Time! In addition to the Reese Witherspoon film, last month’s new releases from Twilight Time include Inferno 3D, Brutal Tales of Chivalry, The Stone Killer with Charles Bronson, Who’ll Stop the Rain, and the William Goldman-penned trifle that is Year of the Comet. We take […]

The article Reese Witherspoon’s Perfect Film Debut Is New to Blu-ray appeared first on Film School Rejects.

A killer book (Dog Soldiers) must hide behind a Credence Clearwater tune. Karel Reisz’s killer movie about the moral residue of Vietnam scores as both drama and action, as disillusioned counterculture smugglers versus corrupt narcotics cops. Just don’t expect it to really have much to say about the Vietnam experience. But hey, the cast is tops — Nick Nolte, Richard Masur, Anthony Zerbe — and the marvelous Tuesday Weld is even better as a pill-soaked involuntary initiate into the pre- War On Drugs smuggling scene.

Who’ll Stop the Rain

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1978 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 126 min. / Street Date May 16, 2017 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld, Michael Moriarty, Anthony Zerbe, Richard Masur, Ray Sharkey, Gail Strickland, Charles Haid, David Opatoshu, Joaquín Martínez, James Cranna, Timothy Blake.

Cinematography: Richard H. Kiline

Supervising Film Editor: John Bloom

Original Music: Laurence Rosenthal

Written by Judith Rascoe, Robert Stone...

The Ninth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the mid-1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations, which this year includes films by two New Wave masters: Jacques Rivette’s first feature, “Paris Belongs to Us,” and François Truffaut’s cinephilic love letter, “Day for Night.” The fest also provides one of the few opportunities available in St. Louis to see films projected the old-school, time-honored way, with both Alain Resnais’ “Last Year at Marienbad” and Robert Bresson’s “Au hasard Balthazar” screening from 35mm prints. Even more traditional, we also offer a silent film with live music, and audiences are sure to delight in the Poor People of Paris...

Rita Hayworth in 3-D, in a hot story that was acceptable for 1925 and 1932, but too racy for repressed 1953. On a tropical island, a prostitute cabaret singer battles a fiery preacher missionary inspector for her freedom. Hayworth is dynamite, and it takes all of her talent to keep the show afloat, with so much interference from the equally repressed censors. Miss Sadie Thompson 3-D 3-D Blu-ray Twilight Time 1953 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 91 min. / Street Date July 12, 2016 / Available from Twilight Time Movies Store29.95 Starring Rita Hayworth, José Ferrer, Aldo Ray, Russell Collins, Diosa Costello, Harry Bellaver, Wilton Graff, Peggy Converse, Henry Slate, Rudy Bond, Charles Bronson, Jo Ann Greer. Cinematography Charles Lawton Jr. Original Music George Duning, Morris Stoloff, Ned Washington, Lester Lee Written by Harry Kleiner from a story by W. Somerset Maugham Produced by Jerry Wald Directed by Curtis Bernhardt

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Yes!  3-D on Blu-ray shows no sign of going away,...

Bronson’s Loose Again!: On the Set with Charles Bronson is author Paul Talbot’s all-new companion volume to his acclaimed Bronson’s Loose!: The Making of the ‘Death Wish’ Films. His new book reveals more information on the Death Wish series and also details the complex histories behind eighteen other Charles Bronson movies. Documented herein are fascinating tales behind some of the finest Bronson films of the mid-1970s (including Hard Times and From Noon Till Three); his big-budget independent epics Love And Bullets and Cabo Blanco; his lesser-known, underrated dramas Borderline and Act Of Vengeance; his notorious sleaze/action Cannon Films classics of the 80s (including 10 To Midnight, Murphy’S Law and Kinjite: Forbidden Sunjects); the numerous unmade projects he was attached to; and his TV movies of the 90s (including The Sea Wolf). Exhaustively researched, the book features over three dozen exclusive, candid interviews including...

Since any New York cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Film Society of Lincoln Center

The recently deceased Andrzej Żuławski is celebrated in “Film Comment Selects,” which offers The Third Part of the Night, The Devil, and his sci-fi epic On the Silver Globe. Also showing are Breakout, Clement‘s Rider on the Rain, and Ray Davies‘ only feature, Return to Waterloo.

Museum of the Moving Image

“See It Big!

Even as we gather remembrances of Andrzej Zulawski, who passed away last night at the age of 75, this year's edition of Film Comment Selects opens today with a Spotlight on the Polish director and novelist. Cosmos screens on Friday and new restorations of The Third Part of the Night, The Devil and On the Silver Globe follow. There'll also be a Spotlight on Charles Bronson, with screenings of Tom Gries's Breakout and René Clément's Rider on the Rain on Sunday. We're gathering film scholar Daniel Bird's thoughts on working with him plus reviews of other films in the series: Aleksei German Jr.'s Under Electric Clouds, Marco Bellocchio's Blood of My Blood, Damien Odoul’s The Fear and Kianoush Ayyari's The Paternal House. » - David Hudson...

Even as we gather remembrances of Andrzej Zulawski, who passed away last night at the age of 75, this year's edition of Film Comment Selects opens today with a Spotlight on the Polish director and novelist. Cosmos screens on Friday and new restorations of The Third Part of the Night, The Devil and On the Silver Globe follow. There'll also be a Spotlight on Charles Bronson, with screenings of Tom Gries's Breakout and René Clément's Rider on the Rain on Sunday. We're gathering film scholar Daniel Bird's thoughts on working with him plus reviews of other films in the series: Aleksei German Jr.'s Under Electric Clouds, Marco Bellocchio's Blood of My Blood, Damien Odoul’s The Fear and Kianoush Ayyari's The Paternal House. » - David Hudson...

Read More: Magnolia Pictures Acquires Terence Davies' Tiff Beauty 'Sunset Song' The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the 16th edition of the Film Comment Selects program, an eclectic group of films both current and classic. This year's program will open with the New York premiere of Terence Davies' "Sunset Song" on February 17, a romantic tale set on a Scottish farm on the cusp of World War II. It will end on February 24 with a screening of "Golden Eighties" in tribute to Chantal Akerman, who collaborated with an unusual group of individuals, including former "Cahiers du Cinema" critic Pascal Bonitzer and "Desperately Seeking Susan" screenwriter Leora Barish, for the film. Some other highlights are a two-film spotlight on Charles Bronson, with screenings of "Breakout" (1974) and "Rider on the Rain" (1969), and four films from Andrzej Żuławski, including the U.S. Premiere of his latest film...

The late films of René Clément are even more neglected than the early and middle films of René Clément, which is to say, very neglected indeed. Falling somewhat between the generation of Jean Renoir and that of the nouvelle vague, he may have been seen as a dangerous professional rival, but he certainly was no friend to the emerging Cahiers du cinema cinephiles, declaring at the time of Fahrenheit 451's production that each Truffaut film was worse than the one before.

Almost effaced from film history apart from a couple of unavoidably impressive titles, Clément remains a stylish professional whose devotion to the thriller genre would have been considered admirable if he were American, but sits awkwardly with our expectations of French cinema: we have room for Henri-Georges Clouzot and Jean-Pierre Melville only.

Clément's last four films are all twisty thrillers, the kind of films that spend ages setting...

Some movies just vanish.

While Costa-Gavras continues to enjoy a high reputation for his sixties and seventies political thrillers (perhaps more respected than watched, which is a shame) and to some extent for his later American movies (more watched than respected, also a shame), The Sleeping Car Murders (1965), one of his earliest works, is so hard to see that I wound up watching a pan-and-scanned off-air recording taped on VHS from Scottish Television sometime in the eighties, and dubbed into English. At least Simone Signoret seems to have done her own re-voicing, but her erring husband Yves Montand has that strained Amurrican tone I associate with Robert Rietty doing Orson Welles.

So Costa-Gavras' movie, formerly a missing person, turns up as a homicide victim, mutilated to prevent identification. With the performances defaced, the compositions utterly ruined, and the editing patterns minced in this copy (because a cut doesn't mean the...

By Paul Talbot

The poster screamed: “Most criminals answer to the law. The world’s most savage executioner must answer to Bronson.” Since the late 1960s, Charles Bronson’s name on a marquee was a guarantee of unchained action. When The Evil That Men Do opened in 1984, fans were hit with the expected violence─but this time they were also assaulted with thick layers of sadism, sleaze and depravity. And they loved it.

Born in 1921, Charles Bronson (originally Bunchinsky) was a dirt-poor Pennsylvania coal miner before he was drafted and later used the GI Bill to study acting. After dozens of small roles, he became a popular supporting player in hit films like The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Great Escape (1963)─then went overseas to star in European pictures like Farewell, Friend (1967), Once Upon a Time in the West (1967) and Rider on the Rain (1970). Although ignored in the States─where they...

I think everyone remembers where they were August 31st, 2003 when they heard that Charles Bronson had died. I was visiting my brother in Atlanta when my nephew knocked on my door and informed me that CNN had announced his death. I collapsed into a sobbing heap. Bronson was my hero, my muse, my role model. Hollywood’s brightest star would shine no more. It’s hard to believe he’s been gone ten years.

Charles Bronson was the unlikeliest of movie stars. Of all the leading men in the history of Hollywood, Charles Bronson had the least range as an actor. He rarely emoted or even changed his expression, and when he did speak, his voice was a reedy whisper. But Charles Bronson could coast on presence, charisma, and silent brooding menace like no one’s business and he wound up the world’s most bankable movie star throughout most of the 1970’s.

It’s Madonna‘s 55th birthday, an occasion that you should make you dance, sing, get up, do your thing, strike a pose, take a bow, push your love over the borderline, give it 2 me, and fly like a zephyr in the sky at night. Madonna is Elvis with brains, Michael Jackson with gravitas, Lady Gaga with legend, and Aphrodite in stagewear. She is bigger than mythology, perhaps the greatest celebrity of all time, and the hardest-working self-expresser we know. Today we celebrate her unbeatable career with another seismic countdown: her 55 greatest videos ever. Have your picks all lined up? Good. Get ready to compare notes.

We start the countdown with speedy blurbs of the mentioned videos, but once we hit the #25 mark, we enter serious discussion about the legendary clips, choreography, and poses at hand. This is Madonna, the eternal doyenne of music video, and these are her 55 best videos.

It's about time. After nearly two seasons grieving after the death of her husband, Fairly Legal's staight-laced attorney Lauren Reed (Virginia Williams) has finally let her hair down -- literally and figuratively -- and become the object of someone's affections. In a scene from Friday's episode "Force Majeure," exclusive to The Hollywood Reporter, Lauren is charmed off her feet by wealthy English businessman Robin Archer (Lloyd Owen) with expensive food, Singin' in the Rain, Peggy Lee and what else, lawyer talk. The climactic moment comes at a pivotal time for Lauren, though nothing can ever stay sunny forever as Robin

read more...

Well, Mark Webber is our default pole man after Schumacher is demoted with his penalty. He promised to take pole and win from 6th, but we shall see on that promise. Only Lewis Hamilton has won here after not starting from the top 3 in the last 8 years.

We wait for the lights to start the most star spangled Gp of the year, and we’re away! A lot of hubbub into the first corner as we have a tangle between Alonso and Grosjean, Grosjean slides sideways clipping Schumacher then wipes out Kobayashi. Maldonado and De La Rosa have a bit of a row and the safety car is out as they both retire. Safety car comes in as we head into Lap 4. Heikki Kovaleinen made a great start in amongst that row, jumping up to 13th in the Caterham.

Webber is starting to pull away from Rosberg now, they’ve already dropped Hamilton slightly.

Article by Dan Clark of Movie Revolt

Welcome to the latest installment of Streaming for Your Pleasure. In this series I look at films currently Streaming on Netflix that fit into a specific topic. This week I’m looking at comedic actors that attempt to reinvent themselves as serious actors. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but in the end you have to at least respect the attempt of someone trying new things. Listed are films that are successful enough to garner your attention for a watch or two. Feel free to list you thoughts, opinions, or ideas in the comment section below

Buried

Directed By: Rodrigo Cortes,

Written By: Chris Sparling

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jose’ Luis Garcia Perez, and Robert Paterson

Synopsis: While on a job in Iraq, civilian contractor Paul Conroy is attacked and kidnapped, then awakens to find himself buried alive in the middle of...

The premiere of Madonna's video for "Give Me All Your Luvin,'" the first single off her new album M.D.N.A., is today, children. It's bound to be a little over-the-top and nutty, like the deranged song itself, and I assume it's not going to live up to the greatest stuff in Madonna's catalog. Then I remember: What does live up to the best stuff in Madonna's catalog? Turns out, not much. Madonna's repertoire is a varied and thundering collection of self-empowering pop ditties, soulful ballads, and kooky little anomalies. And they're mostly all irreplaceable. In the tradition of Rolling Stone, who listed their 100 Greatest Beatles Songs a couple years ago, let's reinspect Madonna's complete history and name her definitive 100 jams. Ready? Start disagreeing Now.

100. "Dance 2Night" from Hard Candy

Hard Candy’s most euphoric groove (and best dancefloor-filler) makes the stilted duo...

Each week within this column we strive to pair the latest in theatrical releases to worthwhile titles currently available on Netflix Instant Watch. But this week, we pay tribute to the thoroughly thriller filmmakers whose next efforts are among our Most Anticipated Films of 2012!

From some of Tarantino’s early offerings, to the best of the Coen Brothers, to the genre experiments of Chan-wook, and the emerging talent of Winding Refn, we’ve got you covered with some seriously striking movies now available online.

Pictured below in his cameo role in the East meets West action-flick Sukiyaki Western Django—the ever-edgy American auter will take on a new brand of revenge narrative in 2012 with Django Unchained. Jamie Foxx stars as a slave-turned-bounty hunter on a bloody quest to save his wife from a menacing slave owner. Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Waltz, and Sacha Baron Cohen co-star.

Reservoir Dogs (1992) Tarantino’s blistering...

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) has unveiled additional programming and events for the 2012 edition of the TCM Classic Film Festival, including a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Paramount Pictures. Robert Evans, longtime producer and former head of production for Paramount, is set to take part in the tribute, which will focus on the studio’s 1970s renaissance. In addition, the TCM Classic Film Festival is slated to include a look at The Noir Style, a tribute to legendary costume designer Travis Banton, a look at art deco in the movies, a collection of early cinematic rarities and much more.

TCM.s own Robert Osborne will once again serve as official host for the four-day, star-studded event, which will take pace Thursday, April 12 . Sunday, April 15, 2012, in Hollywood. Passes are on sale now through the official festival website: http://www.tcm.com/festival.

The Paramount Renaissance

The TCM Classic Film Festival will...

The 7th Seattle South-Asian Film Festival that will take place from October 7-9, 2011 will screen Deepti Naval’s Do Paise Ki Dhoop, Chaar Aane Ki Baarish (Two Paise for Sunshine, Four Annas for Rain) as the opening film. The festival will also host an interactive session with actor-turned-director Deepti Naval before the screening.

The films that will screen on October 8 at the festival are Nila Madhab Panda’s I Am Kalam (India), Aby Rao’s Singhing Bee (USA), Tanaz Eeshagian’s Love Crimes of Kabul (Afghanistan), Kiran Pawar’s Astitva: Existence (India), Sonali Gulati’s I Am (India),Rubaiyat Hossain’s Meherjaan (Bangladesh), Hemant Gaba’s Shuttlecock Boys (India), Soham Mehta’a Firecracker (USA), Nikhil Mahajan’s Half A Billion Dreams (India), Yunuen Perez Vertti & Aswinee Rath’s The Undefeated: Aparajita (India), Nadeem Uddin’s Sidi Goma:An African Odyssey in India (India), Minnie Vaid’s A Doctor to Defend:The Binayak...

Michael York dashes onto the cinematic scene as the blundering but very enthusiastic D'Artagnan in Richard Lester's hugely enjoyable period comic romp. The late great Roy Kinnear is the long-suffering vassal of aristocratic swordsmen Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and Frank Finlay, whilst Raquel Welch and Faye Dunaway shine as heroine and villainess, respectively. Producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind filmed the following year's sequel back-to-back with this more successful first part, which approach they would revisit shortly for Superman and Superman II. Dumas with wit, energy and integrity.

Notable Quotable: "That man in his time has insulted me, broken my father's sword, had me clubbed to the ground, laid violent hands on the woman I love! He is inconvenient. "

Martin Anderson

Mike Nichols and Buck Henry achieve what seemed impossible, at least on the evidence of an earlier attempt: to transliterate the pitch-dark war humour of Joseph Heller into a cohesive,...

We’ve received all the covers for DC Comics July solicitations, including the long awaited Games, the New Teen Titans graphic novel from Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. And when I say long awaited, I mean two decades long– which kinda ties in with all the DC Retroactive titles coming out, including our favorite, Green Lantern reuniting the team of ComicMix contributors Dennis O’Neil and Mike Grell.

Take a look.

War Of The Green Lanterns: Aftermath #1

Written by Tony Bedard

Art by Miguel Sepulveda

Cover by Dave Johnson

1:10 Variant cover by Doug Mahnke

The shocking consequences of the blockbuster “War of the Green Lantern” event have shattered the lives of Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner in ways no one will see coming.

Everything you thought you knew about the Corps is no more!

Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the...

Machine Gun Preacher

Opens: 2011

Cast: Gerard Butler, Michelle Monaghan, Michael Shannon, Madeline Carroll, Kathy Baker

Director: Marc Forster

Summary: After finding God, drug-dealing biker Sam Childers renounces his outlaw ways and embarks on a spiritual path, becoming a crusader for hundreds of desperate and helpless children who were being forced to become soldiers in war-torn southern Sudan.

Analysis: Despite taking the freshly rejuvenated James Bond franchise and nearly destroying it with the very disappointing "Quantum of Solace", German-Swiss filmmaker Marc Forster still has a decent amount of good will left thanks to strong earlier efforts like "Monster's Ball," "Finding Neverland," "Stranger Than Fiction" and "The Kite Runner".

Now, in his first film since that Bond outing, Forster returns to serious drama with this true story tale of a biker who became a humanitarian crusader for children in the Sudan. The story itself is fascinating, the born again Sam Childers and...

Charles Bronson was the unlikeliest of movie stars. Of all the leading men in the history of Hollywood, Charles Bronson had the least range as an actor. He rarely emoted or even changed his expression, and when he did speak, his voice was a reedy whisper. But Charles Bronson could coast on presence, charisma, and silent brooding menace like no one.s business and he wound up the world’s most bankable movie star throughout most of the 1970’s. Bronson did not rise quickly in the Hollywood ranks. His film debut was in 1951 and he spent the next two decades as a solid character actor with a rugged face, muscular physique and everyman ethnicity that kept him busy in supporting roles as indians, convicts, cowboys, boxers, and gangsters. It wasn’t until he was in his late 40’s, after the international success of Once Upon A Time In The West...

If you like your films full of over the top ultra violence then look no further then Ninja Assassin. Slashing it’s way into your home from the 17th of May Ninja Assassin is the most intense modern martial arts picture ever made.

Telling the story of a young assassin named Raizo who turns his back on the Ozunu clan that raised him in order to seek revenge for the heartless murders they committed there is no doubting that Ninja Assassin is the most insanely violent, brutal and psychotically gory film to ever see the light of day.

As Raizo teams up with a savvy Europol investigator he inches ever closer to a magnificent final confrontation with his former master.

Starring popular Korean musician Rain with British actors Naomie Harris and Ben Miles not to mention being produced by creative geniuses the Wachowski Brothers and Hollywood hot-shot Joel Silver make...

The 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival is set to run June 17-27 in a brand new location. Oh, it’s still in L.A, but it’s moving across town, from Westwood — where it’s been held the past few years — all the way over to Downtown.

The main “hub” for the fest will be the new L.A. Live complex, but there will also be screenings at other locations, such as the Downtown Independent and Redcat theaters. The city is really trying to build downtown up into a major arts and culture hub, so the festival moving there fits in with that agenda. Film Independent, the organization that runs Laff, also runs the annual Independent Spirit Awards, an event that also moved downtown — from Santa Monica — this year.

On Bad Lit, I tend to like to put up festival lineups that include days and times of screenings. However, since I...