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“Within every man there are two men. One who learns to be civilized by day. One who longs to be savage by night.”

So begins the theatrical teaser for Mike Nichols’ Wolf (1994). I remember seeing it for the first time on the “Coming Soon” section of a freshly bought VHS tape brought home by my mom (it might have been Bram Stoker’s Dracula or maybe Jurassic Park) and at the time it scared the hell out of me. The sight of a beastly Jack Nicholson, heaving with barely repressed lust and violence over the prone body of Michelle Pfeiffer, was spooky to me in a way movies can only be when you’re eight years old and the possibility of monsters being around every corner is still very viable to you.

That trailer now feels like a fading snapshot of a Hollywood that used to be able to get...

Ar Rahman Net Worth: 888% Higher Than Diljit Dosanjh! (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Ar Rahman has been all over the internet since last night, and ever since his wife announced separation from the Indian Mozart, the couple have been trending, and people have been searching everything about them, right from their religion to their assets and net worth.

Ar Rahman Net Worth!

The musician’s net worth has been estimated to be around 1700 – 2000 crore in 2024. This is owing to the huge concert fee and his paychecks as a music director in India and abroad as well! However, it is yet not known how much stakes his children and wife have in these assets.

The music composer and his wife announced separation via social media on November 20 after 29 years of their marriage. Rahman wrote that he wished and was hoping to complete a grand thirty but life had other plans. His wife, Saira Banu...

Ranbir Kapoor Vs Deepika Padukone Vs Sonam Kapoor: Who Is Ruling After 17 Years Of Their Debut? ( Photo Credit – YouTube )

17 years ago, on November 9, 2007, Bollywood welcomed three newcomers who turned superstars in their own sense over the years. Sonam Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor, made their debut with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya, meanwhile Deepika Padukone had a dream debut with Shah Rukh Khan’s Om Shanti Om.

The three youngsters then ruled the industry as per their capacities. While Ranbir, after stumbling on certain commercial choices, found his footing with a blockbuster like Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani, Deepika was the sensational queen ruling hearts. Sonam, in the meanwhile, turned into a fashion icon until she proved her mettle in Raanjhana and Neerja.

During these 17 years, all three of them have witnessed highs and lows in their careers, and currently, while Sonam has distanced herself from the film business actively, Ranbir...

Have you been looking for your next reality TV binge? Then you may want to check out The Fortune Hotel, a new competition series that’s just landed on ITV. Twenty contestants have flown out to a beautiful resort in the Caribbean, where a high-stakes game of chance and detection is underway. But there’s more than sun, sand, and salsa dancing at stake—the winner will walk away a quarter of a million pounds richer.

The premise is twisty but engaging. Each couple is randomly assigned a silver suitcase upon arrival. Secretly stashed inside just one of them is a life-changing cash reward. The others either hold nothing at all or harbor an “early checkout ticket” that sends the unlucky holders home. Over the course of the episodes, the pairs will get opportunities to swap cases in the hope of improving their fortunes. With strategic swaps and suspicious side-eyes at the cocktail bar,...

Anthea Sylbert, an Oscar-nominated costume designer on Chinatown and Julia who dressed Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby among many other credits and also was a studio exec and an Emmy-winning producer, has died. She was 84.

The news came from filmmaker Sakus Lalus, who made the 2023 documentary Anthea Sylbert: My Life in 3 Acts. The film followed Sylbert as she penned her memoir on the Greek island of Skiathos. See a trailer for the doc below.

Sylbert was a costume designer on more than 20 films from the late 1960s to late ’70s including Carnal Knowledge, The Heartbreak Kid, Shampoo, The Fortune, King Kong, The Illustrated Man, The Last Tycoon and F.I.S.T. Later in her career, she also produced or exec produced such pics as Overboard, My Blue Heaven and Something to Talk About and won an Outstanding Made for Television Movie Emmy and a PGA Award for 1995’s Truman, starring Gary Sinise as the 33rd U.

Anthea Sylbert, an Oscar-nominated costume designer who worked on some of the signature films of the late 1960s and 1970s, including “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Carnal Knowledge,” “Chinatown,” “Shampoo,” “Julia” and “King Kong,” and a producer later in her career on a number of films starring Goldie Hawn, has died. She was 84.

Her death was confirmed by Robert Romanus, her stepson.

Sylbert, subject of a forthcoming documentary by Sakis Lalas titled “Anthea Sylbert: My Life in 3 Acts,” also served as an executive at United Artists and Warner Bros., at a time when there were few women in the C-suites of Hollywood. She also worked repeatedly with director Mike Nichols, both onscreen and onstage, and was Oscar-nominated for her costuming on period films “Chinatown” (1974) and “Julia” (1977).

Assessing Sylbert’s work on “Chinatown,” GlamAmor, a website dedicated to the history of fashion in film, said in 2012: “Sylbert crafted clothes for Faye Dunaway that...

Anthea Sylbert, the two-time Oscar-nominated costume designer who worked on Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, Carnal Knowledge, Shampoo and Julia before becoming a studio executive and producer, has died. She was 84.

Sylbert died Tuesday in Skiathos, Greece, director Sakis Lalas told The Hollywood Reporter. Lalas just finished a documentary about Sylbert titled, My Life in 3 Acts.

Sylbert partnered with two-time Oscar-winning production Richard Sylbert on eight films and with his twin brother, Paul Sylbert — her first husband and another Oscar-winning production designer — on another three.

“Paul is the more bitter, more angry of the two,” she told Peter Biskind in 1993. “Someone once put it this way: Dick is more of a diplomat. He will put the ice pick somewhere in your back, you’re not quite sure, and you sort of feel tickled; Paul, while facing you, sticks it in your gut. I always used to think that if you put them together,...

Arthur “Artie” R. Schmidt, who won Oscars for editing Robert Zemeckis films “Forrest Gump” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” died Saturday at his home in Santa Barbara. He was 86.

Schmidt and Zemeckis were longtime collaborators, having worked on a total of ten films together, including “Forrest Gump” (1994), the “Back to the Future” trilogy (1985-1990), “Cast Away” (2000), and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988). Other prominent films Schmidt worked on include “Jaws 2” (1978), “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (1980), for which he was Oscar-nommed; “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992), “Death Becomes Her” (1992), “Addams Family Values” (1993) and “Contact” (1997). He was also brought on to help with “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003) in the midst of its production.

Additionally, Schmidt collaborated with director Mike Nichols on three films: “The Fortune” (1975) “The Birdcage” (1996), and “Primary Colors” (1998). He also took on the challenge of editing a film that combines both animation and live-action: “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Arthur Schmidt, the two-time Oscar-winning film editor who collaborated with director Robert Zemeckis on 10 films, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump and the Back to the Future trilogy, has died. He was 86.

Schmidt died Saturday of an unknown cause at his home in Santa Barbara, his brother Ron Schmidt told The Hollywood Reporter.

The second-generation film editor also cut three Mike Nichols features — The Fortune (1975), The Birdcage (1996) and Primary Colors (1998) — and two helmed by Michael Apted — Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980), for which he received his first Oscar nom, and Firstborn (1984).

His résumé over four decades included work on Marathon Man (1976), Jaws 2 (1978), Ruthless People (1986), Beaches (1988), The Rocketeer (1991), The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and Congo (1995), and he was brought in for three months to help tidy up the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie in 2003.

Schmidt received his Academy Awards in 1989 for Who Framed Roger Rabbit and in 1995 for Forrest Gump,...

Cary Elwes, Stockard Channing, Christopher Lloyd, Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel are joining the cast of “Knuckles,” the first television series in Paramount+, Paramount Pictures and Sega of America’s expanding “Cinematic World of Sonic the Hedgehog.”

The live-action series, which takes place between “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” and “Sonic The Hedgehog 3” films, follows the titular character on an action-packed journey of self discovery as he agrees to train Wade as his protégé and teach him the ways of the Echidna warrior. “Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is currently slated to release on Dec. 20, 2024.

Details of Elwes, Channing, Lloyd, Scheer and Huebel’s characters were not disclosed.

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Idris Elba stars as Knuckles while Adam Pally reprises his role as Wade Whipple. Rounding out the rest of the cast is recurring stars Edi Patterson,...

Cary Elwes, Stockard Channing, Christopher Lloyd, Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel have joined the cast of Sonic The Hedgehog TV spinoff Knuckles, from Paramount+, Paramount Pictures and Sega.

They join previously announced Idris Elba as the titular character Knuckles and Adam Pally, who will reprise his role from the film franchise as Wade Whipple, with recurring cast members Edi Patterson, Julian Barratt, Scott Mescudi, Ellie Taylor, and guest stars Rory McCann and Tika Sumpter reprising her role as Maddie.

Character details are being kept under wraps.

The live-action series will follow Knuckles on a hilarious and action-packed journey of self-discovery as he agrees to train Wade as his protégé and teach him the ways of the Echidna warrior. The series takes place between the films Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and Sonic The Hedgehog 3, marking the next installment of the hit franchise, which is slated for December 20, 2024.

All of the...

Few big European telecoms have driven into original high-end drama series production at the scale of Movistar Plus.

When it world-premiered at the San Sebastian festival in 2017, “The Plague,” a re-creation of 1580 Seville in its dazzling glory and poverty, was most probably the biggest-budget Spanish series ever made.

Yet, even by such measures, Alejandro Amenábar’s “La Fortuna,” which world-premieres at September’s San Sebastian Film Festival, sets a new bar for Movistar Plus’ ambitions.

The six-part series also says much about how Movistar Plus, the pay TV-svod unit of giant European telecom Telefonica, is setting out to consolidate audiences in Spain and secure even more of a global viewership.

“La Fortuna” weighs in as the single biggest single U.S.-Spain co-production in history, teaming AMC Studios, Movistar Plus and Spain’s Mod Producciones. It has the Spanish media company’s biggest stars to date: Stanley Tucci, who plays Frank Wild,...

Production on AMC-Movistar Plus high-end original “La Fortuna,” starring “Supernova’s” Stanley Tucci, wrapped Tuesday in Spain, ending principal photography on one of the Spanish-speaking world’s most ambitious upcoming drama series.

Scheduled to bow this fall, “La Fortuna” also marks the first TV show from Oscar winner Amenábar, who directed “The Others” and “The Sea Inside.”

Both that ambition and authorship shone through on Monday’s last full day of shooting, which took place in Pasajes de San Pedro, a Bay of Biscay fishing village and shipyard on the northern Spanish coast, a half-hour drive from France.

Produced by Movistar Plus, AMC Studios and Mod Pictures, with AMC bowing the series in the U.S., Canada and Latin America and Beta Film selling the rest of international, the six-hour adventure thriller casts Tucci as Frank Wild, a modern-day, business-driven treasure hunter.

Wild retrieves the biggest sunken booty in...

Jack Nicholson has had a long career playing brooding rebels, crazed villains and sneering charmers on screen. Soon he’ll star opposite Kristen Wiig in a remake of “Toni Erdmann.” He’s a fixture of American cinema and the Lakers courtside seating. For his 80th birthday, we aimed to rank all of Jack’s major, already iconic roles, from worst to best.

“Man Trouble” (1992)

“Man Trouble” is a ridiculous screwball crime comedy in which Nicholson and Ellen Barkin get upstaged by horny dogs. It seems impossible the same guy who did “Five Easy Pieces” made this.

“A Safe Place” (1971)

This bizarre, formless ’70s relic based on a play stars Tuesday Weld and Orson Welles opposite Nicholson about a girl living a fantasy in which she never grows up.

“The Terror” (1963)

Nicholson gives a stiff performance in this Roger Corman picture opposite Boris Karloff, but he gets to kiss a woman who transforms into a corpse.

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Audition (Takashi Miike)

Perhaps I’ve been subconsciously squeamishly avoiding it, but I’ve been waiting to see Takashi Miike’s Audition for some time and now the opportunity has easily arrived courtesy of Mubi. As Daisy Phillipson writes for Little White Lies, “On closer inspection, however, Miike asks us to consider the cultural context in which the film is set. Based on a novel by Ryu Murakami, who often uses social commentary to skewer concerns facing modern Japan, Audition offers an ingenious twist on national femininity by subverting the passive female horror narrative.”

Where to Stream: Mubi (free for 30 days)

The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci)

One of the most ravishing movies ever made,...

Exclusive: 123 Go Films has taken world rights to Boston George Famous Without The Fortune, a five-part docuseries about infamous drug trafficker George Jung, aka Boston George.

Johnny Depp played George in 2001 movie Blow, and the real-life man, now 76, lives off the proceedings of that film. Once a world-renowned drug smuggler and part of the notorious Medellín Cartel, which was responsible for an estimated 90% of the cocaine trade into the U.S. in the 1970s and 80s, George was arrested in 1994 and spent 20 years in prison. He remains on probation today and continues to grapple with his demons.

The series has just wrapped post-production. It was directed by Clint Choate and produced by Georgette Angelos and Chris Chesson, who brokered the deal with 123 Go’s Brady Bowen. 1-2-3 Go will continue to shop the project during the virtual AFM.

“We are proud to present Boston George to our buyers at virtual AFM.

Rome Film Festival artistic director Antonio Monda on Monday unveiled a rich lineup for the event’s 15th edition, which is on track to take place Oct. 15-25 as a physical event. It comprises 24 titles repping a well-assorted mix of mainstream movies in the official selection – such as Pixar’s “Soul,” the fest’s opener – and also more eclectic fare.

Most of the films have surfaced previously, including nine entries that carry a Cannes 2020 label. And among these Monda regrets he was unable to get “The French Dispatch” by Wes Anderson, a director with whom he has a personal rapport.

Still, Monda has also secured some world premieres this year, including “Home,” which marks the directorial debut of German actor Franka Potente (“The Bourne Supremacy”), and Algeria-set drama “My Traitor, My Love,” by France’s Helier Cisterne.

And he is expecting some high-caliber international guests to be on hand. Among...

Festival to go ahead as a physical event with guests including Thomas Vinterberg and Francois Ozon.

Rome Film Fest has revealed the programme and plans for its 15th edition, which is set to go ahead as a physical event with digital elements from October 15-25.

A total of 24 films and documentaries will comprise the official selection, most of which have proved critically-acclaimed at festivals such as Toronto, with nine having previously received a Cannes 2020 label.

Scroll down for line-up

These include three titles from Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology: Mangrove; Lovers Rock; and Red, White And Blue. The...

From the people that brought you Pandemic Parade chapters 1-8, comes yet another thrilling episode featuring Jesse V. Johnson, Casper Kelly, Fred Dekker, Don Coscarelli, Daniel Noah, Elijah Wood and Blaire Bercy.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Wondrous Story of Birth a.k.a. The Birth of Triplets (1950)

Contagion (2011)

The Omega Man (1971)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

The Last Man On Earth (1964)

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Fantastic Voyage (1966)

Innerspace (1987)

The Howling (1981)

The Invisible Man (2020)

The Sand Pebbles (1966)

Where Eagles Dare (1969)

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Goldfinger (1964)

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965)

Murder On The Orient Express (1974)

Dr. No (1962)

From Russia With Love (1963)

Bellman and True (1987)

Brimstone and Treacle (1982)

Richard III (1995)

Titanic (1997)

Catch 22 (1970)

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966)

The Graduate (1967)

1941 (1979)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Jaws (1975)

The Fortune (1975)

Carnal Knowledge (1970)

Manhattan...

Mike Nichols would’ve celebrated his 87th birthday on November 6, 2018. One of the few people to complete the Egot, the acclaimed director excelled in film, television and theater until his death in 2014. In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at all 18 of his movies, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1931 in Berlin, Germany, Nichols got his start as one half of the comedic improvisational act Nichols and May, working alongside Elaine May. In 1960, the two opened the Broadway show “An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May,” winning a Grammy in 1962 for the LP version. Their partnership ended just a year later, though they would collaborate several times thereafter, including on “The Birdcage” (1996) and “Primary Colors” (1998).

Nichols began his directing career on Broadway, gaining fame for his productions of such Neil Simon classics as “Barefoot in the Park” (1964) and “The Odd Couple” (1965). Both would bring him...

Stockard Channing returns to the New York stage in “Apologia,” opening Oct. 16 at the Laura Pels Theatre, following its successful West End run. Alexi Kaye Campbell’s play concerns an art historian clashing with her past as a 1960s political activist. Channing has decades of stage experience, but most people know her from movie and TV roles, including Betty Rizzo in the 1978 film “Grease,” and First Lady Abbey Bartlet in “The West Wing.”

Channing made her stage debut in Boston, in a 1966 production of “The Investigation.” Her name first appeared in Variety on Feb. 25, 1970, when she was in a pair of Terrence McNally one-acts in New York. Later, she was a chorus member and understudy in the musical “Two Gentlemen of Verona” and was rewarded with the lead female role in 1973. Since then, her honors include an Oscar nomination for “Six Degrees of Separation” and 13 Emmy nominations, including two wins.

This article marks Part 5 of the 21-part Gold Derby series analyzing Meryl Streep at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at Meryl Streep’s nominations, the performances that competed with her, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the contenders.

In her first eight appearances on the big screen, Meryl Streep portrayed a diverse array of characters, all fictional. In 1983, she at last took on a real-life role, that of the plutonium technician-turned-nuclear safety whistleblower Karen Silkwood in “Silkwood” and was rewarded with an Academy Awards nomination for her efforts.

The project marked Streep’s first of four collaborations with filmmaker Mike Nichols and first of three with screenwriter Nora Ephron.

No one had more riding on the success of “Silkwood” than the picture’s director. After a string of acclaimed box office hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s, including “Who’s Afraid...

Warren Beatty’s been talking about Howard Hughes as long as I’ve lived in Los Angeles. When I was in high school, one of the things I did was devour entire careers on home video as a way of educating myself about various filmmakers and eras. I was aware of Warren Beatty before that, certainly, and remember Heaven Can Wait in particular as a big commercial moment for Beatty. I loved that movie and the weird goofball guy who starred in it, but it was almost a decade later when I finally plunged headlong into his filmography and suddenly realized that I kind of adore Beatty. And why not? Look at that body of work in front of the camera first. He’s been relatively selective over the years, and considering what a giant movie star he was considered at one time, he never really became omnipresent like some of his peers.

Do you enjoy special-effects laden blockbusters? How about gritty crime dramas? Or biting comedies? The New Hollywood movement helped to make all of these possible in mainstream cinema.

New Hollywood is less a trend about the kinds of films that were produced and more about the people making them. The New Hollywood movement was about a new generation of filmmakers who came of age in the 60’s and went on to define filmmaking in the 70’s. These are filmmakers who went against tradition to push film to new heights and explore new genres and ideas. New Hollywood is the passing of the torch from the classic era of filmmaking to the modern era. It showed us both how great intimate character-focused dramas could be, but it also expanded the possibilities of what film could be, giving birth to the blockbuster. The New Hollywood movement is the foundation upon which current cinema is based.

Film Comment Selects, Film Society of Lincoln Center's annual film series that showcases the best films from all corners of the world selected by folks at Film Comment magazine, marks the arrival of spring for New York cinephiles in an otherwise dreadful February/March movie season. This year's selections are as diverse as ever; the series blasts off with Mark Hartley's hilarious doc Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (read James Marsh's review here) with some of Cannon's greatest hits as the sidebar selections, includes Larry Clark's Kids part deux, The Smell of Us (skater kids in Paris, this time), a tribute to the late Mike Nichols with a screening of his underrated, underseen The Fortune, Philippe Garrel's rarely screened elegy Un ange passe,...

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

Twilight Time is a boutique label known for showing love to older, occasionally but not always obscure films in the form of limited-run Blu-ray releases. Their releases are capped at 3000 copies each and sold exclusively at Screen Archives Entertainment, so check out their latest while you still can. The label released six Blu-rays in December, and we’ve taken a look at four of them below. (The two titles we haven’t seen are Funny Lady and Yentl.) The releases include The Fortune — a Mike Nichols film you’ve probably never heard of starring Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty; Heaven & Earth — Oliver Stone’s third Vietnam-focused movie; Inherit the Wind — a classic courtroom drama concerning the Scopes “Monkey” Trial; and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie — a British film starring the incomparable Maggie Smith exhibiting sharp wit and smoother skin than most of us are used to seeing on her. The Fortune...

Peter Bart and Mike Fleming Jr. worked together for two decades at Daily Variety. In this occasional column, two old friends get together and grind their axes, mostly on the movie business.

Bart: Critics don’t like to admit it, but the conditions under which you see a film strongly influence your opinion. Birdman is a good example: If you see a film like this with a pack of cinephiles like at Telluride, everyone gets every inside joke, and you instinctively go along with the crowd. I made it a point to see Birdman with a paid civilian audience and it was like screening it in a mausoleum. No laughs, just occasional grunts and lots of walkouts. Some reviews predicted Birdman “will captivate arthouse and multiplex crowds alike and send awards pundits into orbit” (the Variety review). Well that ain’t happening with the audiences; we’ll see about the awards.

When people pass away, we often praise them with, "What couldn’t they do?" Exaggeration. With Mike Nichols, there’s really no answer to the theoretical. A seasoned comedian, a pillar of New York City theater, a successful film director — earning a Best Picture nomination, four Best Director nominations, and one win in the latter category — and one of only 12 people to successfully collect the coveted Egot, when it came to the entertainment industry, there really wasn’t anything he couldn’t do. He went out on a high. Thursday morning, we learned that Nichols passed away at the age of 83. Fleeing Nazi-occupied Germany in 1938, Nichols wound up in New York City and called the city home for nearly his entire life. Attending college in Chicago, he became part of the theater and comedy scenes, joining Second City and forming the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with actress Elaine May.

Few directors can be said to have changed the way films are made, but Mike Nichols, who died Wednesday at 83, was one of them. His first film, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966), ended decades of Hollywood censorship of adult content and freed the movies for mature language and subject matter ever after. His second film, "The Graduate," was the first serious mainstream movie to feature a rock soundtrack (spawning Simon and Garfunkel's hit "Mrs. Robinson") and, through its casting of Dustin Hoffman, expanded Hollywood's notion of what a leading man ought to look and sound like.

Nichols wasn't born in America (he and his family escaped from Nazi Germany when he was a child), but he was one of the best chroniclers of contemporary America -- its politics, its aspirations, its dreams, its aristocracy, and its successes and failures -- in movies. His youth in Manhattan as the son...

What's Jack Nicholson's secret? Maybe it's the eyebrows, hovering like ironic quotation marks over every line reading. Maybe it's the hooded eyes, which hold the threat of danger or the promise of joviality -- you're never sure which. Same with that sharklike grin. Or maybe it's the voice, which has evolved over the years from a thin sneer to a deep rumble, but is always precisely calibrated to provoke a reaction. Put them all together, and they say: "I am a man to be reckoned with. Ignore me at your peril." Nicholson, who turns 75 on April 22, is often criticized for relying on his bag of tricks, for just showing up and doing Jack Nicholson (though indeed, he often seems to have been hired precisely for that purpose). But he's also capable of burrowing deep into a character, finding his wounded heart, and revealing the ugly truth without fear or vanity.

Versatile production designer, screenwriter and producer of Hollywood films

Popular legend has it that the new wave of American film-making in the late 1960s and early 1970s was an exclusively masculine phenomenon, a myth bolstered by the hard-living excesses documented in Peter Biskind's book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. But women were instrumental in many of the movies which defined that era, and few more so than Polly Platt, who has died aged 72 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease.

"I call myself a confused careerist," she said of her switches from production and costume design to writing and producing. She was credited as production designer on the films which brought to prominence her second husband, the director Peter Bogdanovich, notably The Last Picture Show (1971) and Paper Moon (1973), but her contribution extended far beyond that job description. "They discussed every shot," wrote Biskind of the making of The Last Picture Show.

Nicholson would be the natural man of the 70s, a rebel but disillusioned, the nearest to what James Dean might have been had he lived

He takes it easy these days – or is it that he is disappointed with the kind of parts offered? Since As Good As It Gets (1997), the occasion of his third Oscar, he has worked only seven times – if you count How Do You Know, which will be out at the end of this year. It's a James Brooks film, and Brooks has done nothing since As Good As It Gets either. But Jack has a good track record with the director – they did Terms of Endearment together, for which Nicholson got the best supporting actor Oscar. So there may be young people around by now who don't know the sly charmer he could be when he was young. All the more reason to see the rerelease of Five Easy Pieces,...