News

Mitzi Gaynor, star of 1950s big-screen musicals including “South Pacific” and “Les Girls” and a series of beloved variety specials in the 1970s, died on Thursday. She was 93.

Gaynor’s management team, Rene Reyes and Shane Rosamonda, confirmed to Variety that she died of natural causes.

“For eight decades she entertained audiences in films, on television and on the stage. She truly enjoyed every moment of her professional career and the great privilege of being an entertainer,” Reyes and Rosamonda wrote in a statement on Gaynor’s X account. “Off stage, she was a vibrant and extraordinary woman, a caring and loyal friend, and a warm, gracious, very funny and altogether glorious human being.”

Gaynor starred as Navy nurse Nellie Forbush in the 1958 big-screen adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “South Pacific” together with Rossano Brazzi as French planter Emile De Becque and John Kerr as Lt. Cable. Gaynor sang...

Spike Lee defends casting Madonna in Girl 6, saying he didn't care about backlash and she was the right choice. Madonna's acting career had mixed success, with hits like Desperately Seeking Susan and A League of Their Own, but also many flops. Girl 6 was another commercial and critical failure for Madonna, but Lee stands by his decision to cast her.

Spike Lee recalls the backlash he received after casting pop sensation Madonna in his 1996 critically mixed comedy, Girl 6. Released 28 years ago, Girl 6 followed the story of young actor Judy (Theresa Randle), who becomes disillusioned with her job after being asked to expose her breasts during an audition. Judy secures a new job at a call center, eventually finding a sense of purpose as a phone sex operator. Lee cast Madonna as boss #3 in the comedy, playing a well-manicured supervisor who fends off over-the-top requests from their clients.

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Roxy Cinema

The 35mm print of Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo we presented last weekend has an encore appearance on Saturday afternoon, while prints of two Spielberg sequels (The Lost World and Temple of Doom) play alongside Shadows and Fog, Bloodhounds of Broadway, and My Blueberry Nights.

Anthology Film Archives

“Shopping Worlds” is a cinematic exploration of malls, offering the likes of Jackie Brown, Nocturama, Wiseman’s The Store, Dawn of the Dead, and Akerman’s Golden Eighties.

Museum of the Moving Image

Inception and John Carpenter’s Starman play on 70mm in a new series.

Film Forum

Contempt and Thelma & Louise play in 4K restorations, while the ’50s creature feature Robot Monster play in 3D on Sunday.

Museum of Modern Art

“Views from the Vault” closes with films by Jia Zhangke and more, while “Silent Movie Week” is underway.

The director of Palmer helps us kick off our new season by walking us through some of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Bloodhounds Of Broadway (1989)

Salvador (1986)

True Believer (1989)

Palmer (2021)

Wonder Wheel (2017)

A Face In The Crowd (1957)

On The Waterfront (1954)

No Time For Sergeants (1958)

The Confidence Man (2018)

Lolita (1962)

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

The Ghost Of Peter Sellers (2018)

The Marrying Man (1991)

The Ruling Class (1972)

The Krays (1990)

Let Him Have It (1991)

The Changeling (1980)

On The Border (1998)

Murder By Decree (1979)

Bigger Than Life (1956)

The Night of the Iguana (1964)

Fat City (1972)

Angel (1984)

Animal House (1978)

My Science Project (1985)

Lucía (1968)

Paper Moon (1973)

Sullivan’s Travels (1941)

The Great McGinty (1940)

I Married A Witch (1942)

Do The Right Thing (1989)

Raging Bull (1980)

Once Upon A Time In America (1984)

The Rider (2017)

The Mustang (2019)

Nomadland (2020)

Murmur of the Heart (1971)

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

The Conversation (1974)

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather Part III (1990)

The Magnificent Ambersons...

Thirty years ago this month, Madonna released one of the most fascinating records in her catalogue, I’m Breathless. Attached to her role as the nightclub singer/femme fatale in Warren Beatty’s 1990 film Dick Tracy, I’m Breathless wasn’t necessarily a proper solo album, but one of those “Music From and Inspired By the Film” projects that the world’s biggest pop stars always seem compelled to make (see also: Prince’s Batman or, more recently, Beyoncé’s The Lion King: The Gift). Meant to match Beatty’s...

Happy Thursday, Grey's Anatomy fans. Finally, some more news has broke regarding the current season 15 of your favorite show which is currently on a long, winter break hiatus. It turns out that they are going to bring an older, more mature lady into the mix at some point after the winter break is over. According to the folks over at TV Line.com , The Grey's Anatomy production crew has hired former Dirty Dancing actress Jennifer Grey to come on and play an assumed short story arc. Unfortunately, the ABC rep that TVLine spoke to refused to reveal any other details about Jennifer Grey's new role. So, we don't have a name for her character or what she'll be up to when she arrives. However, that has not stopped people from heavily speculating on who her character is. It's highly speculated that she could play character Jo Wilson's estranged mother.

Aaron Brookner celebrates the his uncle’s life and career, cut tragically short by Aids in the 80s

Aaron Brookner’s heartfelt documentary about his uncle, film-maker Howard Brookner, is a personal odyssey that intertwines the present day with snapshots of the New York of the late 70s and early 80s. Howard Brookner, who died of Aids in 1989 on the brink of a promising film career, existed in a bohemian, creative New York subculture alongside the likes of Jim Jarmusch and poet John Giorno. His first film, a documentary about William S Burroughs, marked him out as a talented and creative voice. His third and final picture, Bloodhounds of Broadway, starred Madonna and gave a hint of the potential that was snuffed out when Howard was just 34. His nephew was seven at the time. Aaron’s quest to get to know the beloved uncle he lost is the journey that drives the picture,...

Aaron Brookner’s melancholy doc about his dead uncle – an artistic collaborator of William Burroughs and Jim Jarmusch – recaptures a vanished era

There’s a persistent melancholy tone to this study of New York film-maker Howard Brookner, made by his nephew Aaron, and focusing initially on the unique and attention-grabbing movie Brookner made in 1983 about William Burroughs with the help of his film-school contemporaries, sound recordist Jim Jarmusch and cinematographer Tom Dicillo, who are both interviewed here.

Aaron visits Burroughs’s somewhat claustrophobic New York apartment, nicknamed “the Bunker”, which appears to have been kept exactly as Burroughs had it, and where the Brookner archive still is. The movie then goes on to become a broader yet sadder film about Brookner, who emerged from Burroughs’s celebrity shadow and went on to direct more work, including Bloodhounds of Broadway, a period comedy starring Madonna and Matt Dillon. He had an...

Aaron Brookner with Paterson and Gimme Danger director Jim Jarmusch - Sara Driver on Uncle Howard: "I knew Howard’s nephew Aaron was interested in filmmaking ..."

In Aaron Brookner's search in the making of Uncle Howard, with timely editing by Masahiro Hirakubo (Orlando von Einsiedel's Virunga), we see glimpses of John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Philip Glass, John Giorno, Laurie Anderson, Anne Waldman, Jim Carroll, Frank Zappa, and Patti Smith at the Entermedia Nova Convention - Andy Warhol having Cities Of The Red Night inscribed by William Burroughs - clips from Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars - and a telling interview with Lindsay Law on Howard Brookner's film Bloodhounds Of Broadway, based on Damon Runyon stories, with Matt Dillon, Rutger Hauer, Randy Quaid, Jennifer Grey, Madonna, Anita Morris, Fisher Stevens, Richard Edson, and Steve Buscemi.

Sara Driver with Paul Bowles scholar Francis Poole and Richard Peña...

Documentary about Us filmmaker whose life was cut short by AIDS scores international sales deal.

New Paris-based sales and production company Upside Distribution has secured international sales rights to documentary Uncle Howard.

Berlin Q&A: Aaron Brookner, Uncle Howard

Pinball London, the production company behind the Sundance and Berlinale documentary, closed the deal.

Upside Distribution, which recently launched its first feature slate, will come on board to manage Uncle Howard’s international distribution. ICM Partners is handling North American sales.

“We are proud and excited to represent this strong and touching film, which moved us all at the Berlinale,” said Pauline Saint Hilaire and Johan de Faria from Upside Distribution.

The film centres on director Howard Brookner, who died of AIDS in NYC in 1989 while in post-production on his breakthrough Hollywood movie, Bloodhounds Of Broadway, starring Madonna and Matt Dillon.

Uncle Howard follows his nephew’s personal journey to discover his uncle’s film legacy which captured...

How many great filmmakers have been lost as a result of disease and human catastrophe? That seems to be the question on the mind of documentary filmmaker Aaron Brookner in his debut film, Uncle Howard, a deeply personal piece of work that offers both an introduction (or re-introduction?) to the director’s uncle — a once-burgeoning independent filmmaker who died of AIDS in 1989 at just 31 years of age — and a somber meditation on talent lost.

Howard Brookner was born in New York, raised on Long Island, and graduated with an M.A. in Art History and Film from Nyu. His first feature would be Burroughs: The Movie, an acclaimed documentary on Beat poet William S. Burroughs. He got his college buddies Tom Dicillo and Jim Jarmusch to respectively serve as cinematographer and boom guy. The New York Times would later attribute its “comprehensiveness” to Brookner’s “unusual degree of liveliness and curiosity.

One of the projects currently up on our curated Kickstarter page is a restoration of Howard Brookner’s documentary, Burroughs, on the legendary Naked Lunch novelist. Brookner died of AIDS in the ’80s, with this and the feature Bloodhounds of Broadway (which costarred Madonna) to his credit. Brookner was a great director poised to have an exciting career, and now his nephew Aaron Brookner is raising funds on Kickstarter to restore the original Burroughs film as well as 300 hours of additional archival material discovered in Burroughs’ NYC home, The Bunker. The team behind this restoration submitted to Filmmaker the following …...

By Harris Lentz, III

Danny Aiello, III was the son of character actor Danny Aiello II, and a leading stuntman in films and television for over 30 years.

He was born in Bronx, New York, on January 27, 1957, and began his career in films in the late 1970s, appearing in the small role of Baldie in the 1979 cult classic The Wanderers. He worked on numerous films as a stuntman and stunt coordinator over the next 30 years.

His many credits include the films Amityville II: The Possession (1982), Splash (1984), The Natural (1984), Return to Salem’s Lot (1987), Deadly Illusion (1987),Last Rites (1988), The January Man (1989), The Dream Team (1989), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989), Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989) as his father’s stunt double, Blue Steel (1989), Ghostbusters II (1989), Tune in Tomorrow (1990), Jacob’s Ladder (1990), Hudson Hawk(1991), The Pickle (1993), Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995), Diabolique (1996), Jungle 2 Jungle (1997), Kate & Leopold (2001), Stuart Little 2...

A towering Texan with an easy smile and some 68 movies under his belt, Randy Quaid has been known over the years as an affable character actor. On the Austin, Texas, set of his most recent film, Balls Out: The Gary Houseman Story, Quaid charmed his castmates. "He's a really nice guy and insanely funny," says actor Allen Evangelista, who recalls how Quaid spent his downtime tossing tennis balls to his costars. "Everyone was just trying not to laugh when he would improvise. He's really down to earth … just a cool guy to work with." That image is a far cry...

Madonna's movies are back in the spotlight as the part-time actress celebrates her 50th birthday.

Top movie news website MovieHole.net has created a top 10 poll of the pop star's top film appearances to mark her half century.

Cheeky site editor Clint Morris suggests husband Guy Ritchie might like to buy his wife acting lessons as a gift, but adds, "It's your birthday, so let's be kind shall we... and after all, there's much worse actresses out there than Madonna."

Morris admits to owning many of Madonna's films on DVD and claims Desperately Seeking Susan is her finest acting work, adding, "This is such a fun film... I'd even go so far as to say Madonna was great in this."

Coming in second is Madonna's turn as a baseball star in sports movie A League of Their Own.

Morris states, "Madonna isn't trying to stretch herself here she's merely playing herself, a sassy chick from Brooklyn who's all about boys and bonking."

Evita round out the top three, with MovieHole.net's editor stating, "Madonna is actually quite good in the film, though it's a flick that requires a bit of patience."

The full top 10 is:

1. Desperately Seeking Susan

2. A League of Their Own

3. Evita

4. Dick Tracy

5. Die Another Day

6. The Next Best Thing

7. Shanghai Surprise

8. Body of Evidence

9. Bloodhounds of Broadway

10. Swept Away...