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Exclusive: Slow Horses star Gary Oldman is stepping back on stage in April 2025 for the first time after an absence of nearly four decades to star in Samuel Beckett’s celebrated one-man play Krapp’s Last Tape for a limited season at the British theatre where the actor began his professional career in 1979.

Oldman, who won an Oscar for Darkest Hour, is in London shooting season 6 of the acclaimed Apple TV+ spy drama Slow Horses. He will play Beckett’s famous old-timer, struggling to listen to a tape he recorded 39 years ago, at York Theatre Royal in North Yorkshire from April 14 through May 17.

There are no plans to transfer the production to London’s West End or Broadway, Douglas Urbanski, the actor’s longtime business partner and manager, told me when I tracked him down in the early hours of Wednesday in London.

In performing Beckett’s 1958 classic, Oldman retraces...

Stephen Frears is the British director who began his feature film directing career with 1971’s “Gumshoe” after first gaining wide international recognition with his 1985 film “My Beautiful Laundrette.” It was originally made for Channel 4 television, but its quality was so high that it was released theatrically, and world recognition for Frears followed.

In the intervening years, Frears directed three films — “Dangerous Liaisons” (1988), “The Queen” (2006) and “Philomena” (2013) — that received Academy Award nominations as Best Picture, and Frears himself earned two Oscar nominations as Best Director — for “The Grifters” (1990) and “The Queen.”

Although most of his work directing for television was early in his career, in recent years, Frears has returned to TV, earning an Emmy Award nomination as Best Director for HBO’s “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight” (2013) and competing again for directing the three-part Amazon limited series, “A Very English Scandal,” starring Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw (2018). In 2019, he...

Stephen Frears is the British director behind films like High Fidelity, The Queen, and Philomena. He got his start directing theater and TV plays before transitioning to features, establishing himself as a talent to watch in the 1980s with projects such as My Beautiful Laundrette and Prick Up Your Ears. Frears's films became more ambitious over the decades, seeing him branching out into period pieces and comedies.

Award will be presented at European Film Awards in Berlin on December 9.

The European Film Academy is to present Dame Vanessa Redgrave with its European Lifetime Achievement Award at the 36th European Film Awards in Berlin on December 9.

Redgrave’s first lead film role was in Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966) by Karel Reisz which won her the best actress award in Cannes saw her nominated both the BAFTAs and the Oscars.

Redgrave returned to Cannes the following year as Jane, the mysterious woman in the park in Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni.

She won best actress again at...

Could BBC One’s Rain Dogs be the first time a fairly explicit “glory hole” scene, complete with slurpy sound effects, has been transmitted on British television? The nearest precedent I can think of was a transmission of the biopic of the outrageous Sixties playwright Joe Orton, Prick Up Your Ears, but, from memory, there was no full-on fellatio in the bogs depicted. So Rain Dogs has at least made its mark for that.

That sounds a bit dismissive, but it’s the reverse. Sleaze – proper, depressing, tawdry sleaze; sleaze infused with danger and drink – is rarely portrayed with much conviction on the telly, but this eight-part darker-than-dark sort-of-comedy makes you just as uneasy as our hero of the underworld, peep show performer Costello. The not-so-good-time girl is played with the usual brilliance by Daisy May Cooper. After Cooper’s delusional, unloved, Kerry in This Country through the gaslit Nic in Am I Being Unreasonable?...

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Like some kind of cinematic equivalent of the vault in the Tower of London where the Crown jewels are stored, the stage-to-screen adaptation Allelujah piles a number of “national treasures” atop one another: a script based on a play from 2018 by national treasure Alan Bennett (The Madness of King George); a cast featuring such treasured national stars as Judi Dench, Derek Jacobi and Jennifer Saunders; direction from feted theater and film veteran Richard Eyre (Iris, Notes on a Scandal) and so on. It’s all rolled up in a story about the institution every Brit most loves to love and moan about in equal measure, the National Health Service. What could possibly go wrong?

At the risk of having my Leave to Remain resident status in the U.K. revoked, I am sad to report that Allelujah the film is something of a disappointment.

Exclusive: Thomas Doherty is set to star in Screen Gems’ horror thriller The Bride, starring Nathalie Emmanuel. Doherty replaces Garrett Hedlund, who recently moved on from the project. Hugh Skinner, Sean Pertwee, and Courtney Taylor, Alana Boden, and Stephanie Corneliussen are also on board. Jessica M. Thompson will direct with Blair Butler penning the original script, based on her pitch, with revisions by Thompson. Emile Gladstone is producing the project.

The pic is a contemporary thriller that tells the story of young woman invited to a lavish destination wedding in England, only to realize her presence at the wedding has sinister motivations.

Doherty currently stars in the reboot of Gossip Girl for HBOMax, which premiered July 8 as HBO Max’s most-watched original series over launch weekend. It has been renewed for a second season. He was last seen in Hulu’s High Fidelity opposite Zoe Kravitz. His break came when...

Chicago – The great Gary Oldman is a veteran actor who has created so many memorable roles that he’s his own Hall of Fame. His surprising turn as Herman Mankiewicz, the co-screenwriter with Orson Welles on “Citizen Kane” in “Mank,” is being honored by yet another Best Actor nomination in 2021 (his third with one win).

“Mank” follows Herman through the decade of the 1930s, when he hung out with William Randolph Hearst, the inspiration for Charles Foster Kane. His journey with Hearst and his crew, including the mogul’s mistress and notable actress Marion Davies, was the information gathering point for his contributions to the Kane script, whose main authorship is debated to this day. It’s a grand opera performance, with Mank being both a comic and tragic figure.

2021 Oscar Nominee Gary Oldman in the Spotlight for ‘Mank’

Photo credit: Netflix

Gary Oldman was born in London, studied acting...

This past week I happily immersed myself in the latest book by protean film critic/biographer/sometime novelist David Thomson, A Light in the Dark: A History of Movie Directors. Even as he approaches 80, the author of the invaluable Biographical Dictionary of Film editions is able to find fresh things to say about such cinematic imperishables as Hitchcock, Welles, Lang, Renoir, Bunuel, Hawks, Godard and Nicholas Ray.

Midway through the new tome, Thomson delivers his most unexpected and welcome piece, a savory appreciation of a director who, almost defiantly, is not an auteur and therefore remains somewhat taken for granted, far too much so, despite having made any number of notable films of considerable class and merit. That would be Stephen Frears, who himself will turn 80 in June.

Like such Hollywood non-auteurs as Michael Curtiz, Raoul Walsh, Don Siegel, Henry Hathaway, Richard Fleischer and any number of others, Frears is not a writer.

If Gary Oldman could travel back in time to give advice to screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, he jokingly has two words of bold advice for him: ‘Get sober!’ In the new Netflix film “Mank” directed by David Fincher, Oldman portrays the alcoholic Oscar winner, the co-writer of “Citizen Kane” with Orson Welles.

In our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video above), he adds, “He had these aspirations of wanting to be a playwright or novelist, considering that to be high art. He came out to California and felt really that screenwriting was just beneath him. He could do it in his sleep. He once said that a final draft was what you put through the typewriter the night before.”

SEEAmanda Seyfried interview: ‘Mank’

For the black-and-white movie, which was written by the late Jack Fincher, the plot is set in 1940 when a drunken and injured Mank is writing much of...

by Nathaniel R

Before we move on to the final push for 2020 and a special trivia-filled overview of where the Supporting Actress Smackdown has been over the years (we know how y'all love stats), here's one last push for the 1987 Discussion with the rising busy actor Ato Essandoh, former Tfe member and now author Manuel Betancourt (seriously buy his book "Judy at Carnegie Hall" - it's a perfect stocking stuffer gift!), and the critics Kathia Woods and Naveen Kumar. Listen in at the bottom of the post on on iTunes

Index (1 hour and 15 minutes)

00:01 Meeting the Panel

04:30 Throw Momma from the Train

19:00 The zeitgeist impact of Fatal Attraction in 1987 and Glenn Close's brilliance

37:15 Disability drama Gaby and the Old Hollywood actresses of Whales of August

53:30 Moonstruck has aged beautifully. And why Olympia Dukakis won

1:06:00 Final 1987 Recommendations from our panel and Role-Switcheroos

Other...

Each month before the Smackdown, Nick Taylor looks at alternates to Oscar's ballot...

As Cláudio wrote sometime last year, the 1987 Supporting Actress vintage boasts a truly unique set of contenders. Their specific careers, overall narratives, and individual performances and the films they were in could hardly have been more different. Add in the fact that all five were one-and-done nominees and the whole list takes on a genuinely ephemeral, one-of-a-kind quality, even if three of them have the same first name.

The presence of brand names just for A-list star power, would, in most years, dilute this quality. Still, it’s strange to see some of Oscar’s favorite names on the outside looking in during 1987. Top theorists have speculated for decades how Anjelica Huston failed to get cited for her sad, moving performance in The Dead. And what about Vanessa Redgrave in Prick Up Your Ears, who won Nyfcc...

Bill Gavin in Cannes in 1988 (Photo credit: © Richard Blanshard).

Former producer, exhibitor and sales agent Bill Gavin has died in Auckland after a short illness, aged 83.

“Bill Gavin’s long career touched on almost every aspect of the screen industry and he was great friend to the many filmmakers whose careers benefited from his touch,” the New Zealand Film Commission said.

A former journalist who covered motor racing in Auckland and internationally, his entrée into filmmaking came when he wrote the narration for John Frankenheimer’s sports drama Grand Prix, which starred James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford and Jessica Walter, in 1966.

In the early 1970s he moved into the music business, joining Gto in the UK where he managed a number of acts including Sweet and The New Seekers.

At Gto he helped set up Gto Films to make movies promoting its musical acts and later into distribution,...

Bill Gavin, the former Goldcrest executive and general manager of Australia’s Hoyts Theatres, has died at the age of 83 at his home in Auckland, New Zealand, after a short illness.

Gavin moved to the UK in the early 1960s after securing a contract to cover New Zealand’s then highly successful Formula One drivers, going on to write a biography of UK driver Jim Clark. He segued initially into the music business and established Gto Films to promote glam rock acts, the company then branched into distribution and worked on the UK release of Weir’s classic Picnic At Hanging Rock and the original version of Swept Away.

In 1978 he moved to Australia to become general manager of Hoyts Theatres and spearheaded the company’s entry into distribution. His down under success distributing the first Muppet Movie caught the eye of Lew Grade, who invited him to join Itc Films’ sales team in London.

Gary Oldman celebrates his 62nd birthday on March 21, 2020. The Oscar-winning actor has starred in several popular titles over the last three decades, but how many of his movies remain classics? In honor of his birthday, let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Despite his long and very successful film career, Oldman wasn’t recognized with an Oscar nomination until his 2011 Best Actor nomination for “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.” He finally won that prize in 2017 for his transformative performance as Winston Churchill in the film “Darkest Hour.” The role also brought him victories at the Golden Globes, BAFTA, SAG and Critics Choice Awards.

Aside from that, Oldman hasn’t been recognized very often by awards groups. He received one Emmy nomination (for a guest appearance on “Friends” of all things). Back in his native country of England, the BAFTAs have nominated him twice...

The actor on starring in a new Pet Shop Boys musical, her addiction to Twitter and Strictly, and the impossibility of avoiding Brexit chat

Frances Barber, 62, was born in Wolverhampton and studied drama at Bangor and Cardiff universities. She began her stage career with the Hull Truck Theatre Company and in 1984 won an Olivier award for her RSC debut in Camille. Her film roles include Prick Up Your Ears, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid and Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool. TV credits include Silk, Doctor Who and Mapp and Lucia. She stars in the new Pet Shop Boys musical, Musik, which premieres at Edinburgh festival fringe.

How are rehearsals going for the Pet Shop Boys musical?

I’ve just got back from my first full run-through, doing the whole play in front of Pet Shop Boys. Not in the least bit frightening! Chris Lowe took his sunglasses off,...

Happy birthday to director Stephen Frears, who turns 78 on June 20, 2019. The British director, who began his feature film directing career with 1971’s “Gumshoe,” first gained wide international recognition with his 1985 film “My Beautiful Laundrette.” It was originally made for Channel 4 television, but its quality was so high that it was released theatrically, and world recognition for Frears followed.

SEEHelen Mirren movies: 12 greatest films ranked from worst to best

In the intervening years, Frears directed three films — “Dangerous Liaisons” (1988), “The Queen” (2006) and “Philomena” (2013) — that received Academy Award nominations as Best Picture, and Frears himself earned two Oscar nominations as Best Director — for “The Grifters” (1990) and “The Queen.” Although most of his work directing for television was early in his career, in recent years, Frears has returned to TV, earning an Emmy Award as Best Director for HBO’s “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight” (2013). And once again, he is in Emmy contention,...

Alfred Molina will celebrate his 66th birthday on May 24, 2019. The actor started his career in his native England. Shortly thereafter he would begin a film career in a small role supporting role in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” But what a supporting role it was. Molina played the man who brings Indiana Jones to the alter of the idol he is searching for. He then convinces Jones to let him hold the idol while Indy attempts to jump over a large hole. The scene then concludes with the famous boulder chasing Jones and him reclaiming the idol from the body of Molina, who has been killed in one of the many booby traps. It was a tiny part at the beginning of the film, but it became an iconic scene in a much beloved film.

SEEGary Oldman movies: 15 greatest films ranked from worst to best

Molina continued working in all...

Alfred Molina will celebrate his 66th birthday on May 24, 2019. The actor started his career in his native England. Shortly thereafter he would begin a film career in a small role supporting role in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” But what a supporting role it was. Molina played the man who brings Indiana Jones to the alter of the idol he is searching for. He then convinces Jones to let him hold the idol while Indy attempts to jump over a large hole. The scene then concludes with the famous boulder chasing Jones and him reclaiming the idol from the body of Molina, who has been killed in one of the many booby traps. It was a tiny part at the beginning of the film, but it became an iconic scene in a much beloved film.

Molina continued working in all mediums and then found his big break opposite Gary Oldman...

Regarded by those who can still remember it as one of the most baffling, shocking and, at times, utterly ridiculous incidents of the 1970s, the Jeremy Thorpe affair became one of the most talked about political scandals of the decade. Despite thousands of column inches, countless books and even a BBC Panorama special on the subject, people are fascinated to this day by the story of how one of the most promising politicians in the country found himself in the docks accused of attempting to have a former gay lover murdered to stop him from going public about the relationship.

Almost 40 years after the scandal first broke, a new 3 part mini series starring Hugh Grant as former Liberal Democrat Leader and North Devon MP Jeremy Thorpe, and Ben Whishaw as his former gay lover Norman Scott, is about to hit the small screen. The series which is based on John Preston...

Chicago – He has been cleaning up in the preliminary awards so far in 2018, and he’s an odds-on favorite to take the Oscar for Best Actor on Sunday, March 4th. Veteran actor Gary Oldman donned make-up and found the right accent to portray Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour” (also nominated for the Best Picture).

The title refers to one of the most challenging moments of Churchill’s career. Newly minted as Britain’s prime minister in 1940, he faces the onslaught of Adolf Hitler’s attack on his homeland, including the surrounding of the British troops at Dunkirk. Gary Oldman embodies the pugnacious bulldog that characterized Churchill at the height of his power, including the soaring rhetoric that strengthened the morale of the British people.

Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour”

Photo credit: Focus Features

Oldman was born in London, studied acting with the Young People’s Theatre and made...

Gary Oldman is the overwhelming favorite to take home the Best Actor BAFTA Sunday for his portrayal of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. It’d be his third BAFTA overall, but his first for acting; his first two wins came 20 years ago for writing and producing Best Original Screenplay and Best British Film winner “Nil by Mouth.”

Based on his childhood, “Nil by Mouth” was Oldman’s writing and directorial debut, following a dysfunctional working class family coping with addiction and violence. Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke received BAFTA nominations for their performances as the husband and wife Ray and Val, respectively. Oldman’s sister Laila Morse made her acting debut as Val’s mother Janet and won a British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer.

See 2018 BAFTAs: Complete racetrack odds in 21 categories

“This film is in spirit, if not directly autobiographical, and my family were the inspiration for it,...

Gary Oldman might finally win his first career Oscar in March for his role as Winston Churchill in the film “Darkest Hour.” Surprisingly it’s only his second Oscar nomination after his first for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” in 2012, also as Best Actor. Where does his latest movie rank among his greatest of all time in our photo gallery (view above)?

Despite his long and very successful film career Oldman hasn’t been recognized very often by awards groups. He received one Emmy nomination (for a guest appearance on “Friends” of all things) but has never even been nominated for a Golden Globe. Back in his native country of England, the BAFTAs have nominated him twice before this year as an actor (for “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” and “Prick up Your Ears”) and awarded him two trophies for a film he directed called “Nil by Mouth” (he won for the...

Chicago – Gary Oldman has been generating memorable film portrayals since he broke through in the 1980s. From Sid Vicious (“Sid and Nancy”) to Lee Harvey Oswald (“JFK”) to Jim Gordon (Dark Knight Series), Oldman is a consummate actor. That is expressed in his latest role, as Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour.”

The title refers to one of the most challenging moments of Churchill’s career. Newly minted as Britain’s prime minister in 1940, he faces the onslaught of Adolf Hitler’s attack on his homeland, including the surrounding of the British troops at Dunkirk. Gary Oldman embodies the pugnacious bulldog that characterized Churchill at the height of his power, including the soaring rhetoric that strengthened the morale of the British people.

Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour”

Photo credit: Focus Features

Oldman was born in London, studied acting with the Young People’s Theatre and made his professional...

Gary Oldman will receive the Maltin Modern Master Award at the 2018 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Sbiff organizers announced on Wednesday. Oldman will be presented with the award, the highest honor among the several different prizes presented to awards contenders during that annual festival, on Friday, February 2, at the Arlington Theatre. The veteran actor has been performing since 1979, but has only been nominated for a single Academy Award, for 2011’s “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.” His other films have included “Sid and Nancy,” Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” “Immortal Beloved,” “Prick Up Your Ears,” “JFK,” “True Romance” and “The Contender.” Also Read:.

Chicago – The luminous and legendary movie star Vanessa Redgrave was given a tribute at the 53rd Chicago International Film Festival on October 16th, 2017. The Oscar-winning actress also directed a documentary that she brought to the festival, an overview of the world’s refugee crisis entitled “Sea Sorrow.” HollywoodChicago.com talked to Redgrave, and photographer Joe Arce took the Exclusive Portrait.

Vanessa Redgrave at the 53rd Chicago International Film Festival

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Vanessa Redgrave was born into a famous British family of actors, daughter of Sir Michael Redgrave. She rose to prominence in 1961, portraying Rosalind in “As You Like It” for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has since performed in over 35 stage productions on London’s West End and Broadway, winning a Tony in 2003 for “A Long Day’s Journey into Night.” Her film career is equally eminent, as she has been nominated six times for Academy Awards,...

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)

This week’s question: In the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein story and all that it involves — as people reconsider their relationship to the Miramax films of the ’90s (or don’t) and brace for a new Woody Allen movie, etc. — we return to an age-old question that could always stand to be asked anew: How should the backstory of a film and / or its makers impact the way we receive it?

Kate Erbland (@katerbland), IndieWire

When horrifying accusations like the ones waged against Harvey Weinstein come to light, it’s very easy to scream for a boycott and move on (and, as we often see in cases like these,...

“I was saying to my friend the other day that just proves being gay doesn’t change anything. Everybody has all the faults and failings of everybody else. A gay friend of mine said, ‘Just because I’m gay doesn’t mean I’m fabulous all the time.'” – Alfred Molina, actor in Prick Up Your Ears

Many of today’s Lgbt films are hagiographies about great people in the international movement toward sexual equality. In film, adulation usually results in flat characters and boring scenes (see: The Imitation Game). In Stephen Frears’ groundbreaking Prick Up Your Ears — which Metrograph screens from September 1-7 for its 30th anniversary — Gary Oldman brings pioneer queer playwright Joe Orton to life, warts and all. Alfred Molina plays Joe’s long-time boyfriend, mentor, and murderer, Kenneth Halliwell.

The story is structured with flashbacks to Joe and Kenneth. Wallace Shawn plays real-life Orton biographer John Lahr,...

Since any New York City 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.

Metrograph

“Gotta Light?” celebrates Twin Peaks‘ epochal eighth episode with features and short programs, while A-z continues.

Belle de Jour screens on Sunday, if you’re not watching Twin Peaks, while a Prick Up Your Ears restoration plays.

Museum of the Moving Image

A mini-Spielberg retro kicks off, while two classics by Jerry Lewis are shown.

Mark Harrison Aug 1, 2017

Bored with massive films and special effects? Then here are 10 smaller movies well worth your consideration...

It's that time of year when we usually give you a list of films playing in cinemas during August, as the summer blockbuster season winds down, that will help cleanse your palate after all the tentpoles and sequels that have proliferated throughout the year so far. But to be honest, this summer has been so good to us, we're more refreshed than usual.

Even aside from originals like Edgar Wright's Baby Driver and Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, this year's blockbusters have been of an unusually high standard. Wonder Woman pulled the Dceu out of its critical nosedive, War For The Planet Of The Apes is a gorgeous and emotional conclusion to the reboot trilogy, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 and Spider-Man: Homecoming proved that Marvel's ever expanding continuity is still going strong.

Totally relaxed in his Ritz-Carleton suite on Central Park South, his arms spread wide on a rather tasteful couch, Stephen Frears held court not at all like the monarch in his biggest success, The Queen, (2006). His press conference for his latest effort, Florence Foster Jenkins, will take place one hour later with about 40 journalists in attendance. His stars -- Meryl Streep, Hugh Grant, and The Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg -- would then be asked 95% of the questions. Not surprising. Directors, for the most, part do not drive traffic to web sites, sadly, even ones as near legendary as Frears.

Besides helming six of his past female leads to Academy-Award-nominated performances (Michelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons, Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening in The Grifters, plus Judi Dench in both Philomena and Mrs. Henderson Presents) and one Oscar win (Helen Mirren as the aforementioned queen), Frears has...

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:   Film History of the Day: Diego Carrera presents a history of horror cinema with one movie per year from 1895 through 2016 (via Geek Tyrant):   Film Analysis of the Day: Darren Foley of Must See Films explores the depiction of fame in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy:   Vintage Image of the Day: Two-time Oscar nominee Stephen Frears, who turns 75 today, directs a young Gary Oldman and Alfred Molina on the set of the 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears:    Supercut of the Day: Speaking of Prick Up Your Ears, here's a supercut of actors portraying real writers by Jonathan Kiefer for Fandor Keyframe:   Custom Toy of the...

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Soak up the Sun: Pialat’s Palme d’Or Winning Spiritual Anguish

As part of Cohen Media Group’s Maurice Pialat retrospective, perhaps the most significant title showcased in the lineup is his infamous 1987 title, Under the Sun of Satan. Instantly reviled after winning the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival (with a jury made up of such heavy-hitters as Elem Klimov, Jerzy Skolimowski, Theo Angelopoulos, and Norman Mailer), where Pialat was jeered by a disapproving crowd, the title quickly lapsed into obscurity following a continually tepid critical reception.

Perhaps Pialat’s austere and increasingly deliberate examination of mental and spiritual anguish told through the perspective of a bumbling priest whose blasphemous predicament proves only the presence of Satan rather than God was as simultaneously too old fashioned as it was inconveniently provocative. Based on a 1927 novel by French author Georges Bernanos, Pialat’s treatment does seem...

This week on Off The Shelf, Ryan is joined by Brian Saur to take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for the week of September 22nd, 2015, and chat about some follow-up and home video news.

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Episode Links & Notes Follow-up December Criterion Announcements Thunderbean Update News Warner Archive: Twice Upon A Time on September 29th Arrow USA: What Have You Done To Solange? Masters Of Cinema: Day Of The Outlaw, December 7th Sony: Better Call Saul / You Can’t Take It With You Kino Lorber Studio Classics: The Black Sleep / Donovan’s Brain Vinegar Syndrome Dilemma Oscilloscope’s new web store New Releases The American Dreamer Arrow: Season 3 Beginning Or The End Black Caesar Breaker Morant Busting Destructors Deuces Wild Dirty Work Doctor Who: Dark Water/Death in Heaven 3D Dog Day Afternoon 40th Anniversary Fatal Instinct Flash: Season 1 For Us the...

Today we are talking to a world renowned stage and screen star who has excelled in playing a dizzying array of recognizable characters onstage and onscreen over the course of his unique and diverse career - the affable Alfred Molina. Besides discussing his many upcoming endeavors, Molina points out the importance of The Actors Fund in Los Angeles and highlights his participation in the upcoming La Actors Fund Tony Awards Viewing Party, which will be held on June 7, and reflects on some of his fellow honorees, as well. Offering news on many of his current and forthcoming projects, Additionally, Molina also looks back at some of his most memorable roles to date ranging from his work with Paul Thomas Anderson on both Boogie Nights and Magnolia to his recent rapturously reviewed indie hit Love Is Strange co-starring John Lithgow to the Joe Orton stage-to-screen adaptation Prick Up Your Ears and much more.

From anime to pitch-black thrillers, here's our pick of the underappreciated movies of 1987...

Sometimes, the challenge with these lists isn't just what to put in, but what to leave out. We loved Princess Bride, but with a decent showing at the box office and a huge cult following, isn't it a bit too popular to be described as underappreciated? Likewise Joe Dante's Innerspace, a fabulously geeky, comic reworking of the 60s sci-fi flick, Fantastic Voyage.

What we've gone for instead is a mix of genre fare, dramas and animated films that may have garnered a cult following since, but didn't do well either critically or financially at the time of release. Some of the movies on our list just about made their money back, but none made anything close to the sort of returns enjoyed by the likes of 1987's biggest films - Three Men And A Baby, Fatal Attraction...

Since making his movie debut as Harrison Ford's doomed sidekick in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Alfred Molina has appeared in everything from critically-acclaimed dramas like Prick Up Your Ears to Hollywood blockbusters ranging from Species to Spider-Man 2.

His latest film, Love Is Strange, centres on a long-term gay couple who are forced to live apart while they search for a new home. It opens on February 13, a canny piece of counter-programming to the omnipresent Fifty Shades of Grey. To mark the occasion, Digital Spy took a trip down memory lane with Molina to speak to him about the roles that defined his career.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - Satipo

"My very first time in front of a camera! I knew nothing, the only thing I knew about filmmaking was the fact that films got made at all. I knew nothing about the technique of film; I was very,...

Filmmakers have paid tribute to Master And Commander producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr, who died on Friday in Los Angeles, aged 88.

His Son John Goldwyn told the New York Times he died from congestive heart failure.

Goldwyn Jr's final producing credit was on Fox's The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty - a remake of one of his father's hits - which was released in December 2013. His other credits included Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World, Mystic Pizza and A Prayer For The Dying. He also twice produced the Academy Awards ceremony.

Goldwyn Jr began his career in documentary films and built a reputation for supporting independent and foreign films, largely through his indie company Samuel Goldwyn Company, which he founded in 1979. Films distributed by his company include Wild At Heart, Gregory's Girl, Prick Up Your Ears and Stranger Than Paradise.

He relaunched his company as Samuel Goldwyn...

Director of The Queen, Philomena and the upcoming Lance Armstrong biopic to receive honour at BFI London Film Festival.

British director Stephen Frears is to receive a BFI Fellowship on Oct 18, ahead of the close of the 58th BFI London Film Festival.

The BFI Fellowship is awarded to individuals in recognition of their outstanding contribution to film or television and is the highest honour bestowed by the organisation.

BFI chairman Greg Dyke described Frears as one of the UK’s most important directors.

“Throughout his extraordinary career, Stephen has produced a body of work which never fails to surprise – from sweeping costume drama to powerful social realism, his films strike a perfect balance between drama, humour and pathos helping to make them a hit with audiences and critics alike,” added Dyke.

Frears said he was “thrilled” to be receiving the honour. “I’ve spent much of my life in the cinema and quite a lot of it at...

Whether or not you agree with his recent comments in Playboy, there's no denying Gary Oldman is one of the great actors of our time.

Ever since breaking out in 1986's "Sid and Nancy" as the self-destructing Sex Pistol Sid Vicious, Oldman has transformed himself from one role to the next. A true chameleon, the actor changes his voice for every part and is nearly unrecognizable in films like "True Romance" (1993) and "The Contender" (2000). Despite his enormous influence among fellow actors, Oldman shuns the spotlight and has only once been nominated for an Oscar. Oldman turns in yet another stirring performance (despite limited screen time) in this summer's "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes".

From his famous ex-wife to his rejection from a prestigious drama school, here are 27 things you probably don't know about Gary Oldman.

1. Gary Oldman was born on March 21, 1958 in London, England to Kathleen Cheriton and Leonard Bertram Oldman.

Genre filmmaker Robert Rodriguez's El Rey Network announced today that Alfred Molina (The Da Vinci Code, Spider Man 2) has been cast as Andres Galan in the network's upcoming scripted original set to premiere July 2014. Previously announced cast members include Gabriel Luna, Nicky Whelan and Neil Hopkins.

Created by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and produced in association with K/O Paper Products, the coveted writing/producing team behind Sleepy Hollow, Fringe , Star Trek and the Transformer franchise, Matador will feature Molina as Andrew Galan, a man who built his fortune in the telecom industry, but his true passion is soccer. As owner of the ascendant La Riot franchise, he is celebrated in both the sports and business worlds. But there is another world that he operates in -- as a member of an elite group of powerful global players, ruthless individuals who can effect world events on a scale that one would never imagine. What Galan doesn't know is that there is a mole in his midst. One of his new players, Tony Bravo, is actually an undercover operative, sent in to expose him and his cohorts. As Tony and Galan grow closer, the fate of their relationship may very well determine the fate of the world.

Irreverent and action-packed, Matador chronicles the unlikely rise of Antonio "Matador" Bravo, a popular soccer star, who comes to be known as much for his playboy antics off the field as his dynamic moves on it. But what his fans and family don't realize is that it's all a cover--in truth, he is a skilled covert operative executing missions for a little known branch of the CIA. “Matador” has the kind of fame and notoriety that affords him access to powerful circles of corruption and villainy. But, in balancing the dueling roles in which he's been cast, he will be forced to confront the question of his true identity...and it is this mission which will prove to be his most dangerous.

Robert Rodriguez, El Rey Network's chairman and founder, is set to direct the first episode which will be penned by showrunners, co-creators and executive producers Jay Beattie and Dan Dworkin

An accomplished London-born actor whose diverse and distinguished gallery of performances have led to a lengthy and triumphant career in film, television and the stage, Alfred Molina is best known for his roles in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 and Steven Soderberg’s Frida. Molina made his American film debut in Raiders of the Lost Ark and later appeared in Letter to Brezhnev, but his movie breakthrough came two years later when he portrayed Kenneth Halliwell, the tragic lover of playwright Joe Orton, in Stephen Frears' Prick Up Your Ears. His other feature film credits include The Da Vinci Code, Boogie Nights, Magnolia , Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time , The Pink Panther 2, Enchanted April, Not Without My Daughter , The Perez Family, Anna Karenina and Chocolat , among others. On television, he most recently starred on NBC’s Law & Order: Los Angeles and David E. Kelley’s TNT drama series Monday Mornings. Molina’s stage work includes two major Royal National Theatre productions, Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana and David Mamet's Speed the Plow, as well as his Broadway debut in Yasmina Reza's Art, for which he received a Tony Award® nomination. Molina also performed in the highly celebrated UK-based Donmar Warehouse production of Red which opened on Broadway in April 2010 and for which Mr. Molina received rave reviews and a Tony Award® nomination. Most recently, Molina completed the feature film Love Is Strange opposite John Lithgow for director Ira Sachs. The film premiered at Sundance this year, and will be released later in the year by Sony Classics. He also shot the feature films, Swelter for director/writer Keith Parmer, We'll Never Have Paris for director/writer Simon Helberg with co-stars Zachary Quinto and Maggie Grace, Return to Zero with co-star Minnie Driver and The Normal Heart for HBO in which he co-stars opposite Mark Ruffalo and Julia Roberts.

Matador executive producers are Jay Beattie and Dan Dworkin, also showrunners, alongside executive producers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Andrew Orci. Also joining as executive producers are Heather Kadin of K/O Paper Products; Robert Rodriguez and FactoryMade Ventures and El Rey Network co-founders John Fogelman and Cristina Patwa.

Entertainment One Television (eOne) exclusively represents worldwide distribution rights (with the exception of U.S. broadcast network rights) for El Rey Network's "Matador" and other original scripted series created for the U.S based cable network, to be announced.

About El Rey Network:

El Rey Network is a new 24-hour English-language network founded by maverick filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. Curated by Rodriguez and his artistic collective, the network will unite the most culturally diverse generation in history through fearless, badass and original content that awakens the renegade in everyone. The network's action-packed content is anchored by original signature dramas, feature films, grindhouse genre, cult classic action and horror/sci-fi. El Rey Network LLC (www.elreynetwork.com) is jointly owned by Robert Rodriguez and FactoryMade Ventures with a minority stake held by Univision Networks & Studios, Inc.

About FactoryMade Ventures:

Founded by John Fogelman and Cristina Patwa, FactoryMade develops, produces and oversees media and entertainment franchises in partnership with leading Hollywood talent and global brands and investors. The company founded El Rey Network and Tres Pistoleros Studios with renowned filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and Univision Communications, Inc. It also forged a joint venture with leading Mexican wrestling league Lucha Libre Aaa and four-time Emmy® Award winner Mark Burnett and Hearst Corporation’s One Three Media. It executive produces a slate of scripted and non-scripted television shows including From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, the remake of the cult classic by Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, and Matador, an original production with Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Previously, the team spearheaded the creation of Hasbro’s film business and television business with Transformers, G.I. Joe, Hasbro Studios and the Hub Network with Discovery Communications, and created retail’s first digital gaming and commerce platform Hsn Arcade.

About Entertainment One:

Entertainment One Ltd. (Lse: Eto) is a leading international entertainment company that specializes in the acquisition, production and distribution of film and television content. The company’s comprehensive network extends around the globe including Canada, the U.S., the UK, Ireland, Spain, Benelux, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South Korea. Through established Entertainment and Distribution divisions, the company provides extensive expertise in film distribution, television and music production, family programming and merchandising and licensing. Its current rights library is exploited across all media formats and includes more than 35,000 film and television titles, 2,800 hours of television programming and 45,000 music tracks. Through strong relationships with broadcasters and content providers, eOne Television International has successfully sold eOne’s original and third-party productions to over 500 broadcasters in 150 countries, including key Us networks and international pay TV channels.

Stage and screen actor best known for his roles in Only Fools and Horses, The Vicar of Dibley and Harry Potter

The talented and idiosyncratic character actor Roger Lloyd Pack, who has died of pancreatic cancer aged 69, achieved national recognition, and huge popularity, as Colin "Trigger" Ball, the lugubrious Peckham road sweeper in John Sullivan's brilliantly acted comedy series Only Fools and Horses. He appeared alongside David Jason's Del Boy and Nicholas Lyndhurst's "plonker" Rodney from 1981 for 10 years, with many a seasonal "special" for another decade.

This success cemented a career in which, up to that point, he had played important roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the Almeida theatre in north London – he was a notably anguished Rosmer in Ibsen's Rosmersholm at the National in 1987, opposite Suzanne Bertish – without recognition any wider than usually appreciative reviews.

His enhanced status led to another...

Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2013 discoveries”…

Joaquin: 1. My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard – earlier this year I read this memoir/novel by the Norwegian author Knausgaard. It’s about a man’s life and memory – his youth and teenage years in rural Norway, and the return to his childhood home to attend the funeral of his alcoholic father. It’s a brilliant combination of the profound and the mundane. Really beautiful.

2. Lucrecia Martel - I saw the filmmaker Lucrecia Martel (The Headless Woman, The Holy Girl, La CIÉNAGA) speak at the Berlinale. She is one of the most articulate filmmakers I’ve heard discuss the process. One of my favorite filmmakers and a brilliant stylist.

3. Bullet Trains. I took the Ave train from Córdoba to Madrid in Spain this year, and the high speed train from Shanghai to Yuhang in China. The speed and ease of transportation is amazing.

Julie Walters Tapped For Bifa’s Richard Harris Award Julie Walters is to receive the Richard Harris Award at the British Independent Film Awards this coming weekend. The prize was introduced in 2002 to recognize outstanding contribution to British film by an actor. Walters started out in television and broke into film with her BAFTA- and Golden Globe-winning performance in 1983’s Educating Rita. She was also nominated for an Oscar for the film and later received a further Oscar nomination for Stephen Daldry’s Billy Elliot. More recently, she played Ron Weasley’s mother Molly in all of the Harry Potter movies. Among Walters’ other credits are Prick Up Your Ears, Calendar Girls, Becoming Jane and Mamma Mia! She next will be seen in The Harry Hill Movie and in 2014’s live-action Paddington. The BIFAs will be held on December 8 in London. New Zealand Film Body Picks 10 Best Nz Films Of...

Whew. That title is a mouthful. I know you already know what I mean though, you golden fiends. This very impromptu post is brought to you by a recent Tribeca revival screening of Martin Scorsese's indelible King of Comedy (1983) and this Movie Line interview with Sandra Bernhard herself -- to whom I'm dedicating the list -- who couldn't make it but definitely helped make the movie what it is. My one and only back and forth conversation with Sandra -- over Twitter, the sometimes leveler -- involved how freaking robbed she was for an Oscar nomination for that movie. I couldn't believe I was talking to her but I was not the least bit in doubt that she'd agree with me.

10 Best Non-Nominated Supporting Actress Performances of the 1980s

Honorable Mentions: I think Rosanna Arquette's "Surrender Dorothy" bit in After Hours was quite memorable though the rest of...

★★★★☆ Controversial and legendary playwright Joe Orton is responsible for bringing us Loot (1970), for providing the source material for Gary Oldman's astounding performance in Prick Up Your Ears (1987) and for creating Entertaining Mr. Sloane (1970), a wonderfully colourful black comedy about manipulation and sexual repression. Through the directorial eye of Douglas Hickox, the themes of sadism, homosexuality, nymphomania and murder are explored in this wild tale of a charismatic young man named Sloane (Peter McEnery) and the startling affect he has on siblings - Kath (Beryl Reid) and Ed (Harry Andrews).

Read more »...

"I take no pleasure in taking a life if it's from a person who doesn't care about it."

Though we may never get to see Gary Oldman play Commissioner Gordon again now that Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy has ended — that is, unless the recent rumor that Warner Bros. is planning to use the Justice League movie as "a vehicle for Christian Bale to reprise his role as Batman" is true, in which case a cameo by Gotham’s top cop wouldn’t be out of the question — we will get to see him play a former police commissioner in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Add his stint as Sirius Black in the Harry Potter movies and his recently completed work as Norton in MGM's Robocop remake and that makes four major tentpole franchises for Oldman.

Long before...

Sneak Peek the domestic and UK trailers supporting the upcoming comedy feature "Lay the Favorite" from director Stephen Frears ("Prick Up Your Ears"), starring Rebecca Hall as a Florida stripper :

"...'Beth' (Hall), a Florida stripper, leaves her job to become a Vegas cocktail waitress until professional sports gambler Dink (Bruce Willis) gives her a better option, placing wagers all over town in an attempt to beat the system. 

"The plot thickens when Beth is fired, tries to find work with a New York bookie and lands herself in trouble with the law.  The plot thickens when Beth is fired, tries to find work with a New York bookie and lands herself in trouble with the law..."

Cast also includes Catherine Zeta-Jones, Vince Vaughn, Joshua Jackson and Laura Prepon.

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Lay The Favorite"...

Founder of Goldcrest Films with a string of Oscar-winning movies to his name

It is a mark of the wide-ranging success of Jake Eberts, founder of the once-mighty Goldcrest Films, who has died aged 71 after suffering from cancer, that few headline writers summing up his life could agree on his most notable producing credit. Was it Chariots of Fire (1981), Gandhi (1982) or The Killing Fields (1984)? The Name of the Rose (1986), Driving Miss Daisy (1989) or Dances With Wolves (1990)? Easier instead to herald him as the man whose films won a staggering 37 Oscars.

From the mid-1970s onwards, Eberts combined business acumen and creative energy with an integrity much admired in the film industry. The actor Kevin Costner, with whom he worked on Dances with Wolves and Open Range (2003), said of him: "Hollywood is full of people who either have intelligence or integrity. Jake is the only one with both." Lord Attenborough, who collaborated with Eberts on Gandhi,...

An acerbic teddy bear comes to life in Seth MacFarlane's hilarious first film about our refusal to abandon adolescence

To some, comedy is a funny business; to others it's no laughing matter, and critics from Aristotle to Eric Bentley have attempted to explain and define it. Pauline Kael's review of The Sting set out to explain why it was neither funny nor entertaining; the leftwing theorist and cultural historian Raymond Williams once told the readers of the Listener that Rowan & Martin's TV show Laugh-In was unfunny. They were as unpersuasive as the British Council lecturer who tried to convince an audience in Tirana that Norman Wisdom isn't funny.

Woody Allen offers two definitions of comedy in Crimes and Misdemeanors, both ways of mocking the dislikable TV star played by Alan Alda and through him the celebrated writer Larry Gelbart, on whom the character is based. The fact is...