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Beloved actor Gena Rowlands has died at the age of 94, it has been confirmed. The star – best known for films like A Woman Under The Influence and Gloria, directed by her husband John Cassavetes – was renowned for her raw and uncompromising performances, making an indelible impact on cinema often while working outside of the Hollywood studio system. Rowlands passed away at home, following a previous diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.

While Rowlands made her big-screen debut in 1958’s The High Cost Of Loving, her cinematic collaborations with Cassavetes as director began in 1963 with A Child Is Waiting – and continued through the likes of 1968’s Faces, 1971’s Minnie And Moskowitz, 1974’s A Woman Under The Influence, 1977’s Opening Night, 1980’s Gloria, and 1984’s Love Streams. Their work together marked early examples of independent cinema. A Woman Under The Influence – for which Rowlands won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar...

Gena Rowlands, who was featured in her son's movie The Notebook along with many other movies over the course of her career, has died. She was 94 years old.

Per Variety, Rowlands died on Wednesday at her home in Indian, California. Her passing was confirmed by the agent's office of her son, filmmaker Nick Cassavetes, who directed Rowlands in The Notebook. The news follows Cassavetes announcing that his mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's in June.

In The Notebook, which featured one of her most famous roles as the older version of Rachel McAdams' lead character, Rowlands played a woman suffering from dementia. The hit movie, released in 2004, still stands as one of the most popular romance movies ever made. For her part in the movie, Rowlands won a Best Supporting Actress award at the Golden Satellite Awards.

In 1974, Rowlands was featured as the star of A Woman Under the Influence,...

Gena Rowlands, whose seminal and fearless performance in “A Woman Under the Influence” inspired a generation and who starred in many other John Cassavetes features as well as the romance “The Notebook,” died Wednesday at her home in Indian Wells, Calif. She was 94.

Her death was confirmed by the office of her son’s agent. In June, Nick Cassavetes, who directed his mother in “The Notebook,” shared that the three-time Emmy winner and two-time Oscar nominee had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Rowlands’ role as Mabel Longhetti in the 1974 drama “A Woman Under the Influence,” written for her and directed by husband John Cassavetes, landed the actor the first of two Academy Award nominations. The other nom was for “Gloria” (1980), also directed by her husband. In November 2015, she was awarded an honorary Academy Award at the annual Governors Awards in recognition of her storied career.

“Working this long? I didn...

From Distant Voices, Still Lives to Benediction, the lyrical work of the late director was suffused with the ‘ecstasy’ of cinema – and his fraught Liverpool childhood

Last month, British cinema lost one of its greatest and most distinctive screen poets. From an astonishing trilogy of early short films (Children; Madonna and Child; Death and Transfiguration – all available on BFI Player) to his final feature, Benediction (2021), Terence Davies seamlessly blended personal recollections with wider universal truths. His subjects ranged from autobiographically inspired portraits of postwar working-class life in Liverpool to sweeping literary adaptations and intimate portraits of real-life authors, most remarkably the American poet Emily Dickinson, brilliantly played by Cynthia Nixon in A Quiet Passion, 2016. Yet each of his films felt deeply, distinctly personal. No wonder Jack Lowden, who played Siegfried Sassoon in Benediction, told me that after immersing himself in his subject’s diaries in preparation for the role, he...

Terence Davies, the accomplished and thoughtful director behind such films as Distant Voices, Still Lives, The House Of Mirth and, most recently, Benediction, about World War II poet Siegfried Sassoon, had died. Davies, who began his career making autobiographical short films but switched to literary adaptations and dramas, which nevertheless kept an emotionally affecting through line. Dying at home after a short illness, Davies was 77.

Born in Liverpool to a large Catholic family (which informed much of his early film work), Davies spent a decade as a clerk before attending Coventry Drama School, and starting to make short films. He followed that up with the National Film School. His three initial shorts are Children, Madonna And Child and Death And Transfiguration all tackled autobiographical stories of emotion and religion.

When he started making feature films, his first two efforts, Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes were also inspired by his life,...

Terence Davies, the critically beloved British writer-director who had his international art-house breakthrough with two deeply autobiographical films set in his native Liverpool, England, Distant Voices, Still Lives and The Long Day Closes, has died. He was 77.

Davies’ official Instagram account confirmed the news Saturday morning, noting that the filmmaker died peacefully at home after a short illness.

Much of Davies’ work is infused with personal emotional experience, reflecting in subtle ways on growing up as a gay, Catholic man in Liverpool in the 1950s and ’60s. The filmmaker directly addressed his childhood in his 2008 feature documentary, Of Time and the City.

Premiering to great acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival that year, the doc recalled both Davies’ own family life and that of the city, using archival footage, his own commentary voiceover, classical music tracks, film clips and excerpts from poetry and literature in an assemblage by turns caustically funny and melancholy,...

Terence Davies, the British filmmaker known for “Distant Voices, Still Lives,” “The Deep Blue Sea” and “The Long Day Closes,” has died. He was 77.

The news of Davies’ death was shared on his official Instagram page: “It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Terence Davies, who died peacefully at home after a short illness, today on 7th October 2023.”

Davies was admired for his period films as well as his early autobiographical trilogy about growing up in Liverpool.

“Being in the past makes me feel safe because I understand that world,” he told the Guardian in 2022.

Though his films were widely recognized for their sensitive depictions of gay life, Catholicism and other frequent themes, they didn’t amass a huge number of awards, which he considered in his typically philosophical way. “It would have been nice to be acknowledged by Bafta. Again, there’s also part of...

Terence Davies, the Liverpool-born director of autobiographical memory pieces like “The Long Day Closes” and “Distant Voices, Still Lives,” has died. He was 77. The English filmmaker passed away peacefully in his home after a short illness on October 7, as confirmed on his official social media pages.

Davies directed several masterpieces in his lifetime, from the sorrowful “The Deep Blue Sea” starring Rachel Weisz as an eternally unhappy seeker of love to his debut feature “Distant Voices,” built on his own closeted working-class British upbringing. You could even say the same about his last film, “Benediction,” starring Jack Lowden as the queer poet Siegfried Sassoon, wrapped around by a coterie of Bright Young Things. He received great acclaim for films like “A Quiet Passion,” starring Cynthia Nixon as the reclusive poet Emily Dickinson, as well as the Edith Wharton adaptation “House of Mirth,” led by Gillian Anderson. Serious actors loved working with him,...

"Friends may come, friends may go. Enemies are always faithful." Roadside Attractions has revealed the official US trailer for an indie film from the UK titled Benediction, the latest feature from award-winning British filmmaker Terence Davies. This first premiered at the 2021 Toronto Film Festival last fall, and it also played at last year's San Sebastián and London Film Festivals. The film tells the life story of English poet, writer and soldier Siegfried Sassoon - who struggled with the horrors of war of The Great War in England. His poetry was inspired by experiences on the Western Front, and he became one of the leading war poets of the era. Adored by members of the aristocracy as well as stars of London's literary and stage world, he embarked on affairs with several men as he attempted to come to terms with his homosexuality. The cast features Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi...

Carol and Colette producers Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley, co-founders of Number 9 Films, are to receive the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award at the 72nd BAFTAs on Sunday 10 February in London. Previous recipients of the prestigious BAFTA award include Mike Leigh, Kenneth Branagh, Ridley and Tony Scott, Working Title, John Hurt and BBC Films.

Producing duo Woolley and Karlsen are among the most prolific indie film producers working in the UK today. Woolley began his career in the mid-70s before owning and running iconic repertory cinema, the Scala. Alongside Nik Powell, he founded Palace Pictures, distributing more than 250 films from the likes of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach as well as international hits like Paris, Texas, When Harry Met Sally and The Evil Dead. On the production side, 1983 marked the beginning of his collaboration with Neil Jordan. The Company of Wolves was their first film together, which was nominated for four BAFTAs.

Actors, producer and former Pact head of diversity among those honoured.

Source: Paul Grover

Nik Powell

Game Of Thrones actor James Cosmo and former producer and Nfts director Nik Powell were among screen industry professionals awarded titles in the Queen’s 2018 New Year’s Honours list.

Veteran Scottish actor Cosmo, known for playing Jeor Mormont in Game of Thrones and films including Braveheart, Trainspotting and Highlander, was honoured with an MBE.

Powell, who received an OBE, stepped down from his position as director of the National Film and Television School in 2017 after 14 years in the role. In the early 1970s he set up Virgin Records with Richard Branson and in 1982 he partnered with fellow-producer Stephen Woolley to form the Palace companies, where he served as executive producer on titles including Company Of Wolves, Mona Lisa, Scandal and The Crying Game. He went on to produce films such as Backbeat, The Neon Bible,...

Actors, producer and former Pact head of diversity among those honoured.

Source: Paul Grover

Nik Powell

Game Of Thrones actor James Cosmo and former producer and Nfts director Nik Powell were among screen industry professionals awarded titles in the Queen’s 2018 New Year’s Honours list.

Veteran Scottish actor Cosmo, known for playing Jeor Mormont in Game of Thrones and films including Braveheart, Trainspotting and Highlander, was honoured with an MBE.

Powell, who received an OBE, stepped down from his position as director of the National Film and Television School in 2017 after 14 years in the role. In the early 1970s he set up Virgin Records with Richard Branson and in 1982 he partnered with fellow-producer Stephen Woolley to form the Palace companies, where he served as executive producer on titles including Company Of Wolves, Mona Lisa, Scandal and The Crying Game. He went on to produce films such as Backbeat, The Neon Bible, Last Orders and [link=tt...

Former film producer and Virgin Records co-founder steps down after 14 years.

The National Film and Television School has confirmed today that its director Nik Powell is to step down at the end of July after 14 years at the helm.

Under Powell’s stewardship the school has firmly cemented its place as one of the major film institutions in the world.

Powell recently oversaw the delivery of two new teaching buildings covering more than 20,000 square feet and a 4K digital television studio.

The school has evolved to offer Ma, diploma, certificate and short courses in film, television and the games industries and it has become a Higher Education Institution accredited by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce).

Recent graduates include Yann Demange, Anthony Chen, Ralitza Petrova and Michael Lennox. In 2013/14 Nfts graduates were nominated for a total 31 BAFTAs and won 10.

Former graduates of the school include David Yates, Lynne Ramsay, Terence Davies, [link...

Above: Soviet poster for The Ghost That Never Returns (Abram Room, Soviet Union, 1929). Designed by the Sternberg Brothers.Have you seen what’s playing on Mubi lately? Many of you who read my column may not often partake of the best of what Mubi has to offer, which is a beautifully curated, constantly changing selection of films which amounts to a top-notch repertory cinema on your laptop and in your living room. Now that Mubi is on the Roku app too there is even more reason to subscribe to the best film streaming deal on the internet. I know, I know, there is always too much to see and too little time, but for me what elevates Mubi over other streaming services—and I’m not just saying this because I write for them—is the 30-day model which offers you a new surprise every morning as well as the...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson)

As we await Paul Thomas Anderson‘s next film later this year, one now has the chance to see his sprawling second feature about the world of pornography in a 70s and 80s Los Angeles on Netflix. Boogie Nights, which features much of the ensemble — including Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Heather Graham — at their best,...

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

Metrograph

Spend “A Weekend with Amy Heckerling” when Johnny Dangerously and Fast Times at Ridgemont High screen this Saturday, while Look Who’s Talking and Clueless show on Sunday. All are on 35mm.

For “Welcome to Metrograph: A-z,” see a print of Philippe Garrel‘s The Inner Scar on Friday and Sunday; André de Toth‘s...

Starting this weekend, Terence Davies will be in New York as the Museum of the Moving Image presents a retrospective of his films, complete but for his latest, A Quiet Passion. He'll be discussing The Long Day Closes and Sunset Song, which opens in the States next week, and there'll be screenings of his Trilogy, Distant Voices, Still Lives, The House of Mirth with Gillian Anderson, Eric Stoltz, Anthony Lapaglia, Laura Linney, The Neon Bible with Gena Rowlands, Of Time and the City and The Deep Blue Sea with Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston. We're gathering odes to one of Britain's greatest directors. » - David Hudson...

Starting this weekend, Terence Davies will be in New York as the Museum of the Moving Image presents a retrospective of his films, complete but for his latest, A Quiet Passion. He'll be discussing The Long Day Closes and Sunset Song, which opens in the States next week, and there'll be screenings of his Trilogy, Distant Voices, Still Lives, The House of Mirth with Gillian Anderson, Eric Stoltz, Anthony Lapaglia, Laura Linney, The Neon Bible with Gena Rowlands, Of Time and the City and The Deep Blue Sea with Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston. We're gathering odes to one of Britain's greatest directors. » - David Hudson...

Terence Davies's Sunset Song, an adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbons’s 1932 novel starring Agyness Deyn, Peter Mullan and Kevin Guthrie, has premiered in Toronto and now heads to London. We're collecting reviews. Variety's Guy Lodge notes that Davies is "presently cutting A Quiet Passion, a Cynthia Nixon-starring biopic of the 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson that reps his first U.S.-set project since 1995’s The Neon Bible. Also in the works is an adaptation of Richard McCann’s interwoven short story collection Mother of Sorrows, the narrative of which will span several decades leading up to 1980—'That’s as up to date as I get,' he chuckles." » - David Hudson...

Terence Davies's Sunset Song, an adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbons’s 1932 novel starring Agyness Deyn, Peter Mullan and Kevin Guthrie, has premiered in Toronto and now heads to London. We're collecting reviews. Variety's Guy Lodge notes that Davies is "presently cutting A Quiet Passion, a Cynthia Nixon-starring biopic of the 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson that reps his first U.S.-set project since 1995’s The Neon Bible. Also in the works is an adaptation of Richard McCann’s interwoven short story collection Mother of Sorrows, the narrative of which will span several decades leading up to 1980—'That’s as up to date as I get,' he chuckles." » - David Hudson...

Sunset Song

Director: Terence Davies // Writers: Terence Davies, Lewis Crassic Gribbon

While his famous early works were inspired around his incredibly bleak childhood, with a famed trilogy of shorts followed by Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) and The Long Day Closes (1992), the infrequently working auteur Terence Davies has seemed keen on adapting pieces of classic literature, including John Kennedy Toole’s The Neon Bible (1995), Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth (2000), and most recently the Terence Ratigan play The Deep Blue Sea (2011), which starred Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston. Another four years have passed and we’re at last hoping to see Davies’ latest, Sunset Song, based on a the 1932 classic Scottish title from Lewis Crassic Gribbon, which is centered on the strong female protagonist Chris Guthrie, growing up amongst a dysfunctional family in the north east of Scotland in 1900. Actress Agyness Deyn will have the chance to prove herself and...

Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained is morally comfortable; everyone is a victim or monster. But what I'd really like to see is Spike Lee's Lincoln

Quentin Tarantino may take the low road (trashy vitality, pastiche of already disreputable genres) and Steven Spielberg the high road – moral seriousness, historical scruple – but they have both arrived in the same territory this year, the subject of slavery in American history. Is the national shame better staged in good taste or bad, as solemn struggle or sanguinary panto? Perhaps taste is a misleading consideration, unimportant compared with a shared tendency to make things easy for an audience.

At the beginning of Django Unchained, the recaptured runaway slave Django (Jamie Foxx) is freed by the German Dr King Schultz, for selfish reasons. Schultz (Christoph Waltz) is a bounty hunter in need of help identifying three lucrative targets, and Django knows them. Two hours of screen time later,...

The British director Terence Davies made his name in the eighties and nineties on a series of touching cinematic contemplations of his own youth, in elegant, elliptical films such as The Long Day Closes and Distant Voices, Still Lives. He has since directed a number of adaptations, including 1995’s The Neon Bible and 2000’s The House of Mirth, in which he wedded his own highly controlled aesthetic with the narrative demands of stories by John Kennedy Toole and Edith Wharton, respectively. They, however, were also artists of repressed emotion and submerged lives. Now, with his adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea, Davies has taken on something of a challenge: Rattigan may have been a genteel writer, but this play about adulterous passion and disillusionment revealed a new emotional nakedness for him. So, too, for Davies, who has somehow found a way into the raw wounds of Rattigan...

Photo by Liam Daniel.

"I don't want you

But I hate to lose you

You've got me inbetween

The devil and the deep blue sea." —Harold Arlen & Ted Koehler

The idiom "between the devil and the deep blue sea" refers to a dilemma where one must choose between two undesirable situations. In Terence Davies' filmic adaptation of Terence Rattigan's 1952 play of the same name—The Deep Blue Sea (2011) was commissioned by the Sir Terence Rattigan Charitable Trust to commemorate the centenary of the playwright—it might be thought that Davies is playing with the idiom's unconfirmed nautical origins. As a portrait of class structure in post-wwii England, Davies could be said to be borrowing from the reference that "between the devil and the deep blue sea" signifies how English Navy sailors were pressed unwillingly into service and then positioned beneath the upper deck (officer territory). Or, perhaps more accurate to its romantic subtext,...

With his break-out year in Hollywood, Tom Hiddleston mixed things up with two Best Pictures nominees (Midnight in Paris and War Horse) as well as a big blockbuster (Thor). 2012 isn’t looking any different with his role in The Avengers, before a small, quiet indie. We’ve got the domestic trailer for the latter, Terence Davies‘ postwar romantic drama The Deep Blue Sea. Based on Terence Rattigan’s play, I found it a bit dry at Toronto last fall but I’ve warmed up to it since, looking back on Rachel Weisz‘s solid performance and admiring the restrained style. The trailer below gives a good feeling on what to expect and one can see it below via Apple.

Synopsis:

Master chronicler of post-War England, Terence Davies (The Long Day Closes, The House of Mirth) directs Rachel Weisz as a woman whose overpowering love threatens her well-being and alienates the men in her life.

Terence Rattigan's romantic drama set in a repressive postwar Britain is brought to the big screen superbly by Terence Davies

If we count his first three short films made on shoestring budgets between 1976 and 1983 as a trilogy, and his next, Distant Voices, Still Lives, as a diptych (they were actually made separately), Terence Davies has directed a mere seven films in 35 years. This puts him in the same exclusive league for low output and high quality as his contemporary, Terrence Malick. Davies's last film, Of Time and the City (2008), was a withering documentary about the sad decline of his hometown, Liverpool, and it followed two feature pictures adapted from American novels set at different times and in different American milieux, John Kennedy Toole's The Neon Bible and Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth.

His outstanding new movie, The Deep Blue Sea, is a version of a play by Terence Rattigan,...

One of my favorite actors at the moment is Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki in Thor (and The Avengers), also appeared in Midnight in Paris as F. Scott Fitzgerald, and will be in Steven Spielberg's War Horse, too. Hiddleston also stars in an upcoming indie romantic-drama titled The Deep Blue Sea which will be premiering at the Toronto Film Festival this fall, as was just announced. Rachel Weisz also stars in the period drama as the wife of a British Judge who gets caught up in a self-destructive love affair with a Royal Air Force pilot (Hiddleston) in the 1950s. Tiff.net has a batch of five first look photos as can be seen below. Master chronicler of post-War England Terence Davies (Distant Voices Still Lives, The Neon Bible, Of Time and the City) directs Weisz as a woman whose overpowering, obsessive love alienates the men around her and...

Until I interviewed Thelma Schoonmaker very recently, Terence Davies, Britain’s greatest film-maker, was easily the coolest artist I’ve ever had the pleasure of talking to. He’s had a tough time getting projects going and he last wowed us with Of Time and the City back in 2008.

Now it’s been announced he’s setting forth on The Deep Blue Sea (not a remake of Renny Harlin’s film!) starring Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston and Simon Beale. Based on a Terrence Rattigan play, the film follows the life of an upper class woman who leaves her husband for a young Raf pilot. Filming begins in London tomorrow.

Davies, a man who refuses to compromise on his work directed such British classics as Distant Voices, Still Lives (with my home town legend Pete Postlthwaite), The Long Day Closes and The Neon Bible. In 2000 he directed the acclaimed adaptation of...

Terence Davies' The Deep Blue Sea will start shooting November 17 in London for five weeks. The romantic drama stars Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston (War Horse, Thor) and Simon Russell Beale (An Ideal Husband). Originally a play by Terence Rattigan, Davies adapted the love story about a privileged woman in 1950s London who walks out on her high court judge husband (Beale) to live with a young pilot (Hiddleston). Davies directed critics' faves Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) and The Long Day Closes (1992), both autobiographical stories set in his native Liverpool during the 1940s and '50s, as well as 1995's The Neon Bible (starring Gena Rowlands) and 2000's The House of Mirth (starring Gillian Anderson). The Deep Blue Sea is produced by Sean O'Connor and Kate Ogborn, the team behind This is England and The Red Riding Trilogy,...

Eddie Izzard joins Showtime's United States of Tara for Season 3 Multi-faceted comedian and actor Eddie Izzard and multiple award-winning actress Frances Conroy will guest star on the Showtime series United States of Tara. Izzard will appear in eight episodes and Conroy in one episode of the third season opposite Toni Collette, last year's Emmy Award winner and this year's Emmy nominee for her role as Tara Gregson, a wife and mother who struggles with Dissociative Identity Disorder (Did). Izzard will play Tara's brilliant psychology professor who is at first a Did skeptic, but becomes fascinated with Tara as a subject, leading him to further explore the condition. Conroy will star as Max Gregson's (John Corbett) mother, a recluse with a compulsive hoarding problem. Production on season three begins mid-September in Los Angeles for a 2011 premiere.

Eddie Izzard has been hailed as one of the foremost stand-up comedians of his generation.

Award winning British writer/director Terence Davies (Children) will present an upcoming National Film School (Nfs) lecture on Thursday, November 5th. Described as “Britain's greatest living film director” by The Evening Standard, Terence Davies' credits include 'Children', 'Madonna and Child', 'Death and Transfiguration', 'Distant Voices', 'Still Lives' (which received a European Film Award nomination), 'The Long Day Closes', 'The Neon Bible', the BAFTA nominated 'The House of Mirth' and the documentary, 'Of Time and the City'.

Toronto -- Strand Releasing has acquired U.S. rights to Terence Davies' "Of Time and the City," his autobiographical doc which premiered at the Festival de Cannes and will play the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday.

Davies' movie, which played just once on the Croisette but was extremely well received, is a highly lyrical take on the director's childhood and on the city of Liverpool, whose evolution Davies traces.

Relying on archival footage and featuring extensive voice-over from the director, "City" transitions from black-and-white to color as the time moves from the middle of the 20th century to the present.

Strand is planning a January release, with the movie set for an October bow in the U.K.

Strand had worked with Davies on his previous "The Neon Bible." Hanway Films repped the filmmakers in the deal.