swans&crows

Unfaithfully Yours (1948)

Unfaithfully Yours is a 1948 screwball comedy film written and directed by Preston Sturges and starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee and Barbara Lawrence. The film is a black comedy about a man's failed attempt to murder his wife, whom he believes has been unfaithful to him. Although the film, which was the first of two Sturges made for Twentieth Century-Fox, received mostly positive reviews, it was not successful at the box office.

Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) is a world famous symphony conductor who returns from a visit to his native England and discovers that his rich and boring brother-in-law, August Henshler (Rudy Vallee), has misunderstood Alfred's casual instruction to watch over his much younger wife Daphne (Linda Darnell) while he was away, and instead hired a detective named Sweeney (Edgar Kennedy) to follow her. Alfred is livid, and ineptly attempts to destroy any evidence of the detective's report.

Eventually, despite his efforts, he learns the content of the report directly from Sweeney: while he was gone, his wife was spied late at night going to the hotel room of Alfred's secretary, Anthony Windborn (Kurt Kreuger), a man closer in age to her own, where she stayed for at least forty minutes.

Distressed by the news, Alfred quarrels with Daphne before proceeding to his concert, where he conducts three distinct pieces of romantic-era music, envisioning revenge scenarios appropriate to each one: a complicated "perfect crime" scenario in which he murders his wife and frames Windborn (to the Overture to Rossini's Semiramide), nobly accepting the situation and giving Daphne a generous check and his blessing (to the Prelude to Wagner's Tannhäuser), and a game of Russian roulette with a blubbering Windborn, that ends in Carter's Suicide (to Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet.)

After the concert, Alfred tries to stage his fantasy of murdering his wife, but is thwarted by his own ineptness, making a mess of their apartment in the process. When Daphne returns home, he realizes that she really loves him, and learns that she is innocent of Sweeney's charges: she had gone to Windborn's room in search of her sister Barbara, (Barbara Lawrence), August's wife, who WAS having an affair with Windborn, and became trapped there when she saw Sweeney spying on the room. Alfred begs Daphne's forgiveness for his irrational behavior, which she gladly gives, ascribing it to the creative temperament of a great artist.

Preston Sturges wrote the original screen story for Unfaithfully Yours in 1932 – the idea came to him when a melancholy song on the radio influenced him while working on writing a comic scene. Sturges shopped the script to Fox, Universal and Paramount who all rejected it during the 1930s.

In 1938, Sturges envisioned Ronald Colman playing Carter, and later initially wanted Frances Ramsden – who was introduced in Sturges' 1947 film The Sin of Harold Diddlebock – to play Daphne; but by the time casting for the film began, he wanted James Mason for the conductor and Gene Tierney for his wife.

Studio attorneys were worried about the similarity between Sturges' "Sir Alfred de Carter", a famous English conductor, and the real-life famous English conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, and warned Sturges to tone down the parallels, but the connection was noted in some reviews anyway. (Beecham's grandfather was Thomas Beecham, a chemist who invented "Beecham's Pills", a laxative. It is speculated that Sturges named his character "Carter" after "Carter's Little Liver Pills".)

Unfaithfully Yours, which had the working titles of "Unfinished Symphony" and "The Symphony Story", went into production on 18 February 1948, and wrapped in mid April of that year. By 28 June the film had already been sneak-previewed, with a runtime of 127 minutes, but the film's release was delayed to avoid any backlash from the suicide of actress Carole Landis in July. It was rumored that Landis and Rex Harrison had been having an affair, and that she committed suicide when Harrison refused to get a divorce and marry her. Harrison discovered Landis' body in her home.

The film premiered in New York City on 5 November 1948, and went into general release on 10 December. The Los Angeles premiere was on 14 December.

It was marketed with the tagline: Will somebody "get her" tonite?

In February 1949, after the film was released, William D. Shapiro, who claimed to be an independent film producer, sued Fox and Sturges with a claim that the story of the film was plagiarized from an unproduced screen story by Arthur Hoerl, which Shapiro had been intending to produce. The connection was supposedly composer Werner Heymann, who frequently worked with Sturges and whom Shapiro had interviewed to be the music director on his film.

The studio-quality tape recorder that cut vinyl records seen in the film is similar to ones used to secretly tape Horowitz and Benny Goodman during their concerts at Carnegie Hall and on the NBC Radio studios at Rockefeller Center. These rough cuts were later mastered into LPs which came to be considered classics. Arthur Rubinstein owned three of these devices, but as shown in the movie, they were difficult to use and required experienced technicians.

While rich with the sharp dialogue that became Sturges' trademark, the film was not a box office success. Critics usually attribute this to the darkness of the subject matter, especially for a comedy. The idea of a bungling murderer did not sit well with 1948 audiences, and the fact that none of the characters are especially sympathetic certainly did not help.

Sturges, whose previous film, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock had been pulled from distribution shortly after being released, never fully recovered from the lukewarm reception given to Unfaithfully Yours, and many point to it as the movie which effectively ended his career. Despite this, it is considered today by many critics to be an outstanding film.

Fight Club 10th year anniversary

Chuck Palahniuk wrote the novel after an "altercation" on a camping trip in the mid-1990s. "I went back to work the next week with my face completely trashed. My eyes were just panda-black." Back at the truck company where he worked, co-workers looked away when they asked if he did anything over the weekend. "I would say, 'Look at my face. C'mon people.' If you look terrible enough, no one will want to know the truth about you." As he scribbled what would become Fight Club on clipboards, life imitated art and Palahniuk also found himself getting into more fights. "While I was writing Fight Club, it started at work and just bled into the rest of my life. On one hand, I really loved it. I felt so exhausted and so tired and I slept so well after one of these terrible shoving matches. I really wanted to share it with the world".

A book scout for 20th Century Fox sent a proof of the still-unpublished novel to the studio in 1996, but the studio reader given the job of assessing it recommended against it. In fairness, the tale of violent underground clubs, domestic terrorism and split personalities doesn't look like the next Titanic. Fox executive Kevin McCormick then sent the proof to producers Lawrence Bender (Pulp Fiction) and Art Linson (The Untouchables) but both initially passed - and it became quickly apparent that this was not going to be an easy one to sell (Linson later joined the film). Finally producers Josh Donen (The Quick and the Dead) and Ross Grayson Bell (who had no other credits as producer at the time) stepped up, and persuaded actors to record an edited audio version of the novel. Laura Ziskin, then-president of Fox 2000, heard this and optioned the much-praised novel shortly after its publication in 1996.

Ziskin initially thought of legendary screenwriter Buck Henry to adapt the book, but he rejected it as too similar to his earlier success The Graduate. Yes, it's basically the same except with fighting instead of seduction and explosions instead of a missed wedding. Instead, newcomer Jim Uhl landed the gig after some extensive campaigning to the producers. He was keen to maintain the voiceover narration of the novels, which the studio was initially reluctant to agree to, feeling that narrations were passe. Uhls and his director spent months hammering out the script, bringing in Cameron Crowe to make Tyler Durden more three-dimensional and Seven's Andrew Kevin Walker to do an uncredited rewrite late on. Once the two leads were cast, they also worked extensively on the script.

Peter Jackson was apparently the first choice to direct, but he was busy making his Hollywood debut with The Frighteners. Danny Boyle read the book and met with Bell but went off to make The Beach instead and Bryan Singer was also in the running, in perhaps the best directorial face-off ever. Finally David Fincher - who had tried to buy the rights himself long before - landed the job. Fincher was somewhat reluctant to return to a Fox company after the experience of making Alien3, but after meeting Ziskin and studio head Bill Mecanic, he signed up in August 1997. "I had sort of vowed never to go back there. But Ziskin said, 'We realize that this is not a movie that can be made via committee,'" says Fincher. The director told the studio, "The real act of sedition is not to do the $3 million version" - ensuring that this would not be a Trainspotting-style breakout hit, but a glossy, high-production studio picture with actual stars and effects.

Russell Crowe, so hot right then after LA Confidential, was producer Bell's choice for Tyler Durden, but Art Linson favoured Brad Pitt - who had worked with Fincher on Seven. The latter was a bigger name, despite the then-recent failure of Meet Joe Black, and was cast by executives hoping for a nice star-led box-office hit. Apparently, none of them had ever read the script. Edward Norton landed the role of the narrator over suggestions of Matt Damon and Sean Penn (eh?). Even more impressively, Fincher cast Helena Bonham-Carter as Marla Singer on the basis of having seen her in a movie adaptation of Henry James' The Wings of the Dove. This is a director with the X-ray vision to see through corsets to the twisted soul beneath, apparently. Heck, other candidates included Courtney Love and Winona Ryder, and surely we can all agree that Bonham-Carter was the better, crazier-haired choice.

The movie was largely shot in LA, using about 200 locations for 300 scenes - a fact that goes a long way to explaining why Fincher's next film, Panic Room, used about 3. The budget swiftly rose from $50m initially to an estimated $67m, prompting the investors New Regency to threaten to bail out. Fincher sent them dailies until they agreed to raise the budget. The only problem left was the line that Marla delivers when in bed with Tyler. Originally, and in the book, she said, "I want to have your abortion". Ziskin asked Fincher to change this - which he did, to, "I haven't been fucked like that since grade school." Ziskin reportedly regretted complaining in the first place. Said Fincher, "I think when we were shooting, everybody loved the idea that we were making this movie, that it was so nasty, and when it finally came in and they could see it, they were appalled that it was as nasty as they had promised everyone it was going to be."

Fincher argued for a poster that showed only that iconic bar of soap and recorded fake public service announcements with his two stars to get across the anarchic spirit of the film. The studio, however, took control of the advertising with a slightly more traditional campaign, despite protests from Fincher that promos during a WWF match rather missed the point. But Fox was (understandably, perhaps) nervous about what they had. The release date was pushed from July to August 6 to September in the US; reportedly, Fox was worried that the film was "too dark" and were anxious to leave it as long as possible after the Columbine high school massacre earlier in the year. There were also fears that it could provoke copycats, which largely came to nothing.

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 1999, splitting the critics in attendance straight down the middle and prompting them to settle their differences through fisticuffs (so we like to think). On release, the worldwide critics proved equally split, cut between those who thought it was puerile, ultra-violent and fascist and those who thought it was cleverly satirical of immaturity, violence and fascism. Audiences, however, didn't quite get it: the film made a disappointing $37m in the US, albeit a pretty good $100m worldwide, and it wasn't until it hit the nascent DVD market that it really found its groove. These days, it regularly appears of Best Movie polls (both by critics and viewers) and ten years on remains a firm cult favourite.

Max Von Sydow in Cadaveri Eccellenti (1976)

Nine . new trailer -

Happy birthday!

Eyes without a face (1960)

Eyes Without a Face (French: Les yeux sans visage) is a 1960 French-language horror film adaptation of Jean Redon's novel which was directed by French filmmaker Georges Franju, It stars Pierre Brasseur as Doctor Génessier, Alida Valli as Louise, his assistant and accomplice, and Edith Scob as Christiane Génessier, his daughter.

The obsessive Doctor Génessier attempts heterografting, via experimental surgery, to restore the face of Christiane, whose face has been horribly disfigured in a car accident. Louise lures young women to their home while in Doctor Génessier's home laboratory to perform experiments on them that will restore Christiane's beauty.

During the film's production, consideration was given to the standards of European censors by setting the right tone, minimizing gore and eliminating the 'mad scientist' character. Although the film passed through the European censors, the film's 1960 release in Europe caused controversy nevertheless. Critical reaction ranged from praise to disgust.

Eyes Without a Face received an American debut in an edited and dubbed form in 1962 under the title of The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus. It was released as a double feature with the horror film, The Manster. The film's initial critical reception was not overtly positive, but subsequent theatrical and home video re-release of the film increased its reputation. Modern critics praise the film today for its poetic nature as well as being a notable influence on filmmakers such as John Carpenter, Jesús Franco and John Woo.

For his production staff, Franju enlisted people with whom he had previously worked on earlier projects. Cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan, best remembered for developing the Schüfftan process, was chosen to render the visuals of the film. Schüfftan had worked with Franju on La Tête Contre les Murs (1958). Film historian David Kalat called Shüfftan "the ideal choice to illustrate Franju's nightmares". (Only two years later, Shüfftan won an Academy award for his work on The Hustler (1961).) French composer Maurice Jarre created the haunting score for the film. Jarre had also previously worked with Franju on his film La Tête Contre les Murs (1958). Modern critics note the film's two imposing musical themes, a jaunty carnival-esque waltz (featured while Louise picks up young women for Doctor Génessier) and a lighter, sadder piece for Christiane. Jarre subsequently wrote the music score Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Doctor Zhivago (1965) among other films.

The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977)

The Last Remake of Beau Geste is a 1977 American historical comedy film. It starred and was also directed and co-written by Marty Feldman.

It is a satire loosely based on the novel Beau Geste, a frequently-filmed story of brothers and their adventures in the French Foreign Legion. The humor is based heavily upon wordplay and absurdity. Feldman plays Digby Geste, the awkward and clumsy "identical twin" brother of Michael York's Beau, the dignified, aristocratic swashbuckler.

The cast features Ann-Margret as the brothers' adoptive mother, Peter Ustinov as the brutal Sergeant Markov and Sinéad Cusack as sister Isabel Geste, with Spike Milligan (Crumble the Butler), Burt Kwouk (Father Shapiro), James Earl Jones (Arab Chief), Avery Schreiber (Arab Chieftain / Used Camel Salesman), Terry-Thomas (Warden), Trevor Howard (Sir Hector), Henry Gibson (General Pecheur), Roy Kinnear (Corporal Boldini) and Ed McMahon (Arab Horseman) in supporting roles.

The film was shot on location in Madrid, Spain and at Ardmore Studios in Bray, Ireland.

Marty Feldman was disappointed with the print distributed in theaters because the studio edited its own version. Attempts have been made to have the director's cut restored, but so far these have proved fruitless. According to Michael York, "Marty's version was much funnier."

The Man Who Would Be King (1975)

The Man Who Would Be King is a 1975 film adapted from the Rudyard Kipling short story of the same title. It was adapted and directed by John Huston and starred Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Saeed Jaffrey, and Christopher Plummer as Kipling (giving a name to the short story's anonymous narrator).

The film follows two rogue ex-non-commissioned officers of the British Raj who set off from 19th century British India in search of adventure and end up as kings of Kafiristan. Kipling is believed to have been inspired by the travels of American adventurer Josiah Harlan during the period of the Great Game between Imperial Russia and the British Empire and James Brooke, an Englishman who became the "white Raja" of Sarawak in Borneo.

Like much of his writing, Kipling's original story takes a nuanced, and in the end cold-edged view of imperialism; in Huston's telling, both East and West have their faults and virtues.

Shot on location in Morocco, Huston had planned to make the film since the 1950s, originally with Humphrey Bogart and Clark Gable, then Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, and then Robert Redford and Paul Newman — Newman suggested British actors Connery and Caine.

Caine has maintained that if any film of his is remembered after his death, it would be The Man Who Would Be King because it is the sort of film that everyone says, even when the film came out, "No-one makes pictures like this any more."

The film is very true to the short story, but goes into less masonic detail. The different degrees are not mentioned by name. The identification of Dravot as a supposed god is made by the fact that he wears a pendant bearing a symbol, which is the sacred symbol of the Kafir natives. The symbol used in the film is not named, but is clearly shown, and is simply the Square & Compasses symbol of Freemasonry. The other key difference between the short story and the film is that Carnehan does not die in the film - both men die in the short story itself.

A ‘Prisoner’ With New Questions

The Prisoner is a cult 17-episode British television series broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968.Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory, and psychological drama.

The series follows a British former secret agent who is held prisoner in a mysterious seaside village where his captors try to find out why he abruptly resigned from his job. Although sold as a thriller in the mould of McGoohan's previous series, Danger Man (called Secret Agent in its U.S. release), the show's combination of 1960s countercultural themes and surreal setting had a far-reaching effect on science fiction/fantasy programming, and on popular culture in general.

The remake, in the works since 2005, is to premiere the 15th November 2009 as a miniseries on AMC, in cooperation with British broadcaster ITV.

On 25 April 2008, ITV announced that a new series of The Prisoner would go into production, and in June 2008, that American actor James Caviezel will star in the role of Number 6, with Ian McKellen taking on the role of Number 2 in all six episodes. As of May 2009 the shooting for the new series was completed.

The new Village is located in a desert tropical area instead of Wales.

Clash of the Titans (2010)

On April 2 of this year, talking about the original 1981 "Clash of the Titans" I anticipated the remake in progress.

The Clash of the Titans remake began development in 2002 under producer Adam Schroeder and writers John Glenn and Travis Wright. They wanted to drop the element of the gods playing chess. Producer Basil Iwanyk revived the project in 2006 with a rewrite by Travis Beacham, a fan of the original. Lawrence Kasdan and director Stephen Norrington signed on in 2007.

But Norrington was unsure about his direction for the project, because he did not grow up with the original. Leterrier, who did, contacted Norrington through their shared agent about replacing him by June 2008. Leterrier noted the original Clash of the Titans inspired the climax of his previous film The Incredible Hulk – a battle in a burnt down courtroom with temple-like columns – and has compared modern superheroes to Greek mythology. Writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi reworked Kasdan's script, which had been written with an R rating in mind.

Leterrier sought Ray Harryhausen's involvement, and reunited with Hulk concept artist Aaron Sims, who had already been working on Clash of the Titans with Norrington. Sims had difficulty designing Medusa, explaining "Are they all the same snake [in her hair]? Do they look more like hair? Are they different in silhouette or in light? And how much of a human face does she have, or is it more like a snake? [...] I was working on one design, and people said 'That reminds me of Voldemort,’ because there was no nose. You have to be careful so it still looks like it's an original idea."

Filming began April 27, 2009, in London at Shepperton Studios. Filming will also take place in Wales and the Canary Islands, primarily in Tenerife, while aerial photography will be conducted in Iceland, and Ethiopia.

Filming of volcano scenes at the Harriet hole in Dinorwic Slate Quarry in Wales wrapped at the end of July. This slate quarry has also been used for locations for Willow and Street Fighter.

"Clash of the Titans" will be released on March 26, 2010.

The Reincarnation of Peter Proud

David Fincher's next film, following Facebook app The Social Network which he's just started shooting, looks set to be The Reincarnation of Peter Proud. It'll re-team the director with Seven's writer Andrew Kevin Walker, who will adapt the novel by Max Ehrlich.

The 35-year-old supernatural thriller involves a university lecturer's attempts to prove he's the reincarnation of somebody who died shortly before he was born, and to solve the mystery of his murder, for which the killer was never caught. It was filmed once before: a 1975 Bing Crosby production by J Lee Thompson, starring Margot Kidder and Michael Sarrazin, and adapted by Ehrlich himself.

We all know David Fincher's stellar trajectory from Alien 3 to Benjamin Button, but Walker's path has been rockier. He followed Seven with the 8mm (heavily rewritten by Joel Schumacher) and Tim Burton's awesome Sleepy Hollow, but then, through uncredited rewrites (Fight Club) and unproduced scripts (Silver Surfer, Batman vs. Superman) more or less dropped off the radar until the new version of The Wolf Man.

But Walker's dark sensibility is a perfect match for the material here, and an official reunion with Fincher is undoubtedly A Good Thing.

In memoriam : Robert S. Baker

On September 30, producer Robert S. Baker passed away at age 92. Baker had a long history of feature film production credits, mostly on B movies in his early years. However, he was a major force in British television in the 1960s. It was Baker who managed to bring both The Saint and The Persuaders to the air. He became Roger Moore's producing partner and the two made the 1969 adventure film Crossplot together. He also served as executive producer on the short-lived, but excellent British series The Baron.

The End (1978)

The End is a 1978 comedy film, directed by Burt Reynolds and starring Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Sally Field, Strother Martin, David Steinberg, Joanne Woodward, Norman Fell, Myrna Loy, Kristy McNichol, Pat O'Brien, Robby Benson, and Carl Reiner.

The End is a black comedy about a man, Wendell Sonny Lawson (Burt Reynolds), who is informed by his doctor that he's dying from a rare blood disease and has six months to live. Not wanting to live his last few months of life waiting for the end, he decides to take his own life.

Attempting to resolve a few issues with his girlfriend Mary Ellen (Sally Field), ex-wife Jessica Lawson (Joanne Woodward), daughter Julie (Kristy McNichol), and his parents (Myrna Loy and Pat O'Brien), Lawson finds that they're all too absorbed in their own problems to pay him any attention. After trying suicide several times by himself and failing, he ends up at a psychiatric hospital where he meets a very disturbed fellow patient Marlon Borunki (Dom DeLuise) w.ho agrees to help him in his quest for suicide. This "help" however, winds up almost killing Sonny...and not in a good way

Twilight Last Gleaming (1977) : the lost gem

Loosely adapted from novelist Walter Wager's 1971 thriller, Viper Three, Twilight's Last Gleaming is Robert Aldrich's impassioned and provocative excoriation - and, perhaps implicitly, exorcism - of the American government's administrative Cold War policy that sought to wage a representative, small-scale, protracted ideological war in Vietnam in order to reinforce a "doctrine of credibility" to the (then) Soviet Union and world at large of the country's resolve and willingness to win war at all cost, even if the rules of engagement are reduced to levels of barbarity, untold casualty, mass murder, and human atrocity. Aldrich frames the country's deeply troubled moral conscience through an unlikely pair of world-weary idealists: a former military general and conscientious objector turned escaped convict named Larry Dell (Burt Lancaster) who, in his increasingly criticism of the war and volatile temperament, became a convenient target for government discreditation, and the newly elected president, David Stevens (Charles Durning) who, even in holding office in the aftermath of Vietnam, cannot escape its haunted, unreconciled legacy in his appointment of seasoned cabinet advisors who had weathered the political fallout (and dodged accountability) for the interminable war (Aldrich astutely assembles a cast of veteran actors including Joseph Cotton, Richard Widmark, and Melvyn Douglas to reflect the advisors' status as fossilized relics out of touch with the consequences and social reality of their ideological war game). Recently escaped from a correctional facility where he is serving time on a trumped up murder conviction, Dell enlists the aid of fellow convicts, musclemen Willis (Paul Winfield) and Augie (Burt Young), and trigger-happy safecracker, Hoxey (William Smith) in an elaborate plot to break into the nuclear silo of a military base, commandeer its ICBM missiles, and hold the government - and the world - hostage in exchange for a large sum of money, a safe passage on Air Force One, and above all, the full disclosure of a top secret transcript detailing the former administration's attempts to continue the Vietnam engagement despite already known inevitable consequences and the impossibility of victory as a means of deterrent by proving the country's willingness to use nuclear weapons in the event of an all out war under a policy of mutual assured destruction. In its bracingly contemporary and profoundly relevant exposition on the moral consequences of entrenched ideology and disconnected (and delusive) righteousness, Twilight's Last Gleaming articulates a sincere and elegiac plea for transparency in government and empowerment of the people - a sobering vigil for the restoration of the dignity of political service and the dying ideals of a once great civilization that, in the myopic intoxication of power, has lost its way.

Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli, a Bond man all the way

From Los Angeles Time

The USC School of Cinematic Arts will pay tribute to the creator of the longest-running film series ever, with a weekend centennial featuring screenings, panels and exhibits.

Albert "Cubby" Broccoli was a self-made man who not only believed in the American dream but lived it as producer of the James Bond films, the longest-running film franchise in cinema history.

"This was a man who was a failed jewelry salesman," says Tom Mankiewicz, a writer on 1971's "Diamonds are Forever" who also worked on two Roger Moore Bond films, including 1973's "Live and Let Die."

"He was an agent. He worked briefly for Howard Hughes as a go-fer. He had such varied experiences in life in so many different departments that you were talking to a real guy who was wonderfully content. He really enjoyed himself."

The life of Broccoli, who died in 1996, is being celebrated this weekend by the USC School of Cinematic Arts. The three-day centennial at the Norris Cinema Theater, which kicks off Friday and continues through Sunday, features screenings, discussions and an exhibit of props, costumes, posters and scripts exploring the impact of Broccoli and the 47-year-old series, which is now overseen by his daughter Barbara Broccoli and stepson Michael G. Wilson. (The exhibition continues through February at the Hugh M. Hefner Exhibition Space in the George Lucas Building on campus.)

USC film professor Rick Jewell, teaching a course in James Bond as a pop phenomenon, will be introducing the screenings and hosting two panel discussions -- one on Bond today and the other a look at Broccoli.

The films being screened include 1962's "Dr. No" and 1964's "Goldfinger" with Sean Connery; 1969's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" with George Lazenby; "Live and Let Die" and 1977's "The Spy Who Loved Me" with Moore; 1987's "The Living Daylights" with Timothy Dalton; 1995's "GoldenEye" and 1997's "Tomorrow Never Dies" with Pierce Brosnan and 2006's "Casino Royale" with Daniel Craig.

Barbara Broccoli says it was her father's passion that made him such a great producer. "He loved making entertainment," she says. "He had a real kind of showman quality. When he came to Hollywood, he worked very hard. He worked his way up. He really appreciated the opportunity the film industry gave him. He was a great mentor to both of us. And that kind of passion was infectious for us."

"He was a great family man," adds Wilson. "He loved having people around him. He was an outgoing, generous person."

Jewell says that Broccoli was "lucky" in terms of how he got the Bond franchise. "Producer Harry Saltzman was the one who eventually locked up the rights to all of Ian Fleming's stories except for 'Casino Royale,' " he says.

"Then Saltzman couldn't get the money to produce the first Bond film, so he linked up with Cubby, who had a relationship with United Artists."

They were an ill-paired producing team. "Cubby was the one behind the money, but then as time went on . . . Cubby was the one who really made everything click," Jewell says.

"Harry would spew out like five ideas, and two of them were absolutely wonderful and three of them were horrible," recalls Mankiewicz.

"He said in 'Live and Let Die,' Bond is asleep in bed and he thinks Solitaire is in bed next to him, but he opens his eyes and a crocodile is in bed with him. I said, 'Harry? Why doesn't the crocodile eat him? 'He said, 'I don't know. You are the writer.' That was Harry."

Broccoli, says Mankiewicz, really enjoyed the money Bond gave him. "He owned race horses, and he loved to gamble," he says. "Harry wanted to be Howard Hughes, and he bought Technicolor . . . and everything Harry bought turned to dust."

Saltzman's involvement with Bond ended after 1974's "Man with the Golden Gun."

One person who was interested in taking over Saltzman's interest was David Frost of "Frost/Nixon" fame. "Cubby didn't want him," Jewell says. "Eventually he talked United Artists into buying Harry's half of the company, and then basically he was in complete control from that point on. Now it's a family franchise that has been handed down."

Jewell says he has a difficult time communicating to his students just how special the Bond films were when they first appeared in the 1960s -- their popularity also spawned TV's "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and movie series featuring James Coburn as Derek Flint and Dean Martin as Matt Helm.

Though Fleming's books were written in a Cold War context, he notes, Broccoli and Saltzman got the idea to depoliticize the scripts "and to develop the films in a way so that they would be timeless by adding this whole notion of SPECTRE, this worldwide criminal power-seeking organization that wanted to control everything. From that point on it was fairly easy to make the stories, then speak to the changes in the cultural climate."

Wilson says that his stepfather always stated "Bond was bigger than the actor who played him."

Barbara Broccoli adds that "For him [her father] it was always about putting all the money on the screen, and I think audiences have responded to that over the years. They know if they pay their money and give up their two hours, they are going to be taken on an adventure."

C.r.a.z.y. (2005)

C.R.A.Z.Y. is a 2005 French-language Canadian film from Quebec. The film was directed and co-written (with François Boulay) by Jean-Marc Vallée. It tells the story of Zac, a young man dealing with his emerging homosexual feelings while growing up with four brothers and a conservative father in 1960s and 1970s Quebec. The title derives from the first letter in the names of the five brothers: Christian, Raymond, Antoine, Zachary and Yvan, and also refers to their father's abiding love of Patsy Cline's song "Crazy".

Zachary Beaulieu (Marc-André Grondin) grows up in the turbulent Québec of the 1960s and 1970s. The second-youngest son of a father with "more than normal-level male hormones" and raised among four other brothers, Zac struggles to define his own identity, and deal with the conflict between his emerging sexuality and his intense desire to please his strict, temperamental and conservative father. One of the film's themes is the waning influence of the Catholic Church in Québec society during the Quiet Revolution.

Period music is an important element of the film, and a considerable portion of the film's budget was spent acquiring rights for songs by Patsy Cline, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones as well as David Bowie's "Space Oddity" and many others.

The Charles Aznavour song "Emmenez-moi" is repeated over and over in the film, often sung by the father. He also sings another Aznavour song - "Hier Encore", as part of Zac's 20th birthday celebrations.

C.R.A.Z.Y. was a strong box office hit by the standards of the relatively small Quebec market, grossing C$6.2 million. It was well-received by critics.

At the 26th Genie Awards for Canadian film it won 11 of the 13 awards, and won several awards at the Prix Jutra for Quebec films. It won awards at several film festivals internationally. It was also selected as Canada's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards, but was not one of the films nominated.

more 2012

home at last : new toy

The Hire (2001-2002)

The BMW film series, The Hire was a series of eight short films (averaging about ten minutes each) produced for the Internet in 2001 and 2002. A form of branded content, all eight films featured popular filmmakers from across the globe, starred Clive Owen as the "Driver", and highlighted the performance aspects of various BMW automobiles.

The plots of each of the films differ, but one constant remains: Clive Owen plays "The Driver", a man who goes from place to place (in presumably rented BMW automobiles), getting hired by various people to be a sort of transport for their vital needs.

Season 1

Ambush

While escorting an elderly man to an undisclosed location, The Driver is confronted by a van full of armed men and is warned that the old man has stolen a large amount of diamonds. The old man claims to have swallowed the diamonds and that the men will likely cut him open to retrieve them. The Driver decides at the last minute to help him, participating in a car chase and shootout with the van. The Driver eventually evades his pursuers and watches their destruction. He then delivers the old man to a town nearby and asks the merchant if he did indeed swallowed the diamonds. The client merely chuckles and walks away. The Driver then leaves.

with Tomas Milian

Directed by John Frankenheimer

Featured the BMW 7 Series

Chosen

The Driver protects a holy Asian child that was brought to America by boat. The child gives the Driver a gift but says that he is not supposed to open it yet. After being pursued by many armed assassins, and being grazed in the ear, he delivers the boy to another holy man. The Boy however signals silently to the Driver that the man is not actually a monk, indicated by his footwear. The Driver defeats the impostor holy man and rescues the boy. As he leaves the Driver opens the gift which is revealed to be a Hulk bandage for his bleeding ear.

Directed by Ang Lee

Featured the BMW 5 Series

The Follow

The Driver is hired by a nervous movie manager to spy on a paranoid actor's wife. During his tailing of the wife, the Driver describes the right way to tail someone. As he follows her he begins to fear what he might learn of her apparently tragic life. He discovers the wife is fleeing the country and returning to her mother's, and that she's been given a black eye, likely by her husband. He returns the money for the job, refusing to tell where the wife is, and drives off telling the manager never to call him again.

with Forest Whitaker, Mickey Rourke, and Adriana Lima

Directed by Wong Kar-wai

Featured the BMW 3 Series and the Z3 roadster

Star

The Driver is chosen by a spoiled and shallow celebrity to drive her to a venue. Unbeknownst to her, her manager has actually hired the Driver to teach the celebrity a lesson. Pretending to escape her pursuing bodyguards, the Driver recklessly drives through the city, tossing the hapless celebrity all around the backseat. They arrive at the venue, where she is thrown out of the car and photographed by paparazzi in an embarrassing end on the red carpet.

with Madonna

Directed by Guy Ritchie

Featured the BMW M5

Powder Keg

The Driver is drafted by the UN to rescue a wounded war photographer named Harvey Jacobs from out of hostile territory. While they are leaving Jacobs tells the Driver about the horrors he saw as a photographer, but he regrets his inability to help war victims. Jacobs answers the driver curiosity about why he is a photographer by saying how his mother taught him to see. He gives the Driver the film needed for a New York Times story and also his dog tags to give to his mother. When they reach the border, they are confronted by a guard who begins to draw arms as Jacobs begins taking pictures, trying to get himself killed. The Driver drives through a hail of gunfire to the border, but finds Jacobs killed by a bullet through the seat. The Driver arrives in America to visit Jacobs' mother and share the news of him winning the Pulitzer prize and hand over the dog tags, only to discover that she is blind.

with Stellan Skarsgård and Lois Smith

Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Featured the BMW X5

Season 2

Hostage

The Driver is hired by the FBI to help defuse a hostage situation. A disgruntled employee has kidnapped a CEO and has hidden her, demanding $5,088,042. The Driver delivers the money, writing the sum on his hand as instructed by the hostage taker. After he is told that he holds the life of a person in his hand, he is ordered to burn the money. As he complies, the federal agents break in and attempt to subdue the man, who shoots himself in the head before he reveals where the woman is hidden. The Driver then tries to find the hostage before she drowns in the trunk of a sinking car. As a twist, the kidnapped woman is revealed to be the hostage taker's lover. She coldly taunts the dying man in the hospital.

with Maury Chaykin and Kathryn Morris

Directed by John Woo

Featured the BMW Z4

Ticker

The Driver drives a wounded diplomat, who carries a mysterious briefcase, while under helicopter attack. During the attack the briefcase is struck by a bullet, causing a display on it to begin counting down, and it to leak an unknown fluid from the bullet hole. The Driver manages to destroy his pursuers, but refuses to proceed without knowing the contents of the damaged briefcase. It is revealed that the diplomat guards a human heart for a peacekeeper, whose life is needed for the continued freedom of the people. The case is delivered, and the tyrant is forced to give up his attempt to take the country by force. The Driver leaves for another mission.

with Don Cheadle

cameos by Ray Liotta, F. Murray Abraham, Robert Patrick, Clifton Powell and Dennis Haysbert as US agents.

Directed by Joe Carnahan

Featured the BMW Z4

Beat The Devil

The Driver drag-races the Devil, in order to earn James Brown his soul.

with James Brown, Gary Oldman, Danny Trejo and Marilyn Manson

Directed by Tony Scott

Featured the BMW Z4

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American horror/thriller film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the bestselling 1967 novel of the same name by Ira Levin. The film received mostly positive reviews and earned numerous nominations and awards. The film has led to numerous references in film, television, music and other media. The film was positioned 9th in the AFI's 100 Years…100 Thrills list.

The story focuses on Rosemary Woodhouse, a bright but somewhat naïve young housewife, and her struggling actor husband Guy, as they move into the Bramford, a New York City apartment building with a history of unsavory tenants and mysterious events. Their neighbors are an elderly and slightly absurd couple, Minnie and Roman Castevet, who tend to be meddlesome but seem harmless. Guy becomes unusually close to the pair while Rosemary tries to maintain a distance from them. Guy lands a role in a play when the actor originally cast suddenly and inexplicably goes blind. Soon afterwards he suggests that he and Rosemary have the child they had planned. On the night they plan to try to conceive, Minnie brings them individual ramekins of chocolate mousse, but Rosemary finds hers has a chalky undertaste and surreptitiously throws it away after a few tastes. Shortly afterward, she has a dizzy spell and passes out. She experiences what she perceives to be a strange dream in which she is raped by a demonic presence.

A few weeks later, Rosemary learns she is pregnant, and is due on June 28,1966 (6/66). She plans to be treated by Dr. Hill, recommended by her friend Elise, but the Castevets insist she see their good friend, famed obstetrician Dr. Sapirstein. For the first three months of her pregnancy, Rosemary suffers severe abdominal pains, loses weight, and craves raw meat and chicken liver. The doctor insists the pain will subside soon and assures her she has nothing to worry about. At the Castavets' New Year's Eve party, Roman raises a toast to "1966 - the Year One".

When her old friend Hutch sees Rosemary's wan appearance, he is disturbed enough to do some research, and he plans to share his findings with her but falls into a coma before they can meet. He subsequently dies but before he does instructs his friend Grace Cardiff to deliver the book about witchcraft on his desk to Rosemary. Photographs, passages in the text he marked, and the cryptic message "the name is an anagram" lead the young mother-to-be to realize Roman Castevet is really Steven Marcato, the son of a former resident of the Bramford who was accused of worshiping Satan. She suspects her neighbors are part of a cult with sinister designs for her baby, and Guy is cooperating with them in exchange for their help in advancing his career. She deduces that Dr. Saperstein is also a part of the conspiracy when his front desk clerk comments that he often smells of tannis root - a fungus called "Devil's Pepper" - which Rosemary also smells of (a good luck charm given to her by Minnie is full of tannis root).

An increasingly disturbed Rosemary shares her fears and suspicions with Dr. Hill, who, assuming she is suffering from a hormonal imbalance, calls Dr. Sapirstein and Guy. The two men bring her home, at which point Rosemary goes into labor. When she awakens following the delivery of her baby she is told the child died shortly after birth. However, when she hears an infant's cries somewhere in the building, she suspects he still is alive. In the hall closet, she discovers a secret door leading into the Castevet apartment, where the coven meets, and finds the congregation gathered, worshipping her newborn son, the spawn of Satan. The coven urges Rosemary to become a mother to her son, Adrian. The film ends with her adjusting her son's blankets and gently rocking his cradle.

In Rosemary's Baby: A Retrospective, a featurette on the DVD release of the film, screenwriter/director Roman Polanski, Paramount Pictures executive Robert Evans, and production designer Richard Sylbert reminisce at length about the production. Evans recalled William Castle brought him the galley proofs of the book and asked him to purchase the film rights even before Random House released the publication. The studio head recognized the commercial potential of the project and agreed with the stipulation that Castle, who had a reputation for low-budget horror films, could produce but not direct the film adaptation.

Evans admired Polanski's European films and hoped he could convince him to make his American debut with Rosemary's Baby. He knew the director was a ski buff who was anxious to make a film with the sport as its basis, so he sent him the script for Downhill Racer with the galleys for Rosemary. Polanski read the book non-stop through the night and called Evans the following morning to tell him he thought it was the more interesting project, and would like the opportunity to write as well as direct it.

Polanski envisioned Rosemary as a robust, full-figured, girl-next-door type, and he wanted Tuesday Weld or his own wife Sharon Tate for the role. Since the book had not reached bestseller status yet, Evans was unsure the title alone would guarantee an audience for the film, and he felt a bigger name was needed for the lead. With only a supporting role in Guns at Batasi and the not-yet-released A Dandy in Aspic as her only feature film credits, Mia Farrow had an unproven box office track record, but her role as Allison MacKenzie in the popular television series Peyton Place and her unexpected marriage to Frank Sinatra had made her a household name. Despite her waif-like appearance, Polanski agreed to cast her. Her acceptance incensed Sinatra, who had demanded she forego her career when they wed, and he served her divorce papers via a corporate lawyer, in front of the cast and crew midway through filming. In an effort to salvage her relationship, Farrow asked Evans to release her from her contract, but he persuaded her to remain with the project after showing her an hour-long rough cut and assuring her she would receive an Academy Award nomination for her performance.

Robert Redford was the first choice for the role of Guy Woodhouse, but he turned down the offer. Jack Nicholson was considered briefly before Polanski suggested John Cassavetes.

Sylbert was a good friend of Garson Kanin, who was married to Ruth Gordon, and he suggested her for the role of Minnie Castevet. He also suggested The Dakota, an Upper West Side apartment building known for its show business tenants, be used for the Bramford. Its hallways were not as worn and dark as Polanski wanted, but when the building's owners would not allow interior filming, that became a moot point and it was used for exterior shots only.

Polanski wanted to cast Hollywood old-timers as the coven members but did not know any by name. He drew sketches of how he envisioned each character, and they were used to fill the roles. In every instance, the actor cast strongly resembled Polanski's drawing. These included Ralph Bellamy, Patsy Kelly, Elisha Cook, Jr., Phil Leeds, and Hope Summers.

When Rosemary calls Donald Baumgart, the actor who goes blind and is replaced by Guy, the voice heard is that of actor Tony Curtis. Mia Farrow, who had not been told who would be reading Baumgart's lines, recognized the voice but could not place it. The slight confusion she displays throughout the call was exactly what Polanski hoped to capture by not revealing Curtis' identity in advance.

Sydney Guilaroff designed the wig worn by Mia Farrow in the film's early scenes. It was removed to reveal the Vidal Sassoon hairdo that made headlines when Farrow cut her trademark long hair during filming of Peyton Place.
One of Mia Farrow's more emotionally charged scenes occurs in the midst of a party, when several of Rosemary's female friends lock Guy out of the kitchen as they console her in private. The scene was shot in a single day. That morning, just before the first take was filmed, a private messenger served Farrow with formal divorce papers from Frank Sinatra. As she read the documents, Farrow fell to her knees on the kitchen floor and openly wept in front of the cast and crew. Roman Polanski insisted that the day be canceled and filming be postponed until the next day, when he would start consecutively filming as many scenes as possible that did not contain Rosemary. Farrow openly would not accept this, insisting that nothing had changed. The day's filming concluded on time and without delay.
When Farrow was reluctant to film a scene that depicted a dazed and preoccupied Rosemary wandering into the middle of a Manhattan street into oncoming traffic, Polanski pointed to her pregnancy padding and reassured her, "no one's going to hit a pregnant woman".



Rosemary's Baby has a 98% "fresh" rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with 46 of the 47 reviews being positive. In her review in the New York Times, Renata Adler said, "The movie - although it is pleasant - doesn't seem to work on any of its dark or powerful terms. I think this is because it is almost too extremely plausible. The quality of the young people's lives seems the quality of lives that one knows, even to the point of finding old people next door to avoid and lean on. One gets very annoyed that they don't catch on sooner."
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "a brooding, macabre film, filled with the sense of unthinkable danger. Strangely enough it also has an eerie sense of humor almost until the end. It is a creepy film and a crawly film, and a film filled with things that go bump in the night. It is very good...much more than just a suspense story; the brilliance of the film comes more from Polanski's direction, and from a series of genuinely inspired performances, than from the original story . . . The best thing that can be said about the film, I think, is that it works. Polanski has taken a most difficult situation and made it believable, right up to the end. In this sense, he even outdoes Hitchcock."
Variety stated, "Several exhilarating milestones are achieved in Rosemary's Baby, an excellent film version of Ira Levin's diabolical chiller novel. Writer-director Roman Polanski has triumphed in his first US-made pic. The film holds attention without explicit violence or gore . . . Farrow's performance is outstanding."