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It's a well-known fact that, in life, things are not always what they seem, and sometimes that which seems unassuming can contain a surprisingly deep well of power and resilience. There isn't a better way to sum up director Steven Spielberg's early works, especially the TV movie "Duel," its plot, and its star, Dennis Weaver. In 1971, when "Duel" was released, Weaver was still best known for his recurring role on the long-running Western series "Gunsmoke." Meanwhile, Spielberg was only barely known, having gained a bit of a reputation as the protege of then-Universal president Sidney "Sid" Sheinberg, after the precocious young Spielberg had directed a short film that impressed Sheinberg, 1968's "Amblin'" (a film which Spielberg would later homage by naming his production company after it). On the strength of that short, Spielberg was given the opportunity to become part of McA/Universal's burgeoning television division, directing episodes...

The new Netflix miniseries Adolescence packs a lot into its four episodes. It is, depending on the chapter, a police procedural; a sociological examination of male rage, cyberbullying, and a failing British school system; a psychological thriller; and a tragedy about how in the 21st century, a child’s bedroom can be the most dangerous place in the world for them to be.

Two elements tie all this ambition together. The first is that everything spins out of the same criminal investigation into whether 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper) murdered a female classmate.

Hollywood satirizing itself always brings with it a strangely ouroboric connotation—an excruciating, try-hard attempt to make themselves cooler by lampooning themselves in front of their audience. To a certain extent, the lampooning could work if the media exploring said sentiment has a discerning point. The Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg-created show The Studio (Season 1) seems to be vacillating between two entirely conflicting points.

As the show begins, we are introduced to Matt Remmick (Bryan Cranston), who is appointed the head of flailing Continental Studios by its new owner Griffin Mill (Bryan Cranston), who also gives him his first mission statement—to revive the IP of Kool-Aid by producing a movie akin to the success of “Barbie,” which would put Continental Studios on the map. But that is a hard pivot from what the cinephilic perspective of Remnick wants Continental Studios to be making—serious, art-house movies, which Mill...

Ever since Orson Welles recharged the pulpy crime genre with Touch of Evil by opening the film on a ticking bomb and then letting his camera roam for almost three minutes, the long take has been a part of filmmaking lore. Directors like Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, and Alfonso Cuaron—along with their cinematographers—have all used the long take in varying ways to immerse their audiences into the worlds of their respective films.

One of Orson Welles' movies, The Other Side Of The Wind, took almost five decades to make before it was released on Netflix in 2018. Welles is widely considered one of the most significant filmmakers in American history, with classic titles such as The Trial, Touch of Evil, and Citizen Kane, which is often considered one of the best films ever made. While The Other Side of The Wind isn't often considered one of Welles' best movies, it will forever be his last.

The Other Side of the Wind was the last official directing effort made by Welles, which was largely considered unfinished until its long-awaited release in 2018. The movie was constructed mostly after Welles' death in 1985 and consists of several instances of cinema verité style documentary footage that combines with Welles' masterful directorial style. It was certainly Welles' most modern film due to its release date and the fact that...

Going to see a parody of classic science fiction and horror movies is always a dicey situation, especially if you’re already a fan of the films they target. Besides hoping that it’s actually funny, you’re also worried that they’ll just take a stance of sneering contempt towards their source material, as is all too often the case. Even a respectful homage is no guarantee of quality, either. An affectionate tribute can too easily become an exercise in virtue-signaling, a lackluster effort at trying to prove they’re part of the fan club, and an excuse to copy what’s already been done to death. I’ll be a happy man if I never see another reenactment of Psycho’s shower scene again.

What makes Michael Stasko’s “Vampire Zombies…From Space!” such a pleasant surprise is it’s not only the rare parody that’s actually...

On December 4, 1993, Charlton Heston hosted Saturday Night Live. While the show was solid overall, the start of the episode — including the cold open, opening montage and monologue — was something truly unique among SNL’s 900-plus episodes. Rather than try to describe it myself, however, I’ll leave it to the man who wrote and conceived of it: veteran TV writer David Mandel.

Mandel later worked on Seinfeld and Veep, but before that, he was a writer on Saturday Night Live where the opening of the Heston episode was his crowning achievement.

The Night ‘SNL’ Went to the Apes

I love format-breaking. I did the documentary episode of Veep, and I did the backwards episode of Seinfeld. Over the years, Saturday Night Live had done some very cool format-breaking that a lot of people had forgotten about. In the Charles Grodin episode, the concept is that Charles Grodin did all this...

There have been multiple film waves and movements throughout the medium's history, and during the Classical Hollywood Era, there was perhaps no wave more intriguing than film noir. What started with French "dark films" that depicted post-war disillusionment and shady characters became common in American cinema as well. There was something grounded and real about the stories that were being told in these noir films, and it attracted many audiences who perhaps didn't want to just escape, but explore the way they were feeling. Film noir became more popular due to its stylistic differences from other films; it also gave rise to many iconic crime, mystery and thriller movies of the 40s, 50s and 60s.

The 1940s was the most important decade for the noir style, so much so that noir films were being released on a consistent basis and turning the style into a genre of movies. Some of...

Charlton Heston became a household name with leading roles in action adventures and biblical epics, but his credits extended past those two well-worn genres. Let’s take a look back at 12 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

After serving in the United States Army Air Force during WWII, Heston made his professional movie acting debut with the film noir “Dark City” (1950). His big breakthrough came just two years later with Cecil B. DeMille‘s big top soap opera “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952), in which he played the circus manager. Though an audience favorite in its time, the film often ranks among the all-time worst Oscar winners for Best Picture.

Heston later reunited with DeMille to play the Old Testament prophet Moses in “The Ten Commandments” (1956), which brought him a Golden Globe nomination. A holy hit at the box office, the role undoubtedly inspired William Wyler to cast...

Turner Classic Movie's host, Eddie Muller, is the ultimate connoisseur of the film noir genre and the host of the channel's popular segment, Noir Alley. Every Saturday night and Sunday morning, fans tune in for Muller's choice of classic noirs, such as Out of the Past, The Big Sleep, and Touch of Evil. Even though the host recognizes mainstream noirs, he also gives an equal spotlight to lesser-known noirs, which is the real beauty of his program.

Hollywood's Golden Age of Cinema can, for the most part, be categorized as the time before the New Hollywood Era of the 1970s began. In that stretch of time, cinema evolved in multiple ways. One genre in particular has evolved into more of a style rather than a genre, a type of crime film that existed more in the Golden Age of Hollywood. That's the gangster genre.

From the 1930s to the 1960s, there were various iterations of the gangster film. There are conventional gangster films like The Public Enemy, Scarface (1932), and Little Caesar that defined a genre. Then there are films like On the Waterfront or Touch of Evil that utilize specific stylistic elements of the gangster film to create a new kind of crime classic. With such a wide range of gangster films, there are definitely some more iconic than others.

Bullitt Brought Gangsters to Cop Thrillers Released:...

“Rebel Ridge” is a movie starring Aaron Pierre and Don Johnson. With AnnaSophia Robb and James Cromwell. It is written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier.

“Rebel Ridge” stands out as a film with a compelling script and impressive performances, crafting a thriller that engages viewers with its pacing, intrigue, and richly developed characters without drawing undue attention to itself. At first glance, it appears to be a straightforward story about corruption, yet it cleverly reveals a deeper narrative concerning police funding in certain Louisiana towns, which is genuinely fascinating.

The standout feature of this film is its script, which skillfully creates two well-rounded characters, brought to life by actors who fit their roles perfectly. This highlights the undeniable truth that a strong script makes the entire filmmaking process smoother and more impactful.

Plot

The story kicks off with a young Black boy on a bicycle being stopped by the police,...

In “Queer,” Luca Guadagnino’s ebulliently scuzzy and adventurous adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ early confessional novel, William Lee (Daniel Craig), a dissipated refugee from America, is having dinner with Eugene (Drew Starkey), the beautiful young man he met in the underbelly of Mexico City, when he starts to explain how he came to grips with his sexual desires.

Lee, who wears white linen suits, a fedora and clear-framed glasses, a trusty handgun, and an appraising scowl, looks like the dandy version of a CIA spook. It’s the early 1950s, and though he drinks around the clock and is frequently a disheveled mess, in his appearance and demeanor he’s something of a straightarrow. At first, he says, he regarded his proclivities as a “curse.” He shook with horror at the word “homosexual,” which made him think of “the painted, simpering female impersonators,” he says. “Could I have been one of those subhuman things?...

IndieWire has expanded our survey of cinematographers out into the fall film festivals this year, starting with Venice. We reached out to directors of photography with films playing in Competition, Out of Competition, and Horizons about the cameras, lenses, and formats they used — and, most importantly, the creative imperatives that informed their choices. More than 40 cinematographers responded, representing some of the biggest and most stylized swings at Venice and some of the smallest, most intimate stories at the festival.

One thing that stuck out among the responses is how much cinematographers with films at Venice wanted to be responsive to their environment, whether it meant giving the Scottish highlands their due and shooting with the richness of actual film, finding the right color and format to transport viewers into different time periods of the past, or figuring out how to evoke the same richness of the black and white of...

No two figures are symbolic of creative autonomy quite like Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles. On paper, they should have nothing in common, as their most acclaimed films are stylistically and thematically opposed. While City Lights and Modern Times bear little resemblance to Citizen Kane or Touch of Evil, they both revolutionized cinema through their maverick auteurism and split duties as actors and directors, and they constantly worked outside the mainstream studio system. Their defiance towards the studios and societal expectations saw them on the outside looking in, and when both figures were at a precarious point in their respective careers, they teamed up for an unforeseen, albeit brief, collaboration. Monsieur Verdoux, based on an idea by Welles, was the darkest film Chaplin ever put on the screen, as he deconstructed his lovable Tramp persona as an embodiment of banal evil.

Bound is a fresh take on film noir with a feminist twist, redefining genre cliches. Unlike many noir films, Bound highlights queer women without catering to the male gaze, promoting sex-positivity. Bound challenges traditional masculinity, serving as a deconstruction of patriarchal values in film noir.

Few filmmakers have had a career more interesting than Lilly and Lana Wachowski. Heavily inspired by Eastern cinema and adult animation, this creative team is known for their idiosyncratic output. The duo put themselves on the map with The Matrix, an auteurist masterpiece that redefined the sci-fi genre. Blending cyberpunk dystopia alongside anime influences, the film became a cultural touchstone thanks to its stylized action and philosophical ideas. The Wachowskis are bold visionaries, with their subsequent films finding cult success in recent years. Queer cinephiles tend to especially resonate with how these directors explore themes of identity and gender roles. However, few tend to discuss The Watchowskis' directorial debut,...

After making what many people cite as the greatest film ever made, “Citizen Kane” (1941), multi-talented actor, writer, director and producer Orson Welles struggled to live up to the success he achieved when he was just 26 years old. Yet seen today, many of the films he made afterwards have attained a similar acclaim. Let’s take a look back at all 13 of his completed feature films as a director, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1915, Welles first came to prominence as a stage director, mounting groundbreaking productions of “Macbeth,” “Dr. Faustus,” and “The Cradle Will Rock” before forming his own repertory company, The Mercury Theater. In addition to Welles, the Mercury Theater Players included Joseph Cotten, Ray Collins, Agnes Moorhead, Everett Sloane, George Coulouris, Norman Lloyd, Martin Gabel and Paul Stewart, many of whom would go onto appear in the director’s films.

It was the Mercury Theater’s transition into...

Darth Vader is undeniably one of the most iconic fictional characters, known for his menacing black suit and distinctive voice. Many other works of fiction and art make reference to the character, making it a familiar presence.

But, did you know that the role of Vader nearly went to a different actor? One who, at the time, might have been even more preferred than James Earl Jones given the circumstances?

During the late 1970s, while filming ‘A New Hope’ in London, David Prowse, who portrayed Darth Vader physically, delivered all of Vader’s lines from behind the mask. However, the mask muffled his speech, necessitating dubbing in post-production. Prowse initially expected to dub his own lines, but logistical issues and concerns about his accent prompted George Lucas to seek another voice. Lucas sought a deep, distinguished voice befitting the enigmatic Darth Vader. Ultimately, James Earl Jones, then a relatively unknown actor,...

Darth Vader is without a doubt one of the most iconic fictional characters, recognized by his ominous black suit and his voice. Plenty of other works of fiction and art reference the character, and it’s one of those references we can always easily spot.

But, did you know that the iconic role almost went to a completely different actor? The one that at the time would be perhaps even favored above James Earl Jones under the circumstances?

While filming ‘A New Hope’ in London during the late 1970s, David Prowse, the actor behind Darth Vader’s physical performance, spoke all of Vader’s lines from behind the mask. However, due to the mask muffling his speech, his lines had to be dubbed over in post-production. Prowse assumed he would do the dubbing himself, but logistical and accent concerns led George Lucas to search for another voice. Lucas sought a deep,...

Daniel Sackheim’s intriguing landscapes of Los Angeles evoke a time of classic film of the Film Noir period. His landscapes of Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood Blvd, the distant pier of Santa Monica create a moody scene iridescent of classics like Double Indemnity; Mildred Pierce, The Third Man, and Shadow of a Doubt. The seductive tones of a bygone era are visually stimulating creating a mood of mystery that captured the eyes of audiences when The Maltese Falcon was first released.

Sackheim’s directing credits include Lovecraft Country, Game of Thrones, True Detective, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and Ozark to name a few. Having been a director for many years before delving into photography, he says his eye tends to land on a cinematic sensibility naturally. This perspective then informs his approach to photographic storytelling.

“There is not so much one specific film, though there are iconic images from...

Monsieur Spade is a perfect replacement for the canceled Perry Mason, with similar stylistic elements and a modern take on the classic detective genre. Both Monsieur Spade and Perry Mason have rich and complex adaptations of outstanding novels, but Monsieur Spade feels more modern and accessible. Monsieur Spade has a better chance at longevity due to being an Amazon Prime Video series with less competition and a potentially lower production cost.

Following the shocking cancelation of the HBO detective noir series Perry Mason after two seasons, the new Amazon show Monsieur Spade has emerged as its perfect yet underrated replacement. The six-part Amazon limited series from Scott Frank (The Queen's Gambit) stars Clive Owen as Sam Spade, a famous detective working as an expat in the south of France during the early 1960s. Spade is the same protagonist from the classic 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon written by Dashiell Hammett as...

Peter Berkos, the Universal Pictures sound effects maestro and champion of sound editors everywhere who shared a special achievement Oscar for his work on the Robert Wise-directed disaster epic The Hindenburg, has died. He was 101.

Berkos died Tuesday in Rancho Bernardo, California, his friend Brae Wyckoff told The Hollywood Reporter.

While president of the Motion Picture Sound Editors from 1963-66, Berkos began a successful campaign for his colleagues to gain full membership into the film and television academies and to receive credit onscreen and off for their work.

Berkos himself was uncredited for the first 20 years of his career until Car Wash (1976), and the Oscars would eventually revive its dormant competitive sound effects category from 1983 onward.

Across four decades, he worked for Universal on such films as Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil (1958), four features directed by George Roy Hill — Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), the Oscar best picture winner The Sting...

As the start of the Camerimage Film Festival approaches, Variety asked four festival regulars, all sought-after cinematographers, to weigh in on the issues, trends and opportunities the profession is encountering this year – all subjects expected to come up during the fest, which runs Nov. 11-18. Here’s what they had to say:

Mandy Walker, currently filming Disney’s live action “Snow White” remake, and chairing Camerimage main competition jury.

“I see more and more women are shooting [film] projects and TV – in the States, a lot more women are shooting TV shows. A lot more in the camera department in general, camera operators, first ACs, and it’s definitely getting better. But there’s still a bit of a hump to get over before it’s anywhere near equal.”

“The technology – for me, when I first started shooting movies, there was no VFX, there was no blue screen because I was shooting very small indie projects.

Rachel Sennott and The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri are excellent as gay teens who set up a fight club in order to win the affections of their school cheerleaders

There are a lot of laughs, a great deal of delirious silliness and what I must insist is a cinephile reference to Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil in this very funny high-school comedy from director Emma Seligman, and starring her co-writer Rachel Sennott, who last worked together on Seligman’s debut feature Shiva Baby. Bottoms is about two gay teen girls and bickering best friends who want to get some sexual experience and it all plays like a moderately scuffed-up and entirely non-heterosexual version of Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart – though no one in this film shows the smallest interest in books, certainly not the teachers.

Pj (Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) hang out, obsessing in a self-harming and masochistic way...

What do Allison Anders, John Cassavetes, and Alfred Hitchcock have in common? Aside from — in spite of? — being great directors, they’ve all made films that for whatever reason failed to land with the critics, the public, or both. But are their “failures” those of the filmmakers or of imagination on the part of the audience?

In the list of underrated movies by great directors that follows, IndieWire argues that often it’s the latter. These are films that were misunderstood — in several cases, by their own makers, which is part of what led to their public dismissal — or that never had the chance to be misunderstood because they were barely seen due to vagaries of timing and marketing. While they don’t necessarily represent the directors’ best work, they’re all better than their reputations and filled with pleasures characteristic of the filmmakers’ oeuvres.

The criteria for selecting these...

Columbo subverts classic whodunnit tropes by revealing the killer's identity early, creating suspense as they try to get away with their crimes. The show features famous guest stars including Roddy McDowall, Janet Leigh, Vincent Price, and Faye Dunaway, adding to the thrill of each episode. Actors like Leslie Nielsen, Johnny Cash, William Shatner, and Dick Van Dyke showcase their range by playing dramatic or villainous roles in Columbo.

One of the standout features of Richard Levinson and William Link's iconic detective series was the number of iconic Columbo guest stars that appeared. First airing in 1971, Columbo follows Lieutenant Columbo, a quirky yet shrewd LAPD homicide detective who investigates and solves murder cases. Columbo has many trademark features that have made the character iconic such as his beige raincoat, his cigar-smoking habit, his old Peugeot 403 car, his love of chili and his wife (who is never seen), and his iconic catchphrase,...

During the final week of production on director Pablo Larraín’s “El Conde” in Patagonia, cinematographer Ed Lachman broke his hip, the result of a bathroom slip and “not doing anything heroic [on set],” the famed cinematographer joked while recalling the fall to IndieWire.

The injury was no joking matter for Lachman, who was devastated he couldn’t shoot his longtime collaborator Todd Haynes’ film, “May December.” And later this month when Haynes and crew premiere that new film at the New York Film Festival, Lachman, a staple at the fest since the early ’70s, also won’t be able to be in Alice Tully Hall cheering them on. But that’s actually this story’s happy ending.

“I’m in Berlin doing tests for Pablo’s new movie,” said Lachman. That’s right, Lachman’s back, prepping Larraín’s new film “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas and set to...

Martin Scorsese praises Chimes at Midnight for having the best battle scene ever put on film, calling it distinct and unlike anything else. Scorsese's study of Chimes at Midnight reflects his status as a well-watched director who draws heavily upon film history for inspiration. Scorsese values uniqueness and aims to make his own scenes distinct, which can be seen in his standout works like The Departed and The Irishman.

Legendary director Martin Scorsese praises a 57-year-old drama for having the all-time greatest cinematic battle scene. The auteur returns this year with a 3.5-hour epic, Killers of the Flower Moon. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro, and Lily Gladstone, the crime drama explores the mysterious murders of Osage tribe members in the United States. Killers of the Flower Moon is set for release on October 20.

Speaking with Time, Scorsese reveals his favorite action sequence of all time. For Scorsese, the honor...

Orson Welles never comfortably fit in Hollywood. His debut feature, Citizen Kane, may well hold the distinction as the most acclaimed film ever made, but its success did little to deter the onslaught of problems that would plague much of his subsequent career. The Magnificent Ambersons, The Lady from Shanghai, and Touch of Evil (to name but a few) were all re-edited against his wishes, and while recreations approximating Welles’ vision have emerged for some of these examples, many exist only as crude imitations of their intended form. That The Magnificent Ambersons is still regarded as a masterpiece even in this state is a testament to his prowess as a filmmaker (while also bolstering his reputation as Hollywood’s most revered maverick), but unfortunately the same cannot be said about the project that Welles himself described as the “biggest disaster” of his career: Mr. Arkadin.

Most lists of the greatest long takes don’t deviate: Goodfellas, Russian Ark, Touch of Evil, Rope–you know the drill. In a perfect world those rankings face a major change with the restoration and rerelease of Shinji Somai’s P.P. Rider, a film comprising some of the boldest, strongest, plain craziest orchestrations of camera and space anybody’s ever achieved. Unlike many movies stitching together multiple shots through “invisible” cuts, it’s also driven by a dense, compelling narrative from Leonard “Brother of Paul” Schrader, boasting a screenplay co-written by his wife, Chieko.

Needless to say Cinema Guild’s forthcoming release, starting September 6 at New York’s IFC Center, should be on radars whether the film’s fresh or you know an iffy Mkv file well. We’re proud to debut a new trailer, plus the cover for their 24-page zine featuring two newly translated texts: a 2011 essay...

Orson Welles is one of the most significant filmmakers in history, known for his landmark movies such as Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil. Welles made a major impact on the film noir genre in the 1940s and 1950s, shaping its overall shape and scope. Welles had a diverse range of talents, including acting, writing, and producing, and his multimedia influence made him a central figure in 20th-century entertainment.

Orson Welles is one of the most prolific and significant filmmakers that has ever lived. He has directed several movies that have acted as landmarks in cinematic history. Other than being known for his remarkable epic Citizen Kane and the film noir masterpiece Touch of Evil, the brilliant abilities of Welles have been put on display in nearly a dozen of other masterworks as a director. Welles significantly made an impact on the shape and scope of the film noir genre in the 1940s and 1950s.

Jamie Lee Curtis' parents, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, did not win Oscars like their famous daughter, despite their notable Hollywood careers. Jamie Lee Curtis' Oscar win was well-deserved and a testament to her long and successful career in the industry. Jamie Lee Curtis defended her own achievements in the face of controversy surrounding nepotism in Hollywood, highlighting that she has carved her own path in the industry.

Jamie Lee Curtis' parents were Hollywood royalty themselves, but did Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis ever win Oscars like their famous daughter? Curtis' 2023 Best Supporting Actress Oscar win was the culmination of her lengthy career, and she rose to the heights of Hollywood much like her parents who were also celebrated movie stars in their day. Everything Everywhere All at Once allowed Curtis to shine like never before, and the long-time star finally got the award recognition that she so rightly deserved.

Dark Winds director Chris Eyre is eager for a Season 3 and confident that there is ample source material to continue the compelling saga.

In an interview with Variety, he said, "Hopefully we’ll get a third season, there’s enough source material. I think Tony wrote 18 books. And his daughter, Anne Hillerman, is continuing the series, and she has about five books, I think. So there’s 23 novels to cull from."

Related: Why Critically Acclaimed Discovery Isn't the Star Trek Fans Wanted

What Is Dark Winds About?

The critically acclaimed TV series, based on the Tony Hillerman mystery novels, has been a standout success with its unique focus on Native representation. The show is set in the early 1970s on the Navajo reservation, following the journey of tribal police lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, played by Zahn McClarnon. Season 2 delves even deeper into Leaphorn's personal quest for answers surrounding his son's mysterious death.

The cyberpunk genre is perhaps now more popular and relevant than ever, and the same can be said for actor Keanu Reeves. Together they would prove to be a powerful pairing with the sci-fi masterpiece The Matrix and the recent hit videogame Cyberpunk 2077.

However, that was not the case in 1995, when Johnny Mnemonic was released to confounded and indifferent audiences. How did the combined efforts of a newly minted A-list star, a noted visionary artist, and a pioneer in cyberpunk fiction result in a target of ridicule and a box office disappointment?

Jack in and fill your head with Wtf Happened to this Movie!

The cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction can be broadly characterized with the theme of “high tech and low life” and it typically involves futuristic dystopian societies, advanced science and technology, body enhancements, dominant corporations, and sharp class disparity. Its origins and influences can be traced back...

Clockwise from top left: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 (Disney), The Shining (Warner Bros.), Creed (Warner Bros.), Goodfellas (Warner Bros.) Graphic: AVClub All hail the oner! Moviegoers love great acting, brilliant visual effects, a soaring score, and palpable chemistry between the stars, but few things wow an audience more than the single-take shot,...

Clockwise from top left: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 (Disney), The Shining (Warner Bros.), Creed (Warner Bros.), Goodfellas (Warner Bros.)Graphic: AVClub

All hail the oner! Moviegoers love great acting, brilliant visual effects, a soaring score, and palpable chemistry between the stars, but few things wow an audience more than the single-take shot,...

VFX artists are blown away by the practical effects used in The Ten Commandments, which was released 67 years ago. The 1956 film features Planet of the Apes star Charlton Heston as Moses and adapts the Book of Exodus from the Bible. The film includes a famous scene where Moses parts the Red Sea so he can take the Hebrews to safety.

Corridor Crew has released an episode of VFX Artists React on YouTube, which sees three VFX artists commentating on Moses parting the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments.

The segment, which starts at 15:24, gives insight into how Paramount used vast amounts of real water and editing tricks to make it look like Moses was parting the Red Sea. The VFX artists praise the movie for its use of practical effects to create such an impressive scene on a massive scale.

Charlton Heston's History With Practical VFX Explained

The effects...

In 1958, Orson Welles' Touch of Evil hit theaters. It was dark, violent, deeply subversive, and ultimately the end of the noir movement that began in the early 40s. Across those nearly two decades, plenty of filmmakers used the crime genre to plunge into humanity's darkness without violating the Hays Code. Then, in the late 50s, the light ceased seeping through those Venetian blinds. The noir was dead.

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

Japan Society

One of Japan’s greatest directors, Shinji Somai, is subject of a retrospective that features many of his films in new restorations. Read our piece on Somai here.

Museum of Modern Art

A Rialto Pictures retrospective offers a smorgasbord of classic films, including The Conversation and That Obscure Object of Desire on 35mm.

Bam

A series on actor-director jobs includes Touch of Evil, Do the Right Thing, and Playtime on 35mm.

Anthology Film Archives

Three by Jean Cocteau screen in Essential Cinema, while Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One screens and a Jean Rouch retrospective begins.

Film at Lincoln Center

György Fehér’s remarkable, Béla Tarr-produced Twilight continues in a new restoration (read Z.W. Lewis on the film and its history here).

Museum of the Moving Image

Major League and a print of The Untouchables screen on Saturday.

Roxy Cinema

Schrader’s Affliction,...

As perhaps the original modern auteur, Orson Welles had the start of a career that people can only dream of. After directing the timeless and groundbreaking classic Citizen Kane, Welles failed to reach the same artistic heights in the eyes of the public in its aftermath. The actor, producer, writer, and director was a maverick in the movie industry, frequently in conflict with the studio over creative control to the point that he eventually abandoned Hollywood for his own filmmaking ventures in Europe. Regardless of what studios were demanding from him, Welles could never compromise his vision, continuing to center his films around complex characters, the dark side of America, and unique riffs on Shakespeare. From a distance, the puzzling outlier in Welles' filmography would have to be Touch of Evil, a pulpy film noir about mischief and mayhem at the U.S-Mexico border. What appears to be an artistic...

Philippe’s newly released con faces heavy pressure not to go straight as his family grows ever more estranged and the film runs low on fresh ideas

The plot manoeuvres in this léger noir are so boilerplate and predictable that viewers are likely to find themselves expecting much bigger twists than are actually delivered. Surely that nice guy will turn out to be a double-crosser, you assume? Or you might imagine one of the vampy women will turn out to be a triple-crossing femme fatale. But no, it’s all pretty much on the level, which makes the snippets of classic Hollywood crime thrillers such as Touch of Evil, just glimpsed on a TV set, feel seriously undermining, gesturing as they do towards much more sophisticated works of cinema than we have here.

Ryan Phillippe stars as Miller, the titular locksmith, who in the opening scene has been forced into...

While we’ve known the results of Jeanne Dielman Tops Sight and Sound‘s 2022 Greatest Films of All-Time List”>Sight & Sound’s once-in-a-decade greatest films of all-time poll for a few months now, the recent release of the individual ballots has given data-crunching cinephiles a new opportunity to dive deeper. We have Letterboxd lists detailing all 4,400+ films that received at least one vote and another expanding the directors poll, spreadsheets calculating every entry, and now a list ranking how many votes individual directors received for their films.

Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.

Check out the list below,...

Auteurs and Hollywood don't always mix. Stanley Kubrick put some considerable distance between himself and the studio system after being required to stick closely to Dalton Trumbo's "Spartacus" script in 1960 — heading to England to secure funding and creative control on 1962's "Lolita." But he wasn't the first American filmmaker to flee his homeland in search of artistic freedom and funding.

Orson Welles is perhaps the ultimate example of a director clashing with a filmmaking industry unaligned with his sophisticated artistic ambitions. After his first film, "Citizen Kane," debuted in 1941 and proved a financial failure, Welles had to fight for financing and artistic control on future projects. Rko, which had funded "Citizen Kane," renegotiated Welles' contract to remove the unprecedented creative control he was initially afforded. And even though the film would eventually become regarded as one of, if not the finest movie ever made, the director would regularly find...

We love this Fritz Lang western even though it’s not particularly good; only in hindsight do we realize that the brilliant director’s intentions may have been compromised. High-key lighting does Marlene Dietrich no favors, but she scores good scenes performing with Arthur Kennedy (revenged crazed cowpoke) and Mel Ferrer (tranquilized gunslinger). Lang fans will be impressed by the gaudy, over-bright restored Technicolor, and we can always blame Howard Hughes.

Rancho Notorious

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1952 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 89 min. / Available at Amazon.com / General site Wac-Amazon / Street Date January 10, 2023 / 21.99

Starring: Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy, Mel Ferrer, Lloyd Gough, William Frawley, Jack Elam, George Reeves, Frank Ferguson, Dan Seymour, John Doucette, Dick Elliott, Russell Johnson, Charlita.

Cinematography: Hal Mohr

Production Designer: Wiard Ihnen

Dietrich’s wardrobe designed by: Don Loper

Editorial Supervisor: Otto Ludwig

Original Music: Emil Newman

Written by Daniel Taradash, Silvia Richards

Produced by Howard Welsch

Directed...

The 2023 Oscar nominations are finally here, full of surprises across the board, both positive (Andrea Riseborough! Brian Tyree Henry!) and unfortunate (where's the love for "Rrr" or "Decision to Leave?"). Some truly excellent films received well-deserved and ample recognition, like the wonderfully ecstatic "Everything Everywhere All at Once" and the haunting "The Banshees of Inisherin." One not-so-surprising turn of events is the Best Actor nomination of Brendan Fraser in Darren Aronofsky's controversial entry "The Whale," based on the play by Samuel D. Hunter.

"The Whale" follows Charlie, a 600-pound English instructor with a good and vulnerable heart, who is literally eating himself to death following the tragic loss of his boyfriend and his estrangement from his furious daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink). The film sees Charlie routinely embarrassed, rejected, engaged in acts of clear self-hatred, and on the receiving end of a parade of hate speech over his weight in...

The Brendan Fraser renaissance has definitely begun, if not quite the way we all would've wanted. Fraser, the beloved star of '90s films like "Encino Man," "George of the Jungle," and "The Mummy," has been steadily making a comeback after going through hard times in both his personal and professional lives in the 2000s. Building on his well-received work in TV series like "Trust" and "The Affair", the actor now finds himself among the front-runners for this year's Best Actor Oscar prize thanks to his role in Darren Aronofsky's new film, "The Whale."

This is where things get tricky. Written by Samuel D. Hunter and adapted from his 2012 stage play of the same name, "The Whale" sees Fraser donning a fat suit — a controversial practice in and of itself that has come under greater scrutiny of late — to play Charlie, a 600-pound reclusive professor who teaches English literature...

A Hollywood Christmas is a romantic comedy starring Jessika Van and Josh Swickard. This quirky Christmas movie for the entire family is directed by Alex Ranarivelo.

Christmas in the studio.

Premise

Jessica, a young, up-and-coming filmmaker in Hollywood has made a name for herself directing Christmas movies. But when handsome network executive Christopher shows up threatening to halt production on her latest movie, Jessica’s assistant, Reena, points out the irony: Jessica isn’t just trying to save her Christmas movie, she’s actually living in one. Jessica must now juggle all the classic tropes—her actors falling in and out of love, a wayward elf dog, and her own stirring romantic feelings for her perceived nemesis—in order to get her movie and her life to their happy endings.

Movie Review

Do you remember The Player (1992)? It was a close to brilliant movie in which Robert Altman would elaborate his close up shots,...

It’s the list that keeps on giving. Yesterday, Sight and Sound announced their once-in-a-decade critic and filmmaker polls of the greatest films of all-time and while we debate what was added and dropped, specific ballots are starting to roll out. You can find most critics (including our own Nick Newman’s list) on their respective social media channels, and ahead of the full ballots being unveiled next month, the publication is starting to share a few.

First up, we have lists from Martin Scorsese and Bong Joon Ho. As usual, with his breadth of cinema appreciation, the former couldn’t stick to just ten movies, and it’s most interesting to compare what has changed since his 2012 list. In 2022, Diary of a Country Priest, Ikiru, and Ordet were all added, while none dropped off. In terms of Scorsese’s own films on the overall list, Raging Bull was dropped,...

It’s been less than 24 hours since the announcement of Sight and Sound’s greatest films of all-time polls. While we have a decade more of discourse, the first reactions were expectedly divisive when certain 21st-century films make the list and other venerated classics are dropped. As interesting as the top 100 is to discuss, we wanted to look a bit deeper to see how the reception of certain films shifted over the last decade, with a rundown of the films that were added and those removed.

As one can see below, about a quarter of the list switched up this time, with major showings for a number of women filmmakers—Agnès Varda, Chantal Akerman, Julie Dash, Jane Campion, Barbara Loden, Céline Sciamma, Maya Daren, and Věra Chytilová. Wong Kar-wai, Hayao Miyazaki, Charles Burnett, Spike Lee, Jordan Peele, Barry Jenkins, and Bong Joon-ho were also well-represented.

The films that were dropped...

The results of Sight and Sound’s once-a-decade Greatest Film of All Time poll are in.

Every 10 years, the British Film Institute-published magazine asks experts, including critics, academics, distributors, writers, curators, archivists and programmers, to send their personal top 10 favourite films.

In 2012, the winner was Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, which has been bumped into second place.

The 2022 poll, which recorded responses from just under double the amount that voted a decade ago, was topped by Chantal Akerman’s minimalistic Belgian drama Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975).

Akerman has become the first female director to have a film top the poll in its 70-year history. In the 2012 list, the film finished in 36th place.

The three-hour, 21-minute-long film, which was directed by Akerman when she was 25, charts the daily routine of a widow (Delphine Seyrig) over the course of three days.

Rounding out the top five is Orson Welles’s...