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The first film in Fernando Di Leo’s so-called Milieu trilogy, Caliber 9 explores the criminal underbelly of Milan, a city more typically associated with the modish institutions of high finance and haute couture. The film’s full Italian title, Milan Caliber 9, emphasizes the centrality of location, while also referring to a collection of stories by crime writer Giorgio Scerbanenco, several of which Di Leo loosely adapted for the film. Generically, Caliber 9 is a fascinating mashup of the gritty poliziotteschi genre and stylish neo-noirs in the vein of Jean-Pierre Melville. Its tight-lipped protagonist certainly seems patterned after Alain Delon’s buttoned-down hitman in Le Samouraï, right down to the brown trench coat.

Di Leo’s film opens with a brilliantly executed pre-credits sequence that details a laundered currency handoff gone wrong, as well as the mob’s violent reprisals, along the way providing a handy cross-section of Milan’s criminal demimonde,...

I have Quentin Tarantino to thank for my love of Henry Silva. Many, many moons ago, Tarantino would come to Austin and screen his personal collection of 16mm and 35mm prints of his favorite films, all to support the Austin Film Society. If it wasn't for seeing those obscure movies from the '50s, '60s, and '70s with Tarantino introducing them all, like the most excitable film professor ever, I probably wouldn't have discovered just how much of a badass Henry Silva was, most likely only recognizing him from the original "The Manchurian Candidate" or maybe as one of the villains in "Dick Tracy." 

As we recognize his contribution to the cinematic arts in the wake of his passing at the nice old age of 94, it's probably best to state up front that Silva was a ruthless presence on-screen. He just looked like a killer and that inherent...

Henry Silva, who starred in Johnny Cool, fought Frank Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate and was one of Sinatra’s fellow thieves in Ocean’s 11, among dozens of screen roles spanning a half-century, died Wednesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA. He was 95.

An actor whose distinctive face often led to typecasting as the heavy, his 130-plus film and TV credits also include The Bravados, starring Gregory Peck (1958); Cinderfella, with Jerry Lewis (1960); the Rat Pack-led Western Sergeants 3 (1962); Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979); Love and Bullets with Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland and Rod Steiger (1979); the Burt Reynolds pics Sharky’s Machine (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1982); Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy (1990); Steven Seagal’s first film Above the Law (1988); and Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai with Forest Whitaker (1999).

Along with the title role opposite Elizabeth Montgomery in Johnny Cool...

Henry Silva, a character actor known for playing bad guys and gangsters in movies like “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Ocean’s 11,” has died.

Silva died Wednesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, his son Scott Silva confirmed to Variety. He was 95.

The stage and screen actor, whose career spanned 50 years and 140 TV and film credits, was also an honorary member of The Rat Pack. He starred alongside Frank Sinatra in both “Ocean’s 11” (1960) and “The Manchurian Candidate,” (1962) in which he played one of the 11 casino robbers in the classic caper film. Also in 1962, they both appeared in “Sergeants 3” and would go on to collaborate on the TV movie “Contract on Cherry Street” (1977) and “Cannonball Run II” (1984) with Dean Martin.

Also Read:

Henry Fuhrmann, Longtime LA Times Editor Who Championed Inclusive Writing in Journalism, Dies at 65

In the wake of the news,...

Click here to read the full article.

Henry Silva, the rugged New York actor who portrayed heavies and heroes of various ethnicities in a career highlighted by turns in A Hatful of Rain, The Manchurian Candidate and Johnny Cool, has died. He was 95.

Silva died Wednesday of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, his son Scott Silva told The Hollywood Reporter.

Silva also played the Draconian commander “Killer” Kane in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), just one in a lineup of his bad guys seen in The Tall T (1957), The Bravados (1958), Il Boss (1973), Sharky’s Machine (1981), Above the Law (1988), Dick Tracy (1990) and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999).

“Henry Silva is one of those guys you most likely will recognize even if you don’t know his name,” onetime Crimespree magazine writer Dave Wahlman wrote in 2016. “His face is something straight...

The story of Casablanca Records has been told by many — in books, articles and by the larger-than-life characters who lived through the salad days of mid- to late-1970s rock and disco music. Its ascent as a hit factory — home to Kiss, Donna Summer, the Village People and Parliament Funkadelic — was short and swift and substantial.

Founded in 1974 by Neil Bogart, who’d had limited success as a record man at Buddha Records, a sublabel of MGM which had signed Gladys Knight and the Pips and the Ohio Express, Casablanca had the reputation of a place of excess. Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll was the mantra of the day, and certainly so for the record company that contributed the first smash extended single to clubs and radio stations all over the world — Summer’s 17-minute “Love to Love You,” produced by Giorgio Moroder and first released in 1975.

As legend...

No two ways about it: April’s a great month for the Criterion Channel, which (among other things; more in a second) adds two recent favorites. We’re thrilled at the SVOD premiere of Hamaguchi’s entrancing Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, our #3 of 2021, and Bruno Dumont’s lacerating France, featuring Léa Seydoux’s finest performance yet.

Ethan Hawke’s Adventures in Moviegoing runs the gamut from Eagle Pennell’s Last Night at the Alamo to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, while a 14-film John Ford retro (mostly) skips westerns altogether. And no notes on the Delphine Seyrig retro—multiple by Akerman, Ulrike Ottinger, Duras, a smattering of Buñuel, and Seyrig’s own film Be Pretty and Shut Up! That of all things might be the crown jewl.

See the full list of April titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.

—

3 Bad Men, John Ford, 1926

Aar paar, Guru Dutt,...

Out of the myriad mavericks and miscreants that populate the poliziotteschi—a genre of Italian crime films that flourished locally from the late 1960s to the early 1980s and subsequently attained cult status thanks in large part to the advocacy of filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and publications like Nocturno Cinema—Luca Canali of The Italian Connection (1972) is among those most destined for immortality.Incarnated by Mario Adorf, Luca exudes unruliness the moment he appears on screen. Bedecked with greased-back hair, gaudy suits, and a thick build, Luca manifests not so much slickness (or a certain ideal thereof) as a fumbling attempt at it, a performance of wealth and prestige that feels tenuous on account of its excesses. Despite his initially jaunty demeanor, Luca projects a vague sense of social precarity, an impression enhanced by various characters verbally demeaning him as a “nobody” compared to more “respectable” figures in the community.

Sean Baker returns in the first trailer for “Red Rocket,” which had its world premiere earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival and has since played top festivals like Telluride and NYFF. “Red Rocket” is Baker’s follow-up to “The Florida Project,” which also had the backing of A24 and went on to earn Willem Dafoe an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. This go-around Baker once again is working with nonprofessional actors and at least one semi-recognizable face in “Scary Movie” actor Simon Rex.

“Red Rocket” stars Rex as Mikey Saber, a porn star who winds up back in his hometown of Texas. It’s here where Mikey clashes with with his estranged wife (Bree Elrod) and connects with a young local named Strawberry (Suzanna Son) who might just be Mikey’s big ticket back into the adult film business. A24 bills the movie as “a darkly funny,...

Former porn star Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) might be “blessed” — at least according to the sore underage girl he’s grooming during a post-coital chat in the flatbed of her pickup truck — but the reality of the situation is that the guy is nothing less than a living curse. He’s a big-dicked, self-obsessed, hyper-opportunistic hex of a man whose puppy dog con artist schtick is so transparent that even naive teenagers can see right through it, which is exactly why people lower their guard and let him. Into their houses; into their panties; into their dreams for the future that Mikey incepts into their heads for his own benefit. And he doesn’t stop trying to weasel his way deeper into any of those things for a single minute of Sean Baker’s utterly singular and weirdly lovable “Red Rocket,” .

It begins with the blaring shriek of Nsync’s...

Damian Kavanagh, the managing director of Peaky Blinders and Netflix’s Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father producer Tiger Aspect, is stepping down after nearly two years.

Kavanagh joined Tiger Aspect in 2019 after a spell running BBC Three, where he commissioned shows including Fleabag. His departure follows Tiger Aspect’s parent company Endemol Shine being acquired by Banijay.

Banijay UK’s executive chairman Peter Salmon said Kavanagh had resigned after the pair had engaged in a “fair bit” of discussion about his future. Kavanagh said he is leaving to pursue some “new adventures.”

“We will be very sorry to see him go, but I’m pleased to say that he has agreed to stay on until the end of November to help Lucinda and I with the transition to life post Dk,” Salmon said in a note to staff.

Kavanagh said: “It has been a real privilege to lead Tiger...

You’ve asked questions. Prepare for the answers.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

The Beguiled (1971)

Tenet (2021? Maybe?)

Smokey Is The Bandit (1983)

Robin Hood (2010)

Hollywood Boulevard (1976)

The Devils (1971)

Song of the South (1946)

Gremlins (1984)

Dillinger (1973)

Marcello I’m So Bored (1966)

Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

Big Wednesday (1978)

Swamp Thing (1982)

Forrest Gump (1994)

Payback (1999)

Bell, Book And Candle (1958)

Blowup (1966)

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Medium Cool (1969)

25th Hour (2002)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Palm Springs (2020)

Groundhog Day (1993)

Mandy (2018)

The Sadist (1963)

Spider Baby (1968)

Night Tide (1960)

Stark Fear

Carnival of Souls (1962)

The Devil’s Messenger (1961)

Ms. 45 (1981)

Léolo (1992)

The Howling (1981)

Showgirls (1995)

Green Book (2018)

The Last Hurrah (1958)

The Best Man (1964)

Advise and Consent (1962)

The Candidate (1972)

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Seven Days In May (1964)

The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)

The Man (1972)

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)

Four Lions (2010)

Pump Up The Volume (1990)

Nightmare In The Sun (1965)

The Wild Angels (1966)

The Omega Man (1971)

The Nanny (1965)

Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man...

Welcome back for the final day of Daily Dead’s 2017 Holiday Gift Guide, dear readers! It’s been a wild ride over the last few weeks, with everything from toys and games to apparel to enamel pins to artwork and so much more, and for Day 11, we’re wrapping things up with a look at some of the best genre-related vinyl and video game releases from the last 365 days.

And since today is our final 2017 Holiday Gift Guide entry, here’s one last reminder: Daily Dead has once again put together some really cool Holiday Gift Guide prize packs this year, and for your chance to win one, just send an email to contest@dailydead.com with “Holiday Gift Guide” in the subject line and be sure to include your full name and mailing address for your shot at some free horror-tastic goodies (limited to those who are eighteen years...

Vault Of Horror – The Italian Connection To be unleashed on Dec 8 20 Classic tracks from the golden era of Italian Horror, featuring composers including Stelvio Cipriani, Fabio Frizzi & Ennio Morricone, with extensive biographical notes on each track by FrightFest’s Alan Jones The golden era of Italian horror dates from the early 60’s …

The post Vault of Horror – The Italian Connection to be released Dec 8 courtesy of Demon Music first appeared on Hnn | Horrornews.net 2017 - Official Horror News Site...

During the early 60’s to the mid 80’s Italian horror was in its heyday – directors such as Mario Bava, Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Antonio Margheriti, Umberto Lenzi, Joe D’Amato, and Enzo. G. Castellari directed some of the most outrageous terror films ever. Films that, at the time, pushed boundaries, depicting some of the most stylish and horrific on screen images. But at the same time these films included some of the most elegant and beautiful scores, scores which gained a cult following then and to this day – and they remain as popular now as they’ve ever been.

In comes Vault of Horror – The Italian Connection from Demon Records…

Featuring twenty of the most amazing film Italian genre themes ever, it is a heady mix of funk, disco, electronic and prog rock; featuring composers such as Stelvio Cipriani, Franco Micalizzi, Roberto Donati, Carlo Rustichelli, Nico Fidenco, Ennio Morricone, Fabio Frizzi,...

Review by Roger Carpenter

Italian director Fernando Di Leo is best known for his violent poliziotteschi, or crime films, like Caliber 9, The Italian Connection, The Boss, and Kidnap Syndicate, to name a few. However, like the majority of working Italian directors in the 70’s and 80’s, he worked in many genres including WWII pictures (Code Name, Red Roses), horror (Slaughter Hotel; Madness), and erotic dramas (Burn, Boy, Burn; A Wrong Way to Love). Seduction falls into this latter category.

Maurice Ronet stars as Giuseppe Lagan, a European playboy come back from Paris to settle his dead father’s affairs. He arrives in Catania, Sicily, and immediately rekindles his old friendship with Alfredo (Pino Caruso), a schoolmate of Giuseppe’s who is now a prominent jeweler in town. As they reminisce about their old flames, Giuseppe asks about Caterina (Lisa Gastoni), an ex-lover he’s never forgotten. It seems Caterina...

I admit it, I’m a sentimental old fart. I get choked up and maudlin very often, when I think of family and friends, a moment in time when I realized the tragedy life can bring to us, or the joy. I tear up at the movies regularly, or reading certain passages in books. But I never thought I would weep at the loss of a video system. If you read We Are Movie Geeks regularly you must be aware of the video revolution of the 1980s, when VHS players and recorders found a place in almost every home in America. I hope you recall the early days when VHS was neck and neck with Betamax, a technically better system. Remember the days of Mom and Pop video rental stores when almost anyone could open a store front, and with a collection of VHS tapes start making money? As one of the many,...

The year is 2015. Time travel has not yet been invented, but it will be in the future. Hit men known as "loopers" operate in the shadows, knocking off targets for mob bosses decades in the future — and then, eventually, their own older selves. But now one looper has come out of the shadows. He is 21-year-old Swede Konrad Annerud, and he has been tasked with hunting and destroying his 40-year-old self. There's only one question: Can he accomplish his mission before his older self sets in motion a series of events that will turn one ordinary model into a telekinetic supervillain?...

They came to the sanitarium seeking help, but the women in 1971′s Slaughter Hotel have unknowingly checked into a building they may never leave alive. In director Fernando Di Leo’s Italian slasher film, a lunatic with an axe stalks the women of the sanitarium, pushing their sanities — and their bodies — to the breaking point. Raro Video USA is now bringing this bloody Italian shocker to Blu-ray and DVD in the Us.

Also known as La bestia uccide a sangue freddo, Slaughter Hotel stars the legendary Klaus Kinski, Margaret Lee, and Rosalba Neri. Blu-ray.com reports that the fresh high definition transfer of the film’s original 35mm negative will be hitting Blu-ray in the Us this September. It will also be released on DVD at the same time.

“From the maestro of mayhem, Fernando Di Leo (Rulers of the City, Manhunt) comes one of the sleaziest and nastiest slasher films ever made.

A still from Lady from Shanghai

What:

Noir Film Festival

American Center in collaboration with Cinedarbaar celebrates ‘Film Noir’ through screening of 8 specially curated movies.

When:

8-10 May.

Entry:

By invitation/ Pass (information below)

Venue:

American Center Auditorium

24, Kasturba Gandi Marg

New Delhi – 110001

About the event:

8 May, 3:30 pm

Double Indemnity by Billy Wilder (1944), 107 Min

An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator’s suspicions.

8 May, 6:15 pm

The Killers by Robert Siodmak (1946), 103Min

Hit men kill an unresisting victim, and investigator Reardon uncovers his past involvement with beautiful, deadly Kitty Collins.

9 May, 3:30 pm

The Lady from Shanghai by Orson Welles (1947), 87 Min

Fascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O’Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot.

9 May, 6:15 pm

Thieves Highway by Jules Dassin (1949), 94 Min

A war-veteran-turned-truck driver attempts to...

Exclusive: Starz has put in development Most Wanted, a drama project from writer Chris Collins, director Ken Fink and author Dan Chaon. Set in the Great Plains during the 1970s, Most Wanted traces the rise and demise of Nate Daniels, a talented and prolific bank robber who finds himself on a collision course with his family and crew as he becomes one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted. “This period in American history was an incredibly rich and complex time, and we saw Most Wanted as an opportunity to bring these stories to life,” said Starz managing director Carmi Zlotnik. “We are excited to give this project the premium cable platform and to be in business with Chris, Ken and Dan.” Sons Of Anarchy executive producer Collins will serve as showrunner and will executive produce with Fink, while Chaon will co-executive produce. UTA-repped Collins recently sold conspiracy drama Anonymous...

TNT has put in development Anonymous, an action-driven drama from Sons Of Anarchy executive producer Chris Collins. Wild West Prods is in negotiations to board the project, about an ex-special ops soldier who discovers a global coverup that forces him to go off the grid to help those who cannot help themselves. Collins, repped by UTA and attorney Joel McKuin, will executive produce with Wild West’s Peter Billingsley and Victoria Vaughn. Collins, whose previous credits include The Wire, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Starz’s Crash, has several other projects in development including music-driven period event series Hit Men at Spike TV produced by Leslie Greif and Gene Simmons.

Hit men getting into trouble by A) retiring, B) entangling their personal lives with their work or C) both is such a cinematic standby, it’s a wonder the Assassin’s Union doesn’t make them all get insurance to cover it. Danny Dyer’s signed on to play just such a troubled killer in Assassin.He’s only ticking one of the boxes in Jk Amalou’s film, which finds him as a professional contract slayer who discovers his latest target is the estranged father of the girl he loves. What a palaver, eh? If only there was a proper agony advice column he could write to for a way out of the situation. Or maybe he could watch Grosse Point Blank for tips."Jk has written a brilliantly slick script and I cannot wait to start work with him, he’s a force of nature of a filmmaker,...

Producer J.J. Abrams is hoping to join forces with Stephen King for a TV project.

Abrams' company, Bad Robot, is in negotiations to buy the rights to King's novel "11/22/63" with an eye toward adapting it as a miniseries or TV series, Deadline reports. The book is about a man who discovers a time portal and goes to the past to try to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963.

There's a bit of an existing Abrams-King connection already. King has sung the praises of "Lost," which Abrams co-created, in the past, and the show incorporated a number of references to King's writing in its narrative. There was even speculation that King wrote the "Lost" tie-in novel "Bad Twin," although that turned out not to be the case.

More TV news and notes:

- Two quickly canceled shows from earlier this season, ABC's "Zero Hour" and NBC's "Do No Harm,...

The male-centric Spike TV has filled its line-up with reality fare in the last few years, via shows like tattoo competition "Ink Masters," "World's Worst Tenants" and "Impact Wrestling." But today the network announced its intention to reenter the world of scripted programming with five "special-event series" (which seems to be another term for miniseries) in development from the likes of Raw TV, the team responsible for doc "The Imposter," Kiss frontman Gene Simmons and "Crash" writer Bobby Moresco. The move back into narrative fare comes as Spike TV, home in the past to "Blade: The Series" and "Stripperella," attempts to expand to a broader, less testosteroney audience. The network's last scripted project was 2007's eight-episode hostage drama "The Kill Point," starring Donnie Wahlberg, Michael K. Williams and John Leguizamo. Here's a look at the five series Spike TV has in development (all working titles). Hit Men From Leslie Greif ("Hatfields & McCoys"), Chris.

Today let's dig into a more obscure entry in the giallo genre, a sleazy and totally weird thriller starring the legendary Klaus Kinski. While many fans of classic horror know Kinski for his career-defining performance in the title role of Werner Herzog's amazing 1979 version of Nosferatu, he's appeared in tons of other horror films including Crawlspace, Creature and Jack the Ripper; he's played Renfield, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Marquis de Sade, and often appeared in the films of Jess Franco. He was also totally insane, and his reputation as a wild man and notorious womanizer often overshadowed his prolific film career, a genre-spanning body of work which ran the spectrum from classics to crap. His resume also includes a few giallo titles, like this oddball 1971 production (originally titled The Cold-Blooded Beast, also Asylum Erotica) from director Fernando Di Leo, best known for the 1972 crime thriller The Italian Connection.

Every year, the festival circuit kicks off with a huge bang – Sundance.

It’s one of the biggest festivals for independent films around the world, taking over Park City, Ut every January, to bring together some of the biggest and finest names in the independent filmmaking world.

The line-up has now been announced for the Us and World Competition categories, along with Next, giving us a great first look at what we have to look forward to in January – and, looking ahead, at some of the films that will be coming to Sundance London in April 2013.

The first slew of films show incredible promise, with David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, James Ponsoldt’s The Spectacular Now, and Lynn Shelton’s Touchy Feely leading the Us Dramatic category with so much potential.

Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints features an all-star cast, headed up by Rooney Mara,...

The 2013 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 17-27 and today the fest unveiled their competition slates including film in the Dramatic, Documentary, World Cinema Dramatic, Word Cinema Documentary and Next competitions. As always, these lineups are incredibly hard to predict, but amid this group there are a few interesting titles. The Dramatic competition includes Jill Soloway's Afternoon Delight, a dark comedy starring Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, Josh Radnor and Jane Lynch that centers on a L.A. housewife who hires a stripper as a live-in nanny. I had not heard of David Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints, but a cast that includes Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Nate Parker and Keith Carradine is immediately appealing, while the plot compares itself to Terrence Malick's Badlands and Bonnie & Clyde telling a story of Bob Muldoon and Ruth Guthrie, two young outlaws who are brought down by the authorities in the hills of Texas.

We know you guys are always on the lookout for rare and unusual films so when we got the announcement that RaroVideo will be releasing Fernando Di Leo's Madness, starring Joe Dallesandro, in August, of course we had to share the news!

From the Press Release:

Hailed by cinephiles for expertly restoring rare films by influential filmmakers and publishing them with compelling extras, Italian film boutique RaroVideo announces Fernando Di Leo's Madness (1980) DVD release on August 14, 2012.

The film stars Joe Dallesandro, better known as the “Little Joe” mentioned in Lou Reed’s hit 1972 song “Walk on the Wild Side.” Dallesandro is considered by many to be the most famous male sex symbol of American underground films of the 20th century, having starred in Flesh, Trash, and Heat among many others. A photograph taken by Andy Warhol of Dallesandro’s crotch bulge encased in a tight-fitting pair of jeans...

RaroVideo:Referenced in Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 2, Uomini si Nasce Poliziotti si Muore (Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man, 1976) opens with an insane motorcycle chase that was filmed in rush hour in downtown Rome with no permission from the local authorities. To top it off, this is one of the most violent and unconventional Italian style action films of its time. The credit goes to the director, Ruggero Doedato, best known for his infamous and censored film Cannibal Holocaust, and the scriptwriter Fernando Di Leo, author and director of some of the best Italian gangster films from the 70s such as Caliber 9, The Boss and The Italian Connection. Never before in film history have we seen such nihilistic and pathological behavior...

Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases to Blu-Ray Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Black Moon: The Criterion Collection (1975)

Directed by: Louis Malle

Starring: Cathryn Harrison, Therese Giehse

Criterion.com Synopsis: Louis Malle meets Lewis Carroll in this bizarre and bewitching trip down the rabbit hole. After skirting the horrors of a mysterious war being waged in the countryside, beautiful young Lily (Cathryn Harrison) takes refuge in a remote farmhouse, where she becomes embroiled in the surreal domestic life of an extremely unconventional family. Evocatively shot by cinematographer Sven Nykvist, Black Moon is a Freudian tale of adolescent sexuality set in a post-apocalyptic world of shifting identities and talking animals. It is one of Malle’s most experimental films and a cinematic daydream like no other.

Camille 2000: Extended Version (1969)

Directed by: Radley Metzger

Starring: Daniel Gaubert, Nino Castelnuovo

IMDb.com Synopsis: Marguerite, a beautiful woman of affairs, falls for the young and promising Armand,...

Grades: Caliber 9: B+; The Italian Connection: B+; The Boss: B; Rulers Of The City: B- During Italian cinema’s boom years of the ’60s and ’70s, producers specialized in cranking out action films that could export easily, even if that meant tackling genres that weren’t exactly locally grown—like Westerns. Writer-director Fernando Di Leo worked with Sergio Leone on the earliest spaghetti Westerns, then tried his hand at a variety of genres, having his greatest successes with erotic dramas and the two-fisted crime pictures known as poliziotteschi. Unlike the Westerns, the best Italian crime movies came packed with ...

In the 1970’s, the Italian cinema went through something of a late-stage renascence. Masters like Vittorio De Sica were still working, but you had new blood like Pier Paolo Pasolini and Bernardo Bertolucci handling the art-house circuit, Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci leading with the Gialos, and Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci making their spaghetti westerns. The was a fruitful field of cinema – but like any culture that wasn’t born of America, many of their best films were mostly screened by their country, and that which came over was often horribly dubbed and marketed as schlock. Though a number of Fernando Di Leo films made their way stateside – partly because of B stars like Henry Silva, Woody Strode and Jack Palance – it took the attentions of people like Quentin Tarantino and interested parties to help get some of his films on DVD stateside with the correct audio and aspect...

A look at what's new on DVD today:

"Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection"

Directed by Fernando Di Leo

Released by RaroVideo

Fans of badass '70s cinema and the stoic Henry Silva rejoice! Underappreciated Italian crime master director Fernando Di Leo finally comes to the U.S. via this set of four films -- "Caliber 9," "The Italian Connection," "The Boss," and "Rulers of the City" -- that shows what made him an influence of filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino and John Woo.

"The Absent" (2011)

Directed by Sage Bannick

Released by Passion River

Twin brothers are bonded by the experience of having their parents try to kill them for insurance money, only to become killers themselves in this slasher film from Sage Bannick.

"Be My Teacher" (2011)

Directed by Lakisha R. Lemons

Released by Maverick Entertainment Group

A student's (Derek Lee Nixon) flirtations with his English teacher (Lateace Towns-Cuellar) has serious...

70s Italian gangsters! It's a world where men speak with their glares and their fists and their bullets, and women do well to stay out of the way, preferably in bed, eager for sex. It's the world of Fernando Di Leo, and it's captured in a four-disc set coming to Region 1 DVD from Raro Video USA on Tuesday. Entitled Fernando Di Leo: The Italian Crime Collection, the set features fine-looking transfers of Caliber 9, The Italian Connection, The Boss, and Rulers of the City, all directed by Di Leo and starring a handful of American stars (Lionel Stander, Henry Silva, Woody Strode, Richard Conte, Jack Palance) alongside stalworth Italian actors (Mario Adorf, Gastone Moschin, Gianni Garko) and stark raving beauties (Barbara Bouchet, Antonia Santilli,...

<p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wDOXQ-jM468lEYPw9-fpK8Jka74/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wDOXQ-jM468lEYPw9-fpK8Jka74/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wDOXQ-jM468lEYPw9-fpK8Jka74/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/wDOXQ-jM468lEYPw9-fpK8Jka74/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><span class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" style="display: inline;"><img alt="RaroVideo.jpg" src="http://twitchfilm.com/news/RaroVideo.jpg" class="mt-image-left" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt;" width="190" height="158" /></span> <div>Exciting news for fans of international cult film with word that Italy's RaroVideo - one of the finest boutique video labels in the world - is coming to the Us. I have a handful of Raro titles in my collection at the moment and their reputation for delivering the highest quality product, both in terms of transfers and extras, is very well deserved in my opinion. Here's the official announcement:<br /><br /><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><i>Hailed by cinephiles for expertly restoring rare films by influential filmmakers and publishing them with compelling extras, Italian DVD label RaroVideo announces the company will begin distributing its acclaimed DVDs in the U.S. for the first time ever in February 2011 through E One Entertainment.</i><br /><br /><i>To launch RaroVideo in the U.S., the company will spotlight two powerhouse directors of Italian cinema with Federico Fellini's hard-to-find The Clowns (1970) and The Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection, a four-disc set that...

It’s Woody Strode day, today, on TCM, as I mentioned on this blog yesterday; just finished reading a nice write-up on TCM’s blog about a relatively unseen film of his, titled The Italian Connection – an Italian film, part of a trilogy by director Fernando Di Leo, released in 1972, when Strode was in his 50s. Never seen it, partly because it’s not available in the USA on DVD (it is in Italy, so with the properly-regioned DVD player, you could pick up a copy); although I did find used VHS copies on Amazon, under an alternate title, Black Kingpin, likely called so for its 1973 American release, given how popular Blaxploitation films were. If you’ve seen it, chime in below; otherwise, head over to TCM’s blog to read the full revelatory copy Here.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, actor Tom Hardy (Inception) discusses the fact that he's had same-sex relationships. But while the Mail and other sites are trumpeting the news "Tom Hardy Had Sexual Relations with Men" the story isn't quite that simple.

What the Mail actually quotes Hardy as saying when asked about sex with men is "As a boy? Of course I have. I'm an actor for ****'s sake."

Not exactly having sex with men. But then Hardy also said, "I've played with everything and everyone. I love the form and the physicality, but now that I'm in my thirties, it doesn't do it for me."

Which begs the question, how does Hardy define the word "boy?" Does he mean someone in his early 20s? Or is he talking simple teen experimentation?

Ultimately, that isn't really all that relevant. What does seem relevant is that Hardy, in the...

Director William Girdler.s 1974 film Abby was a clone of The Exorcist with an all-black cast starring William Marshall, fresh off his triumph as Blacula, in the Max Von Sydow role. Shot for a meager $200k, Abby was an urban hit, grossing four million dollars in its first month of release. Apparently the powers-that-be at Warner Brothers, who had produced The Exorcist, thought Abby.s plot was too similar to that of their cash cow so successfully sued Girdler and the films distributor, American International. Aip was ordered to destroy all of their theatrical prints, and the film has never officially been licensed for home viewing. The Exorcist was the top grossing film of 1973 and spawned a virtual cottage industry of knock-off imitators, mostly from Europe, that flourished for the rest of the decade, so it seems an odd fate that Abby was singled out for legal punishment and remains...