French mime, filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter
POPULARITY
6 episodes with Jacques Tati
6 episodes with Jacques Tati
3 episodes with Jacques Tati
2 episodes with Jacques Tati
2 episodes with Jacques Tati
2 episodes with Jacques Tati
2 episodes with Jacques Tati
2 episodes with Jacques Tati
2 episodes with Jacques Tati
Ça y est ? Vous y êtes ? Hé, ces deux mois de vacances, ils nous semblaient à leurs débuts ne jamais devoir prendre fin, tellement le compte des semaines à venir était du haut de nos trois pommes, innombrable. Neuf semaines, c'est interminable sous un ciel bleu. Pas de classe, ni devoirs, ni leçons ni ce soir, ni ce week-end. Demain matin, on se lèvera sans ce maudit réveil ou le clairon des parents avec la voix pleine d'insistance.Et puis il y a le départ en vacances et l'excitation quand la date approche. Voilà sans doute ce qui a expliqué l'énorme succès international d'un petit film français au milieu des années 50 : Les vacances de Mr Hulot. Et aussi le fait qu'il ait traversé les décennies. Notre quotidien ne ressemble plus en rien à cette époque ni aux bonnes manières de sa société stricte mais le film marche toujours aussi efficacement, malgré le noir et blanc. Il faut dire que les personnages correspondent toujours à ceux sur qui on tombe en vacances. Les gosses qui crient et font des conneries, l'homme d'affaires très pris et très imbu de sa réussite, la belle pour qui on va en pincer et qui voit les matins se lever en se demandant quand on va se décider. J'allais oublier la bande de scouts, le gars qui s'y croit, le patron d'hôtel très sérieux et le garçon j'en foutre, le couple de vieux qui se promène tout le temps et arrive en premier à l'heure du souper, non vraiment, les temps changent mais les comportements restent les mêmes. Jacques Tati met toujours dans le mille.Et puis, il y a la mer, la plage, le soleil. Ces jeunes gens qui vivent le meilleur moment de leur vie et vont peut-être mettre le reste à s'en remettre. Sérieux, on a tous laissé un bout de nous-mêmes en vacances, avec un Monsieur Hulot ou pas. Et quel que soit l'âge où on a vécu cet été pas comme les autres, celui qui nous revient plus ou moins régulièrement avec force, au détour d'une photo, un film, une chanson.Alors je ne sais pas si vous allez vous les refaire à la télé, ces Vacances de Mr Hulot, ce moment de bonheur, que vous avez peut-être connu avec Les bronzés, Hôtel de la plage ou Camping. Le plus important est de ne pas perdre de vue que malgré ce que vous pouvez croire parfois, quand vous y repensez, non, vous n'avez rien raté. Vous avez été, vous êtes à la hauteur des rêves de cette fille, de ce gamin que vous étiez, cet été-là. Car le présent, c'est plus que le moment plus important de votre vie, c'est le seul que vous vivrez jamais. Alors, bonnes vacances !
This week we kick off a boxset of the 1961-71 works of French clown, comedian, and filmmaker (and illustrator and gag writer for Jacques Tati). The collection contains four narrative features and three shorts all co-written (and occasionally co-directed) by Jean-Claude Carrière, who may just be the most represented screenwriter in the Criterion Collection, as well as one documentary. For this first week we cover the shorts Rupture (1961) and Happy Anniversary (1962) and the feature length The Suitor (1962). We also cover the boxset's only substantial extra: Pierre Etaix, un destin animé (2011) a documentary on Etaix by his wife Odile Etaix just before his death.
De nos jours, on connaît Jacques Tati comme un cinéaste discret n'ayant tourné que 6 longs-métrages en 40 ans et quelques courts-métrages. On sait qu'il a été mime et acteur ainsi qu'auteur de music-hall. Ce qu'on sait peu, c'est que Jacques Tati a été une star absolue, courtisée par Hollywood et par l'Asie, symbolisant, à tort ou à raison, le film français et son renouveau pendant de nombreuses années.
French comedic powerhouse Jacques Tati finally makes his first appearance on the podcast with an introduction to his gentle homage to silent-era character Monsieur Hulot himself. And this time, he's at the beach. And brother, I don't have to tell you that there will be some… les shenanigans. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride (1987).
Caleb and Charles watch Alien Resurrection and chat finally watching the Jacques Tati boxset, clones, and eating a slice of lemon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hi everybody – Scott here welcoming you once again to the official Talking Pictures TV podcast – the podcast dedicated to the nation's favourite archive tv and movie channel And what's more it's you, the viewers who are front and centre of the show as you send in your reviews of all your favourite entertainment coming up on the channel over the next three weeks. In this episode: zombies, soldiers, elephants, Jacques Tati...and much more!
Wait, so that Ozzie-Osborne-like-bad guy from G.I. Joe who could change the color of his skin made a prequel of that totally problematic Heath Ledger movie from the early 2000s? Well, not quite. Actually, you know what, that's pretty much exactly what happened. Join us as we discuss Zoltan Korda's remake of a remake of a remake that was eventually remade, remade, remade, and remade again. We are joined by our good friend Max to contemplate Victorian imperialism, sun blindness, and the real color of pineapple. Join the Random Acts of Cinema Discord server here! *Come support the podcast and get yourself or someone you love a random gift at our merch store. T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, and more! If you'd like to watch ahead for next week's film, we will be discussing and reviewing Jacques Tati's Monseiur Hulot's Holiday (1939).
In a change to our usual format, we review only one film this episode: the French coming-of-age film Holy Cow. Set in Jura, in the east of France near the Swiss border, it follows a wild 18-year-old lad who has to grow up fast and learn how to make some award-winning Comté after a family tragedy. The rest of the episode sees Peter, Anahit, and Jamie discuss what they've been watching on the big and small screen recently, from Black Bag and a Jacques Tati classic to Adolescence and White Lotus via a goofy-sounding show we're pretty sure Anahit has made up. TIMESTAMPS: What We've Been Watching: Movies (Black Bag, Uptown Girls, Playtime) (2:14) Holy Cow review (17:08) What We've Been Watching: TV (Adolescence, White Lotus, Paradise) (25:34) Get us on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and Letterboxd @thecineskinny, email us at cineskinny@theskinny.co.uk Music: Too Cool by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4534-too-cool) License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
In this episode of the VIFF Podcast, Vancouver filmmaker Devan Scott speaks with VIFF Year-Round Programmer Tom Charity about his experimental feature Preface to a History, co-directed with Willa Ross. The film explores mental health struggles through the characters Vlad and Sophie—Vlad immerses himself in audiobooks, while Sophie grapples with career dissatisfaction.Scott shares how his experience listening to a 105-hour audiobook about the Third Reich while on a ski trip inspired the film and discusses the importance of sound design in shaping its unconventional storytelling. He also reflects on the challenges of shooting with a minimal crew in Vancouver and Pender Island, the influence of filmmakers like Chantal Akerman and Jacques Tati, and the evolving collaboration between him and Ross.This episode was recorded during the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival.This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.
durée : 00:13:05 - Carnets de campagne - par : Dorothée Barba - Associé à George Sand et à Jacques Tati, le château de Sainte-Sévère, dans l'Indre, a une histoire riche. Deux architectes l'ont acheté pour en faire un lieu de vie culturelle, pour et avec les habitants. Egalement au programme des Carnets du jour : du matériel de puériculture reconditionné.
Jackie and Greg are joined by Jackson Cooper, Executive Director of AGFA (American Genre Film Archive) for Jacques Tati's PLAYTIME from 1967. Topics of discussion include the film as an explosion of Where's Waldo? on 70mm, how Tati distances himself from the M. Hulot character in the film, the personal and financial toll it took on him to bring it to screen, and why it endures and continues to ascend the Sight & Sound list each decade.#43 on Sight & Sound's 2012 "The 100 Greatest Films of All Time" list.https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/polls/greatest-films-all-time-2012#23 on Sight & Sound's 2022 "The Greatest Films of All Time" list. https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/greatest-films-all-timeGet more of Jackson Cooper: https://jcooperarts.comCheck us out on Instagram: instagram.com/sceneandheardpodCheck us out at our official website: sceneandheardpod.comGraphic Design: Molly PintoMusic: Andrew CoxEditing: Greg KleinschmidtGet in touch at hello@sceneandheardpod.comSupport the showSupport the show on Patreon: patreon.com/SceneandHeardPodorSubscribe just to get access to our bonus episodes: buzzsprout.com/1905508/subscribe
Jacques Tati's Playtime, aka PlayTime, leaves an impression, and it definitely impressed designer, educator, and writer Louise Sandhaus who has a lot to say about this movie that's kind of about nothing, with the city and scenery as the star, and people merely moving through, around, and within the environment. Be mesmerized by its set pieces, odd circumstances, physical humor, and bombastic party scene that has Marx Brothers antics with Saturday Night Live stumbles and silliness. Watching Playtime, if you get the impression that it influenced Wes Anderson, or shaped the Apple TV show Severance, you're spot on. Louise is the founder and co-director of The People's Graphic Design Archive, a pioneering crowd-sourced platform that preserves graphic design history and is extremely inclusive. As faculty at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), she teaches The History of Motion Graphics with modules on Designer as Filmmaker and Type in Film, as well as Early Abstract Animation.-Louise Sandhaushttps://calarts.edu/members/louise-sandhaus https://peoplesgdarchive.org/https://www.artbook.com/9781938922619.htmlhttps://vimeo.com/lsandhaus/typeinfilm2021?share=copyhttps://vimeo.com/521664142/270b61f1e8-PlayTime, aka Play Time or Playtime (1967)https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062136/ https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/31/arts/movies/the-listings-jacques-tatis-playtime.htmlhttps://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/oct/04/playtime-jacques-tatis-masterpiece-took-cinema-close-to-a-video-game https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/446-the-dance-of-playtime-Other artists and artworks mentionedhttps://www.instagram.com/anasamoylova/p/CuAA_XwL4l_/?img_index=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0936464/https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000517/ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000694/
On this episode of What a Picture, Bryan and Hannah get lost in a labyrinthian office on their way to talk about PlayTime, the 1967 movie directed by Jacques Tati that ranks #23 on Sight and Sound's 2022 Greatest Films of All Time Critics' Poll. Email us at podcast@whatapicturepod.com What a Picture website: https://whatapicturepod.com Bryan's Social Media: Letterboxd | Bluesky Music is "Phaser" by Static in Verona.
Cinema To The Letter: the perfect podcast to listen to while you're stumbling through a steel French hellscape! To kick off their Criterion season, Thomas, Bryan and special guest Megan Robinson are looking at the classic film from director Jacques Tati Playtime! Together, our trio answers the crucial questions. How do Americans pronounce Jacques Tati? Does this message of modernization break the barriers of language and time? How much money does Mr. Bean owe Monsieur Hulot? Well, don't drop your phone into that Greek pillar garbage can so you can listen to find out! Join our Patreon for $1 for monthly bonus episodes and the chance to vote for new podcasts at patreon.com/cinema2letter! Follow us @cinema2letter on socials! Artwork by Michelle Kyle! Music by Burial Grid!
Cinema To The Letter: the perfect podcast to listen to while you're stumbling through a steel French hellscape! To kick off their Criterion season, Thomas, Bryan and special guest Megan Robinson are looking at the classic film from director Jacques Tati Playtime! Together, our trio answers the crucial questions. How do Americans pronounce Jacques Tati? Does this message of modernization break the barriers of language and time? How much money does Mr. Bean owe Monsieur Hulot? Well, don't drop your phone into that Greek pillar garbage can so you can listen to find out! Join our Patreon for $1 for monthly bonus episodes and the chance to vote for new podcasts at patreon.com/cinema2letter! Follow us @cinema2letter on the socials! Artwork by Michelle Kyle! Music by Burial Grid! We're a proud member of the TalkFilmSociety podcast network!
Qu'est-ce qui fait qu'un jour, un enfant comme vous et moi, qui a suivi ses années d'école et ses parents en vacances devient un jour un Marc Lavoine, le chanteur dont on achète les disques et l'acteur dont on va voir les films ? Enfin, les vacances, c'était plutôt la colonie pour le petit Marc qui a grandi au sud de Paris, à une époque où elle ressemblait au film Mon Oncle de Jacques Tati. Coincé entre les vieux quartiers où résonnaient encore les accordéons, et le vacarme des chantiers où s'élevaient des HLM, le jardin des Lavoine donne sur les avions de ligne qui décollent de l'aéroport tout proche vers des cieux inconnus. A Wissous, on est communistes parce que, Orly, on n'en profitera jamais autrement que comme dans la chanson de Gilbert Bécaud. La fête, elle sent bon le barbecue, c'est celle de l'Humanité, le journal que Lucien Lavoine, le père de Marc, lit, comme sa mère, la Bible. Mais là où il faudrait faire la grimace sur le triste sort des fins de mois difficiles, il n'y a eu en fait que du bonheur. Car l'enfance de Marc Lavoine est heureuse. Quand la famille est aimante, il n'y a pas de problème, pour un petit garçon, à ne manger que des pâtes.Marc adore ses parents. Son père ? Un héros. Même si c'est l'homme le plus volage qu'il ait jamais rencontré. Tellement actif qu'il lui arrivera du haut de ses trois pommes de surprendre ses galipettes sans le faire exprès, en ouvrant la porte d'un placard. Marc devait s'appeler Brigitte. A sa naissance, sa mère a très mal pris qu'il soit un garçon. Elle a même refusé de le voir pendant quelques jours. Était-ce bien utile de le lui dire quand il a eu atteint l'âge de raison ? Allez savoir. En tout cas, cela fait partie de sa légende et explique peut-être pourquoi dans les années 80, il s'est amené en tutu sur la scène de La Cigale. Mais pas de quoi en faire un complexe : après tout, ça lui fait un point commun avec John Wayne, le plus viril des acteurs de l'histoire d'Hollywood. L'enfance de Marc s'est un jour ouverte sur le monde des adultes sans passer par la case de l'adolescence. A 16 ans, il a en effet voulu devenir acteur. Cela signifiait emménager dans une chambre de bonne à Paris. Ses parents ne lui ont, ce jour-là, pas donné de ticket de retour, comme il le dira. Voilà qui forge un homme prématurément, en 1978, en pleine période disco et surtout punk.Marc Lavoine a été le fils d'un homme qui ment, le titre du livre à succès qu'il lui a consacré il y a des années. Quand un journaliste lui demande s'il ment beaucoup dans ce livre, il répond forcément. C'est vrai que quand on écrit des chansons, on ment forcément à propos de la réalité qu'on y décrit. Enjoliveur d'histoires, aime-t-il à dire. Le public est d'accord. Tout cela s'est donc forgé au cours de l'enfance. Une fois de plus un artiste aimé du plus grand nombre, qui a trouvé le terreau de son art dans ces années où rien ne le destinait à occuper le devant de la scène. Tout a changé depuis dans la banlieue sud de Paris, y compris Orly qui n'est plus celui de Bécaud. Voilà sûrement pourquoi il y a tant de nostalgie dans les chansons de Marc Lavoine.
Join hosts Patrick Evans and Randy Florence at Skip Paige's Little Bar for a delightful episode of Big Conversations, Little Bar featuring special guest John Ratzenberger. Known for his iconic role as Cliff Clavin on Cheers and an impressive array of Pixar voices, Ratzenberger shares stories from his fascinating career. From his serendipitous audition for Cheers to voicing beloved Pixar characters like Hamm in Toy Story, John reveals the creativity, humor, and experiences that have shaped his work. He recounts his early improvisational comedy days in Europe, reflects on the evolving entertainment landscape, and offers insights into his passion for historical events and hands-on learning. This conversation is not just a trip down memory lane; it's an exploration of an actor who continues to reinvent himself in delightful and entertaining ways.#BigConversationsLittleBarPodcast #McCallumTheatre #SkipsLittleBar #RandyFlorence #PatrickEvans #JohnRatzenberger #Cheers #PixarVoiceActor #CliffClavinCheers #Improvisation #VoiceActing #ComedyLegend #HollywoodHistory #IconicRoles #PodcastInterview #AnimationVoices #RetroTV #CelebrityInsights #HistoryBuffVoiceTakeaways:• John Ratzenberger improvised the iconic role of Cliff Clavin on Cheers.• Voice acting for Pixar spanned over 26 years, starting post-Cheers.• Ratzenberger was involved in various creative endeavors, including a late-night comedy and historical TV projects.• His improv comedy roots began in Europe with the troupe Sal's Meat Market.• Comedy greats like Jacques Tati and Stan Laurel influenced his professional career.• He actively promotes apprenticeships and hands-on learning as vital educational components.• Ratzenberger shares historical insights, revealing his passion for history.• His impact as a cultural icon and advocate continues to resonate.
Dans Pop culture, Mathieu Alterman raconte chaque week-end l'actualité qui fait du bien aux yeux, au cœur et aux oreilles.
44% dintre adolescenții armeni sunt în contact permanent cu prietenii lor pe rețelele sociale, scrie presa armeană care citează datele Organizației Mondiale a Sănătății. Unul din zece adolescenți are probleme de adicție. Cel mai dificil este pentru fetele de 15 ani. În Armenia, utilizarea problematică a rețelelor sociale în rândul adolescenților este în creștere, scrie 168.am citând date ale Biroului Regional al OMS pentru Europa.Potrivit acestuia, 1 din 10 adolescenții armeni se luptă să-și controleze comportamentul privind utilizarea rețelelor sociale. 44% dintre adolescenți sunt în contact permanent online cu prietenii lor. În cazul fetelor de 15 ani, procentul este și mai mare - 49%. Ziarul armean prezintă și date cheie pentru Europa. Astfel, mai mult de unul din zece adolescenți (11%) au prezentat semne de comportament problematic în rețelele sociale, ceea ce indică faptul că se luptă să-și controleze utilizarea și resimt consecințele negative ale utilizării excesive. Fetele au o rată mai mare de comportamente problematice decât băieții (13% față de 9%).Mai mult de o treime dintre tineri (36%) au declarat că sunt în contact constant online cu prietenii lor, cea mai mare rată fiind în rândul fetelor de 15 ani (44%).Cancelarul german Olaf Scholz în TurciaDin haberturk.com aflăm despre vizita recentă a cancelarului cancelarul german Olaf Scholz în Turcia. Iată câteva dintre declarațiile lui Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.„Avem relații semnificative în toate domeniile cu Germania. Discuțiile noastre (...) s-au bazat pe o agendă bogată. Comerțul nostru bilateral a ajuns la 50 de miliarde de dolari. Obiectivul nostru este de 60 de miliarde de dolari. Dorim să ne consolidăm colaborarea și să lăsăm în urma noastră problemele cu privire la industria de apărare. (...) Extrema dreaptă este în creștere în Europa. În multe țări, mișcările care au atins puterea necesară pentru a fi parteneri în guvern îi fac pe turcii care trăiesc în Europa să se simtă inconfortabil.” Președintele turc a mai spus ca s-au purtat discuții despre Gaza și Liban și a cerut presiune internațională asupra Israelului pentru încetarea permanentă a focului.De partea sa, cancelarul german a spus că își dorește aprofundarea relațiilor dintre cele două țări, dar că în cazul Israel, opiniile diferă. „Atacul Hamas din 7 octombrie a fost o crimă teribilă. Trebuie adoptată o soluție bilaterală cu două state. Atât pentru Palestina, cât și pentru Israel. Este evident că Israelul trebuie să respecte și dreptul internațional. S-a făcut o propunere de încetare a focului și de eliberare a ostaticilor. Dacă această propunere va fi implementată, va fi un pas important în evitarea prelungirii acestor conflicte în Liban,” a declarat în Turcia, Olaf Scholz.Retrospectiva cineastului kazah Darezhan Omirbayev la ParisAl șaselea festival de film kazah de la Paris a avut loc la legendara Cinémathèque française, scrie dknews.kz. De data aceasta, programul festivalului a fost aproape în întregime dedicat unei retrospective a filmelor regizorului Darezhan Omirbayev.Bernard Benoliel, director pentru cultură și educație la Cinémathèque, l-a caracterizat pe regizorul kazah în acești termeni: „Omirbayev a inventat un personaj original. Toată lumea știe cât de dificil este să creezi o imagine unică, așa cum au făcut Charlie Chaplin și Jacques Tati. Personajul lui Omirbayev este autoportretul lui. La prima vedere, este un om calm și flegmatic, un iubitor de somn, un visător, un observator leneș, dar sub această înfățișare apatică și imperturbabilă de fapt sunt emoții tulburi, pasiuni, un foc aprins sub gheață. Și Omirbayev folosește cinematografia pentru a ne arăta o lume în care există adevăr și minciună, o lume în evoluție sau degradare, o lume care ne sperie. Și film după film, prin reflectarea Kazahstanului și a lumii, el dezvăluie ceva despre noi înșine.” Au participat la Revista Presei Europa Plus: Shushanik Tsaturyan - ArmeniaEmil Kozahonov - Kazahstan Ahmet Ozkan - Turcia Europa Plus este un proiect RFI România realizat în parteneriat cu Agenția Universitară a Francofoniei
Chris gets lighthearted with Monsieur Hulot!
Alexandre e Fred convocam o crítico de João Pessoa, Renato Félix, para conversar sobre a obra de um dos gênios da comédia mundial, o francês Jacques Tati. O cineasta é celebrado até hoje como um dos mais criativos de sua arte, principalmente pela maneira como utiliza o som e a direção de arte em seus filmes. Apesar de ter filmado muito pouco, três de seus clássicos se destacam em sua obra e comentamos eles aqui: "As Férias do Sr. Hulot" (Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot, 1953), "Meu Tio" (Mon Oncle, 1958) e "Playtime - Tempo de Diversão" (Playtime, 1967). Falamos também brevemente de seu primeiro longa-metragem, o interessantíssimo "Carrossel da Esperança" (Jour de fête, 1949). ---------------------- Acesse nosso site: http://www.filmesclassicos.com.br Acesse nossa página no Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/podcastfilmesclassicos/
First broadcast on November 01, 1962. Filmmaker Jacques Tati and Studs discuss finding the humor in everyday life and people becoming their gadgets. The two also go in-depth about Tati's film "Mon Oncle" and the development of the character Monsieur Hulot.
For Women's History Month and Mother's Day, here in the UK, silence is deafening for a spec script written in an unconventional way, that happened to get picked up by Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes production company.Taking inspiration from silent movies from Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati, as well as horror classics like Jaws, Alien and Alfred Hitchcock's filmography, A Quiet Place started life as an almost dialogue free script, written in 2016.The original script can be found hereJohn Krasinski's involvement came much later, but he was instrumental in getting the project made, and his casting choices would change everything. Not just by his wife Emily Blunt's eventual involvement, but the casting of a young deaf actress, and the inclusion of American Sign Language would make A Quiet Place one of the freshest and most atmospheric new horror films in years... I would love to hear your thoughts on A Quiet Place !CONTACT.... Twitter @verbaldiorama Instagram @verbaldiorama Facebook @verbaldiorama Letterboxd @verbaldiorama Email verbaldiorama [at] gmail [dot] com Website verbaldiorama.comSUPPORT VERBAL DIORAMA....Give this podcast a five-star Rate & Review Join the Patreon | Send a Tip | Buy Merch ABOUT VERBAL DIORAMAVerbal Diorama is hosted, produced, edited, researched, recorded and marketed by me, Em | This podcast is hosted by Captivate, try it yourself for free. Theme Music: Verbal Diorama Theme Song. Music by Chloe Enticott - Compositions by Chloe. Lyrics by Chloe Enticott (and me!) Production by Ellis Powell-Bevan of Ewenique StudioPatrons: Simon E, Sade, Claudia, Simon B, Laurel, Derek, Vern, Cat, Andy, Mike, Griff, Luke, Michael, Scott, Brendan, Lisa, Sam, Will, Jack, Dave, Chris, Stuart, Nicholas, Zo, Kev, Pete, Heather, Danny, Aly, Stu, Brett, Philip, Michele, Xenos and BRAND-NEW PATRON Sean!
PlayTime (1967; Dir.: Jacques Tati) Canon Fodder Episode 9 After a string of thematically heavy films, the Random Number Generator Gods decided Daniel and Corky were due for a little playtime. French auteur Jacques Tati's landmark comedy epic PlayTime, that is! But will your hosts swing PlayTime into the Canon […] The post PlayTime (1967) – Canon Fodder Episode 9 appeared first on Dare Daniel & Canon Fodder Podcasts.
Issue 46 of the monthly magazine podcast for the discerning film nerd continues with the latest drop of our regular Features episode. The theme this month is films about the television industry, with Classics and Recommended Network, Hidden Gem Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, The One that Got Away - Jacques Tati's Confusion and Remake Hatewatch Bewitched. As a bonus we also look at the remake we'd like to see - a new adaptation of Stephen King's dystopian reality TV prophecy The Running Man. The previous instalments of Issue 46 are already available - Double Reel Monthly and the Penalty Shootout Film Quiz. Next week we'll conclude this month's issue with the Big Conversation - our best films of the 2010s.
durée : 00:05:33 - La chronique de Djubaka - C'est une chanson de funambule qui oscille entre désespoir et optimisme que nous décrypte Djubaka : tout commence par un air de fêtes, comme dans un film de Jacques Tati, et pourtant en 1976, on se tape 9,7% d'inflation et les Français se serrent bien fort la ceinture...
Construction noise in Brooklyn, Studio sits in a construction zone, Milo's Letterbox'd review of Jacques Tati's Playtime, Analysis of Playtime, Value in chaos, Chaos inviting humanity, Daryl threading the needle, Jim Chones introduction, Watching NBA basketball while Milo was treating, NBA package, Watching until the final west coast game was over, Local NBA announcers, Chones as Cavaliers' announcer, Mike Breen, Ian Eagle, New York announcing as a stepping stone to a national job, Announcers elsewhere as homers and parts of the community, Walt "Clyde" Frazier, Richard Jefferson, Vince Carter, Loving listening to the local broadcasters, Milo loving the in-game jump ball, Milo loving sloppy broadcasts and in-game activities, Milo loving when planned things get off track, Milo loving Aqib Talib's announcing, Aqib Talib's brother involved in illicit activity, Aqib Talib with no filter, Greg Olsen, Tony Romo, Throwing chaos into something buttoned down perhaps a unifying philosophy.
Brooklyn, Construction noise in the neighborhood, George Carlin philosophy, Neighborhood development, Becoming a cranky New Yorker, Alternate side of the street parking, People are wired to think that people who behave as they do have it "right", Discouraging the boys from being judgmental, Milo's conclusion about certain "showy" technology, Drone store on 4th Avenue, Milo viewing drones as a silly thing for a person to own, "That's the kind of guy who buys a drone," Google Glass, Parent on Milo's travel baseball team wearing Google Glass, Apple Vision Pro, Wall-E, Serious bikers in Central Park and Prospect, Milo's attitude about tennis gear, Max and Milo biking in Prospect Park over Covid, Milo's Letterbox'd account, Jacques Tati, Playtime, Max watching Playtime at Milo's recommendation, Milo's review of Playtime, Begin next episode of Milo Time with Milo's review of Playtime
On this episode of the podcast, Phillip is joined by Dave Lizerbram from Rock Docs Podcast and the Little Slugger Podcast. First though, Phillip promotes his friend Tim's new project, The Ones Across The Pond, and his older projects https://www.youtube.com/@indyfilmfanatics6248/videos So check those out. Dave then asks a question for the listeners; What is a good movie for his 6 almost 7 year old son to watch? He had his son watch Wizard of Oz and they tried to show him Jacques Tati's Playtime, but he didn't like the later. They talk a little about their New Beverly experiences. Phillip then reads a little of the surfer style production notes that he received from Erik Clapp. After playing a tv spot for Hardbodies from 1984, Phillip reads the general information about the movie. It's then time for Listener Opinions from Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Then the two of them discuss the movie and a little bit about the Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello beach movies. It's a silly and fun conversation. They then answer the question of whether they notice anything that Quentin may have liked or used in a film. Then it's time to individually rate the movie. It's then time to talk about whether they would buy, rent, or find this movie for free. Phillip gives his Phil's Film Favorite of the Week which is Poor Things. Dave then gives his favorite that he watched this week; The Greatest Night in Pop (2024) (Netflix). He also mentions a great documentary called Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?) (2010). Then it's time to tell the listeners what's coming next week. Rob Papp from The Cinemigos Podcast and the Circle of Jerks Podcast will be back to discuss The Wrecking Crew (1968). So come back then. Thanks for listening. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/makingtarantinothepodcast/message
In this podcast episode, Dr. David Bellos, a professor at Princeton, discusses his journey into translation and his book on translation ' Is that a Fish in your ear' . Dr. Bellos began translating in the 1980s and emphasises that translation has always been a balance between self-expression and scholarship. He also touches on the challenges of humor in translation and the complexity of dealing with a third language (L3) in texts. Dr. Bellos also discusses his course, 'Great Books from Little Languages,' where students read recent works translated from less dominant languages. The episode,also covers the issue of copyright in modern culture, which he teaches about at Princeton.(00:12) Introduction and Background of Dr. David Bellows(01:06) Journey into Translation(02:29) Advantages of Being an Academician(03:31) Writing Biographies: Jacques Vistati and Georges Perec(06:02)The Art of Translation: Challenges and Insights(21:53) The Role of Copyright in Modern Culture(23:27) Broadening the Canon: Exploring Lesser Known Languages(26:11) Reflections on a Lifetime of Translation(27:32) Conclusion and Final ThoughtsLink for the Transcription :https://harshaneeyam.in/2024/02/16/bellos/David won the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005 for his translation of works by Albanian author Ismail Kadare.He was educated at Oxford and teaches French and Comparative Literature at Princeton, where he also directs the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication. He has written biographies of Georges Perec and Jacques Tati that have been translated into many languages and an introduction to translation studies, Is That A Fish in Your Ear? He has translated numerous authors from French (Perec, Vargas, Kadare, Simenon, Antelme, Fournel) and offers a new understanding of the extraordinary life and work of Romain Gary in Romain Gary A Tall Story. His latest book is a study of Victor Hugo's masterpiece, Les Misérables.His latest Publication is about the History of Copyright.Use the following link to buy the book - "Is that a fish in your ear'https://bit.ly/3I23TQwPhoto Credits: https://complit.princeton.edu/people/david-belloshttps://www.historiamag.com/historia-interviews-david-bellos/* For your Valuable feedback on this Episode - Please click the link given below.https://harshaneeyam.captivate.fm/feedbackHarshaneeyam on Spotify App –https://harshaneeyam.captivate.fm/onspotHarshaneeyam on Apple App – https://harshaneeyam.captivate.fm/onapple*Contact us - harshaneeyam@gmail.com ***Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by Interviewees in interviews conducted by Harshaneeyam Podcast are those of the Interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Harshaneeyam Podcast. Any content provided by Interviewees is of their opinion and is not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone or anything.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podtrac - https://analytics.podtrac.com/privacy-policy-gdrpChartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
durée : 00:05:33 - La chronique de Djubaka - par : Julien Deflisque - C'est une chanson de funambule qui oscille entre désespoir et optimisme que nous décrypte Djubaka : tout commence par un air de fêtes, comme dans un film de Jacques Tati, et pourtant en 1976, on se tape 9,7% d'inflation et les Français se serrent bien fort la ceinture...
On this episode of Cinema Dual, Jon and Chris bring some levity to the holidays with the films of Jacques Tati. Movies Discussed: Mon Oncle, Playtime Recommendations : Scavengers Reign (Chris), The School for Postmen, Rear Window (Jon) For more of our movie thoughts, you can check them out at www.cinemadual.com. Follow us on Blue Sky: @joncinemadual @belownirvana Follow us on Spotify: Cinema Dual
WELCOME BACK, REFINER!! This week, the "Severed: Origins" series is taking a look at a masterpiece created by a French Madman. His name is Jacques Tati and the film we'll be discussing is his 1967 opus "Play Time." "Play Time" is like no film you've ever seen. We'll get into just exactly why it's so different. Since it is so different, I can't even break it down the way I would normally review a movie. I'll explain, and we'll get into it...kinda.Tati doesn't believe much in plot, character or close-ups. How is it possible to create a movie without those things? Oh, Tati manages...to the point what he created has been called by some the greatest movie ever made. It's a weird little sideshow well worth examining. Don't miss "Play Time" as a part of "Severed: Origins."Make sure to visit Patreon.com/SeveredPod to become a Refiner!! Just $5/mo. for inside info, games, trivia and early access to future "Severed" podcast episodes. Join the fun and help support the Podcast!!APPLE PODCAST LISTENERS: If you are enjoying "Severed: The Ultimate 'Severance' Podcast" please make sure to leave a 5-star rating (and, if you want, a review telling others to give it a try). Higher rated podcasts get better placement in suggestion lists. It helps more "Severance" fans find the show. Thanks!!! Make sure to subscribe, Refiners!! "Severed" is on hiatus until the end of Season Two. Periodically, during the down time, we will be taking a look at those things that Dan Erickson has listed as inspiration. Be watching for those episodes under the title "Severed: Origins." Please continue to listen and re-listen to the still available Season One episodes. Once Season Two has concluded, be watching for "Severed: Season Two"...the Ultimateness will continue! In the meantime, make sure to join the fun on our Facebook page @SeveredPod. While we're all waiting around on news of Season Two, I'll try to keep you updated on news about the show. Also, let's talk!! Comments? Theories? Corrections? I LOVE 'EM!! Send to: SeveredPod@gmail.comThanks for listening to "Severed: The Ultimate 'Severance' Podcast." PLEASE MAKE SURE TO SHARE THE PODCAST WITH YOUR FRIENDS WHO ARE 'SEVERANCE' FANS. THE SHOW GROWS THROUGH WORD OF MOUTH!!If you like what you're hearing, please give "Severed" a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Needing your own copies of the...
Take a trip with Ryan though the pastel colors and optimistic surrealism of 60s french cinema with Dylan's flick picks: Playtime, The Red Balloon, and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
This week Adam and Bruce continue on the Classics You Might Not Have Seen Series with Jacques Tati's "Playtime" from 1967. Support Fellow HMP'er, Sir Slick Derick The Knight Bard and Visit WORLDSWITHIN.NET Executive Producers: Derrick Copling (Sir Slick Derrick The Knight Bard), Brian Zee (Spider-Zee), Jens W, Matthew Schnapp, Nate Stewart (King Solomon's Frog), Noah Overton (Noah of The Dark Woods), Orange Crush, Peter "Not So Bad Lookin'" Pernice, Tim Shifflet (The Longhauler) New Dirty Baby March- SHOP HMP! Follow Us on TikTok Check out Bruce's YouTube Page Join our Subreddit! HeroMoviePodcast.com Support us on HMP's Patreon Buy Nerdspawn Genesis (Leslieverse Tales Book 1) Buy Our Merch! Review us on iTunes Like Us on Facebook Subscribe to our YouTube Page Follow us on Twitter and Instagram Listen to us on our new show- Mandalorian 30 Questions Adam Portrais: Twitter Nerd Talk Now The Film Find- Twitter Bruce Leslie: Twitter Heroes and Villains PodcastChubby Wizard Sean Kovacs: Twitter
In this episode of Girls On Film, Anna Smith talks to Director Paul Sng and Producer Jen Corcoron about their new feature documentary Tish, which tells the story of working-class photographer Patricia ‘Tish' Murtha who worked to document life in Northeast England in the 1970s and 1980s. Anna then talks to Production Designer Sarah Greenwood and Set Decorator Katie Spencer, who worked together to create the distinctive world of Greta Gerwig's Barbie. Tish was the Opening Night Film of Sheffield Doc Fest 2023 and it is a celebration of a life devoted to exposing social inequality through art. The feature documentary is told from the perspective of Ella Murtha, both as daughter and custodian of the Tish Murtha archive. She retraces her mother's relationship with the photographic medium, from finding her first camera in a local skip, to earning a reputation as the ‘demon snapper' and beyond. Anna talks to Paul and Jen about the inspiration behind the project, the power of having working-class stories told from the inside, and asks about their favourite photographs in the Tish archive. Next on Girls On Film, Anna has a lively conversation with Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer, whose long time collaboration has resulted in multiple Academy Award and BAFTA nominations, and, most recently, the weird, wonderful and instantly recognisable world of Barbie. Sarah and Katie talk about working with Greta Gerwig in the early design stages of the project, following visual prompts like ‘think Gaudí in a blender' when creating Weird Barbie's house, and the film's many and varied visual inspirations. Tish by Paul Sng is being released by Modern Films in UK and Irish cinemas on 17 November 2023. On demand information: Virtual cinema 22 Dec, TVOD 5 Feb (iTunes, Amazon, Google Play). Barbie is available on 4K, Blu-Ray™, DVD & Digital Download now Other films mentioned in this episode include: Singin' in the Rain, Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen, 1952 Grease, Randal Kleiser, 1978 Playtime, Jacques Tati, 1967 The Wizard of Oz, Victor Fleming, 1939 Psycho, Alfred Hitchock, 1960 Jaws, Steven Spielberg, 1975 Books mentioned; To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee, 1960 Become a patron of Girls On Film on Patreon here: www.patreon.com/girlsonfilmpodcast Follow us on socials: www.instagram.com/girlsonfilm_podcast/ www.facebook.com/girlsonfilmpodcast www.twitter.com/GirlsOnFilm_Pod www.twitter.com/annasmithjourno Watch Girls On Film on the BFI's YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX…L89QKZsN5Tgr3vn7z Girls On Film is an HLA production. Host: Anna Smith Executive Producer: Hedda Archbold Producer: Lydia Scott Audio editor: Elliana Jay Hamer Intern: Charlotte Matheson House band: MX Tyrants This episode is in partnership with Margaret London and Women in Film and TV (UK) with huge thanks to our principal partners Peter Brewer and Vanessa Smith. With thanks to Sophia Hammond and Kate Riddell.
Notre voyageur de l'improbable, Paul Lucas, est accompagné du musicien de l'improbable, Adrien BVO de Bon Voyage Organisation. TRACKLISTSébastien Tellier - L'amour et la violence Jamila Woods - Still George Riley - Satisfy YouMaiya The Don - BodyLe disque de 19h22 (envoyez votre proposition, un morceau aux couleurs Nova Club, à @davidblot sur Instagram!) :Alltta - HonorificabilitudinitatibusNina Simone - My Baby Just Cares For Me (Live Montreux 76)Whitney Houston - I Wanda Dance With Somebody Big Band Katowice - Ballada dla AlicjiSparks - Tryouts for the Human Race Pierre III - Nonsense Eli Escobar - Daywun Doja Cat - Agora Hills Alice Coltrane - Keshava Murahara Gil Scott-Heron - Lady Day and John Coltrane Bobby Gentry - Thunderbolt In The Afternoon - Ode To Billy Joe Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.
This week we're joined by our good friends Ian Rhine and Jake Serwin of the teriffic Clint Eastwood podcast Pod Casty For Me to discuss the Italian director Nanni Moretti and his 1993 personal essay/anthology film 'Caro Diario', awarded Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994 when Clint served as the Jury President. We discuss Moretti as subject within his own films, and how his arch and effacing tone offers perhaps a more palatable substitute to the films of a once-prominent filmmaker (now mired in controversy) known for his neurotic, self-referential films. Then, we discuss the film's stylistic markers that place it in conversation with not just the legacy of the Italian film industry, but with cinema as a whole. Finally, we talk about family planning and the wonderful world of vasectomies. (*Editor's Note* Aaron's procedure is in November, not Feburary as stated on the show. He's not sure why he said that, but wants listeners to know that he's not planning out his recovery watchlist 4 months in advance like a loser). Listen & Subscribe to Pod Casty For Me. Follow Pod Casty For Me on TwitterFollow Jake Serwin on Twitter. Follow Ian Rhine on Twitter (if he lets you). Get access to all of our premium episodes and bonus content by becoming a Hit Factory Patron for just $5/month.....Our theme song is "Mirror" by Chris Fish.
Movies reviewed for the week ending October 6, 2023 are: Miranda's Victim, V/H/S/85, Vindicta, Aberrance, Playtime, 57 Seconds, and Monsters of California.**Support CinemAddicts by shopping on Amazing using our SiteStripe or our purchase links (we receive a slight commission). **October's Bonus Episode for our CinemAddicts Patreon members will spotlight the year 2013.Timestamps:(0:00) - Intro, CinemAddicts Patreon, and sorry to Pete Abeyta!(11:25) - V/H/S/85 - streaming on Shudder October 6(20:22) - Miranda's Victim Trailer(22:30) - Miranda's Victim Review - hits theaters, digital and On Demand October 6. Stars Abigail Breslin, Mireille Enos, Emily VanCamp, Andy Garcia, Ryan Philippe.(36:56) - Bruce reviews the Mongolian horror movie Aberrance - opens in theaters October 6(42:20) - Eric and Greg review Vindicta. Starring Elena Kampouris and Jeremy Piven. Hits theaters and Digital on October 6.(48:30) - Monsters of California - theaters and On Demand October 6. Directed by Tom DeLonge. (reviewed by Eric)(52:00) - Eric reviews 57 Seconds, feature that is now in theaters and digital. Starring Josh Hutcherson and Morgan Freeman. (56:24) - What's in the Box - Bruce reviews Playtime. Directed by Jacques Tati. **Check out our CinemAddicts/Find Your Film merch site: https://www.findyourfilmpodcast.com/**Rate/review CinemAddicts on Apple Podcasts to support our show. Thank you!1. Subscribe to our CinemAddicts YouTube Channel2. Like Our CinemAddicts Facebook Page3. Join our CinemAddicts Facebook Group for daily movie recommendations!4. Questions/comments on CinemAddicts email Greg Srisavasdi at info@findyourfilms.com.5. Our website for entertainment news, reviews, and podcast coverage is Find Your Film: https://findyourfilms.com/6. Contact Bruce Purkey for some What's in the Box recommendations: brucepurkey@gmail.com8. Eric Holmes can be reached at hamslime@gmail.com9. Anderson Cowan's latest project is Loaded for Bear: The Documentary. For info and support: https://loadedforbeardoc.com/10. Atty's Antiques is on Facebook MarketplaceSupport the show
This week Aus and Phil travel to faraway lands in hopes of reviving their podcast careers with the help of their young optimistic (and kind of naive) new producer. They also watched the film The Illusionist... no, not that one. They watched the 2010 animated French film and discussed its themes of odd but sweet relationship dynamics, changing trends in entertainment, and Jacques Tati who wrote the original script. Austin's Shout Out: Gabe Gibbs Phil's Shout Out: The Illustrated Blade Runner EMAIL THE SHOW: austinandphil@gmail.com Austin on Letterboxd- austinnrood Phil on Letterboxd- philrood
We remember Paul Reubens by spending a little time down memory lane with Pee Wee's Big Adventure and guest Ethan Thompson. We try not to just do a quote-a-thon, but so...many...quotes. We pair it with Jacques Tati's titular character Monsieur Hulot as featured in Playtime. BaaM Patron Beer Saint, Daniel Benavidez, provides us with two 14% barleywines from Weathered Souls Brewing's #BIL series, and they do their job.
Today on No Bad Ideas... Wedding planning! Service Industry workers! Big purchases! TLC's new show My Surprise Bris! And more! For our first bad idea, Gabriel brings us the story of someone who had to walk out on their surprise nuptials. The gang turns it into a fast-paced, Jacques Tati-esque romantic comedy about two waiters who have to hold a wedding together. Then, Zach keeps the episode on theme with the tale of someone who had to reckon with their wife surprising them with the news that they bought a yoga studio. The squad works to turn it into a heart-warming story of a beleaguered spouse who has to turn a yoga studio profitable to keep her marriage afloat. All of that, plus: unconscious wedding planners, inciting assholes, Uncle Jimbo, George Clooney cameos, and moments of super-sizing. Today's Bad Ideas™: Idea #1Idea #2Support the show: http://patreon.com/NoBadIdeasSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Nico and Adam discuss six random movies: Days of Wine and Roses, the seminal film about alcoholism recovery that features a powerhouse performance from Jack Lemmon (3:43); Playtime, Jacques Tati's historically massive production that changed big screen comedy without ever truly being replicated (15:26); Mikey and Nicky, Elaine May's New York City gangster movie and an actor's showcase for Peter Falk and John Cassavetes (33:41); Babe: Pig in the City, George Miller's ludicrous sequel that definitely is NOT for children (45:40); Miami Vice, the greatest movie ever made (59:03); and Lake Mungo, the curio mockumentary about a grieving family and the ghost who haunts them (1:17:38). Chat with the TMT Community on Discord! For More TMT Shenanigans: toomanythoughtsmedia.com Twitter: @NicoDeGregorio, @someadamhall, @TMT_Media E-mail: toomanythoughtsmedia@gmail.com Subscribe and Rate on Apple Podcasts!
durée : 00:52:04 - Certains l'aiment Fip - La co-créatrice des Deschiens et ex-directrice du théâtre de La Criée présente "Jacques Tati – Swing", un disque regroupant les musiques des films du cinéaste burlesque, son aïeul.
Le Mépris in 1963 brought fame to Michel Piccoli. Jean-Luc Godard's new wave film was based on an Italian novel about a love triangle and power dynamics involving a playwright asked to work on a film script. Piccoli (1925-2020) went on to work with many other directors, including Buñuel, Chabrol, Varda, Rivette, Demy and Sautet in roles which run from a weak priest to a confused pope, with a host of rebels, cynics, lovers and losers mixed in. Matthew Sweet is joined by Geoff Andrew, Muriel Zagha, Phuong Le and Adam Scovell to look at this remarkable career that spanned seven decades. Producer: Torquil MacLeod Michel Piccoli: A Fearless Talent, is running at BFI Southbank from 1-29 June You can find a series of discussions about film stars and key films available as Arts & Ideas podcasts and on BBC Sounds including Marlene Dietrich, Jacques Tati, Audrey Hepburn, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Sidney Poitier, Laurel and Hardy's The Music Box, Charlie Chaplin's City Lights. Each Saturday on Radio 3 Matthew Sweet presents Sound of Cinema looking at film music relating to the week's new film releases - all the episodes are on BBC Sounds.
durée : 00:53:11 - Certains l'aiment Fip - Après la sortie de leur 26ème album, les frères Mael du groupe culte californien évoquent leur rapport intime avec les musiques de film et le cinéma de Hong Kong, de Jacques Tati, Jacques Demy, Cate Blanchett, Henry Fonda ou Leos Carax.
The first of a two-part series on the short-lived 80s American distribution company responsible for Dirty Dancing. ----more---- The movies covered on this episode: Alpine (1987, Fredi M. Murer) Anna (1987, Yurek Bogayevicz) Billy Galvin (1986, John Grey) Blood Diner (1987, Jackie Kong) China Girl (1987, Abel Ferrera) The Dead (1987, John Huston) Dirty Dancing (1987, Emile Ardolino) Malcolm (1986, Nadia Tess) Personal Services (1987, Terry Jones) Slaughter High (1986, Mark Ezra and Peter Litten and George Dugdale) Steel Dawn (1987, Lance Hook) Street Trash (1987, Jim Muro) TRANSCRIPT From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. Have you ever thought “I should do this thing” but then you never get around to it, until something completely random happens that reminds you that you were going to do this thing a long time ago? For this week's episode, that kick in the keister was a post on Twitter from someone I don't follow being retweeted by the great film critic and essayist Walter Chaw, someone I do follow, that showed a Blu-ray cover of the 1987 Walter Hill film Extreme Prejudice. You see, Walter Chaw has recently released a book about the life and career of Walter Hill, and this other person was showing off their new purchase. That in and of itself wasn't the kick in the butt. That was the logo of the disc's distributor. Vestron Video. A company that went out of business more than thirty years before, that unbeknownst to me had been resurrected by the current owner of the trademark, Lionsgate Films, as a specialty label for a certain kind of film like Ken Russell's Gothic, Beyond Re-Animator, CHUD 2, and, for some reason, Walter Hill's Neo-Western featuring Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe and Rip Torn. For those of you from the 80s, you remember at least one of Vestron Pictures' movies. I guarantee it. But before we get there, we, as always, must go back a little further back in time. The year is 1981. Time Magazine is amongst the most popular magazines in the world, while their sister publication, Life, was renowned for their stunning photographs printed on glossy color paper of a larger size than most magazines. In the late 1970s, Time-Life added a video production and distribution company to ever-growing media empire that also included television stations, cable channels, book clubs, and compilation record box sets. But Time Life Home Video didn't quite take off the way the company had expected, and they decided to concentrate its lucrative cable businesses like HBO. The company would move Austin Furst, an executive from HBO, over to dismantle the assets of Time-Life Films. And while Furst would sell off the production and distribution parts of the company to Fox, and the television department to Columbia Pictures, he couldn't find a party interested in the home video department. Recognizing that home video was an emerging market that would need a visionary like himself willing to take big risks for the chance to have big rewards, Furst purchased the home video rights to the film and video library for himself, starting up his home entertainment company. But what to call the company? It would be his daughter that would come up with Vestron, a portmanteau of combining the name of the Roman goddess of the heart, Vesta, with Tron, the Greek word for instrument. Remember, the movie Tron would not be released for another year at this point. At first, there were only two employees at Vestron: Furst himself, and Jon Pesinger, a fellow executive at Time-Life who, not unlike Dorothy Boyd in Jerry Maguire, was the only person who saw Furst's long-term vision for the future. Outside of the titles they brought with them from Time-Life, Vestron's initial release of home video titles comprised of two mid-range movie hits where they were able to snag the home video rights instead of the companies that released the movies in theatres, either because those companies did not have a home video operation yet, or did not negotiate for home video rights when making the movie deal with the producers. Fort Apache, The Bronx, a crime drama with Paul Newman and Ed Asner, and Loving Couples, a Shirley MacLaine/James Coburn romantic comedy that was neither romantic nor comedic, were Time-Life productions, while the Burt Reynolds/Dom DeLuise comedy The Cannonball Run, was a pickup from the Hong Kong production company Golden Harvest, which financed the comedy to help break their local star, Jackie Chan, into the American market. They'd also make a deal with several Canadian production companies to get the American home video rights to titles like the Jack Lemmon drama Tribute and the George C. Scott horror film The Changeling. The advantage that Vestron had over the major studios was their outlook on the mom and pop rental stores that were popping up in every city and town in the United States. The major studios hated the idea that they could sell a videotape for, say, $99.99, and then see someone else make a major profit by renting that tape out fifty or a hundred times at $4 or $5 per night. Of course, they would eventually see the light, but in 1982, they weren't there yet. Now, let me sidetrack for a moment, as I am wont to do, to talk about mom and pop video stores in the early 1980s. If you're younger than, say, forty, you probably only know Blockbuster and/or Hollywood Video as your local video rental store, but in the early 80s, there were no national video store chains yet. The first Blockbuster wouldn't open until October 1985, in Dallas, and your neighborhood likely didn't get one until the late 1980s or early 1990s. The first video store I ever encountered, Telford Home Video in Belmont Shores, Long Beach in 1981, was operated by Bob Telford, an actor best known for playing the Station Master in both the original 1974 version of Where the Red Fern Grows and its 2003 remake. Bob was really cool, and I don't think it was just because the space for the video store was just below my dad's office in the real estate company that had built and operated the building. He genuinely took interest in this weird thirteen year old kid who had an encyclopedic knowledge of films and wanted to learn more. I wanted to watch every movie he had in the store that I hadn't seen yet, but there was one problem: we had a VHS machine, and most of Bob's inventory was RCA SelectaVision, a disc-based playback system using a special stylus and a groove-covered disc much like an LP record. After school each day, I'd hightail it over to Telford Home Video, and Bob and I would watch a movie while we waited for customers to come rent something. It was with Bob that I would watch Ordinary People and The Magnificent Seven, The Elephant Man and The Last Waltz, Bus Stop and Rebel Without a Cause and The French Connection and The Man Who Fell to Earth and a bunch of other movies that weren't yet available on VHS, and it was great. Like many teenagers in the early 1980s, I spent some time working at a mom and pop video store, Seacliff Home Video in Aptos, CA. I worked on the weekends, it was a third of a mile walk from home, and even though I was only 16 years old at the time, my bosses would, every week, solicit my opinion about which upcoming videos we should acquire. Because, like Telford Home Video and Village Home Video, where my friends Dick and Michelle worked about two miles away, and most every video store at the time, space was extremely limited and there was only space for so many titles. Telford Home Video was about 500 square feet and had maybe 500 titles. Seacliff was about 750 square feet and around 800 titles, including about 50 in the tiny, curtained off room created to hold the porn. And the first location for Village Home Video had only 300 square feet of space and only 250 titles. The owner, Leone Keller, confirmed to me that until they moved into a larger location across from the original store, they were able to rent out every movie in the store every night. For many, a store owner had to be very careful about what they ordered and what they replaced. But Vestron Home Video always seemed to have some of the better movies. Because of a spat between Warner Brothers and Orion Pictures, Vestron would end up with most of Orion's 1983 through 1985 theatrical releases, including Rodney Dangerfield's Easy Money, the Nick Nolte political thriller Under Fire, the William Hurt mystery Gorky Park, and Gene Wilder's The Woman in Red. They'd also make a deal with Roger Corman's old American Independent Pictures outfit, which would reap an unexpected bounty when George Miller's second Mad Max movie, The Road Warrior, became a surprise hit in 1982, and Vestron was holding the video rights to the first Mad Max movie. And they'd also find themselves with the laserdisc rights to several Brian DePalma movies including Dressed to Kill and Blow Out. And after Polygram Films decided to leave the movie business in 1984, they would sell the home video rights to An American Werewolf in London and Endless Love to Vestron. They were doing pretty good. And in 1984, Vestron ended up changing the home video industry forever. When Michael Jackson and John Landis had trouble with Jackson's record company, Epic, getting their idea for a 14 minute short film built around the title song to Jackson's monster album Thriller financed, Vestron would put up a good portion of the nearly million dollar budget in order to release the movie on home video, after it played for a few weeks on MTV. In February 1984, Vestron would release a one-hour tape, The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, that included the mini-movie and a 45 minute Making of featurette. At $29.99, it would be one of the first sell-through titles released on home video. It would become the second home videotape to sell a million copies, after Star Wars. Suddenly, Vestron was flush with more cash than it knew what to do with. In 1985, they would decide to expand their entertainment footprint by opening Vestron Pictures, which would finance a number of movies that could be exploited across a number of platforms, including theatrical, home video, cable and syndicated TV. In early January 1986, Vestron would announce they were pursuing projects with three producers, Steve Tisch, Larry Turman, and Gene Kirkwood, but no details on any specific titles or even a timeframe when any of those movies would be made. Tisch, the son of Loews Entertainment co-owner Bob Tisch, had started producing films in 1977 with the Peter Fonda music drama Outlaw Blues, and had a big hit in 1983 with Risky Business. Turman, the Oscar-nominated producer of Mike Nichols' The Graduate, and Kirkwood, the producer of The Keep and The Pope of Greenwich Village, had seen better days as producers by 1986 but their names still carried a certain cache in Hollywood, and the announcement would certainly let the industry know Vestron was serious about making quality movies. Well, maybe not all quality movies. They would also launch a sub-label for Vestron Pictures called Lightning Pictures, which would be utilized on B-movies and schlock that maybe wouldn't fit in the Vestron Pictures brand name they were trying to build. But it costs money to build a movie production and theatrical distribution company. Lots of money. Thanks to the ever-growing roster of video titles and the success of releases like Thriller, Vestron would go public in the spring of 1985, selling enough shares on the first day of trading to bring in $440m to the company, $140m than they thought they would sell that day. It would take them a while, but in 1986, they would start production on their first slate of films, as well as acquire several foreign titles for American distribution. Vestron Pictures officially entered the theatrical distribution game on July 18th, 1986, when they released the Australian comedy Malcolm at the Cinema 2 on the Upper East Side of New York City. A modern attempt to create the Aussie version of a Jacques Tati-like absurdist comedy about modern life and our dependance on gadgetry, Malcolm follows, as one character describes him a 100 percent not there individual who is tricked into using some of his remote control inventions to pull of a bank robbery. While the film would be a minor hit in Australia, winning all eight of the Australian Film Institute Awards it was nominated for including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay and three acting awards, the film would only play for five weeks in New York, grossing less than $35,000, and would not open in Los Angeles until November 5th, where in its first week at the Cineplex Beverly Center and Samuel Goldwyn Pavilion Cinemas, it would gross a combined $37,000. Go figure. Malcolm would open in a few more major markets, but Vestron would close the film at the end of the year with a gross under $200,000. Their next film, Slaughter High, was a rather odd bird. A co-production between American and British-based production companies, the film followed a group of adults responsible for a prank gone wrong on April Fool's Day who are invited to a reunion at their defunct high school where a masked killer awaits inside. And although the movie takes place in America, the film was shot in London and nearby Virginia Water, Surrey, in late 1984, under the title April Fool's Day. But even with Caroline Munro, the British sex symbol who had become a cult favorite with her appearances in a series of sci-fi and Hammer horror films with Peter Cushing and/or Christopher Lee, as well as her work in the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, April Fool's Day would sit on the proverbial shelf for nearly two years, until Vestron picked it up and changed its title, since Paramount Pictures had released their own horror film called April Fools Day earlier in the year. Vestron would open Slaughter High on nine screens in Detroit on November 14th, 1986, but Vestron would not report grosses. Then they would open it on six screen in St. Louis on February 13th, 1987. At least this time they reported a gross. $12,400. Variety would simply call that number “grim.” They'd give the film one final rush on April 24th, sending it out to 38 screens in in New York City, where it would gross $90,000. There'd be no second week, as practically every theatre would replace it with Creepshow 2. The third and final Vestron Pictures release for 1986 was Billy Galvin, a little remembered family drama featuring Karl Malden and Lenny von Dohlen, originally produced for the PBS anthology series American Playhouse but bumped up to a feature film as part of coordinated effort to promote the show by occasionally releasing feature films bearing the American Playhouse banner. The film would open at the Cineplex Beverly Center on December 31st, not only the last day of the calendar year but the last day a film can be released into theatres in Los Angeles to have been considered for Academy Awards. The film would not get any major awards, from the Academy or anyone else, nor much attention from audiences, grossing just $4,000 in its first five days. They'd give the film a chance in New York on February 20th, at the 23rd Street West Triplex, but a $2,000 opening weekend gross would doom the film from ever opening in another theatre again. In early 1987, Vestron announced eighteen films they would release during the year, and a partnership with AMC Theatres and General Cinema to have their films featured in those two companies' pilot specialized film programs in major markets like Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston and San Francisco. Alpine Fire would be the first of those films, arriving at the Cinema Studio 1 in New York City on February 20th. A Swiss drama about a young deaf and mentally challenged teenager who gets his older sister pregnant, was that country's entry into the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race. While the film would win the Golden Leopard Award at the 1985 Locarno Film Festival, the Academy would not select the film for a nomination, and the film would quickly disappear from theatres after a $2,000 opening weekend gross. Personal Services, the first film to be directed by Terry Jones outside of his services with Monty Python, would arrive in American theatres on May 15th. The only Jones-directed film to not feature any other Python in the cast, Personal Services was a thinly-disguised telling of a 1970s—era London waitress who was running a brothel in her flat in order to make ends meet, and featured a standout performance by Julie Walters as the waitress turned madame. In England, Personal Services would be the second highest-grossing film of the year, behind The Living Daylights, the first Bond film featuring new 007 Timothy Dalton. In America, the film wouldn't be quite as successful, grossing $1.75m after 33 weeks in theatres, despite never playing on more than 31 screens in any given week. It would be another three months before Vestron would release their second movie of the year, but it would be the one they'd become famous for. Dirty Dancing. Based in large part on screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein's own childhood, the screenplay would be written after the producers of the 1980 Michael Douglas/Jill Clayburgh dramedy It's My Turn asked the writer to remove a scene from the screenplay that involved an erotic dance sequence. She would take that scene and use it as a jumping off point for a new story about a Jewish teenager in the early 1960s who participated in secret “Dirty Dancing” competitions while she vacationed with her doctor father and stay-at-home mother while they vacationed in the Catskill Mountains. Baby, the young woman at the center of the story, would not only resemble the screenwriter as a character but share her childhood nickname. Bergstein would pitch the story to every studio in Hollywood in 1984, and only get a nibble from MGM Pictures, whose name was synonymous with big-budget musicals decades before. They would option the screenplay and assign producer Linda Gottlieb, a veteran television producer making her first major foray into feature films, to the project. With Gottlieb, Bergstein would head back to the Catskills for the first time in two decades, as research for the script. It was while on this trip that the pair would meet Michael Terrace, a former Broadway dancer who had spent summers in the early 1960s teaching tourists how to mambo in the Catskills. Terrace and Bergstein didn't remember each other if they had met way back when, but his stories would help inform the lead male character of Johnny Castle. But, as regularly happens in Hollywood, there was a regime change at MGM in late 1985, and one of the projects the new bosses cut loose was Dirty Dancing. Once again, the script would make the rounds in Hollywood, but nobody was biting… until Vestron Pictures got their chance to read it. They loved it, and were ready to make it their first in-house production… but they would make the movie if the budget could be cut from $10m to $4.5m. That would mean some sacrifices. They wouldn't be able to hire a major director, nor bigger name actors, but that would end up being a blessing in disguise. To direct, Gottlieb and Bergstein looked at a lot of up and coming feature directors, but the one person they had the best feeling about was Emile Ardolino, a former actor off-Broadway in the 1960s who began his filmmaking career as a documentarian for PBS in the 1970s. In 1983, Ardolino's documentary about National Dance Institute founder Jacques d'Amboise, He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin', would win both the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Entertainment Special. Although Ardolino had never directed a movie, he would read the script twice in a week while serving on jury duty, and came back to Gottlieb and Bergstein with a number of ideas to help make the movie shine, even at half the budget. For a movie about dancing, with a lot of dancing in it, they would need a creative choreographer to help train the actors and design the sequences. The filmmakers would chose Kenny Ortega, who in addition to choreographing the dance scenes in Pretty in Pink and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, had worked with Gene Kelly on the 1980 musical Xanadu. Well, more specifically, was molded by Gene Kelly to become the lead choreographer for the film. That's some good credentials. Unlike movies like Flashdance, where the filmmakers would hire Jennifer Beals to play Alex and Marine Jahan to perform Alex's dance scenes, Emile Ardolino was insistent that the actors playing the dancers were actors who also dance. Having stand-ins would take extra time to set-up, and would suck up a portion of an already tight budget. Yet the first people he would meet for the lead role of Johnny were non-dancers Benecio del Toro, Val Kilmer, and Billy Zane. Zane would go so far as to do a screen test with one of the actresses being considered for the role of Baby, Jennifer Grey, but after screening the test, they realized Grey was right for Baby but Zane was not right for Johnny. Someone suggested Patrick Swayze, a former dancer for the prestigious Joffrey Ballet who was making his way up the ranks of stardom thanks to his roles in The Outsiders and Grandview U.S.A. But Swayze had suffered a knee injury years before that put his dance career on hold, and there were concerns he would re-aggravate his injury, and there were concerns from Jennifer Grey because she and Swayze had not gotten along very well while working on Red Dawn. But that had been three years earlier, and when they screen tested together here, everyone was convinced this was the pairing that would bring magic to the role. Baby's parents would be played by two Broadway veterans: Jerry Orbach, who is best known today as Detective Lenny Briscoe on Law and Order, and Kelly Bishop, who is best known today as Emily Gilmore from Gilmore Girls but had actually started out as a dancer, singer and actor, winning a Tony Award for her role in the original Broadway production of A Chorus Line. Although Bishop had originally been cast in a different role for the movie, another guest at the Catskills resort with the Housemans, but she would be bumped up when the original Mrs. Houseman, Lynne Lipton, would fall ill during the first week of filming. Filming on Dirty Dancing would begin in North Carolina on September 5th, 1986, at a former Boy Scout camp that had been converted to a private residential community. This is where many of the iconic scenes from the film would be shot, including Baby carrying the watermelon and practicing her dance steps on the stairs, all the interior dance scenes, the log scene, and the golf course scene where Baby would ask her father for $250. It's also where Patrick Swayze almost ended his role in the film, when he would indeed re-injure his knee during the balancing scene on the log. He would be rushed to the hospital to have fluid drained from the swelling. Thankfully, there would be no lingering effects once he was released. After filming in North Carolina was completed, the team would move to Virginia for two more weeks of filming, including the water lift scene, exteriors at Kellerman's Hotel and the Houseman family's cabin, before the film wrapped on October 27th. Ardolino's first cut of the film would be completed in February 1987, and Vestron would begin the process of running a series of test screenings. At the first test screening, nearly 40% of the audience didn't realize there was an abortion subplot in the movie, even after completing the movie. A few weeks later, Vestron executives would screen the film for producer Aaron Russo, who had produced such movies as The Rose and Trading Places. His reaction to the film was to tell the executives to burn the negative and collect the insurance. But, to be fair, one important element of the film was still not set. The music. Eleanor Bergstein had written into her script a number of songs that were popular in the early 1960s, when the movie was set, that she felt the final film needed. Except a number of the songs were a bit more expensive to license than Vestron would have preferred. The company was testing the film with different versions of those songs, other artists' renditions. The writer, with the support of her producer and director, fought back. She made a deal with the Vestron executives. They would play her the master tracks to ten of the songs she wanted, as well as the copycat versions. If she could identify six of the masters, she could have all ten songs in the film. Vestron would spend another half a million dollars licensing the original recording. The writer nailed all ten. But even then, there was still one missing piece of the puzzle. The closing song. While Bergstein wanted another song to close the film, the team at Vestron were insistent on a new song that could be used to anchor a soundtrack album. The writer, producer, director and various members of the production team listened to dozens of submissions from songwriters, but none of them were right, until they got to literally the last submission left, written by Franke Previte, who had written another song that would appear on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, “Hungry Eyes.” Everybody loved the song, called “I've Had the Time of My Life,” and it would take some time to convince Previte that Dirty Dancing was not a porno. They showed him the film and he agreed to give them the song, but the production team and Vestron wanted to get a pair of more famous singers to record the final version. The filmmakers originally approached disco queen Donna Summer and Joe Esposito, whose song “You're the Best” appeared on the Karate Kid soundtrack, but Summer would decline, not liking the title of the movie. They would then approach Daryl Hall from Hall and Oates and Kim Carnes, but they'd both decline, citing concerns about the title of the movie. Then they approached Bill Medley, one-half of The Righteous Brothers, who had enjoyed yet another career resurgence when You Lost That Lovin' Feeling became a hit in 1986 thanks to Top Gun, but at first, he would also decline. Not that he had any concerns about the title of the film, although he did have concerns about the title, but that his wife was about to give birth to their daughter, and he had promised he would be there. While trying to figure who to get to sing the male part of the song, the music supervisor for the film approached Jennifer Warnes, who had sung the duet “Up Where We Belong” from the An Officer and a Gentleman soundtrack, which had won the 1983 Academy Award for Best Original Song, and sang the song “It Goes Like It Goes” from the Norma Rae soundtrack, which had won the 1980 Academy Award for Best Original Song. Warnes wasn't thrilled with the song, but she would be persuaded to record the song for the right price… and if Bill Medley would sing the other part. Medley, flattered that Warnes asked specifically to record with him, said he would do so, after his daughter was born, and if the song was recorded in his studio in Los Angeles. A few weeks later, Medley and Warnes would have their portion of the song completed in only one hour, including additional harmonies and flourishes decided on after finishing with the main vocals. With all the songs added to the movie, audience test scores improved considerably. RCA Records, who had been contracted to handle the release of the soundtrack, would set a July 17th release date for the album, to coincide with the release of the movie on the same day, with the lead single, I've Had the Time of My Life, released one week earlier. But then, Vestron moved the movie back from July 17th to August 21st… and forgot to tell RCA Records about the move. No big deal. The song would quickly rise up the charts, eventually hitting #1 on the Billboard charts. When the movie finally did open in 975 theatres in August 21st, the film would open to fourth place with $3.9m in ticket sales, behind Can't Buy Me Love in third place and in its second week of release, the Cheech Marin comedy Born in East L.A., which opened in second place, and Stakeout, which was enjoying its third week atop the charts. The reviews were okay, but not special. Gene Siskel would give the film a begrudging Thumbs Up, citing Jennifer Grey's performance and her character's arc as the thing that tipped the scale into the positive, while Roger Ebert would give the film a Thumbs Down, due to its idiot plot and tired and relentlessly predictable story of love between kids from different backgrounds. But then a funny thing happened… Instead of appealing to the teenagers they thought would see the film, the majority of the audience ended up becoming adults. Not just twenty and thirty somethings, but people who were teenagers themselves during the movie's timeframe. They would be drawn in to the film through the newfound sense of boomer nostalgia that helped make Stand By Me an unexpected hit the year before, both as a movie and as a soundtrack. Its second week in theatre would only see the gross drop 6%, and the film would finish in third place. In week three, the four day Labor Day weekend, it would gross nearly $5m, and move up to second place. And it would continue to play and continue to bring audiences in, only dropping out of the top ten once in early November for one weekend, from August to December. Even with all the new movies entering the marketplace for Christmas, Dirty Dancing would be retained by most of the theatres that were playing it. In the first weekend of 1988, Dirty Dancing was still playing in 855 theaters, only 120 fewer than who opened it five months earlier. Once it did started leaving first run theatres, dollar houses were eager to pick it up, and Dirty Dancing would make another $6m in ticket sales as it continued to play until Christmas 1988 at some theatres, finishing its incredible run with $63.5m in ticket sales. Yet, despite its ubiquitousness in American pop culture, despite the soundtrack selling more than ten million copies in its first year, despite the uptick in attendance at dance schools from coast to coast, Dirty Dancing never once was the #1 film in America on any weekend it was in theatres. There would always be at least one other movie that would do just a bit better. When awards season came around, the movie was practically ignored by critics groups. It would pick up an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, and both the movie and Jennifer Grey would be nominated for Golden Globes, but it would be that song, I've Had the Time of My Life, that would be the driver for awards love. It would win the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, and a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. The song would anchor a soundtrack that would also include two other hit songs, Eric Carmen's “Hungry Eyes,” and “She's Like the Wind,” recorded for the movie by Patrick Swayze, making him the proto-Hugh Jackman of the 80s. I've seen Hugh Jackman do his one-man show at the Hollywood Bowl, and now I'm wishing Patrick Swayze could have had something like that thirty years ago. On September 25th, they would release Abel Ferrera's Neo-noir romantic thriller China Girl. A modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet written by regular Ferrera writer Nicholas St. John, the setting would be New York City's Lower East Side, when Tony, a teenager from Little Italy, falls for Tye, a teenager from Chinatown, as their older brothers vie for turf in a vicious gang war. While the stars of the film, Richard Panebianco and Sari Chang, would never become known actors, the supporting cast is as good as you'd expect from a post-Ms. .45 Ferrera film, including James Russo, Russell Wong, David Caruso and James Hong. The $3.5m movie would open on 110 screens, including 70 in New York ti-state region and 18 in Los Angeles, grossing $531k. After a second weekend, where the gross dropped to $225k, Vestron would stop tracking the film, with a final reported gross of just $1.26m coming from a stockholder's report in early 1988. Ironically, China Girl would open against another movie that Vestron had a hand in financing, but would not release in America: Rob Reiner's The Princess Bride. While the film would do okay in America, grossing $30m against its $15m, it wouldn't translate so easily to foreign markets. Anna, from first time Polish filmmaker Yurek Bogayevicz, was an oddball little film from the start. The story, co-written with the legendary Polish writer/director Agnieszka Holland, was based on the real-life friendship of Polish actresses Joanna (Yo-ahn-nuh) Pacuła (Pa-tsu-wa) and Elżbieta (Elz-be-et-ah) Czyżewska (Chuh-zef-ska), and would find Czech supermodel Paulina Porizkova making her feature acting debut as Krystyna, an aspiring actress from Czechoslovakia who goes to New York City to find her idol, Anna, who had been imprisoned and then deported for speaking out against the new regime after the 1968 Communist invasion. Nearly twenty years later, the middle-aged Anna struggles to land any acting parts, in films, on television, or on the stage, who relishes the attention of this beautiful young waif who reminds her of herself back then. Sally Kirkland, an American actress who got her start as part of Andy Warhol's Factory in the early 60s but could never break out of playing supporting roles in movies like The Way We Were, The Sting, A Star is Born, and Private Benjamin, would be cast as the faded Czech star whose life seemed to unintentionally mirror the actress's. Future Snakes on a Plane director David R. Ellis would be featured in a small supporting role, as would the then sixteen year old Sofia Coppola. The $1m movie would shoot on location in New York City during the winter of late 1986 and early 1987, and would make its world premiere at the 1987 New York Film Festival in September, before opening at the 68th Street Playhouse on the Upper East Side on October 30th. Critics such as Bruce Williamson of Playboy, Molly Haskell of Vogue and Jami Bernard of the New York Post would sing the praises of the movie, and of Paulina Porizkova, but it would be Sally Kirkland whom practically every critic would gush over. “A performance of depth and clarity and power, easily one of the strongest female roles of the year,” wrote Mike McGrady of Newsday. Janet Maslim wasn't as impressed with the film as most critics, but she would note Ms. Kirkland's immensely dignified presence in the title role. New York audiences responded well to the critical acclaim, buying more than $22,000 worth of tickets, often playing to sell out crowds for the afternoon and evening shows. In its second week, the film would see its gross increase 12%, and another 3% increase in its third week. Meanwhile, on November 13th, the film would open in Los Angeles at the AMC Century City 14, where it would bring in an additional $10,000, thanks in part to Sheila Benson's rave in the Los Angeles Times, calling the film “the best kind of surprise — a small, frequently funny, fine-boned film set in the worlds of the theater and movies which unexpectedly becomes a consummate study of love, alienation and loss,” while praising Kirkland's performance as a “blazing comet.” Kirkland would make the rounds on the awards circuit, winning Best Actress awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Golden Globes, and the Independent Spirit Awards, culminating in an Academy Award nomination, although she would lose to Cher in Moonstruck. But despite all these rave reviews and the early support for the film in New York and Los Angeles, the film got little traction outside these two major cities. Despite playing in theatres for nearly six months, Anna could only round up about $1.2m in ticket sales. Vestron's penultimate new film of 1987 would be a movie that when it was shot in Namibia in late 1986 was titled Peacekeeper, then was changed to Desert Warrior when it was acquired by Jerry Weintraub's eponymously named distribution company, then saw it renamed again to Steel Dawn when Vestron overpaid to acquire the film from Weintraub, because they wanted the next film starring Patrick Swayze for themselves. Swayze plays, and stop me if you've heard this one before, a warrior wandering through a post-apocalyptic desert who comes upon a group of settlers who are being menaced by the leader of a murderous gang who's after the water they control. Lisa Niemi, also known as Mrs. Patrick Swayze, would be his romantic interest in the film, which would also star AnthonY Zerbe, Brian James, and, in one of his very first acting roles, future Mummy co-star Arnold Vosloo. The film would open to horrible reviews, and gross just $312k in 290 theatres. For comparison's sake, Dirty Dancing was in its eleventh week of release, was still playing 878 theatres, and would gross $1.7m. In its second week, Steel Dawn had lost nearly two thirds of its theatres, grossing only $60k from 107 theatres. After its third weekend, Vestron stopped reporting grosses. The film had only earned $562k in ticket sales. And their final release for 1987 would be one of the most prestigious titles they'd ever be involved with. The Dead, based on a short story by James Joyce, would be the 37th and final film to be directed by John Huston. His son Tony would adapt the screenplay, while his daughter Anjelica, whom he had directed to a Best Supporting Actress Oscar two years earlier for Prizzi's Honor, would star as the matriarch of an Irish family circa 1904 whose husband discovers memoirs of a deceased lover of his wife's, an affair that preceded their meeting. Originally scheduled to shoot in Dublin, Ireland, The Dead would end up being shot on soundstages in Valencia, CA, just north of Los Angeles, as the eighty year old filmmaker was in ill health. Huston, who was suffering from severe emphysema due to decades of smoking, would use video playback for the first and only time in his career in order to call the action, whirling around from set to set in a motorized wheelchair with an oxygen tank attached to it. In fact, the company insuring the film required the producers to have a backup director on set, just in case Huston was unable to continue to make the film. That stand-in was Czech-born British filmmaker Karel Reisz, who never once had to stand-in during the entire shoot. One Huston who didn't work on the film was Danny Huston, who was supposed to shoot some second unit footage for the film in Dublin for his father, who could not make any trips overseas, as well as a documentary about the making of the film, but for whatever reason, Danny Huston would end up not doing either. John Huston would turn in his final cut of the film to Vestron in July 1987, and would pass away in late August, a good four months before the film's scheduled release. He would live to see some of the best reviews of his entire career when the film was released on December 18th. At six theatres in Los Angeles and New York City, The Dead would earn $69k in its first three days during what was an amazing opening weekend for a number of movies. The Dead would open against exclusive runs of Broadcast News, Ironweed, Moonstruck and the newest Woody Allen film, September, as well as wide releases of Eddie Murphy: Raw, Batteries Not Included, Overboard, and the infamous Bill Cosby stinker Leonard Part 6. The film would win the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Picture of the year, John Huston would win the Spirit Award and the London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director, Anjelica Huston would win a Spirit Award as well, for Best Supporting Actress, and Tony Huston would be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. But the little $3.5m film would only see modest returns at the box office, grossing just $4.4m after a four month run in theatres. Vestron would also release two movies in 1987 through their genre Lightning Pictures label. The first, Blood Diner, from writer/director Jackie Kong, was meant to be both a tribute and an indirect sequel to the infamous 1965 Herschell Gordon Lewis movie Blood Feast, often considered to be the first splatter slasher film. Released on four screens in Baltimore on July 10th, the film would gross just $6,400 in its one tracked week. The film would get a second chance at life when it opened at the 8th Street Playhouse in New York City on September 4th, but after a $5,000 opening week gross there, the film would have to wait until it was released on home video to become a cult film. The other Lightning Pictures release for 1987, Street Trash, would become one of the most infamous horror comedy films of the year. An expansion of a short student film by then nineteen year old Jim Muro, Street Trash told the twin stories of a Greenpoint, Brooklyn shop owner who sell a case of cheap, long-expired hooch to local hobos, who hideously melt away shortly after drinking it, while two homeless brothers try to deal with their situation as best they can while all this weirdness is going on about them. After playing several weeks of midnight shows at the Waverly Theatre near Washington Square, Street Trash would open for a regular run at the 8th Street Playhouse on September 18th, one week after Blood Diner left the same theatre. However, Street Trash would not replace Blood Diner, which was kicked to the curb after one week, but another long forgotten movie, the Christopher Walken-starrer Deadline. Street Trash would do a bit better than Blood Diner, $9,000 in its first three days, enough to get the film a full two week run at the Playhouse. But its second week gross of $5,000 would not be enough to give it a longer playdate, or get another New York theatre to pick it up. The film would get other playdates, including one in my secondary hometown of Santa Cruz starting, ironically, on Thanksgiving Day, but the film would barely make $100k in its theatrical run. While this would be the only film Jim Muro would direct, he would become an in demand cinematographer and Steadicam operator, working on such films as Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves, Sneakers, L.A. Confidential, the first Fast and Furious movie, and on The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies and Titanic for James Cameron. And should you ever watch the film and sit through the credits, yes, it's that Bryan Singer who worked as a grip and production assistant on the film. It would be his very first film credit, which he worked on during a break from going to USC film school. People who know me know I am not the biggest fan of horror films. I may have mentioned it once or twice on this podcast. But I have a soft spot for Troma Films and Troma-like films, and Street Trash is probably the best Troma movie not made or released by Troma. There's a reason why Lloyd Kaufman is not a fan of the movie. A number of people who have seen the movie think it is a Troma movie, not helped by the fact that a number of people who did work on The Toxic Avenger went to work on Street Trash afterwards, and some even tell Lloyd at conventions that Street Trash is their favorite Troma movie. It's looks like a Troma movie. It feels like a Troma movie. And to be honest, at least to me, that's one hell of a compliment. It's one of the reasons I even went to see Street Trash, the favorable comparison to Troma. And while I, for lack of a better word, enjoyed Street Trash when I saw it, as much as one can say they enjoyed a movie where a bunch of bums playing hot potato with a man's severed Johnson is a major set piece, but I've never really felt the need to watch it again over the past thirty-five years. Like several of the movies on this episode, Street Trash is not available for streaming on any service in the United States. And outside of Dirty Dancing, the ones you can stream, China Girl, Personal Services, Slaughter High and Steel Dawn, are mostly available for free with ads on Tubi, which made a huge splash last week with a confounding Super Bowl commercial that sent millions of people to figure what a Tubi was. Now, if you were counting, that was only nine films released in 1987, and not the eighteen they had promised at the start of the year. Despite the fact they had a smash hit in Dirty Dancing, they decided to push most of their planned 1987 movies to 1988. Not necessarily by choice, though. Many of the films just weren't ready in time for a 1987 release, and then the unexpected long term success of Dirty Dancing kept them occupied for most of the rest of the year. But that only meant that 1988 would be a stellar year for them, right? We'll find out next episode, when we continue the Vestron Pictures story. Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again next week. Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode. The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment. Thank you again. Good night.
Toute cette semaine, nous voyageons en 1958 , au programme : Américains et Soviétiques s'affrontent dans l'espace, Jacques Tati triomphe à Cannes, la jeune Françoise Sagan signe un Ballet… le chant des oiseaux ravit les auditeurs d'Europe n°1?
It is not enough to ask, “is this movie like Smokin' Aces?” One must also ask, “how do you feel about Smokin' Aces?” Love it or hate it, Bullet Train is a movie that is very much what it is. And what is it, exactly? Listen and we'll explain to the best of our abilities. Plus, the gang invents their own assassin personas, all of which are just begging to be made into some kick-ass fan art. [Note: there are spoilers, but there's also a warning beforehand!]What's GoodAlonso - SeveranceDrea - grand return to the MidwestBilge - Idris ElbaIfy - golf lessons/Maria Lewis/macrosITIDICUniversal Has Earned $3 Billion in Global Box Office this year ‘Jurassic World' star Bryce Dallas Howard was paid “so much less” 50 Years After She was jeered onstage, The Academy has Issued An Apology to Sacheen Littlefeather(Here's Sacheen Littlefeather's speech in context)Staff PicksAlonso - Fall (2022)Drea - Walking and Talking (1996)Bilge - In the Line of Fire (1993)Ify - Smokin' Aces (2006)Soylent:Go to Soylent.com/maxfilm and use promo code MAXFILM to get 20% OFF your first order!EveryPlate:Get your first box for just $1.49 per meal by going to EveryPlate.com and entering code maxfilm149. With:Ify NwadiweDrea ClarkAlonso DuraldeBilge EbiriProduced by Marissa FlaxbartSr. Producer Laura Swisher
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