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How is a child’s life different from that of adults today? What is it like growing up around stimuli, in a world that is always-online, and with varying degrees of supervision? Is complete safeguarding even possible? These are questions contemporary cinema has been asking a lot in the last few years. Many classroom dramas, including 2023’s The Teacher’s Lounge, have explored complex ways the in-and-out-of-school dynamics intertwine, usually through the prism of a single incident. Armand, by Halfdan Ullmann Tønde, opts for that micro-as-macro approach and refuses to pass any judgment. As a result the film stays in this moral limbo between truth and lie, accusation and defense, instead zooming into its characters’ psychological states. Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve) has been summoned to an emergency parent-teacher meeting after her six-year-old son Armand is accused of crossing boundaries with his classmate Jon. What actually happened, we do not know.

Armand...

An Ingmar Bergman movie is in the works from Sf Studios, with Robert Gustafsson (The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared) playing the celebrated Swedish auteur.

The as-yet-untitled movie, revealed on day three of Cannes, is a political thriller set during the Swedish election year of 1976, when Bergman is arrested by the police suspected of serious tax evasion in the midst of the receptions for Strindberg’s The Dance of Death at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. The personal catastrophe quickly becomes a reality for Bergman, as does the mental breakdown, and the director finds himself in a Kafkaesque state, where culture is ultimately pitted against politics, with Bergman on one side and the political establishment on the other.

Bergman, who died in 2007, is one of Sweden’s best known directors, with famous works including The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries and Fanny and Alexander. Gustafsson is...

Just as a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down*, a touch of creativity helps to pep up otherwise dull administrative tasks. That’s why it’s become a tradition on some film and TV sets to decorate the clapperboards snapped at the top of each shot to synchronise sound and images. It’s a bit of behind-the-scenes fun.

*The advice of a magical nanny, not NHS-approved guidance.

And thanks to the BBC releasing the Ghosts blooper reels each series, and directors Tom Kinglsey and Simon Hynd sharing on-set snaps from filming on the fantasy comedy, it’s a bit of fun that Ghosts fans get to share.

As spotted in the series five blooper reel (below) are some beautifully decorated clapperboards containing fond references and gags involving the Ghosts cast. Read on to see the Captain and Havers as Michelangelo’s God and Adam, Thomas dressed as Kylie Minogue,...

“We didn’t need dialogue. We had faces,” proclaimed former silent film queen Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in Billy Wilder’s 1950 masterwork “Sunset Boulevard.” One of the greatest faces of the era belonged to French actor Albert Dieudonne who starred in Abel Gance’s breathtaking 1927 epic “Napoleon.” With this dark eyes, distinct nose and rock star style hair, Dieudonne channels the infamous French military leader and emperor who conquered most of Europe in the early 19th century until his disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia. Exiled to Elba in 1814, he emerged once again and suffered a massive defeat at Waterloo in 1815. He died in exile six years later at the age of 51.

Dieudonne commands the 5 ½ hour film restored by Kevin Brownlow which features the jaw-dropping triptych finale that is as exciting now as it was 96 years ago. BFI states that the film is “monumental and visionary, the story’s chapters play out...

Warning: contains plot details for Ghosts series five episode two “Home”, and smut.

BBC One’s Ghosts is one of the few TV shows around that has successfully blurred the line between adult and child viewing. Kids love it, adults love it, and it’s long been appointment viewing for families doing that (almost miraculous in 2023) thing of gathering together around the same screen.

Making Ghosts’ comedy suitable for a mixed-age audience though, means keeping an eye on its adult content. The ruder gags need to be blink-and-you’ll-miss-them and cheeky, but never crass. The sordid circumstances of Julian’s 1990s Tory MP sex scandal death for instance, or Lady Button’s husband’s “Moroccan tea party” with two members of his household staff, are alluded to but never made explicit. The same goes for caveman Robin’s romantic exploits over the centuries, and his (cough) close relationship with his sister.

Gary Wright, the singer and keyboardist known for the 1970s synthesizer-driven hits “Dream Weaver” and “Love Is Alive,” has died. He was 80.

Wright died Monday at his home in Palos Verdes Estates, his son Justin Wright told TMZ.

Born on April 26, 1943, in New Jersey, Wright worked as a child actor and at age 7 appeared on the 1949 TV series Captain Video and His Video Rangers. He also worked on TV commercials and starred in the 1954 Broadway musical Fanny.

Wright went to college in New York to study psychology before moving to Germany to complete his studies. In Europe, he met Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who introduced him to musician Mike Harrison in the late ’60s. They formed the British rock band Spooky Tooth, which disbanded in 1970.

Wright recorded solo for A&m Records, formed the band Wonderwheel and collaborated with other artists, including playing keyboard on George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass album,...

Singer-songwriter and synth pioneer Gary Wright, who penned the massive hits “Dream Weaver” and “Love Is Alive” and became George Harrison’s longtime friend and collaborator, died Monday morning. He was 80.

Wright’s son, Justin, confirmed the musician’s death to Rolling Stone, adding that the cause was Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia. According to Justin, Wright was diagnosed with Parkinson’s “around six or seven years ago” before a subsequent dementia diagnosis. “He managed it fairly well for a while,” Justin tells Rolling Stone. “But a few years ago,...

By Glenn Charlie Dunks

You’re a little bit damned if you do and a little bit damned if you don’t when it comes to musician bio-docs these days. They remain prolific, a cottage industry that is popular with audiences and easy choices for distributors and sales agents with a built-in audience. It makes sense that we get so many of them each year. And if you’re not inclined to watch so many of them, you may not be as burnt out on them as I appear to be. But—and I swear I’m not just being grumpy—are they actually getting worse, too? They certainly don’t seem to be getting any better, with most choosing to abandon any real directorial vision in favour of standard story beats.

Three recent examples all have strong elements, telling their subject’s life story in ways that I have...

Lea Michele's return to Broadway as Fanny Price in "Funny Girl" has been a major success, but fans may want to hurry and get their tickets to see the musical now because the show will have its final curtain call soon. According to Variety, the show's final performance will be held on Sept. 3, just under a year after Michele gave her debut performance as the character. The news follows the November 2022 release of a recorded album featuring Michele and her castmates, which the actor announced days before during the show's curtain call.

Audiences have been raving about Michele and the newly cast "Funny Girl" revival ever since the actor made her highly anticipated debut on Sept. 6, 2022. People reported that the actor's Fanny Brice portrayal received multiple standing ovations (at least four) - including one before she even said a word on stage - in Act I of the show.

The 23rd annual Black Reel Awards took place Monday, February 6th, with “The Woman King” leading the field, snagging six awards including Best Picture. BAFTA nominee Gina Prince-Bythewood‘s historical epic is inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was close behind with five wins.

Special honorary award winners were Angela Bassett (Sidney Poitier Trailblazer Award), Effie T. Brown (Vanguard Award), Debra Martin Chase (Oscar Micheaux Impact Award) and Kerry Washington (Ruby Dee Humanitarian Award).

The Black Reel Awards, or the “Bolt”, is an annual American awards ceremony hosted by the Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film (Faaaf) to recognize the excellence of African-Americans, as well as the cinematic achievements of the African diaspora, in the global film industry, as assessed by the Foundation’s voting membership.

Exclusive: Marisa Tomei (Spider-Man: No Way Home) and Lena Olin (Hunters) have signed on to star alongside Camila Mendes and Archie Renaux in Gulfstream Pictures’ romantic comedy Upgraded, which has entered production in the UK.

In the film from actor-director Carlson Young (The Blazing World), aspiring art intern Ana (Mendes) is invited on a last-minute work trip to London by her brilliant but intimidating super boss, meeting the handsome and wealthy William (Renaux) on the plane. Set in both London and New York City, the rom-com chronicles the trials and tribulations of balancing work, romance and following your dreams.

Tomei will take on the role of the formidable auction house executive Claire Dupree, a brilliant and terrifying boss to auction-house trainee Ana. Olin will play the charismatic and charming Catherine Laroche, a wealthy and influential art seller, and the mother of Ana’s love interest, William.

Developed in part by...

Don’t rain on Lea Michele’s parade on this of all weeks. The actress has addressed her past controversy in a new interview with The New York Times ahead of her debut as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl on Broadway on Sept. 6, claiming that it boils down to her work style being too intense for some of her coworkers.

“I have an edge to me,” she said in the interview, responding to claims from Glee co-stars in 2020 that she was exclusionary and demeaning. “I work really hard. I leave no room for mistakes.

Update, with Lynch Playbill comments: Jane Lynch will depart Broadway’s Funny Girl even earlier than expected, producers announced Tuesday. The former Glee actor will end her run as “Mrs. Brice” on Sunday, August 14, several weeks earlier than the Sept. 4 date most recently announced.

According to producers, Lynch had a long-scheduled vacation set to begin on Monday, August 15 and was set to return to the show on Tuesday, August 23, before departing for the Creative Arts Emmys on Thursday, September 1. “Rather than return for one week of performances, the producers have agreed to adjust her final performance to Sunday, August 14,” according to a statement.

Lynch is an Emmy nominee in the Best Comedy Guest Actress category for her work on Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building.

Lynch’s “Mrs. Brice” standby, Liz McCartney, is scheduled to play the role from Tuesday,...

Update, June 8 Beanie Feldstein will be out of Funny Girl at least through the end of this week. In a tweet late last night, her “Fanny Brice” standby Julie Benko, wrote, “Hi all! I’m confirmed to be on for Fanny through the end of this week (Sunday 6/11). See you at the August Wilson, gorgeous… and feel better Beanie!”

Earlier this week, Feldstein posted an Instagram video announcing that she’d tested positive for Covid and would be quarantined, missing an undetermined number of performances.

Hi all! I’m confirmed to be on for Fanny through the end of this week (Sunday 6/11). See you at the August Wilson, gorgeous… and feel better Beanie! https://t.co/nGBZum9S4S

— Julie Benko (@JujujulieBee) June 8, 2022

Previous, June 7 No word yet on when Broadway’s Funny Girl star Beanie Feldstein will return to the show after testing positive for Covid.

Feldstein announced on...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired Sylvain Chomet’s “The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol,” an animated feature about the life of the legendary author Marcel Pagnol.

Chomet is the BAFTA-winning, four-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker of “The Triplets of Belleville” and “The Illusionist” which were both distributed by Sony Pictures Classics.

The deal covers all rights for North America, Latin America, Scandinavia, Middle East, Israel, India, Italy, and

worldwide airlines and ships at sea in all languages.

“‘The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol’ completes the animated feature film trilogy started with ‘The Triplets of Belleville’ and ‘The Illusionist’ (both enormous successes and evergreen titles for Sony Pictures Classics),” said SPC.

“Sylvain Chomet is one of the great masters of animation in the world. It is a pleasure and privilege to be back in business with Sylvain and to expand Sylvain’s audience wider than ever,” added the company.

A modern fable, the...

Francis Ford Coppola called them “despicable.” Denis Villeneuve warned they’ve turned us into “zombies,” and Martin Scorsese said they’re not cinema. So, where do Marvel movies land on the scale between pop and high art?

Leave it to new MCU inductee Ethan Hawke to explain. In a resurfaced 2018 interview with RayWork Productions, the “Moon Knight” Disney+ star explains the distinction between Marvel films and arthouse indies.

“I love superhero movies, I love arthouse movies. I don’t think there’s a difference between high art and low art,” Hawke said. “There are movies that people put their hearts into, and there are movies that people try to cash in on. And the ones that I like are the ones that people put their hearts into, and you can feel that in a superhero movie or you can feel it in an arthouse movie.”

Hawke continued, “I was joking...

Joanna Scanlan won best actress at this year’s Baftas for the film.

UK-based Vertigo Releasing has acquired North American rights to Aleem Khan’s Bafta-winning After Love and will release the film via a distribution partner in cinemas across North America from summer 2022.

The distributor has previously handled the streaming-led North American releases of films including Sam Kelly’s Savage and Thomas Clay’s Fanny Lye Deliver’d. It is also releasing Saeed Roustaee’s Iranian thriller Just 6.5 in North America on approximately 15 screens in July. After Love is expected to be a wider release still.

“We work...

Jane Campion has always been a film artist who’s gone her own way. With a background in art, Campion soon came to realize that she could better express herself through the medium of film and created a series of short films, one of which, “Peel,” won the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. In 1989, she segued into feature film direction with “Sweetie,” the first of eight features that she would direct over the next 32 years. Scroll through our gallery above (or click here for direct access) to see all eight Jane Campion movies ranked from worst to best.

See Who is Performing at the Oscars 2022?: Full List of Presenters and Performers

She explored female sexuality in “In the Cut,” “Holy Smoke!,” “Portrait of a Lady” and, most famously in “The Piano,” where Holly Hunter‘s character Ada consents to an erotic affair with a...

Hiventy, one of France’s leading post-production companies, is seeing rising demand across its range of services, including film processing, dubbing and subtitling, post-production, film restoration and BluRay mastering. It has operations in France, Poland, Singapore, Vietnam, Kenya and Nigeria.

Hiventy has one of the few film lab services in Europe. CEO Thierry Schindele says that there has been rising demand for the company’s film processing services. Recent 35mm shoots processed by the group include Pablo Larrain’s “Spencer,” Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” and Christophe Honoré’s “Le Lycéen,” produced by Les Films Pelléas. Recent French films handled by Hiventy include Mia Hansen Love’s “One Beautiful Morning,” Serge Bozon’s “Don Juan,” Léa Mysius’ “The Five Devils” and Pietro Marcello’s “The Flight.”

Schindele expects demand for film processing services to continue to rise. Hiventy is supplying film processing services for shoots across Europe. For example, “Asteroid City” was shot in Spain,...

[Editor’s Note: The following article contains spoilers for “The Underground Railroad,” Episode 7, “Fanny Briggs.”]

Few kindnesses can brighten a critic’s day like an unexpectedly brief episode of TV. Whether it’s a tight 45-minute entry popping up amid an established hourlong series or a new comedy-drama hybrid choosing the more fuel efficient route, those shaved minutes mean so much more to those of us tasked with watching entirely too much television.

But any relieved sighs are about more than just viewing fatigue. Shorter entries can signify resourcefulness — they stand out for giving the story exactly as much time as it needs, rather than doubling back to make up for past oversights, extending scenes to underline story points, or simply running long because they can. Sure, sometimes brevity is a bad thing — there is such a thing as too short — but the list of programs blighted by bloat is far longer than those failing from fugacity.

When it comes to excessive episode lengths,...

Outfest has unveiled the dates, venues, and lineup for its 39th film festival, which is returning to in-person screenings more than a year and a half after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ Film Festival will be held this year between August 13-22.

The 2021 edition of the nation’s leading LGBTQ festival kicks off with an opening night screening of Jonathan Butterell’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. The screening, which is being put on in concert with Cinespia, will mark the fest’s first-ever outdoor gala, taking place at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Screening at the Orpheum Theatre on August 22, the closing night film is Fanny: The Right to Rock, a documentary about the female rock band of the same name, which was the first to release an album with a major label.

Nearly 200 films will screen at this year’s festival, including 50 international features...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Alice (Josephine Mackerras)

It makes no sense. The night before saw Alice Ferrand’s (Emilie Piponnier) husband François (Martin Swabey) going out of his way to passionately make-out with her in front of their friends at a dinner party and now he won’t answer her calls. Despite his running out of the house earlier than usual without any explanation, however, there’s nothing to make her think something is wrong until a trip to the drugstore exposes a freeze on their finances. One credit card won’t work. Then another. The Atm won’t accept her sign-in and François still isn’t picking up his phone. Alice has no other option but to set a meeting with the bank and figure...

Sylvain Chomet, the BAFTA-winning, four-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker of “The Triplets of Belleville” and “The Illusionist,” has partnered up with Mediawan’s On Kids & Family on his next directorial outing, “The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol.”

The ambitious film is being co-developed and produced by What The Prod, the outfit created and headed by Ashargin Poiré and Valérie Puech, with veteran animation producer Aton Soumache at On Kids & Family. The project is being presented at Annecy Film Festival with a well-polished, English-speaking teaser.

A modern fable, the animated biopic will chart the epic life of Pagnol, a celebrated French novelist, playwright and filmmaker who grew up in a middle-class household in Marseille and became one of the world’s most inventive and prolific artists from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. Throughout his long career, Pagnol’s books were translated into more than 50 languages and sold more than 150 million units. Pagnol also...

“She’s a rubber band that’s been stretched and is right at the point of breaking but is sort of living in that state,” explains Lily Rabe about her character Ethel Wells on Barry Jenkins‘ 10-episode limited series “The Underground Railroad,” which is based on Colson Whitehead‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. In our exclusive video interview (watch above), the actor discusses the “desperate state” in which Ethel finds herself, highlights Ethel’s multilayered infatuation with Cora (Thuso Mbedu), and finally teases the upcoming installment of “American Horror Story.”

On “The Underground Railroad,” Rabe appears in two episodes: the third, titled “North Carolina,” and, briefly, the seventh, titled “Fanny Briggs.” Her character, Ethel, is married to her husband, Martin (Damon Herriman), with whom she resides in an unnamed North Carolina village in the middle of the woods. Rabe points to Ethel’s “fraught” and “complicated” relationship with her father,...

More than 50 years after their formation, Fanny is getting a documentary: The Right to Rock, out later this year.

Directed by Bobbi Jo Hart, the trailer features Joe Elliott, Bonnie Raitt, Cherie Currie, and more discussing the pioneering all-woman band’s impact and legacy. A David Bowie quote flashes across the screen that reads: “One of the most important bands have been buried.”

“Fanny was the first all-women rock band that could really play and really get some credibility within the music industry,” Raitt says in the clip. Adds Kathy Valentine...

Before the next Smackdown, Nick Taylor will be visiting some "alternates" to the Supporting Actress Ballot.

Existence, am I right? Being alive? Inhabiting a physical form and experiencing things until we inevitably pass from this mortal coil? Few filmmakers have captured the ache of true, unbearable unhappiness with oneself, with love, with God, with time, with humanity itself like Ingmar Bergman did.

Yes, he did more than just contemplative, psychologically precise, wholly accessible dramas, like the fantastical, expansive, occasionally harrowing depiction of childhood in Fanny and Alexander. Still, who would expect the auteur behind Through a Glass Darkly and Cries and Whispers (truly one of the most upsetting films to watch under self-isolated quarantine) to make a bedroom farce as light and entertaining as Smiles of a Summer Night? The sheer fact of Smiles is almost as surprising as the narrative, which artfully succeeds at being funny and sexy while...

If you’re not fighting the good fight on the front lines at hospitals, grocery stores or other essential public services as the coronavirus pandemic makes its way across the world, chances are you’re going to be home for a while. And whether you’re self-quaranting, social distancing or otherwise becoming one with your couch, you might look at this as an opportunity to tackle some epic-length movies that might otherwise have seemed daunting. Let us recommend some great ones.

(Note: With works this long, the concepts of “movie” and “miniseries” get rather muddled: “Berlin Alexanderplatz” was originally a miniseries on German TV but was released to theaters as a marathon viewing experience in the United States. Conversely, the Russian “War and Peace” was a mammoth movie — it won 1969’s Best Foreign Film Oscar — that the Criterion Channel now presents in more easily digestible chapter form. For our purposes,...

For auteurists in New York there can hardly be a better series playing right now than "Trilogies" at Film Forum: a four-week extravaganza of 78 films comprising 26 mini director retrospectives from Angelopoulos to Wenders and 24 other auteurs in between. Many of the groupings in the series are actual sequential trilogies, like Kobayashi’s The Human Condition or Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy, while others more loosely stretch the term, such as Lucrecia Martel’s "Salta Trilogy" or Hou Hsiao-hsien’s "Coming of Age Trilogy," very welcome though those are.Very few of the trilogies in the series, however, have posters that were conceived as trios themselves, the French posters for Kieslowski’s Three Colors, above, and Albert Dubout’s cartoony designs for Marcel Pagnol’s Marseilles Trilogy being the major exceptions. There are two terrific matching posters by Jan Lenica for the first two films in Mark Donskoy's Maxim Gorky Trilogy,...

Cinema St. Louis presents the 11th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival which takes place March 8-10, 15-17, and 22-24, 2019. The location this year is Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium, Forsyth & Skinker boulevards.

The 11th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — presented by TV5MONDE and produced by Cinema St. Louis — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1930s through the 1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema. The fest annually includes significant restorations, and this year features seven such works: Pierre Schoendoerffer “The 317th Platoon,” Marcel Pagnol’s “The Baker’s Wife,” Olivier Assayas’ “Cold Water,” Jacques Becker’s “The Hole,” Jacques Rivette’s “The Nun,” Agnés Varda’s “One Sings, the Other Doesn’t,” and Diane Kurys’ “Peppermint Soda.” The schedule is rounded out by Robert Bresson’s final film, “L’argent,” and two 1969 films celebrating...

Disney’s “Mary Poppins Returns,” a sequel decades in the making, opens Dec. 19. Even before the 1964 original, Hollywood made several attempts to adapt P.L. Travers’ books, with Samuel Goldwyn and Katharine Hepburn among those involved in the chase. But aside from a one-hour 1949 CBS television version, they all hit a dead-end. The first “Mary Poppins” novel appeared in 1934, and 30 years later, the film was a huge hit, earning more than $100 million and winning five Oscars. But as Variety reported after Travers died on April 23, 1996, “She resisted all Hollywood attempts to make a film sequel.” In an Aug. 4, 1965, story, Variety reported that Travers took part in a “transatlantic telephone” conversation, speaking from London to a group at a Madison, Wis., children’s-book conference. Asked about the movie, she said tersely, “I would have preferred that ‘Mary Poppins’ should be filmed by the British because, well, never mind, let’s not go into that.

July 14 marks the 100th birthday of writer-director Ingmar Bergman, whom Variety declared on Nov. 24, 1954, to be “Sweden’s top director.” Within three years, Bergman went beyond that: He was recognized as one of the top filmmakers in the entire world, thanks to the 1957 duo of “The Seventh Seal” and “Wild Strawberries.” A year later, Carl Dymling, president of Sweden’s leading production unit Svensk Filmindustri, told Variety that “Seventh Seal” marked a new era in moviemaking: “Bergman uses the film much as an author does his book. As a rule, one can’t afford to be too explicit about one’s own feelings in making a picture. But Bergman does it.” The director made global stars of Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow and inspired young filmmakers around the world for decades with his tales of existential crisis, the tenderness and brutality between individuals, and the pleasures and insanity of sex.

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) today proudly announced that Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes, stars of television, film and stage and Sid and Marty Krofft, two legendary television producers, will be honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards this year during the Daytime Emmy® Awards. The Krofft Brothers will be celebrated at the 45th Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards which will take place on Friday, April 27th, 2018, while Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes will be celebrated on Sunday, April 29th, 2018 at the 45th Daytime Emmy Awards. Both presentations will take place at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Southern California.

“I’ve been star-struck by the dynamic duo of Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes for decades,” said David Michaels, Svp, Daytime Emmy Awards, NATAS. “The scope of their work across the television, film and stage landscape is amazing. Their continuing roles of almost 50 years on Days of our Lives,...

On July 14, 1918 in Uppsala, Sweden, Ingmar Bergman was born, and a quarter-century later, he began to bring his cinematic voice to the world. A century after his brith, with an astounding body of work like few other directors and an influence that reverberates through the past many decades of filmmaking, his filmography is being celebrated like never before.

Starting this February at NYC’s Film Forum and then expanding throughout the nation “the largest jubilee of a single filmmaker” will be underway in a massive, 47-film retrospective. Featuring 35 new restorations, including The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Scenes from a Marriage, Fanny and Alexander, and many, many more, Janus Films has now debuted a beautiful trailer alongside the full line-up of films.

The Ingmar Bergman retrospective begins on February 7 at NYC’s Film Forum and then will expand to the following cities this spring:

Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Wa

Detroit Film Theatre,...

Celebrating 100 years of Ingmar Bergman's Cinema. Janus Films has debuted a trailer to celebrate their upcoming Ingmar Bergman Retrospective, which will be launching at the Film Forum in NYC next month. This is a big year for legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, who would've been celebrating his 100th birthday on July 14th (he passed away in 2007). Janus is celebrating his life and work by showing almost all of his films in cinemas around the country, including his most famous features: The Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander, The Magic Flute, The Magician, Through a Glass Darkly, Wild Strawberries, and Winter Light. "Join Janus Films as they celebrate the centennial of Bergman's birth in 2018 with a traveling retrospective of his theatrical films, all newly restored and many never before available in Dcp." So dive in. Here's the official trailer for Janus Films' 2018 Ingmar Bergman Retrospective, direct from Vimeo: For more info,...

Just last month, industry-only staged reading of the 1962 musical I Can Get It For You Wholesale, based on the best-selling Jerome Weidman novel on Tuesday, June 6th. The musical has a score by Harold Rome Fanny, Wish You Were Here, Destry Rides Again, book by Jerome Weidman Fiorello, revised book by John Weidman Assassins, Pacific Overtures, Contact, music direction by David Chase Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Nice Work If You Can Get It, and direction by Trip Cullman Six Degrees of Separation, Significant Other.

Just because community is a beautiful thing never means it's an easy thing. Family relations, most everyone knows, can prove especially dicey. Even in comedies. Especially in comedies. In the early 1930s, just as the movies were learning to talk, French theater playwright and impresario Marcel Pagnol honed in on this truth as he brought his now-revered Marseille Trilogy to motion picture screens. Released between 1931 and 1936, the three films, Marius, Fanny and César, boast a cozy continuity in characters and the terrific actors playing them, not to mention their provincial seaside location. Originating on stage in Paris, Pagnol's initial entry, Marius, proved to be a popular hit as a film as well as a play. It immediately gave way to a followup one...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This August will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.

To sign up for a free two-week trial here.

Tuesday, August 1

Tuesday’s Short + Feature: These Boots and Mystery Train

Music is at the heart of this program, which pairs a zany music video by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki with a tune-filled career highlight from American independent-film pioneer Jim Jarmusch. In the 1993 These Boots, Kaurismäki’s band of pompadoured “Finnish Elvis” rockers, the Leningrad Cowboys, cover a Nancy Sinatra classic in their signature deadpan style. It’s the perfect prelude to Jarmusch’s 1989 Mystery Train, a homage to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the musical legacy of Memphis, featuring appearances by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Joe Strummer.

No longer out of reach, Marcel Pagnol’s stunning 3-feature saga of love and honor in a French seaport is one of the great movie experiences — and the most emotional workout this viewer has seen in years. The tradition of greatness in the French sound cinema began with gems like these, starring legendary actors that were sometimes billed only with their last names: Raimu, Charpin. Those two, Pierre Fresnay and Orane Demazis are simply unforgettable — it’s 6.5 hours of dramatic wonderment.

Marcel Pagnol’s The Marseille Trilogy

Marius * Fanny * César

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 881-884

1931 – 1936 / B&W / 1:19 flat full frame, 1:19 flat full frame, 1:37 flat full frame / 127 * 127 * 141 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 20, 2017 / 79.96

Starring: Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis, Fernand Charpin, Alida Rouffe, Paul Dullac, Robert Vattier, André Fouché.

Cinematography: Ted Pahle, Nicolas Toporkoff, Willy Faktorovitch

Original Music: ?, Vincent Scotto, Vincent Scotto

Written by Marcel Pagnol

Produced by Ted Pahle,...

There will be an industry-only staged reading of the 1962 musical I Can Get It For You Wholesale, based on the best-selling Jerome Weidman novel on Tuesday, June 6th. The musical has a score by Harold Rome Fanny, Wish You Were Here, Destry Rides Again, book by Jerome Weidman Fiorello, revised book by John Weidman Assassins, Pacific Overtures, Contact, music direction by David Chase Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Nice Work If You Can Get It, and direction by Trip Cullman Six Degrees of Separation, Significant Other.

Marcel Pagnols’ Marseille Trilogy, Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog” and Nicholas Ray’s “They Live by Night” are among the new titles joining the Criterion Collection this June. In addition, Kenji Mizoguchi’s “Ugetsu” and Sam Peckinpah’s “Straw Dogs” are being upgraded in new Blu-ray editions. More information below.

Read More: The Criterion Collection Announces May Titles: ‘Ghost World,’ ‘Dheepan,’ ‘Jeanne Dielman’ and More

“Ugetsu”

“Having refined his craft in the silent era, Kenji Mizoguchi was an elder statesman of Japanese cinema-fiercely revered by Akira Kurosawa and other younger directors-by the time he made ‘Ugetsu.’ And with this exquisite ghost story, a fatalistic wartime tragedy derived from stories by Akinari Ueda and Guy de Maupassant, he created a touchstone of his art, his long takes and sweeping camera guiding the viewer through a delirious narrative about two villagers whose pursuit of fame and...

It’s mid-month, which means it is time for the next line-up for The Criterion Collection. Arriving in June is Sam Pekcinpah‘s controversial Dustin Hoffman-led thriller Straw Dogs, Alfred Hitchcock‘s early silent film The Lodger (which also includes his film from the same year of 1927, Downhill), and perhaps the most substantial release of the month, Marcel Pagnol’s The Marseille Trilogy, featuring Marius, Fanny, and César.

Also in the line-up is is Nicholas Ray‘s directorial debut, the 1948 drama They Live by Night, as well as a Blu-ray upgrade of Kenji Mizoguchi‘s landmark classic Ugetsu, which recently enjoyed a 4K theatrical restoration. Check out all the details on the releases below by clicking the box art.

Welcome back to the first Weekend Warrior of 2017, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out (when applicable).

We’ll bypass the past couple holiday weekends cause that was so 2016, and we’ll instead get right into the new movies opening on Friday including two that opened in select cities and are expanding nationwide.

Underworld: Blood Wars (Sony/Screen Gems)

Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Theo James, Tobias Menzies, Lara Pulver, Charles Dance, James Faulkner, Peter Andersson, Clementine Nicholson, Bradley James, Daisy Head

Director: Anna Foerster (debut feature from director of TV shows Outlander & Criminal Minds)

Genre: Action, Horror, Thriller

Rated R

Plot: The vampire death dealer Selene (Kate Beckinsale) finds herself facing both Lycans and vampires, both of them trying to use the blood of her daughter to create new hybrids, so she and David (Theo James...

It’s only the very beginning of 2017, but in the world of film things tend to move quickly. Well, in so many ways, at least. As the repertory film scene continues to expand, film studios and boutique distributors trying to find any classic catalog title that may hit the fancy of a specific niche film going audience, Janus Films continues to not only be leading the way but bringing to theaters some of the most exciting discoveries of any given year.

Take for example their latest release. January 4 marks the start of Janus’ touring of new restorations of not one, not two but three of the truly great and influential early entries into the French Film Canon. Written by Marcel Pagnol, Marius, Fanny and Cesar all find themselves under the watchful eye of different filmmakers, but carry with them the same sense of warmth and vitality that is crystal clear in Pagnol’s story.

With a new restoration of Marcel Pagnol's "Marseilles Trilogy" coming to art-house cinemas, Mubi is showing three later Pagnol adaptations: Joshua Logan's Fanny (1961) and Daniel Auteuil's Fanny (2013) and Marius (2013) in the United States.The sea calls to Marius like a siren song, a tantalizing beckon to a life of mobility, exhilaration, and maritime adventure. It is a life far from his current reality, slinging drinks in his father’s shoreline bar, but it is a tempting existence that forever fills his fantasies and directs his path forward. Little wonder, really. The port of Marseilles is teeming with the influence of a sailor’s life, from the towering ships, their sails and masts hovering above the liquid horizon, to the shopfront interiors adorned with innumerable images of nautical signification, paintings and model ships that testify to the lifeblood of this city. Lifeblood, maybe, but also a curse. For Marius (Pierre Fresnay), his father,...

Next month, the folks at Janus Films will begin touring the theatrical tour of the recently restored “Marseille” trilogy from Marcel Pagnol: Marius, Fanny, and Cesar. The films will open on January 4th at the Film Forum in New York.

We learned back in September at Telluride, when the trilogy was attributed to Janus, that they’d be handling the theatrical release of the films here in the states.

Janus Films is handling the new restorations of The Pagnol Trilogy (screening at Telluride) pic.twitter.com/DyENzp7lIe

— CriterionCast (@CriterionCast) September 3, 2016

Earlier this week, Janus unveiled the poster for the tour as well, featuring artwork by Manuele Fior, who designed the artwork for Janus’ release of Le Havre.

While we don’t have a date at this point for a home video release from the Criterion Collection, it certainly seems like this will be a box set at some...

Moonlight fan poster by Tony StellaMoonlight, Deadpool, Mel Gibson, Trolls: a portrait of mainstream cinema in 2016 in the form of the eclectic list of nominees for the 2017 Golden Globes.Speaking of awards, the European Film Awards were announced over the weekend, with Germany's Toni Erdmann deservedly winning in the film, direction, actor, actress, and screenwriter categories. A moment of pride: our film, The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki, took home the Discovery award.An even more handsome list of films can be found at Film Comment's best released and unreleased films of the year. The poll is discussed in the magazine's latest podcast.The First Look series, a January festival at New York's Museum of the Moving Image, has always been on the cutting edge of film programming, and the 2017 First Look lineup looks very strong indeed, including a video game (!), Hirokazu Kore-eda's After the Storm,...

“I am not the father of neorealism on screen, you are,” said director Roberto Rossellini to novelist, playwright and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol, one of the most prolific artists in the early years of cinema. Now, many will soon be able to watch one of Pagnol’s defining works in his career: the epic “Marseille Trilogy,” a saga of love, labor and good food in 1930’s France, which will return to theaters in a brand-new 4K restoration this January.

Read More: ‘Mulholland Drive’ Returns To UK Theaters Next Year In New 4K Restoration

The series follows young barkeep Marius (Pierre Fresnay) who is in love with the cockle monger Fanny (Orane Demazis), but cannot quell his wanderlust. Stretching out over years, their romance plays out amidst many provincial characters, like Marius’ father César (Raimu), who struggles to keep his family and community together, and Honoré Panisse (Fernand Charpin), the aged widower vying for Fanny’s hand.

The French Film Festival had its Scottish media launch this morning ahead of it's run from November 4 to December 7 - with one or two additional early screenings on November 3.

Speaking at the launch in Edinburgh's Filmhouse, festival director Richard Mow said: As Britain seeks to sever its ties with our European colleagues, this festival hopes to strengthen these cultural bonds."

There is plenty to look forward to in the coming month, from French cinema classics to the latest hits from the Gallic cinema circuits.

Vintage cinema to look out for includes Marcel Pagnol's classic Marseille Trilogy - Marius, Fanny and César. This decades spanning romance tells the story of Marius, a young man who dreams of life at sea only to find himself faced with a dilemma after falling for Fanny, the fishmonger's daughter. The trilogy has been restored by his grandson Nicolas...

Kenneth Lonergan’s Sundance hit, Denis Villeneuve’s Venice selection, and Pablo Larrain’s acclaimed Chilean biopic are among select titles heading to Colorado this weekend.

The 43rd edition of the Telluride Film Festival includes Clint Eastwood’s Tom Hanks starrer Sully, Barry Jenkins’ anticipated triptych Moonlight and Maren Ade’s Cannes triumph Toni Erdmann.

Joining them are Aisling Walsh’s Maudie, Gianfranco Rosi’s Berlin Golden Bear winner Fire At Sea, Damien Chazelle’s Venice opener La La Land and also from the Lido, Rama Burshtein’s Through The Wall.

Telluride runs from September 2-5. The main slate line-up appears below.

Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, Us, 2016)The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography (Errol Morris, Us 2016)Bleed For This (Ben Younger, Us, 2016)California Typewriter (Doug Nichol, Us, 2016)Chasing Trane (John Scheinfeld, Us, 2016)The End Of Eden (Angus Macqueen, UK, 2016)Finding Oscar (Ryan Suffern, Us, 2016)Fire At Sea (Gianfranco Rosi, Italy-France, 2016)Frantz ([link...

Buoyed by its worldwide premiere at the ongoing Venice Film Festival – early reviews are praising the musical as an audacious, deeply romantic feature – Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash follow-up La La Land has booked its place at Telluride 2016.

The picture, one that stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in central roles, is one of the many soon-to-be-released features to be locked in for the imminent film festival, joining the ranks alongside Manchester By the Sea, Moonlight, Things to Come, Bleed For This and Clint Eastwood’s airborne thriller Sully. It is, without question, a fairly stacked lineup, which only has us all the more excited for the onset of the Toronto International Film Festival later this month.

But over the coming weekend, it is Telluride that will take center stage. Similar to La La Land, today’s unveiling confirms a second festival appearance for Denis Villeneuve’s intriguing sci-fi pic Arrival.