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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.

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson)

A film that feels uprooted from deep beneath the earth, Raven Jackson’s poetic, patient debut is a distillation of cinema to its purest form, a stunning patchwork of experience and memory. Tethered around the life of Mack, a Black woman from Mississippi, as we witness glimpses of her childhood, teenage years, and beyond, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt becomes a sensory experience unlike anything else this year. Shot in beautiful 35mm by Jomo Fray and edited by Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s collaborator Lee Chatametikool, there’s a reverence for nature and joy for human connection that seems all too rarified in today’s landscape of American filmmaking. – Jordan R.

Where to Stream: VOD...

Catering directly to my interests, the Criterion Channel’s January lineup boasts two of my favorite things: James Gray and cats. In the former case it’s his first five features (itself a terrible reminder he only released five movies in 20 years); the latter shows felines the respect they deserve, from Kuroneko to The Long Goodbye, Tourneur’s Cat People and Mick Garris’ Sleepwalkers. Meanwhile, Ava Gardner, Bertrand Tavernier, Isabel Sandoval, Ken Russell, Juleen Compton, George Harrison’s HandMade Films, and the Sundance Film Festival get retrospectives.

Restorations of Soviet sci-fi trip Ikarie Xb 1, The Unknown, and The Music of Regret stream, as does the recent Plan 75. January’s Criterion Editions are Inside Llewyn Davis, Farewell Amor, The Incredible Shrinking Man, and (most intriguingly) the long-out-of-print The Man Who Fell to Earth, Blu-rays of which go for hundreds of dollars.

See the lineup below and learn more here.

Back By Popular Demand

The Graduate,...

Veteran British actor Murray Melvin who’s best known for his role in “The Phantom of the Opera,” “A Taste of Honey” and the “Doctor Who” spin-off “Torchwood,” died April 14 at St Thomas’ hospital in London. He was 90.

London-based creative director Kerry Kyriacos Michael made the announcement on Twitter and said Melvin died after taking a bad fall in December “from which he never fully recovered.”

“He was one of my closest friends and will be missed by so many of us who had the privilege to know him,” Michael wrote.

He had a fall in December, from which he never fully recovered. He died at St Thomas' Hospital on Friday, 14th April, aged 90. He was one of my closest friends and will be missed by so many of us who had the privilege to know him.

— Kerry Kyriacos Michael MBE (@1KerryMichael) April 15, 2023 Also Read:

Mark Sheehan, Guitarist of Irish Band The Script,...

This year’s Tonys will be held on June 11, so the American Theatre Wing will likely be announcing its lifetime achievement award recipient in the near future. Who do you think should take home this prestigious trophy, which honors an individual’s body of work? It has gone to veteran stage performers, directors, choreographers, playwrights, songwriters, producers, and designers. In some years we get multiple recipients.

Last year legendary five-time competitive Tony winner Angela Lansbury received this honor about four months before her death on October 11 at the age of 96. The following living performers have also already received this award and thus won’t be chosen again: Tommy Tune, James Earl Jones, Chita Rivera, and Rosemary Harris.

Here are the 10 possibilities featured in our poll below, all performers over the age of 65. Vote to let us know who you’d like to see honored.

SEEBrian d’Arcy James (‘Into the...

Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet, creators of the new Showtime series The Man Who Fell to Earth, talk to hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante about the movies that inspired them.

Show Notes:

Movies Referenced In This Episode

The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary

Dirty Pretty Things (2002)

Amistad (1997)

Love Actually (2003)

Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)

Blazing Saddles (1974) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Dennis Cozzalio’s Blazing Saddles Thanksgiving

Kentucky Fried Movie (1977) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The Bad News Bears (1976) – Jessica Bendinger’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Airplane! (1980) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

The Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

Bambi (1942)

Singin’ In The Rain (1952) – John Landis trailer commentary

The Asphalt Jungle (1950) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Boy Friend (1971) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Yellow Submarine (1968) – George Hickenlooper...

Sadie Frost understood to be attached to direct model biopic; Tony Pitts and Sally Phillips to co-direct film about classic car enthusiasts.

UK outfit Studio Soho Distribution has launched pre-sales on two new features at the Cannes film market.

Sadie Frost is understood to be attached to direct Twiggy, about the young woman who came to prominence as a model in London in the 1960s and won two Golden Globes for her performance in Ken Russell’s 1971 film The Boy Friend.

Studio Soho is also selling the dark comedy Classic, to be co-directed by Tony Pitts and Sally Phillips. Set on the North Yorkshire coast,...

Tony Walton, one of the most prolific, honored and celebrated designers of sets and costumes on Broadway and in Hollywood, died yesterday from complications of a stroke. He was 87.

His death was announced on Facebook by stepdaughter Bridget LeRoy, who wrote, “A fond and loving farewell to the most fabulous stepdad and human being in the world. Love you forever, Tony Walton. Have a great trip.”

A three-time Tony Award winner for set, and an Oscar winner for the art and set decoration of 1980’s All That Jazz, Walton was among the most prolific designers of his generation. Among his 20 film credits are the 1964 Disney classic Mary Poppins, The Wiz, Murder on the Orient Express, Fahrenheit 451, The Boy Friend, All That Jazz, Death of a Salesman, The Glass Menagerie, Regarding Henry, and Deathtrap.

Broadway credits include Chicago, Grand Hotel, The Real Thing,...

Carmel Quinn, an entertainer whose Irish songs and stories made her a Carnegie Hall staple on St. Patrick’s day for a quarter century, died from pneumonia March 6 at her home in Leonia, N.J. She was 95 and her death was confirmed by her family.

Born and raised in Dublin, Quinn won an audition Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, a star-making vehicle of the 1950s whose alumni included Pat Boone, Tony Bennett and Connie Francis. She later moved to the television show Arthur Godfrey and His Friends, and also appeared on The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Mike Douglas Show and other top variety programs of the day. Much later, she showed up on Live With Regis and Kathie Lee.

Quinn was famous for her songs and tales of the auld sod, with a snappy patter of anecdotes about her relatives and life. Quinn became a...

Dan Stevens, Leslie Mann and Isla Fisher mug spiritedly but there is little life in this unfunny Noël Coward adaptation

The classic Noël Coward comedy about a ghost (first filmed by David Lean in 1945 with Rex Harrison) has now been adapted again, with stage and TV director Edward Hall making his movie debut. It can only be described as an un-reinvention, a tired, dated and unfunny period piece that changes the original plot a bit but offers no new perspective, and no new reason to be doing it in the first place. This film looks unironically like the tatty old musical revue show that Ken Russell imagined for his “meta” adaptation of The Boy Friend.

Paul Phillips, whose long career as a Broadway stage manager included work on such notable productions as Sweet Charity, Mame, Chicago and, in 1967, the now historic Judy Garland at Home at the Palace, died Dec. 5 of natural causes in Naples, Florida. He was 95.

His death was announced by publicist Harlan Boll.

Born in Pleasantville New York, Phillips enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard and was deployed to fight in the South Pacific during WWII. After the war he moved to Hollywood for an acting career, but soon returned to New York, where he would shift from acting to Broadway stage management, beginning in 1959 with director George Abbott’s Fiorella.

Abbott brought Phillips over to stage manage his next play, 1961’s Take Her, She’s Mine starring Art Carney.

Phillips’ next show was producer David Merrick’s short-lived production of The Rehearsal, and a 1965 City Center Revival of Guys and Dolls.

Rhonda Fleming, whose long career embraced filmdom’s Golden Age and the early days of television, died Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif. at age 97. No cause was given, but her death was confirmed by her secretary.

Fleming was known as the “Queen of Technicolor” for her stunning red hair and green eyes, which lit up appearances in such films as Out of the Past and Spellbound. Overall, she appeared in more than 40 films, working with directors Alfed Hitchcock, Jacques Tourneur and Robert Siodmak, among other film greats.

Her best-known films included the 1948 musical fantasy A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court with Bing Crosby, the 1957 Western Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and the noir Slightly Scarlet, alongside John Payne.

Fleming was the costar to some of Hollywood’s biggest names, including four films with Ronald Reagan before he entered politics. She worked with Glenn Ford, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster,...

Rhonda Fleming, the actress who starred in films like Alfred Hitchcock’s “Spellbound” and Jacques Tourneur’s “Out of the Past,” has died. She was 97.

Fleming’s secretary Carla Sapon confirmed the news to TheWrap, stating that she passed away on Wednesday in Santa Monica, California.

Fleming appeared in more than 40 films, which included Robert Siodmak’s “The Spiral Staircase,” the 1948 musical fantasy “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” the 1957 Western “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” and the noir “Slightly Scarlet.”

Over the years, she worked with people like Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Rock Hudson, Bob Hope and Ronald Reagan, with whom she made four films. Her other credits include “Pony Express,” “The Big Circus” and most recently, “The Nude Bomb” in 1980.

Fleming was born as Marilyn Louis in Hollywood, California, in 1923. She began working as a film actress while attending Beverly Hills High School, and was discovered by...

Rhonda Fleming, star of the 1940s and ’50s who was dubbed the “Queen of Technicolor” and appeared in “Out of the Past” and “Spellbound,” died Wednesday in Santa Monica, Calif., according to her secretary Carla Sapon. She was 97.

Fleming appeared in more than 40 films and worked with directors such as Alfred Hitchcock on “Spellbound,” Jacques Tourneur on “Out of the Past” and Robert Siodmak on “The Spiral Staircase.”

Later in life, she became a philanthropist and supporter of numerous organizations fighting cancer, homelessness and child abuse.

Her starring roles include classics such as the 1948 musical fantasy “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” alongside Bing Crosby, 1957 Western “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” and the noir “Slightly Scarlet” alongside John Payne.

Her co-stars over the years included Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford, Burt Lancaster, Bob Hope, Rock Hudson and Ronald Reagan, with whom she made four films. Other notable roles included Fritz Lang...

On the heels of Edgar Wright’s list of 100 favorite comedy films comes a more niche deep dive into the movie musicals of the 1970s, courtesy of Wright’s friend and fellow filmmaker Rian Johnson. The “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and “Knives Out” writer-director published a list on Letterboxd citing his 10 favorite movie musicals from the 1970s, from “Cabaret” to “All That Jazz” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

“When you think of the movie musical, the 1970s are not the first decade that comes to mind,” Johnson wrote in a statement. “But I love how that funky vital wilderness between the fall of the studio system and the ascent of the modern blockbuster manifested itself in this genre. One of cinema’s most classic forms was taken up by New Hollywood directors. It resulted in nostalgia as often as innovation, but more often than not the two...

’90s nostalgia is in full swing, and horror fans are loving it. Many people are revisiting movies they grew up with, while others are discovering those same titles for the first time. And it’s not only cinematic terror that has everyone talking.

Over the past couple of years, the interest in retro books has been on the rise. Combined with ’90s sentimentality, teen horror fiction from the decade has become a special niche for collectors, many of whom are part of Instagram’s enthusiastic community of “bookstagrammers.”

A large portion of the teen horror titles released during the ’90s are now available in e-book format, but the original editions with their colorful covers and witty taglines are the ones we look for while perusing the shelves of used bookstores.

Here at Daily Dead, during a series of seasonal posts, I’m going to be sharing books from my own collection.

The Boy Friend by Sandy Wilson will come direct to Toronto from an acclaimed, sell-out season at the prolific Menier Chocolate Factory in London and prior to a West End transfer, will have a new star. Stage and screen actor Kelsey Grammer will make his Canadian stage debut in this new production. The Boy Friend will be performed March 29 to May 3, 2020 at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre. Mr. Grammer will star as Lord Brockhurst.

The star of stage and screen on painful memories, over-apologising and eating cornflakes in the middle of the night

Born in Surrey, Julie Andrews, 84, began performing at 12. In the 50s, she made her Broadway stage debut in The Boy Friend and then starred in My Fair Lady. She played the title role in the 1964 film Mary Poppins, winning an Academy Award, and in 1965 made The Sound Of Music. Her second memoir, Home Work, has just been published. Andrews raised five children with her late husband, Blake Edwards, and lives on Long Island, New York.

What is your earliest memory?

Sitting on my mother’s lap in the car and, as my father pulled up to our little house in Walton, saying what they tell me is my very first word – home.

The American Film Institute Board of Trustees has selected Julie Andrews as the recipient of the 48th AFI Life Achievement Award.

The award will be presented to Andrews on April 25 in Los Angeles. The ceremony will be telecast on TNT.

“Julie Andrews is practically perfect in every way,” said Kathleen Kennedy, chair of the AFI Board of Trustees. “Her talents across time have inspired a shared sense of joy across generations, and her gifts to our cultural heritage are a testament to the power of this art form to bring us together when we need it most. AFI is proud to sing her praises with its 48th Life Achievement Award.”

Andrews won a Best Actress Oscar for “Mary Poppins” and was nominated for “The Sound of Music” and Victor/Victoria.” She has won five Golden Globes, three Grammys and two Emmys. Andrews received Tony nominations for “My Fair Lady,” “Camelot...

Thandie Newton, Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan, His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman and Hotel Rwanda star Sophie Okonedo are among the Brits to pick up a prestigious award as part of the New Year Honours List.

The distinguished awards are handed out once a year and recognize the outstanding achievements of 1,148 people across the United Kingdom.

CBEs – Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire – have been awarded to Nolan, for services to film, Okonedo, who is set to star as Lady Hatton in the forthcoming Hellboy movie, as well as Channel 4 drama Chimerica, children’s author Julia Donaldson, who created The Gruffalo, while Westworld star Newton has picked up an OBE, as has Downton Abbey star Jim Carter, who said that he was “particularly delighted this honour came in time to share with my mum, Molly, who is 99 and she was thrilled, she lit up at the news,...

Julie Andrews started singing at a very young age. So young in fact, that at age 13, she became the youngest performer ever to give a Royal Command Performance for then British monarch King George VI. After many appearances on the British stage, Andrews made her Broadway debut at age 19 in the musical “The Boy Friend.” That performance led to her being cast as the lead in one of the biggest hits and most acclaimed productions in Broadway history, “My Fair Lady.”

Her great success in “My Fair Lady” would later become one of her greatest disappointments when she was deemed too unfamiliar to film audiences to recreate her role on film (though her Broadway co-stars Rex Harrison and Stanley Holloway were both hired). In her place the studio hired Audrey Hepburn who gave a good performance but had to have her singing dubbed by another performer. Some studios felt Andrews...

Julie Andrews started singing at a very young age. So young in fact, that at age 13, she became the youngest performer ever to give a Royal Command Performance for then British monarch King George VI. After many appearances on the British stage, Andrews made her Broadway debut at age 19 in the musical “The Boy Friend.” That performance led to her being cast as the lead in one of the biggest hits and most acclaimed productions in Broadway history, “My Fair Lady.”

Her great success in “My Fair Lady” would later become one of her greatest disappointments when she was deemed too unfamiliar to film audiences to recreate her role on film (though her Broadway co-stars Rex Harrison and Stanley Holloway were both hired). In her place the studio hired Audrey Hepburn who gave a good performance but had to have her singing dubbed by another performer. Some studios felt Andrews...

Texas native Sandy Duncan has had a can-do attitude her whole life. And her mindset got a boost after she won over legendary choreographer Agnes de Mille for a 1966 NYC revival of Carousel. "I didn’t think I could do it and I did it," she exclusively told Closer Weekly in the magazine's latest issue, on newsstands now. "It gave me confidence that if I worked hard enough I could do something [great]." Since then, Sandy's career has spanned films, TV sitcoms, and Broadway, where she memorably played Peter Pan. Sandy and her husband, Don Correia. (Photo Credit: Getty Images) Amazingly, most of that was accomplished after a brain tumor operation left her blind in one eye at age 24. But that health scare helped make her a "better person," she has said. "It gives you an attitude of strength and hope. I considered myself a lucky girl in how I survived.

Not so fast Savant — with the help of correspondent input, DVD Savant presents more information on David Swift’s adaptation of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying — correcting and modifying some assumptions in my first review. Don’t worry — it’s good reading.

A Savant article

This is an odd circumstance. I routinely update, modify, correct and de-stupidify DVD Savant reviews, but this time I’m taking a more radical step. In my March 25 coverage of Twilight Time’s Blu-ray of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, I made a big point of the fact that David Swift’s film adaptation had not made many changes. Several songs were dropped, but that would seem the right thing to do considering that the movie wasn’t planned as a Road Show — it’s only 121 minutes in duration and has no break for an intermission. The much missed...

It’s hard to think of a musical that would benefit more from a Blu-ray boost than Ken Russell’s kaleidoscopic all dancing, all singing send-up of theatrical clichés on the music hall stage, circa 1925. We’re just happy that the adorable Twiggy got to be put in a film like this, to be enjoyed forever. The Russell crowd is all aboard, led by Glenda Jackson and Murray Melvin. Gosh!

The Boy Friend

Blu-ray

The Warner Archive Collection

1971 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 136 min. / Street Date February 21, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Max Adrian, Bryan Pringle, Murray Melvin, Moyra Fraser, Georgina Hale, Sally Bryant, Vladek Sheybal, Tommy Tune, Brian Murphy, Graham Armitage, Antonia Ellis, Caryl Little, Glenda Jackson.

Cinematography: David Watkin

Film Editor: Michael Bradsell

Production Design: Tony Walton

Costumes: Shirley Russell

Written by: Ken Russell from the musical by Sandy Wilson

Produced and Directed by: Ken Russell

Some...

The Yakuza

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1975 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 112 & 123 min. / Street Date February 14, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring Robert Mitchum, Takakura Ken, Brian Keith, Eiji Okada, Richard Jordan, Keiko Kishi, James Shigeta, Herb Edelman.

Cinematography: Kozo Okazaki, Duke Callaghan

Production Design: Stephen Grimes

Art Direction: Yoshiyuki Ishida

Film Editor: Don Guidice, Thomas Stanford

Original Music: Dave Grusin

Written by: Leonard Schrader, Paul Schrader, Robert Towne

Produced by: Michael Hamilburg, Sydney Pollack, Koji Shundo

Directed by Sydney Pollack

The Warner Archive Collection is on a roll with a 2017 schedule that has so far released one much-desired library Blu-ray per week. Coming shortly are Vincente Minnelli’s Bells are Ringing, Billy Wilder’s Love in the Afternoon Ken Russell’s The Boy Friend and Val Guest’s When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, and that only takes us through February. First up is a piercing action drama from 1975.

There are favorite movies around Savant central,...

Bruno Dumont, the former high priest of French seriousness, has successfully shifted to slapstick and pratfalls in this crime comedy set during the Belle Époque

Is there a more extraordinary auteur career than that of Bruno Dumont? Having started as one of Europe’s foremost purveyors of extreme cinema and extreme seriousness, he made a startling move to wacky broad comedy, and is handling it as if to the manner born. Now he gives us Ma Loute, or Slack Bay, a macabre pastoral entertainment by the seaside from the belle époque: it’s an old-fashioned provincial comedy with something of Clochemerle, a world in which everyone seems to have drunk their bodyweight in absinthe. There’s also the surreal meta-strangeness of Ken Russell’s version of The Boyfriend.

Continue reading...

Mathematicians, or theater producers, have determined that the ideal interval separating the emergence of an entertainment genre from its recurrence as a musical spoof is 35 years — about the time it takes for the youngsters who first made the form popular to become oldsters eager to see it sent up. Anyway, that’s the interval that worked for a spate of shows in the ’50s and ’60s that poked fun at material from three decades earlier. The Boy Friend, which introduced Julie Andrews in 1953, parodied Roaring ’20s musicals; Little Mary Sunshine, in 1959, did the same to ’20s operetta. Dames at Sea, which originated Off–Off Broadway in 1966, took a crack at ’30s Warner Bros. musicals, but was different from the others in a way we would now call camp. Instead of sticking close to the presentational style of Busby Berkeley spectaculars like Gold Diggers of 1933, it literally...

Happy Birthday, Julie Andrews Andrews made her Broadway debut in 1954 with The Boy Friend, and rose to prominence starring in other musicals such as My Fair Lady and Camelot, and in musical films such as Mary Poppins 1964, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and The Sound of Music 1965. She has starred in films such as The Princess Diaries 2001, its sequel The Princess Diaries 2 Royal Engagement 2004, the Shrek animated films 2004-2010, and Despicable Me 2010.

Ann-Margret movies: From sex kitten to two-time Oscar nominee. Ann-Margret: 'Carnal Knowledge' and 'Tommy' proved that 'sex symbol' was a remarkable actress Ann-Margret, the '60s star who went from sex kitten to respected actress and two-time Oscar nominee, is Turner Classic Movies' star today, Aug. 13, '15. As part of its “Summer Under the Stars” series, TCM is showing this evening the movies that earned Ann-Margret her Academy Award nods: Mike Nichols' Carnal Knowledge (1971) and Ken Russell's Tommy (1975). Written by Jules Feiffer, and starring Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel, the downbeat – some have found it misogynistic; others have praised it for presenting American men as chauvinistic pigs – Carnal Knowledge is one of the precursors of “adult Hollywood moviemaking,” a rare species that, propelled by the success of disparate arthouse fare such as Vilgot Sjöman's I Am Curious (Yellow) and Costa-Gavras' Z, briefly flourished from...

Glenda Jackson: Actress and former Labour MP. Two-time Oscar winner and former Labour MP Glenda Jackson returns to acting Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Glenda Jackson set aside her acting career after becoming a Labour Party MP in 1992. Four years ago, Jackson, who represented the Greater London constituency of Hampstead and Highgate, announced that she would stand down the 2015 general election – which, somewhat controversially, was won by right-wing prime minister David Cameron's Conservative party.[1] The silver lining: following a two-decade-plus break, Glenda Jackson is returning to acting. Now, Jackson isn't – for the time being – returning to acting in front of the camera. The 79-year-old is to be featured in the Radio 4 series Emile Zola: Blood, Sex and Money, described on their website as a “mash-up” adaptation of 20 Emile Zola novels collectively known as "Les Rougon-Macquart."[2] Part 1 of the three-part Radio 4 series will be broadcast daily during an...

Ron Moody as Fagin in 'Oliver!' based on Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' Ron Moody as Fagin in Dickens musical 'Oliver!': Box office and critical hit (See previous post: "Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' Actor, Academy Award Nominee Dead at 91.") Although British made, Oliver! turned out to be an elephantine release along the lines of – exclamation point or no – Gypsy, Star!, Hello Dolly!, and other Hollywood mega-musicals from the mid'-50s to the early '70s.[1] But however bloated and conventional the final result, and a cast whose best-known name was that of director Carol Reed's nephew, Oliver Reed, Oliver! found countless fans.[2] The mostly British production became a huge financial and critical success in the U.S. at a time when star-studded mega-musicals had become perilous – at times downright disastrous – ventures.[3] Upon the American release of Oliver! in Dec. 1968, frequently acerbic The...

Jameson Dublin International Film Festival is ecstatic to announce that the legendary actress Julie Andrews will be attending two very special events on the closing day of the Festival. Miss Andrews will participate in an unmissable public interview at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and will then close the Festival in tremendous style with the gala screening of the Academy Award winning film The Sound of Music in the Savoy Cinema. Miss Andrews has brought elegance, grace and happiness to stage and screen and it is a great honour to welcome her to the Festival to participate in a public interview hosted by Aedin Gormley from RTÉ’s Lyric FM, Movies and Musicals at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. Miss Andrews will discuss her extraordinary career from her luminous first appearance on Broadway starring in The Boy Friend; to creating the role of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady; to...

92Y announces Sandy Duncan and Don Correia as special guests for the upcoming All Dancing All Singing, Lyrics amp Lyricist's celebration of Irving Berlin in Hollywood, on May 2, 3 and 4, with artistic directorchoreographer Randy Skinner. Singerdanceractresscomedienne Duncan is known for her performances in the Broadway revival of Peter Pan as well as Chicago, My One and Only and The Boy Friend. She has been nominated for three Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe awards. Actordancer Correia's Broadway credits include Follies, Singin' in the Rain, My One and Only, Little Me and A Chorus Line. They have been married since 1980.

No one would accuse the Hollywood Foreign Press Association of being a refined institution, but when you think about the kinds of movies, TV shows, actors, and actresses who've ended up with Golden Globes, it's actually staggering how the HFPA has gotten away with maintaining its image as a must-see event. Drunk people at the dais is, I guess, still a sufficient enough reason to tune in. Let's celebrate today's nominations with a fond look back at some silly things that have won Golden Globes. 1. "Green Card" (Best Motion Picture -- Comedy) What a classic. Nothing says "comedic wonderful good times" like Gerard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell mixing it up in an immigration romcom. Fun fact: My aunt saw this movie in Germany, noticed the reaction of the crowd, and was embarrassed on America's behalf. 2. Twiggy (Best Newcomer of the Year, Actress) I love Twiggy! She was great as a...

Best British movies of all time? (Image: a young Michael Caine in 'Get Carter') Ten years ago, Get Carter, starring Michael Caine as a dangerous-looking London gangster (see photo above), was selected as the United Kingdom's very best movie of all time according to 25 British film critics polled by Total Film magazine. To say that Mike Hodges' 1971 thriller was a surprising choice would be an understatement. I mean, not a David Lean epic or an early Alfred Hitchcock thriller? What a difference ten years make. On Total Film's 2014 list, published last May, Get Carter was no. 44 among the magazine's Top 50 best British movies of all time. How could that be? Well, first of all, people would be very naive if they took such lists seriously, whether we're talking Total Film, the British Film Institute, or, to keep things British, Sight & Sound magazine. Second, whereas Total Film's 2004 list was the result of a 25-critic consensus,...

The Boy Friend

Written by Sandy Wilson

Directed and adapted for the screen by Ken Russell

UK, 1971

Ken Russell pictures have a way of sneaking up on you. Many a young and not-so-young filmgoers have experienced a kind of shocked dry heave of wonderment after their first, or even seventh, Ken Russell experience. I recall a young man for whom the joy of first seeing The Devils nearly induced an anxiety attack. Talking in tongues is not altogether unlikely, either.

A maximalist by trade, and always as earnest as he is plain hyper and mocking, Russell’s musicals hold a special, especially cult-worthy place. The Boy Friend, his first musical, stands out as a novel, landmark take on musical adaptations. It stirred Roger Ebert’s more nearsighted of woeful jabs, when he called the camera work “joyless” and compared the film’s star, Twiggy, to “a Hummel figurine titled ‘Malnutrition.

John Carpenter was working on an anthology horror project at Showtime in the 90′s. It never became a full series, but the first segments were collected together into an anthology horror movie, titled Body Bags. The DVD has out-of-print for a while, but Scream Factory will be giving the movie their Collector’s Edition treatment, releasing a Body Bags Blu-ray / DVD combo pack in November. Here’s a look at the official cover art:

The movie features three main segments, directed by John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper, who also appear in the movie, along with Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, and a number of other genre stars:

Via Blu-ray.com: “Robert Carradine (The Player) and David Naughton (Witchboard II) pump-up for high-octane horror when a satanic serial killer stalks “The Gas Station.” Stacy Keach (False Identity), Deborah Harry (Videodrome) and rock superstar Sheena Eston wig-out in the hair-raising tale of tonsorial terror,...

Did you know that John Carpenter was working on an anthology horror project at Showtime in the 90′s? It never became a full series, but the first segments were collected together into an anthology horror movie, titled Body Bags. The DVD has out-of-print for a while, but Scream Factory announced that they will be adding it to their Blu-ray selection.

The movie features three main segments, directed by John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper, who also appear in the movie, along with Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, and a number of other genre icons/stars:

Via Blu-ray.com: “Robert Carradine (The Player) and David Naughton (Witchboard II) pump-up for high-octane horror when a satanic serial killer stalks “The Gas Station.” Stacy Keach (False Identity), Deborah Harry (Videodrome) and rock superstar Sheena Eston wig-out in the hair-raising tale of tonsorial terror, “Hair.” And special guest director Tobe Hooper (Poltergeist) takes the reins when...

Happy Birthday, Julie Andrews Andrews made her Broadway debut in 1954 with The Boy Friend, and rose to prominence starring in other musicals such as My Fair Lady and Camelot, and in musical films such as Mary Poppins 1964, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, and The Sound of Music 1965. She has starred in films such as The Princess Diaries 2001, its sequel The Princess Diaries 2 Royal Engagement 2004, the Shrek animated films 2004-2010, and Despicable Me 2010.

Presenter of the BBC's Late Night Line-Up and Film Night, he was a wildly enthusiastic historian of the cinema

The broadcaster, journalist and film collector Philip Jenkinson, who has died aged 76, was for a few years one of the most popular and familiar faces on British television. His ubiquity was such that the Monty Python team saw fit to satirise him as a machine-gunned victim in a spoof on Sam Peckinpah's movies. He was also enrolled into that hall of fame accorded to guests of the Morecambe and Wise show. In a 1977 Christmas special, he and a gaggle of co-presenters, all dressed in sailor suits, performed There Is Nothing Like a Dame.

Such celebrity might not have come his way had he not been noticed, in 1967, by the BBC producer Mike Appleton, who attended a film lecture given by Jenkinson at St Martin's School of Art, in London.

Speaking to Julie Andrews in person is exactly like talking to a hybrid of Mary Poppins and Maria von Trapp -- particularly when she tells you in a tempered English accent that the most important thing you can do for yourself is to "let your sparkle out." That advice comes with all the authority and love of a spoonful of sugar.

At age 76, after making more than 30 movies, Andrews is now writing a series of "Very Fairy Princess" children's books with her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton. The lastest in the series, “The Very Fairy Princess: Here Comes the Flower Girl!” is out now. The Huffington Post met up with Andrews at a tea party this week to discuss the books, feminism and, naturally, "The Sound of Music."

Amid all the debate over what kinds of characters offer the best role models for young girls, Andrews is not afraid to say...

Paula Poundstone Comedian Paula Poundstone acted as host of the Art Directors Guild Awards last Saturday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, while Adg president Thomas A. Walsh presided over the awards ceremony and 65-year-old Ben Vereen (Funny Lady, All That Jazz) performed as a "special musical guest." That was Poundstone's third consecutive gig at the Adg Awards. [Full list of 2012 Art Directors Guild winners and nominees.] Presenters at the ceremony included Ed Asner (Mary Tyler Moore, Lou Grant), Alexandra Breckenridge (American Horror Story), Miranda Cosgrove (iCarly), 1996 Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee James Cromwell (Babe, The Artist), Melanie Lynskey (Up in the Air), Penelope Ann Miller (Chaplin, The Artist), Kevin McHale (Glee), 2012 Best Actor Oscar nominee Gary Oldman (Prick Up Your Ears, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Vinessa Shaw (3:10 to Yuma), and Max Greenfield (New Girl). Among the evening's award winners were Dante Ferretti for Martin Scorsese's Hugo, Stuart Craig for David Yates' Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2...

Martin Scorsese's Hugo (period film), David Yates' Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (fantasy film), and David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (contemporary film) were the feature-film winners at the Art Directors Guild's 16th Excellence in Production Design Awards, held this evening at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. The respective production design winners were Dante Ferretti (photo), Stuart Craig, and Donald Graham Burt. [Full list of 2012 Art Directors Guild winners and nominees.] Both Ferretti (with frequent collaborator/set decorator Francesca Lo Schiavo) and Craig (with set decorator Stephenie McMillan ) are in the running for the Best Art Direction Academy Award. Their competitors are Laurence Bennett and set decorator Robert Gould for Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, Anne Seibel and set decorator Hélène Dubreuil for Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, and Rick Carter and set decorator Lee Sandales for Steven Spielberg's War Horse. Among the...

Julie Andrews has signed on to direct a new musical, based on the children's book she co-wrote with her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton.

The mother-daughter pair penned The Great American Mousical, which contains illustrations by Andrews' ex-husband and Emma's father Tony Walton, back in 2006 and now she's set to stage the theatrical adaptation of the book at the Norma Terris Theater in Chester, Connecticut later this year.

Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler will compose the music and lyrics and the choreography will be completed by Tony Award nominee Christopher Gattelli.

The Sound of Music veteran tells BroadwayWorld.com, "Emma, Tony and I had so much fun working on this book and are now overjoyed that it will come alive on the stage. I'm so blessed to be working with this creative team in adapting our book for the theatre."

The show is set to open on 8 November and run through 2 December.

The play marks the star's second turn at directing - Andrews previously oversaw a revival of The Boy Friend at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut in 2005.

Elizabeth Taylor, Farley Granger, Jane Russell, Peter Falk, Sidney Lumet: TCM Remembers 2011 Pt. 1

Also: child actor John Howard Davies (David Lean's Oliver Twist), Charles Chaplin discovery Marilyn Nash (Monsieur Verdoux), director and Oscar ceremony producer Gilbert Cates (Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams, I Never Sang for My Father), veteran Japanese actress Hideko Takamine (House of Many Pleasures), Jeff Conaway of Grease and the television series Taxi, and Tura Satana of the cult classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.

More: Neva Patterson, who loses Cary Grant to Deborah Kerr in An Affair to Remember; Ingmar Bergman cinematographer Gunnar Fischer (Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries); Marlon Brando's The Wild One leading lady Mary Murphy; and two actresses featured in controversial, epoch-making films: Lena Nyman, the star of the Swedish drama I Am Curious (Yellow), labeled as pornography by prudish American authorities back in the late '60s,...

Dan Ireland offers his rememberance of “Uncle Ken.”

A benefit of having such an eclectic stable of gurus is that our well of experience and stories about working in the business — often with and for giants — is increasingly deep. A number of our gurus, then, have Ken Russell (who died this past weekend) stories. Bernard Rose shared such a story in 2008. And Dan Ireland remembers the man just below.

One of the great joys of my life was my wonderful association with the great, the brilliant, the bad boy of British Cinema himself, Uncle Ken Russell.

Being an early devotee of Women In Love, The Music Lovers, The Devils, The Boyfriend, Savage Messiah, Mahler, Tommy, Altered States, Crimes of Passion and just about anything he did, I once tried in vain to get him to attend a tribute that I, along with my partner Darryl Macdonald, organized at the Seattle...

Oscar-nominated maverick found inspiration for his work in music and literature

After a film career full of wild drama, gaudy conflagrations and operatic flourishes, the director Ken Russell died quietly in hospital on Sunday afternoon at the age of 84, after suffering a series of strokes. – effecting a quiet, discreet exit from the comfort of his hospital bed. "My father died peacefully," said his son Alex Verney-Elliott. "He died with a smile on his face."

Known for his flamboyant, often outrageous brand of film-making, Russell made movies that juggled high and low culture with glee and invariably courted controversy. His 1969 breakthrough, the Oscar-winning Women in Love, electrified audiences with its infamous nude wrestling scene, while 1971's The Devils – a torrid brew of sex, violence and Catholicism – found itself banned across Italy and was initially rejected by its backer, Warner Bros. His other notable films include Altered States, The Boy Friend and Tommy,...

Champagne. Soap bubbles. Baked beans. Melted bon-bons. Four images - all part and parcel of perhaps the most famous scene he ever committed to celluloid which, in this instance, is definitely saying something grand - that seemingly conjure up so much of the universe of peerless British stage and film director Ken Russell. With or without Ann-Margret in a white leather cat-suit, Russells Tommy is one of the most unique and enduring movie musicals of the later half of the twentieth century and his other music-based films provide a plethora of information and insight not all of it factual and much of it often quite admittedly wrongheaded - so, for those alone, Russell is due much praise as far as theatre fans are concerned. Yet, with Women In Love, Russell mastered a quite different milieu - that of Victorian sexual politics - and brought the leading lady of that picture...

Naked wrestling, religious mania and The Who's Tommy: director Ken Russell transformed British cinema. His closest collaborators recall a fierce, funny and groundbreaking talent

Glenda Jackson

I worked with Ken on six films. Women in Love was the first time I'd worked with a director of that genius, and on a film of that size. What I remember most was the creative and productive atmosphere on set: he was open to ideas from everyone, from the clapperboard operator upwards. Like any great director, he knew what he didn't want – but was open to everything else.

As a director he never said anything very specific. He'd say, "It needs to be a bit more … urrrgh, or a bit less hmmm", and you knew exactly what he meant. I used to ask him why he never said "Cut", and he said, "Because it means you always do something different." They gave...

Oliver Reed, Vanessa Redgrave, The Devils Ken Russell, the director of Women in Love, The Boy Friend, and Altered States, died Sunday, Nov. 27, at the age of 84. Coincidentally, the British Film Institute, with much fanfare, announced several months ago that it would be releasing for the first time on DVD the X-rated version of Russell's The Devils, a mix of history, political intrigue, religious fanaticism, and unbridled sex in 17th-century France. The X-rated version is purported to be the uncut version of The Devils. Well, it's not, really. Adapted by Russell from John Whiting's 1960 play and Aldous Huxley's 1952 historical novel The Devils of Loudun, The Devils stars Vanessa Redgrave (in lieu of a recalcitrant Glenda Jackson) as Loudun's Ursuline convent head Sister Jeanne, a neurotic, physically deformed woman who is sexually obsessed with local priest Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed). Following a series of "possessions" in the convent, Grandier...