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Federico Fellini

Film

The Most Controversial Moments at the Cannes Film Festival

By Alison Nastasi on

France’s Cannes Film Festival has seen its share of controversies since it started in 1946. Blame the Riviera sun or the filmmaking iconoclasts that gather on the red carpet each year, but various high jinks and bizarre publicity stunts have often dominated the festivities. Bold action isn’t always required to shake things up, however. Often times it’s just the movies themselves that cause a scene with audiences and the Cannes jury. With the current 66th annual festival underway, we wanted to take a look at ten of Cannes most controversial moments. … Read More

Film

About That Time Pam Grier Made Fried Pigeon for Federico Fellini…

By Jason Bailey on

Pam Grier is a good talker. Her stories are rich and detailed, her outlook is both funny and true, and once you get her going, you just let her go — over the course of a 50-minute “Clips and Conversation” Q&A at Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Film Center Sunday afternoon, I believe she was asked four questions. She’d answer the query, and then spin off into something else, and then somewhere else, the connections sometimes tenuous, but the destination always worth the journey. The appearance came at the conclusion of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s weekend-long tribute to Grier, who tells many of these stories in her new book Foxy: My Life in Three Acts. The highlight, without question, was the tale of her unexpected meeting with Federico Fellini, and the meal she made for him in the commissary of his Italian studio. … Read More

Web

The Cinematography of 10 Great Filmmakers Captured in Cinemagraphs

By Matthew Bower on

In recent years, graphic interchange format, once a throwback to the awkward early years of web design, has come into its own as an art form. Leading the way is the ever-popular cinemagraph, an enhancement on photography that typically adds subtle moving elements to the scene — wisps of blowing hair, blinking eyes, rising smoke, etc. Although cinemagraphs first gained popularity for their use in advertising, it seems only natural that the meme has taken hold of cinema as well, capturing memorable movie stills in infinite loops of movement. If We Don’t, Remember Me has been busy amassing quite the collection of these cinematic cinemagraphs, adding a new dimension to the way in which images can convey the aesthetic of a certain directorial style. From the creepy to the minimalistic, we’ve gathered a list of cinemagraphs that capture the distinctive mise-en-scène of 10 of our favorite filmmakers. … Read More

Film

The Most Eye-Opening Films about the Movie Industry

By Alison Nastasi on

This week, Paramount released a Blu-ray of Billy Wilder’s dramatic tale about a faded silent film star and the madness that ensues when her big-screen dreams are shattered. Sunset Boulevard is a tragic Hollywood love story — love for the illusion and the grandeur. It’s a cautionary tale about the trappings of Tinseltown that calls to mind other eye-opening films about the movie industry. We explored them all past the break. See what messages these celluloid satires have to share about the Hollywood machine, and tell us what films you would add to the list in the comments section. … Read More

Film

10 Essential Italian Films

By Alison Nastasi on

Arguably the greatest entry in Italian neorealist cinema, Vittorio De Sica’s 1952 portrait of a struggling pensioner and his faithful dog, Umberto D., arrives on Blu-ray this week. It’s a poignant commentary on the country’s postwar strife and working class disillusionment, quietly portrayed by university professor-turned-actor Carlo Battisti’s retired government worker who faces desperation with sorrowful dignity. Still, the heartbreaking tale is never maudlin or overstated. In honor of the film’s Criterion Blu-ray release, we wanted to explore other essential Italian titles. Click through our gallery to check out a diverse list of the country’s masterworks that have left their mark on generations of audiences and filmmakers alike. Add your own picks in the comments section. … Read More

Film

Our All-Time Favorite Actor/Director Movie Teams

By Jason Bailey on

Dark Shadows opens this week, whether we like it or not, but it does give us cause to pause for numerical consideration. No, we’re not talking about the amount of time since Tim Burton’s last film that was based on an original idea — that would be seven years, since Corpse Bride. Before that, you have to go clear back to 1990′s Edward Scissorhands, which was also (coincidentally enough) his first time working with Dark Shadows star Johnny Depp. Dark Shadows marks their eighth collaboration, which got us thinking about some of our favorite (and most productive, with a minimum of four pairings) actor/director teams. After the jump, we’ve compiled a dozen of the best from movie history; add your own in the comments, won’t you? … Read More

Film

Open Thread: When Should Filmmakers Retire?

By Jason Bailey on

Last weekend, two new films opened by famous filmmakers who are, to varying degrees, getting the hell out of the film business. Haywire director Steven Soderbergh has been teasing his early retirement for months now; it’s somewhat comical, actually, the way he keeps adding in projects that he wants to do before his self-imposed exile. George Lucas, who spent decades getting Red Tails made, told The New York Times that he was retiring, at least from the business of making blockbuster films (maybe).

Soderbergh is 49. Lucas is 67. Making movies doesn’t have a mandatory retirement age, like fighting fires or flying planes. But should it? … Read More

Design

Evocative Posters of Legendary Filmmakers

By Judy Berman on

Most poster art reflects the aesthetics of its creator — and Turkish designer Gizem Vural’s posters for the 30th Istanbul Film Festival definitely reflect her taste. But what’s really wonderful about her portraits of legendary filmmakers, from Alfred Hitchcock to Akira Kurosawa, is that they also reference the signature style of the directors themselves: Surrealist Luis Buñuel’s face is swirled beyond recognition, while Federico Fellini is rendered in bold colors and the kind of playful patterns we might find in his visually rich films. Enjoy the posters, found on Behance, after the jump, and visit Vural’s website to learn more about the 23-year-old designer’s work. … Read More

Film

10 Memorable Cinematic Alter Egos

By Jason Bailey on

This week Bruce Robinson’s adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s novel The Rum Diary opens across the country. Based on an early novel by the good doctor of gonzo journalism, the role of Thompson’s stand-in, journalist “Paul Kemp,” is being played by Johnny Depp — who has, with this film, pretty much planted is flag for good on the island of “cinematic portrayals of Hunter S. Thompson.” After the jump, we’ll take a closer look at Depp’s ongoing onscreen personification of the late Thompson, and nine more actors who became the cinematic avatars for distinctive writers and filmmakers. … Read More

Photography

Photo Gallery: Rare Glimpses of Old Hollywood

By Alison Nastasi on

Cinephiles will certainly appreciate this gallery of old Hollywood publicity shots, rare photographs, and production stills from the dreamy Old Hollywood Tumblr. It’s a lovely curated collection of soundtrack clips, glamorous images, and interview snippets from Tinseltown’s Golden Age through 1975. Catch a glimpse of how Stanley Kubrick approached the shooting of his 1962 classic, Lolita, and see what a 1929 publicity still looked like (and how much more amazing it was than anything Hollywood churns out today) after the jump. Let us know which images wooed you most. … Read More