There's no question that the moviegoing experience has changed since the "The Exorcist" became a landmark cultural event when it was released the day after Christmas in 1973. Anyone that waltzed right in to see "The Exorcist: Believer" in theaters this October would have been shocked by the long lines snaking around the block to see the controversial original when it took the world by storm almost 50 years ago. It's unlikely that any other film will ever match that particular watershed moment in horror ever again.
"The Exorcist" marked the first time a genre film had ever received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Notably, the entire production garnered 10 nominations, winning two for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound. In the decades since its release, "The Exorcist" has retained its well-deserved status as one of the scariest movies ever made, having left an indelible mark on generations of unassuming spectators that...
"The Exorcist" marked the first time a genre film had ever received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Notably, the entire production garnered 10 nominations, winning two for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound. In the decades since its release, "The Exorcist" has retained its well-deserved status as one of the scariest movies ever made, having left an indelible mark on generations of unassuming spectators that...
- 10/18/2023
- by Drew Tinnin
- Slash Film
Rarely one finds a friend on the Criterion Channel—discounting the parasitic relationship we form with filmmakers, I mean—but it’s great seeing their March lineup give light to Sophy Romvari, the <bias>exceptionally talented</bias> filmmaker and curator whose work has perhaps earned comparisons to Agnès Varda and Chantal Akerman but charts its own path of history and reflection. It’s a good way to lead into an exceptionally strong month, featuring as it does numerous films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, the great Japanese documentarian Kazuo Hara, newfound cult classic Arrebato, and a number of Criterion editions.
On the last front we have The Age of Innocence, Bull Durham, A Raisin in the Sun, The Celebration, Merrily We Go to Hell, and Design for Living. There’s always something lingering on the watchlist, but it might have to wait a second longer—March is an opened floodgate.
See the full...
On the last front we have The Age of Innocence, Bull Durham, A Raisin in the Sun, The Celebration, Merrily We Go to Hell, and Design for Living. There’s always something lingering on the watchlist, but it might have to wait a second longer—March is an opened floodgate.
See the full...
- 2/21/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The Balcony
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1963 / 84 min.
Starring Shelley Winters, Peter Falk
Cinematography by George Folsey
Directed by Joseph Strick
When Jean Genet died in 1986, France’s Minister of Culture proclaimed “Jean Genet has left us and with him, a black sun that enlightened the seamy side of things… Genet was liberty itself, and those who hated and fought him were hypocrites.”
“Liberty” was likely meant as an intentionally ironic description of the artist who spent part of his literary life working from a jail cell. He was an inveterate thief and proud of it; even after his success he manned a bookstall by the Seine stacked with stolen merchandise. During the occupation of France he was once again behind bars, piecing together a novel using a pencil and brown paper. The book was called Our Lady of the Flowers and was published in France in 1943 and in England in 1949. Hailed by Jean Cocteau,...
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1963 / 84 min.
Starring Shelley Winters, Peter Falk
Cinematography by George Folsey
Directed by Joseph Strick
When Jean Genet died in 1986, France’s Minister of Culture proclaimed “Jean Genet has left us and with him, a black sun that enlightened the seamy side of things… Genet was liberty itself, and those who hated and fought him were hypocrites.”
“Liberty” was likely meant as an intentionally ironic description of the artist who spent part of his literary life working from a jail cell. He was an inveterate thief and proud of it; even after his success he manned a bookstall by the Seine stacked with stolen merchandise. During the occupation of France he was once again behind bars, piecing together a novel using a pencil and brown paper. The book was called Our Lady of the Flowers and was published in France in 1943 and in England in 1949. Hailed by Jean Cocteau,...
- 9/1/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Jim Knipfel Jul 10, 2019
We look back on Rip Torn's career and how the occasional troublemaker turned bit parts into leading roles.
In the summer of 1969, Rip Torn was drunkenly screaming through New York’s West Village on his motorcycle when he slammed it into a police cruiser. Torn broke his leg in the accident but didn’t notice. The next morning, he got up, got on a plane, and flew to Paris where he was set to star in Joseph Strick’s film version of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. He shot the entire film all hopped up on painkillers for an untreated leg. And you know what? He still gives a remarkable performance. It wasn’t the only time he worked with broken bones either.
For over 60 years, Rip Torn carried on in the proud tradition of John Barrymore, Errol Flynn, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lawrence Tierney...
We look back on Rip Torn's career and how the occasional troublemaker turned bit parts into leading roles.
In the summer of 1969, Rip Torn was drunkenly screaming through New York’s West Village on his motorcycle when he slammed it into a police cruiser. Torn broke his leg in the accident but didn’t notice. The next morning, he got up, got on a plane, and flew to Paris where he was set to star in Joseph Strick’s film version of Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. He shot the entire film all hopped up on painkillers for an untreated leg. And you know what? He still gives a remarkable performance. It wasn’t the only time he worked with broken bones either.
For over 60 years, Rip Torn carried on in the proud tradition of John Barrymore, Errol Flynn, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lawrence Tierney...
- 7/10/2019
- Den of Geek
This favorite animal film takes a half-step sideways out of the cute animal subgenre: the delightful Mij is no super-otter, just an ordinary playful garden-variety otter, as an Otter oughta be. (cough) Champion mellow English couple Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers have put together a film guaranteed to lower your blood pressure. But see it first before deciding it’s for your kids, as reality is not sugarcoated in its uplifting, but certainly not sentimentalized, view of our place in a world that still has some animals left alive.
Ring of Bright Water
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1969 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date May 21, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers, Peter Jeffrey, Jameson Clark, Helena Gloag.
Cinematography: Wolfgang Suschitsky
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
Original Music: Frank Cordell
Written by Jack Couffer and Bill Travers from a book by Gavin Maxwell
Produced by Joseph Strick
Directed by Jack...
Ring of Bright Water
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1969 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 106 min. / Street Date May 21, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers, Peter Jeffrey, Jameson Clark, Helena Gloag.
Cinematography: Wolfgang Suschitsky
Film Editor: Reginald Mills
Original Music: Frank Cordell
Written by Jack Couffer and Bill Travers from a book by Gavin Maxwell
Produced by Joseph Strick
Directed by Jack...
- 5/25/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
In 1983, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, along with Media Study/Buffalo, created a touring retrospective of avant-garde films, primarily feature-length ones and a few shorts, which they called “The American New Wave 1958-1967.” To accompany the tour, a hefty catalog was produced that included notes on the films, essays by film historians and critics, writings by major underground film figures and more.
The retrospective was created at a time when financially viable independent filmmaking was on the rise, such as films made by John Sayles, Wayne Wang and Susan Seidelman. According to the co-curators of the retrospective, Melinda Ward and Bruce Jenkins, the objective of the tour was to:
provide a more adequate picture than conventional history affords us of a rare period of American cinematic invention and thereby prepare a coherent critical and historical context for the reception of the new work by the current generation of independent filmmakers.
The retrospective was created at a time when financially viable independent filmmaking was on the rise, such as films made by John Sayles, Wayne Wang and Susan Seidelman. According to the co-curators of the retrospective, Melinda Ward and Bruce Jenkins, the objective of the tour was to:
provide a more adequate picture than conventional history affords us of a rare period of American cinematic invention and thereby prepare a coherent critical and historical context for the reception of the new work by the current generation of independent filmmakers.
- 11/25/2017
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Never tell Hollywood it can’t do something. Over the years, the entertainment industry has gamely (and, often, unwisely) taken on projects that have been deemed unadaptable, often by their very own authors and creators. Such a film is bound for the big screen later this week, when Nikolaj Arcel’s already embattled “The Dark Tower” arrives, attempting to prove to audiences that adapting a sprawling Stephen King opus into a movie and television franchise after nearly a decade of starts and stops is, in fact, a good idea. It’s hardly the only example of such a gamble, and few similar attempts have managed to pay out, either financially or creatively.
Read More‘The Dark Tower’ Tested So Poorly That Sony Considered Replacing Director — Report
Sometimes “unadaptable” is just that, and perhaps even the best of books simply isn’t suited for a splashy filmed version. While it remains...
Read More‘The Dark Tower’ Tested So Poorly That Sony Considered Replacing Director — Report
Sometimes “unadaptable” is just that, and perhaps even the best of books simply isn’t suited for a splashy filmed version. While it remains...
- 8/2/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Predictably, most of the memorials for the late great horror director George A. Romero focused on his influence on the zombie and wider horror genre. Yes, he was important and influential in that area. But his legacy is much wider. More than any other filmmaker, Romero changed the course of independent film making in America.
Independent films have been around as long as movies existed. Indeed, in their infancy all early features from around 1912 were basically independent, before the Hollywood studio system rapidly evolved in the late teens.
Though the majors dominated moviemaking and distribution from their hub in Southern California, many independent filmmakers such as Edgar G. Ulmer, the idiosyncratic Edward Wood, African-American pioneer Oscar Micheaux and various ethnic cinemas flourished on the side. In 1955 Robert Altman was making industrial films in Kansas City when he was hired by a local businessman to make his first feature, the low-budget...
Independent films have been around as long as movies existed. Indeed, in their infancy all early features from around 1912 were basically independent, before the Hollywood studio system rapidly evolved in the late teens.
Though the majors dominated moviemaking and distribution from their hub in Southern California, many independent filmmakers such as Edgar G. Ulmer, the idiosyncratic Edward Wood, African-American pioneer Oscar Micheaux and various ethnic cinemas flourished on the side. In 1955 Robert Altman was making industrial films in Kansas City when he was hired by a local businessman to make his first feature, the low-budget...
- 7/17/2017
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
Apart from the three sneak screening titles that will stir up the buzz in the coming days, Julie Huntsinger and Tom Luddy’s 40th edition of the Telluride Film Festival excels in bringing a concentration of solid docus from the likes of Errol Morris and Werner Herzog who this year cuts the ribbon on a theatre going by his name and introduces Death Row, a pinch of Berlin Film Fest items (Gloria, Slow Food Story, Fifi Howls from Happiness) Palme d’Or winner (this year Abdellatif Kechiche will be celebrated), upcoming Sony Pictures Classics items (Tim’s Vermeer, The Lunchbox), Venice to Telluride to Tiff titles (Bethlehem, Tracks and Under the Skin), the latest Jason Reitman film (Labor Day) and the barely known docu-home-movie whodunit (by helmers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine) The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden which features narration from the likes of Cate Blanchett, Diane Kruger and Connie Nielsen.
- 8/28/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Irish stage and screen character actor who appeared in Barbarella, The Verdict and the BBC's 1969 sitcom Me Mammy
For a performer of such fame and versatility, the distinguished Irish character actor Milo O'Shea, who has died aged 86, is not associated with any role in particular, or indeed any clutch of them. He was chiefly associated with his own expressive dark eyes, bushy eyebrows, outstanding mimetic talents and distinctive Dublin brogue.
His impish presence irradiated countless fine movies – including Joseph Strick's Ulysses (1967), Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968) and Sidney Lumet's The Verdict (1982) – and many top-drawer American television series, from Cheers, The Golden Girls and Frasier, right through to The West Wing (2003-04), in which he played the chief justice Roy Ashland.
He had settled in New York in 1976 with his second wife, Kitty Sullivan, in order to be equidistant from his own main bases of operation, Hollywood and London. The...
For a performer of such fame and versatility, the distinguished Irish character actor Milo O'Shea, who has died aged 86, is not associated with any role in particular, or indeed any clutch of them. He was chiefly associated with his own expressive dark eyes, bushy eyebrows, outstanding mimetic talents and distinctive Dublin brogue.
His impish presence irradiated countless fine movies – including Joseph Strick's Ulysses (1967), Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968) and Sidney Lumet's The Verdict (1982) – and many top-drawer American television series, from Cheers, The Golden Girls and Frasier, right through to The West Wing (2003-04), in which he played the chief justice Roy Ashland.
He had settled in New York in 1976 with his second wife, Kitty Sullivan, in order to be equidistant from his own main bases of operation, Hollywood and London. The...
- 4/3/2013
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
Milo O’Shea, the Dublin-born, ferociously eyebrowed actor who helped bring James Joyce, William Shakespeare, and Barbarella to movie screens in the 1960s, has died at the age of 86. O’Shea started his career on the Irish stage, before getting his breakout movie role as Leo Bloom in Joseph Strick’s controversial 1967 adaptation of James Joyce’s Ulysses. A year later, he scored with British audiences in the BBC sitcom Me Mammy, which ran for three seasons and 21 episodes from 1968 to 1971. That same year, he made his Broadway debut co-starring with Eli Wallach in Staircase ...
- 4/3/2013
- avclub.com
When he was asked to be guest director for a festival dedicated to films based on books, Jonathan Coe set out to disprove the adage that great literature makes terrible movies
In the course of their famous book-length interview, François Truffaut once asked Alfred Hitchcock about his approach to literary adaptation, and Hitch's response was as magisterial, worldly and mischievous as one would expect: "What I do is to read a story only once, and if I like the basic idea, I just forget all about the book and start to create cinema. Today I would be unable to tell you the story of Daphne du Maurier's The Birds. I read it only once, and very quickly at that."
Hitchcock's comment was the first thing that occurred to me when, towards the end of last year, I was approached with an interesting proposition. "From Page to Screen" is the...
In the course of their famous book-length interview, François Truffaut once asked Alfred Hitchcock about his approach to literary adaptation, and Hitch's response was as magisterial, worldly and mischievous as one would expect: "What I do is to read a story only once, and if I like the basic idea, I just forget all about the book and start to create cinema. Today I would be unable to tell you the story of Daphne du Maurier's The Birds. I read it only once, and very quickly at that."
Hitchcock's comment was the first thing that occurred to me when, towards the end of last year, I was approached with an interesting proposition. "From Page to Screen" is the...
- 4/1/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
Another one bites the dust! See you next year… maybe.
So, what did you all think? I live-tweeted the entire broadcast. Good times, as I’m sure those who were following me will agree
Not too many major surprises. I fully expected The Social Network to win, since it did so well in all the pre-Oscar awards ceremonies. In fact, I think the only major award it won was in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for Aaron Sorkin.
It was a night fit for a king… The King’s Speech cleaned up nicely in the major categories… Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Picture. As I said on Twitter last night, rumors of Harvey Weinstein’s strong-arm tactics are apparently true!
Inception did well… but in the technical categories, inspiring the ire of many fanboys and girls, many who felt that the film was robbed in the...
So, what did you all think? I live-tweeted the entire broadcast. Good times, as I’m sure those who were following me will agree
Not too many major surprises. I fully expected The Social Network to win, since it did so well in all the pre-Oscar awards ceremonies. In fact, I think the only major award it won was in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for Aaron Sorkin.
It was a night fit for a king… The King’s Speech cleaned up nicely in the major categories… Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Picture. As I said on Twitter last night, rumors of Harvey Weinstein’s strong-arm tactics are apparently true!
Inception did well… but in the technical categories, inspiring the ire of many fanboys and girls, many who felt that the film was robbed in the...
- 2/28/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
Thank you for visiting ScottFeinberg.com for live coverage of the 83rd Academy Awards! Keep refreshing your browser for all the latest stats/developments — new updates will push down older updates so that you won’t have to scroll down.
* * *
The show ends movingly — if somewhat randomly — with the Ps-22 Staten Island Chorus performing “Over the Rainbow” as all of the evening’s winners join them on-stage, with many singing along. Franco and Hathaway wind up bringing in the show only 10 minutes late (most years run way over), and although it was far from the funniest or most dramatic production, it wasn’t as bad as some are making it out to be (Roger Ebert just Tweeted that it was “the worst Oscarcast I’ve ever seen!”). Franco seemed like he didn’t want to be there (it must have been brutal trying to prepare for this only on the...
* * *
The show ends movingly — if somewhat randomly — with the Ps-22 Staten Island Chorus performing “Over the Rainbow” as all of the evening’s winners join them on-stage, with many singing along. Franco and Hathaway wind up bringing in the show only 10 minutes late (most years run way over), and although it was far from the funniest or most dramatic production, it wasn’t as bad as some are making it out to be (Roger Ebert just Tweeted that it was “the worst Oscarcast I’ve ever seen!”). Franco seemed like he didn’t want to be there (it must have been brutal trying to prepare for this only on the...
- 2/27/2011
- by Scott Feinberg
- Scott Feinberg
Versatile Irish stage actor who became a familiar face across British drama
Before he became a familiar face on television and cinema screens, the outstanding Irish actor Tp McKenna, who has died after a long illness aged 81, bridged the gap between the old and the new Abbey theatres in Dublin. He appeared with the company for eight years during the interim period at the Queen's theatre; the old Abbey burned down in 1951, the new one opened by the Liffey in 1966.
During that time he made his reputation as a leading actor of great charm, vocal resource – with a fine singing voice – and versatility. He was equally adept at comedy and tragedy, a great exponent of the best Irish playwriting from Jm Synge and Séan O'Casey to Hugh Leonard and Brian Friel. The elder son in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night was a favourite, much acclaimed role.
It was Stephen D,...
Before he became a familiar face on television and cinema screens, the outstanding Irish actor Tp McKenna, who has died after a long illness aged 81, bridged the gap between the old and the new Abbey theatres in Dublin. He appeared with the company for eight years during the interim period at the Queen's theatre; the old Abbey burned down in 1951, the new one opened by the Liffey in 1966.
During that time he made his reputation as a leading actor of great charm, vocal resource – with a fine singing voice – and versatility. He was equally adept at comedy and tragedy, a great exponent of the best Irish playwriting from Jm Synge and Séan O'Casey to Hugh Leonard and Brian Friel. The elder son in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night was a favourite, much acclaimed role.
It was Stephen D,...
- 2/17/2011
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
Brighton On Screen
With the Brighton Rock remake on its way, the Duke Of York's cinema is getting in early with a season of films made in, or with links to, the area. An obvious choice is Quadrophenia, but the more curious should check out odder fare, like The Flesh And Blood Show, directed by former Doy projectionist Peter Walker, the dour thriller Jigsaw and John Mackenzie's Made, a social drama featuring folkie Roy Harper. The centrepiece is Brighton Rock Unseen, a tribute to Graham Greene's original novel and the iconic 1947 movie it spawned.
Duke Of York's, Sun to 29 Aug; picturehouses.co.uk
Chichester Film Festival
Opening with Sylvain Chomet's lovely, Jacques Tati-inspired animation The Illusionist, the 19th Chichester Film Festival is bent on bringing magic of all kinds to the screen. Aside from previews of upcoming Us, European, Asian and British flicks – including...
With the Brighton Rock remake on its way, the Duke Of York's cinema is getting in early with a season of films made in, or with links to, the area. An obvious choice is Quadrophenia, but the more curious should check out odder fare, like The Flesh And Blood Show, directed by former Doy projectionist Peter Walker, the dour thriller Jigsaw and John Mackenzie's Made, a social drama featuring folkie Roy Harper. The centrepiece is Brighton Rock Unseen, a tribute to Graham Greene's original novel and the iconic 1947 movie it spawned.
Duke Of York's, Sun to 29 Aug; picturehouses.co.uk
Chichester Film Festival
Opening with Sylvain Chomet's lovely, Jacques Tati-inspired animation The Illusionist, the 19th Chichester Film Festival is bent on bringing magic of all kinds to the screen. Aside from previews of upcoming Us, European, Asian and British flicks – including...
- 8/13/2010
- by Damon Wise
- The Guardian - Film News
The name Joseph Strick might not mean much to most people, even film fans, but he was a real maverick director with the grandest vision possible. He wanted to take James Joyce’s novel, Ulysses, and make it into an 18 hour long extravaganza – an ode to Joyce – if you will. He described his attempt as:
“Even before I made it, people were saying it was unfilmable. I think the truth is, some people just find the book unreadable.”
Of course only the bravest producers would finance such an endeavour so Strick settled for a two hours long version that premiered at the Cannes film festival in 1967. The screening, as legend now tells us, did not go according to plan. Strick ran into the projection room, got into a scuffle with security guards and withdrew the film. He didn’t have kind words for the Cannes festival either describing it as...
“Even before I made it, people were saying it was unfilmable. I think the truth is, some people just find the book unreadable.”
Of course only the bravest producers would finance such an endeavour so Strick settled for a two hours long version that premiered at the Cannes film festival in 1967. The screening, as legend now tells us, did not go according to plan. Strick ran into the projection room, got into a scuffle with security guards and withdrew the film. He didn’t have kind words for the Cannes festival either describing it as...
- 6/17/2010
- by Martyn Conterio
- FilmShaft.com
Maverick director best known for his film of Ulysses – widely seen as a noble failure
There must be something quixotic about a director who sets out to make a film of James Joyce's Ulysses. A passionate Joycean, Joseph Strick, who has died aged 86, was undeterred by the challenge and the obstacles: "Even before I made it, people were saying it was unfilmable. I think the truth is, some people just find the book unreadable."
The iconoclastic Strick first envisaged an 18-hour version, faithful to every word, but unsurprisingly he could not get anyone to finance it. When the final two-hour version, shot in Dublin, was completed in 1967, it fell foul of censorship – just like the novel. The British Board of Film Censors requested 29 cuts to remove sexual references from Molly Bloom's final, expletive-laden soliloquy. Strick obliged by replacing all of the offending footage with a blank screen and a high-pitched shrieking sound.
There must be something quixotic about a director who sets out to make a film of James Joyce's Ulysses. A passionate Joycean, Joseph Strick, who has died aged 86, was undeterred by the challenge and the obstacles: "Even before I made it, people were saying it was unfilmable. I think the truth is, some people just find the book unreadable."
The iconoclastic Strick first envisaged an 18-hour version, faithful to every word, but unsurprisingly he could not get anyone to finance it. When the final two-hour version, shot in Dublin, was completed in 1967, it fell foul of censorship – just like the novel. The British Board of Film Censors requested 29 cuts to remove sexual references from Molly Bloom's final, expletive-laden soliloquy. Strick obliged by replacing all of the offending footage with a blank screen and a high-pitched shrieking sound.
- 6/17/2010
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Although he was best known for tackling such seemingly unfilmable works of literature as James Joyce's Ulysses, Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer and Jean Genet's The Balcony, Joseph Strick did earn an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1971 for Interviews with My Lai Veterans. He died June 1 in Paris of congested heart failure at age 86.
According to an obituary in the Los Angeles Times, Strick was an aerial photographer for the Us Army during World War II. His first film, the 1948 documentary Muscle Beach, profiled body builders ...
According to an obituary in the Los Angeles Times, Strick was an aerial photographer for the Us Army during World War II. His first film, the 1948 documentary Muscle Beach, profiled body builders ...
- 6/9/2010
- by twhite
- International Documentary Association
Oscar-winning director, screenwriter and producer Joseph Strick has died from congestive heart failure at the age of 86.
Strick, who was born in Pennsylvania, died on 1 June in Paris, France, where he had lived for several years.
He won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1970 for Interviews With My Lai Veterans, which he wrote, produced and directed.
He also won the British Academy Television Awards (BAFTA) Flaherty Documentary Award for his 1959 film, The Savage Eye.
But Strick was perhaps best known for his screen adaptations of risque literary works including The Balcony, Ulysses and Tropic of Cancer, starring Rip Torn.
He hit headlines in 1970 after losing a court battle to overturn the X rating awarded to Tropic by the Motion Picture Association of America. The movie retained its adult rating until the early 1990s, when it was lowered to allow anyone 17 and over to view the film.
Other notable movie credits include Never Cry Wolf, Ring of Bright Water and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Strick is survived by his second wife, Martine Rossignol Strick, and their two children, as well as his three kids from his first marriage.
Strick, who was born in Pennsylvania, died on 1 June in Paris, France, where he had lived for several years.
He won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1970 for Interviews With My Lai Veterans, which he wrote, produced and directed.
He also won the British Academy Television Awards (BAFTA) Flaherty Documentary Award for his 1959 film, The Savage Eye.
But Strick was perhaps best known for his screen adaptations of risque literary works including The Balcony, Ulysses and Tropic of Cancer, starring Rip Torn.
He hit headlines in 1970 after losing a court battle to overturn the X rating awarded to Tropic by the Motion Picture Association of America. The movie retained its adult rating until the early 1990s, when it was lowered to allow anyone 17 and over to view the film.
Other notable movie credits include Never Cry Wolf, Ring of Bright Water and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Strick is survived by his second wife, Martine Rossignol Strick, and their two children, as well as his three kids from his first marriage.
- 6/8/2010
- WENN
Vincenzo Natali thinks not – and the director who gave us the cult sci-fi brainteaser Cube is determined to prove it
"If it can be imagined, it can be filmed," is a quote often attributed to Stanley Kubrick. In recent years, film-makers have proved him both right and wrong. Last year, I felt Zack Snyder made a more than decent bash of bringing the dense and multi-stranded Watchmen to the big screen, while in the past decade we've even seen The Lord of the Rings, once considered too long and flowery for Hollywood, turned into a blockbuster trilogy by Peter Jackson. On the other hand, critical reaction to Tom Tykwer's 2006 adaptation of the decidedly unfilmic Perfume: The Story of a Murderer was pretty mixed, and neither Joseph Strick's 1967 attempt, nor Sean Walsh's Bloom in 2004 really got under the skin of James Joyce's Ulysses, surely the ultimate unfilmable novel.
"If it can be imagined, it can be filmed," is a quote often attributed to Stanley Kubrick. In recent years, film-makers have proved him both right and wrong. Last year, I felt Zack Snyder made a more than decent bash of bringing the dense and multi-stranded Watchmen to the big screen, while in the past decade we've even seen The Lord of the Rings, once considered too long and flowery for Hollywood, turned into a blockbuster trilogy by Peter Jackson. On the other hand, critical reaction to Tom Tykwer's 2006 adaptation of the decidedly unfilmic Perfume: The Story of a Murderer was pretty mixed, and neither Joseph Strick's 1967 attempt, nor Sean Walsh's Bloom in 2004 really got under the skin of James Joyce's Ulysses, surely the ultimate unfilmable novel.
- 5/14/2010
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
This is a bold and high-minded stab at the ultimate unfilmable book, writes Peter Bradshaw
In 1967, the American film-maker Joseph Strick took a bold and high-minded stab at the ultimate unfilmable book: Joyce's Ulysses. Inevitably, it's a disappointment, though watched again now for this rerelease, it doesn't seem as much of a disappointment as all that. Milo O'Shea gives a very decent performance as Leopold Bloom: he is dignified, vulnerable, sensitive and tragicomic. However, Maurice Roëves's Stephen Dedalus is flat and uninteresting; his opening dialogue scenes with Mulligan and Haines in the Martello Tower are odd and stilted, yet maybe there's no other way of doing them. I was reminded of Manoel De Oliveira's 2002 film I'm Going Home, in which John Malkovich plays a film-maker directing a new version of Ulysses, and unhappily attempting to direct Michel Piccoli's elderly French actor, whom he has stupendously miscast as Buck Mulligan.
In 1967, the American film-maker Joseph Strick took a bold and high-minded stab at the ultimate unfilmable book: Joyce's Ulysses. Inevitably, it's a disappointment, though watched again now for this rerelease, it doesn't seem as much of a disappointment as all that. Milo O'Shea gives a very decent performance as Leopold Bloom: he is dignified, vulnerable, sensitive and tragicomic. However, Maurice Roëves's Stephen Dedalus is flat and uninteresting; his opening dialogue scenes with Mulligan and Haines in the Martello Tower are odd and stilted, yet maybe there's no other way of doing them. I was reminded of Manoel De Oliveira's 2002 film I'm Going Home, in which John Malkovich plays a film-maker directing a new version of Ulysses, and unhappily attempting to direct Michel Piccoli's elderly French actor, whom he has stupendously miscast as Buck Mulligan.
- 11/19/2009
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Cinecity: Brighton Film Festival, Brighton
Just because it's coastal doesn't mean it's coasting. This year's hard-working festival brings in both local and international work, the latter selection including the latest Miyazaki animation, Ponyo, new Mexican hope I'm Gonna Explode, and Until The Light Takes Us, a documentary on Norwegian black metal. And leading the guests, John Hillcoat attends a screening of his adaptation of The Road – perhaps the film's composer, local boy Nick Cave, might even swing by?
Various venues, Thu to 6 Dec, visit cine-city.co.uk
Phelim O'Neill
Tribute To Romy Schneider, London
On the back of her mesmerising appearance in new documentary Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno, eight highlights from Schneider's short but enviable and prolific career, which saw her outgrow her pushy stage mother to become the toast of Austrian cinema. Debuting at 15, Schneider made an indelible impression as the naive Austrian Empress Elisabeth in 1955's Sissi. Also...
Just because it's coastal doesn't mean it's coasting. This year's hard-working festival brings in both local and international work, the latter selection including the latest Miyazaki animation, Ponyo, new Mexican hope I'm Gonna Explode, and Until The Light Takes Us, a documentary on Norwegian black metal. And leading the guests, John Hillcoat attends a screening of his adaptation of The Road – perhaps the film's composer, local boy Nick Cave, might even swing by?
Various venues, Thu to 6 Dec, visit cine-city.co.uk
Phelim O'Neill
Tribute To Romy Schneider, London
On the back of her mesmerising appearance in new documentary Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno, eight highlights from Schneider's short but enviable and prolific career, which saw her outgrow her pushy stage mother to become the toast of Austrian cinema. Debuting at 15, Schneider made an indelible impression as the naive Austrian Empress Elisabeth in 1955's Sissi. Also...
- 11/14/2009
- by Phelim O'Neill, Andrea Hubert
- The Guardian - Film News
The Anthology Film Archives in New York City is presenting the films of actor Rip Torn between March 5- 15. Screenings include titles rarely seen on the big screen including Beach Red, Sweet Bird of Youth, Payday, Coming Apart and Tropic of Cancer.The festival is most welcome, as it puts the spotlight on one of the most interesting actors working today. Our only gripe: the schedule doesn't include the Man From U.N.C.L.E. feature film One Spy Too Many in which Torn became one of the great villains of the medium with his portrayal of Alexander the Greater, a man who plans to conquer the world through breaking each ot The Ten Commandments in turn.
Here is the text of the press release from Anthology Film Archives:
A ubiquitous but under-appreciated presence on screen for nearly five decades, Rip Torn is one of American cinema's great talents,...
Here is the text of the press release from Anthology Film Archives:
A ubiquitous but under-appreciated presence on screen for nearly five decades, Rip Torn is one of American cinema's great talents,...
- 3/6/2009
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
There's no need to focus all your attention on new releases, particularly not when spring is studded with enough fantastic repertory scheduling to fill your every evening. Here's a look at what's been planned in New York and L.A.
New York:
Anthology Film Archives
Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra returns to the Anthology Film Archives from Feb. 25-March 3 to present his latest film, "Birdsong," an atmospheric retelling of biblical Three Wise Men story with an eye towards the desert landscape they were traveling [pictured left], in addition to Mark Peranson's experimental making-of "Birdsong" doc, "Waiting for Sancho," which will show on Feb. 28 and March 1... On March 4, '60s underground filmmaker Jose Rodriguez Soltero will get a double feature of two newly restored prints of his 1965 exploration of narcissism, "Jerovi," and the 1966 celebration of Mexican Hollywood star Lupe Velez, "Lupe."... From March 5 through 15, one of America's finest character actors gets a retrospective...
New York:
Anthology Film Archives
Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra returns to the Anthology Film Archives from Feb. 25-March 3 to present his latest film, "Birdsong," an atmospheric retelling of biblical Three Wise Men story with an eye towards the desert landscape they were traveling [pictured left], in addition to Mark Peranson's experimental making-of "Birdsong" doc, "Waiting for Sancho," which will show on Feb. 28 and March 1... On March 4, '60s underground filmmaker Jose Rodriguez Soltero will get a double feature of two newly restored prints of his 1965 exploration of narcissism, "Jerovi," and the 1966 celebration of Mexican Hollywood star Lupe Velez, "Lupe."... From March 5 through 15, one of America's finest character actors gets a retrospective...
- 2/18/2009
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
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