Behind The Candelabra Here's our latest batch of films to catch on the telly or streaming services this week. You can read last week's here and if you're looking for more inspiration, we're feline groovy this week, with a streaming spotlight on cat ladies.
Behind The Candelabra, BBC iPlayer, until Friday, 14 August and Netflix
Director Steven Soderbergh made this Liberace biopic for television but you wouldn't know it from the look or the star-studded cast, led by Michael Douglas as the flamboyant pianist and Matt Damon as his much younger lover Scott Thorson. The relationship between Thorson and Liberace was hurricane levels of stormy and Soderbergh gleefully throws himself into the job with the same ostentation that Liberace threw himself at the world. Douglas and Damon prove to be a winning double-act as the preening pianist and...
Behind The Candelabra, BBC iPlayer, until Friday, 14 August and Netflix
Director Steven Soderbergh made this Liberace biopic for television but you wouldn't know it from the look or the star-studded cast, led by Michael Douglas as the flamboyant pianist and Matt Damon as his much younger lover Scott Thorson. The relationship between Thorson and Liberace was hurricane levels of stormy and Soderbergh gleefully throws himself into the job with the same ostentation that Liberace threw himself at the world. Douglas and Damon prove to be a winning double-act as the preening pianist and...
- 8/10/2020
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
We are now officially half way through the year and so I’ve asked our staff to vote for their favourite films released thus far. Hollywood blockbusters may have disappointed us, but thankfully we can always rely on independent filmmakers to create some truly inspiring films. Rounding out the special mentions is Terrence Malick’s To The Wonder, Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, and Cate Shortland’s Lore – all missing the cut by a couple of points.
****
#15: Iron Man 3 (24 points)
Directed by Shane Black
Written by Drew Pearce & Shane Black
USA, 2013
Fun has become a slightly forgotten commodity in the summer blockbuster, with many studios and filmmakers now inspired by the efforts of directors like Christopher Nolan to be as grim as possible. The modern superhero often has to be angst-ridden or otherwise mentally scarred to make an impact on audiences, so it’s a pleasant surprise...
****
#15: Iron Man 3 (24 points)
Directed by Shane Black
Written by Drew Pearce & Shane Black
USA, 2013
Fun has become a slightly forgotten commodity in the summer blockbuster, with many studios and filmmakers now inspired by the efforts of directors like Christopher Nolan to be as grim as possible. The modern superhero often has to be angst-ridden or otherwise mentally scarred to make an impact on audiences, so it’s a pleasant surprise...
- 7/1/2013
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Behind the Candelabra HBO Hit: Liberace movie starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon nearly breaks record Behind the Candelabra, the Steven Soderbergh-directed Liberace biopic starring Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his lover-chauffeur Scott Thorson, was first aired Sunday evening on HBO. The result: 2.4 million television viewers, the largest audience for an HBO original film in nearly a decade. Another 1.1 million viewers watched a repeat broadcast later in the evening. (Photo: Michael Douglas as Liberace, Matt Damon as Scott Thorson in Behind the Candelabra.) Curiously, the flamboyantly gay Behind the Candelabra trailed only another (much more sedate) HBO biopic about the relationship between two disparate men: Joseph Sargent’s Something the Lord Made, about heart surgery pioneers Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman) and Vivien Thomas (Mos Def). According to Nielsen, Something the Lord Made was watched by 2.6 million people in late May 2004. Behind the Candelabra: HBO hit...
- 5/29/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Behind the Candelabra
Written by Richard Lagravenese
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
USA, 2013
Call it what you will, but if Steven Soderbergh is truly exiting the cinematic frontier for a while, Behind the Candelabra marks a very fitting and appropriate departure for the director. Adapted from the autobiographical novel by Alex Thorleifson and Scott Thorson, Candelabra is a rather direct biopic shedding light on the private life of Liberace (Michael Douglas) and his 6-year relationship with younger lover Scott Thorson (Matt Damon). Having known next to nothing about the stage life or persona of the former, Candelabra possesses the sparkling allure we’ve come to expect from Soderbergh, vaulting us backstage and behind the scenes for a closer look at two vulnerable lovers who become masked in their own vanity without a proper road map out.
Aside from the glitz and aesthetic grace of this particular period piece (let’s be honest,...
Written by Richard Lagravenese
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
USA, 2013
Call it what you will, but if Steven Soderbergh is truly exiting the cinematic frontier for a while, Behind the Candelabra marks a very fitting and appropriate departure for the director. Adapted from the autobiographical novel by Alex Thorleifson and Scott Thorson, Candelabra is a rather direct biopic shedding light on the private life of Liberace (Michael Douglas) and his 6-year relationship with younger lover Scott Thorson (Matt Damon). Having known next to nothing about the stage life or persona of the former, Candelabra possesses the sparkling allure we’ve come to expect from Soderbergh, vaulting us backstage and behind the scenes for a closer look at two vulnerable lovers who become masked in their own vanity without a proper road map out.
Aside from the glitz and aesthetic grace of this particular period piece (let’s be honest,...
- 5/27/2013
- by Ty Landis
- SoundOnSight
If Steven Soderbergh is truly done with feature films we should be thankful he left us with three great films, one after another, before his departure. With Magic Mike, Side Effects and now Behind the Candelabra that's three films in a row that most directors could not achieve the likes of over the course of a career, let alone the rest of Soderbergh's oeuvre from Sex, Lies, and Videotape to Traffic. Behind the Candelabra says as much about us as a society as it does about its two protagonists in a story that's surprisingly dark at times, just as it is emotionally rewarding, entertaining and even humorous. Tracing events from 1977-1986, the story follows the life of Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) as he goes from being a Hollywood animal handler to the dazzling lifestyle and palatial estate of famed Las Vegas entertainer Liberace (Michael Douglas). Growing up an orphan, moving from house to house,...
- 5/27/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Steven Soderbergh's highly anticipated Liberace biopic "Behind The Candelabra" will air on HBO this Sunday after receiving rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this week. Starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, the film is adapted from "Behind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace," by Scott Thorson with Alex Thorleifson, newly re-published by Tantor Media with a new afterword written by Thorson. You can buy the book here, but Indiewire has the complete first chapter below. On November 11, 1918, headlines around, the globe trumpeted: Peace! World War I, the war to end all wars, had come to an end. American doughboys were headed home and with them came a new sophistication, a new worldview. A popular song posed the question, “How’re you gonna keep them down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree?” There would be no keeping the boys who fought their way across Europe “down on the farm.
- 5/24/2013
- by Scott Thorson
- Indiewire
Whilst Side Effects has received a lot of publicity for potentially being Steven Soderbergh’s last film, the HBO produced Behind the Candelabra is currently playing in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and will receive a theatrical release throughout Europe next month.
‘TV Movies’ have played Cannes before and they will no doubt play here again, particularly as the line continue to blur between the two mediums and American television continues to generate so much incredible work, and Behind the Candelabra is a fine choice for a festival which Soderbergh has such an important history with.
If Steven Soderbergh does indeed give up filmmaking and begins working on television instead, and Behind the Candelabra is anything to go by, the only thing that will be missed will be the chance to see his work on a cinema screen. Behind the Candelabra is as much a film as any other...
‘TV Movies’ have played Cannes before and they will no doubt play here again, particularly as the line continue to blur between the two mediums and American television continues to generate so much incredible work, and Behind the Candelabra is a fine choice for a festival which Soderbergh has such an important history with.
If Steven Soderbergh does indeed give up filmmaking and begins working on television instead, and Behind the Candelabra is anything to go by, the only thing that will be missed will be the chance to see his work on a cinema screen. Behind the Candelabra is as much a film as any other...
- 5/21/2013
- by Craig Skinner
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
If Steven Soderbergh is truly done with feature films we should be thankful he left us with three great films, one after another, before his departure. With Magic Mike, Side Effects and now Behind the Candelabra that's three films in a row that most directors could not achieve the likes of over the course of a career, let alone the rest of Soderbergh's oeuvre from Sex, Lies, and Videotape to Traffic. Behind the Candelabra says as much about us as a society as it does about its two protagonists in a story that's surprisingly dark at times, just as it is emotionally rewarding, entertaining and even humorous. Tracing events from 1977-1986, the story follows the life of Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) as he goes from being a Hollywood animal handler to the dazzling lifestyle and palatial estate of famed Las Vegas entertainer Liberace (Michael Douglas). Growing up an orphan, moving from house to house,...
- 5/21/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
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