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Jean-Pierre Melville: Life And Work Of A Groundbreaking Filmmaking Poet
Jean-Pierre Melville: Life and Work of a Groundbreaking Filmmaking Poet by Sven Mikulec
Search results for ‘Cinephilia ’
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culture‘Heat’: Michael Mann’s Meticulous Masterpiece of Both Style and Substance That Transcends Genre
“Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."
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cultureLife And Death In A Northern Town: Mike Hodges’ ‘Get Carter’
Tim Pelan examines Mike Hodges's classic 1972 British crime movie, 'Get Carter'
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culture“No One Is Just Anything”: William Friedkin’s ‘Sorcerer’
After the success of *The Exorcist,* director William Friedkin teamed up with *The Wild Bunch* screenwriter Walon Green for the groundbreaking *Sorcerer*
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cultureScorsese On the Ropes: The ‘Kamikaze’ Film-Making of ‘Raging Bull’
Raging Bull is not your dad’s boxing movie. It’s certainly not a story of conventional redemption or hope overcoming the odds...
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culture‘Minority Report’: Steven Spielberg’s Proof that You Don’t Need to Sacrifice Substance to Produce Spectacle
The beginning of Minority Report, Steven Spielberg’s thrilling sci-fi noir from 2002, is closely connected to another science fiction classic...
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culture‘No Country for Old Men’: The Coen Brothers and Cormac McCarthy’s Ruthless Examination of Life
That is no country for old men. The young In one another’s arms, birds in the trees...
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culture‘Manhunter’—’Horror Implied, as Opposed to Explained…That’s Michael Mann’s Strength (Will)’
In 1986, Michael Mann’s 'Manhunter' elevated schlock-horror to a thoughtful, stylised, forensically psychological level, introducing the concept of a ...
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culture‘The Conversation’: Francis Ford Coppola’s Paranoia-Ridden Tale of Surveillance, Guilt and Isolation
The idea originated in a conversation between me and Irving Kirshner. We were talking about espionage, and he said that most people thought the safest ...
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cultureRats In the Attic: William Friedkin’s ‘The Exorcist’
Forty-five years after its powerful debut, and with all the attendant publicity, analysis and second-hand knowledge, from satire to theological debate,…
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culture‘Point Blank’ – John Boorman’s Amalgamation of American, British and French Filmmaking Styles
The stories behind director John Boorman and screenwriter Alexander Jacobs brilliant retelling of Donald Westlake's THE HUNTER
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cultureTake It to the Limit One More Time: Michael Mann’s ‘Miami Vice’
Michael Mann’s 2006 big screen revamp of 1980s groundbreaking TV show Miami Vice (Brandon Tartikoff, NBC’s entertainment president scribbled “MTV cops” ...
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culture‘The Last of the Mohicans’: Michael Mann’s Riveting Love Story as the Formation of American Identity
After a string of successes on television, having made a name for himself on projects such as Starsky and Hutch> and Police Story, Michael Mann ...
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culture‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’: Peter Yates’ Crime Masterpiece that Chose to Rely on a Completely Different Kind of Spectacle
Published in January 1973, George V. Higgins’ crime novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle was well received by critics and the public, featuring a story ...
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culture‘Miller’s Crossing’ at 30: A Lamentation of Losers by the Coen Brothers
After the success of 'Raising Arizona', Joel and Ethan Coen were given the chance to do something a little more ambitious, with a budget of somewhere...
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cultureHow Robert Altman’s Anti-Western Classic ‘McCabe & Mrs. Miller’ Aged Like Fine Wine
The legendary director Robert Altman was given an Academy Honorary Award in 2006, “in recognition of a career that has repeatedly reinvented...
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cultureParadise Lost: How Martin Scorsese’s ‘Casino’ Charts the Rise and Fall of a Criminal Empire
This story has to be on a big canvas. There’s no sense in my getting Bob De Niro and Joe Pesci and making a 90-minute picture about only one aspect ...
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cultureMore than 65 years since its release, Carol Reed’s ‘The Third Man’ is still a marvel to see, experience and learn from
Carol Reed’s 'The Third Man' might just be as visually stimulating as classic films get….
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culture‘DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A SICK MAN TO YOU?’: The Horror of Identity and the Identity of Horror in David Cronenberg’s ‘The Fly’
TELEPOD 1: STATHIS He watches Her, trembling and nerve-twitched, eyes darting, lips pulled back over protruding…
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culture‘Network’: Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky’s Gruesome Prophecy Turned Reality
Once it opened, everybody kept saying, ‘Oh, what a brilliant satire.’ But Paddy and I always said, ‘This isn’t satire, it’s sheer reportage.’
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culture‘JFK’: Oliver Stone’s Emotionally Accurate and Masterfully Crafted Trip Down the Rabbit Hole
“I think I was always controversial, provocative. But I can’t help it. I have to go there. It’s my nature. It’s my father’s nature, too..."
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culture‘Sweet Smell of Success’: A Visceral and Vicious Depiction of the Evil that Power-Hungry Men Do
There’s an old rule among directors that you see a film in its totality about four times. The first is when you really decide you love the story and you...
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cultureGang Wars, the Prohibition Menace: Brian De Palma’s ‘The Untouchables’
Screenwriter David Mamet came up with a Stanislavski quote to describe The Untouchables: “Tragedy is just heightened melodrama.” Brian De Palma, director..
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cultureHow John Schlesinger’s Homeless and Lonesome ‘Midnight Cowboy’ Rode His Way to the Top and Became the First and Only X-rated Movie to Win a Best Picture Oscar
A friend of mine, an American painter living in London, had read the book and suggested that I look at it. I read it and thought ‘If I’m going to make a...
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culture‘To Live and Die in L.A.’: The Intelligent, Authentic Thriller as One of the Highlights of Friedkin’s Career
If you were to compile a list of the most impressive and exhilarating car chases in the history of the motion pictures, it’s more than likely that one ...
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culture‘Magnolia’: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Absorbing Mosaic of Compassion, Humanity and the Importance of Forgiveness
In 1997, an ambitious 26-year-old called Paul Thomas Anderson made Boogie Nights, his sophomore directing effort…
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cultureFrancis Ford Coppola and Brian De Palma: ‘The Conversation’ Between Two Great Filmmakers
The most personal of all films in Francis Ford Coppola’s repertoire was born between two big projects that helped Coppola gain the reputation he enjoys ...
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cultureDownwards Is the Only Way Forwards: Welcome to David Fincher’s ‘The Game’
Twenty-one years on, David Fincher’s The Game (1997) has come to be seen as a prescient, schadenfreude look at the gulf between us and the “one ...
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culture‘Goodfellas’ at 30: Martin Scorsese’s Anthropological Goodlife Through a Lens
As far back as I can remember, director Martin Scorsese has been synonymous with wiseguys, mooks, goombahs, and spin-on-a-dime funny-how guys delivering...
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cultureEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: An Unforgettable and Heartbreaking Exploration of Love, Human Beings and the Nature of Memory
Having heard his friend complain about her boyfriend for what seemed to be a hundredth time,…
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cultureNoir Cut to Look of the Period, Not About the Period: The Sunny, Seedy ’50’s Underbelly of Curtis Hanson’s ‘L.A. Confidential’
"I came to it because of Ellroy. When I read ‘L.A. Confidential,’ I just got hooked on the characters, got caught up emotionally in their individual...
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culture‘Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia’: The Story of the Great Sam Peckinpah’s Most Personal Film
Before Warner Bros. decided to take a chance and hire him to make The Wild Bunch, the classic revisionist western that would completely revitalize his ...
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culture‘Miller’s Crossing’ is touching and studiously crafted love letter to American film noirs and the seventh art in general
The Coen brothers’ critically acclaimed Miller’s Crossing can be easily studied in two distinct ways. Firstly, it’s one hell of…
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cultureFrancis Ford Coppola’s ‘Apocalypse Now’ must be the key lecture in anyone’s filmmaking education
People often exaggerate when they talk about films. They get carried away, leaving the cinema emotionally stirred and too impressed to ...
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culture
William Friedkin’s ‘The Exorcist’: The Most Terrifying Film We Ever Laid Eyes On
It’s difficult to think of a horror film that caused so much controversy and polarized the audience to this degree…
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cultureRobert Altman’s ‘McCabe & Mrs. Miller’ is one of the most beautiful and emotionally stirring westerns American cinema ever produced
Confidently riding the waves generated by his highly successful satirical black comedy M*A*S*H, Robert Altman easily secured a directing job…
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cultureFincher’s ‘Zodiac’ Is Easily One Of The Best Thrillers Of The Millennium So Far
He paints with people, Jake Gyllenhaal said of David Fincher after the two had worked together on Zodiac. “It’s tough…
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culture‘Sweet Smell of Success’, Alexander Mackendrick’s Most Accomplished Film that Hasn’t Aged a Day
Tony Curtis had to fight really hard to get the role of Falco in Alexander Mackendrick's 'Sweet Smell of Success' …
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cultureThe day an X-rated walk on the dark side called ‘Midnight Cowboy’ won the Oscar for best picture, a new generation came to power in Hollywood
John Schlesinger’s 1969 classic Midnight Cowboy is one of those films that linger around our minds, that we get a sentimental…
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cultureThelma Schoonmaker Breaks Down ‘Raging Bull’
It’s said that a movie is made three times: once through a script, once on set, and finally in the…
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cultureThe Artistic Triumph of Sir Alan Parker’s Still Beating ‘Angel Heart’
Sven Mikulec looks at the history and legacy of Alan Parker's 'Angel Heart'
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cultureLived All Our Best Times Left With the Worst: Christopher Nolan’s ‘Memento’
Fractured narrative, skewed perception, compressed timelines—director/writer Christopher Nolan won’t lead his audience in a straight line…
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cultureOnce Upon a Time… In the Philippines: Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Apocalypse Now’ Is a Three-Time Prime Cut of Film-Making Largesse
Meanwhile, the mystique of ‘Apocalypse Now’ lives on. The Marine Corps invited me to Camp Pendleton to watch a demonstration of an aerial ...
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culture‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’: Lucas and Spielberg’s Epitome of Action-Adventure Films Still Waiting to Be Surpassed
Trying to catch a break from all the Star Wars hype, in the spring of 1977, George Lucas was resting on a Hawaiian beach, building sand castles with ...
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cultureSic Transit Garber’s Subway: ‘The Taking of Pelham One Two Three’
Only the amazing reaction that that picture has gotten, because at the time I was dreadfully unhappy with the fact that I was going to be doing another ...
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cultureThe Matrix Revelation: How the Wachowskis Opened Our Eyes to a New Kind of Action Cinema
Few films permeate the gestalt consciousness like Star Wars (“I am your father”, “Use the Force”…
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cultureFincher’s Zodiac: A Suspenseful and Thrilling Combination of Police Procedural and Newspaper Film That Masterfully Chronicles the Progression of Obsession
Robert Graysmith knew he was a guy on the sidelines of this story. He wanted to be a part of it and he made himself a part of it. He was doing it on his...
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cultureSubject to the Requirements of the Service: Peter Weir’s ‘Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World’
Asked by Debbie Lynn Elias of Behind The Lens Online on what compels the director Peter Weir to film such varied stories ...
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cultureSidney Lumet and Paddy Chayevsky’s ‘Network’: The Grim Prophecy that Was Once Just Brilliant Satire
What excited the general public and outraged horrified television moguls as a razor-sharp satire in 1976, a film promoted as outrageous, hasn’t lost its...
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cultureCarol Reed’s ‘The Third Man’: How Orson Welles Stole a Show He Was Barely In
Filmmaker Carol Reed, hailed as one of the greatest U.K. directors, became famous in the late 1930s and 1940s with motion pictures such as Night Train ...
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culture‘Paris, Texas’: Wim Wenders’ Film of Extraordinary Beauty and Irresistibility
In 1984, one film confidently rode through Cannes, sweeping prizes from all three juries at the most respected film festival in the world. Wim Wenders’ ...
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cultureDuct Soup: The Daffy, Dystopian Design Nightmare of Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’
Brazil is the demented, surreal flip-side of George Orwell’s dystopian warning—"1984 1/2" was director Terry Gilliam’s originally…
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cultureAbel Ferrara’s ‘King of New York’ gained a true, cult reputation of a legitimate gangster classic
Sven Mikulec When it comes to filmmakers who are, among other things, distinguished for their strong and passionate connection…
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culture‘I Am Insane, and You Are My Insanity’: The Captivating World of Terry Gilliam’s ‘12 Monkeys’
As the final shot of Chris Marker’s iconic 'La Jetée' faded to black, screenwriter Janet Peoples turned to her husband and writing partner David ...
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cultureThe Holy Grail of Workprints: The Five-Hour Rough Version of ‘Apocalypse Now’
Workprints, rough versions of films before the editing process kicks in and trims out all…
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culturePsycho Pension Qu’est-ce que c’est: Richard Donner’s ‘Lethal Weapon’ Is a Real Live Wire
You think I’m crazy? You call me crazy, you think I’m crazy? You wanna see crazy?…