| |  In This Issue:July 2009What's New on DVDCargo 200 (2007)Drama/Foreign/Horror/Science Fiction. Blood-curdling/Intense/Spine-tingling. Color. 89 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Alexei Balabanov. Starring Alexei Poluyan, Aleksey Serebryakov and Agniya Kuznetsova. Balabanov's acidic, ultra-dark satire of perestroika-era Russia—the name refers to the body bags of dead soldiers brought back from the failed war in Afghanistan—opens as a brutal realist drama about ... Read More > | |  |
Doubt (2008)Drama. Brainy/Intense/Moving. Color. 104 mins. Rated PG-13. Directed By John Patrick Shanley. Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Enlisting Streep and Hoffman, two of the finest actors working today, for this Oscar-nominated film based on his own Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Shanley wrings a lot of great, gut-wrenching drama ... Read More > | |  |
Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)Comedy/Drama. Intense/Offbeat/Witty. Color. 118 mins. Rated R. Directed By Mike Leigh. Starring Eddie Marsan and Sally Hawkins. Sally Hawkin's winning, unforgettable performance in Mike Leigh's Oscar-nominated drama, about a free-spirited working-class British gal confronting a unredeemably noxious soul, is absolutely ... Read More > | |  |
La Grande Bouffe (1973)Comedy/Drama/Foreign. Offbeat/Witty. Color. 130 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Marco Ferreri. Starring Michel Piccoli and Marcello Mastroianni. Distinguished by its first-rate cast of leading Italian male actors, Ferreri's jet-black social farce concerns the efforts of four jaded Parisians to indulge in the ultimate hedonistic act: eating ... Read More > | |  |
La Ronde (1950)Comedy/Foreign/Romance. Brainy/Farr-cical/Witty. Black & White. 94 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Max Ophuls. Starring Anton Walbrook, Daniel Gelin, Serge Reggiani, Simone Signoret, Simone Simon and Danielle Darrieux. Opulent set design, gliding camera movements, and a dream cast of mid-century Europe's finest acting talent outfit Max Ophuls's wry, elegant look at the fleeting nature of love and desire. The ... Read More > | |  |
Tell No One (2006)Foreign/Mystery/Suspense. Fast-paced/Spine-tingling. Color. 125 mins. Rated R. Directed By Guillaume Canet. Starring Francois Cluzet, Josee-Croze and Kristin Scott Thomas. Canet is a big-name actor and teen heartthrob in France, but in his debut suspense thriller based on the novel by Harlan Coben, Canet proves he has directorial chops, too. Cluzet is the perfect ... Read More > | |  |
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)Drama/War/Westerns. Intense/Moving. Color. 94 mins. Rated PG-13. Directed By Mark Herman. Starring David Thewlis, Asa Butterfield, Jack Scanlon and Vera Farmiga. Herman's thoughtful, heartbreaking child's-eye portrait of the Holocaust, adapted from a novel by John Boyle, pits the innocence of youth against the unimaginable horrors of Germany's wartime ... Read More > | |  |
The Exterminating Angel (1962)Comedy/Drama/Foreign. Brainy/Offbeat/Witty. Black & White. 95 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Luis Bunuel. Starring Jose Baviera, Silvia Pinal and Jacqueline Andere. Bunuel's archly funny satire of bourgeois mores finds a group of upper-crust socialites engaging in hilariously unbecoming behavior. Unable to find the clearly accessible exit, they resort to ... Read More > | |  |
The Violin (2006)Drama/Foreign. Intense/Scenic. Black & White. 98 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Francisco Vargas. Starring Don Angel Tavira, Gerardo Taracena and Dagoberto Gama. Shot in crisp black-and-white, Vargas's "Violin" opens with a horrifically brutal interrogation and rape, then tracks backwards to show what led to this abomination, an all-too-common episode in ... Read More > | |  |
What's Up Tiger Lily? (1966)Comedy. Farr-cical/Offbeat. Color. 80 mins. Rated PG. Directed By Woody Allen and Senkichi Taniguchi. Starring Woody Allen, Eisei Amamoto and Mie Hama. Broad, wacky, and extremely funny, "What's Up" is not for everyone, but if you're in need of some divine silliness, you cannot do better. Characteristic of Woody's earlier work, not every gag works, ... Read More > | |  |
Theme of the Month: Once More Willie This month we celebrate the birth of legendary director William Wyler who was born July 1st, 1902 in the Alsace area of Germany. His name may have a familiar ring, but today it's less recognized than (certainly) John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock, and perhaps even Howard Hawks and George Cukor. Both Wyler's quiet, unobtrusive style and our own inability to associate him with any single film genre or style likely contribute.
Still, when you review Wyler's filmography spanning forty-plus years, it's evident he made just as many great movies as any of the above titans. Notably, Wyler also holds the record for directing the most actors in roles that won them Oscars. Dubbed "Once More Willie" for demanding innumerable scene takes, we wish this extraordinary man a very Happy Birthday!
Here are 10 essential Wyler titles not to be missed.
Ben Hur (1959)Action/Adventure. Intense/Fast-paced. Color. 222 mins. Rated G. Directed By William Wyler. Starring Charlton Heston and Jack Hawkins. One of MGM's finest widescreen spectacles, involving thousands of extras, over 300 sets (including a life-size replica of a Roman hippodrome) and a cadre of stunt coordinators, this massive ... Read More > | |  |
Counsellor at Law (1933)Drama. Fast-paced/Intense/Moving/Witty. Black & White. 81 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By William Wyler. Starring John Barrymore and Doris Kenyon. William Wyler's engrossing, head-spinning drama features Barrymore in a knockout role as a hotshot attorney with a formidable track record, a notable penchant for hard-luck cases, and a fawning ... Read More > | |  |
Dodsworth (1936)Romance. Moving. Black & White. 101 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By William Wyler. Starring Walter Huston and Ruth Chatterton. Director William Wyler and screenwriter Sydney Howard have crafted an adult, perceptive romantic drama, beautifully played. They wisely minimize the soapiness inherent in the premise, leaving an ... Read More > | |  |
Jezebel (1938)Drama/Romance. Moving. Black & White. 103 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By William Wyler. Starring Henry Fonda and Bette Davis. "Jezebel" was Davis's consolation prize for not landing the part of Scarlett O'Hara. Inevitably compared to "Gone With the Wind" (released one year later), this lavish ... Read More > | |  |
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)Drama. Moving/Intense. Black & White. 168 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By William Wyler. Starring Fredric March and Myrna Loy. Thanks to William Wyler's expert, understated direction, each of the three characters that make up this remarkably sensitive, perceptive picture is subtly drawn, evoking the complex challenges that ... Read More > | |  |
The Collector (1965)Mystery/Suspense. Offbeat/Spine-tingling. Color. 119 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By William Wyler. Starring Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar. Based on the novel by John Fowles, Wyler's quietly chilling tale of a bank clerk whose quaint butterfly-collecting habit takes a sinister turn features a cunning performance by Stamp, who'd ... Read More > | |  |
The Desperate Hours (1955)Mystery/Suspense. Fast-paced/Spine-tingling. Black & White. 112 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By William Wyler. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March and Martha Scott. Based on an actual incident, Wyler's nail-biting, hard-boiled thriller was adapted from his own novel by John Hayes, who keeps the dialogue and scene-to-scene transitions sharpened to a point. But ... Read More > | |  |
The Good Fairy (1935)Romance/Comedy. Farr-cical/Moving. Black & White. 97 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By William Wyler. Starring Herbert Marshall and Margaret Sullavan. Penned by the peerless Preston Sturges ("Sullivan's Travels") and directed with flair by Wyler, "Good Fairy" is the kind of brassy, urbane romantic lark that Ernst Lubitsch was ... Read More > | |  |
The Heiress (1949)Drama/Romance. Intense/Moving. Black & White. 115 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By William Wyler. Starring Montgomery Clift and Olivia de Havilland. Widely hailed as a masterpiece, and boasting an Oscar-winning performance from Olivia De Havilland, Wyler's powerful and haunting drama was adapted from Henry James's novel, "Washington Square." De ... Read More > | |  |
The Westerner (1940)War/Westerns. Intense/Scenic/Spine-tingling. Black & White. 100 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By William Wyler. Starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan. Sam Goldwyn brought this classic Western to the big screen, with Wyler and ace cinematographer Gregg Toland on board from the giddy-up. Of course, Cooper's low-key, man-of-few-words routine had ... Read More > | |  |
Spotlight
• Don't miss John on WNET's, Channel 13 blog, Reel 13, where he makes recommendations of outstanding titles which relate to the show's classic and indie movies airing on Saturday nights at 9:00 pm.
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