Lionsgate announced today that Stef Dawson has joined the cast of THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PARTS 1 & 2 as the character Annie Cresta, Finnick’s (played by Sam Claflin) love interest in the films.
A native of Australia’s capital city, Canberra, Dawson is known for her work on television as well as numerous independent films including the recent thriller WRATH.
Directed by Francis Lawrence and based on the novel “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins, THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PARTS 1 & 2 make up the third and fourth installments of heroine Katniss Everdeen’s (Jennifer Lawrence) journey as she leads the districts of Panem in a rebellion against the tyrannical and corrupt Capitol. As the war that will determine the fate of Panem escalates, Katniss must decipher for herself who she can trust and what needs to be done, with everything she cares for in the balance.
The blockbuster first installment of THE HUNGER GAMES franchise is the 14th highest-grossing North American release of all time and grossed nearly $700 million at the worldwide box office.
The second film, THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE, opens worldwide on November 22, 2013.
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 1 will be released worldwide on November 21, 2014 and THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 2 opens November 20, 2015.
Complete with a six-pack in tow, a new poster has come on the scene for Paramount Pictures’ and MTV Films’ JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA.
This October, the signature Jackass character Irving Zisman (Johnny Knoxville) and Billy (Jackson Nicholl) will take movie audiences along for the most insane hidden camera road trip ever captured on camera.
Watch the trailer again or for the first time – either way it will crack you up.
Along the way Irving will introduce the young and impressionable Billy to people, places and situations that give new meaning to the term childrearing. The duo will encounter male strippers, disgruntled child beauty pageant contestants (and their equally disgruntled mothers), funeral home mourners, biker bar patrons and a whole lot of unsuspecting citizens.
(c) MMXIII Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights Reserved.
File this under one of those films where you want to avoid any pre-marketing (ie – trailers) at all costs!
Bound by a shared destiny, a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor jaded by disillusionment embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory as TOMORROWLAND.
Principal photography has begun on Disney’s mystery adventure TOMORROWLAND, starring two-time Academy Award winner George Clooney (“Michael Clayton,” “Syriana”), Hugh Laurie (“Monsters vs. Aliens,” “Arthur Christmas”), Britt Robertson (“Under The Dome”), Raffey Cassidy (“Dark Shadows,” “Snow White and the Huntsman”) and Thomas Robinson (“The Switch”).
The film is directed, produced and co-written by two-time Oscar winner Brad Bird (“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” “The Incredibles”) and will be released through Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on December 12, 2014.
Damon Lindelof (“Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Prometheus”) and Jeffrey Chernov (“Star Trek,” “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”) are also producers. The screenplay is written by Brad Bird and Damon Lindelof from a story by Lindelof & Jeff Jensen and Brad Bird.
Jeff Jensen and John Walker (“The Incredibles”) will executive produce with Bernard Bellew (“Les Misérables,” “28 Weeks Later”) and Tom Peitzman, VFX producer (“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” “Alice in Wonderland”) serving as co-producers.
Bird has gathered a great team behind the lens with Oscar winning director of photography Claudio Miranda (“Life of Pi,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”), production designer Scott Chambliss (“Star Trek,” “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Cowboys & Aliens”), Oscar® nominated costume designer Jeffrey Kurland (“Inception,” “Ocean’s Eleven”) and Academy Award-winning editor Walter Murch (“The English Patient,” “Cold Mountain”).
All great movies must be seen at least twice to understand how great they are. That is true in spades for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller VERTIGO. The story is smart the first time through but it’s brilliant the second time through. Just last year, Sight and Sound named VERTIGO in it’s ‘Critics’ Top 10 Greatest Films of All Time’ list, clocking in at an astonishing number 1! That was a huge surprise (heck, it only came in #8 in our ‘Top Ten Tuesday – The Best of Alfred Hitchcock’ article published in March of 2012 – read the complete article HERE) but lucky St. Louisans will have the chance to reassess (or experience for the first time) VERTIGO when it plays on the big screen at the Tivoli midnights this weekend as part of their ‘Reel Late at the Tivoli’ series.
Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart reunited after the success of REAR WINDOW to make VERTIGO and it would be their last collaboration together. VERTIGO is a genuinely great movie, classic and haunting, that focuses on John ‘Scottie’ Ferguson, a San Francisco ex-detective (James Stewart) suffering from acrophobia (fear the heights) as he is contracted to shadow an old chum’s beautiful blonde wife Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak). He quickly becomes dangerously obsessed with her, leading to tragic drama and a series of fateful events.
The story is typical Hitchcock fare, an issue of fake identity and treason that embroils a man in suicide and murder. Hitch had one of most charming actors in of all Hollywood with James Stewart and the marvelous Kim Novak is at her best. There’s good secondary work from Barbara Bed Geddes as Scottie’s eternal girlfriend and Henry Jones as a curious judge. Samuel Taylor’s intense screenplay, from the novel ¨From Among the Dead¨ by Pierre Boileau , colorful cinematography in dreamlike style by Hitch regular Robert Burks, a lush San Fransisco backdrop, outstanding set and production design by Henry Bumstead, and a thrilling musical score by Bernard Herrmann help make VERTIGO one of Hitchcock’s most stylish and discussed films.
I hope VERTIGO attracts good attendance this weekend. The midnight audience is, and always has been, a mostly 18-25 demographic. More recent fare like MEAN GIRLS and SPICE WORLD (!?!) have packed them in in recent weeks, understandable since those are movies these viewers grew up with, but VERTIGO is the type of indispensable classic that will make them better appreciate films from their parents, and grandparents, era.
The Tivoli’s located at 6350 Delmar Blvd., University City, MO.
Did you see KON-TIKI when it was in theaters earlier this year? It is an amazing adventure and the kind of film we avid movie goers haven’t seen in a long time.
Based on the amazing true adventure of Thor Heyderdahl (Pål Sverre Hagen), KON-TIKI is the tale of a Norwegian explorer in 1947 who embarks on the voyage of a lifetime to prove a point. When the scientific community rejects his theory that South Americans were the first to settle in the Polynesian Islands, Heyerdahl resolves to prove its validity—and save his reputation—by embarking on the voyage himself. Recruiting a group of five men who are just bold enough to tackle the seemingly impossible trip, he builds a simple raft to original pre-Columbian specifications and sets off on the epic 101 day-long journey across the treacherous ocean to meet his fate, while the world watches.
In case you missed it during it’s run in cinemas, on Tuesday, August 27th, Anchor Bay Entertainment and The Weinstein Company are releasing KON-TIKI on Blu-ray and DVD.
A 2012 Academy Award – Nominee For Best Foreign Language Film Of The Year from Norway as well as Golden Globe Award Nominee For Best Foreign Language Film, KON-TIKI is from the directing duo of Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg.
Some background on the directors.
Childhood friends Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg grew up in the first video generation, spending their spare time making short films with a massive 30-pound home video camera.
At a time when video editing was only performed on expensive equipment by professionals, they gained access to their home town’s only video production company. Here they could sit at night and create their little films. Thus, Rønning and Sandberg were given a golden opportunity to practice on that most important aspect of filmmaking: storytelling.
In 1991 they started their own company, Roenberg – a combination of their two names. In 1994, they graduated from Stockholm’s Filmskola in Sweden, and began their military service later that year. As part of the same unit, they travelled all over Norway, which allowed them to film everything from submarines to helicopter shots of NATO exercises in the far north.
In 1995, Rønning and Sandberg began their career in advertising. Their visual style and comedic sense quickly made them popular across Europe. When they won the USA Today Ad Meter survey for their Budweiser spot during the 2001 Super Bowl, their path to the American market was opened and they moved to Los Angeles for two years.
Along with Espen Horn and Harald Zwart, they own and run Motion Blur in Oslo, Scandinavia’s largest and most awarded advertising film production company.
The two have previously directed MAX MANUS: MAN OF WAR (based on the books by the Norwegian resistance hero of the same name), BANDIDAS (starring Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek with French director Luc Besson as screenwriter and producer), and are now at the helm of the Disney’s PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 5 – DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES starring Johnny Depp. The film is slated to open on July 10, 2015.
Last week I had the opportunity to speak with Joachim Rønning And Espen Sandberg about the film, their real life adventures and how their next one – directing PIRATES 5 – is coming along.
Michelle McCue: The last time I saw you both was earlier this year at the various events during Oscar Week.
Espen Sandberg: Oh fantastic.
MM: I first want to congratulate you both again on the nomination for the film and the invitation from the Academy to become members.
Joachim Rønning: Yeah, Isn’t that amazing?
MM: It truly is! KON-TIKI first screened in Norway in August 2012 at the Norwegian Film Festival and here you are, a full year later, talking about the Blu-ray release. What has life been like?
ES: It’s been amazing – so much more than we could ever have hoped for.
JR: We did dream about it, but it’s been amazing and now we’re sitting in our production offices at Disney in Burbank and pinching our arm everyday. It’s a dream come true.
MM: The transfer of KON-TIKI to Blu-ray is stunning. I thought it may lose something going from the big screen to my TV at home, but the look and sound are impeccable.
The real life Thor Heyerdahl passed away in 2002. How much of his true story were you able to put in your extraordinary film?
JR: Thor lived one of the most documented lives ever so it was very easy to access him. Then, of course, he was a master in PR. He could really sell a product and often the product was himself.
His true genius was in that – in PR. So it was important for the actor, Pål Sverre Hagen, to make up his own mind and dig deeper.
We talked a lot to his son, Thor Heyerdahl Jr., who was very frank and very open. So Pål and he became very good friends in the year leading up to shooting the film. It was a huge advantage.
MM: All of that is a part of the bonus features too.
ES: Oh, fantastic!
MM: The composer for KON-TIKI,Johan Soderqvist, had previously worked on THE ROAD and IN A BETTER WORLD. His score for your film is so rich and becomes a character in its own right. How did the two of you go about choosing him for your film?
ES: Well he did one of our favorite films, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, a Swedish film, which is just an amazing movie. He did the music for that, among others. He’s done a lot with Susanne Bier – the Danish director’s movies (IN A BETTER WORLD).
JR: He’s just an amazing composer. What we actually did was use some of his older music as temp music when we were editing the film and we hadn’t really decided on a composer. It just became obvious that we should work with him because we’re using his music already.
It was amazing. He took an instrument – he took a sound, which almost sounds like a horn or a trumpet. It’s what we needed. It’s like a seashell – a Conch. And there is this Swedish Jazz musician that plays on a Conch basically. So Johan was able to get him into the studio and do so many cool things. We liked that being the signature of the Sun so to speak – of the Tiki god.
ES: We really liked that and we ended up recording it at the Abbey Road studios in London. It was probably one of the highlights of the whole production – being there, recording.
We could only afford one weekend – only two days with a full orchestra. They didn’t have any time to rehearse and they played off the notes. Straight in with two takes. It was so professional, so great being in the studio where The Beatles did 90% of their records. It was one of those moments.
MM: The 10-minute Visual Effects featurette is accompanied by Johan Soderqvist’s score and without any dialogue. It’s a beautiful montage.
MM: You shot the film on the open sea (Mediterranean) as well as in six different countries: Norway, Sweden, Bulgaria, Malta, Thailand and the Maldives. As a viewer, I really felt as if I was on the ship with Thor and his crew – it is that authentic.
And you were working with so many crews. Did anyone ever advise you NOT to shoot on the open sea?
ES: Everyone told us not to do it on the open water. It ended up being the best experience for us and I think some of the best moments in the film. It was basically due to costs. We couldn’t afford shooting in a tank. Green screen (CGI) looks amazing, but we couldn’t afford that.
We were like 25 people in the crew, out on the open ocean for a month. We were lucky with the weather also – that must be said. It was the best part of the whole production.
MM: Did anybody ever say, hey, let’s go for a swim?
JE: Yeah! There’s a story about a Great White Shark in the Behind-the-Scenes section. We’d swim during lunch hour, only to realize later that the biggest Great White shark ever caught was in Malta. It was a 20 footer – it was just amazing.
MM: Sharks. Open water. All this was ultimately good training for PIRATES 5. What’s the latest on that and what was your initial reaction when you heard the news?
JE: We’re in pre-production. We’re in our Disney office here. It’s amazing and a dream come true, really.
In a way, we have to pinch our arms everyday – coming in here and working with some of the best movie producers in the world, as well as the actors and crew.
ES: It’s on an amazing level. Everybody is so supportive. It’s a dream come true because it’s an adventure movie and it really reminds us of the adventure movies we grew up with in the early 80’s. INDIANA JONES and movies like that. Movies that made us want to become filmmakers.
So in a way, we feel like we’ve come full circle almost.
MM: KON-TIKI is such a unique movie and looked like such a challenge for you as filmmakers. What would you like the viewer to take away from the story of Thor and his journey?
ES: I think what we set out to do – and we’ve gotten a lot of feedback on this – that it’s an inspirational film. That was important for us.
JE: I really believe a lot of people have that dream – a dream to travel, to take a couple of months or a year off work. To go climb that mountain or drive Route 66 or sail around Cuba.
What we’ve noticed from the feedback we’ve gotten over the year is that that happens now. We’ve succeeded in that. It’s become an inspirational movie and Thor Heyderdahl was an inspirational character.
ES: That’s what captured the whole world when he set out to do this in 1947. And that’s why he sold 50 million copies of the book and his documentary about the voyage won an Academy Award.
It’s not because everybody is so interested in migration theories – it’s because it’s a real adventure and it tells you that your life can be filled with more adventure too.
MM: Thank you for discussing KON-TIKI, congratulations on everything and best of luck with PIRATES 5.
In a future world where people are divided into distinct factions based on their personalities, Tris Prior is warned she is Divergent and will never fit into any one group. When she discovers a conspiracy to destroy all Divergents, she must find out what makes being Divergent so dangerous before it’s too late.
From director Neil Burger, Summit Entertainment will release the film March 21, 2014.
With sly humor and an intensity of feeling, THE SPECTACULAR NOW (directed by James Ponsoldt) creates a vivid, three- dimensional portrait of youth confronting the funny, thrilling and perilous business of modern love and adulthood. This is the tale of Sutter Keely (Miles Teller), a high school senior and effortless charmer, and of how he unexpectedly falls in love with “the good girl” Aimee Finecky (Shailene Woodley).
What starts as an unlikely romance, becomes a sharp-eyed, straight-up snapshot of the heady confusion and haunting passion of youth – one that doesn’t look for tidy truths.
THE SPECTACULAR NOW is in theaters now and we’re giving away a copy of the book and a run-of-engagement pass (good for 2 – St. Louis area) to see the film to one lucky reader.
Four (4) runner-ups will receive a run-of-engagement pass (good for 2) to participating theaters in the St. Louis Area.
All you have to do is enter your name in our comments section below.
PRIZE WILL ONLY BE SHIPPED TO US ADDRESSES. NO P.O. BOXES. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.
The film was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber (500) DAYS OF SUMMER and also features wonderful supporting turns from Brie Larson, Kyle Chandler, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
A haunted family struggles to uncover a terrifying secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world in INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2, the latest nerve-twisting horror thriller from director James Wan (THE CONJURING) and screenwriter Leigh Whannell (SAW, INSIDIOUS).
FilmDistrict has come out with some frightening new images from the upcoming film.
INSIDIOUS centers on the troubles of the Lamberts, a suburban family who leave their haunted house for a new home, only to learn it’s not their house that is haunted – it’s their eldest son. INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2 rejoins the family as they try to put their recent troubles behind them, but discover that the spirits that have tormented them are far from finished.
Working individually and collectively, director James Wan, screenwriter Leigh Whannell and producer Jason Blum have been responsible for some of the most influential, commercially successful and flat-out terrifying horror thrillers of the past decade.
In 2004 Wan and Whannell unleashed the groundbreaking and hugely popular Saw, which spawned a blockbuster franchise on which Whannell continued to serve as a writer (SAW II and III) and executive producer. Wan most recently helmed the acclaimed haunted-house tale, THE CONJURING, while Blum has shepherded such blood-curdling hits as PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and SINISTER to the screen. Together, the trio collaborated on the disturbing and original 2011 psychological horror thriller INSIDIOUS, a micro-budgeted that became the profitable theatrical release that year.
Now all three filmmakers are back – along with the entire cast of INSIDIOUS – with INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2, which continues the story of the Lambert family’s life-and-death struggle with malignant spirits bent on destroying their lives.
WARNING: There are major spoilers ahead, so go no further beyond the new photos if you want to be surprised when the film opens on Friday the 13th in September.
Photo credit: Matt Kennedy/FilmDistrict
Wan and Whannell took the unusual step of calling the film INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2 because it picks up right where the first film ends. “Not too many sequels try that, but we loved the idea of creating back-to-back stories,” says Whannell. “You could almost watch them as one movie, or as chapters in the same story. We see Josh murder Elise, but Renai doesn’t see it and she’s not quite sure what’s going on. So at the start of the second film, everything seems back to normal, but slowly you realize something is terribly wrong.”
In addition to picking up the tale of the Lambert family where the original left off, INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2 explores a larger mythology and backstory for the characters, says Wan. “It’s really a bigger movie,” he says. “When we were making the first film, we had plans and ideas for a follow-up, but we didn’t push it all the way. We thought, ‘We’ll see. We’ll play with it and see how it goes. There may be a potential second storyline.’ And sure enough, when the first film did well, we could actually go back and pull out that second storyline and continue it.”
INSIDIOUS revolves around young Dalton Lambert, who has the ability to travel out of his physical body—a gift he inherits from his father, Josh. As a result of this ability, he is haunted by the spirit of a mysterious old woman and a red-faced demon who seek to possess his physical body. It’s also revealed that, as a boy, Josh was terrified by an old woman who would visit him at night. But his memories of that event were intentionally suppressed. INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2 opens up the possibility that Josh was never actually healed – and that the old woman never left.
Wan and Whannell also folded in another, more familiar concept – albeit one seldom seen in the horror genre: time travel. The film ventures 25 years into the past to reveal the sinister events at the root of the evil that is haunting the Lamberts, tying up the unresolved mysteries of the first film and delving deeper inside the dark netherworld known as The Further.
“Because the first film was such a stylized and fantastical world, the time traveling aspect actually fit perfectly into the second film,” Wan says.
The filmmakers used the concept in an original way to bridge both films so that they could be viewed as two parts of a whole. In one instance, they show the back-story of coma-ward patient Parker Crane—a newly introduced character. But instead of using the traditional flashback method, the filmmakers reveal Crane’s troubled past via a journey back through time within The Further—a void-like area beyond time and space.
The film features a collection of nearly 20 ghouls – men and women of all ages and ethnicities who are dead but live on in The Further to torment living souls. In one scene, a group of young female ghouls who were serial-killer victims between 1970 and 1986 terrify Dalton Lambert in his attic bedroom. Some are wrapped in sheets, some in regular clothes, but all of them are dead.
Part of the sequel was filmed in Linda Vista Community Hospital in the Boyle Heights neighborhood east of downtown Los Angeles. Originally opened in the 1920s, the hospital has served as a location for countless films, TV shows and music videos since it closed its doors in 1991. In the film, the location serves as Our Lady of Angels Hospital – the place where, in 1986, young Lorraine Lambert works as a nurse and, with her son, has a memorable encounter with Parker Crane.
The hospital is rumored to be haunted in real life, too. During shooting, Wan recalls the crew was moving equipment between floors and one of the grips had a spooky experience while he was standing alone.
“He said he felt a little hand come up and grab and hold his hand,” the director says. “Then he looked down, because thought maybe a bug or something had landed on his hand, but there was nothing there.”
Wan says he was surprised at the challenges making a worthy follow-up to INSIDIOUS presented, but it will be worth it if fans of the original respond positively. “Sequels are usually very hard to do right. I hope the people that loved the first one come back and watch the second one and can see the love that went into making it—that we didn’t just haphazardly throw it together—because we put a lot of thought into it. We just hope they really enjoy it.”
Produced by Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity, Insidious) and Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity, Insidious), the sequel reteams the cast of the first film, including Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy, Watchmen, Little Children), Rose Byrne (X-Men: First Class, Bridesmaids, 28 Weeks Later), Barbara Hershey (Black Swan, The Portrait of a Lady), Lin Shaye (There’s Something About Mary, Dumb & Dumber) and Ty Simpkins (Iron Man 3).
Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is one of those films I have read and heard about for years, and finally got to see. How nice to see a legendary “great film” and see it live up to, and in many ways surpass, its reputation. First a little back ground.
The Archers is one of the most honored and respected film production companies in the history of the cinema. Based in England, most of their films were produced, written and directed by two men, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Some of their films I have been familiar with for years, the incredible Black Narcissus. The equally incredible Red Shoes, one of the most honored, studied and dissected films ever made. College courses have been made around this one film, the Red Shoes, and it seems to be required viewing for anyone who dances or wants to dance ballet.
The Archers could not seem to make a bad movie if they wanted to and they made quite a few that are considered masterpieces. Such a film for instance is Peeping Tom, now considered a great film, it ruined their production company due to the controversy surrounding it.
I have not gotten to see all their films but I am so happy to report that Life and Death of Colonel Blimp not only lives up to its reputation it was ahead of the curve in many ways.
To begin with it has the audacity to try and tell a man’s entire life, to sum up one man’s life and contributions to his country, and the world, in one film. It also has the chutzpah to suggest that older people may have greater wisdom than younger. That with age and wisdom should come respect and admiration, though it rarely does. How different from so many current films, hell most of the films turned out by Hollywood in the last 30 years, that suggest that old people are useless and only youth knows anything or can get anything accomplished.
Colonel Blimp was a cartoon character for starters, created by David Low. Always in a Turkish bath the colonel was a caricature of what Monty Python termed “the upper class twit.” He was a celebration of all the ignorant and xenophobic elements the British upper class are stereotyped as having. A monarchist and an Imperialist he was forever spouting off about people from other countries and the working class in the most hard headed and ignorant manner.
The film gives us something quite different. It opens in modern day England, during World War Two, in fact the film was made at the height of the Blitz and ran into trouble as we’ll soon see.
A troop of English army, mostly on motorcycles, races to a Turkish bath, where they put the good Colonel under arrest. Turns out this is the Home Guard starting a training exercise early. Blimp is not his name, he is General Clive Wynn-Candy, (played by Roger Livesay, in the role of a lifetime) and he insists to these young upstarts that “the war starts at midnight!” The young officer insists that the Germans will not play by the rules and neither will he, he insults the General, his mustache and beer belly and bald head.
The General can give as good as he gets and falls into what appears to be a swimming pool in the Turkish bath, while struggling with this young fool.
In one incredible shot, with no cut, fade or camera movement other than a slow tilt the General falls into one end of the pool an old man and emerges at the other end with a full head of hair, no mustache, a flat stomach and in the full bloom of youth.
This is Wynn-Candy in 1902, back from the Boer War and already decorated. He will go to Germany, fight a duel with a German, chosen more or less at random, over the honor of an English woman, played by a young Deborah Kerr.
We will get to know Clive Wynn-Candy better than we know ourselves, and what is amazing the movie will constantly undercut our expectations of movie conventions. First the duel is with a young German officer, from an Army that is trained in fencing. Wynne-Candy has never had a sword in his hand. When the duel starts we expect to see it, we do not. The camera cranes up, out of the building and we see that it is not only snowing but in a picture postcard manner. The young lady, Edith Hunter (Deborah Kerr), sits in a carriage awaiting the outcome of the duel. Later we learn Wynne- Candy almost lost his upper lip in the duel, hence the mustache later on.
The German chosen by lot to fight the duel for Germany’s honor Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff, played by Anton Walbrook speaks very little English. He would like to be friends with Wynn-Candy, we fully expect Clive to push him out of his life, he does not, they become lifelong friends despite two World Wars. Theo tells Clive that he is in love with Edith and wants to marry her. We expect Clive to be crushed and hate Theo for suggesting it. He is not, he thinks it a splendid idea and helps Theo with the courtship. We know that Clive Wynn-Candy is in love with Edith even before he does.
Later Clive does realize his love for Edith. We expect him to try and win her away from the German, he does not. He goes on about his life, mostly big game hunting between wars, until the First World War happens and he is called up to active service again. He sees Theo in a POW camp for German officers after the war has ended. Theo snubs him in front of all the other Germans. We expect Clive to give up on the friend ship and come to hate Theo. Again, he does not, he insists they are friends for life even if Theo will not admit it.
Clive brings Theo to a dinner party attended only by crusty old English Upper Class Twits who patronize Theo and promise him that it is in England’s best interests to bring about a strong Germany. On his way back to Germany Theo makes comments about the naiveté of the English and how weak and cowardly they must be. We fully expect Theo to become a loyal Nazi in the next war. And again, he does not, he flees Germany and becomes an even more loyal friend to Clive, and denounces the Nazis at every opportunity.
During World War One, while in a French nunnery Clive sees a young girl, again played by Deborah Kerr. This is the one confusing bit about this film, I thought that it was Edith, no it is a girl who looks like her. Clive courts her in a gentlemanly and honorable fashion and marries her. Maybe I’ve seen Vertigo too many times, I expected Clive to try and remake this girl into Edith, and again, he does not! Over and over the again this movie does the unexpected, the reverse of what we “know” a movie should show and tells us. Clive accepts this woman just as she is and loves her until she dies of movie disease (there has to be some cliché moments, even in a movie this good!)
Later on there is yet another woman played by Deborah Kerr, helping with the Home Guard during World War Two. We fully expect Clive, even though he is considerably older than her, to pursue her, or at least suggest that they might be a couple. And, yes, once again, he does not. He treats this young woman with respect and courtesy, as he does all the people that he encounters, through the whole course of the film.
This film is amazing, from start to finish. The Technicolor cinematography is breathtaking, done by Jack Cardiff, one of the best to come from the English film community. The very idea that there may be some truth to the old concepts of duty, honor and country is heart breaking. The film got into serious trouble due to the astonishing idea of having a sympathetic and likeable German character, at the height of a war with Germany! Churchill himself denounced the film and tried to have it suppressed. He confronted Anton Walbrook in person, who told him that only the English would have the audacity to send out a movie like this, instead of straight up propaganda demonizing all Germans.
Imagine if Hollywood had put a sympathetic Japanese character into a film made during the war! Afterwards yes, we got films like Go For Broke and Hell to Eternity, but during the war?
Criterion did their usual terrific job of presenting this film. The color is beautiful, the print is almost completely restored. There are some splices and grain but nothing that detracts. An excellent documentary chronicles the film with only British film historians and critics doing the talking. All of them get choked up and teary eyed talking about this film. And who can blame them. Colonel Blimp is considered by many to be the greatest British film ever made.
The English are not known for being romantic, yet here is a romantic Englishman. They are stereotyped as being prejudiced, yet here is an upper class Englishman with virtually no prejudice what so ever. Wynn-Candy embodies all of the virtues of the English and none of their faults. My personal background is Scottish and Irish, I should have every reason to hate the English yet I have always loved Hammer Films, Monty Python, the Carry On films, writers like Ramsey Campbell, Michael Moorcock, Brian Aldiss and J.G. Ballard. Add to that list, (I must,) The Archers and this incredible film.
Only a couple of things date the film. The General’s hunting is portrayed only in a couple of montages showing his trophies in his den back in London, heads of many animals that are now endangered. Members of PETA may take offense here. And in the World War One sequence a Black American soldier is portrayed in a manner that would make any one cringe, but only for a moment. This is a film from 1943 after all.
Colonel Blimp may be a bit naïve in portraying this idea of a Gentleman’s War being possible at one time, and then crashing head long into the reality of World Wars One and Two. War was never for gentlemen, ask Achilles and Hector for their opinions on that.
But in making the attempt, and succeeding, in portraying the span of a man’s entire life, and his death, and in paying honor to the old war horse’s like General Clive Wynn-Candy who saw England through so many hardships, and as a morale booster for an England with its back to the wall and fighting for it’s very life, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp really is a masterpiece, a film for the ages. I defy anyone to see this film, especially the last 20 minutes without weeping.
General Clive Wynn-Candy (aka Colonel Blimp) as a veteran myself I stand at attention, render you a hand salute, and give all due respect. May you rest in peace sir and God Save the Queen!
Criterion’s special edition Blu-ray and DVD have these extra features:
• New digital master from the Film Foundation’s 2012 4K restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition • Audio commentary featuring director Michael Powell and filmmaker Martin Scorsese • New video introduction by Scorsese • A Profile of “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp,” a documentary from 2000 • Restoration demonstration, hosted by Scorsese • Optimism and Sheer Will, a 2012 interview with editor Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, Michael Powell’s widow • Gallery featuring rare behind-the-scenes production stills • Gallery tracing the history of David Low’s original Colonel Blimp cartoons • PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Molly Haskell
She’s the first of the four leads of THE HAUNTING (1963) to pass away. Her Eleanor Lance in that film set the precedent for a certain type of delicate, frightened horror heroine. She was Oscar-nominated for MEMBER OF THE WEDDING in 1952 and played some intensely romantic scenes opposite James Dean in EAST OF EDEN in 1955. She starred with Paul Newman in HARPER in 1966 and did a ton of TV work, but it was her stage work for which Julie Harris is best known. The actress won five Tony Awards out of ten nominations, more than any other performer. At a White House ceremony in 2005, President George W. Bush remarked, “It’s hard to imagine the American stage without the face, the voice, and the limitless talent of Julie Harris. She has found happiness in her life’s work, and we thank her for sharing that happiness with the whole world.” Julie Harris died today of heart failure at age 87.
From The Washington Post
Julie Harris, 87, one of the great stage actresses of the last half-century who amassed five Tony awards and was renowned for her film work, died Aug. 24 at her home in West Chatham, Mass. The cause was reported by the Associated Press as congestive heart failure. In a career of durability, longevity and versatility, time and her own gifts transformed her from troubled tomboy to appealing ingenue to scheming older woman. Presidential wife Mary Todd Lincoln, poet Emily Dickinson and Shakespeare’s Ophelia were all portrayed by Julie Harris…..
