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Film Gris
Film gris (, French for "grey film"), a term coined by experimental filmmaker Thom Andersen, is a type of film noir which categorizes a unique series of films that were released between 1947 and 1951. They came in the context of the first wave of the communist investigations of the House Un-American Activities Committee, often made by associates, fellow travellers and supporters of the convicted Hollywood Ten. Thematic elements Films gris offer a leftist criticism of society in general, and of capitalism in particular. They typically examine such themes as the psychological damages of class, the false promises of middle class happiness, and the pitfalls of materialism. The politically-active John Garfield was frequently cast by producing partner Bob Roberts as the leading actor in this sub-genre. Distinction from film noir Film gris differs from film noir in some of the following ways: * Film gris is more pessimistic and cynical than film noir. The dividing line between crime ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thom Andersen 2 - DMS35th
The surname Thom is of Scottish origin, from the city of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Angus, and is a sept of the Clan MacThomas. Thom is also a first-name variant of the abbreviation " Tom" of "Thomas" that holds the "h". People with the surname * Alexander Thom (other), multiple people * Andreas Thom (b. 1965), former German football player * Bing Thom (1940-2016), Canadian architect * Cameron E. Thom (1825–1915), early settler in California, Confederate officer and lawyer * Charles Thom (1872–1956), US microbiologist and mycologist with the standard author abbreviation "Thom" * Cristy Thom (b. 1971), American model, actress and artist * Françoise Thom (b. 1951), French historian and Sovietologist * Graeme Thom (b. 1967), Zimbabwean cricketer * H. B. Thom (c. 1905–1983), South African rector and Chancellor of the Stellenbosch University * James Thom (other), multiple people * Jess Thom (b. 1980), English comedian * John Thom (soldier) (1891–1941), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
We Were Strangers
''We Were Strangers'' is a 1949 American adventure drama film directed by John Huston and starring Jennifer Jones and John Garfield. Set in 1933, the film concerns a group of revolutionaries attempting to overthrow the Cuban government of Gerardo Machado. The story is based loosely on an episode in Robert Sylvester's novel ''Rough Sketch'' and draws on historical events. Background to plot The story draws on events that occurred as part of the political violence that led to the overthrow of Cuban dictator Gerardo Machado y Morales in 1933. In 1932, a violent opposition group, the ABC (''abecedarios''), assassinated the President of the Cuban Senate Clemente Vazquez Bello. They had previously constructed a tunnel into the Vazquez family crypt in Havana's Colón Cemetery and planted an explosive device there, anticipating that Machado would attend the funeral. The plan failed when the family decided to bury Vazquez elsewhere. Plot A group of revolutionaries plot to bring down ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Berry (film Director)
John Berry (September 6, 1917 – November 29, 1999) was an American film director. He went into exile in France when his career was interrupted by the Hollywood blacklist. Early life Berry was born Jak Szold in The Bronx, New York, the son of a Polish-Jewish father and a Romanian mother. He was a child performer in vaudeville, first going on stage at the age of four. In his teens he briefly worked as a boxer under the name Jackie Sold. Berry's father was a restaurateur who at one point owned 28 restaurants around New York City but he went out of business during the Great Depression and Berry sought to support himself by working as a comedian and master of ceremonies in the Catskill resorts as well as working as an actor. Mercury Theatre and Hollywood Berry's first big break came when he was hired by the Mercury Theatre for its debut production, titled ''Caesar'' (1937). Berry acted in other roles with the theater and assisted Orson Welles in directing the 1942 production of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Losey
Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American film and theatre director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Hollywood blacklist, Blacklisted by Hollywood in the 1950s, he moved to Europe where he made the remainder of his films, mostly in the United Kingdom. Among the most critically and commercially successful were the films with screenplays by Harold Pinter: ''The Servant (1963 film), The Servant'' (1963) and ''The Go-Between (1971 film), The Go-Between'' (1971). His 1976 film ''Monsieur Klein'' won the César Awards for César Award for Best Film, Best Film and César Award for Best Director, Best Director. His other notable films included ''The Boy with Green Hair'' (1948), ''Eva (1962 film), Eva'' (1962), ''King & Country'' (1964), ''Modesty Blaise (1966 film), Modesty Blaise'' (1966), ''Figures in a Landscape (film), Figures in a Landscape'' (1970) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He received numerous accolades including two Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. He also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 and the BAFTA Fellowship in 1980. Son of actor Walter Huston, he studied and worked as a fine art painter in Paris. He then moved to Mexico and began writing, first plays and short stories, and later working in Los Angeles as a Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood screenwriter, and was nominated for several Academy Awards writing for films directed by William Dieterle and Howard Hawks, among others. His directorial debut came with ''The Maltese Falcon (1941 film), The Maltese Falcon'' (1941), which despite its small budget became a commercial and critical hit; he continued to be a successful, i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicholas Ray
Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle Jr., August 7, 1911 – June 16, 1979) was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. Described by the Harvard Film Archive as "Hollywood's last romantic" and "one of postwar American cinema's supremely gifted and ultimately tragic filmmakers," Ray was considered an iconoclastic auteur director who often clashed with the Hollywood studio system of the time, but would prove highly influential to future generations of filmmakers. His best-known work is the 1955 film '' Rebel Without a Cause'', starring James Dean. He is appreciated for many narrative features produced between 1947 and 1963, including ''They Live By Night'' (1948), '' In a Lonely Place'' (1950), '' Johnny Guitar'' (1954), '' Bigger Than Life'' (1956), and ''King of Kings'' (1961), as well as an experimental work produced throughout the 1970s titled '' We Can't Go Home Again'', which was unfinished at the time of Ray's death. During his lifetime, Ray was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abraham Polonsky
Abraham Lincoln Polonsky (December 5, 1910 – October 26, 1999) was an American film director, screenwriter, essayist and novelist. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for '' Body and Soul'' (1947). The following year, he wrote and directed '' Force of Evil'' (1948), which was later hailed by Martin Scorsese and others as one of the finest achievements of American film noir. However, it was to be Polonsky's last credited film for more than twenty years. In April 1951, he refused to cooperate or "name names" to the House Un-American Activities Committee and was blacklisted by the movie studios. Early life Abraham Polonsky was born in New York City, the eldest son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Henry and Rebecca (née Rosoff). Polonsky would later say, "I'm the son of a pharmacist, ''il dottore'', from a Sicilian neighborhood on the East Side where we lived after the Bronx." He attended DeWitt Clinton High School with classmates that included future ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jules Dassin
Julius "Jules" Dassin ( ; December 18, 1911 – March 31, 2008) was an American film and theatre director, producer, writer and actor. A subject of the Hollywood blacklist, he subsequently moved to France, and later Greece, where he continued his career. He was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Screen Directors' Guild. Dassin received a Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his film ''Du rififi chez les hommes''. He was later nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen for his film '' Never on Sunday'', and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for his Broadway production of '' Illya Darling''. Biography Early life Julius Dassin was born in Middletown, Connecticut, on December 18, 1911, to Bertha () and Samuel Dassin, a barber. His parents were both Jewish immigrants from Odesa, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine). Julius h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
He Ran All The Way
''He Ran All the Way'' is a 1951 American crime drama and film noir directed by John Berry and starring John Garfield and Shelley Winters. Distributed by United Artists, it was produced independently by Roberts Pictures, a company named for Garfield's manager and business partner, Bob Roberts, and bankrolled by Garfield. It would be Garfield's last film before his death in 1952 at the age of 39. Plot Petty thief Nick Robey botches a robbery, shooting and killing a policeman, and leaving his partner Al severely wounded. Nick escapes with over $10,000 and, deliberately losing himself in the crowd, makes his way to a local swimming pool. At the pool, he meets bakery worker Peg Dobbs, and accompanies her home to her family's apartment. Peg's mother, father and young brother leave to see a movie. When they return, Robey takes the family hostage until he can escape. As a manhunt for Nick begins outside, he becomes increasingly paranoid. Peg's initial attraction to him is replaced b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Prowler (1951 Film)
''The Prowler'' is a 1951 American film noir thriller film directed by Joseph Losey that stars Van Heflin and Evelyn Keyes. The film was produced by Sam Spiegel (as S.P. Eagle) and written by Dalton Trumbo. Because Trumbo was blacklisted at the time, the screenplay was credited to his friend, screenwriter Hugo Butler, as a front. Plot Webb Garwood, a disgruntled cop, is called to investigate a report of a peeping tom by Susan Gilvray, whose husband works nights as a radio personality. Single, Webb falls in love with the young and attractive married woman. He becomes obsessed, woos her, and, despite her initial reluctance, they begin an adulterous affair. After Webb discovers Susan's husband has a life insurance policy, he concocts a scheme to cash in. One night, he makes noise outside Susan's house which suggests a prowler is nearby again. After he leaves, he hears the subsequent complaint reported from Susan's address in his police car. He returns to the house in his officia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Try And Get Me!
''The Sound of Fury'' (reissued as ''Try and Get Me!'') is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Cy Endfield and starring Frank Lovejoy, Kathleen Ryan, Richard Carlson. The film is based on the 1947 novel ''The Condemned'' by Jo Pagano, who also wrote the screenplay. The Pagano novel was based on events that occurred in 1933 when two men were arrested in San Jose, California for the kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart. The suspects confessed and were subsequently lynched by a mob of locals. The 1936 film '' Fury,'' directed by Fritz Lang, was inspired by the same incident. Plot Howard Tyler is a family man from Boston, living in California with his wife and boy, who has trouble finding a job. He meets charismatic small-time hood Jerry Slocum, who hires Howard to participate in gas-station robberies. Later, Jerry concocts a plan to kidnap Donald Miller, the son of a wealthy man, to receive a large ransom. Things go wrong when Jerry kills the man and throws the body into ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Night And The City
''Night and the City'' is a 1950 British film noir directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney and Googie Withers. It is based on the novel of the same name by Gerald Kersh. Shot on location in London and at Shepperton Studios, the plot revolves around an ambitious hustler who meets continual failures. Dassin later confessed that he had never read the novel upon which the film is based. In an interview appearing on The Criterion Collection DVD release, Dassin recalls that the casting of Tierney was in response to a request by Darryl Zanuck, who was concerned that personal problems had rendered the actress "suicidal" and hoped that work would improve her state of mind. The film's British version was five minutes longer, with a more upbeat ending and featuring a completely different film score. Dassin endorsed the American version as closer to his vision. The film contains a very tough and prolonged fight scene between Stanislaus Zbyszko, a celeb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
