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Pauline Kael (1968)
Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions often ran contrary to those of her contemporaries. One of the most influential American film critics of her era, she left a lasting impression on the art form. Roger Ebert argued in an obituary that Kael "had a more positive influence on the climate for film in America than any other single person over the last three decades". Kael, he said, "had no theory, no rules, no guidelines, no objective standards. You couldn't apply her 'approach' to a film. With her it was all personal." In a blurb for ''The Age of Movies'', a collection of her writings for the Library of America, Ebert wrote that "Like George Bernard Shaw, she wrote reviews that will be read for their style, humor and energy long after some of their subjects have been forgotten." Owen G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (book)
''Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'' (1968) is Pauline Kael's second collection of reviews from 1965 through 1968, compiled from numerous magazines including ''The Atlantic'', ''Holiday'', ''The New Yorker'', ''Life'', ''Mademoiselle'', ''The New Republic'', ''McCall's'', and ''Vogue''. It features her review of ''The Sound of Music'', which she notoriously dubbed "The Sound of Money," sparking outrage from loyal readers of ''McCall's''. This is erroneously considered to be the reason why she was fired from her short-lived position as their film critic. The book also features a smaller collection of synopses (as opposed to full-length reviews) of little-known movies, some of which are also printed in Kael's '' 5001 Nights at the Movies''. In her note on the title which begins the book, Kael asserts that these words are "perhaps the briefest statement imaginable of the basic appeal of movies. This appeal is what attracts us, and ultimately what makes us despair when we begin to understand how ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy. Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. His father was absent and his mother struggled financially — he was sent to a workhouse twice before age nine. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19, he was signed to the Fred Karno company, which took him to the United States. He was scouted for the film industry and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doctor Zhivago (film)
''Doctor Zhivago'' () is a 1965 epic historical romance film directed by David Lean with a screenplay by Robert Bolt, based on the 1957 novel by Boris Pasternak. The story is set in Russia during World War I and the Russian Civil War. The film stars Omar Sharif in the title role as Yuri Zhivago, a married physician and poet whose life is altered by the Russian Revolution and subsequent civil war, and Julie Christie as his love interest Lara Antipova. Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Courtenay, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson, Siobhán McKenna, and Rita Tushingham play supporting roles. While immensely popular in the West, Pasternak's book was banned in the Soviet Union for decades. For this reason, the film could not be made in the Soviet Union and was instead filmed mostly in Spain. It was an international co-production between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Italian producer Carlo Ponti. Contemporary critics were critical of its length at over three hours and claimed t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lawrence Of Arabia (film)
''Lawrence of Arabia'' is a 1962 British Epic film, epic historical drama film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence and his 1926 book ''Seven Pillars of Wisdom''. It was directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel, through his British company Horizon Pictures and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film stars Peter O'Toole as Lawrence with Alec Guinness playing Faisal I of Iraq, Prince Faisal. The film also stars Jack Hawkins, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quayle, Claude Rains and Arthur Kennedy. The screenplay was written by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson (writer), Michael Wilson. The film depicts Lawrence's experiences in the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman provinces of Hejaz Vilayet, Hejaz and Syria (region), Greater Syria during the First World War, in particular his attacks on Aqaba and Damascus and his involvement in the Arab National Council. Its themes include Lawrence's emotional struggles with the violence inherent in war, his identity and his divided allegiance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sound Of Music (film)
''The Sound of Music'' is a 1965 American musical drama film produced and directed by Robert Wise, and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, with Richard Haydn, Peggy Wood, Charmian Carr, and Eleanor Parker. The film is an adaptation of the 1959 stage musical of the same name, composed by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The film's screenplay was written by Ernest Lehman, adapted from the stage musical's book by Lindsay and Crouse. Based on the 1949 memoir '' The Story of the Trapp Family Singers'' by Maria von Trapp, the film is about a young Austrian postulant in Salzburg, Austria, in 1938 who is sent to the villa of a retired naval officer and widower to be governess to his seven children. After bringing love and music into the lives of the family, she marries the officer and, together with the children, finds a way to survive the loss of their homeland to the Nazis. Filming took place from March to September 1964 in Los Angeles an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century, and had many notable editors-in-chief. The magazine was acquired by The Washington Post Company in 1961, and remained under its ownership until 2010. Revenue declines prompted The Washington Post Company to sell it, in August 2010, to the audio pioneer Sidney Harman for a purchase price of one dollar and an assumption of the magazine's liabilities. Later that year, ''Newsweek'' merged with the news and opinion website '' The Daily Beast'', forming The Newsweek Daily Beast Company. ''Newsweek'' was jointly owned by the estate of Harman and the diversified American media and Internet company IAC. ''Newsweek'' continued to experience financial difficulties, which led to the cessation of print publicat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
McCall's
''McCall's'' was a monthly American women's magazine, published by the McCall Corporation, that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-format magazine called ''The Queen'' in 1873. In 1897 it was renamed ''McCall's Magazine—The Queen of Fashion'' (later shortened to ''McCall's'') and subsequently grew in size to become a large-format glossy. It was one of the " Seven Sisters" group of women's service magazines. ''McCall's'' published fiction by such well-known authors as Alice Adams, Lester Atwell, Ray Bradbury, Gelett Burgess, Willa Cather, Jack Finney, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Barbara Garson, John Steinbeck, Tim O'Brien, Tony J. Caridi, Anne Tyler and Kurt Vonnegut. Features From June 1949 until her death in November 1962, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote a ''McCall's'' column, "If You Ask Me". The former First Lady gave brief answers to questions sent into the magazine. Star ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Lost It At The Movies
''I Lost It at the Movies'' is a 1965 book that serves as a compendium of movie reviews written by Pauline Kael, later a film critic from ''The New Yorker'', from 1954 to 1965. The book was published prior to Kael's long stint at ''The New Yorker''; as a result, the pieces in the book are culled from radio broadcasts that she did while she was at KPFA, as well as numerous periodicals, including ''Moviegoer'', the ''Massachusetts Review'', ''Sight and Sound'', ''Film Culture'', ''Film Quarterly'' and ''Partisan Review''. It contains her negative review of the then-widely acclaimed ''West Side Story'', glowing reviews of other movies such as '' The Golden Coach'' and ''Seven Samurai'', and longer polemical essays such as her largely negative critical responses to Siegfried Kracauer's ''Theory of Film'' and Andrew Sarris's ''Film Culture'' essay "Notes on the Auteur Theory, 1962". The book was a bestseller upon its first release, and is now published by Marion Boyars Publishers. Kae ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Berkeley Daily Planet
The ''Berkeley Daily Planet'' was a free weekly newspaper published in Berkeley, California, which continues today as an internet-based news publication. The ''Daily Planet'' is politically progressive, and offers endorsements of progressive and liberal to left leaning candidates. The ''Berkeley Daily Planet'' provides coverage of City Council meetings as well as other official city functions and commissions. The ''Planet'' distinguishes itself from other local news sources in its detailed coverage of local land use issues in the city. History The ''Berkeley Daily Planet'' was founded April 7, 1999 by a group of journalists and Stanford MBAs with funding from outside investors. In September 2000, the ''Daily Planets owners, doing business as Bigfoot Media, started a second free daily, the ''San Mateo Daily Journal''. On November 22, 2002, due to the soft Bay Area retail economy, the ''Berkeley Daily Planet'' suspended publishing temporarily. "Employees arrived at work this mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
KPFA
KPFA (94.1 FM) is an American listener-funded talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed on the air April 15, 1949, as the first Pacifica Radio station and remains the flagship station of the Pacifica Radio Network. The station's studios are located in Downtown Berkeley, and the transmitter site is located in the Berkeley Hills. History Launched in 1949, three years after the Pacifica Foundation was created by pacifist Lewis Hill, KPFA became the first station in the Pacifica Radio network and the first listener-supported radio broadcaster in the United States. Previously, non-commercial stations were licensed only to serve educational functions as extensions of high schools, colleges, and universities. This departure into listener-oriented programming brought many detractors as KPFA aired controversial programming. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shoeshine (film)
''Shoeshine'' ( it, Sciuscià , from Neapolitan pronunciation of the English) is a 1946 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. Sometimes regarded as his first masterpiece, the film follows two shoeshine boys who get into trouble with the police after trying to find the money to buy a horse. Plot Two friends, Giuseppe Filippucci and Pasquale Maggi, test-ride horses. Though they are saving to purchase a horse, it is difficult for them to afford one, as they are only living off their income from shining shoes in the streets of Rome. One day Giuseppe's older brother, Attilio, visits the boys and tells them that Panza (a fence) has some work for them. Pasquale brings Giuseppe along to meet Panza, who gives them two blankets to sell. Giuseppe and Pasquale take the blankets to a fortune teller, who buys them. After the sale, Panza, Attilio, and another man burst into the fortune teller's house, posing as policemen. They accuse the fortune teller of handling stolen goods, and fin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italian Neorealism
Italian neorealism ( it, Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They primarily address the difficult economic and moral conditions of post-World War II Italy, representing changes in the Italian psyche and conditions of everyday life, including poverty, oppression, injustice and desperation. History Italian neorealism came about as World War II ended and Benito Mussolini's government fell, causing the Italian film industry to lose its centre. Neorealism was a sign of cultural and social change in Italy. Its films presented contemporary stories and ideas and were often shot on location as the Cinecittà film studios had been damaged significantly during the war. The neorealist style was developed by a circle of film critics that revolved around the magazine ''Cinema'', including: * Luchino Visconti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
