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Z Channel (other)
The Z Channel was one of the early pay television stations in the United States (1974–1989) best known for its devotion to the art of cinema due to the eclectic choice of films"Film-News and Notes." ''Daily News of Los Angeles'' October 3, 1986 by the programming chief Jerry Harvey. History Z Channel was launched in 1974 by Theta Cable (a division of TelePrompTer Corporation and Hughes Aircraft Co.) which was acquired by Group W (Westinghouse) in 1981. Operations were located in Santa Monica, California. Jerry Harvey was hired as program director in 1980. As program director, Harvey was given permission to program the network the way he saw fit. As such, the network featured a wide variety of films not typically shown on other pay television services at the time. These included many B movies, silent films, foreign films, and original unedited versions of films. On Christmas Eve 1982, Harvey made the decision to show the original (previously unreleased in two years) versio ...
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Westinghouse Broadcasting
The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndication. Westinghouse Broadcasting was formed in the 1920 as Westinghouse Radio Stations, Inc. It was renamed Westinghouse Broadcasting Company in 1954, and adopted the ''Group W'' moniker on May 20, 1963. It was a self-contained entity within the Westinghouse corporate structure; while the parent company was headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Westinghouse Broadcasting maintained headquarters in New York City. It kept national sales offices in Chicago and Los Angeles. Group W stations are best known for using a distinctive corporate typeface, introduced in 1963, for their logos and on-air imaging. Similarly styled typefaces had been used on some non-Group W stations as well and several former Group W stations still use it today. The ...
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SportsChannel
SportsChannel is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that was owned by Cablevision, which from 1988 until the group's demise, operated it as a joint venture with NBC. Operating from March 1, 1979 to January 27, 1998, it was the country's first regional sports network, and along with Prime Network, was an important ancestor to many of the regional sports outlets in the U.S., particularly Fox Sports Networks and Comcast SportsNet. At its peak, SportsChannel operated nine networks serving several of the nation's largest cities including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia. History SportsChannel's origins date back to 1976, when Cablevision launched Cablevision Sports 3 (the "3" referencing its original channel slot on the provider), a sports network carried on the company's New York City area system. The network originated the SportsChannel brand on March 1, 1979, when it changed its name to SportsChannel New Yor ...
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48 Hrs
''48 Hrs.'' (pronounced 'forty-eight hours') is a 1982 American buddy cop action-comedy film directed by Walter Hill, who co-wrote the film with Larry Gross, Steven E. de Souza and Roger Spottiswoode. It stars Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, the latter in his film debut, as a cop and a convict, respectively, who team up to catch two hardened criminals. The title refers to the amount of time they have to solve the crime. Though it is predated by Richard Rush's '' Freebie and the Bean'', the film is often credited as being the first in the "buddy cop" genre, which includes early entries in the genre such as ''Lethal Weapon'', '' Bad Boys'' and '' Rush Hour''. ''48 Hrs.'' was Joel Silver's first title as a producer. Its supporting cast features Annette O'Toole, James Remar, Frank McRae, David Patrick Kelly, Sonny Landham, Jonathan Banks and Brion James. The musical score was composed by James Horner. Released by Paramount Pictures on December 8, 1982, ''48 Hrs.'' was one of ...
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1900 (film)
''1900'' ( it, Novecento, "Twentieth Century") is a 1976 epic historical drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and featuring an international ensemble cast including Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Francesca Bertini, Laura Betti, Stefania Casini, Ellen Schwiers, Sterling Hayden, Alida Valli, Romolo Valli, Stefania Sandrelli, Donald Sutherland, and Burt Lancaster. Set in Bertolucci's ancestral region of Emilia, the film chronicles the lives and friendship of two men – the landowning Alfredo Berlinghieri (De Niro) and the peasant Olmo Dalcò (Depardieu) – as they witness and participate in the political conflicts between fascism and communism that took place in Italy in the first half of the 20th century. The film premiered out of competition at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. With a runtime of 317 minutes in its original version, ''1900'' is known for being one of the longest commercially released films ever made. Its great length led to its being pres ...
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John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes ( ; December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. First known as a television and film actor, Cassavetes also helped pioneer American independent cinema, writing and directing movies financed partly by income from his acting work. AllMovie called him "an iconoclastic maverick",Ankeny, JasonJohn Cassavetes '' AllMovie''. while ''The New Yorker'' suggested in 2013 that he "may be the most influential American director of the last half century."''The New Yorker'', July 1, 2013, p. 17 "On the Horizon: Movies: Wild Man Blues July 6–31" As an actor, Cassavetes starred in notable Hollywood films throughout the 1950s and 1960s, including ''Edge of the City'' (1957), '' The Dirty Dozen'' (1967), and '' Rosemary's Baby'' (1968). He began his directing career with the 1959 independent feature '' Shadows'' and followed with independent productions such as '' Faces'' (1968), '' Husbands'' (1970), '' A Woman Under the ...
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Alexandra Cassavetes
Alexandra "Xan" Cassavetes is an American actress and director. She is the daughter of Greek-American actor-director John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands. She is the granddaughter of actress Katherine Cassavetes. She is the sister of actor-director Nick Cassavetes and actor-screenwriter-director Zoe Cassavetes. Cassavetes directed 2004 documentary, '' Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession'', which explores the historic influence of the cable television station Z Channel The Z Channel was one of the first pay television stations in the United States best known for its devotion to the art of cinema due to the eclectic choice of films"Film-News and Notes." '' Daily News of Los Angeles'' October 3, 1986 by the pro .... The film won acclaim, and screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2012, Cassavetes wrote and directed her first dramatic feature, vampire tale '' Kiss of the Damned''. Filmography ;Actress ;Writer and director References External lin ...
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A Magnificent Obsession
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version is often written in one of two forms: the double-storey and single-storey . The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English, '' a'' is the indefinite article, with the alternative form ''an''. Name In English, the name of the letter is the ''long A'' sound, pronounced . Its name in most other languages matches the letter's pronunciation in open syllables. History The earliest known ancestor of A is ''aleph''—the first letter of the Phoenician ...
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Jim Jarmusch
James Robert Jarmusch (; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director and screenwriter. He has been a major proponent of independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films including '' Stranger Than Paradise'' (1984), ''Down by Law'' (1986), '' Mystery Train'' (1989), '' Dead Man'' (1995), '' Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai'' (1999), ''Coffee and Cigarettes'' (2003), '' Broken Flowers'' (2005), '' Only Lovers Left Alive'' (2013), ''Paterson'' (2016), and '' The Dead Don't Die'' (2019). ''Stranger Than Paradise'' was added to the National Film Registry in December 2002. As a musician Jarmusch has composed music for his films and released three albums with Jozef van Wissem. Early life Jarmusch was born in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, the middle of three children of middle-class suburbanites. His mother, of German and Irish descent, had been a reviewer of film and theatre for the ''Akron Beacon Journal'' before marrying his father, a businessman of Czech and German descent who ...
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Alexander Payne
Constantine Alexander Payne (; born February 10, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for the films '' Citizen Ruth'' (1996), ''Election'' (1999), '' About Schmidt'' (2002), '' Sideways'' (2004), '' The Descendants'' (2011), ''Nebraska'' (2013) and '' Downsizing'' (2017). He is noted for his dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society. Payne is a two-time winner of the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and a three-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director. In 2017, Metacritic ranked Payne 2nd on its list of the 25 best film directors of the 21st century. Early life Payne was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Peggy and George Payne, restaurant owners. He is the youngest of three sons and grew up in the Dundee neighborhood. He is of Greek ancestry. Payne's paternal grandfather, Nicholas "Nick" Payne, anglicized the last name from "Papadopoulos". His family comes from three areas in Greece: the island ...
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Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensemble casts, and references to popular culture. Other directorial tropes associated with Tarantino include the use of songs from the 1960s and 70s, fictional brand parodies, and the prominent framing of women's bare feet. Tarantino began his career as an independent filmmaker with the release of the crime film '' Reservoir Dogs'' in 1992. His second film, '' Pulp Fiction'' (1994), a dark comedy crime thriller, was a major success with critics and audiences winning numerous awards, including the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 1996, he appeared in ''From Dusk till Dawn'', also writing the screenplay. Tarantino's third film, '' Jackie Brown'' (1997), paid homage to blaxploitation films. In 2003, Tarantin ...
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Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era. Altman's style of filmmaking covered many genres, but usually with a "subversion, subversive" twist which typically relied on satire and humor to express his personal views. Altman developed a reputation for being "anti-Hollywood" and non-conformist in both his themes and directing style. Actors especially enjoyed working under his direction because he encouraged them to improvise, thereby inspiring their own creativity. He preferred large ensemble casts for his films, and developed a multitrack recording technique which produced overlapping dialogue from multiple actors. This produced a more natural, more dynamic, and more complex experience for the viewer. He also used highly mobile camera work and zoom lenses to enhance t ...
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Director's Cut
A director's cut is an edited version of a film (or video game, television episode, music video, or commercial) that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit in contrast to the theatrical release. "Cut" explicitly refers to the process of film and game editing; in preparing a film for release, the director's cut is preceded by the assembly and rough editor's cut and usually followed by the final cut meant for the public film release and video game release. Director's cuts of film are not generally released to the public because on most films the director does not have the final cut privilege. Those with money invested in the film, such as the production companies, distributors, or studios, may make changes intended to make the film more profitable at the box office. This sometimes means a happier ending or less ambiguity, or excluding scenes that would earn a more audience-restricting rating, but more often means that the film is simply shortened to provide ...
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