Tag Archives: alonso duralde

Robert Pattinson Joins Queen of the Desert; Dermot Mulroney Boards August: Osage County: Biz Break

Also in Tuesday afternoon’s round-up of news briefs, awards season is coming – so soon! The Film Independent Spirit Awards set its February date and is now accepting submissions in its various categories. The Academy is teaming up with the Pickford Foundation to honor the Silents. And remembering Welcome Back, Kotter ‘s Ron Palillo. Film Independent Spirit Awards Looking for Good Movies The 28th Film Independent Spirit Awards are set for Saturday February 23rd with location (it’s usually on the beach in Santa Monica) still officially TBD. The organization is accepting submissions in its various categories beginning today, Tuesday August 14th. It’s regular deadline for consideration is Tuesday, September 18th and the final deadline is Tuesday October 16th. The nominations for the Spirits will take place Tuesday, November 27th at 10am. For submission guidelines and more information including an online submission form, visit their website . Academy Teams with Mary Pickford Foundation to Spotlight Silent Era The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Mary Pickford Foundation have partnered on a multi-year initiative to promote the legacy of Mary Pickford and the silent film era, Academy CEO Dawn Hudson announced. The partnership includes an annual silent film screening, silent film preservation initiatives and the digitization of components of the Academy’s Mary Pickford Collection. To kick off this partnership, and to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Academy’s Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, the Academy and the Foundation will host “Inside the Vaults” event on Tuesday, September 11, at the Pickford Center in Hollywood. The evening includes behind-the-scenes tours of the vaults, a screening of a rare Mary Pickford short The New York Hat (1912), the Los Angeles premiere of the Academy Film Archive’s newly restored print of The Mark of Zorro (1920), starring Douglas Fairbanks, and a display of select items from the Academy’s Mary Pickford Collection. Around the ‘net… Robert Pattinson Joins Queen of the Desert Pattinson will play T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia in Werner Herzog’s biopic of Gertrude Bell. Naomi Watts will star as Bell who is credited with establishing the framework for what is today Iraq and Jordan. The explorer, writer, archeologist and political attaché worked for British intelligence during WWI. Herzog wrote the screenplay, THR reports . Dermot Mulroney Joins August: Osage County He will play a somewhat mysterious businessman fiancé to Karen, played by Juliette Lewis in the film, being directed by John Wells and shooting this fall, Deadline reports . Welcome Back, Kotter ‘s Ron Palillo Dead at 63 Palillo played Arnold Horshack on the ABC sitcom which aired 1975 – 1979. He also played supporting roles in a number of animated series and also a small part in Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives . He died near Palm Beach, Florida where he lived of an apparent heart attack, NPR reports .

Go here to read the rest:
Robert Pattinson Joins Queen of the Desert; Dermot Mulroney Boards August: Osage County: Biz Break

High And Low: Les Vampires Terrorize Without Sucking, Godzilla Puts Smackdown On Megalon

Movieline is excited to welcome Alonso Duralde back to the pages of this site with a new regular feature we’re calling High and Low . Every week, the dauntless Duralde will wade through the mind-numbing number of home-entertainment choices out there and recommend two must-see releases:  His first pick will be geared for cineastes looking for essential viewing. His second will be aimed at movie lovers seeking out the highest form of guilty pleasure available:  the offbeat, the campy, the kitschy and the just plain wacky. Take it away, Alonso: HIGH: Les Vampires (Kino Classics; $34.95 DVD/$39.95 Blu-Ray) Who’s Responsible: Written and directed by Louis Feuillade; starring Musidora, Édouard Mathé, Marcel Lévesque. What It’s All About:  Consisting of 10 serialized chapters, such as “The Severed Head” and “Satanus,” Feuillade’s silent 1915 crime drama follows journalist Philipe (played by Mathé) as he attempts to investigate the notorious syndicate known as The Vampires. (Sorry, Twilight fans, no blood-sucking here.)  Over the course of this epic, which has been strung together as a single six-hour-and-40-minute (approximately) movie, we get murder, robbery, identity theft, poison rings, codebooks, gas attacks, paralysis drugs and orgies. What’s not to like? Why it’s Schmancy: Critics of the era despised Les Vampires — even in 1915, crime stories were considered old-fashioned and beneath Feuillade’s abilities — but the serial was embraced by André Breton and other founders of the Surrealist movement, particularly for the way that Feuillade combined a very realistic portrayal of Paris’ streets and sewers with his fantastic tale of masked bandits and their over-the-top skullduggery. More recent fans include Olivier Assayas, whose 1996 Irma Vep featured Hong Kong superstar Maggie Cheung (playing herself) coming to Paris to star in a remake. (Sexy assassin Irma Vep — played by Musidora in the original — is one of the key members of The Vampires, and her name is, of course, an anagram.) Why You Should Buy It (Again): This two-disc set comes beautifully mastered in HD, from the 1996 35mm restoration produced by the Cinémathèque Française and supervised by Feuillade’s grandson. The score for the silent film was compiled and performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. LOW: Godzilla vs. Megalon (Tokyo Shock; $16.99 DVD) Who’s Responsible: Written and directed by Jun Fukuda, story by Takeshi Kimura and Shinichi Sekizawa; starring Katsushiko Sasaki, Hiroyuki Kawase, Yutaka Hayashi. What It’s All About: In this 13th outing for one of Japan’s most enduring franchises, the underground kingdom of Seatopia protests the damage that atomic testing has inflicted upon them by stealing the robot Jet-Jaguar and using it to guide their demon god Megalon to destroy mankind. (Megalon flattens Tokyo first, naturally.) Jet-Jaguar’s inventors use a remote control to regain power over their creation, and the cyborg joins forces with Godzilla to whomp the tar out of both Megalon and giant alien insect Gigan. Why It’s Fun: 1973’s Godzilla vs. Megalon sees the series moving in several entertaining directions; for one thing, the actual Godzilla suit has become more streamlined and less cumbersome, allowing the actor inside (Shinji Takagi, this time) to move around more and to engage in more physical combat. Also, the introduction of Jet-Jaguar came at a time when lots of Japanese kids’ shows, inspired by the success of Ultraman , started throwing in more robots, and giving Godzilla an automaton sidekick with which to defeat the bad guys gives the movie a real jolt. (This is one of those rare films that’s as much fun to watch unadulterated as it is on Mystery Science Theater 3000 .) Why You Need to Buy It (Again): Both the original Japanese version and the English dub, as well as a trailer and photo gallery. Alonso Duralde has written about film for The Wrap , Salon and  MSNBC.com. He also co-hosts the Linoleum Knife podcast and regularly appears on What the Flick?! (The Young Turks Network).  He is a senior programmer for the Outfest Film Festival in Los Angeles and a pre-screener for the Sundance Film Festival. He also the author of two books: Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas (Limelight Editions) and 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men  (Advocate Books). Follow Alonso Duralde on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

Read more from the original source:
High And Low: Les Vampires Terrorize Without Sucking, Godzilla Puts Smackdown On Megalon

Welcome Movieline’s New Contributors, Including Critic Elvis Mitchell!

Guess who’s expaaaanndiiiing? Movieline today officially welcomes critic Elvis Mitchell, West Coast editor Jen Yamato and DVD editor Alonso Duralde into the fold. Jen and Alonso, as you have no doubt noticed, have been contributing here for a while now , while Elvis joins us for the first time this afternoon ; it’s a pleasure to have them aboard! Full press release after the jump.

Read this article:
Welcome Movieline’s New Contributors, Including Critic Elvis Mitchell!

Tonight in NYC: Join Alonso Duralde For a Rare, Radical Screening of Santa Claus

This is fun: Movieline’s resident DVD guru and holiday-film expert Alonso Duralde has made his way to New York, where tonight he’ll read an excerpt of his new book Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas before presenting a rare screening of Santa Claus — the 1959 Mexican import in which the jolly title character “and his best bud Merlin the Wizard must team up to stop Satan from ruining Christmas.” As if that weren’t enticement enough, the event is free to attend for all good little boys and girls. Find more information here, and enjoy! [ ReRun ]

Follow this link:
Tonight in NYC: Join Alonso Duralde For a Rare, Radical Screening of Santa Claus