Boasting an amazing selection of the most watched, most influential and most highly acclaimed programmes ever made, The 50 Greatest Television Dramas presents a long overdue assessment of the rich heritage television drama has to offer. Channel 4 invited over 200 of Britain's top television drama professionals – writers, directors, producers and commissioners – to take part in an exclusive poll to discover what they consider the finest dramas ever produced.
A Paul Joyce documentary with Peter Bogdanovich
The chronicle of the mind-blowing journey that was Hollywood during the seventies; the true and gripping story of the last golden age of American cinema, an exalted celebration of creativity and experimentation; but also of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll: a turbulent and dark tale of ambition, envy, betrayal, hatred and self-destruction.
A journey of years through many countries and film festivals; a nostalgic, adrenaline-fueled and rock-spirited immersion into the universe of cinephilia, in search of genre specialists, fans and filmmakers who speak of their shared passion for fantastic cinema; a whole international spiritual community united under the cathartic shadow of horror.
In the work of Jack Garfein - Holocaust survivor, theater and film director, key figure in the formation of the Actors Studio - past and and present freely intermingled to contribute to memorable stage productions and in two films, many which were ahead of their time in tackling such issues as homosexuality, race and violence. Powered by his vivid recollections and augmented with readings by Willem Dafoe, The Wild One traces Garfein’s life: his Czechoslovakian youth, his family’s fleeing the Nazis, surviving in Auschwitz and other camps, his 1946 arrival at 16 in New York and coming under the wing of Lee Strasberg, Hollywood, his marriage to actress Carroll Baker.
While researching his book In Cold Blood, writer Truman Capote develops a close relationship with convicted murderers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith.
John Reilly wakes up in an African Hospital with only fragments of his memory intact. An officer of the local regime, Mugambe, accuses him of being an American spy.
A nightclub gatekeeper can't shake the documentary film crew following him.
Billy Bottomsly, a struggling artist, is plagiarised by a Hollywood mogul. He involves his "typecast" friends in a star-jacking retribution plan. Billy's own dark comedy of errors becomes the ground floor in a pyramid of deception; each revelation an unsettling reminder that control is indeed an illusion.
Based on the true story of Jim and Artie Mitchell, two brothers who entered the porn industry in the early 60's. After creating such legendary porn films as "Behind the Green Door" and "Inside Marily Chambers", they later became addicted to drugs and began a downward spiral leading to bankruptcy and murder.
Documentary about Hollywood.
Peter is a medical student about to graduate and begin his residency. When his professor fails him, he winds up in bed with an actress and singer named Bogart rolling through Los Angeles. He accompanies her to the redwoods of northern California, where he encounters her eccentric family of pot farmers. But when Bogart runs away without a word, Peter is thrust into the picturesque and bizarre world.
Dean Martin had a laid-back charm that made him successful in everything from big-screen comedies to television variety shows to live acts in Las Vegas. Filmmaker Tom Donahue explores Martin’s varied career, including his complicated relationships with Jerry Lewis, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, and others. We hear from admirers such as critic Gerald Early, actor Jon Hamm, and Hip-Hop artist RZA who testify to Martin’s enduring mystique.
Documentary about Hollywood during the silent film era.
Documentary about American gangster movies.
Documentary about Marilyn Monroe.
Documentary about Hollywood.
A newly married couple tries to enhance their social life by throwing fabulous parties and inviting all their friends in Brooklyn to their home.
Mary Walsh delivers boyfriend Kevin to a hospital for routine outpatient surgery. But when Mary returns to take him home, he's mysteriously vanished.
The Dukes,a Doo Wop group, were on top of the world at 17, now are struggling for survival in 2008. Their manager is desperately trying to get them work but is met with failure at every turn. Finally pushed to the extreme , they pull a heist only a fool would attempt, which leaves them even more desperate. When all seems lost, they find themselves.
Various Hollywood people talk about love.
An electronic ankle bracelet and being under house arrest aren't about to stop up-and-coming actress Maggie Chase (Tanna Frederick) from the two things she craves the most: real fame and true love. With more "Google points" than her Iowa hometown, but far less than Angelina Jolie, Maggie is desperate to claw her way off the B-list of action/adventure pictures and into major movie stardom.
A stillborn baby girl is abducted by a deranged morgue attendant and brought back to life by electro-kinetic power. On her sixteenth birthday, traumatized Tess escapes captivity and sets out to find her birth mother leaving a trail of horrifying violent destruction and chilling chaos behind her.
An aging horror-movie icon's fate intersects with that of a seemingly ordinary young man on a psychotic shooting spree around Los Angeles.
TV review of a litany of Hollywood impropriety.
An intimate window into one of the great movements in film history that brought about an evolution in the art of cinema. The documentary portrays the movement with insight on the lives and works of Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut and other principal players in the New Wave.
After his first date at age 15 ended with the girl making out with another man at a party, aspiring writer Lester Grimm has treated all his girlfriends with jealousy and suspicion. While dating Ramona Ray, paranoia gets the best of him when he discovers that her most recent ex is successful novelist Dashiell Frank. Lester begins attending the same group therapy sessions as Dashiell to learn about Ramona's past with him.
Profile of one of the world's most popular motion picture stars, told through interviews with some of the artists who worked with him, family, friends, and excerpts from many of his films and television appearances.
Hollywood is a town of tinsel and glamour; but there is another Hollywood, a place where maverick independent exploitation filmmakers went toe to toe with the big guys and came out on top.
This is a special feature included on the DVD for "The Informer"--a film John Ford made for RKO and which was released in 1935. Victor McLaglen received the Oscar for best actor for this film.
A documentary behind the scenes of Peter Bogdanovich's 'The Cat's Meow' (2001).
Widely thought of as “a woman’s director,” legendary film director George Cukor is profiled with the use of film clips and interviews with his friends and colleagues to provide a picture of the director’s unique accomplishments and to trace the arc of his career.
Documentary on the life of legendary filmmaker Roger Corman, often referred to as the "Pope of Pop Cinema"
The artistry, triumph and lifelong friendship of the great cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond. With film school equipment, they shoot the Soviet crackdown of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. As refugees they struggle in Hollywood, finally breaking into the mainstream with their pivotal contribution to the "American New Wave."
Cannes, 1999. Alice, an actress, wants to direct an indie picture. Kaz, a talkative (and maybe bogus) deal maker, promises $3 million if she'll use Millie, an aging French star. But, Rick, a big producer, needs Millie for a small part in a fall movie or he loses his star, Tom Hanks. Is Kaz for real? Can Rick sweet-talk Alice and sabotage Kaz to keep Millie from taking that deal? Millie consults with Victor, her ex, about which picture to make, Rick needs money, an ingenue named Blue is discovered, Kaz hits on Victor's new love, and Rick's factotum connects with Blue. Knives go in various backs. Wheels spin. Which deals - and pairings - will be consummated?
This ten-minute segment, heralded as part of a new shorts program, is composed of excerpts from a 1972 audio conversation between Hawks and Peter Bogdanovich, as well as a 1973 interview of Hawks with Richard Schickel, wherein the director reminisces about casting "His Girl Friday" (1940) and the changes from the original source material.
Hollywood is still the home of the American Dream - the place where fame and fortune can be achieved overnight. Or so the story goes. For some it does come true. In this status conscious town Barry Norman looks at the attitudes towards success and failure among the famous and not quite so famous.
Documentary about filmmaker Budd Boetticher.
A wonderfully informative 80-minute documentary combining current interviews with archival materials and scenes from the film. Hitchcock's daughter Pat, production designer Robert Boyle, screenwriter Evan Hunter, matte artist Albert Whitlock's colleagues Syd Dutton and Bill Taylor, storyboard artist Harold Michelson, Hitchcock collaborator Hilton Green, actors Tippi Hedren, Veronica Cartwright and Rod Taylor, filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, author Robin Wood, makeup artist Howard Smit, and composer Bernard Herrmann biographer Steven Smith all contribute valuable input to Hitchcock's memorable classic.
A documentary about the making of Peter Bogdanovich's screwball comedy "What's Up Doc?" starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal.
Feature-length documentary chronicling the career of acclaimed filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich.
An ailing father, who is about to undergo a potentially life-threatening surgery, takes his teenage kids into the woods to try and recapture their early closeness, before he and his wife divorced and everything changed. But the three are swept into a supernatural adventure, in which only their Father, Chris, "The Healer," has the ability to control their destinies. Lost in a haunted forest from which there seems no escape except death, this moving and sensitive script tells a beautiful story of a family's tragedy & resilience
Meryl Streep conducts us to a trip to New York City as presented in many films during the 20th Century, and how its cultural importance and impact are important to viewers. With a comprehensive gathering of clips from films between 1910's and 1990's, the documentary presents the mandatory classic films that presented the city and its multiple cultural variations, situations and the great stories filmed there. Actors and directors also discuss how they view the city in reality and also through the pictures.
A documentary about Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1954 film Rear Window.
Ekchart Schmidt examines the machinery behind the dream factory; the Hollywood myth is unmasked. How does the studio industry work? What role does marketing and the hype surrounding the stars play?
Thanksgiving get-together for the eccentric Turner clan goes from bad to worse when estranged daughter Nina makes a surprise visit home for the first time in 15 years. Nina clashes with her stepmother Deborah, and sister, Lindsay, while half-brother Jacob tries to keep a massive gambling debt a secret. Meanwhile, family patriarch Poppy has his own dramatic news to share. “Cold Turkey” is a black comedy about how – despite our best efforts – we all eventually turn into our parents.
A short documentary about the Making Of Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt" (1943).
A documentary about Jerry Lewis directed by Eckhart Schmidt.
Director Peter Bogdanovich discusses the career of director/writer Leo McCarey. Included in The Criterion Collection's 2010 DVD release of the Leo McCarey film Make Way for Tomorrow (1937).
A powerful short documentary inspired by the launch of the genre breaking PlayStation 3 title HEAVY RAIN. Directed by the acclaimed filmmaker Neil LaBute, the seven minute short was filmed in London, LA & Paris and asks leading luminaries, 'How far would you go to save someone you love?'
Documentary that explores the life and career of leading man Cary Grant through film clips and interviews. Produced as S18E03 of the long running series American Masters.
A conversation with Peter Bogdanovich about Mask.
A 60-minute salute to American International Pictures. Entertainment lawyer Samuel Z. Arkoff founded AIP (then called American Releasing Corporation) on a $3000 loan in 1954 with his partner, James H. Nicholson, a former West Coast exhibitor and distributor. The company made its mark by targeting teenagers with quickly produced films that exploited subjects mainstream films were reluctant to tackle.
When World War II broke out, John Ford, in his forties, commissioned in the Naval Reserve, was put in charge of the Field Photographic Unit by Bill Donavan, director of the soon-to-be-OSS. During the war, Field Photo made at least 87 documentaries, many with Ford's signature attention to heroism and loss, and many from the point of view of the fighting soldier and sailor. Talking heads discuss Ford's life and personality, the ways that the war gave him fulfillment, and the ways that his war films embodied the same values and conflicts that his Hollywood films did. Among the films profiled are "Battle of Midway," "Torpedo Squadron," "Sexual Hygiene," and "December 7."
A retrospective look at Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train.
John Wayne was a legendary actor and an embodiment of America itself. While he played men who always do the right thing on camera his real life is far more complicated.
A documentary analyzing the surrealist elements of the film Spellbound, and the work made by Salvador Dalí in that film.
An appreciation of Howard Hawks' "Rio Bravo" (1959) by filmmakers and historians.
An hour-long documentary designed to celebrate the spirit of the independent filmmaker from D.W. Griffith to Quentin Tarantino. Interview footage and film clips are blended together to form a chronological approach to the subject matter.
Documentary on the life and work of B-movie filmmaker Edgar G. Ulmer, spanning from his early life to his last film.
The story of Jack Durant, notorious restaurateur and ladies man whose connections to the mafia remain a mystery. Direced by Travis Mills.
When Steve Dallas, a womanizing local weatherman, hears that his off-the-grid best friend Ben Baker has lost his estranged father, the two return to Ben's childhood home. Once there, they discover Ben has inherited the family fortune, and the ill-equipped duo must battle Ben's formidable sister and deal with his father's gorgeous 25-year old widow.
Surrounded by fans and sceptics, grizzled director J.J. "Jake" Hannaford returns from years abroad in Europe to a changed Hollywood, where he attempts to make his innovative comeback film. This film was started in 1970 by Orson Welles but never completed during his lifetime.
A look at the mystique of road movies, combining interviews, film clips, music, photography, literature and a narrative storyline featuring Paul Rudd and Tom McCarthy.
For over 70 years, Jonas Mekas, internationally known as the "godfather" of avant-garde cinema, documented his life in what came to be known as his diary films. From his arrival in New York City as a displaced person in 1949 to his death in 2019, he chronicled the trauma and loss of exile while pioneering institutions to support the growth of independent film in the United States. Fragments of Paradise is an intimate look at his life and work constructed from thousands of hours of his own video and film diaries-including never-before-seen tapes and unpublished audio recordings. It is a story about finding beauty amidst profound loss, and a man who tried to make sense of it all... with a camera.
7-part documentary on John Ford's 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' ] Changing of the Guard The Irascible Poet The Hero Doesn't Win, The Winner Isn't Heroic Most Good Things Happen By Accident The Great Protector Spotlight - Lee Marvin Print The Legend
Documentary about the battle between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst over Welles' Citizen Kane (1941). Features interviews with Welles' and Hearst's co-workers also acts as a relatively complete biograph of Hearst's career.
Lauren Bacall tells the story of her late husband Humphrey Bogart, presenting clips from his movies and interview clips with his peers.
Pauline Kael (1919–2001) was undoubtedly one of the greatest names in film criticism. A Californian native, she wrote her first review in 1953 and joined ‘The New Yorker’ in 1968. Praised for her highly opinionated and feisty writing style and criticised for her subjective and sometimes ruthless reviews, Kael’s writing was refreshingly and intensely rooted in her experience of watching a film as a member of the audience. Loved and hated in equal measure – loved by other critics for whom she was immensely influential, and hated by filmmakers whose films she trashed - Kael destroyed films that have since become classics such as The Sound of Music and raved about others such as Bonnie and Clyde. She was also aware of the perennial difficulties for women working in the movies and in film criticism, and fiercely fought sexism, both in her reviews and in her media appearances.
The extraordinary life of Orson Welles (1915-85), an enigma of Hollywood, an irreducible independent creator: a musical prodigy, an excellent painter, a master of theater and radio, a modern Shakespeare, a magician who was always searching for a new trick to surprise his audience, a romantic and legendary figure who lived only for cinema.
Short documentary about the making of the John Ford/John Wayne film "Stagecoach".
A visceral deconstruction of Academy Award nominated Peter Bogdanovich and the nervous breakdown he nearly had while shooting THE LAST PICTURE SHOW.
Misunderstood genius, superstar, Hollywood’s fallen angel... Orson Welles left his indelible mark on the 20th century.
Paul Joyce’s Out of the Blue and Into the Black is an insightful documentary surveying American independent film production post-Easy Rider and includes interviews with Peter Bogdanovich, Dennis Hopper, Monte Hellman and Roger Corman.
The grim woes that surrounded famed director Peter Bogdanovich and his film, "They All Laughed."
Pearly Gates is a story about wanting to be remembered, and knowing that long after death, a person can live on through the memories of family, friends associates and even strangers whose lives that person touched.
Part one of a BBC documentary about Jean Renoir.
Dreaming the Quiet Man’ includes interviews with aficionados of Ford like, Martin, Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovicz, Jim Sheridan, William Dowling, and Joe McBride. There is mesmeric archive and rare photographs of the making of the film. The main location of the documentary is Ford’s ancestral homeland of Connemara, on the west coat of Ireland, where his parents were born. We meet Ford’s cousins, the Feeney’s who tell the story of Ford’s parent’s departure from Ireland after the Great Famine and the young Ford’s return to Ireland in 1922 to visit his cousins the Thornton’s and saw their house being burned down by the infamous Black and Tans. Ford, under the pretense of scouting locations for a movie, gave money to the IRA. We travel to Portland Maine where Ford grew up and went on to become a director in the first bloom of Hollywood. The boy made it good but Ireland was always on his mind.
The most famous murder scene in movie history comprises 78 camera settings and 52 cuts: the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. 78/52 tells the story of the man behind the curtain and his greatest obsession.
Drawn from footage shot between 1949 and 1963, Jonas Mekas’s autobiographical diary film chronicles his early years in exile, capturing the struggle to build a new life in New York and his gradual discovery of a vibrant artistic community.
This documentary is a fascinating look at the cinematic genius of Alfred Hitchcock. Briefly covering much of his early British works, the film primarily focuses on his American classics, such as "Shadow of a Doubt", "Notorious", "Rear Window", "Vertigo", "Psycho" and "The Birds". The movie also covers his television years and neatly examines the Hitchcock signature touches, from his inevitable brief cameo to his famous MacGuffin.
A haunting account of a tormented man, haunted by the heart of a man he murdered, who continually re-admits himself into a medical facility, in a futile attempt to escape from his pending madness.
Longtime couple Henry and Dianne are afraid that if they finally tie the knot it would mean the end of their days as free-spirited urbanites. But a whirlwind night apart involving temptations from a duo of strangers will either make them realize why they are together in the first place or finally drive them apart forever.
This 2009 documentary features directors Bob Rafelson, Peter Bogdanovich, and Henry Jaglom, actor-director Jack Nicholson, and actresses Karen Black and Ellen Burstyn, among others, reminiscing about the making of the groundbreaking films of BBS Productions.
This hour-long 1999 documentary by Laurent Bouzereau features interviews with director Peter Bogdanovich, actors Cybil Shepherd, Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman, and Frank Marshall, and author Larry McMurty
A notorious B-movie director tries for a comeback by seeking out the film rights to the life story of a serial killer who wants his biography film to be a musical.
How, from the 1920s to the present day, the dream factory, through its private excesses and cinematic audacity, has provoked censorship and outwitted it. Featuring testimonials from filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich and film historian Peter Biskind, and excerpts from Hawks' "Scarface," Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" and "Psycho," Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange," and Scorsese's "Taxi Driver."
This exhibition focuses on Jonas Mekas’ 365 Day Project, a succession of films and videos in calendar form. Every day as of January 1st, 2007 and for an entire year, as indicated in the title, a large public (the artist's friends, as well as unknowns) were invited to view a diary of short films of various lengths (from one to twenty minutes) on the Internet. A movie was posted each day, adding to the previously posted pieces, resulting altogether in nearly thirty-eight hours of moving images.
Tribute to actor and director John Cassavetes who died in February 1989. Friends, associates and fellow directors remember the man and his work.
Trapped in a stagnant marriage, German housewife Greta finds solace in Willie Nelson's music. When he announces his farewell concert, she embarks on a journey to Las Vegas, leaving her husband behind, rediscovering her past.
A documentary about the life and films of director John Ford.
A chronicle of the long career of American filmmaker Roger Corman, the most tenacious and ingenious low-budget producer and director in the US film industry, a pioneer of independent filmmaking and discoverer of new talent.
A clique of school girls devise a secret plan that they code-name "Lick the Star".
Documentary about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 'Frenzy'.
Paying homage to two of Hollywood's central icons, the film creates an unparalleled portrait of two very different personalities amidst the demise of the studio system.
The life and career of the hailed Hollywood movie star and underappreciated genius inventor, Hedy Lamarr.
A documentary on Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 film, "Suspicion".
A documentary about Vittorio de Sica with clips of his films and testimonials from friends and family.
How did America change from Easy Rider into Donald Trump? What became of the dreams and utopias of the 1960's and 1970's? What do the people who lived in that golden age think about it today? Did they really blow it? Shot in Cinemascope - from New Jersey to California - this melancholic and elegiac road-movie draws upon the portrait of a confused, complex and incandescent America one year after the start of the electoral campaign. That golden age has become its last romantic border and an inconsolable America is about to pull on a trigger called Trump.
Co-director Robert Margolis stars as Robert, an actor who may or may not be himself in this intense and often hilarious film about acting, aging and the dark side of ambition. Blurring the line between fact and fiction, The Definition of Insanity was filmed over the course of 18 months, as a documentary crew follows Robert Margolis obsessively from one failed audition to another, recording in raw detail his every humiliation and small triumph as he searches for that elusive perfect role that will catapult his career into the next level. Just when it seems that he will be forced by family and financial pressures to give up everything he has worked for, he meets legendary filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich («The Last Picture Show», «Papermoon»). That encounter changes his life profoundly, but in a very different way than he had anticipated.
A young runaway girl moves in with a seemingly harmless, elderly, Academy Award-winning songwriter. It all seems perfectly normal, until his dark side unleashes a chain reaction of ghastly events.
Documentary short focusing on the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 1953 film I Confess.
A two-and-a-half hour documentary retrospective on the career of Orson Welles.
One of the great mavericks of cinema, John Cassavetes has earned a reputation as the godfather of American independent movies. The actor-turned-filmmaker invented a realist style of unadorned narrative films heavily influenced by documentaries. This in-depth analysis of Cassavetes' life and work features interviews with key collaborators and ensemble regulars, and explores the making of classics like "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie," "Opening Night" and "A Woman Under the Influence."
Filmmakers discuss the legacy of Alfred Hitchcock and the book “Hitchcock/Truffaut” (“Le cinéma selon Hitchcock”), written by François Truffaut and published in 1966.
A retrospective look at the brilliance of Alfred Hitchcock's 'Dial M for Murder.'
Following the brutal murder of her husband and male kin, Sophia unites with her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law, in a fierce quest for vengeance against their enemies.
A celebration of the life and career of one of America's most influential and celebrated filmmakers and comedians—Buster Keaton—whose singular style and fertile output during the silent era created his legacy as a true cinematic visionary.
Jack Flowers is an American hustler trying to make his fortune in 1970s Singapore in small time pimping. His dreams of building a fortune by running a brothel himself and returning to the States is materialized when he is offered the opportunity by the CIA to run a brothel for the R&R activities of U.S. soldiers on leave in Singapore.
A look at how Dial M for Murder (1954) was produced for 3-D viewing.
Documentary on the making of Alfred Hitchcock’s "The Wrong Man."
Documentary on the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 'Notorious' (1946).
Documentary on Alfred Hitchcock and early spy and espionage films.
A "The Making of..." documentary about Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Lodger (1927)'.
Documentary on the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 'Spellbound' that looks deeply at the films presentation of psychoanalysis and of what is now called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
A glimpse behind the scenes into the complicated process of recovering and completing Orson Welles' final film The Other Side of the Wind.
Documentary about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 1946 film "Notorious."
As his life comes to its end, famous Hollywood director Orson Welles puts it all on the line at the chance for renewed success with the film The Other Side of the Wind.
A motorcycle gang arrives in a small town in search of a motorcycle that has been stolen by a rival gang; but, pursued by the police, one of its members is injured, an event that will cause an orgy of violence and destruction.
"Working with Orson Welles" is a low-budget production put together by Gary Graver, who worked as a cameraman for Welles in the last 15 years of his life.
Documents the lives of infamous fakers Elmyr de Hory and Clifford Irving. De Hory, who later committed suicide to avoid more prison time, made his name by selling forged works of art by painters like Picasso and Matisse. Irving was infamous for writing a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles moves between documentary and fiction as he examines the fundamental elements of fraud and the people who commit fraud at the expense of others.
A documentary focusing on seventeen maverick directors who were not afraid to break the rules of filmmaking to advance their art. Among the classic directors profiled are D.W. Griffith, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Von Stroheim, and Preston Sturges up until more current filmmakers like David Lynch, Robert Altman, and Martin Scorsese..
Documentary on Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 film "Rebecca" and the working relationship of Hitchcock and producer David O. Selznick.
Red carpet, flashbulbs, tuxedos and evening gowns: Hollywood celebrates its birthday. For a hundred years, this has been the place where films and their stars are celebrated. Hollywood is the most American of dreams. But hardly anyone suspects that this story began in the German provinces - with the Swabian emigrant Carl Laemmle from Laupheim near Ulm, who founded Universal Studios in Hollywood in 1912. Together with his niece Carla Laemmle, who is as old as the dream factory itself - namely one hundred years old - the film takes us on a fantastic journey back to the beginnings of film history - to a time when everything was simply "wild", when Indians, elephants and monsters ran around on the Universal premises and things were still loud and hearty during filming.
An interview with Peter Bogdanovich and Henry Jaglom who were presenting films at the ninth New York Film Festival (1971). The documentary was first presented on the television program Camera Three.
A Q&A with the director with an emphasis on THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
An appreciation and the story of the making of the 1941 film "The Maltese Falcon."
This documentary, hosted by actor Burgess Meredith, explores the life and career of movie director Otto Preminger, whose body of work includes such memorable films as Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, Laura, Forever Amber, Advise and Consent, In Harm's Way, The Moon Is Blue, The Man with the Golden Arm, and many other movies made from the '30s through the '70s. Interviews with actors Frank Sinatra, Vincent Price, James Stewart, Michael Caine, and others who worked with the flamboyant and sometimes control-obsessed director add information and insight to the story.
Peter Bogdanovich recalls how Tatum O'Neal was chosen to play Addie, and discusses Alvin Sargent's script, the shooting of select sequences in Kansas, the title of the film (which was enthusiastically endorsed by Orson Welles), etc. Also included are comments from production designer Polly Platt and associate producer Frank Marshall.
Actress Myrtle Gordon is a functioning alcoholic who is a few days from the opening night of her latest play, concerning a woman distraught about aging. One night a car kills one of Myrtle's fans who is chasing her limousine in an attempt to get the star's attention. Myrtle internalizes the accident and goes on a spiritual quest, but fails to finds the answers she is after. As opening night inches closer and closer, fragile Myrtle must find a way to make the show go on.
Three actors in Hollywood live and love together. A director comes from New York to make a movie about actors and Hollywood.
A documentary about the life of Carl Laemmle, early cinema pioneer and founder of Universal Studios, documenting his life in Hollywood and his efforts in the 1930s to save Jewish families in Nazi Germany.
Short documentary on the making of Alfred Hitchcock's Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
Documentary about film.
Young, bestselling author Eryn Bellow concludes her bookstore tour with her agent selling film rights and closing a six figure advance for her follow-up. Headwinds arise as critics get offended by the claims that Eryn is being declared a living literary legend. The storm gathers force as the assaults gravitate from bad reviews to a fake-memoir designed to obliterate her from the field. Through the noise, Eryn attempts to write her way out of the public fray, and reclaim her voice in the minds of her readers. Along the way, she hopes to prove a happy ending is not always a bad thing.
Documentary about James Stewart's long career as an actor and positive personal life.
27 years after overcoming the malevolent supernatural entity Pennywise, the former members of the Losers' Club, who have grown up and moved away from Derry, are brought back together by a devastating phone call.
German Documentary about the Austrian-American Movie Director Otto Preminger.
A struggling actress inherits a bevy of colorful villains after desperation (with a touch of femme fatale) drives her and her gullible boyfriend to steal big from the Los Angeles underworld.
A modern love story in which a misanthropic, emotionally complex author of a hit children's book is forced to team with a beautiful illustrator after his best friend and collaborator passes away. As Henry struggles with letting go of the ghosts of love and life, he discovers that sometimes you have to take a gamble at life to find love.
Documentary on the BBS company who released some of the best films of the 1970s.
We are all one. People are interconnected by invisible forces. Creative documentary about the history of Serbian immigration to the USA. Road movie through the present, from the East Coast to the West Coast. Global story about a nation.
This documentary celebrates the ridiculous stunts used by Hollywood over the years to market its worst movies. These include the ’50s drive-in where moviegoers could drop off their dirty laundry and pick it up after the show, horror filmmaker William Castle’s vibrating seats and producer Sam Arkoff’s offer to pay for the funeral of anyone scared to death by his film. Amusing interviews with critic Roger Ebert and director John Waters, creator of Smell-O-Vision, enliven a program that has one central failing: host Frankie Avalon, who remains as schlocky as ever.
Based upon Vincenzoni's biography, "Pane e cinema", the documentary traces the story of the screen play writer who invented many stories that became blockbusters throughout the world.
Documentary about how the creative energies of Darryl F. Zanuck and John Ford combined to forge an enduring masterpiece despite the challenges of wartime production.
From "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" to "The Big Lebowski" and everything in between, this fascinating deep-dive documentary begins its celebration of the greatest cult movies of all-time discussing the birth of the midnight movie.
Nora Wilder is freaking out. Everyone around her is either in a relationship, married, or has children. Nora is in her thirties, alone with job she's outgrown and a mother who constantly reminds her of it all. Not to mention her best friend Audrey's "perfect marriage". But after a series of disastrous dates, Nora unexpectedly meets Julien, a quirky Frenchman who opens her eyes to a lot more than love.
Documentary by Luc Lagier exploring Godard's career as a filmmaker, the production of Breathless and his influence and his relationship with American cinema.
A tribute of Howard Hawks by the British Film Institute.
The definitive documentary on the history of nudity in feature films from the early silent days to the present, studying the changes in morality that led to the use of nudity in films while emphasizing the political, sociological and artistic changes that shaped that history. Skin will also study the gender inequality in presenting nude images in motion pictures and will follow the revolution that has created nude gender equality in feature films today.
Narrated by Peter Bogdanovich, this biography of Orson Welles includes the emotional memoirs of actress Oja Kodar and interviews with Steven Spielberg, James Earl Jones, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Frank Marshall, Paul Mazursky, Henry Jaglom, Gary Graver, and Merv Griffin; it's re-release is even more profound since Welles' unfinished film, The Other Side of the Wind, was completed and released.
The third featurette on the PAPER MOON EUREKA The Masters of Cinema Blu-Ray
Privileged teenage friends Jenny, Nell and Stream spend their senior year on a quest to rid Stream of her virginity. However, Stream wants more than just her first sexual experience. She wants to have an orgasm -- but achieving this proves problematic, as the boys she meets are hardly sensitive enough to provide her the release she seeks. When it becomes clear that Nell and Jenny have never experienced an orgasm either, all three set out to get one.
Friends and family of the late actor Burt Reynolds remember his life and career, accompanied by clips of his most beloved films.
An unprecedented and intimate look at the life, work and enduring legacy of British actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993).
Director Peter Bogdanovich sitting down to discuss Orson Welles' cult classic The Lady from Shanghai.
An uptight documentary filmmaker and his wife find their lives loosened up a bit after befriending a free-spirited younger couple.
After his wife leaves him, a disillusioned director dives into the drug scene, trying anything his friend suggests.
This hour long documentary on the making of Alfred Hitchcock's "Marnie" incorporates the usual melange of contemporary interviews with surviving participants and liberal helpings of film clips and production shots. It also presents a nice selection of script pages and memos as well. In the former category we find cast members 'Tippi' Hedren, Diane Baker, and Louise Latham, rejected screenwriters Joseph Stefano and Evan Hunter, final screenwriter Jay Presson Allen, daughter Pat Hitchcock O'Connell, production designer Robert Boyle, makeup artist Howard Smit, unit manager Hilton Green, Hitchcock historian Robin Wood, composer Bernard Herrmann biographer Steven C. Smith, and Hitchcock fan/filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich. An entertaining account of the film's production, the participants offer loads of valuable information and anecdotes. Highly enjoyable for Hitchcock fans and the film's growing number of admirers.
This documentary presents the story of Dorothy Stratten, who was Playboy magazine’s Playmate of the Year in 1980. Stratten was murdered by her husband, Paul Snider. The film investigates the playmate’s past, the dynamics of her relationship with her husband, and the events surrounding her violent demise.
Claire Makes It Big, Jeremy Workman's award- winning short comedy, follows the travails of a talented overweight actress and her difficulties landing a decent movie role. A sharply written and briskly directed satire of the acting and filmmaking professions that then turns into a hilarious wish-fulfillment fantasy, it also features a lovely lead performance by Mara Hobel (whom Joan Crawford-heads may recognize as the child Christina Crawford in Mommie Dearest) and funny supporting turns from more recognizable folks like Clancy Brown, Paige Turco and Peter Bogdanovich, along with a voice cameo from the late Don LaFontaine.
Hailed by some as a cinematic genius, a feminist voice and a true maverick of American cinema, dismissed by others as a voyeuristic fraud and the "world's worst director," Henry Jaglom obsessively confuses and abuses the line between life and art. Featuring scores of interviews (including Orson Welles, Dennis Hopper, Milos Forman and Peter Bogdanovich) and rare behind-the-scenes footage, this hilarious documentary explores the fascinating question of Who Is Henry Jaglom?
Shane O'Shea, a Jersey boy with big dreams, crosses the river in hopes of finding another, more exciting life at Studio 54. When Steve Rubell, the mastermind behind the infamous disco plucks Shane from the sea of faces clamoring to get inside his club, Shane not only gets his foot in the door, but lands a coveted job behind the bar - and a front-row ticket to the most legendary party on the planet.
Astronauts crash-land on Venus and find themselves in trouble when they kill a monster that is worshipped by a group of Venusian women.
High school seniors and best friends, Sonny and Duane, live in a dying Texas town. The handsome Duane is dating a local beauty, while Sonny is having an affair with the coach's wife. As graduation nears and both boys contemplate their futures, Duane eyes the army and Sonny takes over a local business. Each struggles to figure out if he can escape this dead-end town and build a better life somewhere else.
New York's Odyssey Detective Agency is hired by two different clients to follow two women suspected of infidelity. Ladies' man John Russo trails Angela Niotes, the elegant wife of a wealthy Italian industrialist, while Charles Rutledge and Arthur Brodsky follow Dolores Martin, the beautiful young wife of a jealous husband. Their respective cases are complicated when John falls for Angela, and Charles falls for Dolores.
American Masters takes a look at the career of Jeff Bridges as his friends and family discuss why he's so special and why he's become one of the more popular actors over the past couple of decades. Throughout the films, his co-workers and directors all mention that he's great because you can't tell he's an actor.
Over the course of one afternoon, in six different parts of Los Angeles, six couples connect, reconnect, or fall apart. Marked by nimble shifts in tone (the six stories range from romping farce to emotionally gutting drama) and a potent combination of innovative cinematic storytelling and evergreen themes of the difficulties and ultimate resiliency of love in all its many forms.
This is the first feature-length documentary on legendary director Raoul Walsh. In this 'memoir,' Walsh 'recounts' his career from the silent film era to the tumultuous 1960s. The documentary makes stunning use of rare, personal and production photos and footage, revealing Walsh's extraordinary, adventurous life on and off the set. From his apprenticeship with D.W. Griffith to his discovery of John Wayne and Rock Hudson, from the innovative 'The Thief of Bagdad' (1924) to the widescreen 'The Big Trail' (1930), from his classic work with Cagney, Bogart and Flynn to his mastery of every genre (musicals, comedies, Westerns, gangster, war), Walsh made Hollywood history. His life is nothing less than the story of Hollywood itself. Here's a full-bodied account of one of Hollywood's greatest legends.
This essential new documentary pays tribute to the legacy of the late, legendary casting director Marion Dougherty and shines a light on one of the most overlooked and least understood crafts in filmmaking.
Hollywoods biggest talents explore what is the recipe for blockbuster, flops, and how absolute happenstance and controlled luck can make movie magic.
Armed with a limitless Rolodex and a Benedict Canyon enclave with its own disco, Allan Carr threw the Hollywood parties that defined the 1970s. A producer, manager, and marketing genius, Carr built his bombastic reputation amid a series of successes including the mega-hit musical film "Grease," until it all came crashing down after he produced the 1989 Academy Awards, a notorious debacle.
Beginning just before his debut as Frankenstein’s creation, this documentary compellingly explores the life and legacy of a cinema legend, presenting a perceptive history of the genre he personified. Karloff's films were long derided as hokum and attacked by censors, but his phenomenal popularity and pervasive influence endures, inspiring some of our greatest actors and directors into the 21st Century – among them Guillermo Del Toro, Ron Perlman, Roger Corman, and John Landis, all of whom and many more contribute their personal insights and anecdotes.
A documentary examining the decade of the 1970s as a turning point in American cinema. Some of today's best filmmakers interview the influential directors of that time.
Documentary the career of Alfred Hitchcock with Tippi Hedren bringing up allegations against the director.
A look at one hundred years of romance in American cinema.
A documentary film detailing the hunt for the holy grail of cinema: the legendary lost director's cut of Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons.
A study of the Group Theatre, a company that changed the face of American drama. The Group was founded in 1931 by Cheryl Crawford, Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg, who were strongly influenced by the naturalistic acting of Konstantin Stanislavski’s Moscow Art Theatre.
An appreciation of Stagecoach, with director and Ford biographer Peter Bogdanovich.
Interview with filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich about Red River and the two versions of the film.
The story of Dorothy Stratten (1960-1980), the 1980 Playboy "Playmate of the Year", who was murdered by her estranged husband, just as her entertainment career was taking off.
Have you heard of the famous playmate Dorothy Stratten? A pretty and innocent face exploited. Stratten was born in a Salvation Army hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, to Simon and Nelly Hoogstraten, who were Dutch immigrants. In 1961 her brother John Arthur was born. Her sister Louise Stratten followed in May 1968. In 1977 she was attending Centennial High School in Coquitlam when, while working part-time at a local Dairy Queen, she met 26-year-old Vancouver-area club promoter and pimp, Paul Snider, who romanced her. Snider later had a photographer take professional nude photos of her which were sent to Playboy magazine in the summer of 1978. She was under the age of 19 at the time, which is the legal age to pose nude in Canada so she had to persuade her mother to sign the model release form.
A conversation between Peter Bogdanovich and Wes Anderson about They All Laughed.
Part of the anthology series "Picture Windows," Peter Bogdanovich’s "Song of Songs" reimagines Botticelli’s Primavera as a suburban love story, where a married baker is torn between his devoted wife and the passionate advances of a lingerie shop owner.
Profile of Orson Welles, looking at his life and career in theatre, radio and particularly film.