Movies

Subterms

    More stories

    • 163 Shares199 Views

      in Movies

      Cora Sue Collins, a Busy Child Actress in the 1930s, Dies at 98

      by

      She was in films with Greta Garbo, who became a friend, and Myrna Loy, Bette Davis and others. She ended her career after being sexually harassed.Cora Sue Collins, who as a dimpled, chubby-cheeked child actress in the early 1930s appeared opposite A-list stars like Greta Garbo, Myrna Loy and Merle Oberon, but who cut her career short after being sexually harassed by a screenwriter, died on April 27 at her home in Beverly Hills, Calif. She was 98.Her daughter, Susie McKay Krieser, said the cause was complications of a stroke.Miss Collins made about 50 pictures over 13 years, including 11 in 1934 and another 11 in 1935. She was one of the era’s galaxy of child stars, a list that included Shirley Temple, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, but she did not become as famous as they did. In her first movie, the 1932 comedy “The Unexpected Father,” she played a waif whose newly wealthy adoptive father (Slim Summerville) hires a nurse (ZaSu Pitts) to care for her. Praise for 4-year-old Cora Sue came quickly.Miss Collins made her movie debut in “The Unexpected Father,” a 1932 comedy in which Slim Summerville played her adoptive father and ZaSu Pitts played a nurse.Universal PicturesA critic for The Richmond News Leader in Virginia labeled her a “baby star” with “amazing acting ability and an appeal that walks right into your heart.” The Kansas City Journal wrote, “The little Collins girl walks away with the picture.”Miss Collins played Garbo as a child in “Queen Christina,” the acclaimed 1933 movie about the Swedish monarch. At the time, she told one newspaper that Garbo “ was so friendly and liked my new teeth a lot.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Movies

      Where Would Hollywood Find Its Guillotines or Pay Phones Without Them?

      by

      When the Netflix series “Wednesday” needed a guillotine recently, it did not have to venture far. A North Hollywood prop house called History for Hire had one available, standing more than eight feet high with a suitably menacing blade. (The business offers pillories too, but the show wasn’t in the market for any.)The company’s 33,000-square-foot warehouse is like the film and television industry’s treasure-filled attic, crammed with hundreds of thousands of items that help bring the past to life. It has a guitar Timothée Chalamet used in “A Complete Unknown,” luggage from “Titanic,” a black baby carriage from “The Addams Family.”Looking for period detail? You can find different iterations of Wheaties boxes going back to the ’40s, enormous television cameras with rotating lenses from the ’50s, a hair dyer with a long hose that connects to a plastic bonnet from the ’60s, a pay phone from the ’70s and a yellow waterproof Sony Walkman from the ’80s.History for Hire’s 33,000-square-foot warehouse has aisles and aisles of items grouped together by topic or theme.Need a guillotine? They can help.They have a large collection of vintage cameras.History for Hire, which Jim and Pam Elyea have owned for almost four decades, is part of the crucial but often unseen infrastructure that keeps Hollywood churning, and helps make it one of the best places in the world to make film and television.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Movies

      David Harbour Is Conflicted About Becoming a Morning Person

      by

      Working on the new movie “Thunderbolts*” and the TV series “Stranger Things,” he said, “You’re up early at 6 in the morning. But I still have that beast inside me that wants to sleep till 1 p.m.”The Red Guardian never made the varsity squad of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that’s more than OK with David Harbour.“Of the people that do love these movies, we are not the favorite,” he said of the antiheroes in the new Marvel film “Thunderbolts*.” “But we really poured our hearts into this movie and tried to make something that is about isolation in modern society and light and the darkness that is within all of us.”During what Harbour called a bit of a nightmare, he worked on “Thunderbolts*” at the same time he was shooting the final season of the Netflix series “Stranger Things,” in which he plays Hopper, the heroic small-town police chief. He is currently working on “DTF St. Louis,” an HBO limited series and the first thing he has produced, with Jason Bateman and Linda Cardellini.In a video call from Los Angeles, he elaborated on the headphones, sunglasses and Zen mantra that he considers essential. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.An AmericanoI drink it all day long. My doctor has told me to knock it off, but it is the last vice I have. I have an assistant and she does a lot of great things for me, but probably the No. 1 job is she brings me too many Americanos throughout the day.Wired HeadphonesI love a tangled cord. I used to carry a CD player back in the early 2000s and I would put on headphones and walk around the East Village and have my little soundtrack to my life. Just sort of float through.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares119 Views

      in Movies

      Russell Brand Is Granted Bail in U.K. Court Hearing on Rape Charges

      by

      The comedian, actor and YouTuber appeared before a London courtroom for the first stage of what could be lengthy criminal proceedings.The comedian and actor Russell Brand appeared before a London court on Friday on multiple charges of sexual assault, including two counts of rape.His 14-minute appearance at the court, Westminster Magistrates’, was the first, largely procedural step in what are likely to be lengthy criminal proceedings. It came a month after British prosecutors charged Mr. Brand with one count of rape, one of oral rape, two counts of sexual assault and another of indecent assault.As the brief hearing began, Mr. Brand, 49, stood inside a plexiglass box in the courtroom, wearing a shirt opened to show his chest and holding a pair of gold-rimmed sunglasses. Mr. Brand confirmed his name, date of birth and British address, then listened, without showing any visible emotion, to details of the charges.Suki Dhadda, the lead lawyer for the prosecution, said that one woman had accused Mr. Brand of raping her in a hotel room during a British Labour Party conference in 1999. Ms. Dhabba said that another woman had accused Mr. Brand of orally raping her in a bathroom stall at a party.Another woman, Ms. Dhabba said, accused Mr. Brand of kissing her without her consent while grabbing her breasts and buttocks. The final charge concerned a woman who said Mr. Brand had tried to pull her into a bathroom.Mr. Brand has denied all of the charges. In a video posted to his social media accounts in April, he said that he had “never engaged in nonconsensual activity” and that he looked forward to defending himself in court.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 88 Shares109 Views

      in Movies

      Sinners’ Director Ryan Coogler Narrates Musical Scene

      by

      The writer and director Ryan Coogler narrates a sequence from his film.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.Viewers might not expect to see a DJ at a turntable in Ryan Coogler’s 1930s-set horror movie “Sinners,” but in this sequence, the history and future of music collide.This sequence takes place in a juke joint opened by the twins Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan). Playing for the crowd is Sammie Moore (Miles Caton), performing a song that was written by Raphael Saadiq and the film’s composer, Ludwig Goransson.“Rafael is from Oakland, kind of a local legend where I’m from,” Coogler said, narrating the moment.The scene starts with Caton’s impressive vocals, while cutting to shots of both Smoke and Stack, as well as other characters in the sequence. “We wanted to use Michael Shawver’s editing skills to establish where everybody is and what their stakes are,” Coogler said.Once all is laid out, the scene flashes back to a conversation between Sammie and another musician, Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), who explains Sammie’s skill for the blues and the responsibility that comes with his talent.“Blues, it wasn’t forced on us like that religion,” Delta says. “No, son. We brought this with us from home. It’s magic, what we do. It’s sacred and big.”As the scene returns to the juke joint, we hear a voice-over from Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), a conjure woman. She says that some musicians have the gift to make music so powerful, it can conjure spirits from the past and the future. At this point, in an ambitious tracking shot, various eras of musicians appear in the frame, including an electric guitarist and the D.J. at the turntable.“We wanted to do it in a fluid, continuous take,” Coogler said. New music elements continue to be introduced along with new forms of dance.“Aakomon Jones, our choreographer, is changing choreography ever so slightly so that folks still feel like they’re in their time, but also outside of it as we get more and more heightened in this moment,” Coogler said.Read the “Sinners” review.Read an interview with Michael B. Jordan and Coogler.Hear from Buddy Guy, a musician who appears in the post-credits sequence.Find out about the symbolism in “Sinners.”See how “Sinners” and other movies multiply one actor.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More

    • 100 Shares199 Views

      in Movies

      After ‘Another Simple Favor,’ Watch These Female-Centered Movies

      by

      The filmmaker behind “Another Simple Favor” likes when things get “really, really extra” onscreen.Across outrageous, often scatological comedies like “Bridesmaids,” “Spy” and “A Simple Favor,” the director Paul Feig, 62, has cemented his unlikely cinematic reputation as a girl’s guy.“I hate to say ‘strong female characters,’ because I don’t like that term,” he said in a video call from Los Angeles. “I just love seeing men and women as equals on the screen, so that’s what I’m always trying to do.”Feig, a Royal Oak, Mich., native whose latest film, “Another Simple Favor,” is streaming on Amazon Prime Video, reflected on some of his favorite moments in movie parity.‘Bringing Up Baby’ (1938)Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in “Bringing Up Baby.”John Springer Collection/Corbis, via Getty ImagesIn Howard Hawks’s classic screwball comedy, Cary Grant plays a fussy paleontologist and Katharine Hepburn a madcap heiress with a pet leopard (the titular “Baby”) and a penchant for trouble. (Rent or buy it on major platforms.)“Honestly, I didn’t really discover these movies until I went to film school at USC. But over the years of watching comedy I had seen it become completely male-dominated, where women were just sort of props around the men to make fun of or to get in their way.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Pavements’: A Sly Ode to the Last Band You’d Give the Biopic Treatment

      by

      Part spoof and part serious, the film is about mythmaking as much as it is about music. The result is delightfully destabilizing.Everybody thinks they know their favorite musicians or bands inside and out: what the lyrics mean, when their style changed, which fabled event made or broke their careers. Filmmakers have always been willing participants in the process, from concert movies to intimate documentaries to glossy biopics. We crave the results, because the myth-weaving is collaborative. And sometimes it involves bending reality a bit to get a better story.Nominally, the subject of the eccentric new documentary “Pavements” (in theaters) is, well, Pavement — but in truth, it’s about the whole ecosystem that creates the legend. The 1990s indie-rock band reached moderate fame in its prime, broke up in 1999, and reunited for tours in 2010 and 2022, which is where “Pavements” begins. The band has a lot of lasting fans, mostly people old enough to have gone to shows or listened on their local college station during Pavement’s original run. There are also a lot of people who’ve never heard of it.That makes the band an unlikely subject for a documentary, which is kind of the joke — and which lends “Pavements” its bigger theme, too. Directed by Alex Ross Perry and edited by the documentarian Robert Greene, it’s a hard film to describe. Part spoof and part serious, its vibe is very much in keeping with its subjects. There’s the documentary part, about the band’s formation and various albums, with archival footage and interviews, a format familiar to anyone who watches documentaries these days.But there are at least three other things going on inside this movie, shot by the cinematographer Robert Kolodny in a variety of visual styles designed to recall genres we’ve seen before. We watch the creation and rehearsal process for “Slanted! Enchanted!,” a Pavement jukebox musical that culminated in two workshop performances in New York in 2022 (one of which I attended). We see the opening of a museum-style show with memorabilia.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 63 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      Nicolas Cage’s Best Performances Onscreen

      by

      We’ve reached the point in Nicolas Cage’s career when it’s easiest to refer to every new movie he’s in by just describing his antics in them. Dracula Cage, terrible boss — that’s “Renfield.” Moody chef Cage, retriever of beloved animal — that’s “Pig.” Serial killer Cage, servant of Satan — that’s “Longlegs.”The tactic works because it’s easy to imagine Cage donning any of those guises, and a thousand more besides. Many a commenter has noted Cage’s propensity for roles that can be described only as crazy, but the actor’s career is too expansive, and often more nuanced, to be reduced to his unhinged characters. Tell me he’s going to play, I don’t know, a ballet master or a mob boss or an enraged father (as in his latest movie, “The Surfer”) and I’ll believe you, because Cage has proved that he contains multitudes, over and over again. Sometimes he even plays more than one guy in the same movie — as in my favorite of his films, “Adaptation,” in which he appears as twins.That means the best way to get a grip on Cage as an artist is to consider him through his many faces. Even when he occasionally takes that face, um, off.‘Moonstruck’ (1987)The Sincere Love InterestEarly on, Cage worked to establish a career apart from his family name. (The “Godfather” director Francis Ford Coppola is his uncle, and the directors Roman and Sofia Coppola and the actor Jason Schwartzman are his cousins.) He managed it swiftly in a string of movies that included many performances as a tousled, passionate, somewhat unpredictable young man. What shines through each is a full-bodied commitment to whatever the character’s emotional reality is — all the roiling desires, the suffering, the ecstasy.A great representative performance from this era is his turn as the lovelorn hothead Ronny, who’s smitten with his brother’s fiancée (Cher) in the 1987 romantic comedy “Moonstruck.” Ronny may be missing a hand thanks to a freak bread-slicer accident, but he’s not missing any gallantry, rough-hewn as it is. It’s a charming, uncouth, amorous role, and versions of that Cage show up in the Coen brothers’ “Raising Arizona” (1987) and David Lynch’s “Wild at Heart” (1990).(Stream “Moonstruck” on the Roku Channel and the Criterion Channel, or rent it on most major platforms.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More