Until recently, if one were asked to name some of the best films of preeminent 1970s filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, it would be easy to pick the big hits. “The Godfather” (1972), “The Godfather II” (1974) and “Apocalypse Now” (1979) are definitely his most iconic and respected films. You’d also be hard-pressed to find a person aged 25-50 who isn’t keenly aware of his adaption of S.E. Hinton’s mandatory high school assigned “The Outsiders” (1983) or his classics “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986) and maybe even “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” (1988). Yet lately, Coppola’s “The Conversation” (1974) has entered the chat as a somewhat under the radar, low-key masterpiece from the filmmaker, and this year the film celebrates its 50th birthday.
After honing his directorial chops on films like the Roger Corman-produced horror film “Dementia 13” (1963) and fledgling films like “You’re a Big Boy Now” (1966), “Finian’s Rainbow” (1968) and “The Rain People...
After honing his directorial chops on films like the Roger Corman-produced horror film “Dementia 13” (1963) and fledgling films like “You’re a Big Boy Now” (1966), “Finian’s Rainbow” (1968) and “The Rain People...
- 4/8/2024
- by Don Lewis
- Indiewire
Mark Harmon’s career experienced a few ups and downs before he secured his role as Gibbs in NCIS. One filmmaker wondered if other directors overlooked the actor because of his appearance.
This filmmaker felt that Mark Harmon was too conventionally good looking Mark Harmon | Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images
Harmon didn’t start out wanting to be a famous actor. Rather, the NCIS star was introduced to the profession through an old acquaintance. In a 2011 interview Harmon did with the Av Club, Harmon confided that he met actor Ozzie Nelson through his job as a lifeguard. Ozzie starred in the classic television series Ozzie’s Girls at the time. One of Nelson’s actors and co-stars who was scheduled to be on the series couldn’t make it, so Ozzie asked Harmon to replace him.
“It was the spring of my senior year at UCLA, and he called and said,...
This filmmaker felt that Mark Harmon was too conventionally good looking Mark Harmon | Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images
Harmon didn’t start out wanting to be a famous actor. Rather, the NCIS star was introduced to the profession through an old acquaintance. In a 2011 interview Harmon did with the Av Club, Harmon confided that he met actor Ozzie Nelson through his job as a lifeguard. Ozzie starred in the classic television series Ozzie’s Girls at the time. One of Nelson’s actors and co-stars who was scheduled to be on the series couldn’t make it, so Ozzie asked Harmon to replace him.
“It was the spring of my senior year at UCLA, and he called and said,...
- 1/1/2024
- by Antonio Stallings
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
After bursting into Hollywood in 1992 with Alien 3, David Fincher has consistently delivered a diverse range of movies. While he has tackled an array of genres, he is most renowned for eerie, tightly-crafted thrillers. Before he became one of Hollywood’s top filmmakers, he explored his creativity through other means. Fincher was born on August 28, 1962 in Denver Colorado. By the time he was 18, he had become fascinated with film. To that, he landed his first job in the industry as a production head at John Korty‘s production studio. Soon after, Fincher branched out on his own path...
- 10/11/2023
- by Matthew C. F
- TVovermind.com
Located 14 miles north of San Francisco with a population of just over 14,000, the community of Mill Valley has evolved into a West Coast epicenter for showcasing independent and international films. As the Mill Valley Film Festival prepares to celebrate its 45th year with screenings of films by Rian Johnson (“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”), Darren Aronofsky (“The Whale”) and Alejandro G. Iñárritu, original founder and director Mark Fishkin attributes its pedigree for attracting top-tier talent to its unique combination of geographic and philosophical specificities.
“The Mill Valley Film Festival has the best of both worlds: the clout of an urban festival and the ambiance of the destination festival,” says Fishkin. “And this aspect of being professional but unpretentious is still very important to us.”
Fishkin conceived the festival, running Oct. 6-16 this year, precisely because he managed to be in the right place at the right time. A former...
“The Mill Valley Film Festival has the best of both worlds: the clout of an urban festival and the ambiance of the destination festival,” says Fishkin. “And this aspect of being professional but unpretentious is still very important to us.”
Fishkin conceived the festival, running Oct. 6-16 this year, precisely because he managed to be in the right place at the right time. A former...
- 10/6/2022
- by Todd Gilchrist
- Variety Film + TV
Even though we’re still fairly early on in 2022, there have already been some major losses – particularly among people in the entertainment industry. Now, there is yet another name added to the list of people we’ve lost so far. On March 9, 2022, Oscar-winning director John Korty passed away at the age of 85. Korty’s career spanned the course of just over 50 years, and during that time he got to work with some of the industry’s biggest talents. Although his death has certainly left a hole in the hearts of those who loved him most and knew him
Remembering John Korty: Oscar Winner Died at 85...
Remembering John Korty: Oscar Winner Died at 85...
- 3/23/2022
- by Camille Moore
- TVovermind.com
John Korty, an Oscar- and Emmy-winning director and documentarian known for his films “Who Are the DeBolts?” and “Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?” and “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” has died. He was 85.
Korty’s death was first reported by the Marin Independent Journal, which said that he died in his home in Marin County, California, on March 9.
A filmmaker who straddled the line between independent films and mainstream narrative work, Korty started his career in animation in the early 1950s. While still in school in Antioch, Ohio, he experimented with new techniques for animation that he would use in television spots. In 1964, he even developed an animated documentary short film called “Breaking the Habit” that was sponsored by the American Cancer Society about the dangers of smoking, and the spot went on to receive an Oscar nomination.
Korty made his way to the San Francisco Bay area...
Korty’s death was first reported by the Marin Independent Journal, which said that he died in his home in Marin County, California, on March 9.
A filmmaker who straddled the line between independent films and mainstream narrative work, Korty started his career in animation in the early 1950s. While still in school in Antioch, Ohio, he experimented with new techniques for animation that he would use in television spots. In 1964, he even developed an animated documentary short film called “Breaking the Habit” that was sponsored by the American Cancer Society about the dangers of smoking, and the spot went on to receive an Oscar nomination.
Korty made his way to the San Francisco Bay area...
- 3/17/2022
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
John Korty, who directed the Emmy-winning The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and the Oscar-winning documentary Who Are the DeBolts? and Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?, died March 9 at his home in Marin County, CA. He was 85.
His death was first reported in the Marin Independent Journal.
One of the premiere directors during the made-for-tv movie heyday that began in the early 1970s, Korty helmed the sci-fi chiller The People (1972), the anti-drug drama Go Ask Alice (1973) and, in 1980, the holiday tale A Christmas Without Snow.
His greatest television achievement came in 1974, when he directed Cicely Tyson in the celebrated CBS movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Based on the 1971 novel by Ernest J. Gaines, the film told the story of a Black woman who, in 1962 at the age of 110, narrates her life story that began in slavery in the American South. Although works of fiction, both the novel...
His death was first reported in the Marin Independent Journal.
One of the premiere directors during the made-for-tv movie heyday that began in the early 1970s, Korty helmed the sci-fi chiller The People (1972), the anti-drug drama Go Ask Alice (1973) and, in 1980, the holiday tale A Christmas Without Snow.
His greatest television achievement came in 1974, when he directed Cicely Tyson in the celebrated CBS movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Based on the 1971 novel by Ernest J. Gaines, the film told the story of a Black woman who, in 1962 at the age of 110, narrates her life story that began in slavery in the American South. Although works of fiction, both the novel...
- 3/17/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
October’s here and it’s time to get spooked. After last year’s superb “’70s Horror” lineup, the Criterion Channel commemorates October with a couple series: “Universal Horror,” which does what it says on the tin (with special notice to the Spanish-language Dracula), and “Home Invasion,” which runs the gamut from Romero to Oshima with Polanski and Haneke in the mix. Lest we disregard the programming of Cindy Sherman’s one feature, Office Killer, and Jennifer’s Body, whose lifespan has gone from gimmick to forgotten to Criterion Channel. And if you want to stretch ideas of genre just a hair, their “True Crime” selection gets at darker shades of human nature.
It’s not all chills and thrills, mind. October also boasts a Kirk Douglas repertoire, movies by Doris Wishman and Wayne Wang, plus Manoel de Oliveira’s rarely screened Porto of My Childhood. And Edgar Wright gets the “Adventures in Moviegoing” treatment,...
It’s not all chills and thrills, mind. October also boasts a Kirk Douglas repertoire, movies by Doris Wishman and Wayne Wang, plus Manoel de Oliveira’s rarely screened Porto of My Childhood. And Edgar Wright gets the “Adventures in Moviegoing” treatment,...
- 9/24/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
In 2018, Charles Dickens’ classic novella “A Christmas Carol” turns 175, but its utility as a springboard for movie and TV adaptations shows no signs of slowing down. It’s a classic story of regret and redemption, and its lead character Ebenezer Scrooge offers an arc from misery and cruelty to love and kindness that’s catnip for any actor or actress. (I watched a sleighful of Scrooges for my book “Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas” and am doing you the service of keeping the Barbie and “All Dogs Go to Heaven” versions off this list.)
Here’s a look at 20 performers who have put their own unique spin on “Bah! Humbug!”
Seymour Hicks, “Scrooge” (1935): There were a few silent versions, but this was the screen’s first talking Scrooge, in a version that’s early-talkie through and through, from the technical limitations to the big, theatrical performances, Hicks’ included.
Here’s a look at 20 performers who have put their own unique spin on “Bah! Humbug!”
Seymour Hicks, “Scrooge” (1935): There were a few silent versions, but this was the screen’s first talking Scrooge, in a version that’s early-talkie through and through, from the technical limitations to the big, theatrical performances, Hicks’ included.
- 12/13/2019
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
When he founded the California Film Institute in 1977, Mark Fishkin didn’t know much about running a film festival. Not many people did — there were few major film festivals in the United States at the time, and it would be decades before there emerged anything like today’s bustling international festival circuit. Fishkin had recently moved to California from the small town of Ouray, Colo., about an hour’s drive to Telluride the long way around Mt. Sneffels. He’d visited once or twice while the festival was on, by chance, and had seen how they did things out there and it inspired him, when he founded a festival of his own, to do things a little differently.
The first Mill Valley Film Festival took place Aug. 11-13, 1978, and was intended, according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle from that summer, to “honor successful filmmakers living or working out of Marin County,...
The first Mill Valley Film Festival took place Aug. 11-13, 1978, and was intended, according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle from that summer, to “honor successful filmmakers living or working out of Marin County,...
- 10/3/2019
- by Calum Marsh
- Variety Film + TV
Above: Polish poster for The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy/Algeria, 1965). Designer: Jerzy Flisak.As the 55th New York Film Festival winds down this weekend, I thought I’d look back half a century at the films of the 5th edition. That 1967 festival, programmed by Amos Vogel, Richard Roud, Arthur Knight, Andrew Sarris and Susan Sontag, featured 21 new films, all but three of which were from Europe (six of them from France, 2 and 1/7 of them directed by Godard), all of which showed at Lincoln Center’s Philharmonic Hall. (They also programmed Gance’s Napoleon, Mamoulian’s Applause and King Vidor’s Show People in the retrospective slots). The only director to have a film in both the 1967 festival and the 2017 edition is Agnès Varda, who was one of the directors of the omnibus Far From Vietnam and was then already 12 years into her filmmaking career.It will come as...
- 10/13/2017
- MUBI
People of a certain age (i.e. “Old”) will remember when in the early days of HBO, a weird ,wild animated film called Twice Upon a Time made the rounds. Many paid it heed because it was executive produced by George Lucas, currently in the process of imprinting our childhoods with a new mythology. But except for a laserdisc and VHS release, the film rather fell off the table, save for dedicated maniacs who remembered it fondly.
Warner Archives, print-on-demand masters of unearthing lost bits of cinema and making them available to the masses, have achieved the impossible and presented the world with a brand new release of the film, unearthing both audio tracks, and getting many of the animators together for a commentary track, including Henry Selick, who has gone on to great things like Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas, and in that order.
Warner Archives, print-on-demand masters of unearthing lost bits of cinema and making them available to the masses, have achieved the impossible and presented the world with a brand new release of the film, unearthing both audio tracks, and getting many of the animators together for a commentary track, including Henry Selick, who has gone on to great things like Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas, and in that order.
- 9/30/2015
- by Vinnie Bartilucci
- Comicmix.com
This past summer, the folks from the Warner Archive brought some clips from their newly restored DVD release of John Korty’s Twice Upon A Time to Comic Con.
George Lucas executive produces the animated delight Twice Upon a Time from directors John Korty and Charles Swenson. In its once-upon-a-time world, our heroes are Ralph, the all-purpose animal, and his constant companion, Mumford, who only talks in sound effects. Their mission is nothing short of saving the cosmos from the dastardly plot of Synonamess Botch, who wants to unleash a barrage of nightmare bombs to ensure nonstop bad dreams. They cross paths with a colorful army of characters, including their Fgm (a fairy godmother from the Bronx), the musclebound – and pea-brained – Rod Rescueman and Scuzzbopper, Botch’s scheming court jester and screamwriter. The off-the-wall characters and story are portrayed with an innovative animation technique, lumage, which gives depth, texture and translucent color to every scene.
George Lucas executive produces the animated delight Twice Upon a Time from directors John Korty and Charles Swenson. In its once-upon-a-time world, our heroes are Ralph, the all-purpose animal, and his constant companion, Mumford, who only talks in sound effects. Their mission is nothing short of saving the cosmos from the dastardly plot of Synonamess Botch, who wants to unleash a barrage of nightmare bombs to ensure nonstop bad dreams. They cross paths with a colorful army of characters, including their Fgm (a fairy godmother from the Bronx), the musclebound – and pea-brained – Rod Rescueman and Scuzzbopper, Botch’s scheming court jester and screamwriter. The off-the-wall characters and story are portrayed with an innovative animation technique, lumage, which gives depth, texture and translucent color to every scene.
- 9/29/2015
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Edited by Adam Cook
The lineup for this year's New Directors/New Films, "presented jointly by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art," has been announced. "For the Birds": Richard Brody picks on the Academy Awards. There's an intriguing new film journal on the scene: "The Completist," authored by Rumsey Taylor. Head over to the site to read his "Statement of Intentions". Described as being "roughly quarterly", we're looking forward to future instalments. In Film Comment, Tanner Tafelski writes on the films of John Korty:
"Carroll Ballard, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Philip Kaufman, and Michael Ritchie all are, or were, San Francisco–based filmmakers. Yet none of these people seem to be Bay Area filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Abel Ferrara, or Spike Lee are New York filmmakers. Avant-garde cinema, on the other hand, has a rich history with the West Coast in general,...
The lineup for this year's New Directors/New Films, "presented jointly by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art," has been announced. "For the Birds": Richard Brody picks on the Academy Awards. There's an intriguing new film journal on the scene: "The Completist," authored by Rumsey Taylor. Head over to the site to read his "Statement of Intentions". Described as being "roughly quarterly", we're looking forward to future instalments. In Film Comment, Tanner Tafelski writes on the films of John Korty:
"Carroll Ballard, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Philip Kaufman, and Michael Ritchie all are, or were, San Francisco–based filmmakers. Yet none of these people seem to be Bay Area filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Abel Ferrara, or Spike Lee are New York filmmakers. Avant-garde cinema, on the other hand, has a rich history with the West Coast in general,...
- 2/25/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Farewell to Manzanar: Classic TV movie available on DVD Farewell to Manzanar, the story of a Japanese American family incarcerated alongside thousands of others in "internment camps" (aka concentration camps) during World War II, was made at a time when the American networks dared tackling difficult themes in prime time. Based on Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston’s autobiographical book, the John Korty-directed Farewell to Manzanar was initially shown on NBC in March 1976, eventually earning two Emmy nominations: Outstanding Writing in a Special Program [...]...
- 11/13/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Bulle Ogier and Jacques Rivette on the set of L'Amour fou
Photo by Pierre Zucca
In the last issue of Senses of Cinema, Daniel Fairfax reviewed Douglas Morrey and Alison Smith's Jacques Rivette, and now, for Issue 61, Mary Wiles has allowed the editors to choose a chapter from her forthcoming Jacques Rivette. Rolando Caputo's decided to go with the one on L'amour fou (1969) for a number of reasons, but primarily because "the film seems the point of historical conjunction between the end of one wave and the coming of a second wave of filmmakers that washed up in its undertow. At a stretch, one can see the shadow of this film on the cinema of Jean Eustache, Maurice Pialat, Philippe Garrel and others. L'amour fou is a great and wondrous film." And he's running Rivette's 1950 essay "We Are Not Innocent Anymore" as well.
Also in this issue: Marko Bauer,...
Photo by Pierre Zucca
In the last issue of Senses of Cinema, Daniel Fairfax reviewed Douglas Morrey and Alison Smith's Jacques Rivette, and now, for Issue 61, Mary Wiles has allowed the editors to choose a chapter from her forthcoming Jacques Rivette. Rolando Caputo's decided to go with the one on L'amour fou (1969) for a number of reasons, but primarily because "the film seems the point of historical conjunction between the end of one wave and the coming of a second wave of filmmakers that washed up in its undertow. At a stretch, one can see the shadow of this film on the cinema of Jean Eustache, Maurice Pialat, Philippe Garrel and others. L'amour fou is a great and wondrous film." And he's running Rivette's 1950 essay "We Are Not Innocent Anymore" as well.
Also in this issue: Marko Bauer,...
- 12/21/2011
- MUBI
This review was written for the festival screening of "Fog City Mavericks".San Francisco International Film Festival
SAN FRANCISCO -- Gary Leva's entertaining if overly reverent celebration of Northern California filmmakers, "Fog City Mavericks", had its world premiere here as it played to an enthusiastic hometown crowd. The documentary is more a catalogue of admiring portraits and reminiscences than a structured, objective documentary. Leva, the man behind numerous film-related docus, surveys more than 130 years of San Francisco film history from Eadweard Muybridge to Sofia Coppola, favoring inclusiveness over depth.
Although some of the personal and professional backstories likely will be familiar to film buffs -- especially those concerning Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas -- the old photographs, behind-the-scenes footage, pristine film clips and amusing stories -- not to mention an impressive lineup of talking heads -- should give the docu a long run on the festival circuit. With Starz holding the TV rights, "Fog" will have an extended life on cable.
Lucas, Coppola, Saul Zaentz, Robin Williams, Philip Kaufman, Clint Eastwood and Walter Murch, among 30 others, trade anecdotes and volunteer nary a negative word about one another, reserving their ridicule and disdain instead for Hollywood. (Milos Forman's puckish humor is one of the film's delights.) They point out that working at home keeps them a safe distance away from the long arms of studio hacks.
The scenic footage shot by Ron Fricke makes the case for the seductiveness of the Bay Area, which has been a magnet for iconoclasts and creative renegades. It should be said that these mavericks, all of them male with the notable exception of Ms. Coppola, have had enough success to afford the option of living outside of Los Angeles, and most arrived in San Francisco when the city and its environs were still affordable for artists.
The film might have worked better if it had concentrated on the 1970s; Leva's material on this period is particularly strong. The main problem is that the film, attempting to cover a lot of ground, is overstuffed. Bronco Billy, Charles Chaplin, Bruce Conner, Pixar and "The Black Stallion" are a lot to pour into a single movie.
Some of Leva's choices are downright puzzling. Maverick is not the first word that comes to mind when thinking of Chris Columbus. It would have been interesting to hear more from the reclusive Carroll Ballard, the brilliant sound designer Ben Burtt or indie pioneer John Korty. Williams is brought in for comic relief and delivers, but his career is left unexplored.
Coppola's home movies of his parents are a treat, but Lucas' car accident when he was a teenager and Coppola's bout with childhood polio are recounted with undue gravity. This grave tone often finds its way into the script. The lofty narration, voiced by the dependable Peter Coyote, is by turns inordinately solemn or effusive and with music swelling on the soundtrack contributes to an inadvertent self-congratulatory air that permeates this project. "Fog" is most engaging when Leva lets the filmmakers speak for themselves.
FOG CITY MAVERICKS
Lucasfilm Ltd./Starz Originals, Leva Filmworks, Inc., Handcrafted Entertainment
Credits: Director-writer-producer-editor: Gary Leva
Running time -- 120 minutes
No MPAA rating...
SAN FRANCISCO -- Gary Leva's entertaining if overly reverent celebration of Northern California filmmakers, "Fog City Mavericks", had its world premiere here as it played to an enthusiastic hometown crowd. The documentary is more a catalogue of admiring portraits and reminiscences than a structured, objective documentary. Leva, the man behind numerous film-related docus, surveys more than 130 years of San Francisco film history from Eadweard Muybridge to Sofia Coppola, favoring inclusiveness over depth.
Although some of the personal and professional backstories likely will be familiar to film buffs -- especially those concerning Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas -- the old photographs, behind-the-scenes footage, pristine film clips and amusing stories -- not to mention an impressive lineup of talking heads -- should give the docu a long run on the festival circuit. With Starz holding the TV rights, "Fog" will have an extended life on cable.
Lucas, Coppola, Saul Zaentz, Robin Williams, Philip Kaufman, Clint Eastwood and Walter Murch, among 30 others, trade anecdotes and volunteer nary a negative word about one another, reserving their ridicule and disdain instead for Hollywood. (Milos Forman's puckish humor is one of the film's delights.) They point out that working at home keeps them a safe distance away from the long arms of studio hacks.
The scenic footage shot by Ron Fricke makes the case for the seductiveness of the Bay Area, which has been a magnet for iconoclasts and creative renegades. It should be said that these mavericks, all of them male with the notable exception of Ms. Coppola, have had enough success to afford the option of living outside of Los Angeles, and most arrived in San Francisco when the city and its environs were still affordable for artists.
The film might have worked better if it had concentrated on the 1970s; Leva's material on this period is particularly strong. The main problem is that the film, attempting to cover a lot of ground, is overstuffed. Bronco Billy, Charles Chaplin, Bruce Conner, Pixar and "The Black Stallion" are a lot to pour into a single movie.
Some of Leva's choices are downright puzzling. Maverick is not the first word that comes to mind when thinking of Chris Columbus. It would have been interesting to hear more from the reclusive Carroll Ballard, the brilliant sound designer Ben Burtt or indie pioneer John Korty. Williams is brought in for comic relief and delivers, but his career is left unexplored.
Coppola's home movies of his parents are a treat, but Lucas' car accident when he was a teenager and Coppola's bout with childhood polio are recounted with undue gravity. This grave tone often finds its way into the script. The lofty narration, voiced by the dependable Peter Coyote, is by turns inordinately solemn or effusive and with music swelling on the soundtrack contributes to an inadvertent self-congratulatory air that permeates this project. "Fog" is most engaging when Leva lets the filmmakers speak for themselves.
FOG CITY MAVERICKS
Lucasfilm Ltd./Starz Originals, Leva Filmworks, Inc., Handcrafted Entertainment
Credits: Director-writer-producer-editor: Gary Leva
Running time -- 120 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 5/22/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.